Birthdays.....

I am hopeless at remembering birthdays .... I need reminders

luckily these days with facebook I get the reminders

but usually just on the day

when it's too late to make up a gift

(even my grandchildren get their presents late!)

That's what happened with Michelle's birthday

Marilyn made up this pattern recently and I thought it looked like a nifty little project bag

.. it's actually quite big.... and like a small suitcase... with lots of room

(pattern can be found HERE)

and pockets inside....perfect for projects

Well... since Michelle went off on a holiday I was able to make it up and send it off late...

... I am hoping it is nice to get a late gift... for a belated birthday present...

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At our quilt group we have a shared lunch once a month...  to celebrate birthdays of people in the group .... and this month I decided to make chocolate eclairs from my chocolate book from Shez

My mum always made them and said they were very easy so I happily went to the kitchen....

Attempts 1 & 2 look like frizbees for Barbie and Ken

I wondered if it was my piping bag?

1 & 2 next to #3... there is an improvement.... Barbie and Ken now have stepping stones for the garden....

youtube came into play at this stage

#4 next to the others..... not amazing but workable

I wasn't about to try making the special custard

so I whipped up some cream and added a good dollop of my boozy vanilla
(if it's boozy enough the ladies won't notice the flattened eclair!)

.... stuffed with cream...

... and topped with dark chocolate....

Righto, Gotto Go... I am still lamenting the hours wasted trying to conquer eclairs... but next time I expect to whip them up in a flash .... (???????)

Binding....

Well - I did make the chocolate pudding from the book from Shez....

... it was very scrummy ... I had a dollop of home made yoghurt... Hubz had a dollop of store bought icecream!

THIS is the link to the recipe on line... in case you want to try it too....

The other night when I was going all around a quilt hand sewing the binding down Hubz asked why I didn't do that by machine....

I am not a purist by any means but I do like hand sewing a quilt to finish it off... I have done several where I have done it by machine and I love those quilts just as much.... and a lot of smaller items I finish off by machine ....

.... so what is it... just the satisfaction of a final bit of hand sewing at the end I think...  do you have a preference and why?

Here is my latest bit of binding... my little blue baby quilt (in case it is needed in November)

I did very simple quilting.. in the ditch for the borders and just around the edge of the stitching on the elephants.... 

I bought nice quilting fabric for the backing... because I liked it....

... this will wait for November now.... just in case 

(pink is ready and waiting too!)

Righto, Gotto Go... still more binding to be done..... 

A gift, some binding and a challenge ......

How thrilled was I that Shez sent me one of her beautiful kitchen sets and a recipe book ....

it looks perfect in my kitchen and tonight there is chocolate self saucing pudding on the menu...

Thanks so much Shez (your work is so lovely and I love the colours and the pretty applique) ... it so cheers up my cooking workspace ....

I did the hand sewing of the binding on my quilt made from the Hello World range ...

I love it...

Tracee mentioned this shirt challenge a little while ago.... and I do love an 'upcycle' project so I could resist it...

THE GISBORNE QUILTERS GREAT SHIRT CHALLENGE

This one is being hosted by the Gisborne Quilters and is due to start this month ... there is still time to source your fabrics!

Hubz is due for some new work shirts (or so I think he ought to be) so I have used 3 of the old ones as they are all the same and purchased some more from one of the op shops ... (there is allowance to use an additional purchased fabric but I think I will keep that for a border .....)

I'm not that happy about the third from the left... not enough contrast so I may need to do some more hunting... in real life it doesn't look as bland...

There is also another challenge on if you're interested in something a bit more upmarket to recycled clothing?

Righto, Gotto Go..... shirts to chop up.... roses to prune ... and more binding to sew 

The Swags are done.......

I am so pleased with the Christmas Swag which is now all finished with all the fiddly diddly ribbons and bells .....

The pattern for 'Christmas' is by Nikkie Tervo .... Each star is about 6" so the swag is quite big .. And it is all stitched by hand ....

And I finished off a couple of single decorations too using a stitchery design by Gail Pan

I have one of Toni's quilts here to play ... If you love moose keep an eye on her blog for when the pattern is released - it is just gorgeous.

I have a large light box with a nice big piece of Perspex so I take that off and put it over the quilt and draw out what I am thinking of for the quilting ... I can then take a picture and send it off for Toni to check she likes the plan .... 

any clear firm plastic would do for this

Righto, Gotto Go.... play time with a moose or two....

Quilting......

So the Hello World blocks have been quilted....

the fabrics are delicious so I did a gentle all over design .....  it's hard to do large bold designs on the domestic machine but I didn't want to do something too tight .... these loops are about the largest I can successfully manoevre my hands to keep the curves curvey.....

... it's a bit like a swirl with a single feather....

I found this video tutorial by APQS which helped me learn this one HERE
(though my curves are not so curvy! - story of my life!)

... stitch in the ditch around the narrow green border...

and a soft feathery edge around the border.....

It's quite a loose design... the quilt is soft and cuddly  .. will be lovely for a young someone to wrap themselves in....

(An elder sister needs a big bed quilt)

I wanted it to have the quilted feel and crinkle look but not take anything from the fabrics

ON ANOTHER MATTER

word verification has been playing tricks ....

... how on earth are you supposed to get these... I don't think robots or non robots can do them

 Righto, Gotto Go... you know what I need to be doing now.....

FNWF ......

Thank you Cheryl for hosting us at Friday Night With Friends....  it is always wonderful to link up with so many others and visit a few different people bloggily.....

I love lemon flavour and remember a lovely pudding my mom used to make... I lost her recipe but found this one by Donna Hay which is very similar... and easy peasy yummy scrummy!

It's like a very light cake on the top and lemon curdy sauce on the bottom... very yummy with a blob of thick cream!

I managed to loose my wedding band this week after over 35 years! (cold hands and it must have slipped off somewhere!!)  aaaaaarrgggghhhh... anyway I have both my grandmothers and my mothers wedding bands so I am very proud to now be wearing Mom's on my hand as a replacement - it is finer than mine was as she had worn it down quite a bit ....

.... well... as for sewing on Friday night....

I sewed a mouse.....

This is a very sweet pattern from Joy of JoyPatch and I got mine from a magazine (but I don't know which one because I tear patterns out of magazines!)  I love that mouse's expression and is sortof what I felt after eating lemon pudding!!   

The pudding is sewn in Cottage Garden "Mossipot" (what a lovely word!) and then a plain mousey coloured DMC for the mouse.... (thanks to Christine for helping me decide on that....)

Then I started working on my stars....... I learnt to tie bows with 3 different ribbons together in the morning (I needed instruction since I am not good at fiddly diddly things) .... so I started joining the stars together, sewing the ribbons down and adding the little red bells....

There was footy on TV so I concentrated hard on the bows and bells whilst Hubz and the dog watched  intently ..... 

I carried on this afternoon whilst watching Mrs Marple and one word is done....

Christmas is a longer word so it might take a few movies to do that one!!  Looks like the cold is coming back so I will need to stay indoors????

Righto, Gotto Go..... start on the next lot of bows and bells..... have a lovely weekend and I hope you get to do something fun....

Hello World and some Scrappy Blocks....

I decided to add a couple of borders onto the "Hello World" squares

(that is the name of the fabric range... which I just love love love)

12 fat quarters cut into 10" squares... (4 squares per fat quarter)

it looks much better with the borders I think and is going to be a nice single bed size quilt

the green border is 1" and the wider flowers 4"

you can't see the colours well in this picture... I will do a better picture when it is quilted

today the quilt and I spent some time chatting together... while we listened to the birds warbling outside....

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.. the HST's and I kept company over the weekend....

..it was a good project to go and do a few minutes of in between chores, gardening, book club, visitors, BBQ and general loafing around

... we have a bit of a production line thing going here.....

(blocks in various stages of development!)

I did get about 14 of these blocks done (this is 4 of the 12" blocks that were supposed to be stars but I put the points the wrong way so they are going to be squares in squares in squares!)

..... and this sweet stitchery is from a design by Marilyn..... it's very sweet ....

Righto, Gotto Go.. I found some Beef, Cheese and Jalapeno sausages we are going to try out ...  I really hate having to think about what to cook EVERY STINKING DAY!