Monday, February 02, 2015

Eye spy with my little eye.............

...a finished quilt, a long awaited craft project done in a day, using up the harvest and deliciousness in the kitchen. All in all a productive week, not bad considering the last two days have been up to 100% humidity, my brother suggested I need an aqualung for all that moisture and he wasn't far wrong.

Last Thursday at craft I worked on getting the eye spy quilt done that I'm making for my nephew, I finished it when I got home.
 I used some polar fleece for the backing as it's what I had
 ..and found the perfect piece of fabric for the binding.
Hopefully it will be winging it's way to the UK by the end of the week

 I've been meaning to make a bag for ages now to carry my cutting board, rulers and other stuff in for ages. I tend to make lots of trips to and from the car every time and quite frankly I'd had enough. I'd seen a picture on Pinterest but there was no pattern.

So I made it up as I went, I had an idea how I wanted it to look and what I wanted it to do. Then came the process of putting it all together, it was quite a feat of engineering I tell you. 
I'm very pleased with the finished product, I may have to do a bit of tweaking, maybe some fastenings at the sides to hold it together when hanging.
The bag, made from a quilted thing I found at an op shop ages ago 
and everything else used was from my stash
 Fully opened and the outside view
 Then flipped over to the inside
 The pocket holds the cutting board and is on the reverse side of the quilted bit
 The other side is in two parts, the right hand side has sleeves for the two rulers and the left hand side has a pocket for magazines or a work in progress. 
Underneath that are two zipped pockets that will hold cutters, scissors etc.
 With hindsight I would have reversed the two as the weight of the  magazine makes the corner flop over. But it's not really a major issue. When in use I can fold the whole thing inside out and hang on a door handle for easy access.


It's that time of year where I need to think about using up the glut we're harvesting from the garden. On the whole we've been using things as they've ripened and all bulk veggies have been frozen. The greenhouse has been a marvel and I am so pleased with what we've been getting out of there, there are plans afoot to build another next year. the peppers/capsicums have been particularly abundant.





 These hot chillies I've bagged and put in the freezer, there's plenty more to come yet
So yesterday in 94% humidity I decided to make some relish, using Digby Laws recipe that I found online...
Pepper Relish By Digby Law. 
Use a mixture of red and green peppers for a colourful relish. I had lots of different types and colours.
I kg of green and red peppers, 
500g onions, 
I tablespoon salt, 
2 I/2 cups white sugar, 
2 I/2 cups white vinegar. 
 Remove the cores and seeds from the peppers and peel the onions. Mince them, then place in a container and sprinkle with the salt. Let them stand for 2 hours, then strain off the juices. In a saucepan combine the strained vegetables with the sugar and vinegar then gently simmer, uncovered, for 45 minutes or until thick. Pour into hot, clean jars and seal. Easy!
 Onions from the garden




 A friends today told me of a jam label site called Jam Labelizer
It's great and luckily I had a UHU stick to glue them on with.
Ta dah!


Other harvest this week...
Garlic, this turned out to be better than I initially thought, quit a lot of it has developed cloves so I'm pleased about that, the ones that haven't I might try and find a recipe for making some kind of  garlic paste. If you have a recipe you can share or suggest that would be great.


Onions


Joe picked a basket load of plums, but they're not quite ripe yet, the knack is to get them off the tree before the possums get to them.

Not only did I make the batch of relish I also baked a Victoria sponge

annnnd made a courgette lasagne for dinner

I have put in for wife of the year.

Lastly I have to mention the 'Masterchef' in our house, the lovely Joe. He's a pretty good cook himself, he and I both like to watch Masterchef. In particular the Aussie one, the UK one is boring and is the NZ one. We've both learned quite a bit about cooking methods etc in the process.
Recently Joe bought a huge beef fillet from a cash and carry. He cut some off for our dinner the other night and vacuum sealed the rest in separate portions and put them in the freezer.
Here is our dinner we had a few nights ago
Perfectly cooked fillet, creamy mashed potatoes and a selection of veg from our garden
It was devine and the beef just melted in the mouth

Joe's on his way up the stairs now with a cuppa and a slice of that sponge, so I'm off.

See ya next time
xx






3 comments:

  1. Hey the binding on the quilt is the same as some fabric I had years ago for one of my daughters quilts. I bet it is snuggly with the soft backing. Your bag turned out great, looks very handy with all the pockets and compartments for all you bit's & bobs for quilting. Gee all this wonderful cooking and fancy labels on your own pickles puts me in the bad wife school!!

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  2. Wow - totally impressive haul there Sue! You are super to be doing all that - and in humidity as well. Great peppers, love all the variety. Keep up the good work A+++.
    cheers Wendy

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  3. Your new quilt is gorgeous Sue - I too, have that binding fabric. I love the fleece backing, its perfect. You have been busy, your new bag is lovely. But Oh your produce & your cooking ... I would love to live at your house with all that scrummy cooking. Our plums must be early ones as they are nearly finished now but we have had a boomer crop again this year. Have a great week Sue.

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