Firstly, the potato recipe.

Fran was a darling and found it on the net, saved me all that typing, but the photo is the one from the book. The actual page is really stained and spattered, which only shows how much we've used it over the years.

We used to watch Kurma on SBS when we lived on the farm, and we were often inspired to try the recipes, eventually owning two vegetarian recipe books of his. But finding the right ingredients was quite a problem; where to get asafoetida powder or curry leaves in Crystal Brook?

Rob used to have to visit the diabetes clinic at the Adelaide Childrens Hospital every three months, and on one of these trips we discovered a whole food shop in Central market that seemed to have everything. Kalonji seeds, chana dal, curry leaves, urad dal, besan flour, all the ingredients we'd wondered about and couldn't get.

I'm definately not vegetarian, but wouldn't mind if I had to be; I don't think I'd miss meat that much. Nor am I whatever religion Kurma is, not interested in that side of things at all. I just like really tasty recipes, and I have very fond memories of Sundays in the farm kitchen with the boys, chopping and stirring and cooking and having fun. Rob was my main partner in crime, and the others ate whatever was served without complaint. Usually. Although John did once remark that when Rob chopped an onion the pieces could choke a horse. He has much more finesse now I think.

I can now show you a secret project because the intended recipient has it in her hot little hands.

Last year when Rob went away Keryn and I made a flannel quilt for him as a going away gift. It came to my attention that Elisa would like one of her own, (I heard there was a bit of competition over who got the blankie when they were watching tv) and so I started sewing this as soon as I could.

There were those at Patchwork who thought it must be for an intended grandchild, because of the ducks, but no. Elisa is mad on ducks, she even had a "Duck's Night" instead of a Hen's Party. So when I saw this fabric I knew I had to use it somehow. It was very cute to work with, and Keryn specially designed a duck panto to quilt it with, so it's ducks all the way! I don't know if I'll ever get a call to use it on a customer quilt, but the pattern is there if needed.

Ducks anyone?

Henrietta asked for the recipe for Spicy Bengali Potatoes and when I track the book down I'll post it. I've lent it to either Keryn or Matt and I can't remember who.I whipped this UFO together on the weekend as a change from the bushfire tops and customer quilting. The blocks were begun by Keryn, from scraps of blue and cheddar. She rapidly got sick of them for some reason and on one of my visits to her talked of throwing them out. Into my suitcase they went and at home I made more from my scraps, until I had twenty of them. They didn't want to be set together with anything in my stash at the time, so they sat and waited for a few more years , until this green came along. It looks rather like a woven coverlet pattern, and I think it might get a pieced border, but I haven't decided yet.


The scraps for this came mostly from our longarming friend Kaye, who is generous to a fault.She has a bin where bits of backing and oddments get thrown and every time we go there she says "Take what you want!" I don't need to be told twice, but on Keryn's recent trip to Syndey she did the unthinkable. When Kaye said "Pack those scraps up and take them home for Meredith".........gasp.... I'm feeling faint.....hyperventilating a bit..... Keryn LEFT THEM THERE!.

She claims it was because her airline baggage was already 6 kilos over the limit and she'd posted home over 30 kilos of fabric and goodies (!) but still! Scraps! Free! and left in Sydney. Sigh.

Keryn has an alter ego called Greedy Jean and mine is Ima Pigg. They surface whenever there is Stuff to be had, and we do try to control them, honestly. But really cheap fabric is Greedy Jeans trigger, and Ima's weakness is scraps. As Keryn was unpacking all her haul from Sydney, (and sharing it generously with me I hasten to add) I looked at the groaning table and the piles of wool and fabric and sang "Greedy Jean came out to play, now Greedy Jean won't go away!!"

But the bolts of new fabric are for our little shop and some of it will be made into backings for bushfire quilts, and Sydney Show comes but once a year, doesn't it? Nuff excuses.

Dolly can be sooo silly at times. The other day she spent about 15 minutes like this on her back,waggling her paws in the air and barking at the ceiling. Every now and then her back foot said something reeeally cheeky and she had to chew it ferociously, while wiggling in a circle and growling at it. Her tail is equally impertinent, and several times a day she attempts to catch it and teach it a lesson, but she hasn't succeeded yet. This is accompanied by squeals and growls and groans of frustration- Staffies can make the most incredible noises at times. I didn't realise they were so vocal until we had Macca.

And sometimes she just lies and dreams her own thoughts, all toasty under a blankie......

I finished quilting this Bear Paw and it wasn't until I hung it up that I realised how big it is. Phew, it's good to have that done.I did some freehand in the border, I think cream just cries out for feathers.....
The same customer did this embroidered baby quilt too, lots of little piggies on this one. She obviously likes blue and cream,and so did all the other people that saw these in the workroom. It's a timeless combination.


I sewed up lots of bits at Patchwork on Monday, and by next day I had 112 of these little four patch blocks. And one lone four patch left over.


By gum, they flew together, having the four patches on hand meant that I was more than half done before I started. I think I'll just sew them all together willy-nilly and see what happens.

Is 'willy-nilly' less challenging than 'random'? We have a dear friend at Patchwork who does the most beautiful amazing work and is known for her perfectionism. Whenever someone mentions 'random' settings she gets a worried look on her face and pretends to hyperventilate. She declares that she's cutting 2 1/2" squares and one day she's going to put them all in a paper bag and then just sew them into pairs, whatever she pulls out first. We say "Yes Dear" in a soothing tone, we'll believe it when we see it!

And I probably will play with these as I lay them out, because I don't like the same fabrics touching and I like to distribute the lights and darks.... so I don't do willy-nilly that well either, do I?

After typing 'willy-nilly' so many times I had to go and look up the phrase and it was quite interesting. I like 'hitty missy' too, might start using that!

Last Friday night Matt and the dogs came in for a sleepover, and we decided to have a DVD night watching some favourite shows. Matt cooked his famous Spicy Bengali Potatoes and made chicken scnitzel, which was absolutely delicious- I felt very spoilt to have tea put in front of me. We'd just settled down in our comfy chairs with the dogs clustered in front of the heater.... when the power went off. Great!

We lit some candles and told ourselves it wouldn't be long, but after fifteen minutes I went and got the cards and we played for the next two hours. I was longing for coffee, and the heater to come back on, it was Cold!

I reminded Matt of a time when we lived on the farm, and we quite often had prolonged power failures. One lasted for eight hours, and we were all pretty sick of it by 9 that night. We were playing cards by candlelight to pass the time and tempers were getting strained. In an attempt to make everyone laugh I pointed dramatically at the light switch and in a slightly hysterical voice declaimed "At the count of Three, the power will come back on!!" And it did!

Matt was about nine, and he glared at me, outraged. "Why didn't you do that SOONER!" he said.
Ah, if only it were that easy....

It's supposed to be patchwork today, but it's pouring with rain and I'm going to wait until it eases up before I make a dash for the car. I've got a little kit packed to work on, just got to decide which machine to take.

Years ago my son John saw these boxes being thrown away at his work place; a whole pile of them still in a flat pack. He asked if he could have them, because he knew that I'd find a use for them. They are only about 7" deep, but I find they're great for packing up kits and keeping larger cut patches together. I hate waste, and it irked me that stuff like this gets thrown out before it's even used.


These four patches measure 3", made from 1 3/4" strips. Once again they were made from the shopping bags of pieces from the patchwork shop in Rocky- I must have made at least six tops from them so far. They are never-ending! I sewed all these three years ago, as well as 160 nine patches. Just from the 1 3/4" strips mind you, there are 1 1/2" and 2" and 2 1/2" and some other wider bits as well. I'll be sewing these until I'm a little old lady!

And the pieced strips below are going to be a border for this quilt. Every time I trimmed the 5" strips into the four patches I was left with 1 1/4" offf-cuts. I started sewing them all together and was staggered at how many there were and how quickly they added up. When I look at bits like this I think I really must be mad, but I just couldn't put them all in the bin. Could I? Keryn would say a resounding "YES!!"

When Keryn comes to visit she sits in this chair and puts Dolly on her knee for a cuddle. Since she's been gone Dolly's learned to climb up by herself and lies here looking very forlorn. It's not the same without a comfy lap to sprawl on, sigh.

Over the last few months when I was sorting through my scraps I cut all the pink, purple and green bits into 3 1/2" by 6 1/2" bricks and stacked them in their own box. I made 3 1/2" four patches from the very darkest purple scraps and put them in the box as I finished them, and when it was full I set them all together into this Bricks and Stepping Stones quilt from Bonnie's site. It seemed to take only hours to do, because I'd done so much preparation beforehand, and there's very little agonising over this setting. As long as the same fabrics aren't touching each other and the darker bricks are distributed evenly throughout, it goes together in a flash.

Here's a photo of a top that our friend Bev whipped up. This is a sort of crumb log cabin, all different size strips and snippets of fabric, so there's a wonderful collection of bits here.
Bev has made lots of eyespy quilts, and there are fascinating glimpses of cows and dolphins and rockets and who knows what else. Some lucky child will find it intriguing.
Bev is my first fully fledged convert to scrap hoarding. One of her friends in Moonta used to save up her 'rubbish' and pass it to Bev, who passed it to me. Gradually she started pinching bits out to use herself and began crumb piecing blocks; then realised just how many quilts could be made with what other people discard.

Keryn says this has backfired on me because I don't get a look in now- Bev keeps all the friends scraps for herself! I don't care, it's so nice to have an accomplice who understands our obsession with the little bits and it's great seeing what she comes up with. Don't you love the pieced setting triangles on this top? Scrappy all the way.

I surprised myself the other day when we went for our hike, which Keryn wrote about here. I hurt my back three years ago and I've gradually recovered so that walking is fine, but I didn't think I could climb hills anymore. I'm not saying that I managed this walk easily, and Keryn and Matt could literally run rings around me, but I did finish the round trip. I had threatened that they might have to get the rescue helicopter out at one stage, and my back complained the next day, but I pulled up okay.

The puppies loved it, how such tiny things could gamboll along for kilometres is beyond me, but apart from flopping down at every pause they showed no signs of flagging.

We found two leprous looking little huts in a grove of trees, I have no idea what they were for. Too small for accomodation surely, old time dunnies perhaps?

Whatever their use, Eric Lawson left his name in 1915; I love this early graffiti, and his writing is very nice despite being scratched into plaster.

Everyone was hot and bothered and thirsty when we got back to the house, and a drink was in order. Nice to share with the family.....


until..

Don't you just hate it when your Dad does that?

When I was going through the 2" strip drawer, I pulled out anything that was less than the eight and a half inches I needed , and added all the bits leftover from cutting the strips down. From these I cut 4 and a quarter inch rectangles and 2" squares until they were all gone. (I cut the rectangles slightly larger than needed to allow for squaring up the ends and miscuts. )
Here are all my dark and medium bits paired up ready to sew.Don't I look excessively neat? I must admit I love arranging a stack of pieces like this, but unfortuneately there's no other area of my sewing room that displays this kind of order.


Stacking and spreading and bits on the floor, sigh. Just as well you lot can't see it.

I ironed the pieces, then cut the rectangles into 2" slices, rotated them and made 4 patch blocks. The squares I sewed into random 4 patches too, and made this pile.

I had thought of using them as the centre of these Puss in the Corner blocks, which would also use up the light strips from the drawer.

But they also looked nice set together as a postage stamp..
and how about the rail fence blocks as a border...?

Or as a piano key border...?
I like to play around with ideas like this, and the digital camera is great because you can record all the variations.I'm putting these in a project drawer until I can have a think about what I'm doing,but it was fun getting the bits to this stage. Much better to have a pile of blocks to play with than the full to bursting strip drawer.