Double Quilt! (What does it meeeeean?)

It's been ages since my last post and that's partly because I am a massive procrastinator and partly because I spent months working on a double quilt to give to my friends as a wedding present. Whilst working on this quilt I worked my way through the entire six series of Lost and beyond- that is how long it took! I didn't even manage to finish it in time for the wedding, but that was OK because I was able to meet up with the happy couple upon their return from honeymoon at Blenheim Palace, have a champagne afternoon tea and give them their quilt in person, which was much more fun.

I think they were really pleased with it!

P.S. the ending of Lost is one of the most disappointing televisual events since The Simpsons went bad, don't bother wasting your life on it!

Totoro Cushions

If you don’t love Totoro, it’s either because you don’t know him or because you are a dementor. If you don’t know him, Totoro is the eponymous neighbour of “My Neighbour Totoro” an 80s animated film of loveliness by Studio Ghibli (makers of Spirited Away and Howl’s Moving  Castle). Despite his inexplicable appearance, massive teeth and penchant for speaking only in earth-rumbling roars, Totoro is a kindly creature who befriends little Mei and her sister Satsuki at a difficult time when their mother is sick in a faraway hospital.

I am not a dementor, so I love Totoro. The first time I saw the film, I was with my good friend Pete. Prior to watching, we were angrily ranting about something (as we often are) but the film's pacifying effect diffused all rage and left us in a state that can only be described as 'Totorific'.

My love for Totoro has not diminished since that day and he has even aided me in my quest for love. I knew I was onto a winner the first time I went to my boyfriend’s flat and saw that he had a picture of the rotund, grey, roar-meister displayed on his wall, almost like an official seal of approval from Totoro himself. I have since bonded with others over a love of Totoro, introducing the film to my friends Louise and Juliet (Louliet), over sushi. Nat is another fan whose baby daughter received an awesome Totoro rattle after our trip to Japan. So I knew that Totoro on a cushion would go down a treat as gifts for Louliet and Nat.

Totoro was made by tracing his picture (found on google images) onto fusible web iron-on applique paper, ironing the paper onto different coloured felt and cutting out felt shapes to make up his body.  The beige cushion is from Argos. The green gingham cushion was made up of padding (again from Argos) and a cover created myself by following the instructions on this helpful youtube video.

Ironing the pieces of Totoro’s body into place I then hand stitched around them. I probably should have used a blanket stitch, but I didn’t.  I made tiny stitches in white to create the glint in his eye. The hand stitching was pretty time-consuming but fun and I think the recipients of the Totoro cushions were pleased!

If you are a dementor and/or you do not want to adorn a cushion with Totoro, there are plenty other things that would look great on a cushion; musicians, cartoon characters, budgies or perhaps a gaggle of dementors would look right at home on your sofa?

Budgies

When I was a kid and still slept in a bunkbed, my family had a pet budgie called 'Brolly'. We didn't have him for long, as I recall. He died possibly after just a few months (hard to say as children have little concept of time!). His name was a lame pun on the common practice of referring to pet birds as 'Polly'. We must have found it funny because we had subsequent birds named Ollie (a budgie who, again, did not last long) and Folly (a cockatiel who flew away one fateful morning).

Even though Brolly didn't last long, and we had other pets that did (several dogs, 2 guinea pigs and about 5 hamsters), my older brother took to documenting the cartoon adventures of Brolly the budgie. Many years have passed since then but my brother still insists on drawing a picture of the cartoon budgie in every card he ever sends (see picture showing illustration in recent birthday card).

Earlier this year I decided to make cushions for my brother and his fiance a housewarming gift. I wanted to take the opportunity to try out appliqué for the first time. I asked my brother several times what he would like me to appliqué on his custom-made cushions. He replied with such dickish suggestions as "an ocelot", "a pencil sharpener" and "a protractor". Budgie-theme it is then, I concluded.

So here it is, just a tad classier than the cartoon Brolly:

Boudhanath stupa

I really want to blog and post pictures to show what I've been working on recently. However, I plan to give this 'something' as a gift so cannot release its image into the public domain, owing to the very small chance that the recipients, or anyone for that matter, look at this blog!

So, here's something from my archive to curb my blog-craving. It's a picture of Buddhist stupa on the outskirts of Kathmandu, Nepal. I visited Boudhnath stupa in October 2008 and drew this picture last year from a photo, using pastels. I should probably make it clear that the stupa does not hold a deep, mystical and/or spiritual significance for me (sorry Buddhists). The visit was pretty cursory and probably a bit of a tick-box moment on the itinerary. I think I just chose the picture because I was told to pick something for an art class I was taking and I thought this would be quite easy with all the white going on, it turned out it wasn't. It took me ages and I still wouldn't call it finished!

A Tanzanian Adventure

A film of our Christmas family holiday to Tanzania. I compiled the best of our snaps and videos in editing software then threw a bunch of special effects, sound, zooms and speech bubbles at it, in the hope of giving a flavour of our holiday without taking up too much of your precious time :D

Delicious Daal

This is a, frankly, awesome dish which has been slightly adapted from a recipe taught to me by my friend Zeeshan Mansoor in Pakistan. He got the recipe from his Mum, so thanks Zee's mum! 

Apart from the taste, this dish is amazing because it's cheap to make, you can keep most of the ingredients in the cupboard for ages, using just a small amount each time. When you want to make it, you just need to get a few things fresh: tomatoes (although could use 1/2 tin of tinned variety), fresh ginger and fresh coriander. Furthermore, I reckon it's quite healthy and it doesn't contain wheat, gluten, nuts, meat, dairy or other animal products which means it pleases most dinner guests.

Serves 3-4 people (as a main dish, obviously serves more as a side)

Good served with basmati  rice (start boiling the rice at the same time as the lentils)- use 1/3 of a cup of dried rice per person.

It helps to divide this dish into three steps and batches of ingredients:

First lot of ingredients:

1 mug of red split lentils (IMPORTANT: put in a sieve and rinse under tap until water runs clear)

1 ½ pints of boiling water

1 veg stock cubes

3 chopped tomatoes (remove skins by stabbing and submerging in boiling water - or could used 1/2 a tin)

1 heaped tablespoon of mustard seeds

1 tsp sugar

Spinkling of salt

Onions and garlic frying with the spices

Second lot:

1 onion diced

2 cloves of garlic chopped up

2 heaped tsp Garam Masala (maybe more)

1 heaped tsp ground coriander

Tsp ground cinnamon

Tsp Cumin seeds

Or whatever spices you can find.

Third lot:

Fresh coriander (31g bags are available in most supermarkets) chopped roughly

Fresh chilli or chilli flakes to taste

Fresh chopped ginger

  

Prepare the first lot by dumping it all into a non stick pot and simmering on a medium heat, stirring occasionally and checking it doesn’t boil dry. This only takes about 20 minutes to cook.

Chop up the onion and garlic and fry in a frying pan on a medium heat until it’s dark brown/almost burnt!

While that's frying chop the fresh coriander, ginger and chilli

Add the spices to the onions and garlic which are nicely browned by now, fry for a few minutes

All the ingredients together at last, just stir 'n' serve

When the lentils are cooked (fall-y apart-y), remove from heat. Add in the fresh coriander, ginger and fried onions and garlic and spices and stir it in – Then it’s done! 

Mmm - hope you like it. Let me know what you think.

Baby quilt #2: Leonard

When cooking for vegan friends, I expect to have to work a bit harder to create a tasty meal. But I was surprised to find that the lovely Fiona and Laurie's veganism managed to inconvenience me when undertaking a task so seemingly innocent as making a baby quilt for their unborn child, Leonard. Quilts do not contain meat, dairy products or even honey, but you'd be amazed how many designs of children's fabric centre around a jolly farmer, farm animals or circus scene. I found it a bit strange, even creepy, despite being a carnivore myself. Anyway, I'm pleased to say that the quilt I made for Leonard features happy rabbits dancing with happy children, yellow chickadees and only the best free-range, disembodied panda heads.