Hodge Podge

How's your week been?

Mine has been on the busy side...

I had a few magazine stories to design/ make/write/photograph & my usual teaching schedule (& Family). It all would have been ok - except the weather was awful in Sydney - lots and lots of rain. Which made taking photo's in natural light incredibly hard!

Thankfully the sun came out eventually (as you can see in the pic) and today was a beautiful day - so good in fact that the kids and I left the house and headed to Balmoral Beach.

although

Yesterday was another story! - very dark and wet,four kids & me stuck inside. Husband working...... 

I'm trying hard not to start another quilt before finishing  my starry night quilt which is waiting for its backing material to arrive.   I also have two more big quilts being machine quilted that will need binding very soon.

With all of that in mind I started making a dress! I bought the pattern and fabric a very very long time ago....

Although I have made little girls dresses before - I have never before embarked on making clothes for myself. I chose a simple pattern, no buttons or collars, straight up and down!

I used some Nani Iro fabric that I had bought a while back from Calico & Ivy Balmain. It's a really lovely double gauze.

The book above is the Stylish Dress Book by Yoshiko Tsukiori in English. 

It has some really lovely simple dresses in it.

The pattern was surprisingly easy to follow, I did make some bits up myself - but It worked! The hardest bit was finding and tracing the dress I wanted to make out of the book, the pattern sheet had about five different dresses on it. 

I just have the hem to do, because of the shape and being short - It will probably be a beach kinda dress. Next time I might add in a dart at the chest to give it a bit more shape, being pear shaped I need things more tailored :)

and also this week

I finally printed up some of my photo's from my trip overseas in October this year! I've made a little book, very very happy with them. I'm still trying to work out what to do with them.....prints/framed/cards

Only so many holiday pictures (no matter how good they are) can be displayed at one time. 

I've been carrying the book around in my bag and getting it out at any opportunity :) Its like when I was young and made to watch someone else's holiday slide show...but now its my pictures.... lucky I have tolerant friends :)

I have also gone chalk paint crazy, more on that later in the week

anyway I'm glad the sunshine came out and the kids had a good run around at Balmoral - makes life so much easier when they are happy!

Fingers crossed the next week ahead all goes smoothly - weather/ work/ family, only two and a half weeks of school then christmas!

That really was very hodge podge wasn't it...

Xx Siobhan

fabric give away :)

Hi Guys Just wanted to let you know that Saffron Craig's new Magical Lands is on it's way to Australia,  The range consists of six designs and it's a mix of her favorite fabrics including a new version of her Dandelions, delicate but still with a bold natural feeling to it. The amazing pinks and oranges with a touch of yellow in the Magical Lands are so festive yet so much fun and definitely a bit different from what else is out there. Saffron is offering a generous giveaway but you only have until Friday night to enter.  You could be the first in the world to win this bundle of fabric.

Here is the link to Saffrons Blog 

Xx Siobhan

Starry Night Quilt

I have finally pieced the front of my 

Starry Night Quilt

What do you think?

Its definitely bright

Sydney had a few days of drizzle & rain this week, then yesterday was very steamy & hot. 

Our area has lots of Jacaranda trees & currently they are all in bloom - it looks fantastic, I'd love to have an aerial view and look down on the north side of Sydney harbour.

After the rain a lot of the flowers drop and truthfully make a bit of a mess, especially on the footpaths - but gosh it looks beautiful - It will only last a day of two before it all goes brown and mushy, especially with the hot thats coming this weekend.

with that in mind I had to get the starry night quilt top out & photograph it, these opportunities don't come often

If you look back at my original post, I have all the info on material used. 

Anna Maria Horners "folksy Flannel" might be tricky to get hold of, but looking at Anna Maria Horners new "Loulouthi" Flannel I think you would get a similar result. 

I have actually ordered from pink chalk some of the Loulouthi range to make the back and binding.

the top measures 65 inches X 65 inches

I have the sizes etc down below :)

If you want to give it a go, I have used the improvisational method of piecing the big & small wonky star

let me know if you would like a tutorial on the wonky star block - if I get enough interest I'll put one up.

Wonky Star NEW NEW

I'm off to enjoy the sunshine

Xx Siobhan

another quilt in the pile & a quick plug :)

Another Quilt from the pile

This one was also made a while ago & its been seen a few times on the blog

I wanted an adults king bed size quilt - something modern and monochromatic & again in big thick strips similar to the yellow & grey quilt in my last post.

I used a few different greys and a text print with a sparse white background.

I designed and printed all of these fabrics specifically for this quilt and thankfully it worked out just how I wanted.

I've since used these fabrics in lots of quilting projects - especially the greys.

The grey ties lots of fabrics together nicely - especially when I have used lots of colour in a project

Once I had pieced the quilt together I struggled with how to quilt it, I didn't want swirls or flowers in this one. I wanted to keep it simple. After much talk with many people I decided a hand writing type loopy pattern going straight across would suit.

Thankfully I know a wonderful machine quilter with a clever husband - Kim drew up the scribble loops for me & Dave scanned it in & turned it into a pattern.

When I saw it I was so excited, perfect!

Quilt long arm machine quilted by Kim Bradley creations - quilting in a loopy scribble pattern

very grown up & fresh

& a huge three meters wide!

on the back of the Quilt I injected a bit of colour for fun & used a grey honeycomb for the binding

My Fabrics available on Spoonflower to buy.

This is my recent story on cushions in a local Sydney Magazine Northside, you will find instructions on how to make a cushion with an envelope opening :)


*ignore step number 6 in the article to turn inside out - if you did you would have your nice fabric on the inside!
Not sure how that step got added in! anyway, hopefully people work it out :)

photo instructions as seen in Northside Magazine 15th November 2011



next blog post I'll have some more pictures/ info for the starry night quilt , I have worked out how to embed a PDF! so you will have diagrams & sizes etc if you want to give it a go


Enjoy your day

Xx Siobhan

pile of quilts

Productive central in my neck of the woods

I have bound 2 king, 1 double & 2 single bed quilts this weekend as well as just about finished a quilt top!

for the first time possibly ever, I have no quilts in the "to be bound pile".

Now to clarify - I do machine sew my binding on, it still takes some time but not quiet as long as hand sewing. Some quilts I do hand sew the binding but the majority are machine sewn.

 I like to throw them in the washing machine & dryer, the binding seems to last a bit longer ???? 

here we have the pile, some you have seen & some you haven't.

This week I thought I'd go through them & show you all

Today we have the Yes/ No Quilt

I made this way back in january 2011

All of the grey fabrics are from my spoonflower range

Its a mixture of the thesaurus range with Yes, No & Love fabric used

It was long arm machine quilted by the lovely Kim Bradley in a loopy scribble pattern

I like the flash of colour with the yellow & white

 & being a strip quilt it came together really quickly

talking of colour, how great does this blue moon rose look?

my roses are having a bumper year this year

Its a nice throw size or good for the end of a bed, not sure if this one is a keeper or a to sell one yet.....

you may have also noticed my new toy - a piece of slate & chalk(I'm easily pleased)

I'm sure I'll get over it soonish....

& just for info - the pin cushion that keeps appearing in my photos was made by my daughter at her 9th Birthday party, I had twenty kids making cushions/ bags etc from felt. They had a blast.

Sorry I'm short on words, more to do!

Xx Siobhan

progress, mail & a recipe :)

Great day all round for me!

Its one of those days that if I could repeat, I'd happily do so :)

my starry night wonky star quilt is progressing very nicely, I'm at the stage now of deciding what type of sashing & maybe some other bits??

 

I also

  received my pillow from my Secret swap partner in the Pillow Talk Swap.

Wow it is awesome! 

so very lucky with my swap partner :)

I was lucky enough to have Adrianne from Little Bluebell as my pillow maker.

Have a look at the link if you would like to know how she made the pillow etc

How lucky was I!

The pillow came all the way from San Jose (Dion Warwick music here, have a listen it'll make you smile)

Hence I had to take a picture of the pillow in its new home Sydney!

now onto the 

Spinach Pie

recipe as promised 

My spinach pie recipe is a bit of a slap together affair, but here is the general idea

Set the oven at 180c fan forced

I have used a baking dish 31 X 26cm, anything around that size will be fine.I use a baking spray - mainly for fatty reasons - to stop any sticking, butter for greasing would be extra tasty - up to you which you choose.

Ingredients

1 375g Packet of filo Pastry

500g Ricotta 

250g crumbed feta

6 eggs

250g grated tasty cheese

100g parmesan cheese

500g frozen chopped spinach defrosted

pinch of nutmeg

salt & pepper to taste

1 onion finally diced

1 leek thinly sliced

tsp dried thyme

3 sticks celery finely diced

Handful of herbs in season chopped (I used fresh parsley,mint,oregano & thyme from my veg patch)

olive oil

cooking spray

Place the onion, leek, celery & dried thyme in a fry pan and cook on a low heat with a few table spoons of oil till soft & translucent. Add in the spinach and mix through letting any excess moisture evaporate, add in the fresh herbs.Let the mixture cool.

Place all other ingredients in a large bowl and mix to combine, add in the fry pan mix. Mix well.

roll out your filo pastry being cautious to not let it dry out and get crumbly.

I used three layers of filo at a time - spray it with cooking oil* and lay it into the baking dish covering the bottom/ sides and over hanging the edge, repeat until you have only three layers of filo left, try to make it even.

*another method would be to brush the pastry with melted butter.

pour into the baking dish with filo your ricotta mix, place the last three sheets of filo on top and roll over any filo that is over lapping the baking dish edge. Spray with cooking spray,

Bake for forty minutes or until golden and crispy. Let it set for 30/40 minutes out of the oven until you cut into it - to let the centre set.

All of that feed our family of 7 with a small piece left for lunch the next day.

It really is a simple pie and the kids love it.

I'm off to stare at my starry night quilt & figure out what to do next

Xx Siobhan