Starts and Finishes :-)

First up, I'm sharing with you a birthday gift for my sweet friend Roz. I had wanted to show it to you on Tuesday when I posted - Monday was actually the day of her birthday, and I was seeing her at the shirt workshop. I had it all finished and ready to take with me ... except this bear of very little brains managed to leave it on the cutting table at home! Thankfully I was seeing her at guild last night, so I could pass it on finally ...

I've had a small amount of this border print in my stash for a good long time now, and it's perfect to use with the Kaleido Ruler.

Honestly, I think I've use this ruler more than any other that I own! I've seriously lost count of how many spiderwebs and runners I've made, and no one is getting tired of them yet!! Don't forget there's a free tutorial over at my website if you're thinking you'd like to make one. You'll need a Kaleido Ruler, or a similar 45 degree wedge ruler.

I'm really glad Roz liked it, she's the most darling person, I love spending time with her at guild.

Speaking of guild, last night was the most fun night. We had two wonderful guest speakers - first up was our dear sweet friend Michele Hill. She was talking about one of her UK trips, and her visit to the American Quilt Museum in Bath, it was just the most fabulous presentation with all the vingage quilts - you know how I love them! Michele then also shared about her visit to a Kaffe Fassett exhibition which was just fabulous too.

But then we had a surprise visitor - because of a whirlwind trip to Adelaide visiting with friends, Stuart Hillard was able to make time to visit with us and talk about his experience on the TV show The Great British Sewing Bee. Oh my goodness, he's just a riot - such a funny and lovely guy. I was lucky enough to be able to chatter with him for a little while after the meeting, and now I'm determined that I need to see the show. I'm already addicted to watching The Great British Bake Off, so look out, I'm sure to be Sewing Bee addicted too!!

But back to earth and what I've been working on :-) I had another finish this week - one which has been so close for a long time:

I finally wove in the ends to finish up these socks for my sweet friend Viv. I secreted them away in her folder at work, she found them while we were on the phone and just loves them. It'll be a while before she can spend any time wearing them - we're heading for a little spell of hot weather - but I was thrilled to pass them on.

If I remember correctly, I started them on a late night visit to the ER with Amy when she fractured her ankle at netball - that is a good long time ago now!! I'm a very slow knitter, I really just don't make the time for it, so yay for a finish :-)

And so you know I'm actually making baby steps of progress after the shirt workshop a bunch of us attended on Monday, here is where I'm at right now:

I have the two front pieces cut out, and though it's hard to see in the picture above, look below to see the tiny pin tucks that Kerryn taught us:

Ooops, I see a stray thread there! Before our next day together, I need to cut out the yoke and the back, The back needs a small pleat in the centre and then to be attached to the yoke, and then the yoke attached to the front pieces. Aaaargh, can I actually do this?? Garment making??

Today though, it was necessary for me to spend time in the kitchen rather than the sewing room. Marty has been growing tomatoes, and so far we've been able to keep up simply eating them fresh ... but suddenly they're all ripening in a hurry!! So I made passata:

Of course, I found a recipe on Pinterest - the story with the recipe amused me, as it pretty much reminds me of the process my best friend's family use. They have a big ole sauce day involving the whole family. They make enough for everyone for the whole year, and Renee stores hers in beer bottles down in the cellar.

I will need to make more in the next few days, and while today I followed the recipe from the link pretty much exactly, I want to try something different next time: I have a recollection of Renee saying that they squish the tomatoes before putting them through the mouli, and squishing them gets rid of a lot of the excess water and seeds. So I think I'll do that too - the jars will look cuter without so many seeds, and hopefully the passata will be a little thicker without so much cooking.

So that has been my last few days up to this moment. Tonight I think I'll be sewing some more hexies for the table runner I'm working on - I'm half way done with those. Tomorrow may be another sewing day - Camo has a bye from his tennis, and it's very likely that my games will be cancelled because of the heat. Darn it!!

Well that's it from me, so I will leave off here with a promise to chatter soon!! xox