House Cleaning

I had a birthday...

.....one of many LOL.

 Besides eating lots of cake,

I was gifted this brilliant book:

I have already started thinking about the first one to make.

 ******

I have finished the applique on my house block

 And added borders...

Now to quilt it!

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A new quilt is on the machine,

so I'm just deciding on a pantograph to try...

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And 'Spring'

 (dare I say that word after our long winter!!)

always makes me feel like washing quilts.

The reds and greens

of the foundation pieced rose

in my rose hexagon quilt ran :(

I only noticed it after I put it on our bed,

but I washed it today

and most of the colour has come out -

Phew!!!!

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The greenhouse has been cleaned out

in anticipation of some seedling sowing...

 And the girls,

 And their lambs

are 'weeding' and tending the vegetable patch.

 We're all hoping for a good summer

and a bountiful harvest.

I'm also hoping for lots of sewing time!

Simple House Pleasures

It's not often that I buy a book

and then immediatley feel compelled

 to make something out of it :)

But I had the 3 'spare' Ocean Wave blocks...

(and I quickly made another one out of the scraps)

And this book as inspiration...

Well, I needed a small handwork project!

**

More to follow as it gets sewn down.

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I have finished quilting the Maple Leave quilt

on my Longarm!

I went for a sort of abstract swirly pattern...

I used pale pink thread and thankfully

the tension was spot on so it looks good on the back too.

(If I say so myself LOL)

Another case of the quilting makes the quilt! -

I was not that keen on the top,

but I think it looks lovely now that it's quilted.

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As soon as I finish one quilt,

I just want to get another on the machine...

so I whacked some borders on my

'Jelly Bean' quilt...

I wasn't sure I liked the borders,

but the quilt-inspector approves

so we're going with these borders :)

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In my previous post, my neighbour

photographed me holding a quilt up in the wind.

We chatted for a bit and he expressed 'grass-envy'...

So we have garden visitors at the moment!

2 sheep and their lambs

are 'mowing' the lawn for us at present!

The boys and I keep joking

about all the 'chocolate peanuts' they leave us LOL.

We're hoping Miss-Kalico doesn't try eating them! :)

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On the weekend we had sun!!!!!

We even had our first BBQ of the year!

Sadly, it's gone again! :(

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!!

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Then, I have put all the blocks together

for my Purple Oceans

Borders next!!

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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!

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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.

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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!

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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...

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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:

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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:

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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