Cold but no snow

Well over the last couple of days I have wanted a snow day. So did the boys. I had visions of doing heaps of sewing in front of a roaring fire.

I have managed to get a lot more completed. I have pinned out one more quilt for Hope Homes International. (This quilt top was made by a group of us before the earthquakes occured) I have made the binding for the other two quilts that I pinned out.

Eli pulled a groin muscle and was finding it hard to walk so he really enjoyed being home from school today (and Morris was appreciative of a warm knee).

Another charity quilt

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Happy dog

Two quilt tops done

I wanted to label this blog post "Old married couple fulfilling their passions at night!!" but imagine what that would do to a search engine!!!!!!

Tonight I have been sandwiching a quilt top and Aaron has been Xbox racing. Both in the same room, not really talking to each other, but enjoying what we are doing with the fire on. Contentment.

Double Hourglass block

The quilt is made of flannelette - being my usual recycled PJ's. I started it on Saturday night when a few of us had a wee get together, then finished the piecing last night. It is made from the left over blocks of this quilt.
A few extra rows around the edge make it big enough for a child's quilt. So this is destined for the Orphanage in Kenya that I support - Hope Homes International.

The other quilt was made by a group of us who came to my house about once a month to specifically make quilts for Hope Homes. But the earthquakes have put a stop to that and with all the stuff that goes on, it has never restarted.

I have just done a count up of the quilts I have. 5 single  or slightly bigger completely finished quilts, 1 completely finished cot quilt, 2 bassinet quilts donated. I also now have these two quilt tops done and sandwiched ready for quilting (I am already stockpiling my things to do on my big quilting weekend away in July). Plus there is another quilt top that I need to sandwich ready to go. I also have one half quilted top and some other blocks donated by Shirley that I need to stitch together. Jeanette was halfway through a gorgeous purple quilt when the first earthquake hit - hopefully that one will get finished too.

I am aiming to get quilts for every child in a house. There are currently 2 houses plus some kids being raised at the Missionaries house. So all up I need 30 quilts at the moment. So if any of you have any quilts you have made that you don't like. Or 1/2 finished that you don't want to do - I am keen to take them off your hands.

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Am I crazy??

Removed the rotten edging from this bed

Why is it that I always do massive garden reconstructions in the worst weather? It is almost that I have bad weather and realise that it would be sensible to stay indoors but that means I am just itching to get outside.

Today I was going to get on with all my quilt and UFO organisation. BUT instead I have had the sledgehammer out and pulled one garden bed to bits and am redoing the glasshouse.

A month ago Aaron told me that he would like to see the rather ramshackle garden beds looking a bit better. I have a wee pile of bricks so am going to make a brick bed. But sigh, he will not let me take over any more lawn so I have pulled apart a bed that was falling to bits.  I think he is a brave man telling me to brick. Goodness knows how that will turn out!!!!!

Cleared out the glasshouse

So today I pulled the bed to bits - I will put the chickens in it over the next couple of weeks. I used some of the edging that had not rotted and some edging from another bed Aaron has been demolishing and directed it to the glasshouse.

I am trying to make more of a walkway that will not have all the dirt slide onto it over the summer and it will also allow me to build up the beds.

All of this on a day that there are severe rain warnings out and I swear I thought it would snow!!!

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Cleared out these beds, planted spring onion and garlic

My rather solid new edging to my glasshouse path

Gorgeous scents wafting through my kitchen.

I have had several bits left over in my kitchen in the last couple of days, so tonight was time to get my A into G and deal with it.

The egg whites, that were left over from making Creme Anglais (Creme a la Vanille), I have made into little mini meringues. They look gorgeous and Aaron says they are yummy!!!

Then the Feijoas that have been hanging around - the little ones that were left on the tree and really aren't worth cutting to eat. (Last weekend I made some more Feijoachello but this time I used a little less sugar and added the rind and juice of two lemons to the pulp).

So I made Feijoa and Ginger Jam. I had tried this once before but did not put enough ginger in so you could not get that taste coming through. This time looks and tastes good.

Feijoa and Ginger Jam (recipe by me)
1kg Feijoas (I just used the flesh for 900g and chopped up 100g nice firm ones with the skin on)
100g crystalised ginger (chop up into a size to suit you).
                                                   Put those into a pot and add 
850g white sugar. Warm this mixture until all the sugar dissolves - DO NOT BOIL. Once the sugar is well dissolved then bring to a simmer and simmer until thick (it took mine only about 10 min)
Add 1 tsp citric acid and stir well.
Allow to simmer another couple of minutes while stirring.
Put into clean sterilised jars and lids.

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I am not a builder

Well lately I have been thinking that I am. I upcycled a chair and was thrilled. I have repurposed a drawer and turned it into storage on wheels, recycled some drawers to store lego.

But sigh. These skills did not go with me today. I build a wee shelter for the chicken food. I am sick of it filling with rain water etc. So two bits of iron that had been kept from a previous chicken coup and a couple of off cuts from the Dumpster at work. (Yes I actually dumpster dove - got into the thing and went fishing round - my boss thought I was bonkers at the time). I made a brace for where the iron joined. I hammered a bit of 2x2 hard up against the junction of the wall and the roof for the iron to jam into and stay in place.

It works!! It is very stable but not very tidy!! When hammering the wood into the ground I kept striking roots and instead of redoing all the bracing I just moved it and left the bits sticking out. So I am not a builder yet.

Mud - from top to toe

Yes this is what he looks like after an evening of Rugby training.

Learning to use the sewing machine

Learning to use the back button

Eli has been working hard on his first ever piece of patchwork.

concentration and excitement

Our School has a really good, optional, homework programme. If you participate then at the end of the year you get a badge. Eli, being the full on- into everything person that he is - decided he wanted to do it this year.

He had to choose 8 things to do through the year. One he chose was to learn something new, a new craft, sport etc. He chose to learn how to patchwork.

Over the summer when camping, I taught him how to do English Paper Piecing hexagons. So he would sit doing his patchwork in the evening in the caravan with me.

Now he wants to put those hexagon flowers onto a square to turn into a pad to put his MP3 player etc on in his room. So over the last few nights I have taught him how to use Vliesofix so that everything is stuck together and he is not using pins.

Last night was onto the sewing machine. Wow was I impressed. He has never used the machine before and his stitching was amazingly accurate, he did not run off but had the presser foot down so that the machine worked slowly but consistently. I have a Bernina with knee control, so he had to learn to use that to raise and lower the foot. He had to follow the line of his hexagons. This was not an easy, sew a straight line, for a first sewing project.

He LOVED it. He was really taken with the machine, made Aaron and Jakob come and watch him. Kept saying "This is an awesome gadget mum, you must love the sewing machine".

Look at that perfect stitching. Amazing for the first time ever

Keeping hands away from the needle

This morning his enthusiasm was obviously still up as now he wants to make more hexagons to put onto his bit of quilting.

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Boys zip front jersey - Merino

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Well this year I am on fire as a mum!! I have actually made both the boys a new merino jersey for the year before winter is out. Wow normally I am sewing in September and spring has sprung. But this flush of very cold weather got me enthused. As much as I love knitting the boys wont wear knitted jersey's anymore as they are "itchy". I do have to agree BUT since discovering that I sew Merino OK (about 3 years ago) I can now make them good wool tops for very little $. This was made from two women's Op Shop (Thrift Shop) jerseys - cost of $7.50. The zips cost me $7.80 - so really for $15 they have a really well sewn, will hold together through rough wear and lots of washes, good warm Merino top. I have learnt that I need to go for the heavier merino and therefore it needs to be good brands as the cheaper brands lightweight jersey's just stretch and go a bit wonky.

I have had the jersey for Eli cut out for ages but have been trying to finish older stashed things. In between quilting my hourglass quilt, I used this jersey as time out from that heavy work.

Eli was thrilled last night when I got him out of bed (10 minutes after lights out) to get him to try on a finished jersey. He wanted to wear it to school today - so it must have the seal of approval.

Up until now I have just used my own pattern in my head. Lots of measuring of the boys and umming and aahhing. One top just was not successful, the hood was too big, the sleeves too short. The boys have always loved hoods but this time Eli did not want one.

I had a light bulb moment at the end of making Jakob's hoodie and remembered all the kids pattern books that I bought in the 1990's. Top Kids. They were amazing patterns, great finishing - I made a lot of kids clothes for my friends kids, nieces and nephews. This really upped my sewing skills and was when I got a lot more proficient at finishing and sewing. Thanks Top Kids. I had stopped sewing as my things looked homemade rather than professional. But slowly my confidence has increased as it doesn't matter if the kids stuff doesn't quite fit - they will grow into it.

The pattern I used

Anyway I pulled out the old patterns, found one for my boys size and used it as the base for this top. Putting a zip in the front and facing it properly etc took a bit of time. I find that I used stitch 15 on my Bernina 440 as that is really good for the give and stretch needed for Merino. My first tops I used the overlocker (Serger) but it did not have enough give in the seams.

Yippee all done - warm boys for the winter!!!

Happy Eli

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The facing inside the zip

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Cold night

Lights off, candles on.

Tonight (and today) has been cold. Sleet, rain, wind and snow - it is all happening here.

Aaron has been doing a lot of work lately. Did three hours last night finishing at about 2am, then today was over an hour later home than usual. When he rang to say he would be home in about 40 minutes I set up some comfort time for him.

We have bath candles but I also lit all the dining room candles and put them in the bathroom too.

We love Living Light candles and they burn for mega hours!
The bubbles are from Lush.  I think I might sew!!!

Bubbles in , candles lit, all ready for a tired man.

A new quilt is on my bed

Large stipple over the main blocks

Well finally last night I finished the quilt. This was a long time in the making as it languished under my desk for almost a year. Does that happen to you? You almost finish and then for some reason get disillusioned or dissatisfied with it.

But now I am in love love with it. The pattern is so easy to do and when I did it I put a pile of tips on my blog - check out here how easy it is.

I link up to Finish it up Friday - over at Crazy Mum quilts. I love it because it pushes me to finish things. Well I had hoped to link this up as a finish last friday but in my late night haste some things went wrong!!!

The gorgeous scalloped free motion quilting

I quilted this quilt over two nights - till about midnight. The main quilt I just did a very large stipple pattern. But my "piece de resistance", for which I am so proud, is the gorgeous scallop which I free-motion quilted around the edge. I am so so happy with it and it turned out so much better than I hoped. I have been trying not to do the same stipple on everything. But more intense quilting takes so much more time.

Anyway the disaster was the binding. I had 0.5 metre of one of the matching materials to use as binding. BUT it was not enough. I cut it all so I had the right amount of length but that left the
binding too skinny (unless I went for a single layer - which I nearly did - but if you do not double over your binding then it wears really badly and frays quickly). So a big rethink and in the end the only fabric I had that was at all suitable was a $6 per metre sale piece from Quilters Quarters in Rangiora.

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Jamie Oliver 15 minute meals - Kedgeree

All prepped and ready to go

Now I love Kedgeree, I think it is fantastic for breakfast lunch or tea. I got hooked on it when living in England.

As I have been doing some recipes from Jamie Oliver 15 minute meals - using the TV program, this was on my list. Last night it was what we had for Saturday night dinner. The only difference to his recipe was that I had to (as usual) get my veges and herbs from the garden and I cooked my own rice (in the rice cooker beforehand).

Now I have to say that it really took less than 15 minutes. I managed to also make self saucing chocolate pudding for dessert. All in about 20 minutes.

BUT - and here it comes. His 15 minute meals are starting to taste the same. He uses lots of chilli, lots of coriander and this tasted very like the chicken and cous cous meal. The boys were ho hum about it and I actually have decided that my Cordon Bleu recipe is a whole lot better and not really any more time consuming.

So - I do love that I can make really quick healthy meals using Jamie Oliver BUT I think I will just adapt what I do and use the food processor more etc, rather than his direct recipes.

I get my fish from the Fresh fish supply in Rangiora