Cake, cakes, more cakes and a Party.

Like most people, funds are a little tight at the moment. In the past I've never attempted the kids' party cakes but this year there wasn't a choice. I think I was a little inspired by this blog too. I invested in a large rectangular cake tin and proceeded to run with a decoration of rainbows and flowers I had in mind.......

I prepared for the worst but when I looked at the cake and it was golden brown on top, then I pulled it out of the oven and it was like blubber, I started to panic.!! Flick, on went the other oven (my two ovens purchased on sale years ago and kept in storage waiting for the 'big reno' have finally been put to good use) and I made the 'back up' round cake whilst the other was still baking.

After a panic call to my 'baker' friend, who put me at ease, this is what i ended up with......I left the rectangular cake in the oven for around 1.5hrs and it seemed to do the trick.

I also made some cupcakes to go on the table with the food. When it came to icing the main cake it wasn't the best idea to start it after two glasses of wine (not that it really would have mattered).

The smarties started sliding around and I had to keep propping them back into place. But the main thing was the birthday girl LOVED her cake!

Big sister helping to set up the party at the party playhouse.

The birthday girl not wishing to pose for a photo.......Hello Miss 4!
Well, Mr almost two next month and then Miss 8 in August, looks like that cake tin is going to get a workout!

Happy Baking
Susie

The Gifts are delivered

This was the secret project I had been working on for my mum and mother-in-law.

The beauty of the Creative Memories digital scrapbooking and calendar making is the calendar's can be custom designed so I started mine from the beginning of this month.

I love this photo of this cheeky girl. The digital scrap booking package is so easy to use and the best part about it is its portable. Perfect for a busy lifestyle where it takes me a long time to set up my scrapbooking gear - not to mention having to wait till the littlie's are in bed. I purchased my package from here. Its no trouble to jump on the computer and start scrapping.

I still do traditional scrapping with my 7yr old once a month. Its fun to do something lovely together however this is perfect as a relatively easy and quick gift.

My almost-78-year old mum has been so ill for weeks with shingles in the eye and side of her head that it was lovely to see a smile on her face when she received this belated Mother's Day present. My mother-in-law also appreciated hers and spent a long time considering where it would go - I suggested the laundry but she wouldn't have a bar of that!!

Happy Stitching, (and scrapping)
Susie

A Finished Quilt

Finally this quilt for my gorgeous girl is finished and just in time for her fourth birthday.

She loves her new quilt (seems old now I started it so long ago). All hand-quilted in just about every row. 

The pattern is by Judy Newman of a very fine house, and amitie.

The request was 'pink and green', so that is what she got!

Such cute characters on this print. 

Love these fairies, I was supposed to do the binding cut on the bias and completely forgot until I had cut almost all of the binding strips. ah well, next time.

Happy Stitching, Susie

Skirts for Girls

I've been wanting to make the girls some clothes for a long long time. I discovered this easy tutorial.  I purchased some cheap fabric ($5 per metre) on sale from spotlight to test the pattern out.

The larger size skirt was the 'trial and error' one. The next one I made in about 30 minutes. The girls loved them!

Happy Stitching,
Susie

My other project - shhhh, this one is a secret..........

Besides the handquilting on this quilt (which I happy to report is almost finished!), I have been busy creating a calendar for my Mum and mother-in-law for mothers day.

Its pretty safe to say that I don't even know if my Mother-in-Law (MIL) knows I have a blog so she won't see the preview, and I think my own mum has forgotten about it.

I am creating them on the Creative Memories Storybook package (purchased from Wendy here) which is totally amazing (and heaps of fun). I don't know half of it yet but am learning as I go.

sorry - didn't know how to turn the flash off my camera!

I created a calendar for mum and dad last year. They adore it so much they have asked for another and have offered to pay for it - think it will be a nice gift instead.

I am so very grateful for having my mum and MIL around. They are both so wonderful and generous and I only hope they enjoy this little gift from me hanging on the wall.

Happy Stitching, Susie

Generosity Abounds

This blog post is long overdue and I feel terrible it has taken me so long to take these photos. Given today is a bit gloomy we are all stuck indoors but it gave me the perfect opportunity to capture these images and to say 'Thank you'.

Most of us all know how wonderful this blog world is, and some of you may already be aware of the extremely talented Liz over at broderie. A couple of posts ago I mentioned how I adore Liberty fabrics and I have a quilt in mind that I would love to make using them, but haven't quite got a collection going as yet.

But with enormous thanks to Liz and her generosity, now I have.......

Just a couple of my favourites..........

adorable........

here is the full 'collection'...........

 Liz said they were scraps, I don't think so........

 I just love them!!! all of them!!!!

Now the first quilt I have in mind is the 'Mitali' (no picture sorry) quilt, using squares of Liberty fabric and Linen sashings, which can be purchased from Amitie.

And if I have some left, which I should, I have this triangle quilt in mind.......

 havenspie.tumblr.com

I can't wait to start........

I can't thank Liz enough for sending me her scraps. I hope she realises they mean alot to me and look forward to showing her (and perhaps stitching with her) the quilt soon.

Go make yourself a cuppa, sit down and check out her blog broderie, its a visual delight! (oh, and arm yourself with your credit card as its really hard to go past the patterns she sells!).

Thanks again Liz.

Happy Stitching,
Susie

Australasian Quilt Convention (AQC)

Today I was fortunate enough to attend the Australasian Quilt Convention. I was really excited to attend this year's event, particularly due to the Japanese quilt exhibition - 'Cotton Poem' by Kayoko Oguri (and others). I love everything Japanese and today did not disappoint. It started with a traditional Japanese (Green) Tea ceremony. It brought back lovely memories of living in Japan when I was younger.

I took so many photos today that I'll probably have to do a number of blog posts.

Here are some of the stand-out quilts - there were a lot of those! I really admire the  hand quilted/pieced/appliqued quilt. They truly are a work of art.

The Tumbling Jacobean by Anne Pearce

Hand pieced, appliqued and quilted!

The colours are delightful

2031 charms!!

Next was a quilt that really caught my eye titled Surfers Paradise. This quilt was quilted on a domestic machine - I just love the detail of the dolphin in the solid colour quilting!

by Ansa Braytenbach

look at that detailed quilting!

Next was another domestic machine quilted quilt by Deborah Louie. Amazing work Deb!





 I have many more photographs of inspirational quilts. I can't imagine the hours put into these quilts but after all they really are a labour of love.

Happy Stitching, Susie