The Lemonade Quilt

A friend of mine was diagnosed recently with bowel cancer - she is only in her 20s so this came as quite a shock - especially for her! Fortunately she is smart as a whip and was straight onto it - so was her doctor. She had surgery just about straight away and is now recovering, with the wonderful news that the cancer hadn't spread. Talk about a close call.

The cancer has come on top of a very hard seven years for her and I just could not believe so much bad stuff could happen to one person, who just happens to be one of the loveliest, smartest women I know. She is taking it all in her stride (although I am sure she has her moments - don't we all?), albeit metaphorically at the present, as she is still a little sore from the surgery. I couldn't do anything material to support her (she's in Brisbane, I am in Canberra), except, to make a quilt! (A little fabric pun in there for all you stashaholics!)

I recently bought this ace book by Alissa Haight Carlton, and was inspired by the cover quilt to make a lovely lemony quilt for my friend.

I used up some yellows from my stash and paired them with some Kona Snow to create a monochromatic modern minimalist quilt (how's that for alliteration?). Instead of repeating the darkest yellow for the binding, I thought it would be better framed in a battleship grey and found the perfect shade at my LQS, Addicted to Fabric. I quilted it with double wavy lines and it's backed in a bright sunny spotty fabric I bought at Spotlight.

While I really wanted to call it the Gin and Tonic quilt, I thought she might want to share it with her gorgeous kids, so, instead called it The Lemonade Quilt (because when life gives you lemons...reach for the gin and tonic...er, make some lemonade).

The quilt is now living on my friend's bed and I hope it makes her happy.

Sew It Together 2012 - Canberra

I had a great day and night yesterday with the delightful crafty ladies who came to Canberra for Sew It Together. Organised by Sheridan (Chaletgirl), with a bevy of helpers - Cass (Snailblazer), Gillian (Silly Gilly), Donna (Creative Controller) and Cath (Bungalow Babble), who transported all the goody bags and associated delights from Sydney to Canberra - the event brings together crafty bloggers from around Australia for one weekend a year.

It was great to leave the family responsibilities behind for just one day and indulge in some swapping of crafty gifts, a spot of sewing, fabric petting and even a dash of buying. There were workshops for those who wanted to learn some new skills as well as prizes throughout the day - I was lucky enough to be one of the prize winners and I scored a Polly Pratt dress. So gorgeous!!

I also got to meet and catch up with some bloggers I've been chatting with on the Internet for about the past five years, including Karen, Leah and Becky, as well as meet some other lovely ladies, including heaps of Canberra crafters - loads of new blogs to explore!

Here are just a few of them:
Karen - And So I Sew
Bec - Beckyetal
Leah - Pugglelogic
Kelli - Not Quite Crafty
Michelle - Happenstance
Wendy - hARTylittlepeaces
Renae - Suzyhausfrau
Bronwyn - Whippet Good
Caroline and Maryanne - Sew Together
Alex - Mooncat

Here are some photos from the day - sorry for the crappy blurry images. Damned smart phones!

 

 

 

And so many others - and let me tell you, nothing gets a room full of fabulous crafters going crazier than a sample swap. Organised by the indomitable Cass, the swap involves groups of six, who each make five samples of their work and then, in a crazy dance, swaps are snapped up, the spoils are revealed and much oohing and ahhhing over the craft goodness ensues.

I made some mini art quilts, inspired by a similar design from Silly Boodilly, and I hope the girls liked them as much as I enjoyed making them. I received two covered notebooks, some ace zipped bags, a bunch of magnets, pendants and hair clips and some quilted pot holders/coaster. It was nice to come home with so much handmade love.

Here are some photos I nicked from Cass:

 

We had a lot of fun at the dinner at Tongue and Groove too, pigging out on shared yummy things, a glass or two of wine and nearly exploding from eating the dessert (which should be called 'death by giant chocolate cookie' or 'death by giant peanut cookie with icecream and caramel drizzle').

A little bit of stitching followed dinner, although I was so full from my dinner I really needed a nap! After another hour or so of really bad crafting (on my part), I decided to call it quits and say goodnight to my new crafty friends.

What a great day and night! I hope to join the gang for Sew It Together in 2013, although I think Sheridan deserves a well earned break before starting to think about next year's craftapalooza :)

I Payed It Forward!

All three Pay it Forward gifts are safely in their destinations around Australia so I can now post some pictures of what I made.
The oven mitt design is from Denyse Schmidt Quilts and the pot holder is based on that design.

Helen, Monika and Alissa can now play!

Sign-ups are still open over at Monika's blog if you're interested.

Walk in the Park - baby quilt finished

And another ta-da moment :) I actually finished this quilt before the baby was born - there's a first! I'm calling it 'Walk in the Park', as the feature fabric is from the much-loved Park Slope range (Erin McMorris). It measures 39" x 39". To see the inspiration for this quilt design, see this previous post. I chose to do an all-over meander (again), as it's quick, getting easier and very functional for a quilt that's likely to be washed many times.

Zoe was born on my birthday, so this quilt is going to a very special baby indeed! Her mum is one of the loveliest people you'll ever meet and she'll be a great mum. I'm not showing you a close-up of the back - there were a couple of puckers that I didn't notice until I was stitching down the binding. Shhhhh - don't tell the quilt police! The other thing I'm not so thrilled about is the way the pattern in the Park Slope fabric 'walks' off the quilt - I was so careful to cut with the grain - the print is slightly askew. This is a definite downside of strip quilts!
Next under the needle will be the three Pay It Forward gifts I need to make. I have cut all the fabric, now it's a matter of sewing it all together! I received my gift and will blog it as soon as I can retrieve it from Romily!

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And here is a photo of our new friends.Eastern Rosellas are a gorgeous native Australian parrot - my clever father-in-law made us this fabulous bird feeder for Christmas. We finally put it up in about April and it took the birds a few weeks to find it. First we had visitations from some Currajongs, then, a few days later, a pair of Rosellas made some tentative enquiries (sitting on our fence, in the adjacent tree, on the balcony railing) before they decided it was safe enough. They've been back almost every day since. They don't seem bothered by us at all, as long as we're not too close. Today we were even visited by four Magpies! The kids are loving it - it's the closest we'll get to having pets for the foreseeable future...

Collaborative Comfort

It's so nice to have a finish. I should outsource block-making much more often! Quilts come together amazingly quickly when you're working together. Here is 'Susan's Stars' bound and finished. I am very happy with the quilt (made by three work friends and me) and was delighted to present it to our colleague Susan, who was recently in a serious car accident. She is still in hospital, and will be for about another two weeks. The quilt will certainly brighten up her bed.
She said it was the first quilt anyone had made for her and was absolutely chuffed. She also confirmed that while she loves making quilts, she doesn't do much machine quilting - therefore she thought mine was fab!

Here's the pieced back - a beautiful stripe from Spotlight, of all places. I might have to go back and get some more - the colours are just fabulous. It didn't quite fit across the width, so I added a 90 degree strip down the middle - quite effective I think.
And one more close-up of the quilting/stars - excuse the folds, I had taken it to show everyone and it got a bit creased in the bag.
I now have five days to make a small challenge quilt for a calendar competition being run by the Canberra Quilters - it'll be no surprise that I'm doing some maverick stars! It may not get made in time, but I'll give it a try :)

Gasp! There be quilting around these parts

Well there's been some quiltmaking going on around here! A work friend was in a serious car accident two weeks ago - she just happens to be the president of the Canberra Quilters - and a bunch of us at work, who also are quilters, decided a comfort quilt was in order. I wanted to get the quilt to her while she was still convalescing, so I thought a larger version of Bonnie Hunter's Maverick Stars would be a good idea, a la the Bushfire Quilt Project.

Polly, Teena and Ruth made up a bunch of blocks, and I made some too. I made eight, although it turns out I only needed two (leaving me with six for another project!). I originally thought a 5 x 5 layout would work, not realising how quickly 12" blocks would stack up. So I ditched a row and the quilt has finished up with a 4 x 5 layout instead. Now it's a very generous size lap quilt - Susan, the recipient, is vertically challenged, so the quilt will cover her completely when she's lying down.
Carl took the kids off to see the Dora the Explorer concert this morning, so I got busy and pieced the top together, as well as constructing the gorgeous stripy backing. As soon as I finish posting, I'll get started on sandwiching and pin basting - the intent is to spend part of tomorrow and Monday (public holiday here) quilting and attaching the binding to the front. Ruth has kindly offered to help me stitch down the back of the binding at work on Tuesday - a lunchtime quilting bee!

If I have any time spare after finishing the binding part on Monday I'm hoping to get a pencil roll made for a good friend's daughter - I made one for her big sister just over a year ago and the little sister adores it apparently! Meanwhile, the handquilting odyssey on Tristan's VHC quilt continues - I'm almost there!

Finally, here's a photo of my two cuties together. They both had haircuts yesterday - Romily had about 10cm (3") off in length (it was time) and Tristan had his first professional cut (he was remarkably still and well behaved!).

Picnic by the lake

We've been so busy (and tired) this year that we haven't had much time to catch up with friends. So we invited several groups of friends to a picnic in Weston Park last Sunday. It was a perfect late afternoon, hot but with a beautiful cooling breeze coming up off the lake. Romily and Tristan had a great time grooving around, with Romily taking great delight in physically stopping Tristan from wandering into the ablutions block! She loves that she can pick him up and move him and he seems to find it amusing, so we don't intervene too much. We know we're fortunate that she's only recently started doing this!
Rom buddied up with Charlie and they spent an hour or so climbing on the rope climbing rig in the park. Let's just say that both Romily and Tristan slept very well on Sunday night (Tristan still woke up several times, of course, but what's new?)
I actually baked some yummy treats for our picnic, which we complemented with some lovely Croser bubbly. You'll find the recipes for the muffins and zucchini slice below. They are perfect picnic fare.

Banana-Choc-Coconut Muffins

This is my own recipe and it’s pretty much failproof. It’s also very flexible. You can chuck in whatever you like!

60g butter, melted
2 eggs
½ cup of milk
1 small tub of vanilla yoghurt (I use Vaalia toddler but you can use anything on hand)
2 very ripe bananas, mashed
2 cups SR flour
½ cup of shredded coconut
½ cup of caster sugar
½ to 1 cup of choc bits (milk, white or dark, or a combination)

Preheat oven to 180°C. Line a 12-hole muffin tin with cases.

Sift the flour into a large bowl. Stir in sugar and coconut. In a small jug, combine butter, eggs, milk and yoghurt. Make a well in the dry ingredients and tip in the milk mixture. Combine with a wooden spoon. Do not beat or over-mix – this will make for tough muffins. Once just combined, tip in choc bits and stir in gently.

Spoon mixture into cases – fill to ¾ full. Sprinkle with extra shredded coconut. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the muffins are starting to go brown on top. Do not overcook!

Zucchini Slice

This recipe is from the Homemade recipe book that I have blogged about several times.

1 grated zucchini
½ cup frozen or fresh corn kernels
1 onion, finely diced
Sprinkle of fresh thyme
2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped finely
3 rashers bacon, finely diced
1 cup grated cheese
½ cup olive oil
3-4 eggs, beaten together
Salt and pepper
1 cup of SR flour

Preheat oven to 180°C.

Place all ingredients, in the above order, in a large bowl and combine well. Pour into a greased slice tray and bake for 30-40 minutes. Cool in tin, turn out when cold and cut into slices. Serve with a garden salad, if desired. Yum.

And the winner is...

...Nicolette!

I don't tell many people this, because it was sarcastic, but my nickname at primary school was 'Dictionary'. Because I knew so many words and because when I didn't understand a word I'd look it up to learn. The girl who started the nickname thought that knowing so many words was daggy, hence the nickname. I have never agreed - I don't think you can know enough words! So, Nicolette's entry for the Don't Look Now giveaway really appealed to me and also gave me a chuckle. Nicolette, congratulations and please email me your postal address and Kellie's pattern will be on its way.

The dictionary says: applique is a small addition to a standard circuit to enable it to perform additional functions or provide additional features... duh? They obviously never heard of fabric applique. To me it’s a wonderful way to make a quilt or cushion something completely your own, by taking objects from every day life or nature and translate them into applique shapes using the fabric you love the most. All you need then is some persistance and a well working sewingmachine!

We had a big dust storm roll through yesterday - it's now over the eastern seaboard. This is what it looked like from our place.
Fortunately, we'd already had our visit to Black Mountain a few days earlier, or the view wouldn't have been like this!

Baby gifts

There's nothing like a new baby to inspire some sewing. A quilting buddy of mine, AJ, recently celebrated the birth of a beautiful baby boy, Aden Henry. AJ's pregnancy journey was long, with her much wanted baby finally arriving with the help of some modern medical magic. Her joy upon discovering she was finally pregnant after more than two years was contagious. Her family and friends were all overjoyed for her and her husband. Such wonderful news called for a very special quilt, so some of the EB Quilters got together (virtually, of course) and made a 'Noah's Ark' quilt for Aden, or 'Russell' as he was called inutero.

(Photo nicked from AJ's blog)

I made the Ellie & Squeak block - the first time I've made anything like this, as applique isn't really my thing. I did enjoy it though - especially rummaging through my modest stash to find fabric that would work with the sashing fabric (our mutual starting point). Two clever ladies, Emma and Adds, put the combined parts together and Emma did a marvellous job of the quilting and sent it off just after Aden's arrival. AJ loved the quilt and we loved making it for her.I also made a little outfit for Aden - some cute little shorts and a matching applique onesie, using some of the luscious and soft Prints Charming fabric I had leftover from the party bag epic. I made the outfit in the 6-9m size, as Aden is a big boy. Hopefully it should fit him as the weather warms up - he lives in Queensland, so that shouldn't be too far away!
Well we're off to Sydney tomorrow. We're planning on visiting the Aquarium, Taronga Zoo and possibly Luna Park if we haven't worn the kids out completely. We're staying right in town, so we'll be close to all the good stuff and we'll catch ferries to the zoo and to Luna Park. It'll be quite an adventure for the kids! And I might even manage to squeeze in a visit to Ikea on the way home on Friday. Depends how tired we are!

Dancing queen

With great excitement, we headed off last Tuesday to Romily's first ever dance class. She was primed and ready to go and I hoped that she would love it. Well, I didn't have to worry! As soon as we opened the door to go in - they were just starting - she joined straight in and started copying every move the dance teacher made. She got down and boogied and it was just fantastic! She also, in Romily's very special way, said this in one breath to the teacher:

I don't go to Gymbaroo anymore because I'm too big now and I can do everything at Gymbaroo and I'm not challenged anymore so now I come to Blueberries!

You should have seen the teacher's jaw drop! It was hysterical. Romily's biggest challenge at dance class so far has been learning when it's appropriate to speak :) She just loved it and I had a hard time getting her out of the studio after the class finished. She wanted to keep dancing and watching herself in the wall-to-wall mirrors.
A dancing queen in the making!

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This may come as a shock to some, but Tristan is now 11 months old! How did nearly a year fly by, I hear you ask? Don't ask me - it's been a whirlwind of sleepless nights, breastfeeding, pooey nappies and chuckles. He is such a gorgeous bubba, such a happy chappy. I just love him to bits. We've been 'night weaning' this week and it's going pretty well - he was ready and just needed a bit of encouragement and withholding by the dairy! Last night, after a late night out, he slept from midnight to 6am without waking. Woohoo! Here's my big boy on his birth quilt made by my EB Quilter buddies, and here he is making off with it!
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Last night we attended our friends' annual Christmas in July dinner party. They do a Kris Kringle each year and, as I did last year, I chose to make our gifts. I made two quilted table toppers using up some of the Christmas fabrics I bought a couple of years ago. I don't really like the fabric anymore, but it was perfect for KK gifts.
Tristan liked them too!