Tillytom ~ Tilda Sash Skirt

I forgot to blog the wonderful Tillytom Tilda Sash Skirt I was lucky enough to test the pattern for awhile ago.  Yes, that is right, a pattern!  You can buy it and make as many of these simple and adorable skirts as you like yourself.

Possum loves hers and the pattern was well written making it a quick and enjoyable sewing experience so I love it as well.  The pattern is for size 1 to size 8 so it is good value if you have a little girl to sew for.

Happy Sewing!

Ginger Nut Biscuits

Yesterday I had a rare Susie Homemaker episode complete with nice dress, make up and an apron.  To give you an idea of how rare* this is Possum looked at my apron and then said 'wow, who gave you an apron?'.  I have owned it since before she was born!

These are great biscuits, everyone here gives them a big thumbs up and given it has been a long time since I posted a recipe I thought I would share it while I still had biscuits left to photograph.  These biscuits use less sugar and butter and a lot of baked biscuits so I like to pretend they are healthy (ha ha, maybe if I ate less of them...).

Ginger Nuts

2 cups plain flour

1 cup castor sugar

1/2 tsp bicarb

1 tsp cinnamon

pinch salt

2 tsps ground ginger

100g butter

1 egg

1 tsp golden syrup

hot water as need to form dough

Sift flour, sugar, soda, ginger, cinnamon and salt.  Rub in butter and mix in syrup and beaten egg.  Mix into a firm dough adding water as needed.  Roll into small balls and flatten very slightly with a fork.  Cook at 180 deg for approx 15 minutes.  Cool on tray before moving to rack.

*I do bake often enough, just not usually in a dress and apron.

Friday night ~ Wonky Little Stitches.

It is dark and cold and I am sick; but, I am looking on the bright side.  

It is Friday and I am stitching away on my Handstitched project:

I am loving every wonky stitch!!

I am not being too concerned about my stitch length, I am just enjoying the process.  I decided to do just the corners in the satin jewel pattern as per the class but not to put them in the middle of each row as well.  I like the effect of the triangles as they frame the dogwood blossom feature.  I will show off a full photo when I finally finish this round, it won't be in a hurry at this rate.

Esther's Baby Quilt

A quilt for a special baby girl.  When AJ heard Esther was having baby #3, another sweet little girl she asked our quilting group if we would like to each make a block that she would turn into a quilt and send down.

We each made a pink block and sent it up to AJ, she has blogged the details here.  I didn't get a photo of my own, I was so busy that I made a block and posted it but didn't grab any photos.  

I grabbed this photo from AJ's blog:

Simple flying geese.  I was pretty happy with my points in this block. 

Esther took this photo of the finished quilt when she received it, you can see the blog post here.  

It looks great and I think AJ did a wonderful job of putting it all together which would not have been an easy task.  

Handstitched - Dogwood Blossom

The Handstitched class via the Stitched in Color blog is now under way and we have completed our centre Dogwood Blossom.

Reverse appliqué, mitred corners and blind stitch are all new to me and I am learning a lot already which makes me excited about the rest of this quilt and the things I will try before it is done.

The inner points of my Dogwood blossom are not all that pointy and you may notice it isn't exactly centred either.  I also used too much spray baste (first time using it) and did get into a sticky mess with that.   I only mitred the corners on the first border around the blossom and not on the second coloured border.

The next part of this quilt is where we embroider the white border shown.. Eeek! 

Sew it Together - Saturday and Sunday

 Saturday morning saw Cath, Anna, Kylie and I head out in search of breakfast which we eventually found at  in civic at a place called Cream.  I ate waffles and it was a great way to start the weekend.  We enjoyed it so much we all went back on Sunday morning for breakfast too.

We then ventured forth to the Handmade Market where we all bought something, or a few somethings in my case!  Then at 1pm we all met at the Crowne Plaza for lunch and a fun afternoon and evening of chatter, craft and shopping.  So much shopping!!  I would like to claim I was good, and I was in that I didn't buy anything I didn't think I really, REALLY needed, including two Polly Pratt dresses as well as a jacket and then some fabric too.

The 2am fire alarm at the YHA that saw most of us out in the street in our PJ's gave us all something to laugh about.  I would have preferred more sleep, but this did add to the fun.  It was a false alarm so all was well.

Sunday saw us stencilling under the watchful eye of Sheridan who picked up a trick or two from Lotta Jansdotter (I am more than a tad jealous!).  I made one bag using stencils owned by Sheridan, and then had a go at making a stencil myself and printing it on some fabric.  It was good fun.

Kylie gave us a quick tour of Canberra before doing the airport drop off which was great.

Kylie and I then went on to visit a good friend for the evening.  Kylie gave me a Thermomix demo and I am more than a little smitten!

Such a great weekend all round!

Sew it Together - Friday Fun

I can't tell you how much I think of this weekend and so many of the woman involved.  It is a special thing and I am so grateful to be a part of it now.  Special thanks to Sheridan and everyone who sponsors this and those that travel to be there, it is wonderful because of you all.

Day 1 of Sew it Together was the Friday Shopping Trip.  We started at Addicted to Fabric which is a fantastic fabric shop in Canberra.  I found everything on my list that I needed and then a few things not on my list, but only because I didn't know I needed them until I saw them.

Such a great range, and plenty of space too.  I wish this was my local shop, but I can take heart from the fact I do drive through Canberra once or twice a year and am already planning future trips.

The next stop was at Bison.  So much beauty in this shop, not craft related but beautiful regardless and well worth a visit.  I bought three milk jugs and they look wonderful sitting on my shelf at home.

Last stop was Shop Handmade where we ate macarons and drank some sparkling wine.  I may have had too much of the bubbly stuff but have decided the least said about that the better ;)  

And then Kylie arrived!  Half of the fun of Sew it Together is in catching up with friends.  I drank her share of the sparkling wine as she was running late, that could be where I went wrong...

I will post about the rest of the weekend over the next day or so, it is a lot to cover in one post.

Sunset on the Road

I am on my way to Canberra to spend a weekend with a lot of friends.  As I was driving this evening somewhere near Dunedoo I watched the sunset.  Looks like my weekend is off to a beautiful start already.

Happy travels. x

Handstitched

The Handstitched Class is about to start.  There are a number of projects, but given my lack of time I will be concentrating on the Modern Medallion Quilt.  I have gotten as far as buying a selection of Kona Solids to go with the Echo fabric by Lotta Jansdotter.  

I have to pick the combination for the centre Dogwood Blossom as seen in the below picture, but I am having trouble picking which print, and which solid...