Hi everyone, it’s a beautiful sunny day here, after some pretty ordinary weather, so I’m enjoying the sun on my deck. We are just about to celebrate winter solstice here, which signals the shortest day of the year (in the southern hemisphere). This also means that the days will be getting longer and it will be spring before you know it.

I recently was invited to represent our Project Linus group on a discussion panel of speakers at the Festival of Ideas here in Brisbane at the State Library of Queensland. The title of the discussion was “Suburban Tales – from the ordinary to the extraordinary”.

Myself and two other speakers were interviewed in front of a live audience about our respective charities. This was a great opportunity to get our profile out there amongst the community. If you’re interested in hearing what I and the others had to say, here’s a link to the video that has been posted on YouTube: http://forums.bellaonline.com/ubbthreads.php/topics/695578#Post695578 - my contribution starts at about 31 minutes into the video, and goes for about 15 minutes.

Last Sunday I posted an article all about Quilt Acronyms. In this modern day of giving everything a “shortcut” name, I thought it would be interesting to have a look at the common and not so common acronyms being used in the quilting community. Here’s the link to that article: http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art171877.asp

Going hand in hand with the article is a forum question I’ve posted on the quilting forum. I am interested to know if you have any other quilt acronyms that you have heard of, or have made up yourself, that you can share with others. Hop over to the forum and add your contribution. Here’s the link to that question: http://forums.bellaonline.com/ubbthreads.php/topics/695578#Post695578

So onto my little goodies for you this week. An eclectic mix of interesting stuff for you to browse through:

http://annie-flowergarden.blogspot.com/2008/04/ready-threader-tutorial.html a fabulous gift for a quilter.

http://uklassinus.blogspot.com/2008/08/fabric-dollhouse-tutorial.html a delightful dolls house made in fabric

http://afewscraps.blogspot.com/2011/02/accuquilt-bunting-quilt-tutorial.html a great tutorial for bunting

http://therapeuticcrafting.blogspot.com/2010/04/machine-washable-fabric-labels.html machine washable fabric labels

http://www.craftpassion.com/2010/04/tutorial-how-to-draw-hexagon-for-quilt-block.html a little bit of theory on drawing hexagon blocks

http://wewilsons.blogspot.com/2011/01/dress-up-crown-tutorial.html cute little fabric crowns to make for your little princesses and princes

http://www.prudentbaby.com/2011/01/sleepover-pillowcase-tutorial.html a sleepover pillowcase with a secret pocket.

http://andiejohnsonsews.blogspot.com/search/label/Bobbin%20Fix%20Tutorial another good idea for when that bobbin runs out in the middle of a sewing stretch.

http://pickupsomecreativity.blogspot.com/2011/01/sewing-101-with-gwen-mitered-corners.html here’s a great tutorial for mitering corners

I must say goodbye for now, and I’ll pop in again next week. I hope this newsletter finds you all well and keeping those fingers busy with a little quilting.

Cheerio for now

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

One of hundreds of sites at BellaOnline.com