Blue skies

A really lovely day today. It was a good day for walking with just the right amount of breeze to keep it cool. 

The bees were really loving the lavender but I couldn't get a photo of any of the bees just the lavender.

I've been doing some stitching. Slow work on my crazy quilt. I added a little section of things I love, the color blue, owls, flowers, and the moon.  For this crazy quilt I am trying not to add in any hard things like beads and the like, so I might change out the sequin eyes of the owl to embroidery  to keep with the stitching only theme.

I've also been doing some simple cross stitch, these will be borders to go along hand towels. All slow work, but I'll get there eventually with finishes. When I am cross stitching designs like this I just use what thread I have and don't worry if it is exact match if I haven't got that particular DMC numbered thread. I use what I have, y'all know that already.

I hope everyone is having a good day or evening wherever you are.

Floral charm

This is a very frugal and simple lesson in how to make a tea cup bouquet of your own to pretty up your home. You will need a tea cup and saucer of your liking. Then gather a handful of small flowers and foliage to match your bouquet. Some people like to add florist foam or chicken wire in the bottom of their containers to hold the flowers, I just let the stems of the flowers hold everything in. Add some water in the bottom of the tea cup to begin with. 

The next step is to take off all the foliage that will sit in the water. Then take your small largest flowers you have and arrange them in the teacup first. Tea cup bouquets are dainty, your flowers and foliage should match the dainty quality.

Next add in your foliage until you are happy with the look of how they are arranged. Herb foliage can be used if that is all you have.

Then begin to arrange any smaller flowers you have around your bouquet. I used some small white climbing roses we have growing and some alyssum.

Before you know it you will have a easy tea cup bouquet you can admire. Just before the blooms fade I take the flowers and press them or dry them for pot potpourri. I also save the foliage too for potpourri.

If you don't have access to real flowers dollar store silk flowers work just as well. If you add a bit of blue tack or tiny amount of glue dots to the base of the tea cup just to hold the tea cup but enough to pull apart later, you can give this as a gift and they can reuse the tea cup.

I hope everyone is having a good day or evening where ever you are.

Linking up to:

Old fashioned

The weather of late has been really enjoyable, along with the garden displays from various houses as I finally get into starting my walking again. I'm really loving all the pretty flowers coming out now. Spring is very soon.

I've been decorating envelopes and packing up small goodies to send off. I always hand write my letters even if my hand writing is awful I think it is still readable. One letter is to America and the two other's are to my Aunt's. They live just around the corner ( it will be interesting to see how long it takes the letters to get to them...if they get there at all!) but I think they'd like something nice in the mail box, don't you? Do you send letters? Why not start sending a card, a note, something for a cup of tea or something sweet if they like that. Even family would like something snail mail.

I hope everyone is having a good day or evening where ever you are.

Pizza Base

The weather of late has been really lovely, a little chilly in the morning but it soon fines up enough with all the tell tale signs spring is just around the corner. In the kitchen we have been enjoying home made pizza using fresh herbs from the garden. I first learnt this recipe at the Simple Living workshops when they were doing cooking lessons. It is still my favorite recipe from those lessons, along with the curried sausage recipe.

PIZZA BASE

1 1/3 cup Plain Flour

½ teaspoon salt

1 dessertspoon sugar

1 teaspoon yeast

1 tablespoon olive oil

½ cup warm water

Cooking spray

METHOD

PREHEAT OVEN TO 180 degrees.

Combine, flour, salt, sugar & yeast into a large bowl, mix well.

Pour oil & warm water into dry ingredients.

Use a flat blade knife to mix into a ball and kneed into dough while still in the bowl.

Lightly flour bench, turn out dough using a rolling pin roll out to desired size or flatten with hand.

Don’t overwork the dough, roll lightly. The less handling the better the results.

Lightly spray tray and place dough into tray and add toppings. Lay pizza flat.

Cook for approximately 10-15 mins.

TOPPINGS:

PIZZA

Spread base with pizza sauce or BBQ sauce or tomato paste with mixed herbs. Top with meat, pineapple, ham, bacon, chicken, salami, onions, cheese sun-dried tomatoes, mushrooms, or create your favorite pizza

SWEET PIZZA

Tin apples, stewed fruits, brown sugar, cinnamon, jam coconut, muesli, nutella, sultanas or design your own combinations.

I hope everyone is having a good day or evening where ever you are.

Nursery Mother

MOTHER GOOSE BABY CRIB QUILT

Tutorial

As promised here is the pattern and instructions for making the Mother Goose baby crib quilt. This quilt is very easy to put together as it uses large squares for the background and simple applique, and easy embroidery. 

You will need:

Sewing thread

Heat n Seal (Iron on bonding material) – Lite

Fabric scraps. Cottons. Fabric can be what ever you have on hand. Old dresses. Baby clothes. Pillow cases. Sheets. 

Batting. I used an old flannel sheet.

Backing fabric. Once again, bed sheet.

Embroidery needle.

Embroidery thread.

Directions:

Step 1:

Cut your fabric scraps into 6 ½ inch squares. Find a space to spread out your squares ( the top of a bed works fine). Arrange your squares as you like using five squares across and six squares down ( total of thirty squares). Sew your squares one at a time, right sides facing to make a row of five squares across. When sewing use the same seam allowance for all your seams.

Press your seams with your iron. 

Sew your rows right sides facing to join them, the seams should ‘lock’ in together so that your squares are aligned corner to corner at the front. Sew six rows. (You can do seven rows to make a longer crib quilt).

Press work with iron.

Step 2:

Applique with Heat n Seal:

Each shape on the design needs to be cut out and using heat n seal instructions on the back of the packet cut desired shape needed. The steps for heat n seal usually are to pre heat dry iron to setting wool. Cut Heat n seal to desired shape of material or motif ( For small motifs I find it best to draw the motif on the paper backing, cut a square of material larger than motif and cut out the motif following the drawing lines.

Lay heat n Seal paper side up on the wrong side of material (All images are reversed). Guide the iron evenly across paper side of fabric. Peel paper backing and place material adhesive side down (shiny side) and guide iron evenly across material to bond. When bonding material, first ‘tack’ shapes down by pressing lightly with an iron so they don’t move, if you pin shapes, use glass head pins so the pin heads don’t melt and ruin your work.

When using heat n seal all your images once you bond the material is in reverse.

Needle turn applique

If you are using needle turn applique, cut all shapes out in paper. Allow for a seam allowance on your material to turn your material under your paper shapes. Use invisible stitching to stitch the motifs down, pulling out the paper before you stitch around all of the motif. Leave a small enough gap to pull the paper out and stitch the gap closed.

When using any needle turn applique method your image will not be reversed.

Press work with iron.

Embroidery:

Detail of the embroidery. using simple stem stitch
and thread matching the fabric.

All motifs have been outlined in embroidery thread, using three strands of embroidery thread and simple stem stitch. You can stitch right on the outline of the motif if you like, but I like to draw a line inside the image and stitch on the drawn line.

Press all work again with iron.

Step 3: 

To layer your quilt first place backing material right side down. Backing material should have enough fabric to turn for binding. Place batting down, batting should be the exact size of the quilt top. Place quilt top right side up on top of the batting. To begin quilting you can simply sew around the inside of the quilt squares using a ¼ of inch. For my baby quilt I didn’t do all of the squares. I did though made sure I stitched all the corner squares. And stitched around the entire quilt to hold the quilt down more securely. 

Step 4: 

The backing fabric is folded up into a narrow
 hem to
bind the quilt.
Then I top stitched a very narrow seam
all around.

Fold your backing material to bind your quilt. Pin the binding to hold into place as you sew and top stitch all around the binding using a very narrow seam. You can also use invisible stitch (or blind stitch) to attach the binding to your quilt, this will make sure the stitches can’t be seen.

Press all work again with iron.

The image above is the mother goose pattern I used. All the detailed is done by using embroidery stitching by hand. Use stem stitch through out and french knots for Mother's eyes. 

The last pattern is a detailed cutting plan for when you are cutting your shapes out for applique. There is a little bit of an overlap of seam to help bond all the shapes together. If you click on the image these should print out to A4 exactly. If you want a larger image take the print out to be photocopied to a larger size. Remember when using heat n seal all the images will be in reverse. On my quilt I also added in some fluffy clouds and around the quilt I appliqued hearts in various sizes. You could also hand quilt some hearts in the squares too.

I am linking up with Strangers & Pilgrim's 

Homemaking Monday's

Mother Goose

While the weather has been cold and today very foggy, I have been making some baby blankets for my driving instructor. She gave me some scrap and I added some scraps and pretty soon I had two crib blankets ready for new born twins- a boy and a girl. I brought nothing for theses blankets and used what I had. For the batting in the quilt I used a thrift store stripy flannel blanket (the stripes can be seen through some of the fabric but I didn't mind). They are very simple to make and I hope to give instructions for one soon.

I used a simple four patch and one patch for the 'Cow jumped over the moon'.

The cow uses some of the fabrics already in the quilt. Do you spy that piece of white fabric with red roses, yes, it's the same one I used for my bonnet gals tea towels! I still have fabric left over. I also added some applique stars around the cow quilt.

For Mother Goose, I used old pillow cases and some of the scraps used in the cow for Mother's dress, hat, and shoe. I used pale pillow cases to make a softer pastel quilt and simply used a one patch. I appliqued some hearts around too.

I added a tag for washing instructions and I can give my driving instructor the quilts today ( these are a gift and I don't charge a price) when I have my driving lesson. I still need some more lessons for my driving but I'm getting to a level where I am now comfortable with driving, it's still scary but I can do it. If I can learn to drive at 45 you can make this quilt too when I post up the instructions to do you'll find it's as easy as driving.

I hope every one is having a good day or evening where ever you are.

Winter yellow's

Winter finally arrived, cold and frosty. My kind of weather. I love Autumn and Winter.

I've been kept busy and pottering around at home as always. A stomach virus hit home and everyone was layed low for a while with that but now things are improving and hopefully I can start blogging again.

 The rose is from dad's roses, the last before he pruned them. This one opened up by the kitchen window and gives a wonderful scent. It now is drying in pot potpourri.

I've also been painting. Just a few small ideas here and there. 

A little bit of stitching has been happening on various projects.

Chicken soup for happiness and health of course.

Washing up. As usual.

Ideas for my paintings. 

I hope everyone is having a good day or evening where ever you are.

simply home

The weather is starting to turn more towards winter. I think it's still a mild winter, but July will soon tell if we are having much of a winter at all. The mornings are foggy and chilly but the days warm up nicely.

We had an uncle and aunt visit, mum's brother and sister in law. It was nice to see mum using some of the 'good china' she has in boxes for the table. I don't think anyone noticed we were using a Christmas tablecloth for the table. Shhh, don't tell.

Before everyone came mum was showing me some old photos. The gentlemen and the lady at the top are Mrs B and Boad, mums mother and father who have passed on. I've seen two of the photos before but the black and white one interested me the most. The lady in the middle (Grandma Warner) of those two young boys was my Great Grandmother, mum's grandmother; who has also passed on. The boy next to the house picture now lives in the house. I find it always interesting to see family time lines like that. 

I've also been tackling that UFO basket of sewing things. A bit of stitching on this. And a bit of stitching on that. Who knows I might finish some of the projects this century. I did some stitching on my crazy quilt and there's progress finally. Spider webs are for luck. I'll need luck to finish this.

I've also been working up a book. A Herbal for my pressed herbs and such. I've made a bound book and I've been tea staining papers to include in the book. I'm not sure how I want to decorate the pages yet, but I do know I want handwriting and drawings with pressed herbals and flowers. I'll be sure to show the finished result or at least a WIP of the herbal book later.

I've also been working on ideas for new paintings. So even though I've been a home body I'm still very busy with puttering around doing my own hobbies and helping around the home. Who says you need to go out to find entertainment?

I hope everyone is having a good day or evening where ever you are.

heartfelt time

The weather looks like it is about to bring in some rain, I hope to get a walk in this afternoon before it does. Meanwhile I've been checking the flowers in my homemade flower press and noted some of them I recently pressed are nicely pressed ready to be used for some projects. I brought a couple of items from the thrift store thinking they would work well with pressed flowers added to them. This small timber clock I brought for about two dollars and I unscrewed the back to prepare it for the flowers. I made a 'dry' run of the floral arrangement before I glued the pressed flowers down. When happy with the arrangement I glued the flower arrangement down and I added a thin coat of artist varnish and put the clock back together. All the clock needs is a new battery. This will make a nice frugal Christmas gift for someone.

For more information on pressed flowers visit my link to: The art of pressing flowers 

I've also been looking at Youtube video's about Quilt Bed Turning. Such a fascinating thing to watch as each quilt is turned back and the history of each quilt is explained. Eleanor Burns is a well known quilter and this is her Quilt Bed Turning. Grab yourself a cuppa tea or coffee and sit back to watch this very informative bed turning. I enjoyed myself with some giggles and ooohs and ahhs with each turn of the quilts.

I hope everyone is having a good day or evening where ever you are.

gathering fragments

The first day of winter arrived here on Sunday although you'd be hard pressed to find anything winterish about it. The day was chilly but overall very nice and not at all like winter. I think the garden is confused with the weather as we still have roses blooming lovely in the yard. We've also had a glut of beans, peas and cherry tomatoes. The peas hardly make it off the vine and into the kitchen with every one just wandering down to the back yard for a nibble.

Things have been busy of late. There's been a few doctor's appointments with the elders and myself, mostly checkups. Apparently I need to change my non-existent exercise habit, to be fair, I walk, just not enough.To improve feeling tired and mostly run down I need to get moving. I also think this tiredness is part of the hysterectomy and menopause but I'll get moving more to see if that improves things. To sum up: I'm 47 years old and I feel at least 110. So walking is on the agenda. Other things on the agenda was removing my art blog I don't feel the need to have two blogs. So my paintings stays here.

I've been slowly progressing on two small quilts. With everything going on, they are taking more time than I like. I hope to be finished with them soon. Do you recognize some of the fabric? I sure did get a lot of mileage out of that length of reused fabric. 

I like this from Lydia Child. Written in 1831, it still seems suitable for today's living and I know a lot of people including myself who make use of everything where possible. I have a little book where I write nice things down in. My hand writing isn't the greatest but I prefer to write things out than copy paste and print. 

I hope everyone is having a good day or evening where ever you are.

Small Sayings

O sing to the Lord a new song.

-Psalms 96.1

I hope everyone is having a good day or evening where ever you are.