Baby Golf Pants

Golf Pants - Baby Gift

So another friend of mine had a baby boy. Pretty sure I haven’t made a baby-girl gift for about a year now! Statistically this does not bode well for me having a boy one day. Everyone else is hogging the boy statistics! hehehe. Does it work like that? Dont get me wrong I’m very happy for them, plus it means I get to make a variety of cute little boy outfits! This time I went with golf pants. I think they’re my new favourite boy thing. Aren’t they the cutest?

Flat fronted - for style, with an elastic back - for comfort

I used Dana’s tutorial and I went with a flat fronted style. I tried to get a bit of a vintage vibe going with the fabric. Paired with a little complimentary onesie and of course a little matching gift sack. Cute! I had high hopes of making a little matching cap but western power in their wisdom decided to switch my power off this morning – as I was finishing off the gift!! Acutally that’s how the hand embroidery on applique letter came about.

Hand Embroidered Applique - courtesy of Western Power

I had plans to button hole stitch around the letter but without power I had to hand embroider. Which I actually love, happy accident…. or something like that.

My very own lables!

You might notice on the side there’s a little tag. I got my inspiration from See Kate Sew and DIY’d some of my very own labels to put on the things I make. I like the finished look it creates! Plus it will have the added bonus of helping Dad find the back of hand made leggings and things!

Baby Golf Pants!

My First Quilt

My First Quilt

Yes, this is my first real quilt. I did it! Its taken me ages and I’ve been quietly working away on it for months. I first showed a little hint of it around mothers day where I used my sample square to make a mothers day gift.

Here it is, those same fabrics and patterns in a full blown quilt.

Weaving Fan Pattern

As you can see from the first photo I wanted it to be a throw for the chair in her room. But I ended up making it big enough to fit over a king single bed! ooops! I guess that’s what happens when you make up the pattern for your first quilt.

I chose colours to to go with the aqua and apricot colour theme I’ve got going in her room. Then ‘fussy cut’ (fancy quilt term I learnt) little birds to appear here and there, tying in with the other sort of theme I have in her room! She loves searching the quilt for all the different birds.

Sweet Birds for Playing I Spy!

I also then hand quilted with embroidery thread the centers of the fans, for a bit of texture.

Hand quilting for texture

I bound it all in matching blue and backed it in a Japanese Lawn (that my friend told me last night is currently on sale at Spotlight).

Blue binding and Japanese Lawn backing.

I quilted it with two straight lines either side of the seam, I like straight line quilting I think it enhances all that work you did piecing the whole thing together!

Phew, what a big project. Hopefully I’ll have time to share where I got my inspiration from and why I decided to make a quilt later this week! I’m so happy with the way it turned out and I had fun every step of the way. Quilting is so fun! Now that I’ve got that out of my system (for a while) I think I’ll be able to get a few other crafty projects done around here.

Creamy Lemon Slice – Gluten Free

creamy gluten free lemon slice

I grew up on lemon slice a bit like this and its good. Kind of like a lemon hedgehog slice. You crush biscuits and then refrigerate instead of baking. Delicious and fresh but a little less sophisticated than what I was looking for. I wanted something creamier, with a biscuit base. So I came up with this.

lemon slice squares, creamy goodness

I’ll let you in on a secret, the topping is actually based on the recipe on side of the Carnation Condensed Milk tin! Its awesome! Its so easy to forget the packet recipes, but generally they are well tested and worth having a go. Of course I had to make it gluten free and I wanted to use up some biscuits that didn’t turn out how I wanted, so this is what we ended up with, I think its my new favourite thing to bake!

Lemony Squares

Base

• 200g Gluten Free Shortbread biscuits (I made mine but really any gluten free biscuit will do)
• 80g unsalted butter melted
• 1/4 cup of sugar

Topping

• 400g tin of condensed milk
• 1 egg
• 1 tblspn grated rind
• 1/2 cup of lemon juice (2-3 lemons)
• 2 tblspns of gluten free plain flour
• 1 tspn baking powder

For Base

Preheat oven to 180C. Line a 16cm x 26cm slice tray with baking paper. Crumble biscuits. Combine crumbs, melted butter and sugar until it resembles wet sand. Press evenly into the base of tray. Bake for 8-10mins or until lightly golden. Remove allow to cool to room temp. What I love about this base is the extra sugar almost caramelises in the first baking making it slightly chewy. I’ve chosen unsalted butter because shortbread is often a bit salty, but this buttery, tiny bit salty base, is a perfect juxtaposition for the sweet, creamy, lemony top.

For Topping

Place Condensed Milk, and egg in a bowl beat well (by hand is sufficient) until well combined. Add lemon rind, juice, flour and baking powder. Beat again until combined. The baking powder will fizz as it reacts to the acidity of the lemon! Pour over cooled base and bake a further 20-25mins or until set in the center.

Allow to cool slightly before eating. In fact, eat warm right out of the oven, then put the rest in the fridge to have as a cold slice the next day!

perfect with a cuppa