My First Quilt - a 16 Block Quilt

Quilt making is something that my Ma has always done and to be honest the urge has never grabbed me, well that was until last summer when some vintage fabrics that's been lying around for quite some time started calling out for a little TLC.

 

 

 

 

 

Without a quilt book in sight I ventured over to Pinterest for a little inspiration. How lucky are we to be spoilt with so much inspiration with just a click of a button?! Within minutes I saw this 16 block quilt and knew instantly that I wanted to have a go making something similar.  

 

 

 

 

This tutorial came in really handy for learning how to cut the fabrics to save a little time. I didn't follow the full instructions for my quilt as I wanted something a little different, but for cutting the fabrics it came in very handy. I knew I wanted my finished squares to be in the region of 8.5 inches or thereabout so I just worked the rest out from there. Therefore allowing a quarter inch seam allowance on each side of the block for each 16 blocks.

 

 

I figured that it would be a good idea for my first quilt to be small as I didn't know how I was going to manage quilting a massive quilt for the first time, so I aimed for a finished size of around 40 x 50 inches and boy am I pleased I did!

 

 

 

 

I found the cutting quite therapeutic, especially seeing I did some of it sitting outside in the gorgeous sunshine we were blessed with last summer. This is definitely my idea of how one should go about ones quilting business. 

 

 

 

 

It was only during the month of August that I started joining the squares together to form a 16 block squares and found it a very enjoyable process. I definitely think having a 1/4 inch machine foot really helps to keep things nice and tidy and I wouldn't ever be without one again.

 

 

 

 

 

It felt so lovely to pick up these squares again in January after so many months and despite my nerves about doing the sashing, it actually turned out to be a pretty straight forward process in the end. On the other hand putting the quilt together was a little more tricky , but nothing that a good few safety pins couldn't sort out.

 

 

 

  

I found that keeping the iron handy really helped. It really is a great deal easier if everything is crisp and flat without any pesky creases glaring up at you

  

 

 

 

then came the quilting and if I am perfectly honest this is the bit that scared the socks off me, but it all turned out OK in the end (and it seems I still have my socks on, yay!). No it is not perfect and yes I did chose a very simple design, well to be honest I just did what I thought I could manage, so whether it is actually a design or not, who knows! I just did a simple diagonal cross through each of the squares, which seem to work well.

  

 

 

The binding is another aspect that kinda gave me the ibbies. I started off by just cutting the backing fabric a little bigger (around an inch), so I could just fold it over to the front, but with a slip of the scissors and a cuss of the mouth, we swiftly moved on to plan B. In my case this often involves YouTube and it seems that this and this link here saved my bacon. I really surprised myself with how much I actually enjoyed hand stitching the binding in place, who would have thought?!
 

 

 

Once the binding was on, it was popped in the washing machine and I must say it does come out looking a great deal better than it went in, so I will follow this advice in the future again.

 

 

 

I love all the colours and I especially how the grey frames the colours
 

So this is my Spring Quilt and for me

 



 

the colours most certainly have a feel of Spring about them and it sure makes me feel super cheery

 

For the back of the quilt I used an old duvet cover and I especially love how some of the colours of the retro prints are incorporated here

 

 

I also love how this yellow stripe sings!!

 

As a reference book The Quilters Bible has come in really handy throughout this process and I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested to start their first quilt or just wanting some information on quilting. It pretty much covers everything you need to know and more. I am sure I will refer to it time and time again as I venture a little deeper into the mysterious woods of quilting

For now it is sitting on little Es's bed, but I have just today been told to remove it as she still wants her nursery quilt there until I have finished her quilt. I was told 'but these are not the fabrics I chose and this really does not look like the quilt I ordered', so hey that's me told! Needless to say I have yet to start on her quilt, now where did I put that magic wand??

 

 

Fortunately it does seem that the quilting bug has bitten and the plan for the next is in full swing (albeit under a little bit of pressure from a four year old!). It seems like it might be a good thing after all that I am actually loving this quilting lark! Also joining in today with Chrissie for her 'Stitching Sundays'.

 

Wishing you all a very lovely week.

 

Warm Wishes

Hannapat

xoxo

 

 

 

This week

I have been enjoying

 

 

 some time under my eidie reading

 

pink Himalayan rock salt you can read here about the benefits to our bodies

these pretties

 



 

picking up my knitting needles again for the first year in errm 28 years. I really wanted to teach myself how to knit again this year and even though I have only done a little bit, it's been fun.

finding Iced Zoo's in a UK supermarket after all these years, aren't they pretty?! I used to love these when I was a kid, especially slowly licking off the animals and then devouring the biscuit. Now the kids can have a little taste of South Africa and I can enjoy getting them out

 



of my new Orla Kiely jar that a friend gave me for Christmas.



writing a line a day with such a pretty pen, thank you Andrea

 

 



the repetitiveness and almost hypnotic state that comes from crocheting my Spring throw

 

 

splurging on some super foods in preparation for my new toy that should hopefully be here any day soon

 

 



preparing my quilt for quilting

 

 





some time with a poorly Es choosing the fabrics and

style for her bedroom quilt to be

 

 

finding a couple of treasures in the charity shop

 

and filling one of them with gorgeous smelling and tasting herbs

 

for the first time opening up my spring throw to appreciate my WIP

 

 

 

enjoying the view of the snow whilst quilting my first quilt.

 

Hope you have all enjoyed a creative week and I look forward to popping over to see what everyone else has been crocheting. Joining in today with Chrissie and Marianne for their Blooming Crochet-a-long.

 

 

Warm Wishes

Hannapat

xoxo



Raw Chocolate and Orange Cheesecake

This week has zoomed by and it has been a super busy one. On Thursday it was my turn to host our fortnightly 'Coffee morning' that the Mums from our reception class started doing shortly after the October half term. The objective of the morning is to raise money for our school and so far we have already raised nearly £150 between a few Mum's, so really not bad going considering that we all get to chat and drink coffee or tea. It is the first time that I have hosted and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I absolutely LOVE tea parties and I think the thing I enjoy the most is the preparation, not that this small gathering required much. I have however had to be very organised as I had a funeral to go to on Wednesday and be there to support dear friends.

 

 



 

 

Fortunately you can make these Flourless Chocolate Brownies a few days in advance and they keep really well for up to a week, and if you like you can also freeze them. They are really delicious and are always a big hit with everyone, you can read more about it here. On Wednesday I quickly made my all time favourite lemon drizzle cake that I wrote about here, and I must say as always this was devoured. The thing that sets this lemon drizzle above any other is the use of ground almonds, which makes it really moist. It is also very lemony, which I love, not that I had a single morsel I will add.

 

Seeing that I am now officially on day 19 of my NO sugar diet, I had to find something that I could eat, so I thought I would have a go at making this vegan raw cheesecake. I have seen various recipes for raw cheesecakes over the years and despite wanting to try it, I have never actually gotten around to it. I must confess it ended up being quite a kerfuffle, but fortunately it is seriously DELICIOUS!! Basically the biscuit base is made up of almonds, dates and melted coconut oil, which was pretty straight forward, but the actual cheesecake, well lets just say a little less so and a little more prone to release a good repertoire of choice language.

 

It seems that my food processor just doesn't live up to the job. You see the cashew nuts, which I will add is an entire bag of 400g (so not the best low fat option!), has to be processed down into a nut butter paste, which was clearly just a little to tough going for my Kenwood Food processor. So in the end I had to blend down the cashew nuts, freshly squeezed orange juice, a few dates, cocoa powder and coconut oil in my teeny weeny electric spice grinder, a couple of spoons at a time, which turned this happy camper into a rather grumpy one.

 

 

 

Every cloud has a silver lining though!! Hubby saw and heard my mutter flowery language under my breath and kindly suggested that we needed to sort this out. You see, I am on a mission and when this girl gets going there is no stopping here. I am seriously looking at my diet and possibly moving into more of a raw food diet. It is slow steps, but I am reading heaps about this and trying to inform myself as best as possible. Despite starting The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt after finishing Bridget Jones's 'Mad about the Boy', I have now been side tracked and am reading Sweet Poison and researching the benefits of raw diets, but more on that at a later date.

 

 

I have a great deal to learn though as it seems that raw eating involves large quantity of fat every day and even though this is healthy fat, it is still unnecessary pressure on our livers. It is all a steep learning curve and I promise to share some information here soon for anyone interested. Anyway I digress, back to the silver lining. About three years ago my nutritionist, whom I have been working with since I fell ill, seriously suggested that I INVEST in a Vitamix, with INVEST most certainly being the operative word. After close consideration at the time and few pennies to spare we decided against it and bought a Kenwood blender to replace our then burnt out blender instead. In hindsight we should have saved the £140 we spent then and put it towards the Vitamix, but hey that's life.

 

 

 

So on Thursday after the girls had left I started doing a little research and within a few minutes of watching this video the decision was pretty much made. Even though we can't really afford it hubby was happy for us to make it work, and that is what we will do. So needless to say I am one very lucky and excited girl waiting with bated breath for the right knock on the door, even though I know it most probably won't be here for another week. A girl can be hopeful!

 

On Friday we had our 'stitch and bitch' and it was such a lovely morning. I actually picked up my quilting squares again as I didn't know what I wanted to work on and it felt so lovely to carry on where I left off at the end of last summer.

 

 



Even though it is only in the early stages, it is lovely to see a little progress. Needless to say I am working completely out of my comfort zone, if I have such a thing when it comes to sewing, but this is all new to me and without any training or help, I am just relying on my trusty Quilters Bible by Linda Clements. I must say I do wish I knew another quilter or someone interested in it as a little practical help here and there won't go amiss.

 

 



 

 

I love that both my friend and I always carry our cameras around with us and feel so at ease to snap away at random things without a blink of an eye lid from the other. The fun bit is that we have the same cameras too, and even though we are both pretty clueless we will hopefully learn a little together. I think more and more people take photos of everything, but as a blogger and instagram junkie, it often feels like I have my camera on me 24/7. I love how we get to see the different angles of life through a single lens.

 

 

 

This is a joyous sight that is making me smile every day. I am really enjoying seeing a little more life in the garden and in the home.

 

 

For anyone interested in joining in on my Weekly Bake, please feel free to do so. For my new readers, I generally do a post once a week about some or the other bake. This year I suspect you will largely be seeing healthy options, not a bad thing, but for anyone wanting to join in you can find the button on the sidebar of my blog to add to your blog and you can just click on the link below the post to link up your bake. There is no pressure and that includes myself. My aim this year is not to feel pressurised by anything, so if I miss a week, please feel free to go ahead and blog about it anyway. You can find quite a few recipes in my Weekly Bake and Gluten and Dairy Free Baking section, but now there will be a new section for Raw baking or food. At the moment I am seriously contemplating a 21 day raw food detox, anyone fancy joining in??

 

 

 

So before I sign off, I need to know have you all been watching The Great Interior Design Challenge??? Oh faint!!! I am just LOVING it. It was great watching some familiar faces on there such as Sarah Moore and Ooh Betty. It is so lovely to see the people we follow on our blogs and Instagram and to see them do so well at it. For anyone who has missed it you can watch it on iPlayer. DONT miss it!!

 

I have so many things to tell, but it will have to wait till next time as the family beckons and I think it might be time to play a game of monopoly or something. The wind is howling and it is throwing it down, the fire is lit and I think it calls for a cosy afternoon and a date with the telly later tonight to watch The Voice and hopefully a little time to do a little more crochet on my Spring throw. Tomorrow is Treacle market, but with weather like this, errm, time will tell.

 

That's it for now.

Warm Wishes

Hannapat

xoxo

Nursery Rhyme Quilt

Today I wanted to share a really special quilt with you that Ma made for little Es for her cot. I love this gorgeous Nursery Rhyme quilt featuring so many of our favourite nursery rhymes.

 

 

Ma lovingly hand stitched the entire quilt from start to finish and the detail is simply beautiful.

It features everything from Jack and Jill to Old King Cole

 

Little Bo Peep, Old Mother Hubbard, Goldilocks

Hey diddle diddle, the three little pigs,

 

Tom Thumb

Humpty Dumpty

 



 

and Mary had a little lamb.

It is impossible for me to show the details that has gone into this quilt, but here is one of many examples, all hand embroidered.

I wish that I could stretch this beautiful quilt so it could grow with little Es, but seeing that we both love it, it is staying put on her bed for now.

Thank you again Ma for making such a beautiful quilt for little Es it brings a smile to our faces every day!!



Hope you are all enjoying your weekend so far. We had a trip out to the cinema last night to go and The Railway Man, which has moved me to the core. It is one of the best war movies that I have ever seen and I thought the cast, especially Colin Firth, Jeremy Irvine and Nicole Kidman were truly outstanding. It was a brilliantly moving production from start to finish and I don't think I blinked until the last thirty minutes when I had to reach for my hankie and that was me lost for the remainder of the movie. I hope that in some way this movie can inspire people to drive nations to strive for a world with less greed and hatred that is perpetually fuelling violence all around the world. The damage continues long after the events and so does the hatred and pain. As a society we are all responsible to teach our children the values and benefits of peace and reconciliation, but for one we need to find forgiveness within for ourselves and others in order to move forward.

 

On a brighter note, wishing you all a lovely weekend and I will be back in the next couple of days with a  very yummy and yes incredibly healthy cake.

 

Till then

Warm wishes

Hannapat

xoxo