Black and White all over

This is a little quilt top I have made for a friend's baby. I had no plan so it's not very structured, but I hope it works. Now I just need to baste and quilt it...



We woke up to snow this morning...



It's already melting thankfully.



Gluten-free sponge cake with cherry jam filling - perfect for a snowy day!

Playing with Hearts

I wanted to do something with my pile of applique hearts that I had made while convalescing from my last leg operation, so a while back I tested one heart block setting it on point in a square in a square block. I used some of the fabrics I had left over from my rose hexagon quilt for squaring the heart block up and thought it looked quite fun so I have sewn a few more.

Here are the blocks that I have made so far, most of them 'squared' up today - I can't help it, 'I sew when I'm upset'* and I am upset that my hospital visit for this morning got cancelled just as I was about to set off :-(

* This is a reference to Kung Fu Panda where the 'big fat panda' says: "What? I eat when I'm upset" :-D

Anyway, this is just a temporary layout and I will probably make a few more blocks, plus those setting triangles are for my Cathedral stars course so they are just to give myself an idea... although I do like those murky greys and browns of the setting fabrics as they bring out the brights very nicely, they are 'Evening Mist' by Moda and were from a swap with the Happy Wren - thanks Nichole, they are gorgeous!

Just a few more sleeps...

Homework

I don't want to say too much because I am so excited and so nervous about a quilt course that I will be attending in Germany, but in preparation I needed to cut my strips at home to be ready in class. The quilt needs 305 Four-patches, but I am making it smaller so I don't have quite so many as 305 , but I do have those I need (plus a few extra in case :-D)

As I am so looking forward to the course and meeting the course-giver I thought I'd just make my four-patches ahead of time in case I am paralysed by all the quiltiness which will surround me in a room full of quilters, fabric and sewing paraphenalia!!!

Happy Valentines

I'm a happy Valentine...

Love my flowers (thank you DH!)

Also love the new blinds in the lounge and kitchen! (thank you again DH!)

Onion Marmalade

I was going to make this Wordless Wednesday, or if I'd posted it yesterday it could have been Tasty Tuesday, the day before that could have been Marmalade Monday (think the vinegar fumes have gotten to me LOL), but anyway I have been making more of this great recipe and it needs words, in fact it needs the recipe!:

RED ONION MARMALADE WITH BALSAMIC VINEGAR

Ingredients
Makes about 600g

2 large red onions (about 550g) thinly sliced
120g brown sugar
125 ml red wine vinegar
50ml (about 3 tbsp) balsamic vinegar
salt and freshly ground pepper

Method
In a large, non reactive saucepan, combine the red onions and 2 tablespoons of the brown sugar and cook over moderate heat for about 25 mins or until the onions begin to caramalise.
Stir in the vinegar and the rest of the sugar, increase the heat and stir often, until most of the liquid has evaporated, about 15 minutes.

Season to taste with salt and pepper and pot in sterilised jars.
Keeps for 3 months.

You can get the original recipe here.
Courtesy of pickleandpreserve.co.uk

Scrappy Hearts

Saw these on Lynda's blog and I just had to try them...



After a month in South Africa where I didn't sew a SINGLE!! stitch, I needed to just sew . Something. Anything. I had these scraps lying on my worktable so I thought I'd just sew them together randomly and see what happens. After a few mini sew sessions here and there I had enough to make two of these hearts following the directions on Lynda' blog. You need 4 blocks for each heart...



They are such fun to make and the good news is that I seem to be in Patchwork mode at the moment which will come in very handy soon! :-)

Where did January go?

Or where did we go in January... ?

Copious trips to the Aquarium:

Multiple trips to the Mineral World's 'Scratch patch':


A swim with the penguins at Boulders Beach:
Numerous visits to the V&A Waterfront:


And lots and lots of nice food:

Some just looked interesting (but not eaten...):

Cape Town! Well worth a visit!!

Goodbye the old...

Here's a quick roundup of December:

I made it to my last screenprinting night class for the term and managed to print a few tea-towels for Christmas...

I really enjoyed the class and hope to sign up again.

There were some very talented people on the course and it was so enjoyable to get out of the house for a few hours once a week to be creative with like minded spirits.

At the end of the session we had to wash our screens and wash away our designs *sob* (until next time I hope!)


Christmas entailed, home-picked holly from our neighbour,...

a P.Y.O. (pick your own) tree. And I mean literally pick your own. The lady selling them told me where the saw was and off the boys and I trotted (well I hobbled LOL), found a tree we liked and I had to saw it off!


It got it's fair share of decorations (I think next year we will need a bigger tree!)

I also did the odd Christmas market...

The boys both had Nativity plays. One was a sheep...

The other a king...

We had a pre-Christmas trip to friends near Cambridge. Dh gave us a little tour of the land of arches and bicycles...

And the bashing accomplished a new window/door on the homefront...

Happy New Year!

Bring it on, I'm almost ready!!!!

Wordless Wednesday

His name is Major.
He warmed our bed for us when he stayed at friends.

Snow snow go away...

...come back when I don't have night class 45 minutes drive away!!

I missed last week's class due to the snow and if things don't improve (i.e. the weather and my snow driving skills!) I'll be missing tomorrow night's class as well which is very sad to say the least. I had hoped to prepare a new screen last week, but no such luck, however I can show my design which uses 2 screens and offset register as I wanted each printed piece to be individual. I feel this particular design sums up my goals from the course. I didn't have these goals when I started the course, I just wanted to screenprint again, but the course allowed me to focus on 2 goals: one was to find focus (!) and the other was to use my drawing and mark-making to enhance the design i.e. that I would not just do an outline, but utilise the very essence of screenprinting: that every line or shape drawn or made and exposed on your screen becomes a printed line or shape on your fabric.

For the first screen I cut flower shapes out of black paper for a background and the second screen is a drawing I did using my love of bees as a starting point...

(I did the drawing first and then took that as inspiration for the background)

Here, I printed the second screen in 2 different colours offset as part of my test prints:


And here, I printed my screen on to pre-patterned fabric:


I am thinking of stretching some of these over frames to make artworks.



It's all very well printing fabrics, but I also want to be make them into useful items so these are some coin purses that I have made from my earlier test fabrics:


I look forward to continuing my screenprinting journey and perhaps finding focus :-)

Brrrrrrrrrrrrr!

I almost don't know what to say! It's been so cold (minus 13 degrees centigrade again this morning!)

So I'll just show some photos that I have taken over the last few days to show how frosty and snowy it's been...



This fence was amazingly frosted over:

The poor sheep, although DS2 assures me they are warm with their wooly coats (poor things!):

Our drive:


The novelty of sledging has definitely worn off for DS2!

Doll Voodooo!

I'm going to do a proper post about the snow, the very low temperatures (MINUS 13 degrees C this morning!!) and my very enjoyable screenprinting night-class, but in the meantime...

For your amusement...

My first attempt at a doll... (without a pattern!!!!)

Made while my mother was still staying with us...



I left it on the sofa and my Mother said that DS1 saw it and was most upset that it didn't have a face. So he made it a face out of pins!



Of course I couldn't finish it after that because every time I look at it, I find the memory so sweet :-) Well that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!!!