"Elephant Quilt"

Hello,

Could someone please tell me that I am not the only one who leaves a finished quilt on the kitchen table for a week waiting for those damn threads to be trimmed off etc. I just spent nearly 3/4 of an hour doing that. Not one of the pleasant parts of quilting, give me a dozen bindings to be put on instead.

This will most probably be used as a tablecloth more than a quilt. Final measurement of this is 53 inches square. I ended up having to add some blue ric rac to two sides because when I was measuring the yellow ric rac silly me only measured the panels before the end squares were attached.

Every piece of this quilt came from my stash including the wadding. I used two different floral fabrics for the backing. The quilt police (whoever they are) would tut tut at some of the fabrics. You see some of the Christmas fabrics that are in the tumbler section are poly cotton. I don't care because they are now used up and there are so many fabric memories in this section it is all part of my fabric history.

Happy days.
Bev C

"Jingle, Sparkle and Joy for FNSI and the best event happening here in West Australia.

Hello,

Happy Sunday,

I joined in Friday Night Sew In and decided to work on a cross stitch that was supposed to be finished in February! I continued stitching a little every now and again over the weekend and the stuffing was added while watching Landline at lunchtime today.

 This is a design by a blog called Midsummer Night Designs. This blog hasn't been active for a while but there are several lovely designs available for free.  I stitched on 14 count Aida.  Lavender went in with the stuffing and the ric rac and button tin came out to see what could be used up. The same Christmas fabric on the front was used for the backing. This Christmas ornament will also count as a finish for One Christmas Item a month.

The best event in Western Australia is happening soon.

No matter where you live in Western Australia if you are a blogger or read blogs you are invited to attend a bloggers meet up at the next craft show in Perth in May which is held at the Convention Centre. Anthea from Hibiscus stitches blog is asking that you let her know if you can attend this event. Several other things are in the planning stage as well. I can tell you days like this are so special and it would be so wonderful if more people could attend. Anthea has a page on her blog dedicated to this, please have a look. The bonus regarding this blog gathering is that Shopping is involved. Bloggers from other parts of Australia could even attend and you are most welcome.

In my last post I had a recipe for the Vanilla Slice. Sandi who is a no reply commenter asked where the recipe came from. Check out the link at http://www.bestrecipes.com.au/recipe/vanilla-custard-slice-L3882.html  Did you know that if you are a no reply blogger you can fix that by looking at this page.

Thanks to Wendy and Anthea for hosting both these link ups.

Happy days.
Bev C
.

"Living Life."

Hello,

Living life, that is what has been happening here. Blogging got put on the back burner for a while. Plus I haven't really been in the sewing room until a few days ago. Summer heat plus the Autumn heat we have been having has taken a toll on the garden so lots of pulling out of plants and trees has taken place. The good news is that we can review our plant selections and purchase new ones in the next couple of months.

I used up the last of our Cucumbers making a relish.

 I followed a recipe in the Country Woman's Association Cookbook. The only thing I didn't have was a chili which I left out.

 4 jars of beautiful Cucumber pickles. Now we all know that we need to leave them for about 3 weeks for the full flavour to go through the Cucumbers and Onions. I found that a certain person had opened the jar the next day!! Needless to say that jar didn't last long.

Ainsley and Julian brought Jacob up for his first big drive on the holiday Monday for lunch. I made up the Vanilla Slice recipe that Wendy had suggested to eat at the last sew in. I can tell you this was one delicious slice. I didn't worry about using the icing on the top because there was cream left over so that was spread on top then the Passion fruit syrup drizzled over this.

 With 6 of us it was the perfect number of guests to each get one big slice. Since making this no other Vanilla Slices that are available in the shops look as good and taste as good as this one. As Julian says I have raised the bar too high!

 On the sewing front a few more Elephants have been embroidered. This is a Elinor Peace-Bailey design. I remember meeting up with her and getting my photo taken with her years ago at a craft show in Perth that a girlfriend and I attended.

 So this is what the Elephant panels are attached to.Lots of tumbler shaped pieces.This quilt which I will probably use as a tablecloth has been a great exercise in using up scraps and making up the pattern as I have gone along.

 I plan to add some yellow toned ric-rac between the main piece and the embroideries.
The Elephant embroideries came from a site called "Cute Embroideries", you have to sign up to get the designs but they are free. The flower designs came from  the Cactus Punch Signature Series called Garden Grannie.

 There is always debate about Books versus Movies. I have watched both these movies and immediately went and bought the books. Lucy has read The Book Thief and said it contained lots more stories than in the movie so I am looking forward to reading that one. Ian and I saw Tracks on the weekend. This is a great movie with wonderful scenery and some great acting. I can still remember reading the West Australian newspaper back in the 70's when Robyn was tracking across the outback with her camels. In the movie it shows her reading the newspaper clipping.

Last night David Lucy and I went and had the most wonderful evening of laughter watching and listening to Alan Davies. We all love watching QI on TV so when we knew he was coming to Perth we were determined to go and have a good time.
Thanks Lucy and David for your company. While we were waiting for the show to start we got a text message from Ian to say that we had 4.5 mls of rain. We haven't had that amount since the beginning of October last year so that was great news.

Our love and prayers goes out to Ainsley and Julian and their circle of friends and the family they know that is waiting to hear what has happened with the missing plane.

Happy days.
Bev C