Christmas in July and some Blog Keeping

First of all thanks so much for the overwhelming wishes for our 37th Anniversary. Both Mr Notjustnat and I really appreciated your kind words. Christmas in July is truly Australian because it was so cold outside here in July in comparison to Christmas in December. This is only the second meeting of our sewing basket group, and only Lynda and I were available that day. We had a great day catching up, stitching a little, but mainly eating and talking! We exchanged little Christmas gifts too. 

Look what Lynda made for me! A bath towel with a personalised monogram in an Asian font. Lynda de-constructed her kimono and used the fabric to applique the fonts. Apart from the towel Lynda gave me a whole sleeve from the kimono as well. I'm so lucky to have a friend like you Lynda. I love it thank you!

 

Lynda was working on her hexagon quilt and I was putting the binding on my Christmas quilt that should be finished by Christmas in December haha! 

Country Winter Soup that I want to share the recipe with you. It's one of my favorite soup recipes for winter days:

Serves 4

2 tbsp olive oil

1 onion, roughly chopped

3 carrots, cut into large chunks

200g/7oz turnips, cut into large chunks

175g/6oz swede, cut into large chunks

400g/14oz can chopped tomatoes

1 tbsp tomato puree

1tsp dried mixed herbs

1tsp dried oregano

50g/2oz dried peppers, washed  and thinly sliced (optional).

1.5 liters/6 cups vegetable stock

50g/2oz small macaroni

400g/14oz can red kidney beans, rinsed and drained

2 tbsp chopped fresh flat leaf parsley

salt and freshly ground black pepper

freshly grated Parmesan cheese, to serve.

1 - Heat the oil in a large saucepan, add the onion and cook over low heat for about 5 mins. until softened. Add the fresh vegetable, canned tomatoes, tomato puree, dried herbs and dried peppers, if using. Stir in salt and pepper to taste. 

2 - Pour in the stock  and bring to the boil. Sire well cover, lower the heat and simmer for 45 mins or until vegetable cooked and soften, stirring occasionally. 

3 - Add the pasta and bring to the boil, stirring. Lower the heat and simmer, uncovered, until the pasta is only just al dente; about 5 mins

4 - Stir in the beans. Heat through for 2-3 mins, then remove from the heat and sitr in the parsley. Taste that soup for seasoning. Serve hot with grated Parmesan cheese.  

We served it with Mr Notjustnat's homemade bread. It was delicious!

In the last few months I have been racking my brain on how to moon dye fabric. I have seen many people using them in Jude's online workshop. I can easily buy them from the Shiborigirl, but I know how to dye and have more than enough dye powder to use up. The original moon dyed fabrics use indigo dye and I now have a kit ready to be use, that is another story to be told later. In my last visit to Reverse Art Truck I found the plastic disks that are perfect for the dyeing process and today was a the day for me to try this. I'm so excited at how they turned out. Let's just say, I'm over the moon with the results! The above moon pieces were dyed using Procion dye powder in indigo colour. 

I'm taking another online workshop 'Patchwork Beasts' with Spiritcloth. The class started on July 15. When I signed up for this class I knew what I wanted to make. I wanted to make an alphabet quilt for my DGC so I started piecing the alphabets using Tanya's instruction. I did some of this piecing last year so that part was easy. In this workshop I want to make the beasts to go with the alphabet. My first one is cat for 'C'.

These are some of the felt cakes made in Kit's workshop at Etsy in New York. Kit is now back in Sydney and she posted the PDF pattern for them on her blog. You can also  see some photos of the craft scene in the big Apple!