Yellow and Grey Quilt for those Duvet Days

Here's what I'm having fun working with just now

I was tempted, so, so tempted to buy some more fabric but I was good and resisted the temptation.  I'm still not certain on what design I'm going to follow but it will be based around half square triangles.

Half square triangles because I stumbled upon this isn't the world wide web fabulous!  The quilt along is finished and some of the series might have been a bit ambitious for me although one thing I am - is determined.  I did though very much like the mosaic block and I attempted some half square triangles following the tutorial at Freshly Pieced.

I'm not certain what I'm going to do next.  -  I realise that this probably isn't the best way to go about a quilt, planning and design should probably come first but well it's fun to play aound with a few different ideas.  I'd probably have changed my mind half way through anyway...

or maybe less zig zaggy and more:

I could and probably have already spent hours moving around the little triangles moving them into different formations, patterns and then rearranging them again.  Luckily I love it.

Hooray, Hurrah, Project Make is Complete

Project make baby quilt, my very first quilt is done and complete Hooray.  Hooray because now a brand new baby can enjoy it and I can move on to my next project Hooray.  Here's a few pictures of it all taken on a very grey day.  I fear summer has left us for another year.

Welcome to the World Danny Baby

There's quite a few different fabrics in there the main focus being Alexander Henry 2D Zoo in Pool, the backing Robert Kaufman Metro Circles in grey (or Pewter).

Zoo Baby Quilt / Carpet Protector / Play Mat

I also have a confession although I hadn't finished this I had started cutting and slicing for my duvet day quilt more on that soon... 

Bake Day: Hummingbird Bakery Lemon Bars

After a very long make day where I sewed my heart out listening to BBC Radio 6, drank cup, upon cup, upon cup of tea, was stuck by so many pins that I started to feel more pin cushion and less human, stepped on one pin so hard that I shrieked and upset the cat I am almost finished my current make project.  Horray!  Of course with the end in sight I had time for a little baking.  Hooray and happy dance!

 

It is official: I am a citrus addict as it was another lemon recipe.  Lemon desserts are my favourite, the Sicilian Orange Cake was delicious and the next cake I'm planning on making is a chocolate orange cake.

So today the Hummingbird Bakery recipe book was out again and this time it was the turn of the modestly titled Lemon Bar.  If you like shortbred or are a fan of buttery, lemony treats then you'll love this.  It's tasty I would prefer more equal quantities of shortbread base to lemon topping so next time I make this, and there will be a next time I'm going to experiment a little.  When I do I'll be sure to share the outcome (hopefully good).

But in the meantime I'll enjoy the lemon bars... it shouldn' be too hard.

On my Wishlist

Why is it that when you're half way through a project your minid starts to wander onto the next one - or maybe it's just me?  I know I should be focusing on completing my current project but I keep thinking about my next project my duvet day quilt.  My duvet day quilt will feature yellow and grey - my favourite colour combination at the moment.  With that in mind I've been doing some wishlist shopping on etsy and folksy and here's some essentials for a perfect duvet day.

Breakfast Tray in Somerset Yellow from UtopiaUF

I don't think a duvet day would be the same without some breakfast in bed or on the couch and here's the perfect breakfast tray.  It's yellow, it's beautifully handcrafted and it's made in the UK, in lovely Berwick by UtopiaUF.  They also have many other lovely items in their Etsy shop including driftwood signs (I know someone who'd love this whisky one).

I don't know about you but as it's starting to get cooler and as Autum approaches I'm starting to crave woolens and knits which can keep me warm and cozy. 

 

Lilac Cable Ropes Knitted Cushion from LindyKnits

Crucial for any duvet day are cushions the more the better - you can never have enough cushions right?  Now I realise that this isn't grey or yellow but Lindyknits does custom orders... you see where I'm going with this.  I love items that can be customised and personalised they're perfect and I'm imagining one in yellow and one in grey although this lilac is lovely...  This cushion is available on Folksy here or visit the Lindyknits store here.

Pebble Grey Knitted Hot Water Bottle Sweater from ACrookedSixPence

Also essential for any duvel day is a hot water bottle and with autumn and winter to come this lovely grey one fits the bill perfectly.  You can find this and many other knitted lovelies at ACrookedSixPence's Etsy shop here.

Hope you're having a lovely weekend be it wishlist shopping, shopping shopping, sewing, baking or making.

Image Credits: to each of the lovely etsy and folksy sellers mentioned.

Prjoject Make: Baby Quilt Update

I haven't actually made any prgress since last weekend and it's the weekend again how did that happen (?).   As this needs to be finished and soon that pretty much ties up most of my weekend as I really would like to have this finished for Monday... not sure if I'm being realistic.  Anyway here's where I'm up to at the moment quilt tops done.  I'm glad I decided to rip apart some seems and introduce some yellow into the quilt it just brightens it up.  Although all the blues and greens are vibrant - great I think for a wee boy.  Let's hope he (and his Mummy) think so as well.

I'm now off to make a quilt sandwich and do some stitching.  Happy days.  Hope everyone's having a lovely Friday.

Bake Day: Sicilian Orange Cake

If you hadn't gathered already one thing I love to do is bake.  I love it, it's that simple.  Of course with baking comes the eating and I love that part just as much.  So when I have an excuse to bake, and even when I don't I take it.  Let me introduce you to Sicilian Orange Cake, although mine was made with the only unwaxed oranges I could find.  Sadly (or not as the case is) Unwaxd Orange Cake does not have the same ring to it as Rick Stein's original name for the cake so we'll stick with Sicilian Orange Cake.

Sicilian Orange Cake: Just Iced

Sicilian Orange Cake: Iced and Sliced

Sicilian Orange Cake: The First Slice

Lovely Afternoon: Tea and Sicilian Orange Cake

I found the recipe here it's the photos and the enthusiasm from the blogger that made me want to bake it but I wanted to find which Rick Stein book it was from so if you have Rick Stein's Mediterranean Escapes you're in luck otherwise there's a couple of his recipes including this cake here.  But - the Sicilian Orange Cake I can't recommend it enough it's delicious (I may have already said that) it's moist, light, orangey and super tasty I'm thinking next time I might try it with a sticky orange glaze or maybe an orange curd...

I have a list of cakes which I can't wait to get round to baking, they're all just waiting for an excuse or time.  My current list includes banana and nutella cake, white and dark chocolate jaffa cake, luscious lemon slices, another lemon and poppy seed cake and nutella fudge... I keep track of them all on Pinterest.  It felt good to knock one recipe off the list the problem, though it's not really a problem, because the cake really is delicious - is that its a definate make again cake.

I don't know why I'm writing this post so late I should have saved this for tomorrow I've made myself so hungry looking at the photos... luckily I've a piece or two of cake left but I'll probably still be dreaming of cake tonight - but there's no change there.

Making Me Smile Today: Peony Poppies & a Project Make Update

Making me smile today are these pretty Peony Poppies  which are now sitting on my windowsill behind my desk where I'm going to spend most of my day - when there's sunshine outside - CV writing, rewriting, working, reworking, deconstructing and then reconstructing.  Oh well at least I'll have these lovelies to keep me smiling...  hope you're smiling today.

Making me smile today: a walk along JF Kennedy Blvd - in Glasgow

Getting Set for Filming of World War z in Glasgow

I've spent today in Glasgow.  Glasgow is where I went to University it is where I call home and I love it despite the fact that it's rainy and miserable quite a lote of the time.  Just now however George Square in the centre of Glasgow has been transformed and is still in the process of being transformed into the mean streets of Philadelphia for the filming of Brad Pitts new zombie film World War z.  SWAT vehicles, American buses, bright yellow traffic lights, newspaper stands, yellow taxis and a court house are all quite foreign sights to the locals.  I wandered around took a few photos on my very old and in need of replacing phone, as I hadn't brought my camera. My only question - where were you Brad?

Lovely Weekend, Week Ahead & Super Tasty Gingerbread

It's Monday again.  I remember Mondays from when I last worked the journey into work everyone looking miserable the thought of 5 long days until the next weekend - it's not my fondest memory.  This past year however has seen me living in Berlin and I'm only now back in Scotland and beginning the process of reintegrating into normality.  Normality for me just now is job hunting but at the moment it doesn't involve any Monday Morning blues but that doesn't mean I can't enjoy my weekends just as much.

Here's some of the things which I got up to at the weekend:  wishlist shopping on etsy and folksy for me and for friends with birthdays coming up more on that later, sewing and sewing (baby blue is here - and I can't wait to meet him), berry picking (blackcurrants), catching up with friends, treasure hunting, sewing and sewing and sewing, relaxing:
 

and baking:

 The is my Gran's gingerbread recipe.  The recipe calls for two cups of milk, not an ordinary cup measure though but a tea cup.  The only tea cups in the house are these pretty ones that belonged to my Great Aunt.

So having used one of the teacups I proceeded to get all of the matching dishes out of the cupboard and had tea just as my Gran and her would have note that the butter is spread extra thick.

The gingerbread is lovely and if anyone wants the recipe please email me as you probably won't be able to make out my writing in the photos above.  It really is best served with a thick coat of butter... yum.

So that was the weekend and this is what I'm looking forward to in the week ahead: job hunting, more wishilist shopping, more sewing (there's a quilt back and binding to be completed), dinner with friends, kickboxing (a friend teaches this and I promised I'd go...hmmm), a trip to Glasgow, more berry picking (blackcurrants), juicing (apples) and there will no doubt be baking and many cups of tea thrown in as well... lovely.

Project Make: Update

So I've been cutting and cutting then sewing and sewing as the baby for the baby quilt is now a day overdue and to be honest I've been slacking.  So I relocated all my sewing stuff to the brightest room in the house in an attempt to get as much natural light on what I'm doing as possible.  Maybe I shouldn't have done that because now I''m going to have to pick up the seam ripper and take bits apart.  Here's why...

So I'd picked all my fabrics chosen blues and greens to compliment my focal print cut them all up and started sewing.  As I'm sewing them I'm hanging them up behind me and on the table beside them is a small collection of flowers from the garden and as I'm doing this I think - how lovely the yellow looks amongst the blues and greens.

So this is me now off to rip open seems and resew my target for today is to have the front done and completed... whether that happens or not...  Hope all are having a lovely weekend.

Grey (and Yellow)

Thats how I would have had to describe my day up until lunch time in that one four letter word: grey.  Now I love grey when it's teamed with a bright, bold, vibrant colour but on its own plain grey just reminds me of miserable, depressing, yucky days where you're stuck inside, looking outside dreaming of sunshine .  Apparantly there were 29 flood warnings in place for Scotland, and it was said to be the wettest 24 hours since records began and we all knew it was wet - yuck.  But it wasn't just the greyness of everything that was making me feel a bit miserable it was probably the job searching, the applications the not knowing what to do, what job I want, where to work.... aagh. 

A lunchtime break and a wander outside I was struck by the bright yellow buttercups that dot the fields standing out so boldly so, as I walked, I picked.  I came home with a small handfull of yellow to brighten up my dreary day.

Heres my hedgerow in a teacup with the last slice of lemon and poppy seed cake (there'll no doubt be more baking tomorrow).  I love, love, love grey and yellow as a combination my pinterest is full of lovely grey and yellow inspiration.  Inspiration which I'd love to share at some point.  Inspired by the miserable day and the lovely little flowers I'm now thinking about making for myself a grey and yellow 'duvet day' quilt.  For the sort of day when you really can't motivate yourself, you want to stay in bed or maybe for when I'm feeling under the weather.  I actually got so caught up in the thoughts of what I could sew for myself I got out all my grey and yellow fabric to assess what others I might needs or want..
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Grey and Yellow Fabric Options

So whats in the duvet day pile... from the bottom up we have Robert Kaufman Metro Circle in Marigold, Kona Solid in Medium Grey, Pinwheel in Apricot by Erin McMorris, Heath in Grey from Alexander Henry, Metro Tile Marigold, Metro Circle in grey, Ta Dot Sunny Yellow, Miny Mikes Gray Citron Dot and Square, Kona Solid Corn Yellow, Ta Dot Stone, Early Bird Crosshatch Yellow and Metro Circle in Pewter.  I love them all and I'm excited about cutting into them but only once my current project make is completed and I've lots to be doing there.

Today it rained

Well today it rained, well poured would be a more accurate description and the rain is depressing wanting to do something different today doing anything outside was pretty much out.  So instead I dusted off - well I got out my sewing machine and started on a project.  Project: Make.

Project: Make is a quilt for a lovely friend of mine who will be having a baby boy very, very soon.  This sounds very much like I leave everything to the last minute - which I have a tendency to do it's true - but not in this instance.  I had actually pieced together a front and back for a quilt for her and baby blue but being a perfectionist I later decided that I should have stuck with my original fabric choices and so the orginal pieced quilt top and back are now hanging in my wardrobe waiting for another baby blue...

I had already gotten as far as considering what fabrics I was going to use, so today I started cutting, cutting out coins for a stacked coin quilt.  I'll confess when I finally get this quilt finished it will be my first and I have to finish this quilt as Mum to be knows that there's a handmade gift in the pipelines so she'll be expecting something and she knows I don't knit.  I think I'll share more on the sewing and the quilting tommorrow but heres the fabrics I was considering the photo taken on a far lovelier day.  The final selection were all picked to compliment Alexander Henry's 2D Zoo in Pool a fabric which I think's been around for a while but is a brilliant, bright, fun print for kids.  Maybe even big kids after all I'm not going to use it all up in this first quilt... 

The Blues

The Greens

Well despite the greyness of the day and consistent rainfall I managed to enjoy my day there was fun of seeing all the lovely fabric out, the process of cutting - this must appeal to all perfectionists out there and of course there was time for cake and tea in the afternoon which of course was accompanied by a resounding mmm lovely.

A Day of Firsts

Today has been a day of firsts.  One first is this, writing a blog post something I'd been mulling over and considering doing for a while and now, today, on this day of firsts I'm finally getting round to doing it.  First times can be exciting, frightening, sometimes exhilarating, rewarding, challenging or a nonevent.  What do I hope to achieve from starting a blog ?  Well I want to challenge, to inspire myself to consider new possibilities, options, different experiences hopefully the blog will act as a reminder of this.

The second of todays' firsts occurred in the kitchen with some silicone bakeware - why have I never used this before I don't know - and a new to me cookery book.  The recipe is of course Lemon and Poppy Seed Cake and came from the Hummingbird Bakery Recipe Book.  You can see the book peeking out from behind the cake in the third photo down.

 

Juicing Lemons

Glazed

Ready to Eat with a Cup of Tea... Lovely

Despite somehow managing to get poppyseeds everywhere and the tidying up that this then entailed the end result was a new favourite baking book and a super tasty cake.... mmm lovely.