Hello everyone, once again, a chance to say Hi and catch up with the news. It’s been raining buckets here over the past few weeks, some terrific storms and lots of damage. They say it’s because of global warming, and I guess a lot of Bellaonline Quilters are experiencing unusual weather patterns also.

When we first came to live in Brisbane in 1980, I can remember every afternoon right on 3:00pm (school finishing time), there would be a tropical thunderstorm, with lightning, thunder and of course torrential rain. These storms would last about a half an hour, and within the hour, the sun would be shining, the humidity would be through the roof and everyone “glowed”. Over the years this weather pattern has changed, but with the recent unusual weather, one wonders if we are going back to the good old afternoon storms of 30 years ago.

Anyway, enough about the weather. I’ve been busy on my Needleturn quilt with the thousands of leaves, and am happy to report I’ve just about finished the last border. If I keep going, I should have the whole quilt finished (top that is) by the second week in January, when I’ll dispatch it to my favorite professional quilters to do their magic. I never suggest how to quilt the top to my professional quilters – I know they are the ones that know better than anyone, what will go best.

Well, dear readers, I finally posted the first of two installments giving you the instructions for my first Christmas Table Topper. I’ve called it “Ringing the Bells” and you’ll see it’s a very pertinent title.

The first installment (posted last Sunday) deals with the piecing of the blocks, while the second installment covers the appliqué of the bells.
Here’s the link to the first installment:http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art3021.asp

You’ll be happy to hear, the second installment will be posted THIS SUNDAY.
I’d love the hear of any quilters who make this table topper. In fact I’ll post a show and tell after Christmas. So if you go about making it, I’ll be happy to show your wonderful creations in an article on the Quilting website.

It’s been a bit quiet on the forum lately – no one seems to be coming up with anymore limericks. I’m delighted with the ones that were posted, well done girls!!

Here’s your second Silly Season challenge. I’m going to start a competition to find the best collective noun for a group of quilters.

I quote from WIKIPEDIA "In linguistics, a collective noun is a word used to define a group of objects, where "objects" can be people, animals, emotions, inanimate things, concepts, or other things. For example, in the phrase "a pride of lions," pride is a collective noun.

So quilters, how would you describe a group of quilters? I’ve got a few ideas, but I’ll wait and see what you come up with. This should be a lot of fun.
Here’s the forum link for you to add your suggestions:http://forums.bellaonline.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=postlist&Board=43

Now to my gift for this week. I’ve been an avid fan of a quilter called Ute-Barbara Skjønberg, who has a website called quilt-design. I think she is a very generous quilter as she has some lovely FREE bom’s on her site, one of which is called Christmas Angel. It is available in it’s entirety at this link:
http://www.quilt-design.com/BOM/patjuly.htm. The pattern is simple, but makes a lovely wall hanging. I hope you like it.

Well, quilters, that’s all from me for this week. I do hope you enjoy the Ringing the Bells Table Topper. Stay well and keep those fingers busy, till next week, don't forget to have fun quilting!

Cheerio for now

Judie Bellingham, Quilting Editor
http://Quilting.bellaonline.com

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