lets finish this up shall we

This one somehow seemed to get folded and put away?!........

I started it November last year.... opps

Its the Starry Starry night quilt made out of flannel & hand quilted.

I'm determine to finish this week!

wish me luck

Xx Siobhan

Jack of all trades

Its a crazy time of year, thank goodness all the school/ preschool commitments are finished & now just Christmas to contend with

In my little world Im doing lots of bits & pieces

a long time ago I made these little panels up

I have finally framed them :)

I'm also printing lots of cards with my pictures 

because things are so chaotic I just hung the framed panels without much thought, for now they will live on the back wall.

I'm planning on doing a few more over the holidays, Its nice doing something small & manageable. I'm on a mission to only start projects I can finish. 

I'm still ploughing away with my hand quilting on the Starry night quilt, not much longer and it should be done.

because we are renovating furniture is everywhere its all a bit crazy but

we are finally fixing up the back of our house, 

which means living with a bit of mess.

I'm off to eat some chocolate!

Xx Siobhan

Starry night Quilt - progress

Starry night lay out & sizes here :)

Im still ploughing away with my hand quilting. I'm using lots of blues & pinks.

the flannel is nice and easy to quilt - very soft, and luckily for me Sydney is having a chilly spell. Its been very nice tucked up under the starry night quilt - sipping tea. Hopefully I'll get it done before the heat comes back!

Hope your day goes well

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

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

starry starry night

I grew up with the Don Mclean song starry starry night, I didn't realise until I was an adult that it was about Vincent Van Gogh - I'm sure I was told at the time, 

but didn't listen .......

I saw the painting a few years ago in Paris - Its one of the few that took my breath away. The colour & texture....... Beautiful.

Why am I talking about Don mcLean? and Vincent Van Gogh??

I decided to call this quilt I'm working on Starry night :)

Its made out of Flannel

Its colours are beautiful, bright & muted - the flannel gives it a fuzzy cloudy kinda look

I imagine come the cooler months when a chill is in the air it will be the bee's knee's to cuddle into

and finally

Its a bit trickier to piece than I anticipated and driving me crazy :)

I rarely use one whole fabric range in a quilt - Usually I mix it up.

This time I'm using purely Anna Maria Horner's "Folksy Flannel". I bought a fat quarter bundle from Pink Chalk over 18months ago.
I may add in a bit of the new LouLouthi flannel range if I need to, the colour range looks similar & I think it will mix in nicely

I've tried to alternate pink & blue backgrounds/ stars

I have 6 stars completed - 3 more to go

bit of sashing then I'm planning on hand quilting it all together

back to sewing !

Xx Siobhan

-Recipes for spinach pie coming :)