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

It's been awhile

I had a great three weeks in New Zealand visiting family and I arrived back in Australia last weekend but it seems I never left apart from trying to get back into some sort of routine.
Indulge me while I drag out some Nana brag photos.

Here are the three youngest grandkiddos, I don't think the twelve year old would appreciate a photo on my blog. The girls are wearing the dresses I made for them and they fit perfectly. Sophie on the left is six and wants to grow her hair like Rapunzel on Tangled. Ella is our polly pocket rocket, she wants her hair long but it just won't grow! She helped me make bread and is very good at shaping balls of dough so she's the little baker. Noah is two now and is just mad about anything to do with the movie cars.

Being the youngest of four kids means Noah watches everything and then copies so when I was taking a photo of the stick insect, he raced to find the toy camera and copied my close up style, lol.

The weather was fabulous, not too hot and not cool except for at night so we did get to go to the beach which is not far away and dig for pipis. I suppose the taste would be like clams and we even got a few cockles.

When you dig for pipis that are not far into the ocean and when the tide is going in, you have to  twist  your toes to feel them under the sand, it's quite a sight and good exercise.

We soaked them overnight in sea water for them to spit out the sand and my DD made some delicious pipi fritters for dinner the next evening. It took me right back to my childhood with every summer at the beach doing the same thing.

My older sister and I had a couple of nice lunches out together and both of us chose a beef and pear salad with blue cheese dressing for lunch on one of those days. It was so delicious that I had to try and make it at home. It turned out to be really delicious but I could have added a few cherry tomatoes and it would have been perfect. I served it with my sourdough which I've missed so much while away.
It has salad greens, red onion, avocado, red capiscum, avocado, pear and roasted pine nuts along with the beef.

The dressing was so delicious that I just have to share. After it's been in the fridge, it goes thicker and would make a rock star dip.

Blue cheese dressing

75g Costello blue cheese, chopped

125g (1/2 cup) creme fraiche

1 green shallot, end trimmed, thinly sliced

1 garlic clove, crushed

1 tbs white wine vinegar

1 tbs light olive oil

1 tbs good-quality whole-egg mayonnaise

2 tsp Dijon mustard

Salt & freshly ground black pepper

To make the blue cheese dressing, place the blue cheese, creme fraiche, green shallot, garlic, vinegar, oil, mayonnaise and mustard in the bowl of a food processor and process until mixture is almost smooth. You can also use a mixing wand.Taste and season with salt and pepper. Transfer to a bowl or jug. Serve at room temperature. Cover with plastic wrap and store in the fridge until required. It will keep for several days.

So what about the sewing? Well there wasn't too much of that but I did prep all my leaves for another panel on the Trailing Vines quilt before I left and I only have a few more leaves to sew on.
I don't think anybody is in a rush for the next panel to download so when I've drawn it up, I'll let you know here on the blog.

I did stuff another trapunto block for the Coxscomb quilt, each block takes me about four or five evenings to do so it's not a quick job.

You get the idea of what it will look like from the back view without the yellow pen I used. I was too lazy to iron it so it might look a bit rough. The only thing I didn't get to work on was the snowball quilt from my last post but better to have too much than not enough sewing to do.

I tried to keep up on my blog reading while I was away even if I didn't have time to leave comments.

I'm looking forward to catching up. I do have a couple of Coxcomb and Currant blocks to email to some of you so that requested it so if you don't recieve them within a day or two, could you flick me another request please.

Until next time, Janet

A new quilt

I did say I was going to do something colourful. I had a blast cutting out these snowballs and they all came from the stash so it's a real mix of lots of different fabrics.
This quilt was one that Lizzie over over at Broderie had been working on and then Jean over at Linen and Raspberry started one too and I was sold, I needed one of my own and Lizzie kindly allowed me to use her idea. The blue links will take you to their posts showing their quilts.

I bought a charcoal Kaffe spot for the squares and initially thought it would be too dark and swallow up the florals so I ordered the same funky Kaffe spot that Lizzie and Jean were using which is in the photo below.

Out of curiosity, I thought I'd put a selection of both spots on the wall just to note the different effects the two spots gave.

I decided on the darker charcoal spot after all,  not because one is better than the other. I just liked the contrast. Excuse the photo taken in my dark sewing room, the editing shows the fabrics a bit brighter than they are but the charcoal looks about right. I have edited out about four of the snowballs that were bothering me and replaced them.

I'm going to mindlessly hand piece this one while I'm away in New Zealand for several weeks. I'm leaving on Thursday and I get to see my family and four grandchildren so I'm a bit excited. I have some other things to work on as well so I have variety. I'll try to keep you updated if possible.