Goodness gracious I started another project

This was meant to be a zipped bag. But no - I kept going. Now everytime I find a scrap of material, on the floor or cut off my current project, I start making another random block. When it is big enough I add it on. It is about 1m wide by 60cm high. This will take ages to potter on and do. But it is something where I can sit at the sewing machine for half an hour and feel that I have done something.

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Strawberries

Yum, picked fresh from the garden, tasting sumptuous, enough for dessert for us all. Large!! Loving this time of year

Rediscovering Crotchet

When I was just a little girl my mother taught me and my sisters to crotchet. We learnt the tradition peggy squares and thought that was it. 

Now I know there is so much more but I still do not do it. As my boys no longer want knitted jerseys etc I was riffling through all my left over wool and thought - Ah ha. Why not start yet another project!!! (I am soo good at the starting bit) 

But I want to be modern. So after a bit of looking at pin boards etc I decided to do a cross between a old fashioned peggy square (the two middle rows) and a more modern colour block (all the other rows). It is so much easier to crotchet when watching t.v than following some of my knitting patterns or trying to hand stitch. So am loving not being idle while watching Tele these days. Not too sure how long it will last. But fun while it does.

Linking to these places.

Amazing, easy Cheesy Garlicky bread

Going around Facebook at the moment is a post on cheesy garlic bread. How simple I thought. But then I needed to NZ -a-fy the recipe. As the cheese they recommended is expensive and the whole thing was not quite to my taste.

Cheesy garlicky bread.
1 big vienna style loaf - cut it into thick 2inch (5cm) slices but on an angle not straight. Turn the loaf and cut it into 2inch thick slices the opposite way - DO NOT cut through the bottom crust.
Grate 1 cup of standard cheddar cheese and open the cuts and sprinkle the cheese in.
melt 1/2 cup butter and grate in 4-5 garlic cloves then drizzle this all over the bread, some into the gaps and some on top.

Put into the oven in a dish covered in tin foil on 180oC for 15 mins. Take the foil off the top and bake another 10-15 mins.

Eat while hot!!! - yummy

I made it on Saturday night and it was wolfed down before dinner.

What to do to finish it off?

When I was on my quilting retreat in August I made the centre star. When I came home I squared the corners up and then it sat in a funk. How to finish it, what to do? I am trying to finish things at the moment, but what with work and being hit by a vicious cold I have done nothing for the last few weeks. 

I decided just to get on with it, not be precious about it and so I put the grey border on. I have three more little strip borders (some of that black with white dot) to put on and then I am going to try quilting it as a spiral. I see lots of people out in blog world doing that. So whether I like it or not at the end I am not sure but at least I will have a plan!!

Linking to these places

The quilts have made it to Africa

Yay - finally all the quilts that I parceled up have gotten to the orphanage just outside El Dorat in Kenya. The older girls have started choosing their quilts and they have named them "forever quilts" as this is the first thing they have to keep forever, even when they leave to study or get married.

Getting them to Kenya was expensive and rather stressful as the Kenyan border kept them in holding for two weeks and we were very concerned about the spiraling cost. 

When shipping them I almost gave up as but thanks to everyone who prayed and helped. Now the look on these faces makes my heart sing. 

New pouch pattern - tested and featured

Yes, I can finally tell you all about it. I was a pattern tester for Svetlana over at s.o.t.a.k. I love her blog and style so when she asked for testers I put my hand up.

It is a very easy to make pattern. I loved how well the zips went in and how finished they were.

I spent ages trying to centre my material but still did not get it totally right.

When open it looks like this. Each pocket is seperate though.

Linking to these places and crazy mum quilts

White wisteria

Gracing our covered verandah. Growing strong, flowering well. I just love it. Looks like summer snow.

Refashion - linen top for me

I have been stashing this long sleeved 100% linen shirt for ages intending to make a summer top. I had wanted a wee capped sleeve but the armholes on these shirts are huge. When sewing under the arms it was still too big for a sleeve and I even had to put a little facing in to make it decent.

The linen shirt I started with

So I took the main collar off as it was really large and on a summer day when the back of my neck is sunburnt I like my collar to stand up. Using some cute patchwork material I made a much smaller version.

The side view - with a high low bottom

Fixed the arm holes and took the arms off altogether. One arm ended up being the binding for the armholes. I was going to use my quilting material but could not bring myself to cut through my metre of fabric to make a bias strip!! So I did a square cut and put it around the bottom, after I had changed the shirt tails to a high / low look. A bit of a cheat really.

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Perfect iced coffee

Put ice in the glass you want to use. Make a double espresso shot. Add 1 teaspoon of sugar.

Put the espresso over the ice and immediately start pouring in trim milk to suit (my bottle is quarter pint or 150ml). 

All ready to go. I love this in the summer on the deck. I am not fond of the iced coffees with all the cream and icecream and this just keeps it simple.

Linking to these places.

First outdoor swim of the summer

We went camping for the long weekend and the weather one day was amazing. We all jumped in the river for the first swim of the summer.  

It surprised us as it was not the biting cold we were expecting. Gorgeous

We also went on a walk and to a beach I had never been too. Fossil beach.

I was a bit worried standing at the top of the cliff that I would not get back up but I did OK. It helped that the day was cool. 

Climbing up the cliffs to find the fossils. Fossilised shells, crabs etc. Amazing. I was not prepared to go up the cliff so pottered on the beach.