Patchwork Piecing

Patchwork piecing is not my thing really.

Toowoomba Quilters Club is conducting a block of the month at the moment with two blocks per month published in their newsletter. I decided to challenge myself and give it a go.

Overall, I am pretty happy with the results. They are not perfect - but they are mine!!

Block No 1 is called "Christmas Cards" (I chose to do a non-Christmas version)

Block No 2 is called Rick Rack Row

Our cute little granddaughter, Lilian, is doing ballet again this year. She seems to be a natural and is very good at pointing her toes and keeping a straight back. I was a proud Nana at her recent open day where Mummy's, Daddy's and grandparents could check out a lesson.

 

She loves it!

This spectacular wattle tree is in full bloom at my father's abode. When we arrived to visit him he was out enjoying the sun and admiring the tree. He is 87 years old next month and is still travelling on well despite all his ailments.

Dad and my sister xxx

Until next time ................ Dianne

 

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A Wedding & Some Crafty Dabbling

Our beautiful daughter was married to her wonderful guy on 13 March beside the river at Noosaville. It was a fabulous wedding.

I got all dressed up.

So did the beautiful Lilian who relished in her job of flower girl.

I did the card sign and place cards. They were done with watercolours on watercolour paper. I used a pigma No 8 pen to write the names.

It started like this.

The scissors gave the edge the ripped look. They were fun to make and DD loved them

For the first time ever I got to try my hand at some procion dyeing. Here are my fabrics in their containers 'brewing'

Some of my finished fabrics. I used a white sheet from a set we didn't like. They were 'noisy' sheets made of 1,000 count cotton. Very annoying but have now been reborn.

I loved the dyeing process and can't wait to do some more.

 

Somewhere in amongst all the madness of the beginning of this year I fitted in an online workshop with Jenniebellie and made this journal. It is made with some old sketches gifted to me by Shirley. The sketch on the front cover was done by Shirley too and I am hoping her sketches will inspire me to do some sketching as well. I really enjoyed the journal making process and hope to make some more in the future.

Finishing up with a funny photo taken at the wedding photo booth. My sister on the left proclaiming her love for beer, DH in the middle who states "you only live once - YOLO" and me on the right.

Wishing you all a Happy and Blessed Easter my dear blogging friends.

Until next time ................ Dianne

 

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Busy Times–a holiday required

Hello All.  A long time between drinks, but life has been chucking us wobblies as well as some good times, leaving me precious little time to create. 
In between all of it I have been throwing a bit of paint around some paper and fitting in a bit of art work whenever I can.
My house is becoming a trash can as I save all sorts of recyclables and odds and ends that I think may make some kind of arty mark.  Everything is eyed off as a possible stamp, mask or stencil – LOL – nothing is sacred.  Different papers and ephemera are cluttering up the bottom of the cupboard too.  All fun!!!!
Here are some prints from the humble egg carton. 


The end of the celery makes a lovely rose print.
We have a very small vegetable garden now but we managed to grow some beautiful broccoli this winter. 

Last weekend we went out to Leyburn Historical Sprints for my DH’s birthday.  Luckily it was a sunny warm day with no wind – an interesting day out is all I will say, but DH and his brother in law enjoyed it.

DH, Brother in Law, Ian and DH’s sister, Catherine.

A much needed holiday is just around the corner, so until next time, enjoy your arting and crafting
………………Dianne.

D Days – Deadlines * Drawing * Done

It has been a busy time  here at EPQ central. 

There has been family stuff going on and lots of frantic work being done due to deadlines.  Thank goodness for those DEADLINES – it seems to motivate me to get things DONE.

The first thing done and finished was the art quilt for our exhibition in September.  The theme was ‘Botanica’.

Here is the reveal of my piece “From the Seed”.  Lately I have been fascinated with seeds and seed pods and the first thing that came to mind for botanica was this very subject. 

Readers may recall when Shirley and I experimented with dyeing fabrics from botanicals.  It was loads of fun with some success and some we won’t talk about.  Some of the fabrics I have used in this piece are from those experiments.

As you may know, I have been doing lots of collage both in fabric and paper this year, and after seeing Jane La Fazio’s work, I was inspired to lay down the foundation of the piece with fabric collage and use lots of hand stitching and other techniques to bind the components all together.  Make sure you visit Jane’s site HERE and go to her gallery to see her beautiful fabric collage pieces and other creative works.

The top of my commissioned quilt is DONE.  It is the Ferris Wheel pattern from Karen Griska and it was loads of fun to put together – albeit time consuming.

Now just for the quilting which I hope to achieve over this weekend.

I can DRAW! 

When Lilian and I were playing with painting over the school holidays, I refurbished some of my background pieces in my little repurposed diary art journal.

 

This background was too busy and there seemed to be nowhere to go with it, so I made up my mind that I could draw something really simple and I did.  The pear was drawn with a charcoal pencil and then I filled the background in with gesso.

Another busy background was painted over with this white urn which I splattered with dark grey paint.  If you say you can draw  - YOU CAN (so they say).  My next aim is to draw a face in one of my journals.

I am quite fond of this collage I did some time back incorporating some really cute selvedges given to me by a friend. The dressmaker model clip is from Karen at the Graphics Fairy. 

In the past two weeks we have celebrated a life and a marriage.

Our dear brother in law, Tony,  passed away suddenly and he will be sadly missed by all of his family and friends.  He was just 59 years and 11 months.  Tony was dealt quite a bit of rubbish in his life and he always faced things head on and got on with it and never complained.  A valuable lesson we have learned from him. RIP Tony

My DH’s nephew got married and we celebrated with them this past weekend. We thought we were going to their engagement party and they surprised us and got married.  It was a beautiful day.  Congratulations to Daniel and Elisha – a very handsome couple.

Lilian enjoyed herself at the wedding on the jumping castle. You can see around her mouth where she really enjoyed some orange slushies too  LOL.

Until next time – happy creating – Dianne.

Warming Foods for Cold Days

My DH loves to cook.  This is a good thing – especially when I am having a ‘slack attack’.

He has always wanted to bake bread, so he set to a couple of days ago and took the journey.

Soooooooooooo happy he did, because ( a ) it was Yummy with a capital Y and ( b ) he wants to make more.

This one was a pull apart with a cheese and herb filling and I wish I could share the aroma of it cooking with you all.

My dear Dad turned 86 on 7 July and my sister and I took some lunch to his house to share with him.  I did a hearty beef casserole and my sister did a soup and his favourite dessert of milky, creamy baked rice and the simple cake dessert with apricot which we used for his candle.  Oh heaven! 

The weather has been cold in the mornings and when the westerly wind comes up the chill factor goes up with it.  My Dad lives on the plains 20 minutes from here and it is ffffffreezing.  It was –1 the morning of his birthday, but the company and food warmed us up.  The delightful Lilian was able to join us too.

My friend, Joan, gifted me a stack of lemons, so of course, I had to do one of our favourite desserts.  It is an easy lemon coconut tart and it is beautiful served with cream, ice cream and blueberries. No calories – ahem.

It is basically like the old impossible pie only lemony.  I am sorry I can’t remember where I originally got this recipe.

 

Easy Lemon Coconut Tart:

1` tablespoon grated lemon rind

1/3 cup (80ml) lemon juice

1 cup 220gr caster suger

4 eggs, beaten lightly

1 2/3 cups (410ml) milk

1/2 cup (75g) flour

1 cup (90gr) desiccated coconut

125 g butter, melted (I use about 110 g)

icing sugar

Grease 24cm pie dish.  Combine all ingredients except icing sugar in large bowl; mix well.  Pour mixture into prepared dish.  Bake in moderate oven about 50 minutes or until browned lightly and set.  Cover loosely with foil if over-browning.   Dust with sifted icing sugar.  Serve tart warm with cream and blueberries if desired.  Serves 8

Another birthday at this time of year is our puppy dog.  Bella is now 13 years old, and although her senses are diminished and her legs aren’t carrying her as well as they used to, she is still going along well and is a big part of our family.  She is a border collie cross and if you have ever had one of these dogs you know how faithful they are, and the great temperament they have. 

It is school holidays and we are looking after Lilian during the day this week while her Mummy is at work.  We are so very proud of our daughter, and the wonderful job she is doing of bringing up Lilian mostly on her own.  Lilian was chuffed when I gave her her very own old book to alter into a little art journal.

Her very first page signed and sealed with a heart and hugs.

Until next time – happy creating………………………Dianne.