Sunday, March 17, 2013

Best Tomato Relish Recipe


How lucky was I this week to receive a wonderful bounty of home grown onions and tomatoes, this meant one one thing, a batch of Tomato Relish!

This year I thought I would do some research on my ipad and find  a new Tomato relish recipe. I'm so glad that I did because I found an easy recipe that I think has become a new family favourite. It is different to my usual recipe in that it combines grated apple, red wine vinegar and a combination of spices including All Spice. The recipe can be found on the Taste.com website

I multiplied the recipe by 4, which made 5 large jars. The fresh Thyme stirred through at the end was also a nice touch. Luckily I had an abundant supply in the herb patch.



Hope you enjoy this recipe too, I think it is the best Tomato Relish recipe that I have come across.
Warmly Lenna

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Little Felt Bunny and Free Bunny Embroidery Patterns

Last night I felt like making something, I had the sewing bug! With Easter only a few weeks away I decided to make a little felt bunny. Before starting I also did some research for some free bunny embroidery patterns to share with you, which I have included below. But first meet my little gray bunny.

 I Saw a Little Bunny

I saw a little bunny
going hop, hop, hop.
I said, "Please, Mr. Bunny,
won't you stop, stop, stop."
He flapped his big, long ears
and had no word to say,
And before I could get near him
he had hop, hop, hopped away!
Author unknown


I had  a delightful time photographing him for you, here he is looking a bit cheeky!


 I always find it amusing how toys take on a personality all of there own. Miss 12 usually names my little creations but she is not home from school yet, so he will have to remain nameless unless you can think of a name for him.

My little felt bunny is hand sewn from wool felt, he has two small seed beads for eyes and I added two small buttons and a soft green ribbon. Choosing from my ribbon stash was difficult (yes I know it is untidy) and I have to confess that my little felt bunny tried on a few ribbons before we decided on one.


Little felt bunny only entered this world last night so I have not written a pattern for him. Let me know if he is something you would like to make, if I get enough interest I will write the pattern for you.

If you too would like to do some stitching coming up to Easter, here are some free bunny embroidery patterns finds for you:

Click each link to go to the website so you can print off the pattern.

Free bunny embroidery design by Badbirds

Free bunny embroidery pattern by About.com

Free bunny embroidery pattern by French Knots




Hope that you find these free bunny embroidery patterns useful and that you enjoyed seeing my little felt bunny. What should we name him and should I write the pattern so you can make one too?

Warmly Lenna

PS Good news, due to popular request I did decide to write the  pattern for my little felt bunny, it can be found here
 http://stitchingcow.com/collections/felt-projects/products/flopsy-bunny

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Wall Quilt for Lansdowne Crescent Primary School, Hobart Tasmania

Last year my youngest daughter finished what has been a long chapter in out family's history at primary school. Over a period of 15 years hubby and I have been apart of a wonderful experience as our three children progressed their way through junior school. As all parents know being apart of a school community involves many activities, including fetes, fund raiser evenings, music events, excursions, school assemblies...the list goes on and on.We have enjoyed them all.

With this in mind, and sensing that an important chapter was coming to a close, I felt that I wanted to leave  Lansdowne Crescent Primary school with a parting gift of some sort. The opportunity presented itself when a brand new hall was built at the school, and the idea of a large wall quilt to decorate one of the walls was hatched.

The idea was eagerly adopted by my daughter's grade 6 teacher, a kindred soul at heart who also enjoys creative pursuits. So it was decided that the whole class would be involved from conception to completion. It was also decided that the wall quilt would depict the scene that the children see looking down from their school playground onto the city and harbour below.

After photographing the view, an initial design was sketched and then a team of children and myself painted the scene onto calico.Here it is pegged to the trampoline, the rough sketch is taped to the bottom for  our reference.



Our next task was to get the kids to sketch some of the buildings and boats that they could see from their playground. Their sketches were then reduced or increased to size and then attached to the scene using fusible webbing. A local curtain making and upholstering shop had kindly donated a collection of fabric sample books to the school, these were perfect for the project at hand. From these the children chose suitable fabric colours for the buildings and foreground vegetation.

Over the next few weeks teams of sewers sat and hand appliqued the houses, buildings, boats and leaves in place. Rows of quilting were added for the waves and smaller details like the town clock and flag were hand embroidered. Here are some close up sections of the wall quilt.




These grade 6 children did an amazing job. The project was a wonderful journey for all involved and now proudly hangs in the school hall.



Miss 12 and I were responsible for hanging the wall quilt. After a few times up and down the ladder we were both satisfied that it was straight and sturdy. As we proudly looked up at the wall quilt now in its final resting place, we reflected on the journey that had been taken. It had involved so many little hands, much laughter and lots of wonderful, creative energy.



As my daughter and I walked away from the school a tear slipped down my cheek as I closed that chapter and began contemplating the next.

Warmly Lenna




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