HANDMADE POTHOLDER

I have been pretty quiet recently as I have been even busier than usual and also had some temporary health issues. The exciting Melbourne weather continues to be surprising and it is almost inevitable to be not sick during these extremely inconsistent weather conditions. So, we have been having our share of the cold and flu as a family as well for a while now. 

I hope to write about the beautiful story of the top two fat quarters in the picture below as well as many other fabrics that will make your mouth water in another post in the future. Today, it is about a little quilting project of mine.

Since I was at home with a sore throat and was unable to do much, I thought it was a great opportunity to work on a new project to distract my attention from the pain and also do something that did not require using my voice. So, that is how I decided on working on a potholder. 

The inspiration came from the little pretty potholders by NanaCompany. Just like almost everything else she makes, Amy's potholders looked too pretty not to be inspired by. Her tutorial is pretty easy to follow even for a beginner. I changed a few details about it though to suit my needs better (made it smaller as I found the measurements used in Amy's tutorial to be too large for my liking and also used a lace instead of a ruffle. I also changed the back fabrics to calico and skipped any extra decoration as I love the blue floral fabric and wanted it to stand out). 

I don't have a walking foot to use for quilting. If you are like me, you can just sew straight lines in both directions as seen in pictures (they make diamonds) to hold the batting in place well. It also looks pretty in my opinion.

It was an enjoyable project for me. The most challenging part was adding the binding around it (not where the pocket to put your hand is, I am talking about the long one that covers all the raw edges around it).

I cannot wait to make more potholders as soon as I get my hands onto some insulated batting in the near future!

Have you ever quilted before? If yes and if you have it online, send us a link. Looking forward to seeing your quilt!

TUTORIAL: Rolled Stuffed Leaves

Just recently, I was talking to someone about what we stuff. We stuff, zucchinis, zucchini flowers, capsicums, silverbeet, dried eggplants and vine leaves. I am now looking forward to trying my hand at stuffing cabbage and leek. I wonder if there is anything else that we could stuff that we haven't tried yet.

The last time, I shared with you a tutorial to show you how you can stuff your (silverbeet) leaves in a triangular shape. To access to the tutorial which includes the preparation of the leaves, the stuffing, the cooking method and more, you can click here.

This time, I am sharing the easiest method of stuffing leaves with you; rolling. The pictures say it all but if you have any questions, please ask in the comments section below.

Enjoy!

Triangular Shaped Stuffed Silverbeet Leaves

As I have mentioned here in my stuffed zucchini recipe post, we truly enjoy a variety of stuffed vegetables, dolmas, as a family. Just recently, a lovely lady from our local community, who has become a friend, happily shared some of her delicious vegetables from her plot in the community garden with us. The colours and the smell of all those vegetables and herbs were just divine. I just had to put everything aside and make something with the fresh produce as soon as I was given them. The first thing I did was to make something that my mum used to make for us when I was a child; triangular shaped stuffed silverbeet leaves. I actually make our stuffed leaves in two shapes and this is the harder shape to form. Stay tuned for a tutorial on the other way of stuffing leaves. 

Ingedients:

Silverbeet
Onion
Tomato paste or diced tomatoes
Medium grain rice (about 1.5 - 2 teaspoonsful of rice for each leaf)
Ground mint
Fresh parsley (optional)
Water (boiled)
Salt
Black pepper (optional)
Olive oil

Method:

Wash your silverbeets. Separate your silverbeet leaves from their stems as shown in picture below. Don't throw away your stems, they make and add flavour to many delicious meals, which I will be sharing with you at the end of this post.

Dice your onions and cook in some olive oil and tomatoes or tomato paste until the onions are nice and soft.

Wash your rice well.

Chop your fresh parsley.

Add your rice, salt, pepper and herbs (mint and parsley) to the onions and mix well. Add a small amount of boiling water, close the lid, turn off the stove and let it absorb the water.

In the meantime, boil a generous amount of water in a large pot and then put your silverbeet leaves in it. It takes only some seconds before the leaves soften. Once the leaves are softened, (approximately 30 seconds) put them in a strainer to drain the excess water off.

When the leaves and the stuffing are cool enough for you to touch comfortably, you can start making your dolmas. The pictures below show you how to make them step-by step. Just a reminder though that you will need to cut the leaves in half lengthwise, following the stem line. In other words, each leaf will make two triangle dolmas (if the leaves are really big, you can them in half and that will make four triangles from the same leaf).

Now, here is the details of the arts of making triangular shaped dolmas:

1. Put about a teaspoonful of stuffing on top of the 'wrong side' (the one with the more visible veins, the back of the smooth side) of the leaf close the larger end (which is where the stem was originally).

2-3-4. Fold the outer side of the leaf and place it on top of the stuffing, all the way to the inner edge (from right side to left side of the leaf).

5. Fold the leaf back onto the outer edge (so, it is folded from the left side to the right side).

6-7-8-9-10. Keep repeating the folding action each time to the opposite side (first towards the inner edge, then towards the outer edge and so on). This action is crucial in making the triangle shape.

11. If there is any small bits sticking out, fold them in and keep going as usual until the end.

12. Congratulations! Your first triangle is ready. I know it sounds like hard work but once you get the hang of it, it actually is enjoyable and is not really that hard. It also looks so much more pleasantly different to the usual rolled stuffed leaves.

Note: You can either cook your dolmas soon after you make them or pack them into freezer bags and store away in your freezer until you are ready to use them. They make great 'fast' food as it only takes about 20minutes to cook after this stage. When you come home later than expected or are too tired to cook something, instead of opting for nutrition-poor alternatives, you can just take this out of the freezer and while you are washing up and changing, your delicious and healthy meal will be pretty much ready. 

To cook your dolmas, place them in a pot. Add boiling water to it about an inch or two below the dolmas' level. First cook in high heat until the water boils. When you see that the water is boiling in the pot, turn the heat down and let it cook for approximately 20 minutes and then voila! Your meal is ready. Natural yoghurt compliments it really well. 

Before I say goodbye for now, let me quickly give you some ideas on how you can use the stems. I am sure there are many people over the world who could give you many recipes for them but what I generally use them for is as follows:

A) Dice and add to stir-fries.

B) Dice and add to vegetable soups.

C) Dice, lightly boil and make a mixture with some ricotta cheese to cook in pastry.

D) Dice, lightly boil and leave in the freezer until needed.

E) Dice and leave in the freezer until needed.

F) Dice, boil until soft, and leave aside while cooking some onion in oil and some tomato paste until the onions are soft. Once they soften, add the stems, add some salt and chilli flakes and cook for about 5 minutes. You can either eat it as is or you can crack some eggs on it and eat after the eggs are cooked. This particular recipe is one of our favourite silverbeet stem recipes. 

Enjoy some nutritious homemade food today!

Sleeping Bag: An Upcycling Project

I have been longing to make a sleeping bag for Miss Junior for a while but it took me some time before I could find the time and courage to work on it. When I saw the gorgeous Abby's sleeping bags for her beautiful son and the tutorial she has put together on her page, thingsforboys.com, I thought it was the time I made an extra effort to make one for my daughter as well.

As usual, I actually tried to find more tutorials on it online but unfortunately there weren't many that I thought was great. I think Abby's tutorial was still the best option of them all even though there were some page navigations to be done at times and I was hoping to avoid that. Regardless, I set my mind to it and voila! My little beauty now has a new sleeping sack!

Before moving on to the sleeping bag project of mine, I will share a few photos from my precious new fat quarter stash. Aren't they just amazing? I can look at them with a smiley face and some wildly running ideas in mind for hours and wouldn't even recognise it has been hours!

Now, this much drooling over the gorgeous fabrics of mine should be enough. Lets move on to the actual topic of this post: an upcycling project of turning some baby blankets into a sleeping bag.

Here is how I have made it. I first made a rough pattern on some newspaper pages using one of Miss Junior's sleeping bags. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of making the neck too big at this stage and I only noticed it after I pretty much completed the project. Too late to change it but it is still OK for me as even Mr. Junior wants to wear it at times. It fits him as well. Also, it is all about learning, isn't it? It has taught me a lesson and I am happy to take it. I now know what not to do next time.

Then, I pinned the paper pattern onto some of my children's baby blankets that weren't in much use anymore. I particularly chose the warm materials. I had a pink and a small blue fleece blanket for the outer, and some soft thick 100% cotton blankets for the lining inside.

I must say, for me, the trickiest part was the decision of how to place the zipper and also make it reversible. After a few trials, I think the zipper worked well, but not so reversible (the installation of the zipper was easy, it was the planning of it that was challenging for me). For the ones who have dreaded working with a zip, don't! It is actually surprisingly easy to install one. If you don't believe people who say 'trust me', then just do a quick search online and you will find lots of tutorials on it. Here is only one of the videos that you may find useful (it has brief information on different types of 'feet' for a particular branded sewing machine but also explains how to install a zipper as well). Otherwise, if you would rather prefer pictorial tutorials, you can try this link.

Unlike the tutorial, I cut the two front fabrics (both the pink fleece and also the cotton lining) in half upto the point where my zip was going to end as the zip I had was shorter than the whole length of the sleeping bag but was definitely a good size for my daughter to get in and out easily. Then, I tried to follow the tutorial with the rest of the project.

I was hoping to make it reversible initially, just like the very skillful Abby has made it, but I couldn't (I had to go back and forth to another site here and I didn't have that much time for it). So, I kept going and instead, used some bias tape around the neck and the armholes to give it a professional finish. I must also admit that it was also because I actually really like this finish. It just gives it a more character and adds value to it.

I may also add some fabric cover over the zipper on top of the sleeping bag to make it harder for my daughter to open it. I can close it with a snap fastener or a button.

Since my pink blanket was larger than what I needed at the front and my blue piece was not big enough for the back, I simply used a bit of both at the back.

Here are a few notes for myself for the next time:

* Your daughter is petite. This sleeping bag will possibly fit her until she is at least a teenager. You can aim for a smaller fit next time.

* As you have noticed after trying it on yourself, the neck suits you perfectly well. Since it is originally made for your 2 year old daughter, not for yourself, make sure you make the neck-hole much smaller next time. 

* Follow instructions well. Do not get lazy. Otherwise, be happy with your 'not-so-reversible' sleeping bag. 

Make something that you enjoy making today!

DIY KIDS: Bucket Stilt Balancing Fun

Here, it is the second week of school holidays. In my opinion, it is a great time to stock up on some easy and affordable activity/toy ideas to keep the little ones happily busy. Busy kids, happy parents!

Stilt walking challenge will not only amaze your child(ren) during their school-free time but is sure to make a great party activity too.



What you need for this stilt fun is as follows:

- a drill to make holes with, 

- some rope, 

- two buckets, strong enough to carry your child(ren).

Simply, drill two holes on the bottom of your buckets across from each other just large enough for your rope to go through. Secure each side of the rope with a knot inside the bucket, where the holes are. Make another knot less than halfway through the rope on the outside and voila! That is all there is to it. 

Have a joyful day!

GUEST POST: Tips for Easy Appliqué

Today's author is Bridget Sandorford. She is a freelance food and culinary writer, where recently she’s been researching baker pastry chef jobs. In her spare time, she enjoys biking, painting and working on her first cookbook.

Tips for Easy Appliqué

Appliqué is a great way to dress up t-shirts, onesies, and other pieces of clothing. You can personalize them or add a little bit of flair. It's also a great way to cover up stains or to patch over holes. Of course, appliqué is also a great way to make beautiful and unique quilts.

There are many ways to appliqué, and this blog has already covered one of the most popular methods, which involves fusible webbing. Here are a couple of other tips to create easy appliqué so you can personalize your clothes or make your own onesies for wedding gifts:

Fabric Glue

Appliqué simply requires that you attach one piece of fabric to another, and one of the easiest ways to do that is to use fabric glue. Fabric glue is flexible enough so that when it dries, the fabric is still supple, not hard. You can dot fabric glue around the edges of your piece, and attach it to the surface. You don't need a lot -- just a small edging to hold it in place while you sew it down. You can use a blanket stitch or use your machine to do an overcast or zigzag stitch.

Sturdy fabrics like felt or microfiber do best with this technique. If you are using a fabric that will fray, treat it will fray check first and allow it to dry before you glue it and sew it.

Freezer Paper

Freezer paper is a great option that works in much the same way as fusible webbing. You simply draw your pattern onto your freezer paper and then iron it onto your fabric with the shiny side down. Cut out your fabric, leaving a 1/4 inch seam allowance. Then either spray starch onto the hem line or dab it on with a paintbrush. Fold over the edge and iron it back all the way around the hem.

When the fabric is dried and the hemline is ironed back, you can remove the freezer paper. It will peel off quite easily and your hemline should stay intact. Then just sew your appliqué in place as usual. You can pin it down or add a bit of fabric glue to hold it in place.

This method is best for thinner fabrics that are prone to fraying and need tidier edges in order to maintain their shape. It would not work for thicker fabrics like felt or wool.

Sewing Two Pieces Together

Getting a good appliqué is largely about preserving the hemlines. You can do this easily by sewing together two pieces of fabric to create a closed edge. You would cut two pieces of fabric for each shape and then sew them together face to face. Complete the edge all the way around, and then make a slit in the middle of one of the pieces. Use that opening to turn the pieces out to the right side, and then iron the seams flat. You'll have a nice shape that you can then sew in place on your fabric.

There's more than one way to appliqué. Use the technique that is easiest for you and that best accommodates the fabric you are using and the kind of shape you are trying to create.

What techniques do you use to create appliqué? Share your tips in the comments!

EASY PEASY OUTDOOR FURNITURE COVERS

This post was supposed to be written and published months ago but I have been quite busy and have not been able to get it ready to share with you any earlier. Most of the photos were also taken using my old Canon as my new baby, a Nikon dslr, wasn't born to our family yet. So, here is my excuse for the poor quality pictures in the post.

Months ago, I was desperately looking for a solution for my outdoor furniture. We have this beautiful wooden table and seat set that caters for 8 people (four 2-seaters). We also love spending time outdoors and it is just a perfect start to a nice breezy spring day or a sunny summer morning for us to have some breakfast at the backyard. However, we were hardly able to use the set up until I made some cover for the seats a few months ago!

(Before) 

(After)

The reason we couldn't use them was because there is not much on top of the table and the seats to protect them from all those bird droppings that make you 'lucky' (Has it worked? Is this a nice-enough way of saying 'bird shit'?). I have tried using a huge piece of fabric (linen) to cover them all up when unused, tried using newspaper to sit on, used smaller pieces of fabric for each seat while using it and so on but none was a convenient, practical and pain-free enough solution for us. It was either too much work, took a lot of time and effort, caused a huge pile of washing or simply did not work.

I started thinking of making covers for the seats but was not quite sure how to go about it at first. I asked for an opinion from my husband, my sister, from the very helpful ladies at The Sewing Library but nothing came through that I was totally happy to go with. Therefore, I had to come up with something that would work for me.

I was lucky that a few days after I had decided to make some covers and came up with a design on paper, a local fabric store had a sale on. That was definitely very handy. I picked up a large upholstery fabric that is easy to wash and dry, does not run colour, does not crease too easily and had a good thickness level for durability. Can you imagine how happy I was when I came back home with a lot of that fabric?

I first measured my seats both vertically and horizontally. When deciding on the length, I started from the back of the chair, measuring up to the top of the chair, then down to the seat along the backrest, measured the width of the seat, and  then measured from the seat to about 15cm above the floor level. The width of the fabric was 1.5m and was just perfect for my project as I needed my seat covers to be almost 1m wide and wanted it to be 1.5m long. All I needed to do was to cut a meter of the fabric for each seat. The original fabric's width became the length of my seat-covers. Nice and simple. I cut four of those 1m pieces and then hemmed the sides of the fabric. To hem, I simple folded it once, then folded again and ran a zigzag stitch.

After that, I folded one side in about 45cm over lengthwise, making the rectangle fabric piece almost a square, as seen in the picture below. This was to make a pocket to help it stay on the seat. It is to slide over the back-rest.

I sewed only a bit more than halfway through to give it some flexibility rather than sewing it all the way down (Approximatey 25cm of it from top is sewn) and voila! The seat cover was ready.

Enjoy some outdoor time in the cold, hot or warm weather that you have wherever you are on the globe!

AN EASY PICTORIAL SQUARE TOP TUTORIAL

What a smart idea and how easy it is to make it! Thank you for the tutorial C&C!

TUTORIAL: How to Make Fabric Hexagons

I have recently made some items using some fabric hexagons and have had quite a bit of interest and great comments on them. I thought it would be nice to share a free tutorial on making fabric hexagons and how to connect them with you here as well. Here is my easy-to-follow tutorial for you!

Materials Needed: 

Some fabric scraps

Some thread

A hand-stitching needle

Some pins

A pair of scissors

A piece of paper with hexagon shapes on it (You can generally re-use these hexagon pieces. Especially some shopping catalogue pages cut into hexagon shapes work really well for this project)

* I have come up with some printable hexagon templates in five different sizes for you. Choose the size that you would like to work with and print it out. (I used 2.5 inch hexagons for this tutorial):

- 1, 1.5 and 2 inch hexagons
- 2.5 inch hexagons
- 3 inch hexagons

1. Cut out your hexagon shapes.

2. Cut a little hole in the middle of your hexagon shaped paper. To do that, you can just fold your hexagon in half and cut a triangular shape in the centre (when you open it, it becomes a little diamond shaped hole). 

3. Cut a fabric that is in the rough shape of a hexagon, a circle or a square that is approximately 1cm larger than the paper hexagon all around as seen in the picture below.

4. Place your paper on the wrong side (ie. the side that will stay under) of the fabric and place a pin in the middle (where the hole on the paper is). This step you may choose to skip but helps with stabilising the fabric when hand-stitching the corners.

5. Fold one side of the material down along the hexagon edge as seen in the picture below.

6. Now, fold the side next to it as well and make a sharp corner. Using your threaded needle, start stitching the corner. Repeat a few times and then make a knot. The idea is to attach the two sides that make a corner together.

7. Once you secure your first corner with 3-4 stitches and a knot, move on to the next corner with a basting stitch.

8. Continue with the other corners. Secure each corner until there is no loose side.

9. Make a few knots to finish it off at the end and cut your thread about half an inch/a centimeter away from where the last knot is. (To hide the thread, you can run a basting stitch half a centimeter or a centimeter away from the knot and then cut the thread)

10. Take the pin out.

11. Congratulations! Your first hexagon is complete!

12. Now, lets move on to connecting your multiple hexagons. Make many other hexes and decide how you want to arrange them. Depending on the arrangements, you will need to connect your hexagons.

13. To attach your little hexagons together, take two of them and hold them facing the right sides (right side refers to the side that has a print and will stay on top) together. Then, start stitching them together preferably with a coordinating thread. There are a few stitch types that can be used but I like the ladder stitch which gives it a neat look and is hidden. I also find this invisible type of stitch easy to work with too. The next two pictures explain how the ladder stitch works, however, if you need a bit more help, it is like this: you take your first stitch just under either one of the folds and travel it about quarter of an inch under the fold and then come out (in the picture below, I started with the pink polka dots fabric) and then across from where the first stitch came out on the other fabric, take another stitch, again just under the fold. You need to repeat this until the end)

14. At the end, secure your stitches with a few knots. I like to wrap my thread twice around my needle and pull it tight to make a knot and I do that a few times. The thread that I used in this tutorial is high quality and strength (that is why I didn't have the urge to double thread my needle). If your thread is not of the best quality, I would suggest you make sure to make a knot a few times before cutting your thread off or before moving on to stitching the other side of your hexagon.

15. This is how they look when attached. 

16. If you are going to make a flower with your hexes, then it is the time you need to take your third hexagon and connect it with the other two that you have just attached. In the picture below, my third hexagon is planned to be the centre of the flower and is yellow. Now, it needs to be attached to both the polka dots and the green fabrics.

17. I first stitched the pink polka dots fabric and the yellow hexagon together.

18. Then, I attached the other side of the yellow hexagon, which was facing the green hexagon, to the green hexagon. While doing that, I needed to bend the pink hexagon a bit, which is totally fine.

19. You need to repeat these last steps with the rest of the missing pieces of your project to complete your fabulous hexagon flower.

20. Once your project is complete, you can easily slip off the paper pieces from the fabric hexagons and you are done!

   

What you can do with your fabric hexagons is limited to your imagination. Have fun designing!