for jordyn

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My other-side-of-the-world-twin Dani has a beautiful daughter called Jordyn.

Dani sent me this email today -

"she saw the pictures below and loves your house. She thinks your artwork is pretty she said. And she awed at your craft area. She then wanted to look at everything on your blog."

That is so sweet. Thank you Jordyn.

On the weekend you should help your Mum make Meringues. I just made some for my family.

You need 4 egg whites and 2 cups of castor sugar (finer sugar grains then normal sugar).

Blend the egg whites until they turn white and thick and slowly add the sugar a little at a time. Keep beating until your whites are soft (not sugar grainy) and glossy. When you are done, fold in a little food colouring.

Get some baking paper and put teaspoon mounds onto the tray and put in an oven at 90c. Bake for an hour and a half and then turn off your oven and leave the meringues in until the oven is cold.

You can crumble some meringues in the bottom of a bowl, put fresh strawberries on top and add some ice-cream.

When you eat your meringues Jordyn, we will have ours. Then I can say to my children, a lovely girl called Jordyn is eating these meringues on the other side of the world.

a new love

i love the music by lisa mitchell. it's magical.

my special space

Our front room in the house is our craft/computer room. Ben and I love it. I sit either perched at the end of my long table sewing, or sitting on the couch doing embroidery. Ben sits at the computer which is just to the right of this photo.

When we lived in our first house in Perth, I had the dining room table to craft at. I would shuffle up and down the hallway with boxes and when I was finished, I would pack up again so we could use the table.

Now I am lucky enough to have a whole room to craft in and it is my favourite place in the whole house.

If you can, make yourself a niche in the house. A place just for you. Even if it's a favourite chair to read at. You can get lost or caught up in your role - you have to remember to make time for the things you love and enjoy it.

I got some canvas from the shop and stuck my favourite paper to them. I then applied a glue over the top that dried clear and just before it set, I stroked backwards and forwards on the glue with an old toothbrush. When it dries it looks like an oil painting.

The Christmas tin is full of old cotton. It was Mum's and there are dress making pins in this very old container in the tin. Most of the cotton breaks because it is so old. I love looking at it.

a new name

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When I was a girl I loved Barbie.

I had 9 Barbies and a Donny and Marie Osmond Doll. I once cut off Marie's hair and she looked just like Donny...but that's another story.

I kept my Barbies in a little suitcase and I had Barbie clothes on the bottom and all my Barbie's would lie on top. I would open my suitcase nearly every day, put Barbie in a new outfit and brush their hair and put them away again.

I loved my suitcase. It would be under my bed, the keeper of my favourite possessions.

So my little blog has had a name change to little suitcase (the url is still the same) because it is the keeper of pretty images, thoughts, crafts, recipes and ramblings.

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meet me at mikes so we can covet...

Pip from Meet Me At Mikes has the most fun and interactive blog. It's my daily read.

Today Pip posted items she has her eye on......anyone can play.

These are the items I wish for......
meet me at mikes wallet
so beautiful and full of whimsy.....and money which I will add later.

material from this etsy store

I'm dreaming of this buttercup yellow Kenwood Patissier Mix-eeerrrrr. (in my best Bing Cosby singing voice)

Dani recommended this book to me which sounds very lovely.

and last night while watching Nigella on food network, I said to Ben "we don't own one Nigella book". I think this one will be the best and would go lovely with my kitchen machine....hint hint.

i love yellow

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quilt-a-long week 5: the end!

Thank you so much for the lovely comments last week. I read every single comment and you are all so special. Thank you.

Welcome to the last week of how to make a quilt. This last lesson is all about binding.

Let's begin!

This is bias binding.
This is the back of the bias binding. Can you see the two folds and how one fold is slightly larger than the other? When you start your bias binding, you want to work with your smaller fold first.

You are going to sew in the fold (the one closest to the edge of the material). Place your bias binding with the flaps facing up and have a slight indent (the bias binding is in a little from the edge of the material).

Sew in the fold.

Flip your binding over and this is how it looks in the back.

Now turn it back to the side you just sewed on and sew on top of your binding. This is why the small fold is on this side. You sew through it, and when you turn over it would've caught the larger fold on the back. Very clever!

See - back fold......

Front fold.

You have successfully attached bias binding.

To do the corners, you can follow the steps below or you can sew binding on two of your longest sides, then when you sew the two other sides the bias binding will enclose the edge of the other binding. On your two "fancy" sides (the sides that will enclose the other binding) don't forget to fold under your raw edges to give your binding a neat look.

You can also use ribbon for bias binding.

To use your backing material for top binding you follow these steps.

When you are looking at your quilt, patch side facing you, you should see 3 outlines - the patch material, the batting and the backing material. Trim your patch side smaller so that you see 3 distinct outlines.

Fold your backing once and iron.

Then fold over onto your patch side, iron and pin.

You will want to pin so that your corners are hanging out.

You can slip stitch by hand if you do not want to see your stitches. I like to machine my binding because I like the look. It is all personal taste.

Machine in from the corners, but not too close, and sew.

The back look.

This following step is called a mitered corner. Basically it is the prettiest way to join the edges of material that come together at right angles.

You will want to unfold the corner so it is at a pointed tip, and then you will fold the point over into the middle so that the edges are parallel to the hemlines.

See my little red arrow and just to the left and right the points are starting to take shape? If you are all thumbs, practice on a small piece of material first.

Keep poking and prodding until you get a nice pointed finish like this....

and push a safety pin through it. Continue with the other corners.

You will want to take a needle and thread or your machine and either hem stitch, slip stitch or machine your corner.

Once you have done your corners, you are finished!! You did it!!

If you are giving your quilt away, you could embroidery a piece of material with your name and date and who the quilt is for and blanket stitch or slip stitch your label to your quilt.

If it is just for you, wash it, put it in the dryer and pull it out and hug tightly. Now go and sit down and put on your favourite movie and cuddle up with it.

Proud of you.

You made a pillow.

You made a quilt.

Just remember to not be hard on yourself if your quilt is wonky, lumpy, askew or has holes. You made it and it's beautiful.

There is also not a right way or a wrong way to make a quilt. It is all personal taste and you will find yourself experimenting the more quilts that you make. I still love my very first quilt even though it is all over the place.

If you would like to make a cute softie, meet back here next Monday.