German Apple Cake

Here it is!!  The recipe for the delicious German Apple Cake that Susan made at our last meeting. This cake is quick and easy to make and always a crowd pleaser. The perfect dessert for this busy holiday season.

Libby's German Apple Cake


Materials
125 gms Butter
125 gms Sugar
250 gms SRFlour
½ tsp Salt
375 gms cooking apples peeled and grated
60 gms sultanas
30 gms chopped walnuts
1 tsp cinnamon

Goals
1. melt butter and sugar together
2. Take off heat
3. sift flour and salt in q bowl
4. stir flour mixture into melted butter and sugar
5. add 1 large beaten egg
6. stir together it will make a stiff mixture
7. turn 2/3 of mixture into the tin
8. spread out and make surface level
9. mix apple nuts ,cinnamon and sultanas together
10. spread over top of based
11. over mixture dot remainder of flour mixture (it will not cover completely)
12. sprinkle raw sugar over top
13. bake in slow oven 150 deg for 50-60 minutes
14. cake should be a golden colour

Results
Turns out a bit like a short cake half biscuit half cake. Good with cream or yoghurt on the side.

The Springwood Community Quilt Show committee wishes everyone a very Merry Christmas and a happy and safe New Year full of fun sewing times.

November catch up

The last month has flown by and before we knew it it was time for our November meeting. The committee met in the upper mountains and got down to tackling the topics on the agenda.

A few of the issues that were discussed were:

Raffle prizes and tickets - There are going to be lots of great prizes!

Entry and Volunteer forms - Making sure all the right details are included.

Quilting progress of the raffle quilt - Susie Anderson of Leura Quilting is going all out with the quilting of the Lots of Dots quilt. Just one circle block took 3 hours. It's going to be spectacular!!

We unpacked the bookmarks for the 2016 show. Tania is our designer of bookmarks and posters and she always does an excellent job. As you can see they look really fun and colourful and have all the information anyone will need to know about the show on one bookmark. They'll start appearing in quilt shops and quilt classes in early 2016. 

Some may think we simply eat cake as a refreshment but our meetings are an excellent opportunity to research cakes that will be served at the cafe during the quilt show. We all agreed that Susan's fruit cake was the best and most moist fruit cake ever! After one mouthful Carol who is in charge of the cafe quickly grabbed her pen and paper to write the recipe down.

Susan had also made a German Apple Cake. I'm hoping she'll share the recipe so I can put it on the blog. Imagine apples, sultanas, spices set into a sweet buttery pastry - delicious!!

And here is a photo of Susan's teapot - Don't you think tea always tastes better when served from a fabulous teapot?

Especially when it has a flock of flamingos on the lid!

So there you are, a glimpse behind the scenes. We'll be back with glimpses of the raffle quilt soon.

Our wonderful Lots of Dots quilt top!!

When Chris Jurd unfolded the finished Lots of Dots quilt top everyone in the room said "Wow!!"

It's wonderful to see how great all the compasses look together. Considering everyone worked with their own colour and fabric choices the blocks are perfect en masse. It's been a great group quilt to make with each person being able to choose a block they want to sew and then when it's time to assemble them there's no seams to match up. Plus it's just one of those magic patterns that always looks spectacular.

The top is now with Susie Anderson of Leura Quilting. She'll add a whole other layer of beauty with her stitches that will transform the top into a quilt! Not long to wait now until we can show off our finished 2016 raffle quilt.

In the meantime there are other decisions to be addressed, tasks to be allocated and progress to be made. Here's an action shot of the committee hard at work as they make their way through the the list of topics on the meeting's agenda. You can tell it's a quilter's meeting with the quilted table cloth. 

Of course we needed cake to keep our energy up. Vicki made a banana cake with chocolate and coconut icing.  It was so delicious it was gone before I thought to take a photo!! But I did get a photo of the pretty serviette/napkins, almost too pretty to use!

Raffle Quilts - Why do we start working on them so early?

Sometimes people are surprised to hear that work is well underway on next year's raffle quilt. After all the show isn't until next April. It's true that as soon as one show finishes we start on the raffle quilt for the following year's show but we do have some good reasons for starting so early.

I'm sure most quilters will understand that sometimes quilts take longer than planned so it's good to have extra time up your sleeve, just in case it's needed. Even though the quilt show committee all pitch in to make the raffle quilt we tend to choose designs that take a lot of work.  

The quilt needs to be finished for publicity and promotional reasons. Magazines are planning their editions often 6 months ahead and so we need the quilt ready for photos for their publications. We also need photos for our promotional material, posters, bookmarks and fliers. 

The sooner the quilt is finished the sooner it can start it's tour of quilt shops. The raffle quilt does a tour of different quilt shops. It's a wonderful ambassador for the show as it entices people to buy raffle tickets and is a good reminder for people to put the 4th weekend in April in their diaries as the weekend of the quilt show.

It's great to have a task crossed off the list. With the raffle quilt finished the committee can concentrate on the other jobs and decisions that arise in the months leading up to the show. And it does get very busy! Organising a quilt show takes a years worth of work, but it's all so worth it. I"m sure you'll agree that seeing a big hall full of amazing quilts is a wonderful thing!!

So how about you, have you started your show quilts for next year? Or are you planning to show a couple of old favourites? 

Raffle quilt progress - The background fabric!!

Over the last few posts we've been showing you the wonderful Lots of Dots compass blocks as they've been made. If you thought they've looked good then wait till you see them on the background fabric...

Words like "Wow","Amazing" and "Hooley Dooley!!" came to mind when I saw the blocks on the background. I'm sure you'll agree that the dark inky colour makes the compass circles snap, crackle and pop like fireworks at a festival.

The tone on tone blue circles and swirls in the fabric show up better in this photo. They echo the circles and dot theme perfectly and create a sense of movement.

3 cheers to the industrious committee members who helped hand sew all the compass blocks to the background. It's not a quick task but a rewarding one and great for having time to appreciate the creative thought and work that has gone into each block.

 Next it's off to Suzie Anderson to add her magic with her longarm quilting. This quilt just keeps getting better and better!!

Dancing blocks and a visitor

  This group of Lots of Dots blocks wanted to get out on the dance floor...

to twist this way

and then twirl back the other way. 

To spin around...

and boogie the night away...

under flashing disco lights.

Here's proof that we'll do anything to bring you you best quilt show we can. At our last committee meeting we discovered we had a visitor in the form of a white tail spider. Without hesitation Marilyn bravely leapt onto a chair and assisted by Suzie, managed to capture it in a glass. Once the spider was safely outside it was straight back to the meetings agenda. 

I just hope we don't have to wrestle snakes one day. 

Hanazono -The 2009 Raffle quilt

We've got another flashback to a past raffle quilt to add to our Raffle Quilt page. We love this quilt and know you will too!!

Today we're showcasing Hanazono, the raffle quilt from 2009, the 4th Annual Springwood Community Quilt Show. This beautiful quilt was designed by Blue Mountains quilter Anne Sommerlad. Anne is a popular patchwork and quilting teacher and prolific pattern designer who uses a variety of techniques. This quilt alone combines applique, hexagons, some stitching and is a great opportunity for fussy cutting.

As you can see our raffle quilt was set with a beautiful blue floral border

and here is another version with a different border fabric.

By now you'll be wondering where the name Hanazono comes from. Hanazono is Japanese for "Temple Flowers", the ideal name for a quilt of flowers made with Japanese print fabrics. 

The beauty of this quilt is in the details of the 25 blocks, well chosen fabrics that bring the hexagons to life as flowers, a wonderful variety of blooms and shapes. 

Let's take a walk through the temple flowers and have a closer look. 

The blocks are set off perfectly with a bold floral to create a beautiful fabric garden.

Are you tempted to make this quilt? Here's the link straight to the Hanazono pattern on Anne's website.

Visit Anne's website Anne Sommerlad Designs for more information about classes or her to see all her amazing patterns, or pop over to Anne's facebook page.

Anne also has a stall at the Springwood show every year so you can see her beautiful quilts, buy patterns and say hello in person. 

To see more of the past Springwood Community Quilt Show's raffle quilts have a look at the Raffle Quilts page here.

Lots of Lots of Dots Blocks!

Spring has arrived here in the the Blue Mountains.

and so have more 2016 Raffle quilt blocks, 

bursting with colour like spring blooms. 

As always with these Lots of Dots blocks it's great to see the variety of dotty fabrics that committee members have used.

Big dots

Small dots

Pink dots

Flowery dots

Even leopard spots!

It can be hard to tell the scale of individual blocks in photos. Here are the last two blocks shown together. 

Here they all are for a sparkling group photo.

There are still more blocks to arrive but I'm sure you'll agree the design wall is already looking wonderful!!