New quilt: Tufted Tweets minimalist

Pav & Mr. Pav got married in November. As soon as they announced their wedding (via the most amazing hand-embroidered save-the-date that I have ever seen), I knew I would be making them a quilt.

I originally saw Tufted Tweets out there in blogland back at the end of last summer. The now-defunct birthday club at work gave me the (gently suggested and much ooh-ed and ahh-ed over) fat quarter set from Seamstar. Um, yes, I'll take one of everything, please.

I was really inspired by the colors in Tufted Tweets (especially while snacking on peanut m&ms, obviously), and after consultations with Pav decided on a really minimalist quilt. I picked up 2m of white fabric and 2m of grey (a darker grey than I had in mind, but it was all they had). All nicely laid out.

I planned it out on paper and got sewing. And then, at the end of January, after Pav & Mr. Pav had been to visit, I had this. Please pardon the picture. But, UGH. I was so disappointed that my Excellent Quilt Idea had become a horrible grey prison-bars looking thing. Into the WIP pile you go, sad quilt.

Flash forward to a very sunny day (in March, by the look of the garden), when I said to myself, "Self, your lovely newlywed friends are not going to be newlyweds much longer. FINISH the quilt. Also, they live in Australia where it is very sunny and bright all the time, not in dark, Januaryish England." Right, then.

A little sun on the quilt did it (and me) good, I think. I "demoted" Evil Grey side (which I now love, of course) to the back, and attempted to brighten things up a bit with a new front. Below, in the sandwich stage.

Then, we added a the famous orange binding, which was sped along very nicely by watching Season 6 of Lost (FINALLY, and yes, we liked it).

And here it is, the finished "front," although it's truly reversible - the only front/back differentiation came when I had to decide which side to machine-stich the binding to, and which side to hand-sew.

Thanks to the Husband for the (matching) Quilt Feet.

Use it in good health, Pavs!

I had to riff on the hand-embroidered invitation with a little embroidery shoutout of my own. Obviously.

Recipe: Raspberry Oat Traybake

Again, with the baking. Since on the hottest day of the year so far what I really needed to do was turn on the oven. Oh, well...at least it was only for 10 minutes. And the results were definitely worth it.

Butter and honey, melting.

Raspberries, pre-squashing.

Post-squashing

Cooling.

It was delicious - the almond flavour really came through and the raspberries were really zingy. Might add some lemon juice next time, or possibly some vanilla with the almond extract.

Recipe: Raspberry Oat Traybake, from BBC Good Food

Go make it!

Review: The Sweetness At The Bottom of The Pie

Walked the Race for Life today (you can still donate, in the sidebar!), and we even ran the last 300m. It was a really great day - quite a bit of emotion with people's signs, lots of money raised, and zillions of pink garments.

The brownie below was good, but it's not why I've posted a picture of it. I think the color combo (blue, white, cream, and brown) is one of my all-time favorites. Looking around the living room, the color scheme is echoed in here, although another blue accent or two wouldn't go amiss.

These came home with me, as expected. Unfortunately, I then acquired two very super-duper blisters (which I will spare you the photo of). Going to have to do some breaking-in, methinks.

We made fajitas for supper tonight - I think that the fresh coriander (along with homemade guac) is the key.

I finished The Sweetness At The Bottom Of The Pie, by Alan Bradley, on Friday evening. It was recommended to me by a few people within the space of a week, and we decided to read it for book group. I thought the mystery was good, the plot zipped right along, the chemistry-interludes were endearing, and the protagonist (an 11-year-old, pigtailed detective) was adorable. My only problem was that I had trouble not setting the novel in my brain's stock-stately-pile, currently home to several Persephone books, a few Kate Morton books, and a few other interludes. I think I need to allocate a new house in my brain for stately homes, since it's getting rather full in there!

Race for Life

I'm joining the Race for Life with some work colleagues this Sunday. The original plan was to run it, but life (and the fact that I just really hate running) got in the way. So I will be walking, briskly. I feel like running is something that I should love, but I really don't.

You can click on the Sponsor Me button over on the right, or you can visit this page: http://www.raceforlifesponsorme.org/kateherd

Thank you - every pound (or dollar) makes a difference!

First raspberries

I finished The Postmistress today - I liked the writing and found the descriptions very vivid, especially London during the Blitz. The storyline was a little predictable, though. I think the atmosphere of the book will stay with me for a while, while the characters and plot fade.

I tried to start W.G. Sebald's The Rings Of Saturn after reading about it in the New York Times (it's "set" in Suffolk), but I read the first chapter and completely lost interest. I have been known to ramble randomly, but I didn't put it in a book. NEXT!

Raspberries, below, from the garden. Yum. Oh, and I have managed to find an Ingrid Michaelson album that I like - I have downloaded Everybody and it is on semi-repeat. She's like Kate Rusby in that her voice falls in a similar range to mine and her songs are quite melodic, so she is very lovely to sing along to.

It must be summer

The only reason these green Birkenstocks didn't come home with me then and there is because the shop was closed. I may not be able to resist if they're open.

This morning's breakfast (along with blueberry pancakes and little sausages):

It's cloudy, cool, and might rain later. Must be (English) summer!

Review: What The Dog Saw

Through some miracle of synchronicity, my mom and I both read Malcolm Gladwell's What The Dog Saw at the same time. And both said to each other, "Hey, I'm reading a great book - you should read it!"

Malcolm Gladwell is a columnist for The New Yorker, which I've always found too highbrow for me. I guess I like my magazine reading pretty light - Wired articles are about as long-form as I get. The book is a collection of essays, all previously published in TNY, none of which I had ever read.  They are all quite thought-provoking, mostly challenging standard reactions and conventional wisdom.

I don't normally read a non-fiction (and I rarely read essay compilations) but What The Dog Saw is thought provoking, well-written, and entertaining!

And look what they had, in packs of 6, on special at Waitrose. My Favorite Soda EVER. That doesn't really seem like soda because it's just fizzy water with lemons. Right? Ok, and some sugar and other stuff. Mmmm. I might have bought a second six-pack because the first one is all gone.

More sewing (and future sewing)

My favorite 2-year-old LOVES Eric Carle books. So when I saw this fabric at Quilter's Haven, it had to come home with me. It will meet the popover sundress from Oliver + S and all will be right with the world. I haven't started yet because I ran out of white thread when I was quilting The Now Un-Stalled Wedding Quilt (yay for quilting! boo for running out of thread!). Of course I ran out at 4:30 on Saturday afternoon, making it entirely impossible to get more thread on Sunday without driving all the way to Norwich. Oh well.

We were invited to a garden lunch on Sunday, so I used some of the seed-head print fabric from the now web-only Karlsson Design and made a teatowel to bring as a little hostess present along with our bottle of wine. Swedish linen fabric, cotton thread and LOTS of ironing and pinning resulted in a teatowel that I would have happily paid £20 for in a department store. [Pats self on back.] I'm definitely going to have to make some napkins and more teatowels, as originally planned.

The quilt is coming along - I've put the binding on most of it, and have about 3 more minutes' worth of free-motion quilting once I get more thread. Then I just have to stitch the binding to the back and into the post! The recipient is taking a blog-break so I could probably post pictures in relative safety, but it won't be long until it's all ready to go.

One note about the ads on the sidebar. Yes, I sold your eyeballs. No, it wasn't to The Man. I think I've made $0.04 so far since I added them. It's mostly so I can be part of the excellent BlogHer community and reviewing program. Woot!

Cooking in Provence (or Rhode Island)

I've been meaning to post this picture for ages. When we met Delia, the entire morning was spent learning to cook with Alex Mackay. His recipes are excellent - we make his version of piri-piri sauce all the time now, and my mom was so inspired that she bought his new cookbook, Cooking In Provence. He signed it for her, of course, and she took it home to Rhode Island to splatter it with olive oil and tomatoes (and cook from it).

She and my dad made one of the recipes from the demo-day - a really fresh-tasting seafood stew. They used local clams from RI and pronounced it excellent.

Fabric update

Thank you, internets. It seems that admitting to the world (and Gnomemade - thanks, K!) that I needed to work on the quilt has done the trick. I've now finished the back (which I LOVE and I think might be promoted to "front"). I just need to email my choir buddy the dimensions (she owns Quilting Solutions and has lots of great wadding/batting) to get some warm & white batting, since a Flickr search for "natural batting + white quilt" led to a whole big pile of "DON'T DO IT!"

And then on with the quilting and the (orange - squeee!) binding and into the post.

For your crafty pleasure, here is some (unrelated) V&A Liberty fabric that I picked up last time I was in town. The V&A? And Liberty? Together? With fabric? Oh, my.

Concert on 11th June: Purcell's King Arthur

HEY EVERYBODY! We're singing Purcell's King Arthur (as far as I can tell, exactly what Monty Python would have been had it been written in the 17th century). We're not doing the whole opera, just the singing parts. It'll be a really enjoyable summer evening concert (it'll still be light out when we finish). You could even visit Mr. Peacock at Kentwell Hall or wander around Melford Hall in the afternoon, and then picnic on the village green before the concert...

Saturday 11 June 2011 at 7.30 pm

Holy Trinity Church, Long Melford

Henry Purcell

King Arthur

Sena Larard soprano
Karina Lucas mezzo-soprano
David Sheppard countertenor
Patrick Mundy tenor
James Gower bass

Bury Bach Choir

Suffolk Baroque Players

Philip Reed conductor

Enter the world of King Arthur in this exuberant portrayal of events long ago. Purcell’s
dramatic opera, with libretto by John Dryden, contains some of the composer’s most lyrical
and evocative music, including the famous Frost Chorus and the patriotic song Fairest Isle. 

The action is pure adventure. It revolves around Arthur’s endeavours to recover his fiancée,
the blind Cornish princess Emmeline, who has been abducted by his arch-enemy the Saxon
King Oswald of Kent. Does he succeed in rescuing her? Come and enjoy this spine
tingling performance… and discover the answer.

There will be one interval, without refreshments – performance ends 9.20pm

Tickets £16 from Theatre Royal Box Office 01284 769505 or the Theatre Royal website.

Review: A Discovery Of Witches

Alice (La Bibliofille) is a fount of good books. (For those of you who think I come up with my own ideas, think again - it's all Alice!)

She recommended, quite recently, A Discovery Of Witches. After reading her review, I was pretty sure I would like it. I reserved it at the Stowmarket library (new book with not too much buzz = short list!), and carried on reading my other book. Then I got impatient and downloaded a sample chapter on my Kindle, just to see if it was worth lugging the 500+ page tome up the hill from the library. Oh my, was it worth it.

I blasted through the sample chapters, and thankfully the book came in at the library. I, um, kind of abandoned everything. I went to work (but read in my lunchbreak AND at teabreak), read over breakfast, over dinner, on the train home, before dinner, after dinner, when I should have been varnishing, while waiting for other bellringers to show up in the churchyard, when I should have been doing laundry, and a few other non-normal reading times. 

The good news (for the rest of the world): I finished this morning (over breakfast, of course).

The bad news: I finished the book this morning. NOOOO!!

The good news: It's the first in a trilogy and the next one's coming out next year. Write faster, Deborah Harkness, please!

So you will have read Alice's review. Go on, the link is up there.

My review-in-a-nutshell: Intellectual Twilight for Grownups. With Witches. And a fabulously haunted house. LOVED. IT.

Sigh.

Review: The Sorcerer's Apprentice

We rented The Sorcerer's Apprentice the other night. I'd read not-great reviews about it, but Sam at the Stowmarket Blockbuster (who is generally very good with movie recommendations) said that he really liked it.

I find Nicholas Cage to be relatively emotionless - he seems to have a constant expression and I thought it was a bit hard to believe that he was madly in love with a sorceress who'd been trapped in a Russian doll for 1,000 years.  Jay Baruchel's voice (he also voices Hiccup in How To Train Your Dragon) sets my teeth on edge. Oh, and Teresa Palmer is Australian, which is why I found her New York accent totally unconvincing.

Other than that, thought, we did actually enjoy the movie. There was a very clever nod (well, direct repeat) of Mickey Mouse's mad-cleanup scene in the animated Sorcerer's Apprentice. I found myself thinking "how on earth did they get the rights to do this?!?....oh, wait...it's a Disney movie...never mind..."

Fun teenager- and parent-friendly movie with a happily romping plot and Alfred Molina as The Bad Guy. Standard issue.

One more thing. I hereby declare to the world that I will stop being such a dork and FINISH THIS QUILT. It's a present so I can't show you the whole top. Actually, it's a wedding present and we're in danger of hitting their first anniversary before I send it to them. It's going to rock when it's done...I'm just stuck. I now declare myself un-stuck. There. That's better.

Evil Mac Malware

Was merrily reading Teh Interwebs, when the image below popped up. The only way out of it was to force-quit Chrome - I'd read about it in the NYT and knew not to click on it. I wouldn't have gone as far as to install any software, or give them my credit card number, but the website looked alarmingly authentic.

Consider yourselves warned (NYT article below). MAC DEFENDER IS NOT YOUR FRIEND.

TECHNOLOGY

Bits: Apple Operating System Affected by Malware

By By NICK BILTON

Published: May 25, 2011

Apple computer users were targeted by fake antivirus software that hopes to gain access to users' credit cards. Apple said Wednesday that it plans to issue a software update to remove the malware.

If you want a guide to antivirus programs for the mac, Lifehacker has a good one.

Update: John has found this article on Apple.com about how to remove Mac Defender if you did end up installing it.

Review: The Importance Of Being Seven

I finished the latest instalment of Alexander McCall Smith's The Importance of Being Seven earlier this evening (I was 3 pages from the end after breakfast).

McCall Smith's preface was one of the best I've ever read. He describes how in book signings all over the world, his readers' favourite character from the books is the ever-tormented Bertie Pollock. Bertie is 6, and has an exceedingly overbearing mother. He is fabulously endearing as a character, and is definitely the most compelling character in TIoBS.

Bertie, you will, one day, attain the miracle that is Seven. Until then (and probably afterwards), we will all thoroughly enjoy reading about your (mis)adventures.

(Photo taken in Felixstowe, by me.)

Boris Bikes

Check out the Boris Bikes. I submitted it to Things Organized Neatly but they haven't published it yet. It would have been better if I'd had the big camera, but I didn't feel like schlepping it all over London.

And now, to read about The Importance Of Being Seven, under the quilt on the bed. Could be worse.

We helped out at the Blind National Sailing Championships yesterday at EAST. They had fabulous weather, great wind, and happy volunteers (and extremely happy sailors). 

Since Ms. Kanga still has many weeks of work before she goes in the water (mostly reattaching the assorted fittings that we took off to redo the deck), we thought we'd go down to EAST and at least help out. I ended up taking hundreds of pictures of the sailing (and the volunteers), which we'll bring over on a DVD shortly.

I've been a serial book-abandoner since I finished A Discovery Of Witches - I gave up on Alone In Berlin (too grim), One Day (characters were driving me crazy), The Tiger's Wife (generally meh), and Embers (I couldn't decide where the book was going so I gave up).

Oh dear. I have the newest 44 Scotland Street novel from Alexander McCall Smith, The Importance of Being Seven, which I know I'll love. I also have the third of the Black Magician trilogy, by Trudi Canavan, so I'll be fine. Canavan was at the Bury St Edmunds branch of Waterstones last week and I didn't find out about it until after the fact. FML. I've tried to get on a list for events in local bookshops and there isn't one. I forget to check their website and then miss awesome things like Authors I Love Who Live In Australia And Hardly Ever Go On Book Tours. Bah.

Roomie C sent me this video on Facebook. Not afraid to admit that it made me cry. In a good way through. I've gone on to iTunes to see which album I should buy and I can't seem to find an album's worth of songs that I love. Just this one, for the mo.



Had a funny moment at work today - I went into the canteen to make my coffee with my "chemistry set" (aka Aeropress) and our dinner-lady said, "Oh good, you're here. I have bananas for you."

"Um, what bananas?"

"Oh, I've been trying to give them away to other people all morning and they all said that I should give them to you. Something about banana bread?"

Oh, right. Banana bread. I'll get right on that.

I want to work at Liberty

Ok, have you guys seen these scarf-tying tutorials from Liberty of London? Where have they BEEN all my life?

I went looking for the new Mollie Makes and couldn't find it, even though it's supposed to be available from WH Smith and Sainsbury's and I tried both. Bah...Ipswich.

I did come across issue 1 of Handmade Living, which I liked - it wasn't the Best Magazine Ever but I'd probably buy it again.

I made rhubarb crumble again, with the Rhubarb Pear Crumble recipe from BBC good food (their website is having a grumpy), without the pears this time. We ate it, hot from the oven, with toffee crunch ice cream. BLISS.

And to answer JaneRowena's sneeterdoodle from the Paula Deen Banana Bread post, I kinda just eyeballed the cup of butter. My mom used to smoosh butter into a cup-measure, and then wrestle it out again. Weighing is much better. If I weren't so lazy, I would have converted for y'all.

Organised

My fabric stash was getting a little bit out of control. Embarrassing pictures, below:

Shudder. I couldn't find anything, and any time I wanted to pull fabric out for a project, it made a mess of the rest of the pile.

I asked Pinterest what to do, and found this tutorial from Smashed Peas and Carrots. Having a 13-year-old stepson who loves going to the comic book store has its advantages, apparently!

The newly organised stash includes a green seed-head printed linen from Karlsson Designs that's destined to be napkins and some teatowels, and a long-lost Japanese bicycle print that I'd forgotten I owned. It was still all folded up in the Purl Soho (where I haven't been in at LEAST 2 years) bag. Oops.

C'mon - don't you love that little red bicycle? With those clouds? Sigh. Thanks, Pinterest!

I've started reading Sherlock Holmes on my Kindle - I've found that I can only really read it in short bursts, as the stories seem to be a little repetitive and Sir A.C. Doyle is NOT giving his readers all of the information to solve the puzzle before Sherlock does. Bah. I think it may also be a case of Post-Discovery-Of-Witches trauma. It's tough to follow a star...

Use more butter, y'all!

There was a surplus of bananas at work (they feed us lunch, including a piece of fruit), so I took some home with the promise to make banana bread.

Boy, did I make banana bread!

I rifled through my recipe books, and decided that the Paula Deen "put some more butter in it, y'all" treatment would be appropriate.

It was definitely the best banana bread I've ever had (and I have the emails from my colleagues to prove it - they devoured it and asked for more)! The crust was a little bit chewy and vaguely caramelised, and the inside was moist and crumbly and very banana-y.

Recipe: Banana Bread (from Paula Deen's Kitchen Classics)


1/2 c butter (at room temp; or wrestle with cold butter like I did)
1 c sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 c plain flour
1 tsp baking soda (I used bicarb)
1 tsp baking powder
3 ripe bananas, mashed (I doubled the recipe and used 7 bananas [and 2 loaf tins], but they were small ones)

Grease a loaf tin. Combine butter and sugar. Add the rest of the ingredients, mix well (it'll look dry before you put the bananas in). Bake in the loaf tin for 50 mins at 375F, until a skewer comes out clean and your house smells amazing.

Cookies & Scones

We couldn't watch Friday's wedding without some Real English Food. So I made Delia's scones (from my new book, naturally). The recipe I used doesn't seem to be on her website. 

Also, it was supposed to make rather more scones than it made. Never mind, they were delicious. We inhaled them as soon as they came out of the oven, so there's no "after" picture! The mat they're on was a present from my mom (thanks, Mom!) - it's one of those non-stick silicone jobbies. Nice.

Who's that, taking a picture of the tv (and assorted clutter around the tv)? Not me! Ok, maybe I did. But it's SO CUTE. That's our Easter tree on the right.

I felt a pressing need to make cookies on Saturday evening, so I grabbed my Paula Deen cookbook. Again with the recipe not on the internet...bah. James announced that oatmeal raisin cookies were YUCKY, so we added some dark chocolate chunks. He made a batch to take home with him and then forgot to bring them when he left. Too bad - more for me! Sorry for not posting the recipe - I'm upstairs and it's downstairs and I'm lazy. So there.

Review: A Fine Balance

One of my book group buddies registered for Rohinton Mistry's A Fine Balance for World Book Night this year.

It was quite long, but definitely had an immersive feel to it - I found myself surprised when I picked my head up that I wasn't in a slum in India. The interactions between the characters were very well drawn, and I found myself coming back to it to find out what would happen next. There were a few scenes that I wished I hadn't been eating breakfast while reading, so be warned. I'd recommend it, though - I read it nearly 2 months ago and the characters have stayed with me.

When we haven't been reading, we've been sanding and painting and varnishing. Kanga seems to be loving the attention (although she keeps calling attention to bits that need mending...)

We had some bourbon in the house, so I looked on the interwebs and found a recipe where you mix bourbon with ginger ale. John picked up some Fever Tree ginger ale (which I like to drink when I'm under the weather). YUM!

Gabi's birthday bag

This is a birthday present, but the recipient doesn't read the blog (yet - she's only 2) so I think I'm safe. Her mom & grandma both read the blog (hi E. and A!), but I think they'll keep a secret until Sunday.

I used the tutorial for Molly's Little Purses from the Purl Bee, with some modifications at the end from the Twenty Minute Tote.

Basically, I didn't have the super-cool handles from the MLP, and my liner fabric is directional so I didn't want to have upside-down bits of it on the outside.

Both prints are from Ikea, and the handles are red binding material that I had from some unknown previous project. I sewed them into the linings - I pinned them upside-down in between the lining and outer fabrics before I sewed them together. LOVE the pocket.

I really love the whole project, actually - I kept running in to the other room to show John. "Have you seen THIS part? How CUTE?!!" Teehee. I'm hoping she uses it to carry her books to and from the library, or to carry around those IMPORTANT things that you need to keep with you when you're two. You know the stuff...random bits of string, assorted teddy bears, the odd pinecone or acorn...

Grey, green & orange.

My Kindle case arrived. Charcoal grey wool with a green ultra-suede tab. I felt a little guilty ordering it, since I probably could have made myself one, but Husband pointed out that I'm supporting an Etsy-er and probably wouldn't have gotten around to making it. It's not reinforced or anything, so I need to not sit on it, but I really wasn't interested in one of the enormo-Kindle-shells, since the whole mission was to make my reading material smaller.

Still going through Mom-withdrawal, I thought this picture was really funny. Pretty much what each of us saw all week! And yes, that's an ill-fated Flip. If you were thinking about it (or thinking about any video camera, really, or have kids, or a dog, or anyone you want to video, BUY ONE NOW). They're super-easy to use, take great videos, and are otherwise awesome. Cisco, please resuscitate the Flip, or at least release the patents onto the open market so someone else can make them.

And in a quick tribute to Jane Brocket, whose tulips are amazing. These were pretty rockin' though. (Spotted at Osterley Park on Saturday.)