The Sewing Dilettante

Yesterday, my friend Judith stopped me at church to say that she had something for me. Can you guess what it was? Isn't it amazing? It's one of the many beautiful quilts made by my friends in Bee Blessed , and I'm just so touched that they made one for hubby, Baby G and me! Thank you so much! What a wonderful blessing it is to have good friends! xx Tina

So, last Saturday, just in time for Easter, Herman the German was ready for baking. As there were 22 of hubby's immediate family gathered together for the holiday, a cake was definitely a welcome addition to our festivities, especially as it tasted wonderful! Moist and dense, the cake had a lovely, crunchy, salty-sweet crust on the top and lots of plump raisins and apple chunks throughout. It reminded me a bit of  my Nana's apple cake , but it certainly took a lot more preparation time. Most of that time was just sitting around and waiting, stirring occasionally and adding a few basic ingredients every once in a while, but still, I'm not sure I'd bother with it again, unless, of course, someone gave me another batch!  All that aside, the 22 of us made very short work of this Friendship cake, and I'm pretty sure it won me some brownie points!  The starter's all been used or passed on at this stage, but I can still spread the love by sharing the basic cake re...

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...

Well, my sweet baby is having a little nap, so I've got a moment or two to check in here. Although little G is starting to settle into a bit more of a routine, I'm still working on finding the time and organizational capacity to get creative again. Pulling out my Pfaff and getting things sorted to sew seems a bit adventurous right now, especially when baby G might decide to wake at any moment! It occurred to me, therefore, that I need to cultivate new, less equipment-heavy crafts, like crochet, knitting, and embroidery. Having tried (rather unsuccessfully) the former two, I've decided to leave that to my uber-talented mom for the moment and concentrate on embroidery, something I haven't really attempted before but have been contemplating for a while. Inspired by Sarah's gorgeous Russian dolls , therefore, I took the first step by ordering these fantastic books... I'm thinking of adapting an idea I saw on Pinterest to create chic embroidery hoops decorated ...

Yesterday was a perfect day. Little G was more alert than she's ever been, and, more than that, was just about a model baby in terms of a three hour routine. We not only managed to get out of the house in the morning and visit a friend for an hour or two, we also popped into Tesco's, sorted through all the newborn clothes G's already outgrown (unbelievable!), did sixteen million loads of laundry, and watched an episode or two of Suits . Last night, I lulled myself to sleep with visions of all the fun we'd be having - and all the sewing I might return to - now that my sweet baby has settled into a routine. I should've known better, right?! This morning, the poor mite was definitely out of sorts, wanting to feed almost constantly and certainly not happy to go down for a nap. All plans for getting out of the house were quickly abandoned, the laundry was left up on the line, dust accumulated unchecked, and breakfast went uneaten. We spent the better part of the day glue...