Great to see the sun again!

  
Wow, who would have believed this beautiful morning after the last few bitterly cold, grey days.
These are the lemons we used as a centre piece on the table last week at our Deejays' meeting - they look like sunshine in a jacket!

They reminded me of a quilt I made yonks ago but which is still one of my favourites.  I made it under the tutelage of Joanne Johnson.  I deliberately chose the colours because a visiting tutor said that it was very difficult to use the colour yellow successfully in a quilt............

I love the sort of translucent look about the middle - and that is fading on the sides - I used this as a table cloth when I lived in Whitby  - with floor to ceiling windows in the dining room.
In the class we had some difficulties making up this pattern, we sewed the fabrics into rows then used our special ruler to cut at an angle - the only problem was the ruler had different seam allowances on the two sides.......
I chose to quilt the centre with a design I had seen in Canada, sort of double teardrop -  and flowers in the background.

The top quilting, also showing the binding of all the left over pieces

I'll let you into a secret - when it came to joining the two halves, no matter how I picked and unpicked, I couldn't get a good clean join - so

I hand appliqued a square over the centre, on point, and quilted through it!

My late husband was a very keen gardener and kept us supplied with vegetables all year, it came as a ghastly shock when I had to buy my own, especially carrots!  I have tried, half heartedly to grow a few veges but the broccoli ended up looking like beautiful lace, so I go to the farmers market in Tawa occasionally and finish up eating raw carrots on the way home.......
This time of year is perfect for vegetable soup, particularly as one of the Deejays is vegetarian and today I went back to a favourite recipe book, "More from the Cook's Garden" and produced Kumara chowder - which just means you don't put it in the Mouli!
It was as delicious as it looks -

Quote of the day :-
"Right now a moment of time is fleeting by!  Capture its reality.....become that moment" - Paul Cezanne

We will talk again soon
June