Buns and boo boos

I baked my hot cross buns last Thursday all ready for good Friday's breakfast. I made them less spicy this year to suit DH's  but next year I'm going back to more spice.
I don't bother glazing mine, the sticky topping annoys me but we do enjoy them served warm with butter dripping off them or split in half and toasted on the soft side. There's still a few in the freezer, the rest got devoured by family.



As for the sewing, it's amazing how much I can get done with a bit of focus. I'm half way through doing the trapunto on the borders, it's getting exciting.

It's not easy to see the details but if you click on the photo, you'll be able to see the design much better. Ignore the yellow pen marks which will wash out and imagine it looking like white work.

I had a bit of an accident when using the scissors from the back. I snipped right through to the front of the quilt. See that hole? Gasp!

I may have used a swear word, ok, I did. I sat and stared at it for a good while and wracked the brain for a solution.

Step one

I decided to shift the sprig of berries so that the offending hole would be in the middle of one berry

Step 2

Applique a circle of background fabric to that berry. Once it's quilted, who would pick it? It's a good feeling to know how to fix the boo boos. I do know that basted stem is crooked, that will get sorted during quilting.

I hope you're all enjoying your Easter break.

Less blogging equals more sewing

It seems like ages since I fed the blog, I do have excuses but I'll spare you and give you a little update of the quilty kind instead.
I decided to pay a little more attention to just a couple of projects instead of my usual rotation that doesn't get me any closer to a finish. Don't ask me how long it will last because I don't set rules for myself.
I was pretty conflicted about whether to do the one inch squares for the sashings as in the pattern or use just one fabric.

I  happened to find a large enough piece of this vintage Kaffe Fassett in the cupboard which no doubt I had other plans for but it seemed like a good fit for this quilt and I was more than happy to use it.

I'm currently working on the bottom border and started with this tree which took a long time to applique with all it's innies and outies.

This one was a walk in the park, the hardest part was deciding which fabric to use.

 I love this one, it reminds me of a big palm tree.

The bird bath was quick and easy. I'll finish putting all the large elements on this border and then add in the colours that I think it needs with the birds and the gazillion circles.

I may not blog as often as I have in the past but I'll try to be better about catching up with my blog reading. I seem to love making quilts ( plural) that take a really long time to make and have a lot of hand work to do. This means that I have less to write about or show, age might be catching up with me, sigh.

There's a little write up about my quilting over on one of my favourite blogs, Quilting The Town Red. Annemart does some wonderful posts called in the limelight where she features different quilters and it makes for great reading which I love.

I've had a productive week

I've been enjoying some hand piecing with these snowball blocks inspired by Lizzie. They're so simple to put together  and make for relaxing stitching time in front of the telly. I have six out of eleven rows together without hardly any effort. Of course it would be quicker by machine if that's what you'd prefer. I'm using some perspex templates but there are patterns in some Kaffe Fassett books. I know there's one in his book Simple Shapes Spectacular Quilts
Not all of the fabrics are Kaffes, a lot are from my stash in the cupboard.

The Coxcomb and Currants quilt is commanding most of my attention at the moment. I spent a good few days drawing out the border pattern for the trapunto and transferring it to the quilt top.

These are the first copies which I did on butter paper so I could see how it would look on the quilt top. Once I fine tuned it, I made a master copy on tougher paper and used the light table to mark the quilt.
I'm rather pleased with how the corner turned out which is very much like the antique quilt

Now I get to baste the muslin to the back and start the stitching. It's going to be a long journey.

The fourth panel for the Trailing Vines quilt is available for download, just click on the Trailing Vines page at the top of my blog to access it. While I was doing the drawing, I noticed a  leaf  missing off the quilt  so as soon as I stitch that on, I'll add some photos to flickr.

I have a top

Remember this trapunto I was doing for the Coxcomb and Currants quilt? Well the good news is that all the blocks have been done so it was time to put the top together.

You have to excuse the not so great photo but you get the idea. I had a hard time getting it all sewn together.

I decided not to do the usual sized setting triangles with a separate border. I did it tough and made really over sized setting triangles to make the quilting design on the border easier with less seams to quilt through. I hope I don't ever have to do this again..

If I manage to get some time over the next few days, I'll be drawing the trapunto border which will mimic the trapunto in the alternate blocks. Lots to do yet but it's progress and I'm loving how it's looking so far.

Some sewing at last

I've been a really bad blogger lately but honestly, I had nothing to show here. I've hardly sewed at all because I've been playing with another interest of mine.
I finally got my mojo back and dived right back into the sewing room. Lucky the sewing machine hadn't rusted up in protest.

I got the sixth panel joined to the Trailing Vines at last. It's been hard to take photos though because  the sewing room really is a cave and to top it off we've had dark wet weather so these will have to do.

The first four panels have 1/2" main stems but the last two I switched to 3/8" which I like better. Susan McCord's Vine quilt has uneven sized stems so it's in keeping with hers I suppose and I love that.

A friend recently emailed me and alerted me to the news that the Henry Ford museum has acquired the thirteenth Susan McCord quilt. What an exciting acquisition and you can read about it here on their blog. Check out the signature leaves on the borders!

This is what I've been doing the last two weeks. I just had to take some time and play around with sourdough formulas to get the bread we like to eat. It's not too sour because I like to try and bring the flavour of the wheat to the forefront. You wouldn't believe how bogged down by science I got. I think I might play with fabric this week instead.

I lost an email from somebody wanting the block pattern for the Coxcomb and Currants block. My sincere apologies and if you think it's you, could you email me at

janet_treen@hotmail.com