Sorted

I sorted out the middle of my friends quilt, put the binding on and just need to sew it down now. I used, very dull, an off white backing. I really wanted to finish it and that's all I had that was big enough.

I really love it, but, I am guessing, like any other quilter, sewer, crafter, I am lying on the floor looking at it close up and see fault after fault. I need to look at it from a distance so I don't see them.

I quilted it myself using a made up method. I wanted to put stars on the blocks so I drew them on paper, pinned the paper to the quilt and sewed over them. Then just peeled the paper off. Work a treat!!

Now the photo is in really bad light but I wanted to post about it now.

Tx

Stripes

I am making another postage stamp type quilt, no photos today, but I didn't buy quite enough white fabric, when I went to get more it was a slightly different shade so I could only make it as big as what I had already cut. I was rather gutted as I was hoping to make it an adult size tv cuddle quilt. As it is it is turning out a bit bigger than I thought, so happy with that. I think once all the blocks are finished and with boarders it still might make the cut!

I used a jelly roll and was about half way through when I ran out, so I had about 20 strips left. So I just sewed them all together in rows and again it is bit bit bigger than I thought and I really like the simple clean lines. And a perfect quick quilt if I ever need one.

Miss Greta, 6 months old now, its going so fast!!

And the dog barked at the door, way more interesting than mummy

Tx

Stuck

Another wee baby has been born to a friend. She, unfortunately lives in the UK so I really don't see her all that much. The benefits of a modern world with Facebook and stuff that you can feel like you are still a part of their life even if you may never see them again.

Anyway, it is her second boy. Her first boy I sent over a bunch of clothes I had made, I think. This time I wanted to make a quilt. I wanted boy fabric which wasn't the traditional cars, trucks, bears, you know what I mean. The fabric I chose I had brought to make the girls some clothes that wasn't girlie. Theirs has mermaids but then I looked at the range there was quite a bit so I could get four different patterns without having to use the mermaids. Nice blues and greens and orange/salmon. Since I am on a bit of a 2.5 inch squares thing at the moment I wanted to do a chequer board type design. I found co-ordinating teal-ish blue and salmon/orange solids and wow I am pretty pleased. Though I am super stuck, I don't know what to do in the middle. I have four patterns and two solids. I may think about this over the afternoon and hopefully finish it all up tomorrow so I can get it into the post. I am thinking a sort of mix and match of all the fabrics in a strange chequer board mix. Just trying to think about how it would look without cutting the fabric first.

Tx

A special quilt

I have been chipping away at this new quilt top. I call it my combination quilt. I think I mentioned a sick little boy a few posts ago. I got donated a few pieces of fabric, some I could use in this project and some I will use in another project for him. So a combination of people have helped make this quilt possible.

I did a scrappy trip as I could use any fabrics I received and didn't really need to worry about scale, colour or value. Then I had a whole bunch of the blue 2.5 inch squares left over from another project so I used them as the boarder. I quite like how that has finished this one. It's a reasonable size, 40 x 52 inch. Perfect for chilling out under.

I have a couple of other things to make and I have mum making a hat and another friends mum making these cool knitted adult booties. Sounds odd but they are brilliant.

Tx

Chocolate Yogurt Cake

125g butter, melted
2 cups caster sugar
2 eggs
2 cups yoghurt, plain unsweetened
2 cups flour
Pinch salt
1 tsp baking soda
½ cup cocoa powder
½ cup white chocolate bits

1. Heat oven to 160°C fan bake. Grease a Bundt tin and lightly dust with flour. Place butter and sugar in a bowl and beat to combine. Beat in eggs separately.

2. Beat in yoghurt. Sift flour, salt, baking soda and cocoa over wet ingredients then stir to combine. Stir in white chocolate bits.

3. Pour mixture into prepared cake tin and bake for 1 hour or until a skewer inserted comes out moist but clean.

4. Transfer to a wire rack and cook in the tin for 30 minutes before removing. Serve hot or cold, with extra yoghurt on the side, if desired.

This is the cake I made for a friend who has just had a baby and I have just put one in the oven for us.

Yum!!

Another Scrappy Trip

These quilts are so addictive. Maybe sort of like a drug to a quilter. I have different colour ways in my head maybe 90% of the time. So when I heard a friends child was very sick (long stay in hospital very sick) I though how nice would a bright scrappy quilt be. I know it won't heal the child or anything but maybe put the odd smile on the child's cute wee face.

I sent a couple of emails, received a few scraps from a couple of other people, even a package from a pretty much stranger! And I have been cutting and cutting.

This one wont be quite as big as Dads. I am thinking four blocks squared, so 48 inches squared I think. Once I have that many blocks made up I will reassess and see. I have cut nearly all the strips, 20 to go. Just need a trip to Spotlight to get a few more fabrics to make it even more scrappy. Can I call it scrappy if I buy fabrics?? I think in this case I can :)

Tx

Don't you just love the robots!

And done

My scrappy trip around the road is done, pretty much all done. Just binding to go. I even quilted it myself. My dad has been given it, although of course I have it here. He had seen a picture of it and was still surprised at the size of it. When I explained where the fabrics were from he was pretty happy, I think, men you can never really tell.

I was chuffed to have quilted it. It's basic, straight lines, a few puckers but I did it all myself! It was pretty heavy pulling it round and through the machine. I got quite a sweat up in this hot NZ weather. It is quite a busy quilt so the simple lines work, next time I want to try something a bit more challenging, maybe be a curve.

Anyway, enjoy the photos, I just love it!

Tx