Family finishes

A while ago Leanne, who blogs at Devoted Quilter asked for pattern testers to test her forthcoming Friendship Galaxy pattern. Having previously tested a pattern for Leanne before, I was more than happy to volunteer.


Leanne's pattern is for a baby quilt measuring 45" x 45" and when I volunteered that is what I planned to make. Needless to say life got in the way a bit with late holidays and unexpected guests, so the original plans were scaled back. Fortunately for me, as well as providing the instructions for the baby quilt, Leanne also provided instructions for two smaller quilts so that is what I eventually came up with.

At 29.5" x 11.5" my Winter Stars mini quilt is destined to become a gift to my son and d-i-l as a Christmas Table Runner.

The fabrics are all from the Holly's Tree Farm range by Sweetwater, which I fell in love with as soon as I saw it in my LQS, and needless to say bought enough to make at least one more Table Runner for myself :)

As well as providing instructions for four different versions of the Friendship Galaxy quilt, Leanne also provides a colouring page to help you work out fabric placement, which is a really welcome addition to any pattern I think.

You can find more details about how to get a hold of the pattern here as well as see how the other pattern testers tackled the pattern too.

I am not the only one in the family to have a sewing finish to report though!

A while ago my d-i-l mentioned that she would like to try her hand at sewing, well you can imagine how delighted I was to hear that :)  Armed with fabrics from my stash she took to it like a pro and has since made lots of new clothes for herself and others (including me!) like this lovely sundress.

 

As if the dressmaking skills weren't enough to cause a twinge of envy, her latest venture ramps that up significantly - her very own Etsy Store https://www.etsy.com/shop/PeskyDesigns selling her own design purses!

Aren't they lovely, the button bow closures are inspired! Check out Pesky Designs for the rest of the range and send some sewing sisterhood love her way. I am so proud of what she has achieved. The early birthday present sewing machine is definitely getting well-used :)

Linking up to Sew Fresh Quilts, Crazy Mom Quilts

Spicing it up!

When my daughter-in-law was here recently we treated ourselves to a cookery demonstration with lunch at The Secret Ingredient 

I had attended one of Judy's demonstrations last year with a friend so knew to expect a very slick demonstration and a delicious lunch, and we were not disappointed! The theme of the demonstration was All Things Spice, so we were both looking forward to seeing some New to Us spices in action to add to our current recipe repertoire.

As a pescetarian my d-i-l was particularly keen to see and taste the Creole Fish Stew and it was delicious. It tastes as good as it looks!

Indeed, all of the dishes that were demonstrated that day were so tasty that we both decided to cook them all ourselves for our husbands and in-laws that weekend :)

So, although it took us a lot longer than the 90 minutes that Judy and Christine demonstrated the dishes in, as well as the Creole Fish Stew we managed to produce

a hearty Moroccan spicy chickpea soup.

I got to use a definitely New to Me ingredient in the Smoky Chicken Mole with green rice

as well as finding another use for some of those nigella seeds that have been lurking at the back of my spice cupboard.

Naan breads, handmade in minutes (who knew?) and butternut squash in sweet tamarind masala completed the savoury part of the meal.

We still found room for a slice of the Cardamom, Pistachio and Rose Petal cake accompanied by some fresh pineapple with red chilli and mascarpone though :)
 

It was a brilliant day out and even better to find that the recipes all worked just as well at home for us as they had in the demonstration.

Next week I am going back with a friend to the "Getting ahead for Christmas" demo, so I am looking forward to adding a whole new host of recipes to my arsenal!

Linking up to

New to Me in October

Welcome to another New to Me monthly Link Party.

This is our chance to celebrate the trying of new activities, whether we are successful or not!

My New to Me this month has been over two years in the making! It was just over two years ago that I visited an exhibition of needlework at a local church, where I discovered that the exhibits were all projects completed by participants in a weekly embroidery class. You will, no doubt, not be surprised to know that I put my name down on the waiting list for the class. After a few months without any response I naturally forget all about the list and the classes, so you can imagine my surprise earlier this month when I received a call to tell me that I was now top of the list and a place had just come vacant!

After a bit of to-ing and fro-ing with information, mostly from me along the lines of "what exactly did I put my name down for again?" I set off for my first class a couple of weeks ago.

The other members of the class are all working on the most amazing projects, but like all of them before I have started with this stitch sampler. The stem stitch and french knots above were not New to Me, but fly stitch was a new stitch in my repertoire. Since then I have also added bullion knots to the repertoire, although they definitely need a bit more practice :)

Embroidery featured in my other New to Me this month, in my Christmas Ornament Card.

 Not only did I get a chance to practice that fly stitch for the bird tracks and my french knot for the robin, but I also used Lutradur for the first time as the base fabric for the machine embroidery.

So that's my New to Me's for this month, now it is your turn to link up and share your successes or failures as we celebrate the trying of something new.

As ever please help to spread the word by linking back to this post in your post and/or adding the blog button to your sidebar.

Check out the other links too and, maybe, leave an encouraging comment along the way. The emphasis of this link party is to celebrate the trying of something new, whether it works out exactly as planned or not, so a little encouragement here and there would not go amiss! 

The link will remain open until 23.59GMT on October 31st, so you have some time to try something new and link up and join the party :)

If your New to Me involves a Christmas or Holiday project then don't forget to link up to this month's Ho, Ho, Ho and on We Sew Link Party too, you could just win 3F8ths of these gorgeous Liberty fabrics courtesy of Sarah at Duck Egg Threads for your efforts :)

You will find the Ho, Ho, Ho and On We Sew Link Party this month at Sandra Sews
and Ella and Nesta's Little Room

Looking forward to seeing what you have been up to this month!

An InLinkz Link-up