SHIPS AHOY (AND CHIPS AHOY)

The little quilt with sailing ships is finished.   

The backing is polar fleece.    I quilted each area a little differently - the fish are basic stippling, the sea is quilted with wavy rows of straight stitching and the sky is done with my interpretation of wind blowing (I also added some of the wind design to the sails).  

For those of you with embroidery machines with a large embroidery field, you will find these designs over at Sewforum.   (You will need to join if you are not a member already).

{and no I will not be resizing them - your world will not end if they don't fit the hoops you have}.

This afternoon I felt like baking.   These cover some of my son's food groups.   The elf lives by the food pyramid of milk chocolate, dark chocolate, white chocolate and milo!    (His father will tell you, "he is his mother's son").     I have now found the ultimate hiding spot for the chocolate.   

So, if like me, you like to bake, here is the recipe for these bits of crisp, buttery goodness....

SUE'S TRIPLE CHOC COOKIES

This is a big mixture.   You can halve it if you like.   I plan to freeze a lot of them (I made 80 good size cookies) and bring them out as needed - this may slow consumption!!

2 cups plain flour

2 cups self raising flour

500 grams butter (2 cups or 4 sticks)

2 cups castor sugar

1 cup dark brown sugar

3 teaspoons vanilla extract (use the good stuff)

2 large eggs

chocolate chips - I used three packets  - 250 grams each - one each of milk, white and dark.

If you want to kid yourself that it will make them healthy, add some nuts or dried fruit.

Heat the oven to 190C (fan forced).     Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

Add the vanilla and the eggs and beat well.    Sift the flours together and add to the butter mixture gently.   When fully mixed, add the chocolate chips.

You will need to make balls of mixture, the size of a walnut or slightly larger.   Place on to baking trays lined with "Gladbake" or similar.    Flatten slightly.     Bake until golden.   They will foof up slightly and then drop a little on cooling.     When cooked, remove from oven and leave on trays for a few minutes, when they have set, transfer to a cooling rack.    If you don't let them cool slightly before trying to move them, this happens ........ 

 When cooled, feed to the starving masses in your home.    My taste testers this afternoon, declared them to be delicious.

Here's to a productive and pleasant week.    Sue xxx

A DAY OUT AT THE SHOW AND THEN SEPTEMBER DISAPPEARED

The carnival is well and truly over here in Melbourne, but for my captive audience, here are a few highlights from the past month.  

This household needs a dog, so with the show schedule in hand, I suggested to my sister that we should take all the kids (that would be 3 - we haven't over produced in my family)  as I wanted to check out my dream dog which was showing that day.  It has been a bizillion years since I last went, Lynn can't remember the last time she went, and we figured we would look like superwomen if we actually made the effort during the school holidays.   So on the first Wednesday of the school holidays we headed out bright and early for a big day out.   As we might as well live at the ends of the universe some days, and peak hour traffic being an essential ingredient if you want to get to your destination in time to see what you want to see, it took a good hour and a half to make it to the Flemington Show Grounds.   Don't mention the train - I do not do public transport.   I had checked out the times for the dogs so we headed off to this pavillion first.  (I should add at this point that I thought we would be at the Show for a couple of hours and that we could then call it quits and go home -  I only wanted to see the dogs really, the kid wanted a couple of show bags and one of my nieces wanted to look longingly at horses).    I found my dogs and had a nice chat with the owners and cooed longingly.    This is what I am after:

A wolfhound or a deerhound - nothing too big really.    How fabulous are those faces.  Just a matter of finding one now.  (Not an easy task let me tell you). 

There is a face under all this fur - I can just make out an eye....

I do not understand this, and there were people hanging a really really long way up in the air on other rides.  I feel sick looking at them spinning wildly in the universe, hoping that some peanut has put all the bolts on correctly.   Perhaps it's just me. 



 Truly this cow looked so comfy, all she needed was a blanket and somebody to sing a lullaby. (I should add, this could also be a bull, but unless your an aficionado, we go with cow)

We did learn a very interesting fact about some of the cows on display - we were watching their handlers adding something red to the water, and it looked like cordial.   We were laughing about raspberry milkshakes - as you do - but apparently the cows didn't like the chlorine in the Melbourne Water, and would only drink if it had  raspberry cordial in it.   Who knew??

These lads were daring or daft..... 

and I wanted to know who thought this was a great idea for the school holidays?   Can you imagine  how many boys were thinking - let's try this at home?    Nothing like giving 10 year olds an idea to run with.  

  
So as I said - I was expecting to get away with a couple of hours - max -   We didn't leave until after 6 pm.    It took another 1 and 3/4 hours to get home - a fair swag of that time was just getting out of the carpark.    As my son is now 15, I am thinking that this could quite possibly be the last time I will have to voluntarily attend with him, next time he wants to go he can find some friends to ride those stomach churning rides with.

As I mentioned earlier, it was school holiday time, so we took another little trip up to my favourite place, Merimbula.   Good heavens it was cold.     We arrived by lunchtime and by 3.30 I was convinced that the aches and pains I was suffering were not from the car trip, but by some rotten bug that I had collected.  Sure enough I spent the entire holiday with a hacking cough and runny nose - as it turns out my sister also came down with the same thing on the same day, so I named it "Carny Flu" in honor of the show.

And so the pelicans were left in peace, I only took a few shots this holiday - most unlike me - so here are a couple of the better ones -

 

In between birthdays and holidays, I have managed to do a bit of sewing and even played around with my digitizing program for the embroidery machine.   I volunteered to do a sail boat for somebody and then it started to grow into a small project.    I am currently quilting the thing at the moment and will do another one, now that I have straightened out a few hiccups.  I plan on giving it to a group who distribute charity quilts and am putting polar fleece as the backing to keep it soft.  

 The elf wanted to know why the fish looked like it was smiling - I said I was trying not to frighten small children - for a change.

 Have a good week everybody.    Sue xxx

PAINTED

The tv cabinet I picked up off eBay last week, has now had five coats of paint,  a bit of arty sanding, and a rub down with beeswax.   The computer and printer now have a much nicer home.   

One thing I didn't notice until I was down on my hands and knees sanding was this little detail.

A penny from 1913.    I decided to leave the decorated door as it was, mostly because I would still be trying to remove it three weeks next Friday.      Let's see how long it takes me to have things stuffed in, on and under....

I also got wheels added to my "design wall".   I like saying that...."design wall" - I have one of those now.   I also finished the two strips for this quilt and added an extra row of the disappearing nine patch.   Just need to add the thin white borders and then the final floral and then it is quilting time.   Maybe later in the week.

And what is a post without Norman.    Three weeks of Prozac has kept the old Norm a little subdued with a hint of hissy.    A couple more days and he should be back to his charming/vicious personality that we all know and love (that would be a hint of sarcasm there) but hopefully the floor can take a rest - who knows, next we will get a dog and seriously mess with his head.  Bwaaahhh.

Bye for now.   Sue xxx

MYSTERY QUILTS

Saturday started bright and early, lots to do today.    Went to vote, then my faithful assistant (DH) and I went for coffee.     After a brief coffee break, it was on to filling my car with everything bar the kitchen sink, and then I headed off to what was to be another action packed 10am to 10pm session at our local community house.    Being the executive in charge for the day, I had completed a couple of samples and given everyone written instructions on the necessary preparation for the day.      The mystery for this quilt was the Disappearing Nine Patch quilt.   Lunch and dinner are supplied on these days enabling everyone to just get on with art of quilt making.   Jan produced a spectacular Sticky Date cake complete with gallons of sauce and cream (notice how I concentrate on the healthy portion of the meals).

As you can see from the following photos, everybody had a different theme.

Carol chose a stunning colour palette.  Lots of mustard, pink and greens whilst Helen went with a black and white palette, charged with a shot of fluorescent green and orange.  Many of us wanted to covet Helen's black and white stash.

Jan is another die hard fabric collector - her stash of Kaffe Fasset fabric has to be seen to be believed.  

Jan got to the point of sashing, before calling it a night.    The lime green and white just added to the fresh look of the whole quilt centre.

Liz from over at Teddlywinks is gearing up for grandkid  quilts.  It had a bit of an "I Spy" arrangement going on.

Vrinda in a sewing marathon finished the entire quilt top.    We both spent some time working on the corners to get a good pattern match going.   We were successful on EVERY corner!!

Vrinda also bought along her finished quilt top from our previous Mystery Quilt day.

Vicky was the speediest in finishing the centre, not being able to spend the full amount of time with us, her centre was done and dusted by 5 o'clock.    It would be safe to say that Vicki spent more time sewing and less time talking!

Elizabeth chose a coffee, cream and chocolate theme.   

Here is some of it sewn together.

Whilst everybody was busy beavering away, I thought (just for a laugh) that I might cut some fabric for another quilt.  After all, where is the fun in not having 5 projects on the go at the same time.   So I cut these -notice how they are pinned to my "design wall".

There is so much going on in this fabric that I have now had to come up with an alternate way of putting them back together again, so it doesn't look like the original fabric.  We will see how it goes.

The following are the samples I did for the Disappearing Nine Patch.   The first  sample I made was from furnishing fabric - why? - because it was there and it cost $5.60 (and there were enough squares cut at 6 1/2 inches that you could have covered a house with it.

I embroidered a few flowers that I digitised as appliques and it doesn't look that bad.  I am thinking of just putting polar fleece on the back  - it weighs rather a lot.    

 The second sample is once again in the purple vein.    I am going to add a flower border to each end to make it long enough to cover the window seat.   The colours have turned out to be all wrong here so imagine it in a different green and purple flowers.    Lot of work for the cat to sit on!

Sunday saw us (faithful assistant and I) off to pick up my latest prize for the week that I "won" on eBay.   I have been momentarily banned from any further eBay purchases, you will see why later in the story......

as much as some will think it horrific that I would entertain such an idea, I am going to paint this white and distress it.   The yellow flowers are a bit faded and naff, but otherwise the cabinet is fantastic and is not the cheap pine I was expecting when I won the auction.   (Won being such a subjective term, it cost money to "win").   So stay tuned on that one.   I am working on the elf at the moment to see if I can con him into getting busy with the sander - I detest the sanding part - then I will drag it upstairs to paint - it is too cold and damp in my neck of the woods to paint outside - I envisage puddles of paint at my feet.   The plan is that this will house my computer, printer and embroidery cd's and such, and hide the dust - again - refer further down and you will ask - "Does this woman really worry about dust?"

Now just for a laugh and this is why I am banned from eBay for a moment, this is my room - panoramic style.   I think I have a little bit of work to do - soon!!

Bye for now.    Sue xxx

GOOD ENOUGH TO EAT!

I have been cooking up a storm, mastering the art of sponge drops. Started with the basic recipe and then tried them in chocolate (that could never be a bad thing). We had these for morning tea for Running Away from Painting this week.

and because you have seen them and now want to try them, here is the recipe.

SPONGE DROPS

Pre-heat the oven to 190 c (375f)

Line trays with baking paper or silpat sheets

3 eggs at room temperature

1/2 cup caster sugar

1 cup plain flour, sifted 3 times

extra caster sugar

Whisk the eggs and sugar together until pale and thick. Gently fold in the flour. Spoon mixture on to prepared trays - don't flatten - make sure there are an even number - 24 rounds make a good size. Allow for some spreading. Sprinkle with extra caster sugar and bake for 10 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool on the trays. When cold, peel off the paper. Sandwich together with whipped cream and jam. These little cakes are actually better if you make them a day ahead and fill - the sponge cake is quite firm when first made, but goes soft if left for a few hours or overnight.

If you are using greaseproof paper, you may have to dampen the paper on the underside, before trying to peel off the cakes. The newer baking papers don't require this treatment.

Here are a couple of fillings I have tried so far:

cream and raspberry jam

cream and raspberries (frozen)

cream and lemon butter or lemon spread

chocolate cream.

To make the sponge drops chocolate, I simply took out two tablespoons of flour and replaced them with cocoa power. To make the chocolate cream, I added cocoa powder to the cream, with sugar and vanilla extract.

I "won" this on eBay last week and my faithful assistant and I went and picked it up yesterday. An office partition that is now my "design wall". I had thoughts that it may spend some time out in the garage airing - coming from an office, I was thinking stale cigarette smells or other horrors but it was actually in really good nick. There were some stains from tea or coffee, but once home, I cleaned it down with woolmix and some lavender oil and it has come up a treat. We had to get some help to lift it up to my room. It is 1800 x 1800 and our stairs are not, so it had to be hoisted up over the railing.

Don't you just love the state of my room. It looks the same in all 4 corners, but I have three quilts on the go and a mystery quilt to prepare for Saturday so it will stay like this for a bit yet. It doesn't bother me, I can find stuff. The husband started to point out a few issues until I told him to go have a good hard look at his sheds.

So now I can say, have a look what is on "the design wall" this week. I pinned this in to position because I can, I have nearly completed all the squares for the bedspread/quilt as you go quilt, but have had to stop to work on it and concentrate on other bits and pieces.

During the month, the husband and elf went to Malaysia for eight days, taking my camera with them. The elf was playing representative cricket for the Yarra Valley. I chose to stay at home, cricket, 35 degree (c) heat and 87% humidity - not my thing.

Once the cricket finished and the boys had time to shop, I asked (now I realise foolishly) if they had seen any fabric stores. I was picturing exotic silks in jewel tones. Text messages were sent back and forth with pictures of assorted fabrics. Photo's would come of fabric, texts would be sent in reply with things like - that looks like upholstery fabric, or that is butt ugly - until in one of the pic's I saw a sign in the background - Indian Silk - so I sent him off in that direction. The husband said he bought me 10 pieces of what the trader assured him was Indian silk. I was picturing lots of loveliness and silkyness - here's what he came home with:

.....bloody polyester scarves. He got shafted - the trader saw him coming. Before any further trips to the exotic east, lessons will be given on fabric. Something else to go to the op shop.


Here's Norman - he has issues - first I noticed that his back leg would become momentarily useless and he couldn't put any weight on it, secondly - we have bouts of "inappropriate urination" (not related to the first issue). A trip to the vet confirmed that he seems to have a dislocating knee cap - at this stage we are taking a wait and see approach on that one (apparently it is unusual in cats - just my luck and truly I shouldn't be surprised because - oh, that is unusual - seems to be our mantra with lots of things we buy or own). His second issue, well, I am giving him Prozac! We have had him on it before when renovating the house, so we will see how he goes. At the moment he is sleeping in strange places and seriously has the "can't be bothereds". I am risking life and limb just giving him a dose - he hasn't lost the agro streak. Last night when the husband was getting ready to put both the cats out, he asked if I could get Norman because the night before he had growled and hissed at him, my reply was that if I had to put my fingers in his mouth, he could pick Norman up off the chair!!


Things I learned this week.

Whilst cooking a part of the evening meal in the microwave one night last week, I learned that you CAN burn through aluminium. I had finished the main meal off using the high mix feature of my convection microwave combination. I had bought a dessert (Sara Lee Danish if you must know) and turned the microwave on - I thought I had hit the convection button to cook at 180 but apparently, I didn't. I turned in my chair to see smoke in the kitchen and a strange blue light in the microwave (that would be the arching - never done it before) so calories were burned - literally - because the danish had been busy microwaving for some time and had a black hole burnt in it and the rest was set like concrete. Lesson for the week. Double check programs between dishes - idiot!

Bye for now.
Sue xxx