ANZAC Weekend

We've just had another long weekend to remember ANZAC Day.  I noticed on Instagram etc that lots of people baked ANZAC biscuits, me included.

 

Everyone loves ANZAC biscuits.  Went to a friend's for dinner on Friday night, took along some biscuits and she have me some of her biscuits to bring home.

Spent some of Friday painting and polishing brass.

Still lots happening at the house - exciting stuff, like a new drain that goes all the way to the front of the block.

By the time I get home tonight this old tree should be gone.

Perfect Autumn day today

Will be a relief to know it's not going to topple over in a storm.  There are still plenty of trees on the block.

Some sewing over the weekend.  Finished putting "Pathways and Crossroads" together.  Doesn't take very long when the blocks are so big.

A couple of RicRac's "Work in Progress" bags for presents - this was the pattern that I couldn't find late last month.   I had issues sewing on the binding around the small handle hole - ended up attaching it by hand.

And I brought out one of the bags of blocks I made starting in 2011 - Civil War Sampler (I called it "Not Quite Civil War" because of the colour scheme).

Won't take too long to sew these blocks together.  I have one more bag of blocks - Sylvia's Bridal Sampler - to sew together, then I think I can start something new.  I'm definitely looking forward to having the house back to normal.  Will be a few weeks yet before the repairs are carried out.

Easter Weekend

The Easter Weekend has come and gone too quickly.  We've had 4 beautiful days and the lovely weather will continue for a few more days.

Friday the troops came over and spent the day painting the house - I painted poles and top rails for the lattice fence.  Great niece and great nephew had an Easter egg hunt in the garden - that was a lot of fun.

Before

After

The next section of the fence has been put back in place and the last section should go in today.  My niece has painted all of this lattice and spent yesterday painting the last piece, while I painted a new little piece to go on top of the gate.

A bit of sewing Friday night to put together the first few "Pathways and Crossroads" rows.  Might do some more next weekend.

Saturday Jenni and I went shopping in Sydney- didn't buy much at all, so will keep looking for some new work clothes.  Met up with all the kids and Matt's Mum for dinner - great food at a new creperie in Randwick.

Very lazy Easter Sunday - faffed around in the morning then decided to make a Sew Together Bag.  I bought this gorgeous fabric when I visited Ballarat Patchwork last July with Helen, Jenny and Norreen.
 

It's 85% cotton/15% linen blend and looks like 100% linen.  I decided not to use the green scallop on this bag but will on the next Sew Together Bag I make.

Really pleased with how this turned out although wasn't too keen on sewing through so many thicknesses to attach the side bindings - broke quite a few needles.  Jenni came over for dinner on Sunday night and was very happy to take this home.

A few errands yesterday morning then more painting and the long weekend was over.

Backings

On Saturday afternoon I added some borders to the X and Plus quilt then made backings for some of the quilt tops I have finished over the last year or so.

Posted Picnic off to Sarah for quilting, so I'll be looking forward to that coming back in a few weeks.

A good while ago, almost 2 years, I cut into a quilt kit, "Pathways and Crossroads", that I had bought from Bec and ever since it has been in the sewing room cupboard.  Sunday afternoon I started sewing some of the pieces together and now have 5 blocks finished; 4 more to assemble.

 
These are all lovely Fig Tree fabrics and the quilt has interesting sashings, posts and borders.

Hanging out for the Easter break - catching up with family and probably painting.

Source

Almost the Weekend

Looking forward to this weekend - not a lot planned and any plans I have depend on the weather.  Was hoping it would be fine but the forecast is rain for the two days.

Finished sewing together the X and Plus quilt last night.  This was made using a "Bliss" layer cake plus some extra pieces from Marina and a few other Bonnie and Camille's from my stash thrown in to make a few more blocks.  It was Sarah's great idea for me to make this quilt.

I'd like to add borders to this quilt top but not sure I have enough of the right fabrics left.  I'll think about it for a while.

Started sewing some "Scrappy Trip Around the World" blocks together - love how it's looking so far.

Hope to make some quilt backings over the weekend - another quilt going to Sarah because it's been hanging around for a year unquilted and it's way too big for my frame (at the moment), especially considering the frame is dismantled.

Social Weekend

Had a great weekend.  The family came for lunch on Saturday.  It was great to spend some time together sitting around the table.  I love watching my kids interracting.  They are the best company.

For lunch I made Slow Cooked Sticky Asian Lamb - I've seen this recipe floating around facebook, and it's delicious.

For sweets I made Chocolate, Banana, Toffee Trifle - this is a Family Circle recipe from Christmas 2010.  Very easy to make.

600ml thickened cream, whipped
400g choc-coated honeycomb, smashed so some is in chunks and some is crumbs
4 bananas sliced diagonally dipped into juice of 1/2 lemon or whole lime
50g crushed roasted hazelnuts
1 jar Woolworths Select Gourmet Toffee Sauce (couldn't find it so used their Gourmet Caramel Sauce)
2 tubes Nestle Rolos (couldn't find these either, so used 100g Cadbury Caramel Chocolate)
2 x Flakes

Reserve 1/4 cup smashed honeycomb for decoration.  Place half of remaining honeycomb in base of trifle bowl, then half of hazelnuts, half bananas and half toffee sauce followed by half of the whipped cream.  Repeat.  Place Rolos on top for decoration and sprinkle over Flakes and remaining honeyomb (one Flake is plenty, have the other to have with a cup of tea).

Friday night I finished making the X and Plus blocks.  This one is next to be sewn together.

Saturday night I started sewing the Seville Limes blocks together

finished it off last night and made borders and binding.

Another top added to the pile (must set up the quilting frame).  Shouldn't have had that striped block in the corner.

Had a great day out yesterday - lunch with 3 friends I travelled around Europe with many years ago.  Lynell and Robyn I see quite often and it was lovely to see Wendy as well.

X Blocks

Until this year I had never made an X Block and now I have three quilt tops at various stages using this block:

Goodnight Irene Sew-along

X and + (only one block made so far)

Seville Limes

After finishing off the Seville Limes X Blocks last night I laid out all the blocks on the design "wall"

Seville Limes - 3 more rows to be added

I love how this design makes circles.

The last of the happy mail arrived yesterday:

Backing fabrics for Spell it with Moda (the alphabet quilt), X and + Quilt and Seville Limes plus some more white to use as background.

Lots of exterior painting happening at the house and it's looking fantastic.