More Orphan Blocks

I had a busy weekend in the sewing room, and almost unexpectedly, in the kitchen too. But first up, the stitching:

These orphan blocks had been calling me to make something from them for a couple of years. I had downloaded one of the Moda Howard Marcus brochures a while back and made some blocks, but because I had also made the quilt for work just before starting my own blocks, I lost interest fast. So, another small table runner was born:

Though it looks greyish in the picture, the setting triangles are a nice match for the green in the predominantly red fabric. It was one of the lovely fabrics that my sweet friend Donna gave me. I'm sure I already told you the story of the paper bag filled with fabric when I visited with her. I didn't recognise it as mine amongst my luggage and put it with Linda's luggage. I was so confused when it appeared back with my things again, and this happened a couple of times before Donna revealed it was a gift for me :-)

And a little close up of the simple quilting:

I used the same green on the reverse of the project, and then thought afterward that I could have pieced it from my scraps. Oh well, it looks super anyway.

And on my machine right now:

I'm quilting on a beautiful project for a sweet friend of mine. We used to work together, and I miss seeing her every week, she's just adorable. I hope to have this finished in the next couple of days, I hope she likes it.

Now for the kitchen: Yesterday was my Dad's birthday, and when my Mum and I talked about the family dinner, I promised I'd bring the cake. I messaged Dad to find out what his favourite cake is, and does he like pavlova, he responsed with 'I love it!'

Now I've never had any pavlova success before, I've made meringues, and topped lemon meringue pies, but they're small and hard to get wrong - I felt like I better make a practice run before the big day. So I started cruising Pinterest ... (have I mentioned my addiction to Pinterest?) ... and I found this recipe. On Saturday we had a friend for dinner, so I practiced in the afternoon, and came up with this:

Now, I only used the recipe for the meringue, I didn't bother with the same fillings they used. As you see, there are strawberries, whipped cream and raspberry coulis. And ohhh my goodness, it was delicious! There were only four of us at dinner, and we demolished the whole darned thing!

For Dad's big day, there was no way that pavlova was going to be big enough - a 4 egg white recipe. Ultimately, I sized up the recipe to use 10 egg whites, and it was the perfect size. Those of you in touch with me on Facebook will have seen this already, but just for fun, behold Dad's pavlova:

It was huge, and absolutely delicious. That's my Masons Vista charger you see under the pavlova, which is 14" across, and you can barely see it. I also managed to do a better job making the sides neater as I piped the meringue in place first rather than just plopping it in a heap on the tray and hoping for the best. Can you tell I'm thrilled that it worked? With my temperamental oven, I was sure that it would burn, but happy days it's just fine. I can see more of these in our future! xox