Cake and Cross Stitch!

Mmmmmm - cake.  Chocolate Cake - just love it!

Once again I made a cake for a 50th birthday, this time the husband of a friend.  He also loves chocolate cake and breeds Bull Mastif dogs.

Finding a Bull Mastif figurine was quite difficult as they are not common like a German Shepherd, Spaniel or Labrador - however, after quite a bit of searching I found one.  A little bit stylised, but that didn't matter, he was ecstatic there was his favourite dog breed on the cake.

The recipe I used has been handed down through many generations of the family, so it won't be shared outside the family, it's a secret, but I'm always happy to make the cake for special occasions and husband of a very, very close friend was special enough. 

Unfortunately, it was an extremely hot day and the lunch was held outdoors, so the chocolate did start to melt a bit, but that did not stop guests from having second and third servings.


And... after the birthday celebration, I had a tidy up of my sewing room (to find something that is hiding), I found this little cross-stitch kit, which was mostly stitched and completely forgotten about. 

According to the packaging, I had purchased the magazine the kit came from in 2002.   I think I had put it aside because I wasn't overly keen on it; but, now that it's stitched, I like it.  

Often, I find that I have some self doubt when making things, which causes them to be stalled, then some time later, I pull it out, finish it and then wonder why I didn't persevere at the time.  Anyway, I'm going to purchase a frame for it and then I can have something pretty to display.

Squared Away - Purple or Green??

It was supposed to be one project - "Squared Away" it was called; an easy summer mystery quilt, with free clues from the local quilt shop.  Two colours, plus a colour to place circles over 4 patches.  Easy right?  No.  I loved my colour selections, however, when I started to make the quilt,  I didn't like the blocks together in my chosen colours.  Even with the border/sashing strips added, no, no, no.....  In frustration, I put the whole lot in a zip-loc bag and left them to marinate for a very long time. 

During 2017, I decided that each time there was a 12-hour sewing session with my local group, or a Retreat weekend, I would pull out a few of these zip-loc bags (I have a lot of them) and work on the contents until it becomes a finished - done done - item.

After consultation with a couple of friends at the 12 hour sewing day - I came to the decision that these would be two little quilts.

First - here's purple;

Second - here's green; 

I ended up with two of the same greens next to each other and it looked a bit "blobby", so I used left over fabrics to make a half Dresden Plate (sunflower) to make it a bit more interesting.

Both quilts were simply cross-hatched through the squares to keep them soft and cuddly.  They both have the same spotty backing and striped binding.

Moral of the story, sometimes, time away from a project can turn what seemed to be big problem - for such a small quilt - has turned into two delightful quilts for little ones.

These two little quilts will be donated to the Very Snuggly Quilts program run by Victorian Quilters.

Red and White

The great thing about fabric swaps is that you always get a good variety of fabric.  I took part in a 2½in x Half WOF* fabric swap for a year.  Each month you sent off your package(s) of fabrics and received the same number of sets in return.  I was always amazed each month that no-one sent the same fabrics to anyone else - all completely different.

I started to play with the red fabrics.  Initially I was going to include pink fabrics as well and make an Irish Chain quilt.

The final "red" selection

Not being completely sure of my plans, I took the reds (and pinks) off to a sewing day at a quilt shop.  There I found a lovely, slightly off white plain fabric.  This was the cause of the pinks being dumped.  Just red and white - I found my brain whirring overtime with ideas.  In the end, the simplest idea has turned out to be the best.

I used almost all of the reds and I'm super happy with the result.

It was lovely, rhythmic piecing - red and white alternating.  First I joined each red strip to a white strip and then I cross-cut them and sewed 4 patches and the quilt top grew from there.  I had a bit of indecision with the border before deciding to make a 'solid' red frame to complete the top.

I quilted this quilt simply with cross hatch red in the red squares and white in the white squares and a white cable pattern overlapping the two border colours.  

Cable quilting on the border.

It was then finished off with a pink backing and red binding.   Oooohhh lala........

Contrasting back

So simple, yet so pleasing to make, I am super happy with my red and white checkerboard.  To be donated to a Royal Children's Hospital (Melbourne) fundraiser as one of the silent auction items.  I do hope it will reach the $$$ value given from the professional appraisal (valuation).


*  WOF = width of fabric.