All Things Craft Sewing

So, it's been a while since I posted anything in here about projects on the go or finished for that matter.  I had a camera fail, so taking pics became an issue. That's all fixed now and so onto the projects I've completed first.

My extended family welcomed 2 new editions in April, a little girl, Kate, and a little boy Lucas.  I had planned on having the cushion covers that I was putting together finished by the time they were born. But you know how it goes, you think you have time and then life gets in the way.  I managed to finish the pink one and then promptly forgot to send it up to my cousin.  Brilliant I know!  I even posted in here that I was sending it too! Oh Well better late than never! I sent it up last week, and here is a pic of that cover.

I was also in the process of putting together a bigger cushion cover for little Lucas. I managed to grab some more fat quarters for Lucas' cushion as I hadn't purchased enough to complete it by the time of his birth.  I used a pattern by Hot Possum called "Big Owl".  I used scrap fabrics from my stash mostly and the two new fat quarter pieces, and was quite pleased with how it all turned out.  I almost forgot to take a pic of it before I posted it up last week.  So here are the pics I took of the finished product.

I hand stitched all the Blanket Stitch around the letters and the pieces of the owl too.

I had fun making these two pieces, which is why I do this. 

Something that kept me occupied

I had some left over 1/4 triangle charm squares from the table runner project and wanted to do something with them.  It was suggested I make a heat pad to go with the table runner, but I decided that I wanted to make something for me instead.  I had purchased a Sony Touch eBook Reader almost 12 months ago, with a cover.  I wanted to make a padded sleeve for it too, but had never managed to get to it.  So I when I looked at the leftover charms and the left over brown bubble strips, I thought...maybe?

So I measured the eBook reader, this time remembering to add in the seam allowance! The last thing I tried to free form I forgot about the seam allowance, so it was too small for what I wanted. Anyway, I digress.  I made 2 panels sewing two of the charm squares together then dividing them with a strip of the brown bubbles. I then added a strip of the brown bubbles to either side.  I think I did the sewing together in a round about way, and I am sure there would be a simpler and faster way of doing it.  I then ironed on the pellon and sewed up the final side seam.

Next bit was a little disaster, I didn't quite get the positioning right when I sewed the bottom seam.  Then I thought I'd square the corners off, BEFORE Looking to see if it had worked properly. As you can imaging it wasn't sitting properly and was off centre to boot! So I spent some time unpicking seams and lamenting that I had cut the corners off. So I turned it up the other way and pinned the seam straight and anchored the rest of it before I started sewing again.  I then had to figure out out to fix the top bit, so I just squared it off and added a boarder piece of the brown bubbles.

I tested that the eBook reader still fit inside.  How to close it? Press studs? Velcro? Buttons? I decided on folding in one side and attaching 3 different coloured ribbons in slightly varying lengths to wrap around the entire thing. I then added beads on the ends to help anchor them when wrapped around.  The pic below if the finished product, with the eBook inside, but I took the pic before I added the beads.

Sideline Project

So while on my cooking jag I also had a bee in my bonnet about a sewing project that has been on the back burner for a while.

I had purchased two bundles of 5 inch charm squares at one of the craft/quilting shows a couple of years ago.  I had intended making myself a tablecloth with them, and had even designed the layout. I went back to it every so often, and each time I grew dissatisfied with the design.

Now at work we have a large board room with large table, which is where we tend to have our morning coffee. It's a routine to help us bond and catch up before we all start to work in earnest. We have been using folded up tablecloths that really don't fit the table, and I was also getting dissatisfied with that too.

I had recently been to the Australasian Quilting Convention here in Melbourne, and bought a little ruler that is a straight 1/2 inch.  It is used to help with making half triangle squares.  I'm sure that's not the technical term, but it's what I am going with.

I had decided to make a table runner for the office.  It was to sit across the end of the table in the boardroom.  I took my measuring tape in and made sure I had enough of what I needed at home to start it off.  So I re-sorted the charm squares and made a lot of half triangle squares.  I then decided that I would boarder or sash them with plain calico.

I checked my measurements and found I was too short, so I added some more charms.  This time however, I had sewn two half triangle squares together and cut them up so that they made a 4 triangle charm square.  I was truly proud of myself, because this was the first time I had sewn triangle squares. To keep consistent I actually matched the spacing of the other charm squares, and sashed these with calico as well.

I then joined the two end pieces with the main body.

Next came the boarder, again it was calico strips, which were 2.5 inches wide.

I did have to go and square all the half and quarter triangle charms to 4 inches square before I started to piece this all together.

I couldn't decide if I wanted to sandwich the top with a baking fabric and some wadding, or just the backing fabric.  In the end I went with just the backing fabric. Only problem was, I didn't have anything that was really suitable. So off to Spotlight I went for some cheap brownish cotton!  Luckily they had a number of quilting fabrics on sale, and I ended up with some pretty funky backing fabric.  I decided to bind the runner with a plain chocolate brown cotton, as that fit in the with the top and the backing. I ditch stitched to sandwich the two pieces together.  I then decided that the plain boarder needed something a little extra, so I used a variegated brown silky cotton and sewed 1/4 inch lines inside the binding, and that was all the quilting I did.

So below is the finished product, front and a sample of the backing too.  I am proud that I was able to match all seams and that everything in in line! Not too bad for my second free style quilting project!

Sample of the backing material.

Two for the price of one!

While I was on a cooking jag last week, I wanted to use up some leftover roast vegetables.  I was of a mind to make a vegetable mince mixture.  Well that's not what happened!  I ended up with a soup and a mince mixture.

I started out cutting all the leftover roast vegetables into small cubes.  The I added some celery, red capsicum, half an onion, some more carrots, and I think some sweet potato, but don't quote me on that.  I also added a tin of crushed tomatoes, and a tin of 4 bean mix, with some added tomato paste and water. I used dried mixed spice and parsley too. As you can imagine I ended up with a soup instead of a base for my mince!

As I had already defrosted the mince I browned it in another pan, and slowly added a number of spoonfuls of the soup mixture.  What I ended up with something that tasted brilliant and was healthy too.

I have since blitzed the soup and frozen it in snap lock bags to added to other dishes; and the mince? I've also portioned that out and frozen it too!  Although if I do too much more batch cooking, with on accident or purpose, I'll run out of room in my freezer!

On the left is the mince mixture and on the right is the soup.

... and yes that is a crochet tea cosy in the background!

Low Fat Banana Bread

So I've been on a journey with medical appointments and such over the past 2 months.  I've a need to bake when I get stressed, so in line with that  found this great Banana Bread recipe from the Best Recipes website.  The recipe can be found here and I will include it at the bottom of this post too. A big thank you to "marie" on Best Recipes for sharing this one.

I had bought about 3 kilos of very ripe banana's from the supermarket the day after I found this recipe with the intention of making a banana bread...or making millions of smoothies! Anyway, I used 3 of the 15 banana's to make the bread.  I was a bit dubious about the taste as I found the mixture rather dry to begin with, but then remembered I hadn't actually added the bananas!

It smelt rather tasty while baking and had me salivating the 40 minutes it takes to bake...well it took a little longer than that.  I had to try a piece while it was still warm from the oven, and I have to say, it really was yummy! Moist and flavourful.  I had added a half cup of walnuts to the mix as well.  I will definitely be making this again.  I sliced the loaf up once it had cooled completely, and froze it in individual slices, so that I can have a piece whenever I choose.

Low Fat Banana Bread

Recipe by 'marie" from Best Recipes website. 

(http://www.bestrecipes.com.au/recipe/Low-Fat-Banana-Bread-L1162.html)

2 cup self raising flour

1/2 cup Splenda artificial sweetener - I used Hermesetas

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1/4 cup milk - I used Semi-Skim

2 tablespoons butter, melted - I used the heating up oven to do this.

3 tablespoons golden syrup

3 bananas, mashed

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.

Place flour and sweetener in a large bowl.

Combine eggs, milk, butter and syrup in another bowl.

Add egg mixture and banana to the flour and mix well.

Pour mixture into a loaf tin lined with baking paper and bake for approximately 40 minutes.

As an added extra you could add in 1/2 cup of walnuts or oats.

To Experiment...

So I went shopping the other day at The Queen Victoria Markets here in Melbourne, like I always do the weekend I get paid.  Buying meat/fish/veges/deli & bread for most of the month.  I do go back every 2 weeks to get more veges.  I then take everything home and divide and chop and freeze what I won't be using over the rest of the weekend.  Lately I've gotten into the habit of easy meals on Saturday, and then firing up the slow cooker and the oven on Sunday to cook meals for the week.

So this past week I had bought a small leg of lamb on a whim, well that and the fact it was rather cheap.  I didn't have an idea of what I wanted to use it for, and thought about freezing it. that is until I got home and put everything away, only then realising I need a bigger freezer! It is currently chocka-block! So I needed to cook the lamb leg on Sunday.  As my last attempt at roasting only worked with another person in the kitchen, I decided to free style with the slow cooker again.

So here is what I did...

Recipe for Lamb Casserole...

Take one 1.5-2kg Leg of lamb, brown in pan to seal.
Place 2cm sliced pieces of potato in the bottom of your slow cooker. Use as may as you like, I used 3 medium sized spuds. Then slice an onion thickly and place on top on potatoes. I then had abut 2 sticks of celery already chopped and about a 1/4 of a red capsicum sliced thinly. I added those into the slow cooker too. About 2 carrots chunky chopped, but add more if you are feeding the family. Then place the sealed lamb leg in the centre of all that.  I then sprinkled about 1 teaspoon of Vegeta Vege Stock powder over it all and then poured a can of crushed tomatoes over.  Then added about half a can of addition water. Put the lid on and cooked on low for 8 hours.  Served it with steamed broccoli.

Experiment with it, after 8 hours the lamb fell off the bone, so I just broke it up in the mix.

I forgot to take a pic of the initial finished product, but will add one shortly of what is left...and below is the promised pic.

Small Pin Cushion

I spotted this pattern on the Moda Bake Shop website.  It is called a Cathedral Window Pin Cushion.  I purchased the materials from Spotlight , I thought these were quite cute.  I also used a piece of butterfly material I already had.  I must say it was very easy to make, and I enjoyed putting it together. 

I did make one change though, I appliqued the flower on the middle, as my sewing wasn't quite up to scratch, and the button I had was not big enough to hide the imperfections. I must also work on my hidden stitching though.

Pin Cushion Front

Pin Cushion Back