# 6 FOR FEBRUARY ..

.. Hello ladies here goes with my info ..

WHAT IS YOUR NAME?.. I'm Diane McClure

WHERE DO YOU LIVE?.. I live in the UK ...in Cheshire, which is one of the smaller counties .. we manage to have some of the richest and poorest parts of the UK within our borders!! Crewe is somewhere in the middle x it was a railway town and one of the original sites where Mr Rolls and Mr Royce began manufacturing their fabulous cars x This has changed in recent years but we are a thriving town x 

TELL US ABOUT YOUR FAMILY .. I still have both my parents .. in their 80s who live near me, I have a son and his partner who live in a small town about 15min drive away ,I have 2 grandsons ( YES I think they are the best thing since the rotary cutter!! lol) and a daughter and her partner who are currently living in Australia .. his homeland x I share my home with 2 Staffy cross dogs who keep me amused and fit ! I also have 3 brothers and their families close by ... and am happy that they are all there x

TELL US HOW YOU GOT INTERESTED IN QUILTING .. I first began quilting at school (LONG time ago xx) where we had a teacher who was interested and shared it with us . My family have always been knitters .. and for MANY years this was my hobby and way of keeping my kids warm x and so quilting was pushed to the edges x When my daughter was small I made a lot of her dresses and acquired a lot of small pieces of fabric.... these seemed to grow and as a squirrel I could NOT part with them x when the house began to empty of bodies (my parents lived with me for many years until failing health led to them moving to a warden monitored/sheltered living bungalow )I found time to LOOK at these scraps .. and so it began x

HOW DO YOU ORGANISE YOUR STASH ? ... I'm supposed to organise it ....!!!

WHO IS YOUR FAVORITE FABRIC DESIGNER ? .. I don't have a favourite I just buy fabric that takes my eye .. either because of the colour or the pattern

ONE THING YOU HAVE LEARNED THAT YOU WISH YOU HAD KNOWN WHEN YOU FIRST STARTED QUILTING ?... It took me a long time to come to the realisation that .. IT IS MY QUILT and while it is nice when others like them it doesn't matter if they don't .. and also there are NO quilt police in my world and I can cut off as many points as I want xx lol x

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE SEWING TOOL ? .. mm this is a hard one I DO like rulers and like to play with the new ones that come out .. but there are so many tools out there just waiting ...

TELL US A FEW OTHER THINGS ABOUT YOURSELF.... well until recently I was a hospital based nurse ... for 40 YEARS ....THEN I found the escape route and am now VERY happily retired x I keep being told I will have LOTS of time to sew now! BUT between the family and friends and the boys (dogs) I am kept pretty busy xx When my daughter and her partner went to Australia I began to blog and can be found at www.thecheshirequilter.blogspot.com where I tend to rattle on about sewing projects.. family .. and the boys ... OH! and I am addicted to swaps xx

NOW THE BIT YOU REALLY WANT TO KNOW ABOUT ..

What I would like you ladies to make this month ? x I love these books ..

and turn to them for inspiration on a regular basis . One project is a hearts and flowers quilt .. and this is what I would like to make x SO.. how to do this

START WITH .. either a 13.5 x 6.5 OR 6.5 x6.5 ( if doing the smaller can I please have 2 ) piece of fabric..

...they can be any colour , plain or patterned and ...using your favorite method ..applique either a heart OR ....a flower OR ...part of a flower...

...SEE nothing complicated x I hope you have fun x I did when making these x

For the heart I used a picture from a birthday card ... the leaf was a set of post-it notes and the full flower was from a child's colouring book ... so LOTS of inspiration out there x

I hope you have fun with this xx

Diane x