Bees & Lavender

Thanks to so much unseasonal rain this year, the lavender is lush, bright and scented. This shrub is by my front door. Last week I stepped outside and I had to look again because at first I thought it was covered in shells....it was golden and sagging- but no - it was covered in bees.

I have never had bees visit this close and in such numbers, it's fascinating to watch. The lavender is humming non stop and seems to 'move' with the activity.

This morning the lavender was a little quiet, (maybe the bees  have moved on?) but there were still enough coming and going to take these pics.

They dart around so fast, I just held out my camera and snapped. There were plenty of fuzzy ones I deleted right away, but in between I managed to capture some close ups.

Isn't lilac and lime simply stunning?

 I don't have a quilt in these colours... (I can feel another WIP coming along)

And whilst I was inspecting the passion fruit flowers, I discovered a craftily hidden nest from last season. It isn't high up, about  1.6m on a curved frame - but it was concealed enough to keep it hidden from our roving neighbourhood cats.

I still marvel at the ingenuity of bird nests, they are so beautiful. 

You'd be forgiven for thinking that I'm spending my days strolling around the garden- but no - I am hard at work and looking forward to seeing my WIPs come together quickly and finally get finished.

And of course, the new BOM is coming soon. How soon? real soon!

I am working, working, working..



The Charm of Old Things

Aren’t the days flying by quickly? It’s just about New Year’s Eve and I haven’t even finished clearing up from Christmas…

I admit that I am the kind of person who becomes distracted when sorting through things. I might be clearing out a box of fabric….then I find a print I was looking for a few months ago…and that gets me started on returning to my idea….and before I know it, I’ve started another WIP.

This year I ‘found’ some long lost (but not sorely missed as I actually forgot they existed) cutlery as well as another box of Christmas Tree lights that I knew were somewhere…but couldn’t find them when we needed them. That will be useful next year.

In amongst the sorting through, I got to the back of the tea towel shelf and found our favorite apron. We have a lot of aprons in my house, but the most charming has to be this one. Isn’t it just the real thing?

My DDs always negotiate over who will wear it when we get Christmas or Easter baking as it has a special ‘something’ about it.

 I purchased the fabric and sewed this apron up 35 years ago. No pattern of course. You didn’t use patterns to make your aprons 35 years ago – you just did it.

This ‘kitchen dress’ has seen a lot of action and has endured thousands of washes – look at the color. Can you imagine that it was even brighter than that 35 years ago? It must have been neon! I dearly wish I had a photo of me in it all those years ago to compare.

Happy Christmas!

As it's Christmas,
I thought I would share this festive link

 It is a Russian production, however no language is used so don't let that stop you enjoying it.

The detail is simply lovely, it's a pleasure to watch and is suitable for children.

I am not usually keen on animation, but this one is so charming

Part 1: 7 minutes

Part 2: 7 minutes

Wow! Cherry Thieves Wins

The Quilt Show

Fall Quilter's Choice Contest

What a great honor - Cherry Thieves has been chosen by TQS members and has received 2nd place in the Fall Contest. I feel so privileged! The quilts entered alongside mine were stunning... so I am completely taken aback!

It means so much to be selected by other members. When you design from your own sketches you have no way of knowing if your designs and creativity 'speak to' others. Such positive feedback is always welcome!

Congratulations to dcrine who won first place with Autumn Birch and in third place was: Loving Nature by dreamquilter

A special thank you to Heather from my Yahoo Bom Group for alerting me to the fact that I had won. I didn't know! I was busy stenciling....

This is an extra special surprise because I also came 2nd in the Spring Viewers Choice as well earlier in the year.  Next year: Summer and Winter! (just joking)

Do visit the Quilt Show's blog HERE

Christmas Biscuit Presses

Christmas baking always gets me thinking about baking tools. With our 1950's Kenwood Cake Mixer (passed down from a dear friend) in the repair shop, my DDs and I had to modify some of our baking plans.

I am glad to report that the Mixer is in good hands and was told by the repairman that they don't make them like this anymore. How true. I think it's the same with sewing machines as well. I do almost all my sewing on a 1950's Husquarna and Elna. For decorative stitching over applique I move to my DDs Brother which has some lovely embellishments... Actually, my first ever posting on this blog discussed my desire for a new sewing machine with all it's improvements... and my longing for quality and durability you can only get when machines were actually made to last a woman her lifetime. They just don't make them like that anymore!

Going through our drawers of baking tools I marvelled a little that we are still using the same nut grinder I purchased over 30 years ago. You can see by the colour that it's a genuine vintage!

Each year when we pull out the box of decorations and Chritsmassy things, I always find something I had forgot about and the memories of so many past Christmases come flooding back.

30 years ago I was living in Hamburg and I had an 8 week old baby when I went out and purchased this Biscuit Press.

How can I be so sure? I taped the receipt inside the box! It cost DM19.50...now, I cant remember if that was expensive or not...what I do know is that I used the biscuit press over many many years.

Last year my youngest DD snapped the lever hinge, however if she hadn't I have no doubt that it would have been in service for another 30 years.

It seems naive and fanciful to expect anything to last that long nowadays.

The Biscuit Press we replaced it with last year, at

AU 49.95 (overpriced), appears to be fancier. It has it's own box and is sleek in black and silver. It works just fine but it doesn't have the charm the Gerda one had.

The real test however is in the 'insider' recipe. The Gerda recipe for the biscuit dough is excellent, whereas my new biscuit press' recipe tastes oily and is not pleasant at all. I struck it out immediately once I had made a batch. That is such a shame for I think a lot of women will be turned off this tool if they only ever try the recipe enclosed and recommended.

I have been asked a few times for the recipe I use in my biscuit press biscuits, so here it is:

Vanilla Biscuits 

180gm butter

100 gm sugar

Tablespoon Vanilla extract

2 eggs
250gm flour

80 gms finely ground walnuts or almonds
Preparation:

Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and spices. Sift in the flour, fold in the nut meal.

Refrigerate for 1 hour. 

Press onto non greased trays. Bake for 10 minutes at a moderate oven of about 180c-200c



Something interesting about this press is that all the discs in the new model are exactly the discs available in the Gerda 30 years ago. They must all be made at the same place!

This year I have started making an effort to write down recipes that I watched my mother and other women bake so that I can pass it on to my DDs.

Cooking seems to be very fashionable at the moment, and it seems to me that lot of traditional recipes have been tweaked so much that it is hard to get the real thing when you go looking for it.

Also, there are recipes which I always had in my head and knew off by heart....which I have now forgotten ...and a few that I have misplaced.
One of these was Bear Paws.

Luckily for me, Radka made a batch over on her blog and I am so delighted that she has shared the recipe as I have been meaning to hunt it down and make some for a few years now. How kind and generous. Thank you Radka!

It's only a few days now until Christmas. I really feel for all the people stuck in queues, stuck in airports, away from home, and of course, for all the people literally left out in the cold.



It's warming up again here with a forecast of 28c for Christmas Day. I can't complain as it has been unseasonably cool this December and I don't like freezing temperatures either.

Something that I am taking back this Christmas is time. No wasted time in car parks, in shopping centres, in the post office, in the bank. No, we are having a simple Christmas. After all, I can shop and queue anytime of the year.

I am taking it easy, doing things around the home, stenciling a quilt for my DDs birthday which is straight after Christmas and tomorrow I plan on baking stollen and potica with my DDs. I know, I am leaving it a little late. But after all, what's the hurry?

2 days at Harvest Textiles

I wanted cold weather...and it's arrived. Today has been chilly and rainy and I have been cosy indoors, crocheting my ripple afghan. Yes, I'm still working on it, inch by inch...

It's been a warm and slow weekend....which is very different to last weekend, because last weekend I attended a screen printing workshop.

This is my design - I sketched it during the workshop and came up with a folky bird pattern.

I’m always encouraging others to try something new (especially stenciling), and something I have wanted to try for a long time has been screen printing. One way or another, I never got around to it.

Well, that all changed last week.

I found a great looking workshop ...and to my surprise (and thanks to my active morning’s blogging) it was in my own city! ...and the next workshop was just days away.

Now, December is not the ideal time to start a new interest, especially not for me - but I couldn’t wait any longer so off I went…

What did I learn? I thought I had a pretty good idea of what screen printing involved, but soon discovered that I knew very little about it. It just goes to show that

you don’t know until you do 

You need strong arms! No, not really, but it does help if you have some upper body strength- it’s more physically involved than I expected and I was puffed out at the end of the 2 days.

Screen printing is an interesting technique that can accommodate a whole range of styles. I really enjoyed the workshop and I learnt a lot.

 

Actually I’ve been so keen to screen print for a while that a couple of years ago I purchased a ‘home size’ screen printing kit and one huge advantage is that I can now use it with complete confidence.

It is small, but both my DDs have expressed a desire to screen print tea towels (I don’t know about your kitchen, but we can never have too many) so that will be a fun long afternoon at some time in the future.

A definite advantage is that, like stenciling, you create your own design -so your end product is original. I love any technique that encourages you to produce your own style and put your own hand to use and screen printing definitely does.

I can see how effective screen printing would be in application for curtains, screens, etc.

As for quilts, well…..I still favor stenciling…but….I can see the possibilities in printing fabrics, panels and repetitions.

I’ve still got some ideas up my sleeve, so I am eagerly waiting for the day when Harvest Textiles opens it’s doors to previous students for studio space to screen print. I’ll be there!

 Have you tried stenciling?

or screen printing?

I had a great time and I recommend Harvest Textiles to anyone wanting to learn this technique. You can visit their website here:  Harvest textiles

In The Print!

 2011 is nearly here and my diary fell apart in October from over use. Luckily I hadn't got around to buying a new one when yesterday - this diary arrived (unexpectedly) in my mail box!

This was a good surprise in a hectic week.

I was very happy indeed... because my quilt Midnight Garden is a featured page pic for Sept/Oct

I get especially excited when my quilts are published because usually, the magazine photo ends up being the best photo that I have of them on record. I have always thought that I should have my quilt collection professionally photographed and this is something I would love to do but have not been able to justify the expense. Oh well, I will have to start making my quilts more photo friendly!

I have discovered that I love to make 'difficult to photo' quilts with hues that don't do themselves justice on film. And then of course, there's always the red/white quilt dilemma because red and white quilts rarely photograph 'true' in my experience. And I do love red and white.

What's a quilter to do??

I finally got around to purchasing The Australian Patchwork & Quilters Magazine Vol 19 No 10 (November) which features a Showcase Special. It's great to look back after showcase and have another look at the quilts you admired during the show.

This year I have been privileged enough to have Sunshine & Shadow featured and I am so glad.

A few people had told me it was published (thank you) but I have been avoiding the shops so only got my copy yesterday. My DH had to visit 3 newsagents and then purchased the last 2 copies on shelf. It was in a wrapped cover and he couldn't flick through to find me, so we exchanged several no not that one conversations as he couldn't understand why there were so many different quilting magazines on the market?? Anyone??

Once again, I love the photo. The colours are spot on and the quilt is straight. Perfect.

Many thanks to Marni Franks for the write up.

In baking news, the weather will be cool all week so it is back on the agenda. I love my Christmas baking with my 2 DDs. As they get older I really enjoy myself more and more....as it now involves me looking on with a cup of coffee and offering yeast advise rather than getting stuck in. It's a nice stage.

Just in the last week I have been made aware of a few copyright issues and upsets that have arisen from completely different sources and groups.  Looking on objectively, I think it's interesting that completely unconnected people can have very similar ideas. (I'm talking about 'ideas' here, not design theft). Any reader of this blog will know how strongly I feel about upholding and maintaining Copyright - even though I offer work for free. Originality matters.

On a different note, isnt it interesting when you think about something for a while...and then you start noticing it everywhere? I have been interested in floriography for a long time and have just designed a floriography themed quilt (more on that next year...) All of a sudden, I am finding floriography articles everywhere! Is it just me, or is it coming into fashion again? I hope so. But more interestingly - was I inspired / influenced unknowingly by an upcoming trend....or have enough people randomly taken an interest in it for it to become a trend? Just a thought...