The Sewing Dilettante

I can hardly believe it, but over the last couple of weeks, I've actually managed to do a bit of sewing! Good friends of ours are having their first baby at the end of June, and I'd really like to make a simple baby quilt for them, especially as the mum-to-be has been very admiring of past baby quilts I've made. With my scrap bucket overflowing like Strega Nona's magic pasta pot (I knew I couldn't write a whole post without some reference to baby stuff!), I decided to make a scrappy quilt of some sort and found the perfect model on Red Pepper Quilts .  I don't want to give too much away, as it's a surprise! But, I'm aiming for a bright, multi-coloured, gender neutral end result. This is quite a small quilt, but I think it'll be perfect as a pram blanket or an on-the-go quilt for trips in the car. It may need sashing once everything is said and done, but I'll get the rows sewed together first before I make any decisions on that. And I have t...

And his name is Herman. He's German, and he's making my house smell like a doughnut shop. Never a bad thing in my mind, but still, kind of odd. Unless, of course, you're a sweet sourdough starter like Herman, who's pictured here in all his bubbly glory. This starter is used as the base for  'Herman the German Friendship Cake' , a lovely, dense apple cake, which sounds really delicious but which takes ten days to make! Actually, you have to stir or 'feed' Herman for nine days in order to to keep the sourdough culture alive, and then, on the tenth day, you can bake. Delayed gratification and all that. The best part though? When you do finally bake, you reserve enough of the sourdough culture to spread the love to three of your friends, who then get to do the same. Hence the name, I guess!  I've always been fascinated by the idea of sourdough, so I can't wait to see what this is like! Any (local) bloggers want to meet my friend Herman, too?!

I can't believe it's been such a long time since my last post! Actually, let me rephrase that. I can believe it's been such a long time since my last post. Taking care of Baby G really is a full-time job! Since my last post, in fact, I've attended several mums and tots groups, sung my whole repertoire of nursery rhymes at least three times a day, watched in wonder as my wee baby grew before my very eyes, and generally partook in the wonders of parenting a nearly ten week old baby! Crafty things did not enter the horizon. Or, rather, they did in the most fleeting of ways with the purchase of the necessary materials for my new craft of choice, should I ever actually have the chance to sit down and try it - embroidery. With a moment or two of searching on ebay, I discovered this lot of Anchor Pearl Cotton embroidery thread going at a seriously bargain rate. Since I haven't actually decided what designs I might eventually embroider, or, therefore, what colour thre...