Heather Ross For Spoonflower

Heather Ross just announced that in a few short days, some of her out-of-print designs will be released through Spoonflower! Gnomes! In new colourways! Be still my heart!

Wait... You hear that?

Yup. That's your bank account crying.

Day Of Quilty Goodness

I've been in my studio all day. That's a good day in my book :)

I've been working on an hourglass quilt that's going to live in Austria. Yeah, Schwarzenegger-Land.

It took forever to decide on colours... the client wanted soooo many colours, but suddenly had an epiphany: Green, purple and grey. I approve.

I threw in some white with dark purple dots since I needed four colours for this quilt. Quite excited for it to come together... I've got 24 out of 30 blocks done. Whee!

And the postman brought me some goodness today :) Kaffe Fassett's Glorious Patchwork! The best part is that I got it for $5.50.

I KNOW!

I want to make the Jeweled Squares quilt. I don't know when though. It'll probably be finished by 2025? Hee.

I'm kind of loving the sawtooth quilt too (I don't know what it's called in the book and I'm lazy to get up to go look...).

And now I have to go cook the hubs dinner because he has a basketball game later in the evening. Team sports make me want to cry. When I was younger I played tennis and I ran cross-country for my school. Clearly, I'm anti-social.

Black, White & Red

The quilt for my dear friend Margie is finally done!

I'd finished hand quilting along the edges of each patch, and then did random squares and rectangles all over the quilt in black thread... but I absolutely hated it. You couldn't see too much of the black thread, and it just looked awful. So I ripped all the black thread out, laid the quilt out and stared at it for a long, long time.

My husband agreed with me -- Less is more. I think I was trying to make sure I didn't half-arse this quilt because it was intended for a close friend, but I'd always liked the look of the stitches along the edges. Plus you could see actually see the fabrics.

For the binding, I used strips of the black and white pindot, solid black and the skull fabric to make a scrappy binding, which came out great.

I love this quilt so much. My husband declared it one of his faves. Fingers firmly crossed my friend likes it too! I'm probably going to make us one from Hope Valley but who knows when that'll be!

Love Love

Totally loving these pieces from Melbourne-based label, Love.

Sausage brooch, $60.

Steel cloud necklace, $55.

Steel coated bicycle necklace, $75.

Want. Want. Want.

Is It Spring Yet?

Who else wants to stab the damn groundhog for this six more weeks of winter nonsense? I've had enough and I'm ready for spring. Who's with me?

Anyway, I made this improv quilt from leftover fabric from this quilt... I love the Nature-ology fabrics so I couldn't let them sit in a crumpled mess any longer.

I honestly wasn't quite sure where I was going with it when I started and I'm sort of on the fence about whether I love it or not.

I like this block a lot.

And these two blocks too.

For the backing I used strips of the Nature-ology fabric with some fabric I found that had swirls in the same colours.

I think I need a lot more of the swirls...

It measures 42" by 49" and is currently available in the shop :)

Chocolate Chip Sour Cream Cake

I posted about the chocolate chip sour cream coffee cake I made the other day and a few people have commented and emailed asking for the recipe. I can't remember where I got this recipe but it's extremely yummy and should come with a warning label. And something this good needs to be shared, so here's the recipe.

Chocolate Chip Sour Cream Coffee Cake

1 stick butter, room temp

1.5 cups sugar

3 eggs, separated

1.5 tsp vanilla

16 oz sour cream

3 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

1.5 tsp baking soda

Topping:

12 oz chocolate chips

0.5 cup sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1. Preheat the oven to 350F.
2. Cream the butter and sugar, then add egg yolks and vanilla.
3. Sift the flour, baking powder and baking soda together in a separate bowl.
4. Add sour cream and dry ingredients alternately into the butter / sugar mixture.
5. Beat the egg whites till stiff, then fold into batter.
6. In a small bowl, mix 0.5 cup of sugar and 1 tsp of cinnamon together.
7. In a greased 13" by 9" pan, pour in half the batter. Sprinkle with half of the sugar / cinnamon mixture and half of the chocolate chips.
8. Pour the remaining batter over this, and sprinkle with the remaining sugar / cinnamon mixture and chocolate chips.
9. Bake for 40 to 50 minutes, or until tester comes out clean.
10. Try not to eat the entire thing at once.

I do warn you, if you make this, I cannot be held responsible for what happens after you smell this baking in the oven.

Current Obsession: Camera Obscura

They're not quite new but I love this song and I love her voice, so I thought I'd share :) Enjoy!