Binding Matters

The girls go back to school tomorrow. I can sew - I hope! I have things I want to get done that haven't been getting done. Not anyone's fault. There is more to life than sewing. I know there is, truly I do. And we have had a lovely week, seen lots of friends, relaxed and enjoyed ourselves. But now I want to sew again. I am ready.

I have the binding all ready for the Perv Bird quilt - otherwise known as my Brit Quilt Swap quilt. I got a general reaction in my comments here from some of my lovely readers and on flickr from the Brit lovelies. The spots won the vote. So I am going with it. I had to cut the fabric very carefully as I want the spots to be even right around the binding. They are exactly two inches apart in the pattern so that is how wide I cut the binding. It will be narrow on the quilt but that is sort of the look I was going for - and that's my story and I am sticking to it.

The rest of the day has been eaten up by taking the girls to and from dance show rehearsal - which lasted five hours! Glad I didn't have to stay. I shall see the show in a couple of weeks. And the trauma of doing dance show hair. Only mothers of daughters who dance can truly understand the full horror of this. The gel, hairspray, and the tears! No one warned me about this when I had baby girls.

So to and fro from town a couple of times. That was two hours right there. Throw in some food prep, a grocery shop, ironing and the usual and there you have it. Sunday done and dusted. So bring on Monday, some quiet and my sewing machine. Time to finish up some more of these works in progress.

Hope  your Sunday involved more leisure and less hair gel.

Susan

Mother-in Law Comes Over - Attempt Number Two

Well, we are trying again. Else is coming over to see us. The sun is shining so she shouldn't cancel at the last minute. I am cooking, but not lasagna this time. A little cook book browse and I selected this one from the shelf -

We shall have the Thai-Style Fish Fingers with Frothy Lime and Lemongrass Infused Hollandaise. Will we hell! We are having Thai-Style Crab Cakes which is the same recipe for all intents and purposes, but without the poncy title (or the hollandaise which I have made from scratch before but will not be repeating the feat today). These crab cakes are lovely and all you need to serve them with is sweet chili sauce, not hollandaise. Way easier!

You can go out and buy fresh crab, the recipe calls for 200g. I ignore that because I pick up tins of crab occasionally and then they are there when I need them and I don't go into heart failure trying to pay for a number of tins at the same time. I also use way more crab and potato than the recipe calls for because my beasties can eat - a lot! I used three tins of crab which is about 360g of crab meat once the tins are drained.

First, the most mundane of the tasks. Peal and cook about 400g of potatoes. Mash and leave to cool while you get on with the other parts of the recipe.

Take some of my favourite ingredients -

- and grate/crush/chop them finely. Take the spring onions, garlic, ginger and chili and gently cook with a knob of butter until softened. 

Beat two egg yolks and one teaspoon of fish sauce into the cooled mashed potatoes.

I've only put in the above photo because I like the lurid yellow of my egg yolks.

Take everything - the potatoes, crab meat, coriander and the chili/ginger/etc and put in a bowl -

- and give it a really good mix until everything is blended. Form into small round cakes. Beat the egg whites (leftover after putting the yolks in the potatoes) until they are light and frothy. Mix breadcrumbs and coconut in a ratio of about two to one. Dip the cakes into the egg white and then the breadcrumb/coconut mixture ensuring that the crab cakes are well coated.

Fry gently until golden brown. Serve with sweet chili sauce, and whatever else you would like. These are lovely with salad on a summers day. You can have noodles with them if you require something more substantial. A oriental pickled cucumber, red onion and chili salad also works as a great side dish.

Hope you didn't pull as many weeds out of your garden as I did today. I didn't get any proper sewing done (again!) but I did get over 100 thread ends sewed into the mini quilt to hide them. That was a lot of thread ends! I really do have to do more prior planning next time I make a quilt like this.

Susan

Around the Reservoir

What an amazingly beautiful day! April weather has returned. Yippee! So I turned my back on the sewing machine and dragged the girls away from the telly (mean mother that I am) and off we went for a walk. Around the reservoir. It might not be construed as 'proper exercise' because there was much stopping, talking, looking at and examining of things - even at their advanced ages of eight and ten - but we had a great time and plan on doing it more because the ressie lies on the drive between our house and their school so would be a nice way of walking off the cobwebs in the afternoons. Let's see if we manage to follow through with that intention.

Emily's Photography

We went around past the sailing club, into the woods and past some fishermen who were having a remarkable amount of success - so we stood and watched them reel in a couple of big ones. It is all catch and release though which to my food oriented brain seems rather pointless.

On through the woods and to the top end of the reservoir. Here I took the easy route -

The girls the more interesting and challenging one -

It was a particularly nice walk because the girls were nice. Anyone who has children knows there are good days, and bad days, (and weeks and months, etc) and there are days you wish you could just knock their heads together to make them stop bickering, sniping, making snarky comments and generally being unpleasant. That is a bit what my two have been like to each other this week. And it has been doing my head in. But today - today they were nice, to each other. Not only during the walk but afterwards as well. Bliss!

We went past the fishermen - a new bunch - and I managed to not snicker and say anything about size matters (because it would have been very childish and my children were there).

But honestly, is that rod not meant for catching marlin off the Pacific coast or some such thing - not catch and release at the reservoir?

We admired the wildflowers -

Did some balancing -

And came home. Hope you had an equally glorious time in the sunshine.

Susan

Any Advice?

Today we had old friends come and hang out for the day. It was really nice because we don't see them nearly as much as we wish we could. Schedules, distance and petrol prices all contrive to keep visits from happening. But today was lovely. (And if she stops by the blog and reads this - Sue, thanks for making the trip up to see us!)

So there hasn't been a lot happening on the sewing front, but there has been a little.

I received the fabric from Miss June for the Brit Bee and it is lovely. Some wonderful Dream On. We will be doing the Disappearing 9 Patch block and are welcome to sneak a bit of our own fabric if we so choose. So I laid out four different fat quarters with some of the charm squares so see if any of them actually worked with the Dream On. I know which one I am favouring but was wondering if you had an opinion too. What do you think?

Maybe none of these fabrics work, and maybe I will have a deeper dig through the old fabric stash later on. But I just thought you  might see something in one of these combos that I don't. Which ever one I do end up using I won't be able to tell  you until the end of the month when all the blocks have been received by Fiona - sorry.

I also had a few minutes to work on my Brit Swap mini quilt. I chose the backing fabric and pinned the layers together. I am not going to complain about pins this time because I would be pathetic if I did. It was a breeze and done in a matter of minutes. I like mini quilts! I thought the Tweet Tweet fabric by Moda was a very appropriate backing.

The binding fabric has only had a minimum amount of thought so far but I was wondering if you would like to proffer another opinion. Do you think that going with this black with green dots is a step too far? I was thinking in terms of making it look like a picture frame but am dithering. So more subjective opinions are being solicited.

Surprisingly enough, I did manage to make a decision or two on my own today. I also added a few more 'things learned' to that learning curve of mine. Since I have never made a quilt like this before and it was something that evolved as I made it I didn't at any point put enough thought into how I was going to quilt it. I have now realised that it should have been quilted before the birds and fence went on! Living and learning here.

I tried to see what it would be like with some hand quilting.

I pulled it out. I didn't think it suited the style of the rest of the quilt. So I tried to machine stitch it instead. I have a lot of thread ends to sew in but this is what I managed so far -

I think if I had cottoned on to the idea of quilting before the applique got put on then I might have done something very different but as it is only a lesson I can apply to my next mini applique quilt (whenever that may be) this way of quilting will have to do for now. I just hope my secret swap partner likes it.

And that is it. That is all I have to report. Sunny days, sandwiches, crisps, veggies and friends - that was way more important.

Susan

Sherbet Pips 2

I was up later than usual last night, finishing off the binding on this quilt. I was up because the sleepover didn't go quite as smoothly as I hoped for. Something to do with lights - and the necessity for or not - that caused a friction, and Helen to end up sleeping in my bed. Therefore I didn't get my relaxing read in bed - which is my switch-off at the end of the day. So I sat and hand sewed binding. Ah well, at least there is something to show for it. And, eventually, they all slept and they are happy little campers today (sort of maybe) and I guess that is what it is all about.

And seeing as how I finished this quilt it makes for the perfect thing to post about in -

For those of you who have not noticed this phenomenon the past couple of months, Lily's Quilts (aka Lynne) is leading British Quilters in a concerted effort to bring us together as a cohesive group and link us to other bloggers all over the world as well. Fresh Sewing Day is her was of letting quilters worldwide leave a link on her blog that any of her readers can follow and come see your blog.  And then I get the opportunity along with everyone else to follow these links as well and see what so many creative people have been up to. It's fun!

So today I bring you Sherbet Pips 2 (as opposed to the first Sherbet Pips which I posted about all the way back here) -

This second Sherbet Pips was a little bit more of a test of my patience. Mostly due to my first plans going array and me having to unpick - a lot. There was some serious rethinking and re-ordering of fabric. I think that its eventual incarnation is good. I am mostly happy with it. There are a few things I would change if I tried to do this invented pattern of mine again.

I wouldn't use the red Moda Bliss dots for the the skimpy half border I put around each block. I wouldn't use this fabric as I didn't manage to follow the lines of the cots so that even when my actual sewing is straight the block still looks rather wonky.

But enough of what I don't like. Things I do like - this quilt for one. It is a labour of love after all. I love that I decided to quilt it in a loop-the loop pattern as I thought that this replicated the route children - and dogs - took when they were enjoying life. I like the randomness of it, and it was like doing stippling without actually being stippled. (Does that make sense?!)

I did a little of an oopsy for the backing fabric. I like it. It is some Pips yardage I ordered just for this job. I already knew that I was planning on using the Bliss for the binding. I failed to put two and two together and see that while each was perfect for the job they weren't necessarily the best together. I didn't realise this until I was doing the hand sewing last night. I can be slow on the uptake at times! But I don't hate the combination to want to change it.

I love this quilt, because I think despite the roller coaster that was its creation it is a lovely quilt. But I love it a bit more because of its imperfections. It taught me a lot in the making of this. I like that. For me quilting is a steep learning curve at times and this wee quilt took me leaps and strides in the right direction and will help me make some more informed decisions in quilts to come. Just for that very fact it will be treasured.

And that is Sherbet Pips 2. Now, just have Sherbet Pips 3 to finish - the Pinwheel Pips. It is pieced and awaits its backing and binding. It wasn't such a trial and error process as this one. I think once that is finished I will treasure what remains of my Pips fabric and hide it away to be unpacked years from now to remind me how this was the first fabric line that I had to have. And it was a worthy line because it lived up to everything I thought of it.

Susan