Summer dazey days

I've been enjoying a busy social fun summer here in Perth.  Getting out and about and seeing movies, Fringe Festival shows and now a couple of PIAF shows too.  '

Also going for lots of lovely morning and weekend walks, around our beautiful river and at the beach occasionally too.  I spent lots of hours finishing my hexie quilt - or at least finishing the TOP.  The grand total is 1243 one-and-a-half inch hand pieced hexagons!!  I can't really remember when I started, but I've been working on it (and off it for long periods of time) for about 5 years.  I have truly loved the hand stitching process.  Call me crazy, but I've bought a packet of little 1 inch hexie papers for my next one!!  I am going to make it all out of my Liberty stash, BUT, I am not starting it until I finish a few more unfinished projects, in particular, 3 crochet rugs that are near completion. Not to mention 4 quilt tops in progress and the 4 finished tops that need sandwiching.

I am christening my hexie quilt Twelve Forty-Three in honour of the grand total.  Here it is gracing my bed.

And here it is outside over the rail in the garden....

There's been a little bit of cake time too...this one made by our resident chef at work.....Banana cake with cinnamon cream frosting with honeyed pecans...he is the reason I stay in my job.....insert happy face here.....

Perth puts on the Perth International Arts Festival every year and as part of that said festival there is one huge free event held in the city each year.  This year was truly incredible.  The Giants came to town:  a little girl and a man. Here are pictures of the girl taken as she danced above the crowd. The atmosphere over the 3 day event was electric in the city. The crowds were formidable and quite overwhelming at times, but it was worth it to be a part of the fun.

Happy New Year

The bag model :)

One of my bags

Pea pancakes

Lemon cake

The Raw Food Kitchen

 

A few bits of delicious Liberty Tana Lawn from a visit to Materialise

Hello from my little plot!  I'm back to the rhythm of my normal life after a wonderful 10 days of flying by the seat of my pants. Days spent doing things on a whim.  It was pure delicious-ness to throw routine out the window and move easily through my day.  A dear, dear friend came to visit, which was so special - we had such an amazing few days.  We did not stop talking as we explored, drove, ate, cooked, walked, swam, shopped, drank. We had so much catching up to do.  I have known Sal from the day she was born (I'm a little bit older!) so our families have a long shared history. It was incredible to have time together - it was the first time Sal had left all 3 of her children, in 13 years.  It filled up our souls, reaffirmed our friendship and sparked all our creative juices.  Sal is the most wonderful person, with an incredible ability to live a truly creative life.  I love her to pieces. Our time together is something I will treasure forever.

I sent her off with one of my bags, and forced her to model it for me in the above picture.  It looked so great with her outfit!  Much better than the table pic, don't you think?  The food pics were taken as we ate our way around Perth.  Everything pictured is gluten free - from Sayers Sister in North Perth and The Raw Kitchen in Fremantle.  All of it was a taste sensation.  Sal and I talked food and nutrition a lot and have decided to share recipes across the country. I've sent off the first one, which is roast potatoes with prunes from the Jerusalem cookbook.  I made them one night and served them alongside Jamie Oliver's lamb with a green leafy salad.  Dessert was one of my small Christmas cakes - another success!  See pictures below...I can't take credit for the potato shot - it's from the cookbook....but the Christmas cake is my pic.

Potatoes and Prunes in caramel sauce from Jerusalem by Ottolenghi

Recipe from Cake Angels by Julie Thomas.

As you can see it was a bit of a foodie-fest!

Bon appetite...until next time.....

Checkerboard quilt

So I put my foot down on the quilting accelerator and finished one of my 7 quilt tops in various stages of development.  I've given myself a bit of a talking to and decided it's high time they got finished as tops at least - the sandwiching, quilting and binding can happen later.  Perhaps I'm just missing the wonderful feeling when you step back and view the finished top.  It's a lovely stage of the whole wonderful process for me.

I had a styling assistant help with the photos....or is it what you call photo-bombing?  Tilly takes such and interest in everything I do and likes to help at all times.