"Umbrella friendly Table Topper, and Lucy's cake."

Hello,

Amongst all the rose pruning last week I had my monthly sewing day on Friday. I didn't realise until about 4.00 pm on Thursday when I was checking the calendar. What was I going to make, I have some un-finished projects to work on. No, I wanted something quick to work on. I had won a jelly roll earlier on in the year and wanted to use that. A quick search on the Moda Bake Shop site and I came up with the Patio Table Topper.

"Patio Table Topper designed to go around a umbrella in the centre."

When I originally saw the pattern I had plans of changing it a bit. This didn't work out, I wanted to join all the sections together and put a embroidered piece across the centre. It just bunched up too much in the centre. Looking at the photo on the Moda site it shows the topper scrunched up to fit so I guess the gap between the pieces is OK.

"Backing fabric."

When I unwrapped the jelly roll I discovered that each and every one of the 20 pieces of fabric was cut badly. The fabric had been folded onto itself crookedly when cutting the strips. So the top part of each strip had a mountain in the middle while the bottom edge had some missing. So it was a case of either cutting the fabric and loosing quite a bit of fabric or do some creative sewing. Creative sewing won out. For the backing fabric I chose some floral fabric from my stash. I purchased about 3 metres of this cotton dressmaking fabric from a garage sale this year for the princely sum of $1.00.

"Made by Lucy."

Lucy made this stunning double layered chocolate cake last week for a friend at work. Three packets of Kit-Kat's around the side plus a couple of Oreo biscuits and M&M's with some of Betty's icing. Lucy made her own icing to go between the top and bottom layers. Icing mixture mixed with Oreo biscuits, gosh that was very yummy.

Happy days.
Bev C

"Congratulations."

Hello,

Congratulations to Anthea, who is the winner of the "Tending the Garden" present. Anthea has won a $20.00 voucher to spend at Bunnings. Now I know Anthea tells me that she doesn't have green thumbs.  I 'm sure Anthea will be able to pick up some storage items for her craft room or something similar.

If the winner was from overseas I was going to arrange a on-line voucher to a sewing related store. With the postal charges going up all the time I thought this was the way to go. You sometimes pay more in postage than the actual parcel is worth.

I haven't had much time to sew with all the gardening going on but I did manage to try out some machine embroidery samples that I had downloaded from the net. It is always best to test these before doing them on a project. Tensions etc can be a bit tricky sometimes. I will be putting some of these in the post for Fiona today. I am not sure if you will ever see them on her blog!

Happy days.
Bev.

"Tending the Garden."

Hello,

Winter is nearly at a end, sunshine for the next week. Life is busy, family in all directions. Lots of visits to Perth etc. One home sick today. One family member has been on a baking spree each day. Yummy healthy biscuits etc.  Have taken up a new hobby.  Something is always happening, but it is that time of the year again.

It is time for me to fill this bin with pruning's from the roses in the front garden, probably about 100 roses plus.I have a week to fill it. Leave me some love and I will put your name in for a small present. Will announce the winner next Tuesday.

Until then.

Happy days.
Bev C

"Iris Cross Stitch,Veggie Gardening,Bookmarks and Delish Cakes & Cupcakes."

Hello,

Last night I put the last stitch into this cross stitch design. I had purchased the 18 count Aida cloth already painted a while back from Good Sammy's for only $2.00. I recently purchased the book that contained the pattern  from e-bay.

"Iris" Cross Stitch.

I used the recommended DMC threads, pattern from Jill Oxton's Cross Stitch Australia Issue No. 8.

Sometimes we have disappointments when it comes to gardening with weather conditions, snails etc. This Winter we planted what the label said was Baby Cauliflowers. Several punnets of them actually, taken from different seedling trays at Bunnings.

What we actually got was a bonus.

They were not Baby Cauliflowers, but the normal ones. The problem now is we have so many BIG Cauliflowers. Lots of soup making going on. Every evening meal has a few pieces of Cauli on the plate.

The Broccoli is also growing at a fast rate. Broccoli is one of the most sprayed Veggies you can buy at the shops. We don't spray with anything. If you plant at the right time you can get a great crop.

I received a lovely card and one of Cheryll's book marker's in the mail on Tuesday. Perfect timing because I had just got home from the Library. Thank you so much Cheryll.

I got a message from my Sister Chris to say that Pauline's daughter has started a cake business. When I told Lucy this she said straight away that Justine's cakes are amazing. You see Lucy has been lucky enough to taste some of Justine's cakes while she was in New Zealand.

http://www.delishcakes.co.nz/

I borrowed the photo of this divine looking cake from Justine's website. The array of cakes and cupcakes will make you so hungry. If you live in New Zealand, both the North and South Island delivery is available.In the words of that Australian music man Mollie Meldrum "Do yourself a favour and buy them."

Enjoy the weekend.

Happy days.
Bev C

"How much can you fit into a Sunday."

 Hello,

Happy Monday.

Late last week I finally got around to dyeing some cross stitch linen.

Thanks to Nat and this link she had sent me I was able to change the colour of the linen without any problems. Using the skins of the red onion. The folded piece of linen is the original colour of the fabric. I am very happy with how this worked out as I have a design that will be perfect for the piece of linen. It is on my list to do next. I have since started another cross stitch but will share this when there is a bit more done to it.We sometimes call the red onions Spanish Onions. Not everyone knows what you are talking about when you refer to them as Spanish Onions. David found this out when he was overseas earlier on this year. He was at a Subway store and was ordering what he wanted in his roll and asked for Spanish Onions. When the roll was made up and given to him in it was Spinach and Onions.!

Sewing friends give you the best hints, not just about sewing. One of the ladies from my sewing group told me last year that her husband planted the bunches of Spring Onions after he had used them and they  re-grow. So this year Bonnie bought a few bunches for cooking, so I kept the bottom parts and put them in a glass of water for a few days for the roots to form and planted them out in the garden. They are growing so fast and now we just go out into the garden instead of driving to the shops if we want more Spring Onions.

Now I have been to known to procrastinate a little. You see there was a Craft and Wood Show on at the Claremont Showgrounds over the weekend. I was going to go then decided not to. Then Ian said we could go together on Sunday. In the meantime one of the sewing ladies offered to take me on Friday. I declined and said we were going on Sunday.
Anyway Sunday came and we left town in the soup pea fog at 9.00 am. First port of call was to see David at his rooms at Uni and drop some fresh Mandarin's and Oranges and other goodies to him.After a tour of his room which was very neat we left for the craft show. By this time we decided it was time for lunch so got some lunch and had to sit on the floor until a kind lady offered me a seat. Thanks so much for that. Then it was time for a wander around the show. I was mainly after some cross stitch fabric. I was at the Colours Down Under stall when I could hear someone asking me "Are you Bev?" "Yes" I said. It was Anthea and Tracee. You see I had my Sweet Liberty Handbag on my shoulder, that I finished making last week. Making your own bag has got its perks. It was great catching up with both ladies after emailing and reading their blogs. After chatting for a while it was back to shopping and this is what I purchased.

Yes, only three items. A metre of 28 count Zweigert linen. The fabrics were only available in 1 metre lengths. This was OK because it was 20% off and I can always dye the fabric to suit the pattern I will be working on. The books were 10% off I was only going to buy one but when she told me they 10% off I took two. Why not, these books are certainly not available locally.
Then it was a wander around the quilt display and look at the woodwork. Some of this was amazing. I couldn't get over the price of some pieces of wood. I throw pieces of wood into the fire when I should be selling them to men.
After the show we called into see Ainsley and Julian for a much needed cuppa and chat. While we were there we got a call from Lucy who was in Perth for the weekend with some girlfriends. The car they were travelling in was broken down at the Midland Railway Station. We had given them a Battery Starter pack on the Saturday when they were leaving because Simmy had trouble with her car. Ian gave her instructions on how to work it and all three girls knew what to do with it. Anyway we drove to meet them at the Station at 4.00 pm. Got the car started and told Simmy to keep it revved up and we would follow her up the road. She was going home to Toodyay about 40 minutes drive from Midland. All was going well until her car stalled at the traffic lights at the Midland Gate turn off. We drove into the car park, leaving Lucy with Simmy and then we all pushed the car up the road into the car park, a total of several hundred long metres. We only had one car of hoon's toot at us, everyone else was kind. Simmy called her Mum and both she and her Brother drove down. In the meantime we decided to go into Midland Gate Shopping Centre and have a look around and I was in need of a coffee. No coffee, only takeaways as we close in 20 minutes said the woman at Muffin Break. No thanks I wanted a real cup. Lucy and Simmy were off looking at other shops and then Simmy realised that she didn't have the car keys. Ian and I walked back to see if she dropped them or if they were locked in her car. In the meantime we told them to go and buy a wire coat hanger to help open the car if we needed it. Sorry said the girl at Big W it is too close to closing time we have already done up our tills. Never mind that it was urgent. No more shopping at Big W with that attitude especially as Lucy and Simmy told her why they needed to buy them. The keys were locked in the car, so when Simmy's Mum and Brother arrived a trip up the road to Bunnings to buy a hanging basket hook. After much struggle we were able to get the door open. Then the new battery was fitted after things had been filed back to fit etc. Apparently the Alternator had gone so the battery was only charging a little, no lights etc. Simmy had a friend up the road where the car was left. So being that late we ordered Pizza from Caesars Pizza and finally got home at 7.30 pm. So you see we can fit a lot into a Sunday.

In case you are wondering we did ask Simmy on Saturday if she was in the RAC. No. By Sunday evening she was joining up as soon as she got home.

I am hoping for a quiet day today.

Happy Monday.
Bev C