Hi to all the BellaOnline Quilters, it’s so good to be back after a wonderful vacation. Although I must say we didn’t do too much resting. We had a week visiting three different national parks doing the camping safari thing – a great time but I must admit I’m over dust (in the dry) and mud (in the wet). We saw so many fantastic sights, learnt a great deal about our indigenous Australians, and ate ourselves silly. Each night we camped in a “hosted” camp which meant a three course meal and lovely wines etc under the stars with just candles to light our way. During the day we spent climbing to see vistas, or swimming in crystal clear rock pools. It seems a long time ago now that we’re back to our routine.

I love routine – I love the same, old same old. I love the predictable. That’s just me, in my comfort zone. I’m guessing there are some quilters reading this and absolutely squirming at what I’m admitting to. But, again, that’s me. Thank goodness we’re all so very different.

I haven’t sent a newsletter to you for four weeks, and I’ve certainly missed keeping in touch. Over the last four weeks that I had been absent, I was able to post an article each week for your interest.

The first article was a new category titled “May I introduce…..”. This category allows me to introduce interesting people from the patchwork and quilting world, who has made or is making a contribution to quilters’ journeys, wherever they are. I introduced to you a lovely lady in Penny Hornbuckle who owns and runs a fantastic quilting business called The Patchwork Angel in the state of Queensland, Australia. Please have a read of this article. Penny has some interesting answers to my questions, and her business is more than happy to support international purchases from anywhere in the world. Here’s the link:
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art47560.asp

The second article I posted whilst away was a book review on the book “Color and Composition”. A great book – have a look: http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art5241.asp .

The third article was a series of patchwork poems by the very funny and clever patchwork artist Cindy Thury Smith. Cindy gave me permission to reprint her poetry and I’m going to have Cindy as my guest in “May I introduce” in the next little while. Check out the poems here: http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art10211.asp .

My final article is a little story about my adventure with postcards. I’m very much a beginner but starting to get hooked in a very big way. Here’s the link: http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art24994.asp

So that brings us up to date with the newsletters. I’ll be back to my routine postings with a newsletter on Wednesdays and a new article each Sunday.

As always, I have a little gift for you all. This week it’s a few more tips and ideas that I’ve come across recently.

My first tip is : if you have a cutting board that has batting embedded in it (which happens when you use a rotary cutter to cut your batting), just get hold of some cheap polyester batting (the stuff that was available in the 80’s, pure polyester bouncy bouncy batting). Roll it into a ball and rub it over your cutting mat. It works really well to take the batting out and repair the little “speed bumps” in your cutting board.

The second tip is: If you find yourself on a web page which has text that is too small to read easily,go to View/Text size or simply hold the CTRL button down while scrolling on your mouse wheel, if you have one. This will enlarge the text. Easy!!

And finally : To remove starch burns or fusible webbing from your ironing surface, run a hot iron over salt sprinkled on a brown paper bag.If the iron is Teflon coated, run it over salt on used or new dryer sheets.

Well, that’s all for now, quilters, I do hope this newsletter finds you all well and busy. Talk to you next Wednesday. Cheerio for now



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

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