Finished Quilts

Monday, 11 March 2013

200 for 2 hours

My grump lasted slightly longer than expected or wanted.  It was triggered by my house smelling of poo, its change of use to become a chinese laundry and weariness from the regular poorliness of the men in my life.  So when the house started to fill with giggles again and the washing Alps became a manageable Munro, I waited for the cloud to lift. And waited. Then it dawned on me (I'm clearly not that in tune with myself!) that it was Mother's Day that was making me blue. 

Every year I would buy a mother's day card and a lot of the time I wrote it and left it on the side to post where it lingered for a month before I sent an extra pressie to say sorry for being only half organised. The other times, cards were bought and "filed away" - I am looking at a small pile of them now! This year I didn't need to buy one and I think that upset me more than I would allow myself to recognise.  I need a trip home and some Scottish air!

Whenever I asked my mum for advice on cooking something, she would always say "cook it at 200 for 2 hours".  Didn't matter what - chicken, cake, lamb, fish. I only used her advice once, mind! It makes me giggle whenever I cook and this phrase pops into my head. So I think my way of dealing with mum this year was to have her with me, making me laugh,  while I made a massive feast for Sunday dinner, including my first ever, and rather successful, attempt at homemade onion gravy, yorkshire pudding (a triumph!) and a rib of beef. 

One other reason for my lack of sewing progress is that I have an idea for a block and I can't work out how to make a template for it.  Here's how far I've gotten...

still needs a good pressing *blush*
I want to mirror the right and side on the left and sew them together with a white "stem" down the middle.  Any suggestions on how to create the template?  I have used my retro flowers acrylic template for the bottom part.  I guess i'm having trouble with how to add the seam allowance on the top part for the background fabric part.

I did pull some fabric for my Modern She Made swap...


The focus this round is on stars and my partner would like a mini quilt, cushion cover or sewing machine cover so I have lots of options.  I'm going for something paper pieced and though the black essex linen would be good as a night sky maybe. Thoughts?
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13 comments:

  1. Jo Jo11 March 2013 at 09:53

    Good morning! I may have got your idea completely wrong, but does this help? http://r0ssie.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/painted-pebbles-quilt-tutorial.html Well done on getting through Mothers Day, the lunch sounded amazing. I came home from my mum's with all the ingredients for a chicken, ham and leek pie, a new mascara, 2 rolls of wrapping paper, a jar of jam and 3 magazines! I'm not sure how that happened - haha! Glad the giggles are back x

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  2. Jo Jo11 March 2013 at 09:57

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  3. Jess @ Elven Garden Quilts11 March 2013 at 10:11

    Hugs lady xx

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  4. Catherine11 March 2013 at 10:25

    I'm facing the same thing with the Oakshott ruby leaf quilt I'm trying to make. The two ways I thought I would get round it, (if I don't abandon the vein down the middle of my leaves altogether) is either to taper the vein and piece it together with one side. This means you have a central line and two unequal halves, resulting in a straight seam down the middle avoiding any complication at the top. Otherwise, I would make the vein in two halves, so you still only have two blocks to join down the middle and hide this seam in the quilting (or make it a feature). But reverse applique would get round those problems too!

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  5. Gertie Pye11 March 2013 at 10:34

    I am a terrible cook but I am fairly sure that if you do Yorkshire Puddings at 200 for 2 hours they will be a bit crispy! Hope you will be feeling cheerier this week (even if the weather is doing its best to keep us grumpy!)

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  6. Lynz11 March 2013 at 11:31

    I know there will be a clever solution to the template problem but my low-fi solution? Unpick the one you have sewn and draw round the pieces. Instant template *g*

    Congrats on the dinner and a successfully negotiated without-mum mother's day. And hello smiles!

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  7. Kelly11 March 2013 at 12:36

    (()) I am sure your Mum is looking down and cheering on your cooking efforts x

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  8. Sarah11 March 2013 at 12:44

    oh sweetie! it wont be quite as hard next year I'm sure, and jt sounds like you did a braw job too. hugs

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  9. Amy's Crafty Shenanigans11 March 2013 at 12:57

    Thinking about you hun....

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  10. Di11 March 2013 at 14:11

    Lunch sounds yummy. We never appreciate our family until they aren't there. You have just made a new tradition for your son though! I have no idea with the template I guess I would have done the same as Lynz advises. Di x

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  11. pennydog11 March 2013 at 15:14

    I reckon I can draw one of these for you in EQ7 and send over the templates if you like?

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  12. Second Chance Tan11 March 2013 at 19:40

    Hey you - don't be too hard on yourself..... it's not surprising this Mother's day was difficult. Good on you for such a yummy dinner though. I seem to recall your Mum was good at bread making - did she do that at 200 for 2 hours???? xxxx

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  13. Unknown19 March 2013 at 21:39

    Awww. I'm sorry Mother's Day was so rough on you. :( I wish I could say that it gets easier with time, but I still miss my dad like crazy.

    As for piecing the curves, I would just do some improv curved line piecing. Like this:
    http://www.pileofabric.com/post/2013/2/10/rolling-tides-improv-curves-tutorial-something-new-sampler

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