October 2014 - Newsletter

Wholly Quilts October 2014

G'day! Spring seems to be the time of year for teaching - here there and everywhere. A class in Coromandel had a second day of finishing off their Start to the Art. Art quilts are so amazingly individual almost anything goes. The gals at my own club, Patchwork Unlimited allowed their quilting to take Wings and two days in Tauranga saw a class doing my Snap Happy Scrappy (quick cuts to traditional blocks) and the old favourite Ooey Gooey Hearts which always gets lovely results in an easy day of quilty camaraderie. As always catching up to old familiar faces makes teaching great fun. Early warning! The picnic day has to be a week earlier because of symposium. So pencil in January 10 for the big day out. The challenge this year is totally self-serving (for me) - I need hot water bottle covers for the retreaters during winter. So make a cover, be in to win the best of show prize and receive a fat quarter as a thank you! Read all about It is a new chapter in my newsletter. I will regularly review a book that might titivate your quilting knowledge. Jean Wells, in her Journey to Inspired Art Quilting, proves to be soul mate of mine when it comes to converting ideas intuitively to fabric. I love her work and her inspired teaching.  If you have a quilter in your life this would make a great gift but the Book Depository also have a wishlist feature which is great to share with the friends and family so they know what to get you for Christmas :) Natter Later! By the way, if you want to bring a group of friends for a relaxing weekend available weekends are filling fast so get in touch. Pumpkin Patch The Pumpkin Patch is so pretty right now - all the fruit trees are budding and blossoming. The flowers on the quince show great promise of another bumper crop as do the plums, peaches, cherries and olives (this year I have a companion tree to the olive as it needs a pollinator, so hopefully there will finally be fruit). Did you know that the flower of the fig is actually enclosed in the fruit? There are lots of them there too. My garlic is fattening up and so it should (I told you about the crop that was planting on the shortest day last year and did nothing). To compensate I have two crops this year. Seeds have been planted and they too are doing their thing so the vege patch should be spectacular come summer. After talking so kindly about the birds last month - now they are nesting right above my car and won't be moved. Mm! plotting now!  Any suggestions for a peaceful disruption to their nesting there would be appreciated. Chopping Block The Chopping Board went crazy and a little bit orange this month. I made a Crazy Cake (print recipe) that has no eggs, no milk or butter and uses no mixing bowl. Preheat oven to 170deg C Mix 1½ cups flour (all-purpose), 3 tbsp. cocoa, 1 cup sugar, 1 tsp baking soda, ½ tsp  salt in a greased 8 inch baking pan and make three depressions (2 small and one larger). Pour 1 tsp white vinegar and 1 tsp pure vanilla extract in the smaller ones and 5 tbsp vegetable oil in the larger. Pour 1 cup water over the top and mix till smooth Bake on middle rack of oven for 35 minutes.  Check with toothpick to make sure it comes out clean.  Cool.  I  iced with a cocoa, icing sugar and orange juice mix and scattered some crystallised orange peel over. So-oo goo-ood! And simple.

Lovely Feedback Is A Wonderful Thing

I love getting feedback like this.

Sent: Thursday, 2 October 2014 3:24 p.m.
To: patchnat@nataliemurdoch.co.nz
Subject: Shelley Gray - re ooey gooey hearts.

Thanks Natalie for a wonderfully relaxed class. I really enjoyed it and even though it put me outside of my comfort zone I really enjoyed my day. I was so glad of the already cut packs and the wonderful choice of colour.
I appreciate your calm helpful manner , and going to your class with its relaxed friendly atmosphere set me back on an even keel, from whence I had strayed. So all in all it was great to get to do something that I have wanted to do for a long time. All I have to do now is find the time to finish it. I was off to Yoko Saito’s class in Auckland so had to go home and organize fabric for that otherwise I think I would have set my machine up that night and carried on.
Hopefully will get to do some on the weekend.
Thanks for a lovey newsletter and the recipe. Will give it a try, but if my hips grow then I might not be talking to you for awhile.
Cheers and thanks once again. You really are a good tutor. Love the way you help everyone to keep up and achieve good results.

Actually any feedback is great so if you have been to a class of mine or stayed in retreat with me then I would love your comments.

(links added for context and your browsing pleasure)

My Crimplene Family - Home At Last

My now-American sister has been visiting and she returned the doll family to me that I made for her when she left New Zealand 35-ish years ago. How clever was I then - father wore a crimplene suit, mother had her hair in rollers, daughter had a maths book in her school bag (with not very flattering marks) and the two boys sucked their thumbs and all were only nine inches tall with detailed clothing, hair etc.  Now they have come home :) Seems my love of fabric and sewing goes back a lot further than I thought.

Autumn Retreaters

I have just had an amazing weekend with a group of retreaters from Rotorua and points south. Eight gals arrived with a plethora of colourful projects and went home with many completed or at least on the way.

It is their enthusiasm that is so inspiring and shows in the comments they made on the weekend:

- A wonderful weekend, filled with great creativity, fabulous friends, amazing food and the best camp mother in town! So good for the soul! Thanks Natalie

- A whole lot of sewing, a whole lot of food and a whole load of fun and laughter. See you next year for more.

- Such fun! Such fun! To sew, laugh, eat fabulous food, enjoy great friends. What more could you ever want ... many thanks

- Fantastic weekend. A huge learning experience for me. I can't wait to come back for more ...

- Sewing for the Soul at Natalie's Thank you ... you are a continuous inspiration

- Fabulous time - good friends, great host, lots of fun. Natalie, I am sure you will learn to love my quilt!

The weekend menu included: Pea and Ham soup with herb bread and a fresh crusty fruit loaf for supper. Saturday's lunch: cold chicken with warm pumpkin salad (topped with caramelised pumpkin seeds), pasta salad and green herby salad from the garden and for dinner a slow cooked beef casserole. That was served with braised red cabbage, stir-fried garden greens and horseradish potato mash. For dessert we had feijoa and raspberry crumble with custard and cream.

May 2014 Newsletter

G'day
How many of us turn to our quilting in times of stress? Way back I began my first quilt the day after my husband left me and have had comfort from quilting ever since.

My extended family are waging a battle against cancer right now. My lovely nephew has been an officer in the army for over 20 years and now his private war is on. It amazes me how members of the family deal with this - all of us open our arms wide and send love to him and his little family in different ways. It is a stressful time. A time when only the medicos can offer immediate help but a time when the family can be there in spirit.

You all know by now that my daughter has come to live with me, well not for some days now. She is on a mission first to my sister and then onto Matt's family next week. I think she has the easiest job cos she actively helping. All I can do is turn back to my quilting.

I have finished three quilts in the past weeks and have this next project set out to ponder. I issued a 'paint chart' challenge to club members and as you can see my chart is lime green and I have all the makings but not much inspiration yet. 'Something small' I told everyone so something small it shall be - will show it off next month and yes you may well ask, what I am going to do with the feathers. 

Pumpkin Patch

The Pumpkin Patch is shrugging on its autumn glory though I think the ripening oranges and lemons will add more colour than the leaves. The slow start of winter is confuddling all the plants with new growth and rose buds in abundance.

This morning I made a large batch of muesli using produce from last year's autumn garden - dried figs, feijoas and persimmons. How gratifying is that? Except now I have to pick those same crops and dehydrate them all over again. That's what gardening is all about. 

Chopping Block

The Chopping Block is just hankering after ripe persimmons (and they are only days away) so I can make my favourite ice cream - persimmon and passionfruit.

According to Gillian Painter's Home Orchard Cookery book you need two cups of persimmon pulp and blend in one cup sugar and juice of quarter lemon or grapefruit (here's where I go off and add the pulp from 2 or 3 passionfruit instead).
Stir this through a cup of whipped cream and freeze 2-3 hours.

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Feijoa Time

Today was to be a concerted effort to get some of the feijoas off my bench. I had a Monday bucket (not quite full) and a Tuesday bucket (overflowing) so I set to work

I made Feijoa and Apricot jam; I made Feijoas and Prune Indian relish; I made Feijoa and Raspberry scones and finally I made a Feijoa and Walnut cake. Now I only have to work out what to do with the remaining half a Monday bucket. Jared has already put his dibs on the Tuesday bucket.

See TVNZ for some of the recipes!

April 2014

G'day! Here's a wee peak at my latest PhD* with at least a start made on the quilting. I finish my annual camp catering gig this week and so hope to be back in front of my sewing machine soon enough to get some of 'those quilting ideas' out of my head and down on fabric. Wot I would really like to do is make a award winning quilt just for my own satisfaction - maybe that kaleidoscope one I've been planning. First I must finish this one off for the 'growth' challenge. A couple of weeks ago I flew to Wellington (in the face of a cyclone) to offer my help to the national association. I make no claims to be able to fix anything but I think Aotearoa Quilters needs to find a new direction and place in the quilting world. We all avidly guard our own little corner, be it club or guild, often to the detriment of our craft. An old-fashioned quilting bee on a national scale is what we should strive for - a place to go for information, somewhere to share and show, friendships to foster and lessons to learn. I would love your input into this debate - please contact me. Changes to the constitution have been mooted that could allow the association to take its place as a governing body rather than continuing the perception of an exclusive club that has a show or challenge each year for competitive quilters and ignoring all others. By the way, if you want to bring a group of friends for a relaxing weekend, the second half of the year still has some vacancies so get in touch.  Natter Later! * projects half done

Pumpkin Patch The Pumpkin Patch is also largely a PhD* with the garden tween seasons. I have huge crops of feijoas, persimmons, oranges, lemons and limes just hanging around looking very green. The birds have been given free-range on the remaining figs and grapes though before they got into the figs I 'stored' for winter by drying, making a tasty paste/pate and an equally tasty chutney. The last days of summer are reflected in what remains as you can see of my salad garden above. At this time of the year the herbs have either bolted to seed or died off though there is still enough green bits for a herby salad.  Having an extra pair o hands (Nina) in the garden makes a huge difference when it comes to keeping on top of the weeds cos they are seemingly the only growing things that like a drought. And then there are the empty beds waiting seeds or green compost.

Chopping Block The Chopping Block recipes this month are straight out of the garden. Poor Man's Caviar (aka Baba Ganoush) and Poor Man's Olives (aka Pickled Grapes). I picked four medium egg plant from the garden; halved and rubbed with garlic, salt and oil and roasted in a fairly high oven (200 deg C) until soft and juicy. I then scooped them out and into a food processor with lotsa black pepper, a 'slug' of olive oil, juice of a large lemon, 1tbsp tahini paste more salt and garlic to taste and 1tsp allspice. Blitz. The 'olives' were made from 2 cups of grapes de-stemmed and packed into a sterilised jar. Pour 1 small cup white wine vinegar, 1tbsp kosher salt, 1tsp sugar, 1 lge clove garlic, the leaves from a small sprig of rosemary and a pinch of chilli flakes into a pan and slowly bring to a simmer. Pour over grapes and let cool; then seal and refrigerate 1 hour before serving. Keeps up to 2 weeks.

March 2014

Yeah - those triangles are now quilted and nearly bound. It is quite strange but I discovered in the final corner of the nigh on 6000 triangles, one pair had been sewn the wrong way around. Now I could have undone about five seams and a couple of rows of quilting to change them but ... isn't is funny how proudly we are to show off our work but how quickly we are to point out the mistakes. It is for me to know and you to find. While planning my next project and working on my teaching CV I thought back to some quilts that gave me so much pleasure in the making and then teaching. This much used clown was one of the classes (appropriately called Bordering on the Comical) I taught at my first symposium (last century) so needs an airing and maybe revisiting. With the national association in shutdown mode until the vote to continue was made last month, I have offered to edit their newsletter. I see this as a way I can help strengthen and breath some new life and enthusiasm back. I personally feel it is an asset that we quilters should support so that our links and positioning with quilters worldwide can continue. My very clever son (he who must be obeyed in all things computers) sent me this link with the suggestion that we could help out, given the generous people that we quilters are. My main news is that my lovely Nina has moved back in with me (she says temporarily) but came with a cupboard full of quilts, two dogs and all but a whatsit in a pear tree. At least the dogs appreciate the quilts as much as she does. You know, years ago I child-proofed my house but they are still getting back in. Pumpkin Patch Stripping and processing/giving away damson plums from the Pumpkin Patch was the main task this month. I made jam, sauce cooked to de-pip and froze buckets full. You can see in the pic what was on offer. Today I had a call from Lesley who wanted to know what to do with some damsons she had acquired so I told her I would publish the Brandied Cherries recipe (I made at Christmas and they were superb) for her to try with plums. I'll await feedback. In the meantime my fig tree is literally dripping with ripe fist-sized fruit and, as most recipes use dried figs, I will just have to continue drying them for future use. The other bountiful crop in the patch is grapes - large green ones and a very tasty brown heirloom 'Papa Jack'. The 'shame' is that all you can really do is make juice or eat them. Chopping Block Brandied Cherries were made on the Chopping Block at Xmas. Pit 1 1/2 lb cherries and set aside. In a pot bring 3/4 cup sugar, 3/4 cup water, 2 tbsp. lemon juice and 4 cardamom pods, 2 whole cloves, 2 whole allspice, 1 cinnamon stick to a boil. Reduce heat to maintain a simmer and cook until the mixture is slightly reduced and thickened, about 10 minutes. Turn off the heat, stir in the 1 cup brandy and the pitted cherries. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the cherries to jar (I used old jam jars). Pour enough of the cooking liquid over the cherries to cover them completely. Twist on lid. Leave in a cool dark place for two weeks then enjoy!

February 2014

Wholly Quilts
February Newsletter

In an effort to tick off another of my want to do quilt (a kaleidoscope) I acquired a third book to show me the way. I added RaNae Merrill's Magnificent Spiral Mandala Quilts to Paula Nadelstern and Ricky Tims' kaleidoscope books and only managed to confuse myself. Together they are a bit like the Three Bears - one is too fussy (Paula), one too clunky (Ricky) and one sort of okay (RaNae) but not really how I want to do mine. So armed with all their information I will head off to design mode and see what happens. The principle of learning techniques off others and then adapting has always worked for me in the past. So here goes!

I have given you a pic here of my latest PhD (project half done). It is my 5856 triangles together at last AND, please note, being quilted. 488 four-inch North Wind blocks done from the scrap basket alone and yet again the level of said basket is still the same - it really is a sustainable resource.

Last month's Pot Luck Picnic was a lovely day with friends coming from far and wide. I have been reprimanded by he-who-knows-all (about computers) for not taking photographs but truth be told I was having far too much fun on the day. Great selection of quilts to look at and picnic food to eat. Seems I can control the weather too - so much sun, so little wind.

 If you do have some pictures of the picnic day, send them through and he'll put them on the website which he has also updated with notes about some of the most popular quilts I teach.  He is grand, isn't he?!

The Pumpkin Patch is living up to its name ... pumpkins galore and I am picking a bucket of tomatoes every couple of days. I have been reduced (get it?) to making tomato paste cos I now have enough tomatoes dried, frozen, chutney-ed and sauced. This morning I picked three large cucumbers and I'll have to pickle them before I go off to Camp Catering (on Motutapu Island) tomorrow. I keep avoiding making eye contact with the Damson Plum tree that looks more and more like a grape vine with all its fruit. I know I'll have to deal with them very soon.

The Chopping Block was gonna try out pumpkin cake recipes before the influx but when I went to my recipe book I found a much more interesting recipe - Plonk Cake.
Plonk 5 eggs  2 cups sugar  2 cups self-raising flour  50g melted butter  2 teaspoons baking powder into a food processor in the above order
Plonk into a greased tin.
Plonk 140g sliced tinned/fresh fruit or mixed berries, plums whatever. Bake at just over 200c for 30 mins (check till done).
When cool, sprinkle with icing sugar.

By the way, if you want to bring a group of friends for a relaxing weekend the second half of the year still has some vacancies so get in touch. 

January 2014

Wholly Quilts
January Newsletter

Best wishes for a fabulous 2014. I always see it as a time for new beginnings and try to make the most of it on all the important things in my life - family, friendships and quilting so I hope you can too. This year is gonna be a goodie!

I have broken all records and actually done some sewing in recent days but probably only because my studio is a lot cooler than the garden or the house. I developed and then coerced my daughter into drawing and cutting new class samples. I am calling it Wings for obvious reasons. These funky little quilts are appli-quilted and