Peter pumpkin, pesto perfect

Isn't this pumpkin the most beautiful thing you evah...?

Well, I did. 

The blackboard in our kitchen advertises the crop of the moment: a beautiful bounty of cooking pears. 

Those who suspect the food processor is new would be correct. 

It made pesto shortly after this picture was taken.

We went to the Lancefield Farmers' Market yesterday and bought this from a guy who looked like a young Aussie version of Lourdes' Dad. We said hello to the beef lady and had a chat with the nice guy from Goldfields Farmhouse cheeses. Their white cheese is yummy and a staple on our list. (I learned how to make it at a cheese-making course I took from them last May, but you know what? It's easier to buy a couple of rounds a month...)

Past the guy from Red Beard Bakery who was wielding a hammer with intent (thankfully his intent was to hammer a tent peg) and we found a new stall, the Piper St Food Co., with wild rabbit rillettes - like the sweetest loveliest textured pate you ever had. If you see them at a market, try it.

We had all-important chatting moments, bought sheafs of summer basil -- one large green genovese bunch and a bunch of the purple that I couldn't help holding like a bouquet and sniffing all the way back to the car.

So the pumpkin? I think it's going to get roasted, hollowed out and the innards mashed with roasted home-grown garlic and a bit of cream, mashed back in and drizzled with basil pesto made this morning, and mmmmm I can hardly wait!

City circle quilt

Recently, a friend asked me to teach her how to quilt. We started with some squares and we practised sewing them together. We also looked at easy patterns to get started with, and flicked through some books. Them we met at a fabric store - a really good one, and one I haven't been to in a while.

After I'd paid the hundred-dollar 'exit fee' and was heading off with a bag of new fabric, I was totally stoked about quilting again! There's been too little of it of late.

The quilt top was all ready and sitting in a drawer. I called it "City Circle" because I did the hand applique of the circles onto the blocks while riding the metro each day to work. And I remember where I was working so I have an inkling of how long it's been sitting in that drawer...

Backings, why do I hate backings? It's been Great Mount Backing Blockage that stood in my path to Finished Quilt Gloryville. All I had to do was to let the quilt fabric frenzy endorphin high carry me through making and basting the backing.

It even sustained me through a measured-the-wrong-dimension meltdown (thanks Mr. Tacc., for maths rescue assistance).

Now I'm cruising through the quilting, and loving the colours. I'd forgotten what fun it is to quilt in perle cotton, and seeing all the quilts at Amitie reminded me.

Now I'm posting this, and I found some old photos of when I started the quilt.
No, not last year.

Not even the year before.

An old picture, from BB - "Before Backing" 

The file says "City Circle Quilt, 2006-2008". Guess I thought I'd finish it almost three years ago.

Late like the trains - but at least it arrived eventually.