Friday Update

My children had their first day of school/university today, so maybe things will get back to some sort of routine.

This week I made a bird pincushion and a thimble keeper (pipkin).

The thimble keeper comes from a tutorial by Idle Hands Empty Brain, that I found through the Quilt Rat. I added a coral stitch around to cover the joining stitches (probably won't do this step again). I also had a beaded tassel on one end, but it made it too hard to open the thimble keeper, so I cut it off.

The bird pincushion I made by modifying a pattern my mother gave me from a quilt magazine (sorry I don't know which one it came from).

(the original pattern)

The original pattern calls for a 1 3/4 " wooden spool and since I only had a 1" spool, I made the pattern smaller. The pattern also used wool, and I used cotton. I also wanted to have separate wings instead of appliqued ones, so I added those too.

My mother's quilting group is having a show next year (I have been asked to demonstrate free motion machine quilting), and they are going to give away door prizes. I thought these little projects would be good, so I will probably make some more.

Kelly over at Charming Chatter has asked the Charming Girls (I am so thrilled to be a part of this wonderful group of bloggers) to post their September/October Hopes and Dreams.
Mine are -
Make some more little door prizes
Finish the 8 flowers left on the Romanian Point Lace table center
Quilt the three quilt tops I made this summer -




Also Kelly has chosen a Quilting the Quilt theme for September/October, this is great for me since I have three quilt tops that need quilting! Usually when I finish a quilt top I quilt it right away - this is the first time I have ever made quilt tops with out quilting them - I hope this doesn't happen again!
I will be quilting them all (probably free motion of some kind) on my home sewing machine.

Update (18th Sept, 2010) - Finished the Four in Four Quilt.

Today I tried a new recipe from Too Many Chefs.

Roasted Tomato Sauce

This was so easy and smelled wonderful while it was roasting in the oven. Just a layer of plum tomatoes (halved), 2 onions (chopped) (all from the garden), a couple cloves of garlic (halved), sprinkled with salt and pepper, herbs and olive oil. Roasted at 400°, for 45 mins. I removed the peel from all the tomatoes before I pureed the sauce with an immersion blender. We ate it with home made pasta, and it was delicious! I will definitely make this again, it was incredibly easy!

The garden has also been doing very well.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!! ♥