Sugar having a rest

Here is Sugar having a nice rest on the sofa, on one of my new quilts.

Jeremy's quilt

I pieced the top of this quilt sometime last year from a great easy design on the Quiltville website. I made it using an array of scraps, but the Quiltville website gives lots of different colour ideas. You can also place the "mountains" in a number of different ways to achieve different effects.

After lots of whining from my partner J, ("when are you going to make me a quilt?!") I finally finished this one a couple of months ago and it is now his in-front-of-the-TV-snuggle-rug.

Unfinished log cabin

I love these pretty fabrics but gee log cabins can get a little boring! This one might stay in the UFO pile for a while!

I started making this with a Jelly Roll - cutting each strip down the middle, so each log is 3/4" wide. I have enough to make another 20 blocks - another round all the way round in the barn raising style, but I've lost interest for the moment. I have been tempted to make the quilt so far into a very large, squashy cushion and refuse to do any more!

Charm Square Quilt

This photo only shows the quilt top, although this quilt is now finished. A nice, lap sized quilt made of two packs of charm squares. How easy this was to put together, but I think it ended up being quite pretty.

Keira's Quilt

I made this little cot quilt quickly with some pretty charm squares for my J's sister's fourth child Keira. It is unbound in this photo, unfortunately. Spice is assisting in the foreground.

Holly Jolly Table Runner

I put together this quick table runner using a Holly Jolly Jelly Roll. Inspiration for the design came from a pattern listed for sale at Fat Quarter Shop, which was for a quilt using the same fabrics and a gift box motif. I made up this design myself and made enough gift boxes for 2 table runners a couple little gift bags for Christmas. Although this project is now finished (and in the wash after a Christmas party!) I only took a photo at this unfinished stage.

Arabella's First Quilt

I made this quilt early last year for a friend's first baby, a gorgeous little girl named Arabella.

It's OUR bed and we can drool in it if we want to

Zucchini Pickles

I found a similar recipe on the web and have adapted it to my needs - which came about when I had a bumper crop of zucchini in my vegetable garden. After an unusually rainy summer, I was getting zucchinis which grew from normal size one day to about 2 kg each the next!

This pickle is like a sweet mustard pickle and I have made several batches this summer. Because the amount of zucchini you need to use up varies, I have just put down proportions of ingredients, not quantities.

1. Finely dice your zucchini and place in a large bowl or vessel, salting each layer well. Also slice up an onion or two and add. I would add an onion for each 500g - 1kg of zucchini. Cover with cold water and leave to stand for at least an hour or overnight.

2. In a large saucepan dissolve sugar in white vinegar (although I am going to experiment with malt vinegar next time). You will need equal quantities of sugar to vinegar. 1 kg of zucchini will probably need 2 cups of vinegar and 2 cups of sugar to be enough to cover the vegetables as they boil. For each cup of vinegar, add 1 tsp powdered mustard and 1 tsp tumeric.

3. Once the sugar has dissolved, add your drained zucchini and onion. The vegetables will shrink a little on cooking, but you need to ensure you have enough of the vinegar/sugar mix to cover. You can add more vinegar and sugar at this stage if you need to, just stir until the sugar is dissolved.

4. Bring to a good boil, and boil for at least 45 mins. Depending on the size of the chunks of zucchini, I have boiled for up to 1 1/2 hours to get a good consistency.

5. At the end, you may want to dissolve a tablespoon or two of cornflour in a little vinegar and add this to the pot to thicken the mixture.

6. Spoon into sterilised jars and seal.


NOTES:

* If your jars are well sterilised this will keep for months in the cupboard, indefinitely in the fridge.
* I sometimes add a generous pouring of curry powder to this recipe to get a slightly "bitier" pickle.
* This is good served with cold meats, cheese and salads!
* Mustard pickles can be made with any other vegetable you might have a bumper crop of, such as cauliflower, broccoli, cucumber. It is nice to add some red capsicum for the colour.