Seeing Stars

The sun was shining yesterday, and I did manage to snap some photos of my wonky stars quilt - but, alas, they were very unflattering! It may have been something to do with placing a quilt with a white background against a whitewashed wall! These pictures were taken inside instead.

I am so pleased with this quilt. I had wanted to make a star quilt for absolutely ages but the prospect of triangles and points scared me a lot. The maverick/wonky star method disperses such fears in an instant - so easy and such fun!

The backing was aquired from my stash - it's a cherry print by Lecien from the Mrs March collection. I've had it for ages, loved it, but never known what to do with it. It seemed the perfect choice to complement the little cherries in the various 'teatime' prints. The pink gingham binding is by Makower and also features in one of the star blocks.

Love this quilt sooooo much - I am definitely going to make another one - but bigger!

Festive Baking

Well it's Christmas Eve - how DID that happen?! The munchkins are in bed so I've a little time for some festive blogging before completing my Mrs. Christmas duties! I had hoped to post some pics of my two completed quilts this week, but the weather has been too evil for photographs so it will have to wait til next week. Luckily we aren't seeing the recipients til next weekend so I've a few days yet!

My friend Stella and her two children came around on thursday afternoon for some baking fun. We go way back and she is a very dear friend. We initially met 15 years ago at university - we went our separate ways but our paths have crossed on multiple occasions and in the most extraordinary ways since. The most weird and wonderful crossing of paths occurred in August when Stella and her family moved from Surrey and bought a house on the next street to ours!

We had a lovely afternoon of gingerbread making and decorating:

Some of the results:

The big girl and I made a gingerbread house:

And I managed a spot of festive sewing - a stocking for the baby boy :-)

Happy Christmas!

Long time no blogging!

I can't believe I haven't managed to write anything here for about 6 weeks! My intentions have been good and my creative life has been quite productive but life - family life in particular - is busy! This coupled with terrible weather and a lack of internet hasn't been very helpful to the blogging experience! I've just got through a manic school week of Christmas concerts and Toddler group related Christmas activities while my husband flew to Northern Ireland for his grandmother's wake and funeral. It has been an emotionally draining week but there are only 3 more school days left of term and then my Big Girl will be home for the holidays and there will be lots of R and R - and baking and crafting one hopes!

I've been busy on the quilting front - finally completed my mother-in-law's birthday/Christmas quilt (pics to follow), and I'm just about finishing up a quilt for my niece. Here are some pics of the progress:

It's a wonky star quilt! I LOVED making this! There are only 6 block as it is a baby quilt and I used the tutorial here with great success. The fabric line I used was Tea Time by Makower, with a few bits of stash thrown in. For an easy life the white backround was a Bella Solid charm pack!

This quilt top has been sandwiched, basted and stippled already :-). The binding is cut and will hopefully be attached today - the sun is shining so if my fingers are quick I may get a snapshot later on!

Taste of Autumn

Auntie Bev's yummy homemade blackberry jam on apple and cinnamon scones. Mmmmmmm!

Hexagons

Long time, no blogging - I know! Life is busy, busy, busy and crafting time is little unfortunately. I've been occupied with lots of jobs in the home of late and I'm thrilled to say I have a new carpet and a new piano in our study! With wallpaper and curtain fabric already earmarked I hope to have a completed room in the next few weeks.

Despite no quality creative time, I have managed to grab some snippets of time to do the odd thing. You may remember a post many months ago on a fabulous hexagon quilt I had seen in 'Vignette' magazine. Well after mulling it over I decided to give it a go. This is to be a long term project, but I'm glad to have a portable sewing project on the go:

I'm hoping it will be a bit of a stashbuster project and I plan to sew one completed block per week (ish!)- it's going to take a looooooooong time!

Some other hexagons I spied on a recent trip to Northern Ireland:

The floor of the carpark at the Giant's Causeway!

Husband and Big Girl on the Giant's Causeway!

Extravagant Ripple

I've wanted to make a crochet ripple blanket for ages. The rate-limiting step was, for a while, my inability to read a crochet pattern - I tried, and failed, with many a ripple pattern. After my wonderful mother-in-law tweaked my crochet technique and explained that american and UK crochet terms were different and it was never going to work if I mixed the two, I realised that I could in fact read a pattern!

The ripple patern I used was adapted from 'Cute and Easy Crochet' by Nicky Trench of Laughing Hens fame. In the book the ripple features as a cushion cover. I can't remember the number of chains in my foundation chain specifically - I made it a little longer than I wanted the blanket to be and then repeated the pattern repeat sequence until I got towards the end of the foundation chain. If there weren't enough chains left to make another pattern sequence then I left them as a little tail at the end of the work - to be undone or woven in on completion of the project!

The 'extravagant' part of the blanket lies in the choice of yarn - Rowan Felted Tweed. I have always loved this yarn, but at around £5.50 a ball it is a tad pricey. It was an impromptu purchase when I found it on special offer at my not so local yarn shop. The ripple has been an ongoing project for a few months now and I'm about two thirds done. I love the warm, rich colours of the yarn - I had planned to share the finished article on my blog when it was completed, but with the weather and evenings becoming increasingly autumnal with blankets on the sofa, I couldn't resist.

Holiday

It's a couple of weeks now since we returned from our holiday in West Wales. We stayed in the tiny village of Cribyn, not far from Lampeter in a renovated tin shed known as Ty Sinc.

We had a very relaxing time mainly reading, DVD watching, crafting, playing board games and completing jigsaws. We did have some lovely jaunts though. Dr Husband and Big Girl had a boat trip out of New Quay to watch dolphins while Baby Boy slept and I relaxed watching little boats and read Miss Buncle's Book. I've been a big fan of Persephone Books for a few years now and had stocked up on some new books for holiday purposes.

We had an afternoon at the National Woollen Museum which I loved. It's an excellent, well thought out museum chronicling the history of the wool trade in Carmarthenshire with fabulous exhibits and lots to see. Being Welsh I've grown up cwtched under welsh woollen blankets and I loved seeing so many on display - including one very like a blanket I inherited from my grandparents!

(giant boiler at the woollen museum)

(preserved loom)

We enjoyed pottering in Aberaeron ...

...and had a very nice lunch at The Hive.

All in all a very lovely time of not doing very much!

Strawberry Milk

I had bit of a poorly Big Girl at the start of last week - never a good combination during school holidays! What better to ease a sore throat than some homemade strawberry milk.

All you need is some milk and some fresh strawberries - we used half a pint of milk and six yummy strawberries.

Whizz in the blender and, hey presto, a refreshing comforting drink!

It's a mad rush in our house this morning and we are headed off to West Wales for a few days. Everything is nearly packed - just some good books and knitting to organise!



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Matilda cake

My friend Luned is providing the catering at a children's camp at Llanmadoc this week. Part of the theme for the week is Children's books and so I was asked to make a Matildaesque chocolate cake for the final evening. for anyone who is lost, and I must confess I had to jog my memory, this is in reference to the chocolate cake that features in the book Matilda by Roald Dahl. In the novel Bruce Bogtrotter, one of the characters, eats an entire chocolate cake without throwing up. Apologies if I've got any details wrong - it is at least 20 years since I read the book!

A suitably large and chocolatey offering has been gracing my kitchen - a moist and gooey monster of a cake. I have baked two 10" chocolate cakes which I split to provide four layers sandwiched with vanilla buttercream. The whole cake has been covered with a thick layer of chocolate buttercream applied with a spatula and a straight edge and then finished with an icing comb for effect. Not being a great lover of chocolate this mammoth creation is a bit lost on me. Am sure it will be greatly received by a bunch of 10-13 year olds though. This has made me feel a little *ahem* old, as I have memories of similar summer camps and it doesn't feel that long ago!

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Well the little virus I mentioned in my last post turned out to be a bit more than that! With 168 cupcakes to bake and decorate, as well as a sugarpasted cutting cake to make, 48 hours before the wedding I developed a dental abscess! Maaaaan, was I rough! The two dentists at my surgery were on holiday so I was referred to a covering dentist who drained it and gave me antibiotics. All the baking was completed on painkillers and the icing and decorating was all done the day the abscess was drained - the anaesthetic injection wore off with 12 cupcakes left to ice! Thankfully I got it all done.

The pictures aren't the greatest I'm afraid - partly due to the fact they were taken on my iphone and partly due to the fact I felt truly hideous!

The cupcakes were red velvet cake with cream cheese icing. The wedding theme was 'The Movies' so the bride had sourced some Hollywood style cake toppers for the decoration.

A view of some of the 168!

A blurry image of the cutting cake - red velvet cake, layered with cream cheese icing and covered with white sugarpaste. The Star Trek lego figures are a reference to the bride and groom who got married as Princess Leia and Han Solo!

The summer holidays are going swimmingly and I've accomplished quite a bit in the house as well as with some crafting projects. I have finished the Amy Butler knitted cushion cover - I shall refrain from posting a picture until I've decided on a suitable fabric for the backing. I'm off to the quilting exhibition at the Birmingham NEC on saturday so hope to find something lovely there!

Summer Holidays

We are halfway through our first full week of the school holidays and so far we are all a bit under the weather! Why is it that we are the picture of health when we are living life in the fast lane, but come relaxation time the four of us are afflicted by a random virus - how typical.

Still it's giving me some time for knitting, reading and film watching so it can't all be bad. I've put my sewing machine away for the early weeks of the summer hols in a bid to finish some festering unfinished projects. Some of these were discovered in the spare room whilst decluttering in preparation for decorating. These are largely knitted articles and some have, I am ashamed to say, have been on the needles for *ahem* a year - maybe even a leeettle bit longer. Oh dear!

My current finishing off project is a cable cushion cover from Amy Butler's Midwest Modern Knits. I wonder why it got left along the wayside for so long as I love the pattern. The Aran wool makes it a relatively quick knit. I plan to only knit one side of the cover at this point, using fabric, possibly an Amy Butler print for the other.

At the end of the week begins the cake marathon - my friend is getting married and I have 168 red velvet cupcakes and a 6" cutting cake to make! Madness! This is why I don't do full time cake decorating - the wedding season would be too manic!



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Birthday Cushion

There aren't enough hours in the day at the moment. So much inspiration but oh so little time! There are 2 days left before school breaks up and I have my Big Girl home - I'm looking forward to lazy mornings and not having to be out-the-door by 8.30 am.

I made my friend Mari a birthday cushion for her little girl who turned one last week. I'd bought a delicious fat quarter pack about a month ago - quite literally delicious as the fabric, by Makower, is covered in cupcakes and other sweet delights.

I had some 30X30 cm cushion pads so I calculated that nine 4 and a half squares arranged in three rows of 3 squares would give the correct dimensions. The fat quarter pack contained 4 prints so two 4 and a half squares were cut from each - the remaining square would be white fabric so I could embroider Gwennan's name onto it.

The cut squares ready to go:

And sewn together:

I used a fabric marker to write Gwennan's name on the white square after I'd sewn the squares together to make sure I centered it properly.

This was then embroidered with running stitch in a hot pink coloured silk:

The cushion was backed simply using the envelope method. I am very pleased with the result and it was well received by Gwennan herself! I was in a bit of a rush to complete it and would have liked to have embroidered some flowers around the name on the centre square but time did not allow! However, I've cut out another set of squares to make a similar cushion for a little 3 year old called Efa - her much shorter name lends itself to lots of embellishing!!



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Bread

I've been making my own bread for about 2 years now, mainly with the aid of a breadmaker. However, for the last month I've ditched the machine and I've been experimenting with handbaking. Suffice to say, I won't be buying a loaf of bread unless I have to and the machine is having a rest in the utility room. Handbaking is one of life's simple pleasures - I cannot believe how tasty the end product is and how very therapeutic all the kneading is!

I'm making one to two loaves per week, using an adapted recipe that I found on the back of a bread flour packet:

Mix 500g Bread flour (sometimes I use white, sometimes half white half wholemeal) in a bowl with 1 tsp sugar, 1 tsp salt and 1 tsp yeast - I use Dove's Farm quick yeast:

Rub in 25g butter:

Then add 300ml tepid water to form the dough:

I knead the dough on a floured surface, punching and pulling for about 10 minutes - I've found doing it while I listen to the Archers a big help while passing the time. The dough is placed back in the bowl, covered with cling film and left in a warm place to rise. After this 'first rise' the dough is knocked back and then shaped into a round batch type loaf. I then leave it to rise a second time for about half and hour. Following this the dough is placed in a preheated hot oven and baked for about 35 minutes.

The result:

Best served (at the moment anyway!) with slated butter from Swansea market and lashings and lashings of blackcurrant jam - can you believe I tasted this nectar for the first time THIS WEEK!!!

I'm hoping to branch out and experiment - at the moment I have a starter culture on the go, which hopefully will allow me to make some sourdough at somepoint next week. Exciting times!

Quilt Progression

An update on the progress of the 'Freebird' quilt today. After I managed to complete sewing my charm squares into 9-patch blocks over the weekend, on monday evening I got on with the next step. Many apologies for the dodgy picture quality - there was what can only be described as a monsoon going on outside! As well as this I was watching Andy Murray's first round match at Wimbledon so was slightly distracted while taking the photos!

I cut the 9-patch block at the halfway mark vertically and then did the same horizontally:

Each 9-patch block yields 4 smaller blocks - I had 12 9-patch blocks in total so now have 48 smaller blocks. Tonight I may get on with the fun bit - arranging and organizing the little blocks into a combination I like! This is largely dependent on whether the wallpaper stripping in one of our reception rooms keeps calling me! I must learn to complete one thing before going on to another one of these days!

Productive Weekend and a Happy Monday!

Good Morning! And what a beautiful morning it is! The sun is streaming through the windows and I am going to have a lovely organisational and pottery type of day, hopefully with some sneaky quilting thrown in a bit later! I've had a productive weekend involving much crafting (well as much as two children and a Dr hubby on nights can allow!), a lunch out, lots of cricket (TMS mostly on the radio) and some bread baking!

Since baby boy arrived in February I've had to snatch crafting time here and there, which is as it should be :-), but my blogging has been rather sporadic as a consequence. Over the weekend I was inspired by a post on the rossie blog highlighting 'the process pledge'. In a nutshell this is an appeal to all the bloggers out there to post about the process of their projects - creative and practical, the highs and lows, finished and unfinished objects! In the past I've been very guilty of posting a picture of a finished project but with little information about how it got there. The process pledge is quite liberating for me as I have many, many projects on the go at once that I could be sharing as progress is made rather than waiting for the completed article! So here goes - a new blogging plan of attack!

Do you remember the lovely Deb Strain fabric in the previous post? It was purchased to complete a project started last summer (ooops) based on the 'snippets' quilt I made previously. It had been left so long I couldn't remember what went where due to poor or non existent labelling! There was nothing to be done but start from scratch but this time using a differet pattern.

Firstly I sewed 3 charm squares together - the charms are all from the Moda 'Freebird' range by MoMo - love MoMo fabrics! After reading Elizabeth Hartmann (of Oh Fransson fame)'s book 'The Practical Guide to Patchwork', I decided to change the habit of a quilting lifetime (not long!) and press my seams OPEN! I have to say I found piecing for the next step of the quilt much easier with the seams open - I joined three strips of 3 charms to form a 9 patch square:

(Sorry about the picture quality - it was dusk and my hand was shaking!)

My hope is today to cut the 9 patch blocks up to start making a disappearing 9-patch quilt top over the next couple of days!

Half Term

It's half-term week here and I am loving the lazy mornings and slightly unstructured days - I am a control freak so my days can never be completely free of routine! After the excitement of yesterday's sporting events (Swansea City being promoted and England's fabulous win against Sri Lanka in the cricket) today has a slower, more relaxing pace. I had a lovely time this morning trying out a new coffee shop in Mumbles:

It's an off-shoot of The Junction cafe in Blackpill and I absolutely loved it. The coffee and toast was sublime and the surroundings - well just inspiring!!! I loved the beach hut/whitewashed style and the little gifts on sale gave me lots of ideas for crafting!

On the crafting front I got a parcel in the post the other day containing some fabulous fabric:

It's from the 'Cherish Nature' range by Deb Strain for Moda and I think it is just beautiful. I love the colour and the gorgeous little bees. It has been bought in a bid to finish a quilt top I started last summer. I've been looking for a while for a complimentary fabric for the quilt background and finally came across this. I have made a start with cutting out 5" squares so I hope to progress further over half-term week! To completion? We shall see!

For Rosie!

My friend Rosie requested a picture of the cut rainbow cake - I am happy to oblige!

Rainbow Cake

I haven't updated my blog for a few weeks. It has not been due to the lack of creative process - just lack of time! I am lucky these days if my body makes contact with some form of chair - life is busy! Fortunately, I love busy - I hate being at a loose end!

Last week my big girl turned six (sob!) - where DID the time go?! I can't quite believe it! We celebrated on her actual birthday with a meal out at Castellamare and then a small tea party with three friends last Saturday. It was the most civilised party I have ever hosted - the girls needed very little entertaining and played happily together (with a little bit of help from husband who instigated a game of 'find the daddy').

I have been wanting to make a rainbow cake for ages but have either lacked the time or occasion to do so. A certain big girl's birthday was the perfect opportunity. Firstly, I baked 6 thin yet colourful sponges

Admittedly, a real rainbow has seven colours but I thought it might be difficult to differentiate between indigo and violet so I settled with six colours instead. I basically made a double batch of victoria sponge mix, separating the mixture into six bowls and colouring accordingly.

Secondly, I sandwiched the layers with vanilla buttercream before covering the whole cake.

Thirdly, the cake was covered with sugarpaste and decorated with a 'Hello Kitty' figure I made from sugarpaste, and lots and lots of flowers.

It was very much admired and consumed by four hungry little girls!