Cake = Fail

The Plan:

A Dolly Varden birthday cake for a friend's birthday. Easy enough - I have the tin for the cake, and I have made one before, so this should be no problem.

Then it gets complicated. I decide that instead of butter cake, I will make white chocolate mud cake. I look at the packet mixes, decide that the ingredients are cheaper to buy and go with that option. 3 blocks of white chocolate, much butter and flour and eggs are melted, mixed and poured into waiting tins.

The Result:



Ugh.

I hadn't used this recipe before, so obviously it is not a good one. The batter was very runny, and just exploded over the top of the tin (thank goodness I had it on another tray, or it all would have ended up on the bottom of the oven. I had to throw the tray out). Still, it might have been OK when I turned it out.

Nope. It disintegrated. It tasted alright, but couldn't be salvaged. Bugger.


So, onto a new cake. With time running short, I forgot about the fancy ideas and went with a basic butter cake. To make it even easier, I bought packet mixes.

Result No 2:



It's all good - didn't over flow the tin, turned out in one piece, decorated and ready for the birthday girl.

Lessons Learnt:

ALWAYS make a practice cake, especially for untried recipes. I usually do this, and teenage boys eat the excess cake for me. (They also eat all the leftover decorations, they're considerate like that). They actually ate the failed cake, too, so it wasn't a complete waste.

Jacaranda

Everywhere I look - Jacarandas in full bloom. A bit early this year because of the warm temperatures and lack of rain, apparently.

This one is outside the Regatta Hotel on Coro drive.

non-favourite things

Still going on the Peace quilt. It has required me to do some of my non-favourite sewing things - unpicking, pinning, and easing seams.

The unpicking may have been preventable (if I was a spatial genius) but I have done more unpicking, re-pressing and re-sewing on this quilt than I have ever done on any other. My usual approach to "errors" is to classify them as critical or non -critical. Non-critical errors just add to the character of the quilt. Unfortunately, with so many small pieces, every error I made was critical and needed to be fixed. I probably should have just re cut pieces and started again, but it's all done now.

And the pinning! Every seam, every join - PINNED! The suggested construction method was to make long diagonal rows and then join them. Little pieces (1 1/4 inch strips and squares), and lots of seams means lots of stretching. And despite my careful preparation, there was a lot of easing seams together and persuasive pressing to make it flat.

The whole top is on the bias, prone to stretching and if it hangs flat once it's quilted I'll be amazed. We'll see if all my careful pressing and handling helps. I'm glad I chose to do the foundation piecing on interfacing - it makes the crane blocks very stable and non stretchy.




I need to take a break from piecing, I think.

Fixed!

My house was damaged in the "cyclone" that went through the northern suburbs of Brisbane in November last year. It has taken 9 months to get repairs started, I will be un-RACQ-ing as soon as they have paid out the rest of the claim. A stressful event from beginning to soon-to-be end.
(The light fiting is still full of dirty water in this pic - there was a lot of water in the house.)


So this is what I have lived with for the last 9 months - a 2 metre hole in the ceiling over the kitchen. As the storm was coming over, I had looked out the window at the green sky and said that I was glad we had the big gum trees taken out of our back yard. Unfortunately, the back neighbours still have their trees, and all the branches hit our house. Broken tiles, leaking roof, wet insulation, leaking light fittings = collapsed ceiling. There was some other damage to the house and fences, but this is the most obvious. I have taken to calling it the bogan skylight - the plasterers liked the name.
Yesterday the plasterers finally arrived and did this to my kitchen. I think they tried to clean up afterwards, but I still have to vacuum the top of the cupboards. I haven't looked, but I am sure they are covered with the same crap that fell every where else. Think I'll wait till the cornices are done on Thursday. Still need the electrician and painter to finish things off and then I can start painting walls. (they weren't damaged, I just want to freshen things up)



Started the Peace quilt. I am foundation piecing on interfacing for this one. I like foundation piecing, but the picking out of paper afterwards is really tedious. Using interfacing means that I have to trace out each block by hand, but I think I prefer that to the paper removal. I did think that I would hand piece the blocks, because they are a bit fiddly. I've started doing them on the machine now though, still fiddly but I've got the hang of it now. Have to make 98 total.

Still going with the crochet hexagons - they are pretty quick to make up, and I am crocheting them together as I go.

I kind of take for granted that I know how to crochet, and knit, and sew. It's not until I encounter some one who is learning to do something new that I realise how much I take these skills for granted. I remember learning to crochet when I was about 10, and how completely bamboozled I was by number of loops over the hook to do a treble and why didn't the numbers work out - three loops minus 2 equals 1 left on the hook, right? Wrong! It equals 2 (I'd forgotten the one that you pull through). It was a light bulb moment for me, and once that was worked out I was fine. I didn't really make anything as a child, but I spent a lot of time fiddling with bits of wool and stuff. And it seems to be like riding a bike - I haven't crocheted anything for years, but I could just do it, it must be retained in your brain somewhere.



The shelves at Spotlight remain completely bare of 8 ply wool. It's been like this for weeks and weeks. There really isn't anywhere else on the Northside of Brisbane to buy supplies - Big W has a limited (very limited) range - I couldn't find anything to buy there, even though all the wool was on sale, there was no plain 8 ply plain colours in 100% wool. Things were looking so bad at Spotlight that I was seriously considering buying acrylic. Alas, this was also only available in crappy colours, so I talked myself out of it. Acrylic stuff has it's place, but I don't think it wears as nicely as wool, plus it usually feels like steel wool as well.





Might have to rethink my wool napper theory, since I caught another cat blatantly attacking the wool. No subtlety or subterfuge here, she strutted over and went crazy - Siamese-style - on me.



I bought this fabric today for a future quilt. This is for the back - they are giant koi and tiny kitties doing various things like reading newspapers and making shopping lists. I think one of them is smoking. Those wacky Japanese :-) It even drew comment from the gruff fabric shop man. I think he liked it more when I pointed out the kitties to him. For $8 a metre, it's a bargain.



I'm going to make the Peace quilt by Margaret Rolfe. It's foundation pieced. Think I might do this on interfacing, instead of paper, so I don't have to pull all the papers out. I want to get a purple/grey background instead of the navy blue so it tones in with the backing a little. I bought a set of 50 charm squares to start the Japanese fabric off. I don't have many Japanese fabrics - I like them, but they are kind of hard to use with anything but Japanese fabrics. This was a "talked me into it" project. My friend likes for me to make the same quilt as she is, and she wanted to use Japanese fabrics. I'd seen this quilt a while ago, so cranes it is. Lots of little blocks, though. I'll probably say some bad words before this is finished.

Today is Quilt Judging Day for the RNA show. They haven't called to tell me I've won yet. Last time I won a prize they called me at 9.00 pm to tell me, so there is still time for them yet.

Or, if worst comes to worst, I will have to pay to get into the Ekka (they give you free tix if you win a prize). My son is more excited about the possibility of free tix than of me winning a prize.


Edited to add: I won Best Use of Colour! Free Ekka tickets are on their way!

8 ply drama

I'm off to the RNA showgrounds this morning to drop off my quilts - finished, labeled, de-furred, and bagged - all ready to go. I really struggled with finishing them off, especially the purple one because I think it's kinda ugly now. Not sure if it's just that I'm sick of looking at it and need to take a break - absence makes the heart grow fonder. Maybe. I've listed both of them for sale, too. I don't think they will sell though - people love quilts and really want one - until they find out how much they cost.

So with no quilt projects on the go, I've gone back to crochet for a break. I've been thinking about hexagon granny shapes, so that's what I've started doing.
I've had this wool for a while, so I'll use this and add to it as I go. It's just the basic 8 ply from Spotlight, which is cheap enough and should be easily available. Except if you want to buy it from the Everton Park Spotlight, in which case there are lots of empty shelves where the 8 ply used to be. I've been back several times in the past 6-8 weeks and it never changes, so either it is never in stock or there is a mad rush on it every time it comes in and I always miss out. So I am giving up on this option and going upmarket.

I'm going to Threads and More to buy some Biggan merino - twice the price, but the colours! oh my! I am trying to buy strategically - colours that I can't get anywhere else (which is all of them except brown). Think I'll get 4 or 5 for starter and see how I go. My enthusiasm for crochet could fade at any minute.


Looks innocent enough, doesn't she? I have no actual proof, but I think she is the phantom wool napper in this house. I often come home and find balls of wool stewn around the house - not wrecked, but carried gently and left in odd places, like the doorway to my bedroom or in the kitchen. I haven't caught her in the act - she is too clever for that.

Repair job to be done - I musn't have started the ring bit properly, or maybe it's the bamboo fibre (heavy and slinky) doesn't hold knots the same as wool does. Not looking forward to this.

busy....

Working full time is really interfering with my sewing time. I have been getting some things done though -



This is a baby quilt that I started the blocks for a while ago - I put the blocks together and then gave them to a friend to finish because she liked them. I've finished the quilting off for her and put the binding on. Such a simple pattern (it was in a magazine of baby quilts, the name of which escapes me at the moment) but it is so pretty.

I've also been quilting like crazy to finish this for the RNA show. I've struggled with the quilting on this for a long time - so it has been unfinished for a few years now.

I came across Patsy Thompson's quilting - feathers, hyperquilting, lots of colour! Just the inspiration I needed. I think I'll try to find an Australian supplier for the DVD's - they look like a great investment.



So this is my first try at feathers on a proper quilt - I've done them on practice pieces and been less than happy, but I decided to go ahead with them anyway on this quilt. I'm not a big fan of marking, so the only marking has been for the spines - all the feathers are free hand. Surprisingly, they look symmetrical and even.
Hyper quilting is what Patsy calls adding another thread colour and adding another element to the quilting - I've done the feathers in a purple thread, then added pink and orange swirls on top of it. I like the effect of the multiple threads, but I'm not sure if I like this quilt any more. I can't decide if it's good, or if it's just ugly. Maybe i'm just tired of looking at it. (plus I have a migraine, so maybe my judgement is affected).


sThis is my fancy, jerry-rigged quilt hanging system. You need to get quilts vertical to get a decent photo (for show entries) so I have a pole on my lounge room wall and use trouser hangers to clip things up. You can use the pole to hang things on a sleeve if the quilt has one. I usually add one to my quilts, even if they're not going in a show, in case I want to hang it up one day.