Sunday 27 July 2014

Quick Diamond Quilt

I've been meaning to make a quilt for Pippa for some time.  She always loves my quilts and I hate how the dog/cat hair gets stuck to them, so I figured if I made her, her own she could stop stealing mine!

I used some bits and pieces of either scraps I had left over, or fat quarters I have had in my stash for a LONG time


I wanted to make it pink for a girl dog! ;)

Out of each fat quarter I managed to get a rectangle piece for a triangle and a strip for binding later on



The bigger rectangle pieces I cut on the diagonal



Then use one light and one dark


And lay out to sew together... 

                                         

Use a dark, light, dark, light combo pile

                                        

This is for ease of grabbing, next to your machine


Just sew along the edge


Chain stitch to be thread economical!

Then iron to the light side


And this will be your first part of the block.  You need four of these to make one block


You make your diamond, by sewing the light or dark edges together.  You want to alternate how you do this for effect on the top.  I did a 9 block quilt. 


This is me trying out different designs.  I finally settled on the light vs dark design, rather than a giant pinwheel.



So I had 9 of these blocks, 3 per row.

The smaller strips from earlier I just sewed together to make a binding.  You could use it as a border and then use a plain colour for a binding, but I was happy with this.


So many different opportunities to play around with this design.  

I think Pippa's happy with this one tho



 She jumped straight on it.  Yawned and fell asleep


So that's one sewing companion happy.

Next it's time for Sparky to get his own quilt.  Here he is next to my machine on his favourite perch.



Falling Charm Quilt

I started this quilt quite a few months ago.  I seem to have been doing it for ages, but not because it's hard or tricky to do - just a lack of sewing time.

It's a Missouri Star Quilt Co youtube tutorial.  I got 3 charm packs off ebay and used up white fabric I had leftover from a previous project.


So it's a bit like a log cabin, but without all the strips.  The charm packs are a great way to save all the cutting!  


I spent a little bit of time considering a layout, so that I didn't have similar or same charms too close!


You also want to make sure you get the 'falling' bit right.



Once you get a layout, I always find it useful to snap a pic, so I have it to refer back to


The dog thought she'd nip in there and get in this pic.

Then it's just a case of sewing each square together and then each row together.

Pinning!  I wish I had an adjustable table as my back is always killing after this bit!

I just stitched round the ditch of each of the charm squares.  It was a bit fiddly and took quite a bit of time.

I had a jelly roll that I used for the border and binding


The binding took forever to put on - the jelly roll was just too narrow  - note to self; don't do that again!

So I was up until 1 in the morning last night binding and then gave up.  

I was also using a new wadding - Mountain Mist which I bought from the Create & Craft TV website.    I had a few problems with it.  I think it took a bit more effort to get through the machine compared to warm & Natural and it kept getting stuck on my walking foot upon entry to the quilt top.  I also had quite a lot of creases.  Part of the reason why I was up so late last night as I had to do a lot of unpicking.  So I don't think I'll use it again.   I will just find the extra money and stick with the reliable quality of the Warm & Natural brand.  

But here's the finished result - I'm quite pleased with it!  


Friday 13 June 2014

What we've been eating...


As we've had a bit of extra time together, we've been making busy in the kitchen.

Breakfast is one of my favorite meals

This is a quick hash I threw together last weekend.  Jersey royal potatoes, spring onion, pancetta, parsley and a sprinkle of cheddar with scrambled eggs

this was so yummy I made it for tea last night too!


I also made some home made Turkey burgers out of this lot - just whizz it all together in a food processor and let it rest in the fridge and then fry

    

Some BNS chips out of this lot - turned the spices into a rub and then coated the squash in them with some cornflour.  So good!  Tip is to soak your squash first too - get rid of some of the starch.  Yum

And I made my first ever chocolate mousse - which turned out pretty good.  Used a classic mousse recipe and chucked some cointreau in.  

I'd have put in more liqueur in hindsight.  But this is definitely a recipe I'm going to make again and again so will post a proper blog 'how to' soon.

  

I've also been really busy in the sewing room and signed up for another dressmaking course.  I'll update on all of that soon!



The last month....


So aside from Rome, camping.... we've been busy just doing nothing basically.  

We had a really good night watching Eurovision - we got lots of 'picky bits' from Tesco and did ourselves a wee platter.

I put a tenner on the bearded lady and so she made me £20.  Not bad.  Was pretty happy with that.


Pippa and I have been getting to hang out together loads.  Love that dog.  She's my world


The boyfriend and I have been getting to hang out together loads too!  As he's office based for the most part at the minute.

Puss has just been hanging out.  He's a cat - he don't need nobody! 


I've been crocheting, knitting, sewing....... Pippa's been keeping me company

The weather has been OK - not great, but any time there's a break in the rain we've been heading out for walks with Pips.  This is Mugdock Reservoir - one of our favorite places. 

We managed a wee bbq in the back garden a couple of Saturdays ago


Just some sausages... Pippa enjoyed it.  She managed to steal FOUR sausages in total

That face - you'd never believe she was such a thief!

I just love this picture of her with her chew.  She got her pet passport recently so we've been in and out of the vets - there's a wee pet shop next door that she always gets a treat out of after a vet visit.  She went nuts for this jerky.  Carried it the whole way home..... 
Best of friends!

She's definitely the Lady of our Manor

We went for a lovely walk along the canal last Friday night after work.... and saw these beautiful swans



If you look close enough you'll see one of them is hitching a ride on mamma swan!  Not an ugly duckling in sight! 

Quick Camping Trip


When we got back from Rome it was almost instantly the first May bank holiday.  We decided that it'd been years since we went camping, so we packed up the tent and went down to Brighouse Bay near Castle Douglas for a couple of nights.


We arrived quite late on the Friday after  a lovely windy drive down.   Put the tent up in near the dark, which in itself was impressive!  We ended up just going for a Chinese and then having an early night

The next day we had a good wander round the town of Kircudbright and then on to Castle Douglas.  The temperature really dipped tho, so it was very chilly and we didn't really get the explore we had planned to do

We returned to the campsite for the afternoon, read magazines and then decided we'd put a quick bbq on.
There's something about just hanging out in a tent......... it's relaxing.


Here's the boyfriend doing his very best chef work...



To be fair those burgers did turn out pretty nice

We finished it off with some s'mores.  We even managed to find Graham Crackers in the USA tesco aisle! yummm

A quick pre mixed cocktail each and then we headed to the wee pub on the campsite - which after being a dog friendly camp site didn't actually let dogs into their bar.  Bit cheesed at that.

I have to say - I think it's a caravan for us next time we go camping!  I may be too old for lying on the ground!!