Kirsty Allsopp said "lovely"

I was mentioned on the actual radio this afternoon. Crafter, baker, and maker on the telly Kirsty Allsopp (also of 'Location, location, location' fame) was on the BBC Radio 2 Simon Mayo show, talking about her attempts at local craft fayres and crafty stuff in general. After hearing him mention said upcoming interview, and the selection of quilting-related songs on the playlist, I emailed in with the vague hope that I might be mentioned.

AND I WAS!

He read out my email about my quilting, and Kirsty bloomin Allsopp said "lovely" in reference to the pic of my quilt I attached to the email. So proud and impressed - I know it's quit ridiculous to be so pleased at a little mention on the radio but it really made my day.

Here's a link to the radio show, although I'm not sure how long it'll last - you need to go to about 1 hour 8 mins in and listen from here. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00p2dfq

Quilts, on the radio... whatever next. I'll be hosting my own patchwork show!!

This was the pic that I send Simon Mayo off the radio: 

Peaches & cream - not a dream

I made peaches & cream cupcakes. They weren't great! They certainly didn't look good when they came out of the oven.

I was meant to use paper cases, but I didn't have any - I didn't think it would matter, but as the fresh peaches nestled at the bottom, they didn't really do well. Taking them out of the tray was a bit of a challenge, and I realised this batch wasn't going to win any awards on the attractive scale...

I made a lovely buttercream frosting, and that helped to cover up some of the ugliness, but I really ought to go on a cake decorating course.

Some of the peaches went a bit funny in the oven (and turned a bit purple), so I decided this was a batch my discering boyfriend could eat. As he's called the Human Dustbin he has no quarrels with eating dodgy purple peach cupcakes and thought they were lovely.
Back to the drawing board on these. I think tinned peaches might be a better idea. And definitely paper cases.

Crabs and Cornwall

My latest baby quilt!

Commissioned for a friend's friend who lives in Cornwall, near the beach - hence the squares of sandy fabric, and crab/fish/turtle fabric.

A simple quilting round the large blocks:

Cute! My next project starts straight away - a bigger quilt, throw size, for a grown-up this time, not a baby. The cutting out starts here...

Spider torture

Tonight I had my first panic attack in a long time. It was all over a spider. Possibly more irrational than some of my previous attacks, although possibly more understandable than the breakdown in the supermarket over which brand of toothpaste to buy.

This was a monster. I'm home alone, and I just panicked. I videoed the thing! Then he disappeared underneath the sofa, leaving me stranded - I couldn't bear to stand up in case he ran over my bare feet. I had to ring my mum and ask her advice. I tried moving the sofa, prone with salad bowl in hand to trap him under, but he didn't appear, and still hasn't.

I'm now quite worried about going to bed in case he appears in the bedroom. I fear I may not sleep too well tonight.

See, I told you it was completely irrational.

I was meant to be working on my latest quilt tonight, but I've been too afraid to go anywhere or do anything! So, these lovely squares are all waiting for me...unsewn...while I wait for the spider to climb aboard and eat me.

Oh, and if you'd like to see the video of said scary spider, click here.

Key Lime Pie

A post in honour of my boyfriend. He went AWOL last week (turned out, he'd gone fishing, just didn't think to let me know). To make up for it, he made me a lovely meal at the weekend, complete with key lime pie. YUMMY!

It was a Jamie Oliver recipe and was delish. The pie filling was like a lime mousse and just divine. The base was a bit comedy mind you. The recipe said 12 digestive biscuits to 135g of butter. Had I been making it I would have instinctively known that was a bit ridiculous, but lovely Boyf trusted the recipe. Needless to say, it was like a lake of melted butter with a few breadcrumbs floating in it. We had to try to mop up some of the butter with kitchen towels!

After baking in the oven, and then chilling in the fridge, it looked OK. It was very very hard, and quite chewy like butterscotch, but it was nice all the same. But, I will be emailing the Jamie Oliver magazine from which the recipe came to tell them not to be so ridiculous with their pie crust butter/biscuit ratio in future. Poor Boyf felt distraught but I said it wasn't his fault - and it was yummy all the same.

(By the way, the pic is from the Jamie Magazine website - we ate all of the pie before I could take a photo!)