Crazy Quilting Stencil Winner & Collage Art Prompts

Happy Birthday to my dearest DH.  It was his birthday yesterday and I spoilt him with his favourite – Chocolate Cake, and gave him one of his favourite meals, corned silverside and white sauce with mashed potato and vegetables.

(We had got into it before remembering to take a photo)
On Saturday morning I was surprised to get an early morning email from Cathy of Crazy Quilting International to advise me that Mr Random Generator had pulled my name out of his hat and I had won Sharon B’s crazy quilting stencils.  I can’t tell you how I excited I was because I had decided I was going to purchase them this weekend anyway.  Woo Hoo!  Can’t wait to get them and give them a whirl.
If you would like to read more about the stencils and see how they work, check them out HERE.
Recently on a Cloth, Paper Scissors Free E-book I spied an article by Robin Olsen which she called Spontaneous Combustion – using prompts to spark design. 

I had this piece (which is going to be a journal cover eventually) languishing in the sewing room awaiting some inspiration.  So I thought, why not try the prompts?  I copied out all of Robin’s prompts and went for it. 
She suggests drawing out 3 – 10 prompts – I settled for 5.
This is what I drew out!

• Add a new shape
• use sheer fabric
• add a strong horizontal
• add red
• add a fat line

Yikes!  I nearly freaked when I saw ‘add RED’.  I was trying to keep the piece quite neutral with a touch of gold.  Amazingly I managed to figure out something for all the prompts and I am actually very pleased with how it turned out…..

We are going to have some fun with this activity at Toowoomba Quilters upcoming retreat in October. 

Leaving you today with this photo of a member of the kookaburra family which has decided to make our garden their home for the time being.  Isn’t he/she adorrrrrable!
Until next time…………….happy eating, playing & quilting.

Jam Making, Camp Oven Cookery & Scary Scraps

There is something very satisfying about making your own preserves.  My husband loves to cook and wanted to try his hand at jam making after being gifted 2 x grapefruit.  I don’t like grapefruit and he cannot eat them fresh because they may interact with his medication.  Grapefruit can react badly with some medications – this article outlines some of the dangers.

His marmalade has turned out rich and delicious.  I love it on wholemeal toast.

When we are out in the bush we love a good old cook up in the camp oven.  In this picture my husband is preparing the fire for a roast pork dinner for 6 people which will be cooked in the large camp oven. 

We also have a cast iron frying pan which is used over a special grill set over the fire as shown in this photo.  Beside it, the billy is boiling for a cup of tea or coffee.
The food seems to taste better when it is cooked in this way and it is so simple to prepare.

Lovely Sheila presented a few of us ladies at quilting with this book, knowing we all enjoy this type of cooking when we are travelling around.  Thanks heaps Sheila, it will be really fun to try some of the recipes.


(A few of my scrap boxes – there are many, many, more including a big box of selvedges – SCARY)
As I was cruising the blogs I came across this one which is encouraging people to use up their scraps and make useful items – 52 Week Scrap Challenge (Samelia’s Mum blog)  I soooo wish I could join in, but time doesn’t permit at the moment. I read about this on Teresa’s blog “All Things Vintage” and she has made some great things (as usual) with her scraps.
Nonetheless, I have bookmarked it for the future, because God knows, I have enough scraps to sink a battleship.

‘Luke’s Quilt’
My daughter has requested a scrap quilt for her partner and wanted it in blues and greens to depict the ocean which he loves.  She wanted one just like I had made her a couple of years ago. 

I call it a ‘random’ quilt and it is just square and rectangle scraps sewn together at random and then I use perle cotton No. 8 to herringbone over the seams. It is a great way to use up scraps. 
This needs to be finished by March next year for his 30th birthday.  It is very fun to do and easy to pick up and work on as I sew it in large sections and then sew it all together.
To finish this post – a photo of our darling granddaughter, Lilian.
She insists on wearing this pink tutu to pre-school every day stating her Mummy says she HAS to wear it. LOL. 

Until next time………………

Welcome

Hello, my name is Dianne, and I welcome you to my new blog :
Eat – Play – Quilt
It is a place where I will share with you all the things which I love and make me happy in life . 
Something which has made me really, really happy over the past couple of months has been travelling around this great, big, wonderful country with some very good friends.

(At the Bungle Bungles)
A  place which has become a favourite  of mine is Middle Lagoon, on the Dampier Peninsular in Western Australia.
Middle Lagoon is maintained and run magnificently by the local indigenous community of that region.  The scenery is awesome.
Photos of Middle Lagoon:



Heaven on Earth
This year we drove right into the Bungle Bungles in Purnululu National Park.  It involves driving through the station of “Mabel Downs” and the road is extremely rocky and rough.  4WD only.
It was the highlight of the trip for me.

Before we went away I worked on 2 small art quilts and finished them off in the past couple of days.
“Turkish Tea”

Turkish Tea was made for the display of ‘Time for Tea & Quilts’ at our annual Toowoomba Quilter’s exhibition in September.  The background is made up of recycled tea bags and some hand painted and stamped fabric.
Self Portrait “Daydreamer”


Our Art quilt group will be having a display of portraits at the exhibtion so I have made this self portrait for the display.
It is a photo image transfer from a digitized photo (done by my good friend Shirley) The clothing is done using fabric scraps sewn between two sheets of solvy.  The photo is a bit ‘wonky’ but, I assure you,  the sides and top and bottom are all the same width
Until next time….