knitting + rainy days

They just go together don't they! miss keira is at pre-school, I squeezed in some shopping this morning for warm clothes and while the floors need to be washed I'm sitting knitting this little hat. And uh-oh can you see my little whoopsie...I only discovered it after binding off... a wrong stitch but I'll put it on the side and hope no one notices!


I also picked up this months Australian Womens Weekly as it has a great quilt pattern by this lady...not to mention yummy winter recipes including fish pie and souffle! yay for comfort food! Tomorrow I'm going to share with you my quick and healthy vegetarian lasagne which is the ultimate comfort food in this house!

first night fun!

well tonight the craft room had its first meeting


you would have thought we'd all known each other forever with the level of chatting and laughing going on! Rachel worked on lovely softies, Fran finished a gorgeous crochet scarf and Belinda worked on sweet hexagons while I helped Cass, Sophie, Fiona and Kelly learn crochet...... Cass was probably my most testing student (just kidding!!!!) while Sophie and Fiona were my quiet achievers who along with Kelly (and her to die for cookies) got started with a granny square and hopefully will continue their good work! And poor Amelia just made it in time to say hi and bye and we hope to see more of you next time!!!!! BIanca and Ingrid we missed you and hope to see you soon.


Thank you for coming ladies, I had lots of fun and before I could have a second cup of tea it was time to pack up and say goodbye. If you want to be part of the fun once a month on Wednesday or on our Sunday craft days just drop me an email (retromummy@gmail.com)!!!!

luxury brownies

recession...what recession! I think baking brownies with good quality chocolate is recession friendly so when I saw that my favourite chocolate was on special I knew I had to make my very famous brownies...here is the recipe again so that I can put it in my project list over on the right!


175g dark chocolate (I used 100g maya and 75g dark for jaffa flavour brownies)
125g butter
3/4 sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup self raising flour

melt butter and chocolate, place into bowl and mix in sugar, eggs and then sifted flour. Pour into lined square cake tin and bake in 190 degree oven for 25 minutes. the top should feel firm and the edges slightly crispy and a skewer put in the middle should come out clean. Cool in tin (if you can wait that long) and slice and enjoy! I take no responsibility for the number of brownies you consume...


if you are on a budget use woolworths select brand dark cooking chocolate. Woollies did a great no name dark cooking choocolate in a big 375g block that was rich and great but this year they have gone and changed the recipe and the new stuff tastes like nothing, is soft and ended up in my bin!!!! steer clear.......

free motion quilting or how to make a princess pillow!

I've been wanting to try free motion quilting for a while but was always too nervous and knew I wanted my new machine first. Since I have no more excuses, I got out my instruction manual, lowered the feed dogs, changed the foot to an open toe foot and off I went


I learnt along the way not to pull the fabric but move it with your hands slowly and gently. I went a little bit crazy in bits racing off to another area of the fabric causing my stitches to be huge ....but it was a practice run so thats ok!


So I cut a square of fabric and pinned it to some batting and off I went. When I was done I trimmed it to a neat square with my rotary cutter, got some cute backing fabric and turned it into a cushion or 'princess pillow' as keira likes to call it. To make a simple cushion back, I cut the fabric to the length of the cushion front but made it 1.5 times as wide as the cushion front. Cut the backing into two pieces vertically, fold back and press those edges you've just cut about 2 inches to the wrong side of the fabric. Zig zag stitch the folds in place about 1 inch in then pin the backs to the cushion front so that the zigzagged edges are placed over each other with their right sides facing the right side of the cushion front. Sew around the entire cushion, trim corners and turn out. Voila you have a cushion with no zips, buttons or velco but hides your cushion!


miss keira loves her new 'princess pillow', I got to practice free motion quilting and I think 2 more pilows for the twins are due and then I'll be ready to hit the real thing....a quilt!

godmother duties

after spending yesterday cooking, cleaning and making a quick quilt label (remember this quilt?)


we were all up early for my little niece (and now god daughter's) baptism at 9am this morning.....isn't she a cutie? (excuse the chaos 3 babies created in the background)


we hosted morning tea afterwards and there was plenty of food (these lemon cupcakes made by my sister were delicious)


there was lots of family (here are the twins in their matchy matchy outfits with their great-nana shirley)


my pretty girl wore her new dress beautifully (and for those who asked the fabric is from Heather Bailey's Pop Garden range purchased from her online store)


and we tried to get a quick family portrait


but now its time to put our feet up and have a rest!

and keira loves it!

miss keira came home from pre-school, gasped, covered her mouth in shock and then told me it was so beautiful! I had to remind myself she's still 2 after that award winning performance!


here she is trying to hide from me (yes, behind a glass door) and model the dress.....never standing still


she loves it...I'm really hoping that she will wear a white long sleeve top under it on sunday! fingers crossed

very simple, very pretty

sometimes fabric is so pretty that you don't need to do much to it. I think this has to be one of the prettiest fabrics ever and today I whipped this up....


simple bias binding ties and my machine whizzed through it all giving a much neater finish than my old machine ever would what with trimming and speed control to keep me in check. I can't wait till little miss keira comes home from pre-school to find a new dress!


I'd made this dress before and its a real favourite!

here she is....

I've spent the past few years chugging along on a very old janome dreaming of something nicer! its been trusty but was old, brown, 25 years old and getting tired. And I work hard in this house of ours and decided it was about time I treated myself to a new machine....so here she is...


isn't she pretty? she does everything for me like thread a needle, cut my threads, quilts, has a knee lift, extension table, totally computerised and from the moment I turned her on I knew I had come into the 21st century...


to quote retro daddy 'if you sell your machines you can get a new one' and let me tell you I wasted no time in buying this. Service and shipping was fast from this lovely store and while its too far from home for a free lesson I had lots of fun yesterday testing her out! Ok well it only took 30 minutes to thread a bobbin and get started but I love her! look she's telling me what she's doing...good girl!


you'll be seeing some more of her and today she's whipping up a quick dress for a family function on sunday! Thankfully retro daddy hasn't noticed her slip into the house and onto my sewing table...mind you I won't be going anywhere near the shops and there is no fabric, yarn or books coming my way this month so she will be paid off!


ps if you need to do some clearing out ebay is just fabulous...I have a grand total of 27 people watching my machines so yay ebay! 'use it or lose it' I say and buy something nice for yourself instead of just having stuff just sit around!!!!

sweet potato and feta frittata

In this house meals need to be quick, easy, healthy and meat free.....and since I'm the one who does all the cooking its up to me to deliver. One of our absolute favourites is frittata, served with garlic bread (ok not so healthy but yummy and always in my freezer) and a salad.


Sweet potato and feta frittata
8 eggs
1 sweet potato, peeled, cubed and steamed
1 cup spinach leaves
1 packet low fat feta, chopped (our favourite is danish as its soft and melts)
4 cheese slices (not the wrapped in plastic kind or 1 cup grated cheese)
1/2 red onion (sliced)


whisk eggs and add sweet potato, feta and spinach. Season with pepper then pour into lined square cake tin. Top with red onion then cheese and bake in 200 degree oven for 20 minutes. This can be on the table in 30 minutes from the time you take the ingredients out of the fridge. And its got calcium, protein, vegetables and served with the bread provides carbohydrates...perfect meal for everyone!!! I love it cold the next day too.

still rippling

well, here is my progress on the ripple blanket...I take it to bed each night with good intentions, but usually get too tired after a few rows or have to turn off the lights to get miss keira to fall asleep (a little miss who doesn't like going to her own bed)


I'm loving it and had a few nice ladies on ravelry sell me some more of the green from their stash as my spotlight was all out and I seriously underestimated how much yarn this blanket would gobble up.


I hope to finish it soon so I can start something new ......I think miss tillie has claimed it for herself! If you want to ripple and find patterns go here

pleated skirt

I picked up this cord from Spotlight for about $15 a metre last week because it looked so european and not like I bought it from spotlight. This morning was raining and pouring so I pulled out my pattern mags and whipped this up....


The pattern is from Ottobre 4/2007 and took about an hour to make which keeps everyone in the house happy....I just need to press the pleats but I'm really happy with how it turned out EXCEPT I tried to follow their waistband instructions and really should have stuck to my own tried and true method.


but all in all a success...did my model stand still???? no, better luck next time!

the party shrug

I've spent the past 24 hours knitting up a storm making this little shrug for keira...I also made a serious dent in the chocolate left over from easter at the same time (knitting, coffee, chocolate = a nice way to spend the day except the background music was crying babies!)


but trying to get my little miss to model sweetly....


well I tried and tried


and tried some more


and then I gave up and decided to use what photos I had.


The sweet little shrug is from Debbie Bliss Essential Kids and only required 100g yarn (Ella Rae classic), however I made a size 2/3 and next time will do the next size up with a full sleeve.

leaving home

anyone would think the food was bad or that they never leave the house


because these two just want to make a break for it and leave home at every opportunity.


I hope they decide to stay because they're just too cute!

Far Far Away fabric arrived.....

Before I even had time to feel guilty about this purchase Keira told me she wanted a princess pillow and blanket for her birthday! Phew, thats a relief because this fabric isn't cheap but please....princesses, frogs and flowers....in gorgeous shades of pinks and apricot has my name all over it (oops I mean keira's!!!). I only got 2 1/2 yards because shipping was based on $ value rather than weight and one more little bit was going to double my shipping charge but it was so worth it!


So now I have to think about what quilt design I'm going to use .....the princess fabric has been a sell out but stores are due to be restocked in May. If you want to hunt it down search superbuzzy, sew mama sew and etsy....

eating out with children

I remember a time (pre-children) when we hardly ate lunch at home on a weekend because we loved to go out shopping for ourselves (ok I enjoyed the shopping) and eating a nice lunch out.....these days we don't get out for a meal as much as we'd like too but when we do it follows the same format. It usually starts out well....you order straight away and keep your little miss entertained until the food arrives


after the plates are cleared you might get a bit of time with some happy play


there is always something to play with...sugar sachets, salt and pepper shakers, chopsticks


and then before you can say lets get the bill it all descends into a big mess and keira usually can't sit still and is ready to go home...here she is today reminding the chopsticks who's the boss and signalling that its time to go home.

easter wrap up

Everyone was up early this morning discovering what the easter bunny had left


including some cuties for my own little cuties


but being up early doesn't guarantee you will be early to church so we snuck in very late before joining the rest of Sydney at the Easter Show. The farmyard nursery was our favourite


where we made friends with the animals


then there were scones with jam and cream to enjoy at the CWA cafe followed by a walk around the knitting and quilts...this made me realise I need to knit for my own babies (not in aqua of course)


and here is my favourite quilt.....I just love her choice of fabrics


and we finished the day with showbags, chinese takeaway and a night on the couch with chocolate. A pretty good way to spend the day with our own little family and forget yesterday!