And the Winner is ....

Hello everyone!

Am just back from a week in France, (of which more soon), so just a very short blog post to announce the winners of the Easter Giveaway.

My baby boy (aged 16) picked three names out of the hat and a little chick along with a pack of assorted bits and bobs will be winging its way to:

Gill at Dosie Rosie

Catherine at Kids and Capers

Winterwood (sorry I'm not sure of your actual name!)

Please could you email your details to :
cathy.daniel@virgin.net

Very many thanks to all who took part.

Bye for now - Cathy

Chicks and Eggs and other stuff

I should have made more of these as they vanished as soon as they hit the shelves - please remind me of this next Easter!


They were fun to make - I love bright colours, as you may have guessed.

As hinted at in my last post, the PotterJotter nest is temporarily over-crowded with chicks who've flown back for Easter, and today we rooted out the decorative eggs they painted when they were tots.

I sincerely hope you can tell which I painted (above !! thankyou!) and which they painted (below).

I burst several blood vessels blowing the yolk out of all this lot so that they could be adorned in such an artistic way. Back in the day, one couldn't buy eggs readymade for decorating as I'm sure you can these days.

So the big chicks have been very bored and I've had them clearing stuff out. Any suggestions as to what to do with all these VHS videos? No-one wants them these days. I have a bin bag FULL in the back of my car at the moment, but where to next? The dump?
Please don't say our attic - that's Mr PotterJotter's answer to everything, and the upstairs ceilings are about to cave in under the weight of what's already there!

It makes me sad looking at them.
Its their childhood, told in videos.
Sob...

HAVE A HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!
(For Easter Giveaway, see previous post - closes 30 April)

Easter Giveaway x Three

Three little chicks need a new home (and, No! I'm not talking about my own three little chicks who have all flown back to the nest for Easter, although, actually, now that I think about it ....).

No - I wouldn't do that to you. But these three are ready to fly off to whoever wants them.
Query - do chickens fly or do they just jump up and down and flap a lot - like the rest of us?

And each chick will bring with it a little bag of assorted handmade ceramic beads, buttons, tags, etc, something like this little lot in the picture above.

So if you feel you could offer a good home to a patchwork chick, just leave me a comment to let me know. Simple as that.

And the three winners will be drawn out of a hat in two weeks' time - on 30th April. Obviously, the Giveaway Gods will probably look down more kindly upon those entrants who are followers of the blog, so if you're not already, you're very welcome to join!

How to Make a Patchwork Quilt

So, no, of course I didn't actually make that one above - as if! That would have been a good one for April Fool's Day last week.
No, I make mine like this:
First I roll out the clay and imprint the design into it, putting a pretty flowery border all round the edge by pushing in a strip of lace. This particular quilt-block pattern is called 'Towers of Camelot' - can just about see why, I think!

When the whole design is complete, I think to myself: 'its gonna take a hell of a long time to paint glaze into all those flowers - why did I do that?!'

Then I carefully lift the flat piece off the cloth and push into a large round mould. I faff about with the edges a bit to make them nice and fluted and raggedy, in a smooth kind of way.

Into the kiln it goes and out of the kiln it comes. Then I glaze the whole thing, hoping the colours will work together as well in reality as they do in my head.

Into the kiln a second time and when its fired, I lift the lid whilst it is still very hot to have a cheeky peep, which I know I MUST NOT DO because one day the pieces will crack from the thermal shock of introducing cold air too soon - but I live dangerously and cannot wait.

The detail in the flower border was well worth the time and effort and, in fact, the whole thing was pretty much worth the effort. I take it out onto the sunny patio and take a terrible, hurried picture of it on a dirty grey patio slab, which does not do it justice ...

.... but, hey, I want to get this blog post done and get back out there in the sunshine. Its a pretty, Spring coloured bowl for a pretty, Spring coloured day.
Have you been out there today?