Rag quilt tutorial

Yesterday I blogged about a great tutorial for a beginner quilter.

Today it is a tutorial for a

Rag Quilt

I found it on a great blog called

The Complete guide to imperfect homemaking

I think I am going to give this a go!

I am sure some of you will want to give this a go too!

Enjoy!

Quilting for beginners

One of the very first blogs that I started reading was

Retro Mummy

Corrie is an amazing quilter, cook & mother to the 4 most adorable children (& another on the way!)

Everyone has a blogger who was the inspiration for them to start their own blog & Corrie was mine.

I have been talking a lot lately about the quilting that I have been doing & I know that there is more than a few of you who want to give it a go for the first time.

Corrie has a step by step tutorial on her blog.

How to make a charm square quilt

I tried to take photo’s for a tutorial but when I went through them, they were not the best.

If you are wanting  a step by step tutorial, stop by Corrie’s TUTORIAL & I am sure it will get you started.

Here is a sneak peak at the quilt top that I have been working on.

I made this using 10cm x 10cm squares.

I used some of my stash of scraps & some beautiful fabrics from

Quilting really is quite easy & once you try it, you can’t stop!

Not As bad for you Cinnamon Scrolls

If you follow this blog on it’s Facebook page, you will know that I am on a

“change my bad habits”

eating plans.

I have stopped all pre packaged foods entering my home & pantry, I have stopped eating takeaway,  I have stopped eating chocolate on a daily basis (it is now just a treat or for cooking with) & I have taken my girls on this journey with me. We eat homemade food only. We buy fresh ingredients & cooking supplies.

In 30 days, I have lost 6.1kgs.

WOO HOO for me!

The most important thing is that when I get up of a morning, I notice that my clothes are not tight, I feel fantastic & a have a lot more energy. Everyone around me has noticed too. It is a great feeling.

I have started to tweak all of our normal recipes to be a little bit better for us. Now, I am not saying that we are eating only “healthy food”. I mean, who can give up cinnamon scrolls? They are a regular food in our house & now I have made them not as bad for us.

This is another of the recipes that I use in the bread maker. I honestly think that if you want to make your life a lot easier. You just put all of your ingredients in & press start. With recipes like this one, you use the dough cycle & it does the hard work for you. You don't stand in your kitchen for hours kneading, punching, kneading & rising because your bread maker does it all for you.

This recipe is very similar dough to the Cheese & vegemite scrolls recipe that I have shared before.

So here goes..

Put these exact ingredients into your bread maker in this order.

1 cup & 2 tablespoons of tap water

2 tablespoons & 2 teaspoons of olive oil

2 teaspoons of salt

3 tablespoons of sugar

1 egg

4 cups of plain flour

1 tablespoon of ground cinnamon

1 tablespoon of dry active yeast

 

Press the dough cycle on your machine & let it do all the hard work.

 

When it is finished, take your dough out of the machine & place on a sheet of baking paper.

 

 

Roll the dough out into a large rectangles (40cm x 30cm)

 

 

Sprinkle with ground cinnamon & sugar

(the amount is up to you)

 

 

Roll up the dough to form a long log shape.

 

 

Cut into 1-2cm slices

 

 

Brush the tops of the scrolls with milk. Place the scrolls on a lined baking tray, loosely cover with glad wrap & leave to rise in a warm spot for 30 minutes.

 

      

 

I put 4 in a round spring form cake tin & the rest on a baking tray.

 

Cook at 180 degrees Celsius for 15 minutes or until lightly golden.

 

         

 

While still warm & in the trays, make a glaze of 1/2 cup of icing sugar, 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence & 1 tablespoon of hot water.

 

Pour over the top of the scrolls.

    

 

Now don’t get me wrong, these are not sugar free. But they certainly have a LOT less sugar than your normal Cinnamon scrolls.

My family all love these & for me, they are a perfect way to satisfy the cravings for something sweet.

The smell that will fill your house while you are cooking these will make you the envy of your neighbours & your children/husband/partner/friends will think you are amazing!

Just don’t let them know how easy they are to make!

FREE PDF PATTERNS!!! YES, FREE!!

I was reading through my favourite blogs (yes, I write AND read blogs!)

ETCETORIZE

when I saw the blog title of

FREE PATTERNS

How could I not have a look?

Well, I am so glad I did & you will be so glad that you looked too!

Did you know that

Fabric.com

has free PDF patterns?

They do! Here is a few!

{click on the pics to take you there}

These are just a few!

There is sewing & knitting patterns.

They are all free!

You just download & print.

They are multi sized.

Right now, my printer is running red hot because I am printing out all the ones I love.

Enjoy!

My favourite Australian shops!

Today is Australia day.

I would like to do a quick shout out to my favourite online Australian shops.

First there is

WRAPPED IN FABRIC

DONNA J. CRAFT

And my newest favourite shop

HAMPTONS STYLE

I hope you all have a fantastic Australia Day!

Fantastic & flirty no pattern required skirt

If you are a follower of this blog, you may have noticed a trend.

I love to make no pattern required clothes.

I have a new take on the no pattern required skirt.

It reminds me of a skirt that comes straight from the 19-50’s or 1960’s

I love how it is full & pretty.

This skirt is just 2 long rectangles, sewn up the side, elastic casing sewn & hemmed.

I measured my widest measurement

(of course it’s my bum!)

& tripled it.

Halve that measurement & that is how wide to make each rectangle.

(click on the diagram to enlarge)

Sew the 2 rectangles together as in the diagram above.

Sew the elastic casing & hem.

I used these strips of paper (in the pictures below) to make a neat hem & elastic casing.

I used them as a guide to iron the allowance then pinned & sewed.

Thread the amount of elastic needed to sit snugly on your waist & sew it securely.

You then have yourself a beautiful full & flirty skirt.

Team it with a pair of ballet flats for an everyday look or with a pair of heels for a more sophisticated look.

It would be perfect for a day at the park, a shopping trip with friends, a lunch date, a dinner date & even the office.

It would look great with a little strappy singlet in summer, a plain t-shirt in spring, with a little black cardigan in autumn & even fantastic with a denim jacket or blazer in winter.

Dress it up with a load of bling or funk it out with some big chunky bracelets.

Well, I think I may have to make 10 of these!

I could make one in every colour of the rainbow, every bright bold print, every delicate floral……

you name it, it would be perfect!

Make your own fabulous pendants! Cheap & fantastic!

So, on my “to try’ list for 2012 was

make something with

SCULPEY

This is what I made!

I made it using this fabulous product.

You can find it at most craft stores & I brought it for under $5.

I think I will get around 5 large pendants out of it so it is very cheap!

I love this silver colour. The photo’s don’t really show just how stunning it is!

I will get onto the tutorial because I know you will want to make 1 {or 5!} for yourself or as gifts.

You will need

Sculpey

cookie cutters

rubber or metal stamps

baking paper

baking tray

a sealant like Mod podge

cut a piece of the sculpey with a sharp knife.

It comes with marks on it so you know how much to cut.

It is like plasticine! It will be a little firm so you need to work it with your fingers to warm it up.

Roll your piece to 6mm thick

I used a scone cutter for this pendant size. It is quite a large pendant but you can make it any size you wish.

Using a skewer, make a hole at the top of the pendant so you can attach it to a necklace.

Using stamps, make a design on your pendant by gently pushing the stamp into the sculpey to make an indented pattern.

Place on a baking paper lined tray & “cook’ in a pre heated oven at 130 degrees Celsius or 275 Fahrenheit for 15 minutes

Now, as some of you know {from the Facebook page}, I had an epic fail with a project the other day.

THIS was that project! I have an Australian oven that reads in Celsius but I read the instructions wrong & set it to the Fahrenheit temperature which resulted in this….

Ooops!

So round 2 & another pendant made.

When this one was perfectly “cooked” I gave it a quick layer of Mod Podge (decoupage) to seal & protect.

This was the outcome!

I ended up making quite a few different pendants that day & I think I will make many more! There is a wide range of colours in the Sculpey products.

This is also great for kids (with help from an adult for cooking).

I have also learnt a valuable lesson, check the oven temperatures 3 times!