and again

with some pics of my Melody Calling Quilt pattern that is in the Patchwork 3 publication for Spotlight Australia

Have a look at yesterdays post for more details 

Xx Siobhan Rogers

Melody Calling

My Quilt pattern "Melody Calling" is in the latest Spotlight Australia Patchwork 3 publication.

Featuring Prima Homespun fabric and Long arm quilted by Kim Bradley

song is by The Vaccines


This quilt came about earlier in the year after reading an article about an up coming exhibition (ran from March - June 2014) at the MCA with Jim Lambie as part of the Biennale of Sydney. Love Love Love Jim's work and his use of everyday surfaces - Transforming them from ordinary to extraordinary. 

I had to play around with my Maths to get the proportions right for a full bed sized rectangle quilt! but it worked eventually and I love it.


Let me know if you make the quilt and tag me!


I also need to catch you all up on some articles I have been writing for the Daily Telegraph.......

and my new website

siobhanrogers.com.au

Next Blog post


Xx Siobhan Rogers

Finally

A pattern of mine to buy!

PDF Download

here on my website

siobhanrogers.com.au

Harlequin Chevron Quilt Pattern

Xx Siobhan 

and then I did this

Gosh forgive my tardy-ness

The last year on the blog has been scant to say the least.

I have spent the last 18 months working on a book with Interweave - Its due in stores April 2015 in the US

which is very exciting.

I have also done a fair bit of magazine work which you will see over the next 6 months and another job for Spotlight Australia - due Oct in store.

Teaching patchwork classes

 Launching my website

siobhanrogers.com.au

 writing some stories for the Saturday Daily Telegraph in Sydney

and running my household..... 

 here is the story I did last week (Saturday 13th Sept 2015) for the Daily Telegraph.

I have a few things to blog/ update you all with...... 

and if your after a daily dose of colour and what I am up to??? 

I am on Facebook

and 

Instagram

Xx Siobhan 

Pompom - tastic

Hello ! I snuck in a little making time today, another project thats been hanging around in my shelves waiting to be made ..... 

I created these picture panels way back in 2012 using Spoonflower . 

I used a few pictures from Paris travels as fabric panels, I've had a few scattered through my house for a while 

but this particular panel that I have named after the street it was photographed in "rue de buci" needed a little bit extra and on and off I have been keeping my eye out for pompom trimming and hadn't found anything.......

that is until yesterday when I was at the Sydney Quilt and Craft fair.

No Chintz had a booth and a few things caught my eye, namely the pompom trimming they had for sale - 3 meters ending up in my bag..... 

I love it. I want to pompom trim everything.

I used a heavy weighted linen/ cotton blend fabric for the back with a chunky blue zipper. I ran the zipper along the stripes for something a little different.



Looking at the collage below you can see I pinned the trimming to the top of the front panel with the pompoms facing in. I pinned it all the way around so that I had the spacing of the pompoms right in the corners.

I then used my zipper foot on my Bernina 710 to sew along as close to the pompom edge as possible all the way around.


Next you need to have your backing ready (cut to a slightly bigger size than the front panel and zipper in)
Pin the front and back together (right sides facing in)make sure the zipper is a little open and making sure to keep the pompoms inside.  

Sew all the way around on the same line you had sewn before with a straight stitch using the zipper foot again.

I also did a zigzag stitch all the way around to stop any fraying.

Trim a little bit of the corners.

Turn you cushion cover the right way around, and make sure the corners are good and all the pompoms are sitting nicely.

Voila - One large pompom cushion

Xx Siobhan 

Look !

Lately all I do on here is tell you about stuff that is in Magazines

I'm hoping soon after a few big jobs are out of the way I can start playing with the blog again. I kinda miss it.

The Latest Australian Homespun Magazine is out and has one of my creations on the cover.

you can buy it here

Please note Ms 7's placement of the lego horse....... I think she has watched me set up photo shoots far too many times.

I used a Aurifil variegated blue cotton thread on my Bernina 710 to quilt it in an echo pattern. Have a look at the mag for more detailed pictures and the pattern. 

I'm off to finish writing up some patterns for more magazine stories which you should see in a few months time.......

Siobhan  Xx

Colour Burst

 Hi :) 

late last year I was asked to design another quilt for Prima Homespun solids range

to be showcased in the "Project Patchwork 2" book by Spotlight Australia.

I had to quickly pop into Spotlight today for press studs and lining and voila! there it was the new Spotlight book on the cutting counter catching my eye.

For now the pattern is only available from Spotlight - in the Project Patchwork 2 book

Here are some pretty pictures I took before I shipped it off to Melbourne

I do love this quilt, I'd love to make another when I get a bit of time.......

I hope you like it !?

and I'd love you to show me if you make it!

Xx Siobhan R

The Carrot Cake experiment........

I've been home working in the shed and on the computer - the usual I cant show you what I'm working on business...............

Not showing people what I'm up to is a bit tricky for me - I'm not great at keeping quiet.

Anyway I can show you what I baked today!

The cool autumn weather has gotten me very bake-y (I know thats not a word)

The other day I discovered much to my horror that my children didn't know what a carrot cake was!? I'm talking about teenagers..... not toddlers.

Today I was on a mission to show them what they had missed - moist yummy sweet carrot cake with cream cheese icing - My favourite as a kid. My Nana baked it all the time.

Its one of those nice and easy throw everything together and bake cakes. 

 Serves 12
530 Calories/ 2217KJ per serve (including icing)

Ingredients

2 cups plain flour
Pinch of salt
2 teaspoons of baking powder
2 teaspoons of bicarb of soda
1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
1 & 1/2 cups raw sugar (any sugars fine)
4 eggs
200ml vegetable oil
400g crushed canned pineapple drained
3 cups grated carrot (I used 7 small carrots)
1/2 cup almond meal

23cm or 9 inch round springform cake tin greased and lined.

Oven set at 170C (not fan forced)
or 330F on an electric oven

Using two bowls
put all the dry ingredients in one bowl and the wet ingredients in another bowl (inc carrot). Mixing the wet ingredients.
Place the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients bowl and with a wooden spoon stir to combine.

Pour the stiff mixture into your greased and lined cake tin, tap it on the bench a few times to get the mixture flat.

Bake for 50/ 60 minutes - test with a wooden skewer, its ready when the skewer comes out clean.


leave to cool in tin

Lime Cream Cheese Icing

Ingredients 

250grams Cream Cheese

1 cup icing sugar mixture

1 Lime rind finely grated and juice

Beat the cream cheese until soft. Add the rind/ juice of the one lime and 1 cup of icing sugar mixture. Beat until smooth.

When the cake has cooled completely spread the icing on top of the cake.

The verdict

My husband and I loved it - It was beautiful moist and the cream cheese zesty icing.... Heaven 

BUT

The kids weren't convinced .....

Looks like I should have introduced it at an earlier age. 

Well I am off 

Let me know what you think of carrot cake?!

Xx Siobhan 

JAM

Hi All 

Anyone following me on Instagram will know full well that I have been on a Jam making binge over the last few months.....

I started with strawberries which seemed to be in abundance during our summer and then I moved onto raspberries and more recently in our cooler weather rhubarb and cherries

I love rhubarb

Just saying

The Raspberry, Strawberry & Cherry jams were equal parts fruit to sugar (about a kilo of each) and then a lemon cut in half with a vanilla pod.

I haven't had to use any jam setter in any of my batches yet, I'm presuming my laziness in adding a whole lemon cut in half instead of juicing it has been working.

I've even tried using frozen raspberries and cherries and it works really well.

Saying that though I do intend on using fruits in season from now on making larger quantities and storing it in the pantry.

Currently its Autumn going into Winter here so on my seasonal radar is more Rhubarb (YUM), figs, blood orange and I'm plotting some pears in syrup.....

The beginnings of Rhubarb Raspberry & Vanilla jam.

I had three large bunches of rhubarb that weighed 2.329kg cut into small pieces - 522g raspberries - equal amount of caster sugar (2.851g) - two vanilla pods sliced in half and two whole lemons sliced in half. I left it covered overnight to let the Rhubarb release its liquid.

as you can see the rhubarb releases a lot of liquid overnight.

After about one hour on a slow boil it was ready to jar.

I used old jars and new jars, washed them in soapy water and then boiled them in a large pot on the stove for at least 10 minutes. I also added the ladle and tongs to the pot.

I then put the jars in the oven on a tray upright for at least another 10 minutes to dry them.

I know technically only one of the above mentioned methods are required for sterilisation but..... I don't want mouldy jam.

Once the jars are full and lid on tight - tip it upside-down for 5 or so minutes and then tip it back up again. This will help it seal and stay sterile 

Soooo I wont be running out of jam anytime soon!

Xx Siobhan 

Paper making & a glue gun

Howdy

I had to pop in and post this fun little crafty paper idea.

I made some recently for my daughters 12th birthday party as name tags for the girls.

on Instagram I promised to write a post with the birthday cake.... I will! 

but

Yesterday was a rainy blah kinda day and I fished out the leftover papers and the kids and I made some more rosettes.

The original tutorial and idea is from The HOUSE that LARS BUILT

Very cute and clever tutorial.

I added in some ribbons to the back.

If you wanted to make wider rosettes as hanging decorations - all you need to do is use a wider piece of paper but make sure it is still the same length as stated in the original tutorial.

The kids also made some Chatter boxes

I bought my papers from bespoke letter press

Happy paper crafting 

Siobhan Xx