Astronomical

A while back, I showed you fabric drying on the washing line and said it was destined for a particular project. Well, it's now time to reveal all.

Late last year, Clare, a colleague at work, forwarded a news release from NASA, the US space agency with the headline 'NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg invites quilters to contribute a star block'. Karen was on board the International Space Station and spent her limited spare time sewing. The invitation was to contribute a block to add to Karen's and they would all be combined to create quilts to be displayed at the International Quilt Festival in Houston this November.

In this video she explains the difficulties of sewing in space and sets the challenge.

How could I resist? Not only is this the only chance I'll ever have to exhibit something at IQF but it had that amazing link to the ISS. I'm regularly to be found in the garden watching it pass through the sky and find it incredible that I'm seeing something orbiting the earth thousands of miles away. There's a Spot the Station tool on the NASA web site where you can find out when it will be visible in your part of the world. It's really easy to spot - a bright white light moving quickly through the night sky.

And so, onto my block. I first saw the design in this post on Red Pepper Quilts. However, it was actually designed by Carol Doak and appears in her book Simply Sensational 9-Patch Stars. There are 50 blocks in the book, each representing an American State: this one is New Mexico.

It's foundation-pieced and I drafted the block to be sure it fitted the 9" size requirement.

The hardest part was deciding on the background fabric as nothing seemed quite right. Eventually I settled on the reverse of a grey spot. Here you can see the 'right' side. I learned the trick of using the reverse from a speaker at a quilt event who said it was a way of having 2 fabrics for the price of 1!

And this is my finished contribution to the challenge! What I'd really like to do is make a mini-quilt using the same block as a memento of taking part. However, knowing my time commitments and long list of other projects, if I don't get around to it, at least I'll have this post.

The block is going on its way this week. If you'd like to take part, all the details and requirements can be found here. You'll need to be quick though as all blocks have to be submitted by 1 August 2014. Otherwise, why not try to spot the Space Station as it passes over and imagine an astronaut with needle and thread in hand!

Fair skies and happy quilting! x

PS Something else astronomical - my last post was my 200th and I completely missed it!

Mini-quilt

At last it's time to reveal my latest quilting project! Regular readers will know that I'm a member of a quilting group and, way back in January, we were issued with our 2013 challenge: to make a miniature quilt.

The challenge was inspired by this quilt by Leominster Quilters which one of our group had seen at a show (apologies for the awful photo of a photo). Like them we were each asked to make a mini-quilt  which would then be attached to a background to make a bigger quilt.

The only rule was that the quilt couldn't be more than 12 inches square. I knew almost immediately what I was going to make as I'd bought the book Easy paper-pieced miniatures by Carol Doak a few years ago and had never got around to using any of the patterns. After a browse through all the gorgeous designs I settled on 'Scrap Stars'...and then did absolutely nothing until the end of September! Clearly I work better with a pending deadline as it had to be submitted at our meeting last week.

If I'd been sensible, I'd have chosen a less fiddly pattern with fewer pieces. But who wants to be sensible when you can play with lots of brightly coloured bits of fabric :)

The only change I made from the original pattern was to adapt the border to make it fit the dimension requirements of the challenge.

It was love all the way until it came to putting it together and then I had a serious grump. Don't look too hard at the seams as the piecing is appalling. If I was to make a miniature again, I think I'd use a fabric foundation as the feed dogs on the sewing machine couldn't grip the paper very well, so it slid around and pulled the seams out of alignment. Frustratingly, I'd sewn with a really small stitch too to make it easier to rip off the paper foundation, so it was a real pain to unpick. In the end I just thought 'oh, sod it' and carried on. I'm getting much better at fighting my perfectionist tendencies and it's not as if I'm trying to craft some prize-winning masterpiece here!

The quilting is very simple 'in the ditch'. I did use spray glue for the first time to hold the layers together and was really pleased with how it worked. I know, I know, everyone has been using spray glue for years but I've always favoured the good old-fashioned tacking method. Part of the reason being that you need a big table and plenty of space to use glue on a full-size quilt so that you can smooth out all the layers and that's never been an option. I'm going to use it for my next quilt though as I'm doing the quilt-as-you-go method and the individual components should be small enough for the space I have.

Appalling piecing aside, I'm really pleased with how my mini-quilt turned out and enjoyed the whole process of making it.

At our November meeting last week it was finally time for us to reveal all and we excitedly unveiled our contributions to lots of oohs and aahs.

My favourite was this absolute stunner by Pam. My goodness but we have some really talented women in our group!

All of the quilts have now been taken away to be sewn to the background and the plan is to enter it in the Harrogate quilt show next year. It was so exciting to see our last group contribution there and I can't wait to see this one hanging at the show too! x

Photo scavenger hunt: April

It's obviously the month for challenges as this is my second in as many weeks. This time I'm joining in with the Photo Scavenger Hunt organised by Greenthumb at Made with Love. The idea is that every month you're given a list of 12 words and have to use a photograph (new or old) to illustrate the word.

Of everything about blogging, it's surprised me how much I've enjoyed the photography element. Well, maybe except the bit where you take 30 almost identical photos of a piece of cake and then agonise over which to choose! Anyway, here's my entry.

Pink : My gorgeous Kipling bag.

Six : a size too small for me!

Your town/city : Winter Hill. A bit of a cheat this one as Winter Hill isn't in my town. However, I've lived within view of it most of my life and, wherever you go in my town, you catch sight of it.

Sport : Ten pin bowling.

Night light : A tealight holder.

Collection : Fridge magnets from our travels.

Big : Dolly, the British Giant rabbit.

Dinner : At Jamie's Italian in Liverpool. Chicken liver tagliatelle with pancetta, chilli, vin santo and pecorino.

Texture : Pineapple

Curl : An easy one this as my head is covered in them.

Take Off : Rocket on a fairground ride.

Plastic : Laundry basket.

If you'd like to see the other entries or the list of words for next month's challenge, you can see them here. x

Galatopita : Bake and Taste Greek

Regular readers of this blog will know that I love to bake. So, when I came across the Bake and Taste Greek event organised by the lovely Rose Fern of Ferns at the Balcony, I had to join in.

What really attracted me was the Greek angle. My Dad is a real Greek-ophile. Ever since he went on holiday to Kos several years ago, he has been teaching himself Greek using cassettes and CDs and by listening to Greek radio stations. He and Mum have Greek salad at least once a week and Mum is always trying different recipes - lamb with orzo is the current favourite. How could I resist this challenge?

But which recipe to choose? Rose gave us 6 options from recipes she has posted: 4 sweet and 2 savoury. Usually, you would expect me to go for one of the cake recipes and I was sorely tempted by the Pumpkin cake with the lemon frosting drizzling down the sides - yum, yum! However, in the end the choice was quite easy as galatopita includes semolina and I happened to already have some in the cupboard.

Semolina? Some of you will already be thinking of semolina pudding and school dinners. But fear not! Galatopita tastes nothing like those. The translation is milk pie but it's more like a firm baked custard.

The measurements for the recipe are given in cups. Looking at the photos on Rose's blog, the nearest equivalent to the glass she used seemed to be a sundae glass. When I measured the sugar and semolina on the scales they weighed in at 200g each which seemed about right for the proportions.

At the end of her recipe, Rose gives some ideas for varying the flavour of the galatopita. I wanted to try the traditional version but I also happened to have some coconut milk left from a curry the night before and thought it might be an interesting variation. So, I divided the recipe in half and made two versions.

Version 1: traditional. For this I stuck close to the original recipe but added 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract to the milk. And, on a last minute impulse, I swapped the sprinkling of cinnamon for freshly grated nutmeg. To serve: fresh baby figs and a drizzle of Greek honey.

Version 2: with a twist. For this, I substituted 200ml of the milk with 200ml of coconut milk. Otherwise, the recipe was unchanged. To serve: a simple homemade blueberry compote (250g blueberries, 2tbsp caster sugar, zest of one lemon. Heat gently until the blueberries burst. It's a bit runny here but it does thicken if you leave it overnight).

Both versions were absolutely delicious and you could definitely taste the coconut in the second. Chickpea had a slice of each and came back for more. And my Dad? Well, how could he not like this taste of Greece?  In his words: "Mas aresi para poli. Ine nostimotatos!"*

To finish, a totally gratuitous photo of the crystal blue sea at Zakynthos, taken on holiday about 10 years ago.

If you'd like to join in the Bake and Taste Greek event, there's still time as the closing date is 25 April. Or just pop over to Rose's blog and admire the gorgeous part of the world she lives in. Wait until you see the view of the sea that she has every day! x

*For those non-Greek speakers like me, Dad assures me it says "We like it very much. It's delicious!"

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Thank you for all your get well messages. To be honest I'm not feeling much better but I don't want to  waste my first week off in months and am ploughing on with my plans anyway!