Kelly Casanova Weaving Lessons

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New embroidery pattern

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 It’s with great excitement that I announce my second embroidery pattern is now available in my Etsy shop. Why the excitement? Well, it’s a lot of work to create a pattern, beginning with the first sketch, then the embroidery itself and finally the writing of instructions and having the file ready to send. So for me, it’s an achievement to start and finish a project like this. But I do so love it šŸ™‚

The stitchery, like my drawings is a bit whimsical, a bit quirky and a lot cute!

Hope you love it too. Happy Stitching!

Too tired, can’t be bothered etc…

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It’s not that I haven’t been doing anything, rather that I’ve been doing a lot and I’m all tuckered out!
So I’ll wish you all a Happy and Holy Christmas early in case I don’t make it back here before the big day.
May your hearts be filled with the joy that Our Lord so kindly offers and be at peace, surrounded by love this Christmas.

God bless

Flower pressing

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What a great time of year for flower pressing, when our garden spoils us for choice!

I picked up this flower press from the oppy fairly cheaply, but if you don’t have one you can always make your own.

The leftovers can be floated in a glass bowl or jug – very pretty! Or, if you’re feeling particularly adventurous you could try a frozen flower bowl – beautiful!
I’m in my element today, working on a custom embroidery design – actually I’m just really chuffed that someone likes my work enough to ask me to design for them!
The rest of the weekend involves Mass, children’s piano concert, another Christmas gathering and plenty of errands to run and catching up to do.
I hope your weekend is a very fruitful one.
God bless.

Cottage rose in colour pencil

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Inspired by a beautiful pinkish rose outside my bedroom window. I used my watercolour pencils but didn’t add any water. My next step is to print the image onto fabric with transfer paper and test my thread painting skills! That is, when I get time – it’s one thing to complete a drawing in an hour or so, but to embroider it is a very different story!
What do you think?

Love

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                              ” We can do no great things; only small things with great love.”


                                                                     Mother Teresa



Little bitty wall art

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 I like small things. I like small projects that I can finish fairly quickly but look effective. This little hoop is 3 inches (8cm ) across. Here’s the process:

I mounted my cream silk in the hoop and painted the background with acrylic Jo Sonja paints mixed with textile medium. I sketched the design with colour pencils on paper first to give a clear idea of what I wanted to do. When it dried, I heat set with the iron.

I started out by embroidering stems and grass with embroidery cotton. I used a bit of stranded silk for the agapanthus flowers. I used silk ribbon for the other flowers and some leaves, but didn’t have the colours I wanted so painted them by hand with Liquid Radiance first, then heat set. The Liquid Radiance seems to make silk stiff, so I’ll use silk paint or dye next time.
When finished embroidering I cut off the excess silk, then laced the back with cotton thread. I glued on the wool felt circle backing with hot glue.

 This is how the piece looks out of the hoop, but I chose to mount in the hoop to hang on the wall. I can see a whole bunch of these grouped together, how cute would that look?

A little apron

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SOLD – THANKYOU NELL!
I hope you’re all having a nice family Sunday as I am. I’ve made a little apron and thought I would offer it for sale here first, ie. I’m too lazy to list it in the shop!

The size is multi fit – here it is modelled by my 6 year old.

And here it is modelled by my 2 year old.
I’m asking for $15 which includes postage within Australia. If you are interested just leave a comment or feel free to contact me via email.
Enjoy the rest of the weekend and God bless you all šŸ™‚

Summer Strawberry Cheesecake

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I love cheesecake. Love it. Not baked though, only unbaked. Baked seems wrong somehow. It just doesn’t work for me. Where was I? I love cheesecake, and for those of you who love cheesecake I’m going to share my very first attempt at my own recipe. It’s really nice, you should try it.

Base
1 packet Marie biscuits, crumbed
100g melted butter
Mix the crushed biscuits and melted butter together thoroughly and press into the base of a greased cheesecake tin. Refrigerate.
Filling
1 cup strawberry puree (see instructions below)
1 tablespoon powdered gelatine (or substitute *)
375 grams cream cheese (bring to room temp.)
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 and 1/4 cup cream, whipped
For puree – Hull and wash 2 punnets of strawberries, if large cut in half. Using a food processor or suitable replacement, puree the strawberries with 1 tablespoon of sugar and a squeeze of lemon. Leftover puree is wonderful on yoghurt, icecream, even cereal.
Place 1 cup of puree into a small saucepan with the gelatine, caster sugar and lemon juice and stir with a fork over a low heat. You want to heat the ingredients, not cook them. Leave to cool while you:
Beat the cream cheese until creamy. Beat in the cooled strawberry mixture until smooth. Fold in the whipped cream lightly. Pour onto the base and refrigerate until set.
Topping
3/4 cup strawberry puree
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons arrowroot
Warm ingredients together in a small saucepan (once again – just warming, not cooking). Pour on top of set cheesecake and refrigerate until set.
Serve with additional whipped cream if desired.
I hope you enjoy this recipe – as always I’m more than happy to answer questions or receive comments or suggestions. 
* It has come to my attention that some people prefer not to use gelatine so here is a link for suitable alternatives and quantities.