Magnificently Big

Yes Kate has excelled and is the first of the class to complete her Mystery BOM quilt top.... and it is simply Magnificent and BIG.

The super mum of the group Caroline has finished this gorgeous hexagon wreath block with the zebra feature.  Just too cute for words.  It's also an interesting use of the one fabric for the hexagons and some supper modern fussy cutting too.

What I love the most about our Mystery BOM is how different everyones blocks are.  Unfortunately I don't have everyone's hexagon blocks but here are  a couple just so we can see how different the same block is (and you can see Kate's in the above quilt).

Enjoy the week, ciao

Kim

September get-together

Our monthly get-together is a highlight, and this month was no exception. Kate managed to complete her fabulous patchwork for Sue's mystery quilt, and it's B-I-G! Nearly 9 foot square. (Kim or Sue could you post a photo of Kate's quilt-top please?). Kim also worked on her mystery quilt and it is looking fabulous. 

Caroline snapped into action to make a baby quilt for the infant Hedley who decided make an appearance 6 weeks early, with, like, Where's my Quilt then Aunty? It's almost finished - well done Caro!

The rest of us got busy with our farmyard scenes using Mark Hearld as inspiration. Here are our works-in-progress, specially snapped for you Marjorie, as you wend your way down the Danube on holiday.....

We have the fish scenes, done by Stephanie and Elizabeth. 

Stephanie knocked this fish scene up in twenty minutes.

And the leaping hares done by Denny and Kate. (The Dark Hare was inspired by a photo shown to us by Sue of what seemed to be a hare on LSD). 

We were fuelled by a scrummy chocolate cake made by Kim - thank you darling from all of us -  it was delicious!

Another Baby Quilt

Here is the baby quilt I made this month for a colleague at work using charm packs of Lotta Jansdotter fabric from the Fat Quarter Shop in the U S of A. I added extra solids in orange, yellow, greens and grey to even it out. 

The backing is the cute elephant fabric which I've used before (and which is also in Hedley's gorgeous quilt made by Caroline below). 

I used a coffee and white striped fabric for the binding and sewed it all by machine for extra baby boy strength for when the little man gets going.

Hedley's Quilt

So apparently all I need to get moving on a quilt is a simple, small design and a brand new nephew to sew for! The top is all pieced, now just trying to work out which wadding I can steal from other projects...I knew I should have bought some more last weekend along with some spray baster (which brand were you all recommending?).

Hopefully Hedley likes it, Cinnamon my cat is eyeing it off if he doesn't!

Bound and washed ... B's quilt

I am pleased to have found a home for this simple, but nice quilt.  I like the different fabrics in it and I love the feathers fabric which I should have bought in bulk in every colourway.  The red was particularly nice.

More soon and yes, this Saturday is THE Saturday of the month and no, I have not finished my Mystery Block quilt.

Quilt "Destination B": My older sister is the lucky recipient of random nine-patch quilt

Stephanie

Sew &' Grow

Quilting is such a social thing, we gather and stitch and more times than not we enjoy some cake.  Just this weekend gone I made a most delicious chocolate cake which I thought I would share with you.  I know we all have a million chocolate cake recipes but I can attest that this is definitely one of the better ones.

The recipe came from the back of a packet of Hershey's Cocoa.  The recipe is readily available on the internet but I've put into a nice PDF for you to print off but you'll have to email me - please note it's not my recipe but provided by Hershey's.  Also I can't take any credit for the photo either - this is from the wonderful world wide web, but my cake did look as good as this!

Hershey’s “Perfectly Chocolate” Chocolate Cake

This recipe is from the back of the Hershey’s Cocoa Powder box.

CAKE - Prep time 15 mins, cook 40 mins

2 cups          Caster sugar

1 ¾ cups      Plain Flour

¾ cups          Hershey’s Cocoa

1 ½ tsp         Baking Powder

1 ½ tsp         Baking Soda

1 tsp              Salt

2                      Eggs

1 cup             Milk

½ cup            Vegatable Oil

2 tsp              Vanilla extract

1 cup             boiling water

Method

1. 1. Heat oven to 180 degrees, grease and flour two 9 inch round cake pans
2. 2. Combine dry ingredients in large bowl.  Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla and beat on medium for 2 mins.  Stir in boiling water (mixture will be very thin).  Pour into cake pans.
3. 3. Bake for 30 – 35 minutes, or skewer comes out clean.  Cool for 10 minutes then remove from pans to wire racks and cool completely.
4. 4. Ice with “Perfectly Chocolate” Chocolate Frosting.

“Perfectly Chocolate” Chocolate Frosting

½ cup butter or margarine

2/3 cup        Hershey’s Cocoa

2 cups          Icing Sugar

1/3 cup        milk                 

1 tsp              Vanilla Extract

Method – makes approximately 2 cups of frosting

1. Melt butter and stir in cocoa.

2. Alternatively add icing sugar and milk, beating on medium speed until at a spreading consistency.  Add more milk if needed.

3. Stir in vanilla extract.

Enjoy....... if I get a chance I'll bake one on Friday evening for class this Saturday so we can Sew & "Grow"

Kim x

Chrissy's Quilt

It has taken me so long to get back to putting things on the blog that I had to work out a few things again.  Like how to create a new post.  I have actually been doing A LOT of sewing, A LOT of finishing, and absolutely no new starts.  Actually one, but that's OK.  So I have done Ohio stars, hourglass blocks, and been finishing the blocks for the Sue Ross Mystery Block tour.  And in the meantime, I have finally finished Chrissy's quilt.  

This quilt was another Sue Ross workshop quilt.  And, devoted auntie that I am, I decided to give it to one of my niece's for her 21st..... in August 2012.  It took a while for me to finish, a while to get quilted and then, not too long to bind and finish.  Here it is up at Dad's place, before I said goodbye to it.  Chrissy has strict instructions that if she doesn't like it, I'll make her another one, and have this one back.  It is a favourite ..... even though it's pink.

Chrissy's Quilt (2012) based on a Sue Ross design, machine quilted by Kim Bradley

Introducing A New Sleeping Friend.....

While I do adore Spring, I have to say I have been absolutely loving the drop in temperature of the last two nights, it's allowed me to spend some time snuggling in bed with my new sleeping friend....

There is quite a lot of seams in this and consequently it is quite heavy.  From memory the strips where cut 2.5's and there is 28 strips in total.  Finished size is 101" x 99"..... probably a bit big but I love how to draps over the bed, plus if I upgrade to a king size bed it still works.  I think I might hang on to this one.

Yes the binding is all sewn on the massive quilt, as Liesel reminded me all 400 odd inches of binding!  The original plan with the binding was to bind in the same fabric as the outer black / grey / cream fabric of Kaffes, however I didn't like how it looked with the pretty Liberty Lifestyle on the back.  So I decided to try something new and have successfully attached a facing binding (not too sure if this is the technical name) - the binding is sewn on as per normal to the front but pulled completely around to the back.  This gave me the same effect as binding with the outer border fabric, but allowed me the opportunity to have a more complimentary fabric for the backing.  I also did a slightly bigger binding - 3' cut.  I love it.

All of the front was strip pieced and totally random, however my a complete miracle and not for trying there is a bit of fussy cutting - can you pick them?

And lastly, something not quilty.  My mum is a very keen gardener and whenever she visits me from the Northern Territory she loves to "spruce" up my courtyard,



particularly with pretty flowers that simply struggle with the constant 35 degrees plus for 9 months of the year.  She is so clever she even installed an irrigation system for me so I have minimal chance of killing these ones!