Two good tips,thank you 🙂

Lovely article! I really resonate with this, especially sewing fake fur. I had a neighbour turn up a couple of weeks ago with her great niece Miranda, who is 7, who had to do something for school for Australia Day. Luckily she had a grey velour velvet pyjamas/tracksuit to start with, and a hairband. 2 hrs later she was a cute koala bear complete with white fake fur tummy & koala ears. She watched me like a hawk while I was cutting and sewing, completely fascinated. She loves coming round here to watch me sew, last time it was a quilted case for her sunglasses & a mini shoulder bag in Mermaid material. I think there is a young sewer in the making there!

The best bit was the lovely thank you card from Miranda with a photo of her in the finished outfit complete with kola face paint.

I think your Panda legs were a great improvement, very cuddly!

Reference the theatre performance Christine, relieved that those eyebrows and beard were only temporary!

This is really interesting. I had seen the contrasting versions so it is really great to be able to read someone’s in-depth research. Thank you Sue!

Thank you Maggie – glad you liked the piece. I have more to go with the future blocks, so please do read on….

Comment received via PM to me regarding this piece…….That is really interesting I am taken in with it, well done Sue. Really thinking about getting the books, and will do your first block. I love reading about anything like this, very impressed.xx

Fascinating – love the history.

Christine, it sounds as if you had a lovely day out with your friend and her daughter. So pleased you met Mo Jones in person, she does so much for UKQU in terms of the stand at that exhibition & the UKQU postcard swaps, & now the A4 mini quilts initiative will be really exciting. You are absolutely right though about trying other things. I was an amateur dressmaker, then professional embroidery designer & I’m now a quilter, but even now it’s fun to try new things! I am going to local community craft classes on bag making, felting, & ceramics in the near future, and I even made soap, bath bombs & candles a few weeks ago, & the wreath making class I went to, before Christmas, was really successful. So create away!

Lovely story..great blog…love Teddy.

Sometimes I gift is the invisible love that comes along with it.

Haha! Great blog!

I knew you’d make a great blogger, loved it!

I love your posts as I’m always smiling when I reach the end. Please keep them coming

Brilliant! Had me laughing out loud – and getting odd looks from the dog!

Love it.

Somehow I missed this when it came out. I have a pink Olfa and it is doing pretty well after 3-4 years. But I cut all over the place, sp that probably helps. A good lesson!

You too could be famous, write us a story!!

This first book is now also available as a paperback version from Amazon, with hopefully a full reproduction of the original book following shortly. To find them, please search for “united by a common thread” or “Julie Passey” on Amazon.

Just done something similar with 2 different scrap bags which sort of go together. Took out most of the floral strips and sewed the rest of the strips together. Some were quite wide strips and others fairly narrow. Total width about 31 inches. Need to press and cut into 3 strips. Then add sashing and borders to bring to correct size for another quilt for Christmas dinners. Surprising what we can make out of very little.
PS loved your write up.

Ooo I didn’t know you get selvedges in them, that’s what I’d want out of it!

That feeling had always been in the back of my mind too but seeing everyone at the retreat emphasised the fact everyone had their place and fitted in. It was such a lovely weekend

Just relived it reading your blog! Especially the pinging of the messages at some dreadful hours! . Great weekend – nice account Christine.

I smiled when reading your blog, as it brought back lovely memories of the weekend.
Strange isn’t it, how we expect someone to be based on posts and comments on FB, just to find them very different in real life! x