The Memory-Keeper's Daughter

I know this is the name of a book,

I think I have even read it....

but when I cleared out my Mother's flat

and saw that she had kept EVERYTHING.

(Even my old love letters *blush*),

I knew that for me,

my Mother had been the Memory-Keeper

and I the Memory-Keeper's daughter...

This was Mom's Hexagon quilt.

Made many many years ago.... 

It was patiently handquilted

And the edges were finished traditionally...

Backed with a white sheet.

The little hand stitches are beautiful and even.

I used to love having it on my bed 

and looking at all the different fabrics.

I would pick out my favourites

and especially loved all the rose ones.

Hence the inspiration for my Rose Hexagon quilt...

*****

One of the things of Mom's I was desperate to have

was her recipe book....

Many well loved recipes are contained within...

And some surprises!:

"BANANA WITH HAM -

Wrap 1 banana per person in a slice of ham.

Cover with cheese sauce and bake in oven."

I can safely say this was not one of Mom's signature dishes!!!

Although we are talking 1967 here!:

This hot milk sponge chocolate recipe I made

almost to death -

It's fantastic !:

And my Mom always made an amazing Chicken Liver Pate:

But sadly her famous Broccoli recipe was not inside.

Luckily she had given it to me years ago and I found it again:

(Cecile's) Broccoli Salad

Ingredients:

1-2    heads of Broccoli

1      small Onion

250g   Sunflower Seeds

250g   Seedless Raisins

250g   Bacon

For the Marinade:

75ml   Lemon Juice

15ml   Sugar

5ml    Mustard

250ml Olive Oil

Celery Salt (optional)

Instructions:

Cut the florets off the broccoli leaving very little of the stalks. Then break the florets into smaller pieces. Finely chop the onions. Chop the bacon into small pieces and cook the bacon until very crisp. Lightly fry the sunflower seeds and raisins in the leftover bacon oil.

Mix the lemon juice, sugar, mustard and olive oil together (include the celery salt if needed). Place the salad ingredients in a sealable container and pour over the marinade. Cover and leave to chill in the fridge for at least 3 hours, tossing the salad in the container every now and then to ensure that the entire broccoli is marinated in the oil.

Serve and enjoy…. 

Hexagons - Finishing Off by Adding Borders - a Tutorial

So you've done some English  Paper Piecing over papers 

and now you want to quilt it...

 To get square edges to add a border, 

I tend to just fold over the hexagons

 and trim them to a quarter inch to square up the top...

Often it's just two sides that need this folding over and trimming.

Then I take my border strips of fabric and fold over a quarter inch seam on one side.

(You can iron the quarter inch seam if you prefer.)

Sometimes I have done these border strips over paper 

and then just sewn them on paper pieced bit to paper pieced bit,

but just folding over is much quicker.

I then pin the border on to the edge of the quilt top...

And just stitch it together.

Hopefully, on the left in the picture below, 

you can see the borders being sewn together

(both obviously have quarter inch seams.)

This is the attached border piece from the back:

And from the front:

 Now with borders on, you will be able to quilt it!

I used this technique to add the borders on my Rose-Hex quilt.

An Idea For Leftover Hexagons

After completing my Rose Hexagon quilt

I had quite a few leftover hexagons...

I thought to maybe do 'Grandmother's Flower Garden'...

 ...but that's not really my style

and I didn't have enough of the same pieces for the centres...

So I wondered how to sew my hexagons together

without them being just sewn together.

By dividing the hexagon shape into triangles,

using the triangles as my paper templates 

 And cutting white fabric triangles

to sew between the leftover hexagons

I found a new use for the 'leftovers'...

I sewed lots of pieces together

leaving lots of gaps to be sewn closed at a later stage

so that I could take it in my handbag

to sew at the hospital

(that way I didn't risk dropping pins all over the place!)

Bean Salad

I couldn't think what to title this post,

but I thought because it's a bit of a mix

of things, it's a bit of a bean salad ;o)

 

First up:

My first scrappy Corn and Bean block

a-la Scraps & Threadtales!

These blocks are such fun to make

and I plan to make them super-scrappy

thanks to Sio for getting me itchy to make them

and another friend who gave me the most awesome scraps!

(Yes, it's true - other people's scraps

are always better than your own!!)

 

*****

Another 2 rose-star half blocks:

And loads more cut out!!

 

*****

I was rather penniless

at the Great North Quilt Show,

but these came home with me:

As did these gorgeous Owl fabrics.

I'm sure I'll make something out of them

for Baby-Kalico

 as I rather like owls at the moment:

And a ruler - made out of perspex,

but bought with plastic ;o)

The pencil case was bought at a local supermarket

(couldn't resist!)

 

*****

This week was 'Back to school!'

My baby boy started Year 1:

I think they were both almost as happy

to go back to school

as Mummy was to send them! :)

 

Walking up to the bus on the first morning:

Baby-Kalico misses them terribly

when they are at school...

But she's a joy to have around.

(Rose-) Stars in My Eyes

I'm still sewing away at these
rose-star hexagon blocks...

And I'm trying to square up the sides

so I needed more halves...

I confess, with some blocks,

I just wing any colours together!

But they're still fun to do!

So Behind...

My blog is stuck in traffic!

My mind is full of thoughts...

mainly concerned thoughts for a sick friend,

thoughts for a friend with a troubled marriage,

happy thoughts about my children...

So I am behind on many things.

*****

The summer comes and goes here

so we try and make the most of

any sun we can get...

Last week the children had a great day out

at a water park

and the handy thing about crutches

is that Mummy gets a seat

to sit and watch the children play! :)

*****

We had a lovely bloggy/quilty visitor

and her family to stay

which was a lot of fun.

The men got on like a house on fire,

the teenage visitors were fabulous with baby

and the boys played well together.

Here Kate and I are sewing

(Kate is doing Cross-stitch and I am EPP-ing)
at one of our picnics where the sun eluded us...

Both of us, were wrapped up under quilts,

while the men and boys climbed the Fells.

I managed to finish another rose-star...

And I have African blocks to show

(in another post!)

from Kate's visit.

*****

5 houseguests means a lot of shoes :)

(I have a shoe ban upstairs on the cream carpets

so the bottom of the stairs was a good place

to pile them up LOL)

Not that many considering there

were 9 shoe wearers in the house ;o)

*****

Now that things are back to normal here

we can spend time being silly again...

When I grow up, I want to be a quilt...

... said the rose star block

as she was pinned to her friends :)

Quilt Inspection

I'm still sewing these rose star hexagons....

I'd like to be sewing more in the studio

and on a sewing machine, but time is limited...

Miss Kalico has given the latest block her approval :)

*****

Lately, I have managed to do quite a lot of basting

and sewing while being the broken-legged passenger...

We are about 45 minutes from

anywhere 'big' so I can get quite a lot done,

as long as I don't look down for too long...

Wordless Wednesday - More Rose Stars