Whilst on my walk this morning, I came up with a good possibility for the sashing of the little houses - a pale grey/blue polka dot - and I found the perfect one.  

Then I needed a spring-like background for the seedling bowls - boy this was hard to pick, I must have carefully pored over the shelves 5 times before settling on this - but I think the pretty turquoise will be lovely.  And the background for the top half of the block actually has a very faint peachy polka dot.

There was also this dear little fat quarter - I’ve been smiling over this for the last month or so and might even have to go back for the last two …

I love the quaint energy of the little dancing folk.  Don’t know what to do with it yet but I’m sure another week of walking - marching! - along the beautiful river walk at the University of Queensland will provide me with an idea.  

Do you do that?  Plot and dream and ponder and puzzle as you go about your day?  Sometimes I think it would be more peaceful to pop on some headphones and slow that internal chatter down! :-)

This evening, Nan, Little A and I were deeply troubled - there were only three lunchbox treats left - perfect for us for dessert, but then there’d be none left for the lunchbox tomorrow. “A-ha!”  I announced - Little A’s new homework routine is very holistic - she has to choose a news story she finds interesting and provide her opinion on it, she has to help plan the weekly menu and shopping, and she has to do some chores and cook!  So after dinner, whilst I washed up, Little A made a fresh batch of lunchbox treats (I did the hot honey bit) and for those readers who were tricked by the bubbly brown bumps in the fridge, here’s the recipe!  

Ingredients

30 grams cornflakes

50 grams rice bubbles

50 grams rolled oats

50 grams of dark chocolate

150 mls of honey

50 grams of butter

Method

Mix the dry cereals together.  In a small pan, heat the dark chocolate, honey and butter until the chocolate and butter have melted.  Be careful not to let it boil over.  Add the warm honey mixture to the cereal and mix well.  

Using a dessert spoon, spoon the mix into patty pans, put on a tray and pop into the fridge overnight.

Eat plenty and enjoy!

You simply must try them, they are delicious and *almost* healthy!

Have you ever raised seeds in papier mache pots?  I haven’t, but every time I read about this, I am sure it must be very satisfying.  You make simple papier mache pots with strips of paper (I LOVE doing this!), fill them  with seed raising mix, add the seeds, moisten regularly and then, when the seedlings are strapping, you plant them, pot and all, in the garden beds.  

I suppose what’s stopping me from trying this is that I’m a GHASTLY gardener - dreadful! But you couldn’t go wrong with patchwork seedlings, surely!

And what better assortment of fabric to use than a gorgeous Woodland Bloom layer cake … except that Lucy and Simon keep walking across it!

Simon is very insulted by this suggestion - he protests that he has NOT walked across it, he was simply trying to get to the one strip of sun left.

Lucy has no such shame - she just keeps waddling back and forth!  Off, off, you silly goose!  Perhaps I should pick it up from the floor.

So I have sorted the fabric into 6 bundles of 5, halved the 10 inch squares, then sliced the long 10 by 5 inch pieces into 7 narrow strips.  This will yield 3 papier mache bowls from each bundle of 5.  18 bowls.  Perhaps, I’ll chop up the other 5 by 10 inch piece and make 36.  Or not.  

Oh, and I made a template Piece of Cake style.  I drew a half circle on the computer, printed it out on stiff card, then laminated it using a self laminating sheet.  This works such a treat - makes lovely, sturdy templates.

Trace, cut and …

a papier mache seed raising bowl!

Now I just need some seeds and a nice sunny place to line them up - I’ll be visiting that patchwork store near Nanny and Grandad’s tomorrow and I know I will find just the right combination.

And I haven’t been ignoring the village houses - I’ve been plodding along with my path laying nicely …

Gosh I love stitching.

Little A and I started to reform ourselves on Sunday - we pored over “Nigella’s Express” and a new Women’s Weekly cookbook “Mince” (nothing quite like mince for speedy ease and yummy) and wrote a menu for the week, a shopping list and took ourselves off to the market.

Thus far, we have enjoyed pork and apple terrine with sauteed vegetables (it served two dinners - what a bargain!), tuna and chickpeas, pollo alla … forgot the Italian name - hunter’s chicken …

and we’ve made Lunchbox Treats (also from “Nigella’s Express) for Little A’s schooldays - but have all been unable to stop ourselves from sneaking these from the fridge all week!

The tuna and chickpeas make such a delightful meal, I thought I would share it here with you … it is ridiculously simple, quick and tasty.  It’s our “fast food” when we are feeling too virtuous for takeaway.

Ingredients

1 400g tin chickpeas

1 250g tin tuna in brine

1 onion sliced finely

1 red capsicum slice finely

1 clove garlic minced

half a butternut pumpkin, chopped small, and seasoned and roasted in maple syrup and olive oil

a bagful of english spinach leaves, washed

1/2 glass of white wine

juice of half lemon

olive oil

thyme

parmesan

Method

Gently fry the onion, capsicum and garlic in a generous dollop of olive oil in a large frying pan.  Add the thyme and cook until soft. Drain and rinse the chickpeas and toss them in, stirring until glistening and very gently fried.  Pour in the wine and cook until it bubbles.  Add the tuna and stir lightly through.  When the tuna and chickpeas are warm, add the spinach and pumpkin.  Mix through gently.  Sprinkle with lemon juice and parmesan and serve immediately. 

Nevertheless, despite all this healthy goodness, there is still room for a piece of Turkish Delight … after you’ve licked the icing sugar off of course!

Now we just have to tame the exploding milk and our kitchen frolics will be back to normal …

Today, the children had to come dressed as one of their favourite characters from a book - and not ever wanting to revisit an already made costume, Little A decided to introduce her Year 5 class to the joy of Kit, the 1930s American Girl.

So it was off to the drastically discounted patchwork store for some 1930s fabric and Target for a pale cotton hat - as close to a cloche as I could find for less than $15 - and yesterday afternoon I pleated a knee length skirt, put a zipper in very badly, trimmed the hat, raided Nan’s wardrobe for a twinset (bit bigger than I thought!) and by the end of Grand Design (reality tv for the house obsessed), Kit’s school clothes were laid out ready for the morning.  We even managed to find a locket for her neck.

Here’s Little A and Nan about to set off …

bit nervous but smiling …

and look at the pretty hat!  I think I will requisition it this afternoon!

p.s. I really like the American Girl books - we have most of the historical stories and the characters are very endearing - such good, strong, imaginative, persevering, intelligent and kind role models.  We also have a few of the American Girl publications on topics such as Friends, Growing Up, etc. and they are very good - Little A refers to them often and finds them very supportive and sensible - they present the information in such a straightforward, age appropriate and friendly manner, and have been the start of many a long and loving discussion between Little A and I.  Highly recommended!

Am I utterly discontented with living in 21st century Brisbane because I have been compulsively reading UK and US country living magazines for over 20 years, filling my home with quilts and cross stitches that would look more at home in Kent or Kansas then Kangaroo Point?  Or do I read UK and US country living magazines because I am utterly discontented with 21st century Brisbane?  Hmmm …  

I’m certainly wallowing in a moment of discontentment as I write!  The glorious flowers, gorgeous picnics and darling cottages and farmhouses of July’s edition of the English Country Living are taunting me from the bedside, the Christmas patterns of the Prairie School Sampler are reducing me to long, pensive sighs of delight and longing, and now, these sweet little houses are whispering sweet nothings to me from the sewing machine.

I didn’t know Warren Kimble made patchwork fabric - cute!  I must confess to having several of his jigsaws and placemats - you see, I just long to move into one of his villages and live in an old school house.  I want a fireplace, an Aga, piles of bronzed leaves, wellingtons in the mud room and snow at Christmas.  And in Veruca Salt style, I want it NOW!

So when I saw this fabric today - at a patchwork shop I haven’t visited for over 12 years! - I just had to buy some.  And of course, when I had some time after dinner, I just had to indulge in a few hours of chopping and sewing - and tonight, some chucking.

First I started with this …

I wanted to add frames of different widths to the 4 inch village squares.  I used some of the metres and metres of red polka dot I have in my stash, and some of the historical coverlet collection that arrived from Z and S last week.  But this just wasn’t doing it for me - bit chunky.

So then I had the really good idea to unpick the corners of the inner red polka frame and add some dark navy spot corners - this was tedious, time consuming and incredibly unsatisfying …

… not to mention, as yucky as last week’s dinner!  Ugh!  And it took an hour.  So revolting, I chucked it!

Back to the first round - I trimmed them down, and then added a Warren Kimble blue, too wide, trimmed it down, the added the red coverlet - nice and skinny! - and then another wider red polka dot …

… ooooh yes,  that’s better!  Now, I wonder how many I have enough fabric for?  And goodness knows how I’ll join them together. 

Meanwhile, I’m packing my bags and moving in.  That one in the front right hand corner will do just fine!

Reality:  2 1/2 hour morning tea with a lovely friend followed by trek to fabric superstore.

Outcome:  43 pairs of bamboo knitting needles for $2 (that’s right dear readers - 0.04 cents per pair), some soft lilac gingham for a eleanor style apron (sense and sensibility here I come) and the most amazing bit (yeah, like 43 pairs of bamboo knitting needles for $2 wasn’t amazing enough!) - beautiful pumpkin coloured yarn spun from CORN HUSKS!

What a day! So here’s the needles …

… it was extraordinary - I visited my not-so-local-but-nearest-one-Spotlight to find me some lilac gingham and discovered that they had completely refitted the shop.  Instead of looking like a chaotic mess of goods no one really cares about, everything was beautifully arranged in custom built shelves and displays.  I was truly moved!  It was so precise and lovely, I just had to browse and when I found yarn made from corn husks, that was just too wonderful to pass up.  

You see, here in Australia, we have many vandals - oops, I mean farmers - that persist in growing cotton.  That’s right!  Growing cotton in the most arid continent on the planet.  That just boils my goat!  So when I see something like 100% corn husk being sensibly spun into a beautiful yarn, it is my moral duty to support such an endeavour.  

Now I only bought one ball ’cause I wasn’t sure what I would do with it, so I sat thee down this evening to indulge in a little Poirot and knitted another washcloth.  I love knitting washcloths - they are my cup of tea - small, quick, no shaping, and one can be a little creative!  And it’s made from a corn husk - that’s just so cool!

I gave it a simple seed stitch border, and then knitted a cow into the body - moo!  Hopefully tomorrow when I block it, the cow will be a little more obvious.  I still have yarn left - maybe a smaller washer with a pumpkin?

For more on the joy that is corn husk yarn, there’s a cheerful review over at knitter’s review .  I found everything she said to be reasonably accurate - except that I was incapable of piercing the tape with my blunt bamboo needle - and I’m usually really good at splitting the yarn.  Nor did I find that it twisted regularly - mine stayed flat 90% of the time.  Oh and mine was only $4 per ball as opposed to $8 but there may have been a size difference.  It is light and easy and forms smooth, even stitches and has much more stretch than cotton and much less stodginess.  I shall buy some more and make a crew necked top for summer - and I’m wondering how durable it would be for crocheting up some string bags?  Only one way to find out!

Now all I have to discover is how to make my casting on look as beautifully neat and smooth and firm as my casting off.

See - hubbly-jubbly casting off …

hanky-manky casting on …

If you know a better way, do drop me a line!

p.s. I forgot!  The needles - there were thousands of pairs of knitting needles in a bin near the front door - most of them were ugly glittery plastic things or drab gray metal, but in amongst were these lovely bamboo needles in all sizes.  A shop assistant handed me a plastic bag and said “Fill a bag love for $2!  Everything here’s going to the bin this afternoon so you might as well take what you want!”  

Good golly miss molly!  I began stuffing those bamboo needles into my designated bag - no one else was showing any interest. Initially it was all very thrilling, but after 15 minutes rummaging and a 2/3s full bag, it seemed almost grotesquely greedy.  So I paid my $2 and left the rest for someone else who will hopefully be just as excited to see bamboo knitting needles as I - at least, I hope they got there before the store threw them in the bin!  So wasteful!  

What will I do with 43 pairs of knitting needles.  Hmmmm … don’t know.  Julian asked his standard question when something new comes into the house - “Are they beautiful and or useful?”  ”Certainly!”  I robustly retorted!  ”All 43 pairs?” he queried.  

Perhaps there will be some lovely fillled knitting needle cases finding their way into stockings this Christmas.  

One was a Charleston fabric - kind of aqua with a tiny all-over floral pattern, so right heritage - the other was from a range I’ve not come across before called something about kimonos.  But it was a very small neat repeating pattern and it just looked great!  So I got it.

So after dinner (which was yuck and how unfair is it that we have to wash up yuck dinners - that just adds insult to injury) - I pulled out the tumblers, performed my sneaky, where’s-my-spirit-of-adventure trick and sliced down the sides of the tumblers to make them straight rather than cut out and stitch onthe ridiculously tiddly pieces the original pattern called for.  Tee! hee! hee! - it worked a treat.

Then on with some kimono - 2 inches - and then it was chop, chop, chop, piece, piece, piece for the next border.

Honestly - do we really like 1 1/2 inch squares - especially ones that we have to draw lines down the centre of?  I felt a wee bit confused as I sat there, cheerfully sewing all these little squares across the corners - is this a pleasurable activity in itself?  Or are we just so addicted to the beauty of the fabric and the gorgeous richness of the finished product that we don’t care, and no longer notice that we spend 2 hours sewing 58 tiddly squares across corners. Must be good - I sat there and did it! :-)

When my fiddliness was done, I realised I had created rather odd looking flying geese.  I had initially thought to cut the corners of the short end - but that would have required even smaller squares and that just would not give me my jollies.  So I plonked them across the long sides instead - and now I have flying pigs!  Clearly they’re not geese - there’s no pointy bits!

However, despite their contentious genus, I am very fond of the flying critters - I think they look super dooper, even if I may say so myself.

Now - another 2 inches on the outside?  Maybe 3?  Definitely NOT!  Only 1.  Just 1.  1 is good.

Ta! Da!  (that’s Julian holding it up - it’s now midnight and he’s just come home from work drinks - holding up the quilt was a do-able task)

I LOVE it!  There’s not a muffled drum or black gloved policeman to be seen.  Nup - definitely a joyful choir instead!  The reproduction richness is really set off nicely by the soft blue and purple of the kimono fabric.  Don’t know how I will turn the corners yet - I’m sure it will let me know when I get there.

Now these …

I’m not going to do anything with them.  They are hideously little.  But I just can’t throw them away.  Hmmmmm….. 

… a bear is nice

… an ikea catalogue is very jolly

… and flowers for Moomintroll to dance through are such bliss …

but then, a curly, sneaky thought began to lurch about in my tummy … was tonight the first of the scrappy group patchwork classes?  

YES!!!!!!!  And I had not finished preparing for it - in fact, it had utterly slipped my mind.  I had actually been sitting, dappled in sun, needle in hand on the back verandah, planning a lovely slow day, a companionable afternoon with Little A followed by a quiet and yummy dinner for the two of us (Julian’s in Melbourne), an hour or so of reading The Brief History of Montmaray and then into bed for her, and Grand Design for me.  A very nice day.

No!  Not to be.  Instead, there’s nothing like having to pull a rabbit from your hat to make you finish a project super quick - in this case, the pattern for the Spring Chinese Coin quilt 

Then off to Officeworks, after collecting Little A, to buy more photopaper (waste of time, I could NOT get the printer to work), white card, etc. etc.  Then frantic baking …

of raspberry and rhubarb muffins for the class, frantic dropping off of poor Little A (who had to spend her 2 hours at home this afternoon listening to a ranting, raving, this-bloody-printer-won’t-work lunatic for a mother), frantic picking up of Carolann and then a desperate attempt to arrive at the class looking composed and feeling enthusiastic, cheerful and calm.  That last bit was super tricky.

The muffins were plonked down in the middle of the work table - on one of Nanny Dougall’s plates of course; Putamayo’s French Cafe was set to tinkle in the background - good ambience music;  and Dolly (Stacy’s assistant at Peppermint Stitches) prepared my special hot chocolate mix for the class participants.  

And we cut and sewed as well!  Well they did.  I drew applique templates - some students wanted to make Christmas Chinese Coin quilts with puddings, holly and presents, and others wanted spring time flowers - daisies, tulips, and Jacobean thingies.  

All in all it was a nice success I think.  The class is returning in a month for the next scrappy project and everyone went home late and pleased.

holy dooly!  I sure need to find some organisational skills - and I’ll have to spend hours telling Little A that no darling, please don’t do as mummy does - i.e. fall to pieces at the first sign of difficulty and curse everything under the sun - do as mummy says, and approach life with a smile, remembering that nothing difficult lasts for ever and that we really are very blessed … deeeeeeeep breaths, lily, deeeeeep breaths.

p.s.  here’s the recipe for Lily’s Special Patchwork Chocolate

2 heaped teaspoons of the best quality organic cocoa (NOT drinking chocolate but straight cocoa)

1/2 teaspoon of brown sugar

1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon

pinch of paprika

1 cup of full cream milk

Heat the milk until hot - not boiling.  Mix the dry ingredients together before adding to the heated milk.  Add to the heated milk and stir thoroughly.  Drink whilst hot - and savour the delicious chocolaty sludge that pools at the bottom of the mug! :-)

Oh and guess what!  Now I finally have a pattern to put up on blockaday.  I just have to wait for Julian to get home and work this bit out for me.  But he’ll need to forgive me first for shrieking at him down the telephone when the printer wouldn’t work.  Oh dear.

But unlike sensible Carolann, I just CANNOT do random.  I cannot.  Never have.  It’s clearly some kind of born-with-defect.

So I placed my thirteen stacks in a row on the sideboard and carefully began laying out my version of random - you know, where you painstakingly and carefully consider every placement.  

But I’m ever so pleased with it!  Sitting at the table, peering over the top of the machine, my tumblers look like a collection of old silk ties, once neatly folded, now wobbling about a bit!

There are so many of these reproduction fabrics that I just adore …

I would definitely have worn a dress in this pink floral if I’d been bobbing about in the 19th century - perhaps my morning frock!

And this cheddar and spot is addictive - it’s just the perfect yellow and blue combination.

And I love the colours of these leaves.

Tomorrow, I shall place a dark border, then a “ribbon” border of the 13 different fabrics, then another dark border, back it with some more of that lovely flannel from the liquidation store and then …. I’m going to quilt it using the free motion foot on my new machine.  

Goodness, I’m breathing more heavily just thinking about how challenging this will be!

 Oh and btw, I’m not cutting out the diddly-tiddly side pieces.  I’m going to trim down each side and straighten the edges that way! Ha! What a dodgy thing I am.

p.s. I did take a bit of a tumble on Saturday - on my way out grocery shopping, rolled over on my ankle on a rock in the driveway, landed with a crash onto my knees, put a hole in the knee of my only item of clothing (navy pants) that people say in amazement “Oh have you lost weight” when I wear them, and now have a scabby, bruised knee.  Never mind.  There were better tumbles ahead!

God it was good!  We actually fought over who was going to pull that amazingly huge and fabulous bit of fluff from the newly discovered lode.  Me!  No me!  Give me the tweezers, they’re mine after all!  Well it’s my machine!

A wee bit hard to get the bobbin case apart at first - we were afraid of snapping things - but then followed a marvellous 2 hours of removing enough felted fluff to fill a mattress!

Well maybe just a pincushion :-) but I cannot BELIEVE all this stuff fitted into my bobbin case and my sewing machine still worked - well only kind of.  Poor sewing machine!

There was even this weird anty stuff - it fell out of the back.  We couldn’t tell whether it was dust, dirt, eggs or something ever yuckier!  This is Queensland after all - you never can tell! 

And guess what!  We even managed to re-assemble the bobbin case and now the machine is humming smoothly and making lovely even stitches.  They’re even the right length now!

Do you think there might be something in this having your machine serviced stuff?