Mwah ha ha ha

YUM YUM YUM !!!!!


I love rum balls but today girl kid and I made a few variations. :D

They are AMAZING !!!!!

We made strawberry pops [cos they've got popping candy coating]

We made lemon drops

We made rum balls

We also made 'chino shots - guess what they got in 'em.

Mmmmm yummy, yummy, yummy. 

Thinking up more flavours as I go

We still have hot pink mint teasers coated in white chocolate to make
and thinking of maybe cherry also.

Perhaps jaffas............what else ?????

I think my brain will divorce me soon cos it's getting used waaay too much.

Anyhoos we ran out of ingredients so Coles here we come.

Christmas 2010

I LURVE Christmas - not the commercialism - but the....well the....Christmas - it kinda sums itself up.

I love the music

I love the decorations

I love the food

I love the planning

We have fairly simple christmases in our house but they are fantastic. We always work cos that's the industry we're in and the kids don't know any different.

Big news flash - Oprah get ready.......

We have officially made the first batch of rum balls. Mmmmmm...yum balls

Recipe:

1 packet of milk arrowroot bikkies - blended, processed or broken

nearly 1 tin of condensed milk

4 tbl rum

2 tbl cocoa

Mix all ingredients together and roll small teaspoons of mix into balls with slightly damp hands [it makes it SOOO much easier] then toss the balls into coconut and goodluck hiding them.  I haven't found a safe place yet.  If it's not the kids then it's hubby !!!!

I keep mine in the freezer but my house hold always finds them so we make multiple batches of different flavours too.

Some different flavour ideas are : mint, ginger, lemon, strawberry.

I make these different flavours without rum.

This year I've found strawberry popping candy in Coles so I'm planning to mix that with the strawberry quik for rolling in and they should turn out like truffles with a popping coat on them. Awww I'm excited.

What do you like to do for christmas.

I love to make things.

I buy some things but I prefer to make.

Tomorrow is making day for girl kid and I. I'm more than a little excited. She's a great 'prentice. I'll post photos of our lil delights and recipe updates, success or failures as we go along. Some of our planned recipe adaptions a VERY experimental.

For chrissy this year we're making 'pretty packs'

Elmo

My latest idea of complete craziness is re-usable gift tags.....so I thought I'd try it out on Mr QTPies 1st birthday pressie before making Chrissy tags the same way.

I used ALL of my memory powers to remember that he was getting an Elmo cake so I painted an Elmo gift tag for him.

Laminated it and then took the photo DOH !!!! Naturally the flash and the shiny surface didn't agree but it's as good as it gets !!!

I had a sticker on the back with to and from written on before laminating and then all that's needed is a permanent marker and some metho to clean it off with to re use. YIP that's right - [gasp of horror] permanent markers aren't really permanent on some plastics !!! YAY for this discovery !!!

The cute reindeer tags are ready to paint now so keep tuned.......

Funky Frangipani Pillow case

Hello again----see !!! told ya I'd be more regular !!!

What we are looking at now is the coolest EVER pillowcase for the funkiest quilt/doona cover. The reason this pillowcase is soo cool is - a: I made it :D and b: there are NO exposed seams. all tucked in and french seamed down the sides.




I feel a lil leprechaun dance comin on !!!



p.s the pillow case is hot pink like the frangipanis and the trims are royal blue and spotty lime green. Soz 'bout the photo quality

Dolls Quilt

This is a mid-construction photo of a dolls quilt I'm making for a friends little girls [2 y.o and 9 months old] to go with their dolls cot that they're getting for chrissy. I happen to know they're getting a dolls cot 'cos it was once Bec's cot and it's been stored for the last 5 years. They also took her dolls house so we're really happy it's all going to a good home. Bec was all in favour of it.

I changed the mattress cover for the cot before it left home but the quilt set that MIL made was old and a bit yukky for 2 cutie-pie girls so I made one. Will now finish the raw edge embroidery on the flowers and lady-birds. The pattern is not my own it's from http://dontlooknow.typepad.com and it's from the 4 cushions pattern pack.

It'll be finished soon with stems and some quilting so I'll take a piccy before it goes to live on the cot

Confetti Christmas Tree

WOOOHOO....how cute is Mr Rudolf !!!

Another crazy creation of Cath's is our Christmas tree. I'm officially sick of tripping over our 20 year old, worn out, falling apart, have to store it SOMEWHERE christmas tree.

So...what does one do when faced with the dilemma of a looming christmas and no excitement for hauling out our poor sad tree and fighting with it [it has no stand], the kids and lights, decorations blah, blah, blah....well one makes circles of different sizes [unscientifically] and then proceeds to cut them out.

Mr Rudolf is only the first of the reindeer and they will be poking their uber-cute heads out from different points around the tree. Hmm...not sure what else - maybe a mouse or two - what else ?? I wonder how an elephant would look just for a laugh !! :] Or maybe a cross-eyed circle monster with horns, that would be better than a purple spotted elephant. NO..I don't do drugs - just a little crazy naturally - see now why I run also !! Over active brain disease.

I'm taking photos of this whole process and am planning next year to put up a tutorial for anyone mad enough or perhaps brave enough to make a christmas tree wall hanging. It'll be bright, fun and easy to store. I haven't seen anything like it on the internet under google images so I'm confident not too many people are mad enough to do this but I promise it will be AWESOME !!!

p.s I'm also keeping a diary with fabrics and instructions so I can make the tutorial easy, accurate and short-ish.

p.p.s the circles are to represent bright baubles and they will make the tree shape - hence the different sized balls.

Rythm of the Sea

KK I've become an expert cutter now this block is cut and ironed down. It looks amazingly good in real life.

So...what you are seeing is 2 halves of the one block of an under water scene and then the octopus goes on last last, after ALL of the other blocks are completed and ready to bind as one big whole quilt. This one isn't for a bed though, it's gunna hang over the lounge window that was once an external window until we extended our house to fit in all our kiddies and now the window is a huge internal window that looks into the kids play room.

The other 2 photos are of the next 2 blocks I'm cutting out - there is 3 orca whales in a different under water scene and then some VERY fussy cut cormorant birds that will be standing on fence pailings. It's a fairly quick and easy cut out block now that the birds are done. Boy-oh-boy were they fussy to cut. The birds were okay but their beaks are actually tiny when it comes to cutting.

Josephs Technicolour Coat

Okay, okay soo....I'm hoping that Joseph is enjoying an extended summer as I decided to remodel this one and [GASP] I cheated - YIP I cheated and have glued these down now with vliesofix and will sew with invisible thread - shhh....this one's our sneaky secret.

As much as I would love to enjoy hand stitching it bores me beyond belief. I'm pretty sure there aint no doctor in the world that can help with that one.

Now I've gotten over the cheating thing it's moving along fairly quickly.

Yay for cheating - erm....I meant to say WooHoo Yay for me !! :]

Funky Frangipanis

This is the backing material - cute huh !!!

It's flannelette from Spotlight. I saw it and couldn't walk past. It's sooo cute and matches the flowers on the front perfectly.

Needless to say her ladyship loves how warm it is.

He, he, he, I'll make her into my 'prentice yet mwah, ha, ha !!!

Yikes

YIKES !!! How time flies !!!

Well since June I've finished 'Funky Frangipanis' but will take a photo soon. I learnt a few things and for the most part enjoyed the whole process from a yardage of material to a lovely warm blanket/doona cover.

Things Learnt:
A whole quilt doesn't fit under my machine so need to do 'Quilt -as-you-go'.
Relax and enjoy even if it's not perfect.
Beware of the distraction demon :D

Anyway my 'On-The-Go' projects are:

Confetti Christmas Tree.

Josephs Technicolour Coat.

Rythm of the Sea art quilt.

A really cute dolls quilt [I'll take piccys - it's pretty cute].

Other projects on the go:

Scarecrow pot people [experimental !?!]

Re-useable christmas gift tags.

Will keep posting with piccys soon !!

The Joseph's Coat first block 1/2 completed but definatly not sewn down so please ignore the big space in the middle, that WILL disappear when sewn properly when all of the petals are ready. I don't have quite enough colours to complete one block so am just collecting a couple a week and making petals with them. Anyhoo just a little hint on brights with a navy background :] This is a really enjoyable quilt and one that is progressing fairly quickly.

Now for Becca's funky frangipanis - Yep I got it all pieced except for the borders as I needed to check for sizing and discovered that it was a little short for her bed so decided to extend the bottom by 4 panels so ..... this week I only got flowers traced, cut and glued to the background and now they are all ready to satin stitch. I'm adding one large hot pink one, and then there are 6 assorted colour medium sized ones to do. I'm hoping to have all of the borders on by the end of next week. This week is for satin stitching but next week is school holidays for us so we'll be camping most of the time. I'm getting a little excited about quilting this now. Bec LOVES the colours and the layout especially with the colourful sashing inbetween the flower blocks.

So.... I finally convinced the computer that I'm NOT the enemy and got some photos up. These are just the first process photos. The satin stitching around the petals is completed now and the blocks are ready to cut into the correct sized ready to be assembled with colourful sashing between them. This pattern isn't an original of mine but one that was designed by Carole Davies for the February 2006 Australian Patchwork and Quilting magazine. Luckily mother nature likes a bit of imperfection as that is a skill I have mastered so don't look too closely at the satin stitching, it's best viewed from a distance and with blurry eyes :D

Hmmm my photos don't want to load :[

Well great mornin to y'all. It's now Saturday and I think I've figured out this blogging thing - ha ha. I still need to do some work to it so soz 'bout the lack of things on here still. 'Funky Frannies' is being made for DD's 15th birthday. We called it funky because of the bright colours in it. I've only got one more flower to satin stitch around and then I can cut the blocks to shape ready for the ultra cool 'n' awesome funky sashing. When the photos finally load I'll show you some piccys but until then think bright teenagerish and colourful.

KK now to Josephs Coat :D This is the end of week 1 - yes I was late to join but I'll get there. Again think super bright jellybeans and you'll get a pretty good idea of what I'm doing. It's all going on a navy background but you'll have to wait a week for the first block piccys. I'm REALLY excited. The colours are fabulous and the kids are LOVING them already. Anyhoo, my week 1 summary - day 1 - template with dodgy compass, obviously didn't work. Tried all sorts of other things but they still didn't work - hmmmm a trip to the shop - VOILA - one cool working, lock into size compass that takes 10 mins only to draft pattern - result - one beaming crazy lady!! Ha ha. Day 2 - cut template out of template plastic that is too hard to cut with scissors so end up with sore hands and wobbly jibobbly template, again not happy so I spy the lid to some store-bought biscuits, stole that and VOILA one cool template, once again one happy smiling crazy lady in our house. Day 3 - Can't find 'Stitch 'n' Wash' so I tried fusible tear away but found it a bit flimsy and didn't get a good result so I tried just printer paper and got great results ...... however ...... the template was the EXACT size of the melons on the pattern sheet but I hadn't allowed for the material so the result was a larger melon than I was hoping for. HAVE I MENTIONED I'M FUSSY :D and the points weren't what I had imagined so back to the template, cut it down slightly but only by a few millimeters to allow for the fabric and the glue stuck really really super dooper well and I couldn't figure out how to get the papers out from under the melons while I was sewing them down so I tried paper piecing sortof and am now in love with the results. Day 4 - Tacking the melon papers onto the materials and am now seriously in love with the quilt at this stage. The size is exact and the points are lethal. YAY I'm so happy now it's all figured out. Now I just need to figure out how to get these photos up and on here.