Picture free zone - blast!!!

Had a great dinner last night with friends - ate pizza and then went next door to Max Brenner's.  For those not in the know this is an absolutely terrible cafe that specializes in CHOCOLATE!!!   Ahhh......YUM!!!  I had a hazelnut Praline Banana Crepe!  and even remembered to take a photo of it before I attacked it with my cuttlery!  Yum!!!  I was all set to come home and download the photo and then write a post and AGHGHGH!  My computer has malfunctioned.  I don't know what it wrong with it but all my documents and photos are still on my hard drive - according to my husband - but I just can't get to them and all my programs that I used to have - like Picasa - are gone - somewhere!  So, I can't download photos and can't put any on my blog!  SSSSooooo not happy!!!

Tonight I am going to tidy up my sewing desk as, hopefully my computer geek guy will come tomorrow (please) to fix my laptop and my lap top sits to the side of the sewing machine!  I assume he will need a bit of room to work!!!

So, wish me luck.  I will keep you posted - even if I am not posting pictures!

Happy stitching.....Aghghghg!

Up, Up and Away

Who is up, up and away?  Not me!  :-(  My husband as usual and this time he is off to three different cities/countries including good old London, England.  While he is there he is going to catch up with my niece J who has been living there for about five years now.  A couple of posts ago I showed you one bag that I had completed and said I was going to make a second one and then decide which one I would send to J.  Well, there is no contest.  This is the one I am sending. 

And it is already filled

 with this!  Her uncle went a tad overboard on the Aussie chocolates so J may have to fit in a few extra gym sessions - Freddo Frogs, Caramel Buttons, Caramello Bears and, down the bottom where you can't see them, Cherry Ripes! 

Tonight we are off out to dinner to a Pizza Pasta Restaurant followed by a quick trip next door to the Max Brenner Chocolate shop for coffee and desert after!  YUM.  Camera already in the bag so I can share with you tomorrow!
Happy stitching!

Please sort yourself out blogger!!!

Just letting you know, assuming I can post!  I can't follow any blogs at the moment as blogger and google reader won't let me!  and I can't comment on any as blogger won't let me!  Please get well soon blogger - this is getting tiresome!

Here it is Jennie (private joke)

Hooray!  Finished just in time to post.  Had a good sewing day today.  Started out by making the first four pot holders of a how ever many I end up making for the Irish Charity Bazaar. 

I have got about another ten cut out and in various stages of completion after ducking out to buy matching thread today. 

This afternoon and this evening I have been working on a gift for my niece J who is currently living in London.  My husband is heading over there next week and will be catching up with her.  I am going to send her some of her favourite Aussie chocolates and they will go into this

Well, they MAY go into this.  I am planning to make another bag in more modern fabrics tomorrow, slightly smaller than this one which has a base of about 7".  After I have finished that one I will decide which one looks most like Miss J. 

That's it for me tonight.  Happy stitching everyone!

What's up today...

First up a little cooking -

more lemonade scones

Then a lemon lime syrup cake

and then a disgustingly healthy Cinnamon Fruit Cake

My quilt group came over for our regular meeting and we went through all the UFO's and collections of fabrics we have had donated to us.  The idea was that everyone take something to work on at home as there is so much there.

This is what I will be working with.  These are the scraps left over from the Mermaid Quilt we made last year.  Not sure what I am going to do yet but I am thinking of adding some black and maybe making some scrappy stars.  I am going to look at some blocks first and see if anything else grabs my attention!

I was going to spend this year working on UFO's but I am also sewing for an Irish Charity Bazaar in November.  I have decided that I am going to concentrate on the bits and pieces for the charity bazaar.  Once they are done I will get back to the UFO's.  With that in mind last night I started working on some potholders -

Only problem was I got just so far and then realised that I had run out of fabric for backings and bindings so had to go and get some more - ended up with a gorgeous lime green which works well with all the colours-

then I realised that I need thread to match!  Agghh!!  I will have to go and get some tomorrow!  For now it is too late to start anything else and I am too tired so I guess the rest of the night will be spent relaxing!  ...or...maybe poking around my sewing room looking for something else to do........

Happy stitching!



Choc Chips and MWAH!

First up here is the recipe for the Bacon and Egg Pie as promised.  This has proven to be a hit with Fly Boy who happily ate two pieces yesterday for lunch and one piece tonight for dinner with vegies and potato bake.  I call that a success. 

BACON AND EGG PIE

2 sheets of frozen reduced fat puff pastry

1 medium onion, diced

100g Philadelphia Light Cream for Cooking

8 eggs

150g middle rasher bacon, trimmed and cut into thin slices

Skim milk to brush pastry

Mixed green salad to serve

Preheat oven to 220ºC.  Lightly spray 22cm diameter pie tin with oil.

Place the pie tin upside down on a sheet of pastry and using a sharp knife cut around the edges of the tin to create a pastry circle.  Place tin upside down on the other pastry sheet and cut a circle about 2cm larger than pie tin.  Use the large circle to line pie tin.

Spray frying pan with oil and gently saute onion over medium heat for 3-4 minutes till softened.  Meanwhile gently mix together cooking cream and four eggs till combined. Pour into pie tin.  Layer bacon over egg mixture.  Crack remaining 4 eggs one at a time over bacon.  Gently lay remaining pastry circle over egg pressing to seal edges   pierce top with a fork and lightly brush with milk.  Bake 40-50 minutes until pastry is golden and puffed.  Serve with salad.

I started the day with a quick batch of choc chip rock cakes, just got them out of the oven in time to put two in Fly Boy's lunch box.  Not sure that Guitar Hero would have eaten them but it didn't matter today as he was off on a school camp for agriculture and didn't need to take a lunch box today. 

Fly Boy says he likes these better than choc chip cookies as they are softer.  Not sure if I agree but they are super quick to make so I am not complaining. 

CHOC CHIP ROCK CAKES

2 cups SR flour

2/3 cup caster sugar

125g butter melted

1 x 250g packet chocolate chips

2 eggs beaten

1 teasp vanilla essence

1 tabsp milk

Preheat oven to 180°C/160°C fan forced.  Grease baking trays.  Combine dry ingredients in a bowl.  Make a well in the centre and add butter, eggs and vanilla and stir to combine.  Add milk if mixture is dry.  Drop heaped teaspoonfuls on tray allowing room for spreading.  Bake for approx 12 minutes until golden and firm to touch.  Stand for five minutes, then place on a rack to cool.

I managed to finish ALL the hand sewing on the Round Robin Quilt - BIG YAY!!! Now I am ready to hand it off to the next person, two weeks early which is good.  I will take photos and send and email to those who are interested in the progress seeing as I can't post about it.  Don't forget to leave a comment if you would like to be included. 

I also managed to cut out and applique the letters for my pink quilts SWAK and MWAH! 

This is just a quick photo as it is late but you can see the cute black and white spot and I plan to use the same for the binding.  Tomorrow if I have time I will trim the sides of the quilts and get ready to layer them.  I have lots on tomorrow though. 

Snickers is going to have her haircut first up - this is the before shot - wait for the after shot!  You won't recognise her!

I am having a haircut tomorrow too but you are not getting a before or an after photo - sorry!  I also have to do a bit more baking (I know so unlike me lately huh!) as my quilt group is coming over on Wednesday.  They are also my guinea pigs, always willing to try out my new recipes. 

Hope all is well out there is blog land.  Take care my friends,
Happy stitching!

baking and then some......

Only a quick post tonight as it is late and I am bushed! More baking this morning.  First, an old favourite - cheese puffs.  My Mum used to make these and I forgot about them for quite a while but they are always popular when I make them these days.  You need a really strong cheese for them though.

CHEESE PUFFS

1 ¼ cups SR flour

1 cup grated cheese

1 cup milk

S&P

Mix together all ingredients and put tabsp in each patty pan.  Bake in a fairly hot oven 10 minutes.  When cold, slice and fill with cheese.  Reheat in a moderate oven till cheese melts.

Next Bacon and Egg Pie.  I haven't copied out the recipe for this yet so I can't post it.  This was an experiment to see if my kids would like it - 50% success at least. 

 Next Sausage Rolls.  I really made these for my quilt group to eat for lunch on Wednesday at our next meeting.  I keep these in the freezer and feed these to Fly Boy when he is coming home after Cadets or Youth Group or as a quick dinner.  Guitar Hero has always told me that he hates sausage rolls as he doesn't like the ones in the shops but today I convinced him to try mine and he actually liked them!  Amazing.  Hopefully, he will like them the next time too.  That is not guaranteed!

SAUSAGE ROLLS

4 sheets ready rolled frozen puff pastry, thawed

600g beef mince

1 zucchini grated

2 carrots, grated

¼ cup flat leaf parsley, chopped

½ teasp dried rosemary

2 eggs

1 tabsp sesame seeds

Preheat oven to 220°C.  cut each pastry sheet in half.  Combine mince, carrot, zucchini, parsley and rosemary in bow with one egg.  Mix well.  Season with salt and pepper.

Spoon ½ cup mixture on each half sheet of pastry. Brush edges with water and roll into a log.  Place on papered tray.  Using serrated edge knife cut each log into 3 pieces.  Repeat with remaining mince and pastry.  Beat remaining egg and brush rolls then sprinkle with sesame seeds.  Bake for 30 minutes or until puffed and golden.  Serve warm with tomato sauce.

It has been a long day, but I did sort of manage to progress a little bit on my sewing!  I managed to half make the letters for the pink quilts!  I am determined to get them completed and ironed onto the quilts tomorrow.  I was too tired tonight but tomorrow is another day.....

Happy stitching everyone!

Thinking pink again!

Agghhh it feels like so long since I have sat at my machine and done a bit of sewing but I finally got to today.  Most of my week has been taken up with hand sewing thingy's - five out of sixteen to go and then I am free of them!  Can't tell you about them as they are for the quilt group Round Robins but I promise i will share when I can - don't hold your breath though!

I have also been cooking for morning teas and so on.  But today, after Guitar Hero was dragged kicking and screaming to the shops to buy clothes for the camp he is going on in two days, and after the grocery shopping was done, and the laundry was caught up on and after out Saturday night movie night (The Tourist) with Fly Boy (boycotted by Guitar Hero who preferred to dwell like Gollum in his cave computer room) I finally managed to get in some sewing - YAY!!!

I was planning to make three quilts from my pink strips but after sewing one together I decided to make two.  I was also planning a black polka dot border and then a pink striped border but I changed my mind again.  This is what I am planning now

These are just paper cut outs.  Tomorrow I will make some fabric ones. Not sure about the black. I have to think about possible colours tomorrow.  Sorry the photo colours - I have a new camera and I am still getting used to it.  At least one of these quilts will be going to Quilts for Keeps which a project that supplies quilts to children from two major Sydney Hospitals who have been diagnosed with serious illnesses and their siblings. 

Time for me to go and shoo my boys to bed.  Until next time.....happy stitching!

Recipes

I am getting a bit frustrated as I am working on bits for a Round Robin Quilt that I can't show you as yet so there is nothing to post.  I am dying to progress my pink quilts and get stuck back into some UFO's but haven't been able to yet.   I have 16 "things" to sew down and so far I have 11 to go.  I don't do hand applique so this is a new experience for me and not one I will repeat by choice.  I plan to take the weekend off from the Round Robin Quilt and work on the Rainbow Scrap Challenge pink quilts so hopefully will have something to post soon.  Whilst thinking pink......it looks like I am going to have enough pink strips to make three quilt tops.  Would anyone like one of them to finish off for a charity quilt, or for a special girl? Leave me a comment if you would as I really don't want to do the quilting and binding on all three!

In the mean time, Cathy asked if I was going to post the recipes for the baking I did the other day and as there is a shortage of quilting news I figured why not!

 This was supposed the be a plain Vanilla Butter Cake but I added the rind of two lemons and then drizzled over orange icing.

VANILLA BUTTER CAKE

125g butter

2 teasp vanilla essence

¾ cup caster sugar

2 eggs

1 cup SR flour

Tabsp corn flour

¼ cup milk

Spray 21cm baba tin.  Preheat oven to moderate.  Combine all ingredients in small bowl, beat low speed till combined then medium speed till mix is smooth.  Bake moderate oven 40 minutes

COCONUT AND BERRY BITES

2 egg whites

1 teasp vanilla essence

80g caster sugar

125g (1 ½ cups) desiccated coconut

1 ½ tabsp berry jam

Preheat oven to 180°C. lightly grease 12hole mini (1 tabsp capacity) muffin pan with butter.  Use a fork to whisk the egg whites in a medium bowl until frothy.  Whisk in vanilla.  Add sugar and coconut and use a wooden spoon to combine.  Press 2/3 of the coconut mixture into greased pans.  Press your index finger into each to almost the bottom to create a hole.  Fill the holes with the jam.  Cover the jam with the remaining mixture, doming it slightly.  Bake in a preheated oven for 15 minutes or until golden and cooked through.  Cool in pans before wrapping and storing. 

Will keep in airtight containers for 5 days.

LEMONADE AND CREAM SCONES

4 cups SR flour

300mls cream

Can lemonade

Preheat oven to 200°c.  Add lemonade and cream to flour, mix to form a soft dough then place on a floured surface.  If the dough is still quite wet just add extra flour until it is manageable.  Pat out to a 2cm thickness and cut with a floured cutter.  Place close together on a tray but allow a little room for spreading.  Brush with beaten egg or milk and bake for 10-15 minutes.  Serve hot with cream and jam.

Enjoy!  And happy stitching!

Postman Pink and a little Revealing

First things first.  The Post man came today and brought my pink blocks from Celia for the month of May - Pink being this month's colour for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  These are the ones I sent Celia...

and these are the ones she sent me!  Love the little teacup of flowers and the beaded purse is extra special as it is from Celia's recent  trip to South Africa.  Yes, I am spoilt!  Thanks Celia!

Tomorrow I have 11 of the mums from my boys' year at high school coming for morning tea.  We normally have one function a term, sometimes a dinner and sometimes a morning tea.  I decided that it was too cold in winter to go to a cafe so opted to invite everyone here.  there are sixty-ish students in the year but usually only between8 -12 come so it isn't a big group to cater for.  These are coconut berry bites - there is a dollop of berry jam hidden in each.

 I wish you could smell this - it is a lemon cake - rind of two lemons so it smells great - hope it tastes as great.  Tomorrow I will add orange icing.

 And these are scones made with my favourite lemonade and cream recipe.  A dream to make and so light.  They are in the freezer overnight and will thaw them and add strawberry jam and cream tomorrow.

 I also made mini gingerbread cakes but I will photograph them tomorrow after I have added the drizzle of lemon icing.  Right now they just look like little chocolate cups cakes which was pretty funny coz Guitar Hero grabbed one and stuffed half in his mouth thinking it was chocolate.  Normally he wouldn't have touched them so I wonder what he will say if I offer him another!

A while ago (here), (here) and (here) I showed you some sneak peaks and now I can finally show you the full picture as the recipients have now received them.  The first was for Flo from Butterfly Quilting for a PIF gift.

The second PIF was for Joyce from Young by Design 

 And the third was for Larissa from Crafty God Chick.

 This last one was for my cousin's birthday.

I am still madly stitching my thing-a-ma-jigs for the latest Round Robin quilt which of course I can't show you but hopefully there will be some more sewing that I can show you soon.  I am about to go and get dinner for the kiddliwinks and then I am planning another evening in front of the TV hand sewing.  There will be a few more nights like this till it is finished but at least I am on track time wise.  after tomorrow's morning tea I will be back to daytime sewing of the easy to show you variety.

Till next time.....happy stitching!

Birthday cakes and thinking pink...

Well, there hasn't been much sewing today or yesterday as it has been a busy weekend with both boys celebrating their birthdays and lots of odds and ends being needing to be done around the house after the painting was completed.

Fly Boy had a long day on course yesterday and backed it up by attending a 16th birthday party for one of the lovely girls in his youth group.  He was happy for me to make her a present so I had fun sorting it out.  I found out that she liked black, white and gold so I went shopping and found the perfect fabrics

LOVE THESE BIRDS!!

and made her a cute bag

Black and white and lines with gold!

While my wonderful husband spend most of the day finishing painting the kids' bathroom, I spent the morning sorting thru the 6 huge bags of fabric I was given yesterday with one of my quilt group buddies and then in the afternoon I was playing hostess to Guitar Hero and his two friends after they had been to see a movie and dined at Maccas for his birthday.  Among other things I baked a double batch of chocolate chip cookies so that they could have some out of the oven and also so that they could have some to take home.  I even managed to make some progress on my current round robin project.  Of course I can't show any of that to you yet but once I have my contribution to it completed I will email it to some of my regular followers so if you want me to include you in the mailing list leave me a comment.

There is some progress I can show you though - my Think Pink quilt for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge is coming along.  Last weekend I sewed all my 6 1/2 inch pieces into one 24 ft long strip.  Then I calculated that I had enough for two quilts.  That was as far as I got until this afternoon when I managed to get the big strip cut into twenty three forty inch strips. 

This is where I am at so far. The strips are yet to be sewn together but maybe that will have to wait till next weekend. 

I have a busy week this week.  Shopping and errands tomorrow, baking on Tuesday for morning tea at my home for the other Year 10 mums from my boys' school on Wednesday, working bee with quilt group on Thursday and getting together will another quilt group Buddy on Friday so we can brain storm her next move for the current round robin quilt she has to work on.  Oh and I forgot - my sewing group on Wednesday night too for which I have to cut some backing and batting for this quilt so I can progress forward.  In any sewing time I get in between times I have to continue the hand sewing I am doing for the round robin quilt.  I have got enough to keep me busy that is for sure!

The boys finally managed to get their birthday cakes tonight - it was the first meal that we were all together for all weekend so we made them wait till tonight but they didn't mind.  Don't count the number of candles - I just put in as many as I could fit as there was no way to fit fifteen on.  This is Fly Boy's honeycomb log.  Bought chocolate biscuits, sandwiched with whipped cream that has crushed choc coated honeycomb mixed into it.  Easy Peasy!  and his current favourite!

 And this was guitar hero's choice!  Yes, that's right - mini donuts stacked up!  Not very exciting if you ask me - but very popular with the recipient!  So, even easier peasier!

Well, till next time that is all for me.  I have a date with a sofa, some hand sewing and a good American TV show called "Castle"!

Happy stitching!

Fifteen today

I have posted this on my face book page and I am just waiting for my sons to yell and me and tell me to take them down - maybe I will maybe, I won't, but in the mean time - my twin sons Fly Boy and Guitar Hero turn 15 today.  Who would have thought they would make it this far!!!!!!

Hard to believe them that are now six foot tall were once this cute!!!!

They would so kill me if they knew I had put these up!

Birthday celebrations are a bit fractured as Fly Boy is on course with the Cadets today - left home at 650am!  He is going to a party tonight and then day two of the course tomorrow.  He hasn't even had presents yet.  I did give him a special breakfast though.

 In the bowl are scrambled eggs just the way he likes them - plain, no ham, cheese, pepper and salt or anything

 Guitar Hero got a special breakfast too.  Mini pancakes with maple syrup.  He hasn't done his hair yet so no photo of him blowing the candle out!

Guitar hero is having a quiet day (figuratively speaking as there is no real quiet with an electric guitar and bass guitar in the house!) and then tomorrow he is getting together with his two best friends, Master N and Miss K.

Till next time....Blogger willing!   Happy Stitching!

Look what I got......

Earlier in the year i asked my local quilt store if they had any UFO's or orphan blocks that they would be happy to give me in order for myself and my quilt group to turn into quilts for Queensland.  they gave me a few blocks, a completed quilt and a couple of UFO's and we managed to turn most of them into quilts for Queensland.  Well, today I received another call.  One lady had cleared out her sewing room and came into the store asking if they know who she could give the things too.  That inspired another lady who works in the store to go home and tidy her sewing room and today they gave me 6 huge bags of scraps, block and UFO's.  I haven't had time to open all the bags yet but one broke open

 Some of these pieces are quite large!  I haven't looked any closer than this but I an dying to get into the rest of these

I just don't have time at the moment.  I will hopefully get some time over the weekend.  I rang my quilt group buddies and hopefully next Thursday we will have a working bee to sort thru the bags and the rest of the UFO's stored in my backroom.  I would like us to be able to reducing the number of UFO's we have on hand.  Stand by for the next update when I show you what goodies are in the bags.  It is like a quilty lucky dip!

Till next time.....happy stitching!

P.S If you weren't aware Blogger has been down for a couple of days - some of us have been suffering from withdrawal!!!  I am posting this in a flash in case it goes down again!

Spoilt rotten and loving it!!!!!!!

I have been flat out for the last few days as the outside of the house was being painted.  It was so cold here, just waited till this week to turn cold, WONDERFUL!!!   Not!  Unfortunately when it is that cold my knees get so sore that I really can't do much so each day, when I had enough of trying to get stuff done, I would free the dogs from the bedrooms they were locked in and sit on the sofa with the dogs on their leads.  The dogs weren't impressed but all the doors and windows were open so they couldn't be allowed to be free.  Eventually they would settle down and snuggle.  Meanwhile I would do some hand sewing.  It was nice to do the sewing ...but even with two quilts doubled up over me it was still cold.  So, it was nice to have my day brightened by a lovely quilty parcel!!!!!

A little while ago Donna and I decided to do a swap.  I would send her some Australian Quilting Magazines and she send me some fabrics.  Well, Donna received and her magazines and she is still enjoying them she tells me and now I have received my parcel - and I am so SPOILT!!!

Some gorgeously wrapped goodies

 And look what i unwrapped - pretty butterfly fabrics and gorgeous Laurel Birch cats

 more fabulous butterflies with irises and Jane's Magic Forest for Free Spirit

 more wonderful butterflies and MY FAVOURITE  - the tiger lillies - Jane's Floral Fantasy

 fabulous flowers

 fun stripes and dots and flowers

 and finally two pinwheel blocks!

 As if that wasn't enough Donna had also made me this gorgeous cherry hand towel and included a pattern I had admired and the peppermints. 

 Told you I was spoilt!  Thanks Donna.  This was a lovely warm fuzzy parcel on a freezing cold day!

I am going to have a lot of fun planning what to do with these pretties.........but first I have to catch up on all the stuff that has slipped by the by in the last couple of days!  At least I have the incentive to work faster.

Till next time.............Happy Stitching!