Sweet Fabric [Search results for red] 

period.

Of course, I'm no Picasso but I figure I'm entitled to a little red influence.

I've been obsessed with all things red for quite some time.

This friendship quilt is what really began my love affair with red.

It was made as a parting gift for my Great Grandmother when she left Canada in the 1920's. It was my Grandfather's bedspread as a child & I am now the custodian of it! It is my most treasured item. When I was growing up it lived in a trunk at the end of my Mum's bed. I used to get it out & run my fingertips over the stitches. So much history & so much love.

I'm determined to have a crack at some redwork in the next couple of months. I just love it.

Welcome to my Red Phase (not being called a period for obvious reasons). I'll be sharing lots of red goodness over the next few days.

block submitted by Kelly Mitchell

Today I've pressed & photographed 48 pieces worked in red. I Jerry built myself a "studio", set the camera up on the tripod & away I went. I've resized a few of the images & I'm feeling a wee bit excited about the finished quilt.

I was pretty nervous about the iron but I used a low setting & just waved the iron over the back of the squares.

I'm an all or nothing kind of girl. Today was all about the red.

Sunday Supper hosted by Meet Me at Mikes.

Some girlfriends & I had a vegetarian cooking class a couple of weeks ago & this was the meal that was demonstrated by Marisa & devoured by 14 women.

I've made it & you should have a go - it's yum!

Quick Chickpea & Vegetable Curry
1/2 small cauliflower cut into medium sized florets
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 medium onions, diced
1 & 1/2 Tbs Red Curry Spice
2 stalks celery, sliced
1 large zucchini, sliced
1 red skinned potato, peeled & sliced
1 white skinned potato, peeled & sliced
2cm piece of fresh ginger, grated
Fresh coriander roots, thinly sliced
1 large handful of green beans, sliced
1 cup of peas
1/2 sweet potato, diced
1/2 small pumpkin, diced
1 tin chickpeas
Sea salt to taste
2-3 Tbs oil
25 gms butter

Fresh chopped coriander to serve

Heat a large heavy based pot. Add the oil & butter.

Add the onion, celery, garlic coriander root, ginger & 1/2 tsp sea salt. Saute for 3-5 minutes.

Add the carrot, red curry spice mix & garlic & saute for another 2 minutes.

Add green beans, sweet potato, red & white potato & chickpeas. Just cover with recently boiled water. Simmer for 8 minutes with lid on, slightly ajar.

Add the cauliflower, zucchini & a generous pinch of salt & continue to simmer for 15 minutes.

Add the peas & simmer for a further 1-2 minutes.

Turn heat off, sprinkle with fresh coriander, cover & allow to sit for a few minutes before serving.

Towards the end of cooking you can add a tin of coconut milk for a lovely creamy taste.

is something special.

I have co-ordinated 3 community based friendship quilts and loved so much the sense of belonging & the unity & the thought of many hands working together to make one "something".

I've been stewing on The Quilt Project for a good long time now. Everytime I look at my Great Grandmother's Redwork quilt I've thought about it more & more. I feel a connection with those women. Women who made time to stitch these intricate designs in only red just to share a piece of themselves with someone else. It gives me goosebumps. I'm the only person who really gets to enjoy my piece of redwork history & so I thought I'd like to have a go at organising a contemporary redwork piece that once complete will be published online so that everyone can enjoy it.

About 18 months ago I purchsed a huge stack of calico squares all overlocked in red. I've got 50 squares to post out & I'd love you to be a part of it.

I thought about sending personal invites, but you know...you never know where the gold might lie. I want participants to be as passionate & as excited about this project as I am. You don't have to restrict yourself to embroidery. There are some more ideas & information included with the PDF info sheet.

If you think that this is something you'd like to have a crack at then visit The Quilt Project page & download the PDF. See edit in red below.

To secure your place you need to return the 2nd page of the PDF to the email address provided on that page.

Places will be allocated in order of email receipt of completed sign up sheet.
Edit: We're over 50 - thank you to everyone who's signed up.

Thanks.

The Quilt Project is now complete & has it's own site here...

The Quilt Project

Good morning!

I've got a couple of last minute jobs to finish off at the old place but then I'm planning on whipping Shannon's latest creative offering up into a cushion for the sewing chair.

You might know that I love red. It has to be just the right red though & this base fabric is ticking that box. It's just a perfect rich red. If you fancy one of these beauties yourself you'd better nick over & see Aunty Cookie.

Visit my favourite space from last week here.

Pop in & add your link if you are playing along this week.

1/4 of an inch
3 red buttons
62 cherry
a little bird told me
air: work in progress
Allsorts
Anna-Lisa
Aprons & Hammers
Art with a Soul
August Street
Beaded Lady
Betty in the Kitchen
Big Cats Emporium
Boobook Sausage Dogs
Bowerbirdz
Bridget's Flame
Bug and Pop
Cassandra Allen
Celestina Carmen
Cloud Cakes
Collective Elements
Cooking my Life
Cool.According.To.Kylie
Crafty Doodads
crafty remix: djbebe
Creating Nunde
Curly Pops
Daily dose of inspiration
Daisy Chain
Daydream Lily
Dear Fii
Design for Mankind
details homegoods
domoshar
doobleh-vay
Dragonflies eat Mosquitoes
Earl & Cookie
Edward & Lilly
fancypicnic
florcita
flutterby patch
etc etc
Glorydaze
going green
Growing Together
G.R.Y.B at home
Handmaiden
Hanies
Hanna's Life is Cool
her heart my hands
Hokey
Honi Design
Hop Skip Jump
if only i had chocolate
iSew
janene renee
Jelly Baby Blog
Jogirl's Journey
Journalette
Judy's Notebook
kerri's provincial patch
Kiddio
Kimberly Michelle
Kittys Kaboodle
Knit Owl
konnykards
Last Stop Muse
Laugh Out Loud Dolls
Lauren Williams Handmade
Leni and Rose
Lilli Boo
little letters
Loobylu
Made by Molly
Mainichi Design
maya*made
Meet me at Mikes
Miss Muggins
mon petit lapin
monda loves
musings from the fish bowl
No life without wife
no pod
One Girl
One Red Robin
Owlet
Peapods
Pigeon Pair
pink licorice life
Pint's Palette
planet treasures
Pot aux roses
Precarious Tomato
Project Incomplete
puddle wonderful
Recuperation of Nathalie Brault
Roots and Leaves
September Bird
Sew What
Shabby Chicken
Silly Gilly
Slip cover Diva
Starashan
Strawberry Kisses
Strawberry Season
Studio Window
Super Monkey
Swirlyarts
Taccolina
Teacups on Treetops
Teddy Bears Wednesday
Textilosophy Oz
turtle club queen
The Crafty Librarian
The Essess
Twenty Cent Mixture
Two Cheese Please
The acorn collective
The Bird Bath
The Lark
The Monday Project
The Natchbox
Thimbly Things
Thousand Threads
Three Buttons
tis rhubarb
Tissue papers
TreeFall Design
truth be told
tsk tsk
unbecominglily
vanilla pixie
whosies
wide eyed wonderfuls
you SEW girl
your cover's blown

On my desk... is posted on a Wednesday. It's just a shot of your desk & maybe a bit of banter. Let us know what you're working on or what interesting bits & pieces have crossed your desk during the week.

There is a wonderful blog here - sharing the desks & creative spaces of really clever creative folk. I only found out about this blog after the Wednesday thing began...

Our Wednesday gig is just a bit of fun.

Comment on this post if you decide to play along & I'll add you to the link list.

This list will be updated frequently so feel free to join at any time.

There is no obligation at all - post when you feel like it. Just super casual & a bit of fun.

Button Code if you'd like it:

<a href=" http://kootoyoo.blogspot.com/"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3141/2607211450_e50e1fc40b.jpg?v=0"/></a>

Sunday Supper hosted by Meet Me at Mikes.

Everyone has a recipe for Spaghetti Bolognaise, sometimes closely guarded secrets. I know it's kind of boring but I promise it's good. I've photographed it in the pot so you can see just how much it makes.

I make a batch of this every few weeks & then freeze in kid size portions for weekday dinners.

Spaghetti Bolognaise
1 Kilo of quality mince
1 large brown onion
2 cloves of garlic
2 stalks of celery
1 large carrot
1 big handful of mushrooms
1 red capsicum
1 large zucchini
1 large tin of crushed tomatoes
1 small tin of tomato puree
1 cup of beef stock
1 Tbs of brown sugar
140gms of tomato paste
1 slurp of worcestershire sauce
Herbs dry or fresh (today I used fresh basil & some dried "Italian Herbs")
1 cup of red wine
1/2 cup of milk
water to "wash out" all tins & jars added to the pot also

Brown the mince in your biggest saucepan. So you get an idea of volume I make this in an electic frypan.

Using your food processor, process all vegetables & add them to the mince.

Add remaining ingredients. Give it all a good stir & let it simmer for about an hour.

This makes a super rich & lovely sauce which can be easily "stretched" by adding a jar of provisto sugo or more crushed tomatoes.

Especially good for kids who aren't big vegetable eaters.

Hot
-Red
-Finishing up & posting Music Boxes. My music box shop.
-matsutake I think I'm going to like it there. Found via whipup (also pretty hot).
-tinkering around with a bit of html.
-Fiona's puppy for softies for mirabel.

Not
-Red
-Electricity taking up to FOUR weeks to get connected! What is up with that?
-too many hours kneeling on the floor, sitting at the sewing machine & typing on the keyboard. All this makes for a pretty creaky OLD me.

More of what's hot & what's not over at Loobylu.

They've been out of the house for fully 3 hours & I'm already noticing how much I miss the rest of the team (& not just because I've had to take these pics myself).

This slouch beanie is totally ripped off a store bought one that was purchased for the big girl yesterday. It's reversible but I think maybe the red side is a bit too "Christmas elf". You be the judge.

Made from entirely thrifted materials. Both the cream & the red fabrics are pure wool. It's lovely & light & incredibly warm.

Noticed elsewhere:
tips on sewing leather

There's a bit of a back story to this one.

My bossy mate Tracey came home from a client meeting & told me I needed to make her a scarf with sleeve holes cut in it. Then she mentioned she'd seen some fabulous vests in Cactus Jam that she also wanted. Should just mention here that she's the recipient of the grey granny shrug too.

Then I saw this at Leonie's & thought it was the perfect two for one. I decided to trial it with the last piece of blanket from the slippers. This rectangle was it...I didn't cut it at all. I just waved the tape measure around my bust & from my shoulder to my hip ... near enough. Positioned the arm holes by eye (lucky that worked out OK).

The slashed vest was supposed to be a 1 hour gig & truthfully the slashing took fully five minutes but I could hardly put a rectangle of blanket up with a few cuts in it & say I made it. The idea behind the slashing was to give the blanket a bit of fluidity.

I threaded the machine with red & the bobbin with white & just roughly rectangled the slashes. I didn't finish in under an hour ... it was more like two but that did include numerous trips to the bathroom mirror to check & check & check that I hadn't completely lost the plot.

I'm quite chuffed with it, so totally unable to decide if it is in fact fabulous or complete cheater craft. Either way it was fun.

PS: The doily top is merino & was a gift from Icebreaker (?) isn't it gorgeous?

PPS: Feeling a bit weird about loading a post with pics of self. More here if you want to see the red.

I was actually looking for blue stuff for my sister but this DIVINE set of mixing bowls had my name all over them.

Op Shop visits have been few & far between over the summer but I was well rewarded on my sneaky stop over the other day.

I confess that the red kitchen collection is getting a little out of hand but what's a girl to do?

Happy weekend lovely folk. Hoping that the Op Shops are good to you & Camberwell's Trash & Treasure is good to me. I do love a bargain.

PS: If you'd love a bargain of the fabric kind you'd better quick click here. It's the very last day of Aunty Cookie's super sale.

illustration by Janet & Anne Grahame Johnstone from Dean's Gift Book of Fairy Tales

I'm engaging in a little experiment.

I've banged on about a thousand times before about rules & how they keep me focussed. So I've made a new rule. This month I'm tracking my blog clicketty trips.

We'll see where this takes us:

a beautiful mess
brown design inc
che & fidel
doobleh vay
elsa & hugo
hens teeth
here's looking at me kid
hurrah
kids & cocktails
label-free
little letters
make something
miss jane
moonshine & piffle
oonaballoona
pandora
pink penguin
q's daydream
resurrection fern
simple lovely
sugar city journal
the paper planes
the secret bee
tiny red
will bryant
wolfie & the sneak

Nice things happen at my kitchen bench.

It's a place to gather, chat, drink & eat. It's currently quite small & we have a huge living/meals area attached but people only ever sit at the bench. Consequently, the bench in the new place will be much more accommodating.

The lovely doodle above was begun by my sister in the afternoon. She inked the leaf & then left it sitting on the bench. In the evening Trace came over for a swim & a pretty drink. The red pencil was moving the whole time she sat & chatted.

I think I'm going to see how much creativity I can draw out of "accidental artists" this year.

the popcorn.

I think this looks cuter. Don't eat the popcorn though...the last thing you want is a mouth full of Tarzan's Grip.

And now for the gifting part...

I fashioned this gift from tin cans I'd saved but it would work just as well using a milk carton (in fact, now I think of it that would probably work even better...darn it). Then I embroidered the popcorn piece & the red stripe once. Next, I scanned & mucked around with it in publisher until I was happy with the placement.

Anyway...if you'd like to make a cute gift box for a movie ticket & popcorn gift then head over & pick up the jpegs sized & ready to print:

surround
& lid (if you don't want to go with the real popcorn like I did).

Then adhere to your chosen recycled container.

...I had to have a go with the milk carton - I'm happy.

Absolutely basic "present wrapping" construction - no words required...

Well, it's the first of the month...a beginning. I did have a grand plan for today but I've been foiled by lots of work this week. So it will have to wait.

Since my smalls were born I've saved every pair of PJs they have ever worn. They are stashed away just waiting for the right quilt project. I've tried a couple of times & then given up because how to you make such a weird mish mash of fabrics, patterns & colours "work"?

When I saw this quilt I thought maybe just maybe it might be the IT quilt but then decided I probably didn't have enough fabric. A bonds grow suit doesn't yield much in the way of usable fabric you know. I am determined to make it though & just need the right fabrics to appear on my Op Shopping adventures. Hmmm....maybe vintage sheets?

Then last week I read this post & started thinking...then Fiona posted it again along with Allison's "finished is better than perfect". That is a philosophy I can get on board with!

I've been inspired to pull out the MONSTER size red white & blue striped bag (you know the kind you get from the $2 shop) and have a crack at laying out a bit of a tester.

I think it's a winner & it makes me feel quite emotional thinking of those sleeping babes in all these historic & well loved PJs. These will be treasured forever & much loved I know. I love the thought of them wrapping their growing bodies in their PJ quilts. So this weekend I'm getting out the rotary cutter!

Last month I posted the beginnings of this bag.

It's taken me ages, but I'm finally finished.

I love this bag every bit as much as the boomerang bag. Best of all I don't have to fight anyone for it.

I've had a love affair with redwork for a very long time because of this friendship quilt.

The redwork was given to me by Jess.
Op Shopped: French silk ribbon, zip, belts & red & white valance used for lining.

illustration by Janet & Anne Grahame Johnstone from Dean's Gift Book of Fairy Tales

The final list.

I slowed down a bit toward the end of the month. But I really quite enjoyed this & I love having a record.

a beautiful mess
brown design inc
che & fidel
doobleh vay
elsa & hugo
hens teeth
here's looking at me kid
hurrah
kids & cocktails
label-free
little letters
make something
miss jane
moonshine & piffle
oonaballoona
pandora
pink penguin
q's daydream
resurrection fern
simple lovely
sugar city journal
the paper planes
the secret bee
tiny red
will bryant
wolfie & the sneak

I've picked up a few bits & pieces at the local Oppies. My favourite finds: Golden Book read along records, more stackers for the collection & gorgeous painted glasses.

The Date & I found a STUNNING red & white vinyl lounge suite at The Mill. I've never seen anything as gorgeous. All the pieces were there: two reclining armchairs, two footstools & a three seater sofa/divan. Unbelievable condition, so cool & now making its way to the super stylish home of someone else! Crikey - you've got to be quick!

Oh well... we would have had trouble fitting it in the car.

Has been pretty much ignored since Saturday. It's become a dumping ground...

some vintage fabric scraps purchased from Leslie.
op shopped knitted sample squares.
new fabric goodness gifted by Justine.
an Enid Gilchrist pattern.
& in the only space available, the beginnings of my donation for the Auction Gemma is organising at Outré Gallery.

a glimpse of One Red Robin.

Pop in & add your link if you're playing this week.

Sunday Supper hosted by Meet Me at Mikes.

This is an absolute favourite in our house. It's great hot or cold. You can serve it as finger food at a party or make a meal of it. Best of all it can be packed for lunch the next day.

Rice Cake

1 Cup of Rice (cooked by absorption)
1 Large or 2 medium zucchini (grated)
4 eggs
2 cloves of crushed garlic
1½ cups of grated tasty cheese
----------------------------------------------------
½ pumpkin (cut up & pre-roasted)
2 brown onions (pre caramelised)
3 Tablespoons of Organic pasta sauce

Mix all ingredients in bowl until well combined.

Season salt &/or pepper if you wish.

Line dish with baking paper. Use a lasagne type dish for slice or make it in a springform cake tin - it looks really cute.

Press mixture into tray & sprinkle with ½ cup of grated cheese.

Bake for around 40 minutes in moderate oven (until firm in the centre & the cheese is golden).

I've separated the basic mixture from the "extras". You can make this cake with absolutely anything you like. We love it with:

Sweet potato & spanish onion or
Asparagus & corn & a tub of that Wattle Valley Chilli Red Dip instead of the pasta sauce.