Blogger's Quilt Festival: Red Delicious

Firstly,

thank you Amy for another great Blogger's Quilt Festival. This is my 3rd year taking part and I just love it...this festival is a stroke of genuis...I know I'm going to be browsing hundreds of great quilts and blogs before the weekend is out.

Red Delicious by Esther Aliu

Red Delicious is my original applique BOM which was launched for free over 12 months.

Why?
I had a stash of red fabric I wanted to do something with, it had to be a stash buster – I didn’t want to have to outlay on new fabrics. I had journals of sketching and designs I knew it was time to put to use and I thought it was about time I put my long standing ‘red quilt idea’ into action. Each block was inspired by the red things in life that I love and each design has a personal story behind it. I knew this was something I wanted to share – to give back- to a community that is so generous with its time and advice – this quilt was to be a BOM and it was going to be free to anyone who wanted to join in. In this way, it would be my contribution.

What?

Red Delicious is an original appliqué design wall hanging 50 x 52 inches
Mainly appliqué : It's design, innovative folk, made it traditionally appealing whilst remaining a little bit different
Red Delicious was a free stash buster BOM launched on Nov 15, 2008.It ran for 12 months, it was released in 12 blocks
Red Delicious was complemented by ‘The Red Room’ décor theme which included: a table runner (Cherry Thieves) and 2 cushion designs

The Quilters
Thank you to everyone who joined in.I know from the many quilts made, each quilter who came along for the BOM journey made this quilt their own through personal design embellishes and fabric choices.

Wow!
The Scribd.com site where the Red Delicious blocks were launched and made available each month received over 80,606 reads, since Nov 13, 2008. This figure does not include downloads made by Yahoo Group Members who accessed the block files via group access (membership to date is 836)

And Now?
Red Delicious is finished. Blocks are no longer available for free. Missed a block? All single blocks can be purchased via my shop.

Red Delicious Community

Why not join my BOM Yahoo Group? It’s a great place to celebrate, share and discuss Red Delicious and well as the new monthly BOM In The Pink. It’s also a central place to access files quickly and easily as well as post photos and encourage one another.

Yes, you can buy this stash busting BOM pattern! Visit my website for more info...

I have a Header!

I think I have a header now.
It took a lot of grief, but I think I'll be keeping this one for a while.
It took me longer to do my Header than it did to do last months BOM.
Thank you especially to Brenda and Eva who jumped in and were so helpful.
I read a lot of info, and I *think* I'm closer to understanding.
Phew.....I think

Show & Tell, block 2

This has made my morning....Danni from Germany has emailed me these pics of her block 2. It's going to be striking!

Part 2 is now also available in 2 parts

There was a time when I thought designing the quilt was the 'work'...but now I know that uploading it is the only real work involved. Sometimes I think I need a full time computer tech person to manage all the computer related stuff that needs to be done...

Anyway! I thought I had a handle on launching blocks...but I still have much to learn. I thought Part 2 was compressed enough to be as user friendly as possible, but it appears that some users have had difficulty downloading the file in its present state.

I don't want anyone to miss out on making this stash busting block, so I have now added Part 2 in 2 files for easier downloading. I hope this helps! Please note that the file is the same, it has simply been split into 2.

In The Pink Part 2 is launched

Does stash busting get any better than tulips and reminiscences of

spring fields and billowy tulips?

Part 2 is now launched!

It's nearly Festival Time again

Thank you Amy- Park City Girl....

I'd nearly forgotten that it's that time of year again. The annual Bloggers Quilt Festival... is everyone ready? Amy has some great instructions to help you join in: http://www.amyscreativeside.com/p/bloggers-quilt-festival.html

Spread the word, the more the merrier

Blogger Header

ear steaming annoyances!

Calling all blogger savvy ladies (or gentlemen) out there:

Try as I might, my blogger header/banner has continually defeated me. I need some guidance and can't seem to find any anywhere. My images are too big for the banner....then they are too small. Then I size them exactly to the banner specs and they only take up half the header 'frame'.

I'm sure I must be doing something wrong. I'm sure it's pretty basic and has passed me by. If anyone knows how to do this, please let me know. I would appreciate any guidance: it does need to be blogger specific though. I have uploaded banners to other formats without difficulty, its just something here that is frustrating me!

I have found blogger to be pretty good on the whole, but some simple things like this do frustrate me. I was thinking about moving house to WordPress.com (easy peasy headers, neat frames, very stylish) but have been scared off by the amount of people I hear from who are still ARGH-ING in angst after making the move themselves.

Surely it's not supposed to be this hard.

Please help!

UPDATE: 15 May 2010:

Thank you so much to everyone for your kind offers and helpful info...I have just discovered Blogger in Draft (where have I been?? I don't know) and have neatened up my blog as best as I know how at this stage of my technical skills.