Finish Along 2014 - Quarter 1

Along with linking up with A Lovely Year of Finishes, I am also going to link up with Katy at The Littlest Thistle to help me to finish all my WIPs.  The year is divided into 4 quarters and rather than setting goals each month, I will set goals for each quarter. I have made a list of nearly all my WIPs, and will attempt to get through them this year. Yikes!
One of the first things I want to do is get all my bee blocks from the 4 x 5 bee and the 3 x 6 bee sewn into tops and then quilted.  I have made 109 bee blocks over the last 2 years!! The first is a purple and grey theme and I think I haven't decided if I will add sashing or not between the blocks.

Not sure what I will do with these yet. Too small for a quilt, unless I make a mini quilt.

This was a purple, green and aqua theme and I will just sew these without sashing I think. Will make a couple more and add them to the back.

This is a combo of lime and raspberry blocks and lime and blue blocks.  I think I will combine them somehow, since most of them all have lime in them.

Okay, so that's the bee blocks sorted...onto the rest of the goals. Of course, there is my Tula Pink City Sampler quilt to finish. I have started stitching the blocks together and will probably send this one out to be professionally quilted.

Then there is my Kitchen Window quilt to finish

And my granny squares quilt from another bee. I have the back already made. It just needs to be basted and quilted.

And my St Louis 16 Patch...

And my Equilateral Triangle quilt from Sewing Summit

And my Star Surround quilt

I think that will do for now...I have about another 3 quilts to baste and quilt, but they can wait for the next quarter. I think this will keep me busy for a while!

WIP Wednesday - St Louis 16 Patch

Even since I saw Steffani's St Louis 16 patch quilt on her blog, I have been smitten.  I am not sure if it is the richness of the colours, the gorgeous AMH fabrics, the purples (I adore purple!) or what it is, but I knew I wanted to make one too.  

Source : sewwithsass.blogspot.com

I didn't jump on the bandwagon when it was first doing the rounds of Flickr and Instagram as the time wasn't right, but I had the urge to cut into my Chicopee last week.  This is one of my favourite Denyse Schmidt ranges and I think it is the rich colours of the reds, the oranges, pinks and blues that just sang to me.

I started off with just 4 blocks to see if I liked the look of them. They stitched up so easily. Seriously, Steffani's tutorial is incredibly easy to follow. I mixed the Chicopee with some Hope Valley and some older ranges of DS fabrics that I have been hoarding  waiting for the right quilt to come along.

I loved the look of these so continued until I had 22.  Was going to go for a 5 x 6 layout but it would have been for one mother of a quilt!  Will pop the extra 2 on the back.

Max, our Bichon, inspecting the quilt

Linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced

Clean Eating: Raw Energy Salad

Back in May last year, I decided to change my way of eating. This came about for several reasons, but one of the main reasons was to improve my general health. I am generally a fairly healthy person and have always been very aware of what I eat.  However, I was aware I was carrying a few too many kilograms and this certainly was not helping my health.   I love food and I love eating and I don't understand my hubby when he says he has forgotten to eat that day!! Seriously, how can you forget to eat??? My stomach would be rubbing on my backbone if I was to go too long without food! 

Around about the same time I bought a cookbook by Dr Libby Weaver who is an Australian nutritionist who believes in the power of eating real food...that is food in its raw state or food that hasn't been processed or interfered with.  I was a convert after trying a couple of recipes.  I was cooking food that tasted divine, but it was also good for you.  

Source: www.foodshow.co.nz

It certainly isn't a cheap way of eating...my shopping trolley now has whole foods, nuts, fruits, beans, grains, vegetables, maple syrup, and medjool dates which are $30 a kilo at my local supermarket!!! However, I feel so much better for it and have lost 8kg (17lb) since then.  I also was doing the 5:2 diet to help me lose the extra kilos and lapsed from that in September when I went to San Francisco, then Christmas came and then there was New Year drinks, but I have gotten back on the 5:2 wagon now.  Seriously, when I eat processed food now, I really feel blech afterwards.  Even my family love what I cook and request meals from Dr Libby's cookbooks.

So one of my favourite salads I make that is completely raw is a Raw Beetroot Salad.  It comes from the Revive Cafe cookbook which is one of 3 cookbooks that come from the Revive Cafe in Auckland, a healthy vegetarian  cafe that serves food to nourish the body. I substitute the dried fruits...tonight I used apricots, but I also use, sultanas, raisins, cranberries etc. This makes a huge bowlful which serves about 6 people, depending how many helpings you have! It has about 220 calories per serve, again depending on which calorie counter you use!

Raw Beetroot Salad

½ cup sultanas
2 medium beetroot
4 carrots
10 fresh mint leaves
½ cup sunflower seeds

Orange Dressing
juice of 2 oranges or ½ cup of orange juice
2 tbsps balsamic vinegar
2 tbsps maple syrup, date puree or honey
1 tsp salt
2 tbsps oil

Put dried fruit in some boiling water to plump them up and make them juicy.
Grate the beetroot and carrots
Mix the dressing ingredients
Drain the water off the sultanas
Mix all the ingredients together

Source: Revive Cookbook 2 by Jeremy Dixon

Linking up with Sew Darn Crafty at Sew Many Ways

A Lovely Year of Finishes - January Goal

As part of my commitment to finishing all my WIPS, I am joining Shanna and Melissa's A Lovely Year of Finishes, where we commit to finishing one project a month. It can be any goal you set yourself, as long it is achievable for yourself. Hopefully I will get all my quilts finished as I hate to fail!!!

For January I have chosen to baste and quilt my Kitchen Window quilt that I started 2 years ago. It has sat gathering dust as I could never figure out how I wanted to quilt it (actually I wasn't that confident to FMQ it as I hadn't done any at that stage and I figured this quilt needed more than straight line quilting) and I detest basting!

It has a mix of Anna Maria Horner and Pat Bravo fabrics and I am using Kona Ash and Kona Black.  I think this is one of my favourite ranges from AMH. 

Linking up with 

Looking back at 2013...

Well I think it was a year of bee blocks for me when I look back at my year. No wonder I don't have a lot of finished quilts! Next year, I will just stay with the Modern Stash bee and give the others a break for a while. I have so many blocks to sew into quilts from all my bees. I love the Modern Stash bee as you get blocks that suit your purpose at the time. I am slowly getting my Japanese X plus quilt together from this bee.

I have only managed to finish 4 quilts this year, 

but I do have another 2 tops waiting to be basted.

I have jumped on the Tula Pink City Sampler bandwagon and have finished all my blocks. I laid them out and have started joining them all together.

I also joined the Lucky Stars BOM and unfortunately have only finished 7 stars so far. I do intend the finish the others, hopefully over the next couple of weeks.

Highlights from the year:

Going to the Gold Coast with the whole family

Graduating with my Masters in Nursing

Going to Sewing Summit

Going to Yosemite National Park and San Francisco

And my goals for 2014...

To finish all my unfinished quilts! I am going to join up with some Finish Alongs this year to motivate me.  I have a ton of bee blocks that all need to be made into quilt tops, I have 4 or 5 quilt tops that need backs and basting and I want to finish up my Lucky Stars BOM blocks. I've got 12 months to do it!!