Where we are at, Quilt-Wise, in April

A windy and cloudy day,

but still dry enough to take some photos...

 All the berries are on my Carolina Lily!

 And the 'extra'/mistake berries have been taken off

(On reflection, I thought that actually

you can have too many berries!)

So this quilt is almost done -

I just need some white fabric

to add more borders as I want to scallop the edges

like I did for my hexagon quilt.

Scalloping edges turned out to be very rewarding!!

*****

Then, I have put all the blocks together

for my Purple Oceans

Borders next!!

*****

As I was taking photos my neighbour walked past...

I think he thinks I am nuttier than a fruitcake anyway,

but there I was in the wind trying to get my quilts to stay down!

 He kindly took this photo of me

looking very windswept :)

And I got to take a few snaps

of his gorgeous sheepdog!

*****

A Finish!

My first Longarm Finish too!

 Quilted with stars and loops

and bound with very cute carrot fabric

 It's ready to go to it's new home!

 For the backing I used some fish fabric

I had in my stash...

Yahoo! One of my UFO's longarmed

only a few more (!!) to go!

Nigella's Pear Cake

I have made this cake before:

and looking in the fruit bowl at the unloved pears,

it's time to make it again!

This is a Nigella recipe and can be found here:

http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/pear-cake-242

As I don't want to risk a broken link

and then not be able to make this super recipe again,

I have copied and pasted it below

and hope that Nigella doesn't mind ;)

I have several Nigella recipe books,

 her cakes are not only scrumdidlliumptious,

but also easy to make Gluten-Free.

Just swap regular Flour for Gluten-Free Flour

and add a teaspoon of Xantham Gum.

*****

 

PEAR CAKE

Ingredients 

250 grams unsalted butter

300 ml sugar

4 eggs

300 grams Flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

4 tablespoons milk (or cream)

6 pears (between 2 and 6, depending on size and personal taste

- I like this cake with quite a lot of pears)

demerara sugar (for sprinkling on top)

 

Method

1.In an electric mixer, mix butter and sugar until fluffy.

Add the eggs, one at the time, and stir well.

 

2.Sift the flour and baking powder together, mix some of it onto the batter,

then add some of the milk, then some of the batter....etc. until all is blended.

But mix as little as possible.

 

3.Smear half of the batter in a buttered spring form ("medium" sized, 23 cm or so).

 

4.Peel and take out the core of the pears, cut in pieces, and spread out on the bottom.

Cover with the rest of the batter, and add a new layer of pear pieces if you like.

Just push them a little down into the batter.

Sprinkle with Demerara sugar.

 

5.Bake in oven, 180 C (350 F) for 30-45 minutes,

depending on the amount of pears used. (Many pears - more moist - more time.)

But check after 30 minutes to be sure. Ready when a cake tester comes out clean.

This can also be made as a loaf cake, just adjust the cooking time and temperature.

Enjoy! Nom, nom, nom!!!

Wordless Wednesday

Spring has NOT Sprung here yet!

I laid out all my blocks for my Purple Oceans quilt...

And have pinned them together to sew.

Borders are cut and I'll do them

as soon as I've got these together.

How I continually fail at quilt maths is beyond me :)

3 extra blocks!!!

ALL in the purple/brown colourway!

*****

Spring sadly has not arrived...

The sheep still shiver and snow lies on the ground

where it just will not melt away

nevertheless, it was Easter
and eggs were to be found!!!

The boys still had their Easter baskets

I made them years ago,

and of course Miss-Kalico had to get one made too!

She got lots of help

and lots of loot :)

Happy Easter to All!

Burying Thread Tails

I found this super video on YouTube

for burying your thread tales:

What a great tip!!

Yellow Yellow

If you know me...

you know that I am not a fan of yellow,

but I saw this door in Lancaster

and I love doors, so...

I had to love this :)

We'd gone to Lancaster for blood tests

for my youngest son

who is just not himself...
He was also NOT happy having his finger pricked

and squeezed and squeezed...

He hates plasters (even fun ones!),

but he loves sweets :(
They cheered him up.

It was a yellow day...

*****

Today we went to Kendal to get the boys some shoes

They had free facepainting at the shopping centre.

We came home with a snake:

And a leopard:

*****

My first practise quilt is ready to come off the longarm :)

I really enjoyed it.

I quilted this kids quilt with 'Stars and Loops'.

Then I quickly cut some binding

and not caring that it was past midnight,

I whipped some borders on the next top I plan to quilt.

It's a top with Maple Leaf blocks

that I swapped ages ago.
I did think to do a leaf panto, but I'm going with roses

in pale pink thread.

I just need to piece the back

and get it ironed and ready.

Looking at this picture I'm wondering if I should do leaves....

mmm, I may have to think about this....

And so to Bed...

I was recently given a bed head to recover.

This is the 'Before'

i.e. this was the original cover:

 This was the brief:

A curtain from the room the bed head will live in....

 This was the idea stage:

 The 'After':

The side detail:

I used the curtain from the 'brief' for the back and sides

The back:

 The 'After' including cushions

made out of the original cover:

*****

On another note:

please accept my apologies if you got a spam email

from me. Well it wasn't from me, it was from

goodness knows who, or more importantly,: why?

Honestly these people should quilt,

it would keep them out of trouble LOL

Brrr! Cold Weather Crafting

I have loaded my first practise quilt on to the machine,

And I'm using a pantograph called stars and loops...

It's fun to do

and I'll hopefully start making a dent in my UFOs!

*****

But it's been bitterly cold out.

I missed getting photos of the snow drifts

as I was tucked up inside,

but the snow went right up the walls I was told...

While inside, ... I laid out my Scrappy Trip blocks

to see where I was with them...

Just a few more to make a picnic blanket for a friend.

I cut a pattern for and made an Easter Bunny...

And did some Easter crafting with the boys...

This is my youngest son's egg.

He likes things just so.

No help from me besides supervising the glue tube

produced a really pretty egg...

My older son is much more random

and definitely not as fussy

as to decorative element postitioning :)

This is my elder son's Easter 'Bonnet'

I had some lovely green bobble trim

and he just snipped all the bobbles off

to glue them randomly on his hat :)

My younger son of course was into symmetry...

Each decoration placed with care.

Two children so so different.

I Have Been Sewing, I Promise...

...I haven't JUST been looking after sick children!!!!

I have made all 66 Ocean Wave blocks that I needed...

Actually, I needed 64!

Not sure what happened there? :o)

I have made some more Scrappy Trip blocks

as Leaders & Enders....

Oh and I have done some 'committment sewing' too.

Can't show that until the recipient sees it,

but remind me never to say yes

 to ANYTHING that needs to be 3D.

My brain just does not work in 3D or HD or... LOL.

PS, Do you like my 'Design Hand'?

It's because my 'Design Floor' has been taken up by

my lovely Longarm machine!!!

Time for a 'Design Wall' me thinks!

Wordless Wednesday - Lost Treasures?

Somebody Pinch Me!

I still can't believe she's actually here

and happily living in my studio.

(By 'living' I mean taking up pretty much most of my studio LOL)

I never thought that I would ever be able to say this, but it's true:

 I am now the very proud owner

of my own Longarm quilting machine.

and I am thrilled!

Now if I can just figure out how to get the best out of her

(and me) we'll be sorted!

Just 3 More Leaves

Just...

 3 more leaves to stitch down

and then I need to decide on berries...

If I'd followed the pattern...

I'd know how many berries I need,

BUT, I appliqued far too many leaves

so I will have to see if the berries

suffer the same fate :)

 The papers are still in:

 I English Paper-Pieced the bulk of the quilt,

 And I like to leave the papers in

until I'm almost ready to quilt.

But that's just the way I do it...