while she sleeps

Some random photos taken during my granddaughter's nap time.

Watching: Finding Vivian Maier

Channelling Jane

I listened to Jane Brocket who advises buying quilt fabric whenever you see any that you really love rather than waiting to buy it when you have a particular project in mind. The yellow nursery fabric with bunnies and geese and kittens is from Spotlight. Its a lovely custard yellow and I bought 2 metres I loved it so much. I might use it as a backing. I'm not thinking about the next quilt but having nice fabric on hand does make it tempting to contemplate.

I found the two grey fabrics at a market in Wellington. You can also get these fabrics here. I especially like the dog fabric - chasing a red ball with a blue mouse and trails of little paw prints everywhere. Perfect.

And speaking of dogs ... meet the "debonair dachshund". He is from an old knitting book Double knitting toys - one of the Weldons Practical Knitting series. I'd guess it's from the 1950s. The book has patterns for nine toys : lamb, teddy, doll, ball, golly, dachshund, rabbit, clown and elephant. But I thought the dog was the cutest although the more I look at him the odder he seems. But his face really is cute and I love that he's described as having "an engaging air that appeals to young and old." Very important.

Baking and sewing

After a brilliant start to summer the rain has settled in so what better time is there to bake? This is my mother-in-law's variation on a coconut chocolate slice. It's one of those very simple melt the butter and add the dry ingredients recipes. It was one of her morning tea staples back in the day when she baked for the shearing gang when they worked on the family farm. It has become a family favourite and my mother-in-law called it Ross's Special after one of the shearers who loved it so much.
Here's the recipe so you might get to love it too.
125 gms of butter
1/2 cup of sugar
1 cup of flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 crushed Weet Bix
2 tbsp cocoa
1/2 tsp vanilla
Mix dry ingredients together. Melt the butter, add vanilla and stir into the dry ingredients with a fork. The mixture is fairly dry. Tip into a tin* lined with baking paper and press the mixture down to fit the pan. Bake at 180 C (350 F) for about 15 mins. Ice with chocolate icing while it's still hot. Leave to cool before cutting into bars or squares.
*I use a square tin 19cm x 19cm.



Last week - when it was sunny - I finished these napkins. I'm especially proud of the mitred corners.