I thought I’d do something a little different today and play a little game with you!!!! hee hee
First, you’ve got to guess what these crafty things I’ve been working on today are:
I guess you’d be hard pressed figuring out what the first thing is….a banner of some sort????…and you’d be close!
We are going on school camp in a week, up on the Atherton Tablelands in Far North Queensland and the theme of our camp is “Boot Camp”! We all get names and I’m “Major Payne!” …..LOL My teaching partners called me that because of my upcoming knee surgery!!!!!…..they’re so funny!!!! But honestly, this is going to be a whole lotta fun!
We’re taking 65 11-12 year olds so you can see why the theme????!!!! LOL So I’ve been making some team banners for the kids to paint their team name and create their team identity on!!! I’ve made 4 today for our 4 teams and next week the kids will do the painting! I’ll take photos and show you when they’re done!
Now, I’ve been getting a bit of shoulder ‘payne’ lately (hehe) on account of my whacky knee….and you’d be forgiven for thinking the next two photos were of wheat bags to heat up in the microwave and put on achy spots to ease the ‘payne’ (sorry…can’t help myself now!!!!), but if you could smell the screen……you might think differently!!! (although lavender in them would be quite nice and relaxing don’t you think???)
If you’re not aware, my dear hubby’s family is from an Italian background and yes, they are all quite wonderful cooks….in my 7 years of marriage I’ve put on about 15kg due to the beautiful recipes they just have to try, and from my father in law’s constant urges to ‘mange, mange’!!!! (Well, I don’t want to upset him, do I??? LOL) It’s getting harder to think of good birthday presents, so this year, I’m making aprons and scented spice trivets because I know they’ll be well used!!!!!! The aprons are still ‘in process’ but the spice trivets are done…
Scented with cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves, put a hot pot on top and, not only does it save your benchtops, but the smell is incredible!!!! I think I’ll be making a few more for moi!!!!
Last weekend I just couldn’t find my mojo and the ‘Italian’ must have rubbed off on me ‘cause I felt more like baking. I’d wanted to try some of the recipes I’d found on the Fabshop Hop, so when I went back into my files I found this one……Lemon Meringue Cupcakes!!!….mmmmmmmm
I made mini, bite-sized ones so I didn’t feel so guilty!!!!! I tried out my new, silicone patty cupcake cups and they were just magic! I bought them for just a few dollars at my local supermarket….so easy!
Not only do you get the recipes on the hop, but you also get a paper pieced or appliqued pattern of each cupcake!!! A yummy quilt will be on the cards next!!!!! They’ve got quite a few hops each year….where you can visit lots of shops from the comfort of your own home, hunt for little bunnies, and gather block patterns along the way…..the March one is the Star Search Sampler where you’ll collect all the blocks to make this…
If you click here, you can find out all the details and you can hunt around to find all the other hops during the year!
And please visit Maddie at L’il Magoolie and put a bid on some of the lovely things she has there to support the victims of the NZ Quake.
They stood by us when we had the floods, the cyclone and the fires….now it’s our turn!
Have a fantastic week
Sugary hugs
XXX Wendy :0)
…which means the days are stinking hot…..33 – 34 degrees celsius on average. Today was quite mild….it only got to 32 degrees and it was noticably different, believe it or not!!! I was talking with Dawn the other day and her top temperature was 17 degrees for the day in Adelaide……so hard to believe we live in the same country!!!! The spiders have taken to getting busy during the night and had we not had the fog and mist, I probably wouldn’t have noticed this web on my windscreen wiper…. 
….amazing critters aren’t they!? We have one busy guy who builds his web right between the garden and the bush outside our front door….I haven’t been able to get a photo as he’s disassembled it by morning but I notice it’s rebuilt each night as I take Ralph for his last ‘pitstop’ for the night! 
Well, I’m not the kinda girl to break a promise and I invited you all for scones and tea so here they are, light and fluffy, fresh from the oven……amazing what you can do with flour, butter and milk!!!… 
We had to wait just a bit for them to cool before we could add the homemade strawberry jam and cream but here they are…..hope you enjoy them!!!!……(pity we didn’t have taste-vision….I don’t think licking the screen has the same effect though!! LOL) 
This week, I was working on preparing a project with our year 7 students….each year the year 7’s complete a creative project to leave to the school in remembrance of them. We’ve made mosaics, painted school murals, built gardens, but this year, we’re making a quilt to hang in our new library/resource centre. The design will have a stitched block between a nine-patch, alternating on each line. The students are stitching the blocks with their names, so they will never be forgotten, in the school colours of red and blue, and the nine patches will be in varying tones of red. I’ve prepared the blocks here for stitching before I took them to school to work with the kids….need I say, they were very excited…even the boys, but you probably remember that from when I stitched with them here. 
I’ve also been working on this set of placemats…..well, you can only see one, because the others have still got to be bound….but they are all quilted and ready to go!!! 
This is the back of this one….each has a different backing fabric and I decided to quilt them in the ditch and then using parallel lines around the edge. I’ll have to finish them off and post them onto the ‘Sew It’s Finished” blog as they were in my list of UFO’s for the year….and it’s only taken me till October!!!! LOL Time to spare, time to spare!!!!! hehehe 
Tomorrow, I’m off on a bus trip with some ladies from our quilt group to Cardwell, about 4 hours north of here. The quilting ladies from Cardwell are having a ‘Show and Tell’ so it should be loads of fun….remember they had a terrible time earlier this year with Cyclone Yasi which nearly wiped them off the planet! Well these ladies have been working like trojans, getting themselves back together to put on a ‘show’ for us so we’re off to show our support. I must remember my camera so I can share when I get home! Hope you’ve got a wonderfully crafty weekend planned too. Sugary hugs XOX Wendy :O)
