Herbs

I often tell people I have black thumbs and they laugh and tell me about how they have trouble with plants too. So I have to explain that I'm actually not indulging in my usual hyperbole (very much); not only have I managed, over the past fifteen years or so, to kill off assorted African violets, roses and sweet little perennials. I have managed to kill off an heretofore thriving peppermint plant. Those things don't go down easy. I once killed a cactus. To date, my thumbs have been the gardener's equivalent of a tactical nuclear strike.

So it's with some trepidation and excitement that I bought these three lovely herbs today. When we lived in a house (by which I mean "when we three humans who existed prior to the Tiny Tyrant's arrival into the world shared space with the small army of cockroaches that generations of Uni students had encouraged to flourish in the foundations of our rental") we managed to keep an herb garden of sorts going. My efforts amounted to transferring the potted plant into a flowerbed and conducting a program of benign neglect until pregnancy made even perfunctory attempts at weed-culling rather difficult, and all was left to grow as it willed.
Now that we're in a townhouse though, I'm going to have to remember to regularly water and pick back my rosemary, mint and basil. Fingers crossed?

Matching Kitchen Queen Strawberry set

I bought a teatowel set a little while ago - I liked the colours, and thought about decorating them and gifting them to people.


So when I heard that one of my friends, who is very handy in the kitchen, turned out to be having a rough week (or two), I thought it would be a good time to make good on that idea - and whilst I was at it, I'd make her an apron, to match.
Red was my basic inspiration - to warm up this cold winter weather! My partner helped me pick out the other fabrics - which was mainly about choosing which of the fabulous quilting cottons I have hoarded would be best for this project. We decided on the dramatic strawberries on black. Which naturally lead to my doing a giant strawberry applique/embroidery on the apron.


As it turned out, I ended up bullying him into not only helping choose fabric, but also decorating the teatowel, as I decided I wanted to concentrate on doing the apron. I'd never done one before, and was using one of mine as a base, with calico for the inner lining. It's not a hard project, but I was hoping to get the whole thing done in a night or two at most. Besides, the family that crafts together is happy together. Er, aren't they?

I'm really proud of his efforts on the teatowel. He's got a good eye for design and colour (though he sometimes confuses his taste and mine. The seventies are SO not my decade!). The only input I had was minor technical help with threading the sewing machine, checking the tension when he was worried something was amiss, and a tiny bit of help with winding a bobbin (Yes! He did that, too! He ran out halfway through, so he had to). Considering it was the second project he's done (and the first was just a hem), I'm very proud of his craftiness.


For myself, I got to practice a little more of my hand embroidery skills; the top of the strawberry applique is a chainstitch - one of the four I know. And I really enjoyed thinking very technically about the placement of straps, and reinforcing, and shape - although I used an apron of mine as a basic for the pattern it was the jumping-off point and the final piece is an entirely different creature (apart from the fact they're both basically aprons).

I really feel like I can trace the evolution of my sewing skills, this year. I can see a real difference in the quality of what I'm producing, and I'm becoming more confident with things like pleating and lining.

Anyway, I hope my friend gets a lovely surprise when she finds it in her mailbox, and that she enjoys swanning about her kitchen feeling Strawberry-tastic!

Happy Mother's Day!

This is my first Mother's Day ever. My baby boy just squeaked by the date, last year.
So what goodies did I receive for this special day? I got a nasty cold. That's pretty much it.

My Mum will be receiving mail with something OTHER than cold germs though (lucky thing).

Last time I was visiting, I noticed her using a very faded Coca-Cola pot-holder for her hot things. Since being ill has left me somewhat short on time, I wanted a fairly quick and easy project I could whip up for her, and this was perfect. The inside stuffing is a couple of layers of old towels - my MiL gave me a whole bag of them a year ago, and I am slowly making my way through them!
The outside is two different pieces of fabric, scraps from some of the major projects I've been working on lately (more on those in a few weeks). I found the wooden spoon with colander holes for noodles at the local ALDI (Mum loves making pasta dishes), and we're done.