Block Swap

I'm currently doing a block swap with an 800 member facebook group called Kiwiquilters. I'm doing it because the requirements are super easy - about an hour a month. I am responsible for the first block for group 2. I chose a pattern that had good online instructions for everyone and I like the effect.

I decided to do a couple of blocks too. There are 14 in the group and no matter how you do the math that doesn't make a set of even rows. The person whose month it is chooses the block, a colour scheme and posts it. You make one block. So many other swaps you need to do a block for every person every month and I just can't cope with that kind of commitment. 

But I think a block a month will keep me interested in the sewing machine and I'll enjoy being challenged by other peoples colour and block choices. I have kept all the cut off corners which were sewn at the time. I just can't throw out anything. 

Linking to these places and Crazy Mum Quilts.

Trim and keep it light

Those are the two things that Aaron was told to do when packing for the Te Araroa Trail. So we took that to mean everything and the second to last day we trimmed him all over.

Last night photos, He even took the beard off.

He says no cutting anything until he's finished in 3 months time, hell look like Morris by then!!!

As soon as Aaron was gone we got the cutters on Morris too. With this incredibly hot summer he was just a bit unhappy. A pile of hair later. The before shots on the left and the afters on the right.

Favourite recipe

You can tell a favourite recipe by the stains on the paper!! Lemon honey - delicious. The lemons this year are juicy, plentiful and huge. I'm thinking of making lemon meringue pie ice cream - ie Lemon honey, meringue pieces mixed into an ice cream base. MMMmmmm.

I'm playing around with my blog look again. The view I changed to I find very difficult to edit and lots of space between lines etc. So back to a more original view. Let me know what you think.

Up-cycled blanket into boots

In the last week we had family to stay, which is lovely, but the circumstances were heart rending. Our gorgeous cousin had passed away doing what he loved. Another cousin Kerryn and her family stayed with us for some of the time. They came from Brisbane to the coldest wettest week we had had all summer. You can imagine that it was a shock to have 17 degree C days when you have come from days in their 40's. Poor Kerryn's feet were cold. She was using a wheat pack on them. So I whipped out the left over woollen blankets I dyed, got her to select her colour. Found some left over minky material for the inside, some bits of leather for the soles and did some sewing from one of my favourite Twig and Tale patterns.

I was really pleased with being able to keep the stitched edge of the blanket as the top of the boot but made a bit of an error when doing the soles. I put the inside suede of the leather on the outside. That was a bit to do with brain fade over this time. I offered to unpick but Kerryn thought the suede would slip less than the smooth leather, so we left it as is.

Linking to these pages and Twig and Tale, whose pattern this is.  

Appreciating the little things

 Over the last week I have been trying to appreciate the simple little things and the pleasure I get in the moment.

New Egyptian towel. 

A family walk

 

I cleaned the hot tub out before all the rain. I did not use it heated but have been using it as a cool pool to dip in on the hot summer days. Loving it more than I expected to.

Memories of my cousin

Devastated today that such a bright young spark with a future has passed away. When he was young we had him for weekends, when he got older my boys looked up to him with awe. He changed from a young 'un that we felt responsible for to a mate of my husband. Words cannot describe the desolation we feel. Remembering him for all his awesomeness.

A bit of quilting

This quilt has been sitting on the floor waiting to be quilted for so long. I have been watching a lot of videos from "The Midnight Quilter" - Angela. It is inspiring me to just try more patterns. I always thought quilting was too slow so have stuck to stipple quilting (which I still will when I want a fast finish). This quilt is anything but fast!! The stars were rejects from a quilt I made Jakob when he was two and a half (he's now 14).

The original quilt Jakob gifted to the charity we support - Hope Homes International and I was going to gift this one to them too. It is really fitting that I am now trying to finish this for Jakob's 15th birthday in a month. The blocks languished for about 7 years, then got put together, then sat another 2 years before I started doing extra and bordering it. When I was pining it out about 8 months ago Jakob told me that it was his most favourite quilt I had made. So what was stars for his first quilt, now become stars for a teenage quilt. Funny how things work out.

Linking to these places.

Ginger Crunch ....and more

It has been a while since I posted. I have started working fulltime for a while and that kinda takes up your time. Combined with a broken camera and looking at a screen for over 8 hours a day, the desire to blog reduces somewhat.

However, equipped with a new phone and better camera I hope to start again. First up. I made ginger crunch for the first time ever in my life. I wasn't sure that the boys would like it. It's not even cold and Eli has had two pieces. So a hit. The recipe book was found last weekend at the dump shop. The Holst's are such good cooks, so I knew the 50 cents would be worth it. If the ginger crunch is anything to go by then the whole book will be a hit.

We had a great time camping in Oamaru. The Victorian weekend is such an amazing thing. With lots for the boys to do too. The slide is massive and the other items in the playground are great. So a bit of penny farthing race watching, some shopping, lots of walking and a visit to the dump shop.. all made for a great holiday weekend.

Driftwood blouse

Well it has been a long time coming. Photos are not great as my camera is broken and only the selfie side works. Next time I will make this shirt a couple of inches longer. I cut it lower than the midline on the pattern but doesn't seem to be quite enough. However this material cost me $12 from The Fabric Store at The Tannery and I have heaps left over. A lovely cotton lawn. So great as a trial. I also used self binding but did not make it bias - next time it needs to be bias for the neckline.

I cut the driftwood blouse out about two months ago and parked it as it was just difficult. I love the patterns from Twig and Tale - the wool boots I make is another of their patterns. But this pattern is so large that when printed on a home printer all the A4 pages had to be taped together. When printing none of the notations ie "front", "back" etc print so trying to figure out what was what drove me nuts. Also the A4 pages had no numbering so working out how the pattern fitted took me all of one night. This put me off and the cut out material has sat in my sewing room for about two months.

It was a quick sew but somehow some of the pieces did not align well, even though I was anal about seam allowance etc. Thrilled to have finished it and will try again with my "better" material now that I have worked out the kinks in the sewing.

Spring is definitely heading into summer, the rhododendrons are just about finished and poppies, peonies and roses are starting to come out. These are some mutated poppies from my garden, they all just cross fertilised and now I am getting wonderful colour array.

Linking to these places

Making Hard Candy - Acid Drops

When I was a teenager my mother found a recipe for old fashioned acid drops. This makes a hard boiled lolly (candy) that you have to pull and twist the old fashioned way when cooling them.

Eli and I made them but the Candy syrup is super hot to handle so when it came time to shape them, the rush is on. We all pitched in to get it cooled and rolled as it is easy for it to set and then you break shards off, which is not nice to suck.

We had a day in Christchurch wandering around the botanic gardens and took the opportunity to wander the city as well. We went to the Earthquake memorial, which was very moving. 

Stopping by the cathedral just shows how quickly nature takes over. 6 years on from the earthquake and the paving is gone and trees abound.

A few fun photos later. We recreated some of our wedding photos. Twenty years and a few kilos later does not make the poses very easy!!! In our wedding photo the cathedral spire shows, but the city is a very different place since then.

In town there is a space invaders game that you have to physically wrangle. Great fun. The screen is on the wall of the building and the boys are manipulating the game from this platform. I had a go and won my game too!!!.

Here is the acid drop recipe if you want it. I have no idea where my mother got it from.
2 Cups Sugar
1/2 Cup water
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
Heat gently until sugar is dissolved then bring to a constant simmer. Do not boil hard. It took about 20 minutes to just start becoming a pale yellow colour. It should be sort of holding together.

Take pan off the heat and add:
3 drops lemon essence
Take great care and pour onto a well oiled slab. I oiled a roasting dish, other times I have used a oiled baking tray or an oiled stainless steel bench top will do. While it is hot it was easy to do it in a large back dish as it could not run away on me.

Keep moving the sticky mess from the outside into the middle, sort of like folding - do it with an ordinary metal eating knife. Sprinkle
2 teaspoons tartaric acid over and it will slowly mix in using this folding technique.

My mother's recipe says to roll it into rolls, cut with a knife and then roll into balls with your hand. But it took quite a while of folding before it was set enough to consider doing anything. Then we found just pulling a chunk off and folding it until it was cool or solid enough to put in balls worked for us. We chucked them onto a dish that was covered with about 1cm icing (confectioners) sugar.

They were yum!!! It might be our home made Christmas present this year.

Scraps make another cushion

About seven weeks ago I thought that I should whip up a cushion and use the last of the scraps I had which were already cut in strips. I follow a blog by Tiina called Tilkunviilaaja. She is in Scandinavia - I am hoping she will leave a comment as I cannot remember the country. However we met via an International swap in the quilting world. Anyway, I digress. She was doing uneven lopsided blocks for one of the many bags she makes and it inspired me to do another cushion using that technique.

It should have been a quick job. But I got very bogged down in my study as I have had to do two assignments in formats that I had never used before. When I am a bit stressed I get very demotivated in the craft area as everything just seems like work. So instead of an overnight finish and a post on my blog, it has taken me seven weeks. Finished now and residing in the school library. My current assignment is the last for this semester and then I have another cushion inner to cover and some gardening to get on with.

Linking to these places and crazy mum quilts.