New Craft Room

As mentioned in my last post, I have been relocating my sewing/craft stash from a small bedroom into what used to be the family room. Sooooo much space - I can actually find where I've put things!  Sadly the pool table will have to go, then I can set up my folding tables.

It feels as if it has taken ages to move this lot, and you know, I guess it really has!  

On a visit to the Reject shop I discovered their 3 and 4 shelf white, flat pack book cases and thought they would be perfect for housing my stash.  My son kindly helped me put them together: after the first two were made we were on a roll and then managed to put each book case together in less than 5 minutes.

Then came the tedious, boring part - refolding fabrics to fit neatly into the shelves.  As you can see, I went for the rainbow effect and everything is sorted by colour....  Now for some serious crafting.  How is your stash sorted?

x Heather x

Butterfly Love

Well it's been some time since my last post so here's a look at a few items that have been published this year.

Boxes are what I've been working on ... this one was published in Handmade (volume 29, number 12) earlier this year.

I love the way it was photographed with the little green and blue hearts scattered around it.

Now that the box is back home it has become my button storage box sitting among all the other bits and pieces on top of my new white shelves in the family room sewing studio.

The other box appeared in Creative Embroidery & Cross Stitch Magazine (volume 19, number 6) recently, more scrap work but with embroidery as well.

The little pin cushion fits snugly into the box with room either side for threads, small scissors can also fit tucked in longways.

The lace was hand painted to match the papers covering the box.

These are the photos from the magazine.  I think this will be quite handy but still waiting for it to come back home.

I have spent the last few months having a 'spring' clean ... I know, I know it's Autumn on this side of the planet but I have nearly finished going through every room (just one or two to go) and have  got rid of a lot of unwanted stuff.  Have been creating a 'studio' so will have pics of that next time.

Thanks for visiting.......

Heather xox

Little Tarts

Just made some little almond tarts, not sure of their real name but started with a pastry base, a little dollop of jam .....

fill the case with an almond meal cake mixture and into the oven they go.

Yum, still warm from the oven.

x Heather x

Thinking, Thinking.......

thinking ..... about what I might make with these lovely fabrics - suggestions are welcome.

This beautiful bundle of DS 'Salty Aire' fabrics arrived in the mail last week and  I'm doing the happy dance because they were a prize win from Spotlight's blog The warped & the weft.  

I now have 30cm of each of these 14 delightful fabrics - that's lots to play with!  These fabrics are available in Spotlight at the moment, if you're inspired to grab some for yourself.

 x Heather x

Entrelac

This lovely book arrived in my post box yesterday, so thought I'd share some pictures with you.  For those who love knitting this book is definitely full of inspiration.

So what is entrelac?  Entrelac is a knitting technique used to create a textured diamond pattern.  Using only simple knit and purl stitches, knitters can create pieces with a striking woven fabric look.

I bought this book because I liked the stitch pattern glossary, there's more than 65 different designs with clear instructions on creating not just plain entrelac but also lace, cable and colourwork entrelac as well.

The book also has 25 patterns included for wraps, cushions, baby knits and more ..... just can't decide what to make first!  

Heather

Year 12 Formal

At last the big night is here!  The year 12 formal - the girls have been looking forward to this all year.

Quite a few photos were taken just before leaving friend's house.

Just about ready to go - after a busy day of makeup and hair appointments.

More photos later.

Just A Few Quilts

Time for an update on some recent quilt finishes ... lots of photos ahead.  

Well this first one isn't so new, but was recently published in Patchwork and Stitching volume 12 issue 5.  I designed this around a Lorelei fabric panel that my mum had bought along with a couple of matching printed fabrics.  We added a few solid colours - I did the cutting and mum did all of the piecing and quilting.

Mum has created quite a few quilts lately which are now on their way to Westmead hospital.  A number of ladies from her quilting group have made kids quilts which are donated to the hospital annually.  The one above and next few below are included in the hospital quilts. 

Lots of bright colours were used, so I'm sure they will be well loved by the recipients.

This one was cut from a printed panel featuring hot air balloons - there were actually two of these quilts with the balloon panels but I don't think I took a picture of the other one. It had red and blue blocks in a slightly different layout with a blue border.

More printed panels, this one is a cot sized quilt.

The next three quilts are the same design but in different colourways. The first two are made from one Twice The Charm pack - Bowood House -which was enough for the blocks in both quilts.  

Mostly the darker fabrics from the pack were used in this one -a closer view of the fabrics and quilting.

The lighter fabrics in the range were put into the next quilt, it looks very pretty, soft, shabby chic style.   An extra fabric was added to replace the check fabric that didn't seem to fit.

This one will be on ebay soon.

Same quilt again but this one was made by Marlene, we worked on this in class for a few weeks and used fabrics with an oriental theme. Black sashing, a floral peeper border with a black and gold print outside border give yet another look to the same design.

 I have a couple of finishes of my own but can't show them just now. They will be in Handmade and Embroidery & Cross stitch magazines in the near future .

 Happy stitching .... Heather

Kaleidoscope Cushion & A Win

My friend Robyn has decided to make a quilt featuring these kaleidoscope style blocks, the quilt is actually going to be lime and white but we decided to do a test run of the block before rushing out to buy lots of lovely new fabrics.  

The pattern uses templates and Robyn cut the pieces out using fabric left over from her Palm leaf cushion.

We had a small problem with the wedges not fitting together properly due to slight stretching of the fabric pieces in construction, but overall the block turned out well and, as you can see, it has now been made into a cushion.

I have redrawn the pattern we were using so that it can be foundation pieced.  This will be a lot quicker and easier than tracing and cutting out 32 template pieces per block - and definitely more accurate.

It looks pretty good perched on my lounge, hmm, I wonder if she'll let me keep it, lol.

Last week I was lucky enough to win the gorgeous Puppy Love quilt pattern giveaway on Toni's blog.  Aren't they the cutest doggie faces? Thank you Toni.  I like the way Toni uses lots of bright and happy colours.  You can see all of Toni's lovely patterns at The Red Boot Quilt Company.

Does this mean that Spring is on its way? Yesterday my very first daffodil bloomed, showing it's pretty yellow face shining out from among the weeds. Yay, roll on springtime.

Heather

Vegetarian Feast

A few nights ago I prepared a 3 course vegetarian dinner for the family. This doesn't happen very often - usually they are lucky if they get two courses.  Here's a little look ....

Home made crusty French loaf straight from the oven with lashings of butter - there were two loaves

Served with Hearty Vegetable and Lentil Soup for the first course.

Followed by the main course, which was Vegetarian Hot Pot

served with a garden salad and more crusty bread - note the shallot curls garnish, I've never tried to make those before!

Freshly juiced apple, orange and pineapple blend juice drinks with orange slices and kiwi fruit stars

Finally, for dessert - Cheese Blintzes with Lemon Vanilla sugar and served with home made Lemon Yogurt Ice Cream - the ice cream was made from home made yogurt.

Yummy meal, I really enjoyed it and would do this more often if it didn't take so long to prepare, lol.

Gold Coast Quilt Exhibition

Recently I visited the Gold Coast Quilt Exhibition to admire the lovely quilts being displayed, here's two of my favourites .....

 

Above - 2010 Goes Out With A Bang - made by Anne Andrew and Quilted by Heather Shanks.  Close up below of the quilting and rhinestones on this quilt, love the colours.

Below - Affairs Of The Heart by Margaret Prove.

Closer view of the blocks, so pretty!  The colours really stand out  well on the black background.

Closer look at the border and quilting designs - very inspiring. 

Meeting A MasterChef

Last Monday I was invited to a new product launch at Noodle Box so I took my mum with me to check it out.  Noodle Box has lots of yummy meals to choose from and have now introduced a gourmet range developed by Adam Liaw, winner of MasterChef 2010.

It was a very nice afternoon of food tasting and we tried out the four new menu items cooked by Adam himself.  First there was Adam's Dragon Wings, these were quite spicy, then Prawn and Calamari Sambal served on rice, Malaysian Beef Rendang, also with rice and lastly Aromatic Black Duck Noodles.

The Beef Rendang is definitely my favourite - I wish that I'd taken a photo to show you how yummy it was, sorry, I got too carried away with all the different tastes and forgot.....but mum took a photo when I met Mr MasterChef.

Elephant And Teddy Bear Finished

These are two items that I've helped my friends complete recently.

Marlene made Mr. Elephant as a birthday gift for her friend who collects elephants.  The pattern came from a Get Creative magazine, however, we had to modify the legs to make the elephant stand up as the one in the magazine had floppy legs and could only lay down.

This teddy is one of those projects you begin with great intentions but never seem to get around to finishing.  Robyn started this gorgeous bear 19 years ago, it has lovely wool embroidery on it but the instructions for putting it together weren't very clear, so it sat unfinished for years.  

When Robyn brought it to me,  all of its limbs were complete but we had to assemble the head and ears and join the body parts together.  

I think Robyn did a lovely job, very cute bear and finally finished.

Who's This Bunch Of Spooks?

These scary little monsters are my grandchildren on their way to their spooky school disco.  There's Abbey the Evil Ladybug, Vampire Ethan and Dylan The Grim Reaper .... frightening aren't they!

Bet they had great fun putting on their costumes and getting their faces painted.  

I made the boys capes and of course we had to try them on to make sure they fitted OK.

  

The black fabric for the vampire cape was joined to make it wide enough to cut the cape as a full circle, then the collar was cut from the left over fabric and stiffened.  

They both put on their scariest faces for these photos but as you can see, they're not really that frightening after all.  

Then last but not least is little Noah who has just turned one, what a little cutie he is.