Search Results for: weaving

Rip or snip?

Hi all! I’m back from a wonderful Easter with a little gripe. Now, perhaps I’m a little bit precious when it comes to fabric but considering I don’t buy beautiful new fabric all that often maybe I’m justified.
I hate it when the sales assistant rips the fabric instead of cutting! There, I’ve said it – I positively cringe when I see my newly purchased fabric being torn.

Grrrr!

How messy is that?!

Most of my internet purchases have arrived perfectly cut, folded, pressed and packaged – even tied with ribbon sometimes – love it!

What do you think? Does ripping stretch or otherwise damage the fabric in anyway? Have you ever asked a sales person not to rip?

BTW, these fabrics are part of my design for Vic’s cushion swap – more details later!

Happy Easter! + a lot of baking and a little crafting

by Kelly 9 Comments

I’ve been busy preparing for Easter this week, so don’t have a lot to show for myself. The kitchen has been constantly occupied, preparing tasty treats for Easter Sunday as well as our regular meals.

These buns are awaiting their piped crosses.

And because I’ve been in the kitchen so much my craft time has been very limited, so I’ve been making smallish embellishments that will come in handy sometime.

I’m thinking brooches, hair ties, quilt attachments?

The children and I are going to try this tutorial for dyed eggs this year – they look great!

I’ll be having a little blog break over Easter so I hope you all have a joyous and peaceful Easter. See you soon and God bless you all.

In support of Nikki M

by Kelly 1 Comment

Disappointing isn’t it? People steal things all the time but this is pretty personal. This bag was designed and handmade by a talented artist. It has sentimental value. Perhaps the person who took it will have a change of heart and pop it in the post back to it’s owner? I hope so.

Today is a good day!

by Kelly 2 Comments

Sometimes it can feel that the happy days are few and far between but when they happen it’s a wonderful thing!

The sun doth shine.

The tired grouchiness of a certain 5 year old that made yesterday so awful is gone and has been replaced with smiles and good cheer. Pheeeeewwww!

The little one is having a long sleep to respite from her teething troubles.

Before husband left for work we teamed up so that most of the housework is done and I can have some relaxation ie. stitching time this afternoon. Hooray for good, selfless men!

Something about sticking my hands into a beautiful piece of soft and sticky dough makes me happy.

I’ve baked fruit bread and pikelets for the Lord’s Day and roasted a fresh batch of coffee beans.

I’m looking forward to the Quilt Convention tomorrow. I’ve saved my pennies and set myself a budget. It’s so long since I bought some nice new fabric, so that’s a priority!

I hope you’re having a good day too.

I’ll be back later to draw the giveaway, good luck!

Cinnamon Rolls

by Kelly Leave a Comment

My history with cinnamon scrolls is not very inspiring – often trying and constantly failing. Always too dry! For the sake of the children I went on an extensive search for a recipe that would produce moist scrolls. And found it!

Now, these scrolls are super unhealthy with a large butter content, but considering I will make them as a treat for the children (and the occasional nibble for myself!) I think it’s acceptable. The beauty of this recipe is the caramel sauce the dough sits in to bake. When they’re done baking you flip the scroll…..

and it looks like this! These are best eaten warm from the oven or re – warm them later.

I know you want to try these for yourself, so the recipe is here. Enjoy!

Quilts and sugar paste

by Kelly 3 Comments

Not much doing here creatively. The Maisy quilt saga continues with me making use of my seam ripper and pulling all my work to pieces because I didn’t like the “busy-ness” of my fabric choices. Now I’m playing safe with white sashing. Much better.

I’m focusing on indulging in another of my passions – baking and cake decorating. Perfect weather now that it’s cooler and I like having the oven on.

I’m experimenting with sugar paste and am quite taken with Mich Turner’s work, so lets see what I can do with Easter just around the corner.

Don’t forget to enter the “Pay it forward giveaway” which ends Saturday.

Thanks for dropping by!

Pay it forward giveaway

by Kelly 15 Comments

I have been very blessed as a blogger to receive gifts and giveaways from others but I don’t always end up using everything and thought it a good time to “pay it forward”. So, for this giveaway I have some books:

1. Toys to sew

2. Knitty Gritty Knits

3. Teddy Bear Redwork

and some patterns:

1. Goodies and Baddies – Jodie Carleton

2. Summer Fling – Make it Perfect

3. Sleep Well – Favorite Things

Just leave a comment to enter. Sorry – Australian residents only for this one!

I’ll draw on Saturday evening.

Good luck!

Saint Gemma Galgani

by Kelly 4 Comments

Today is the feast day of Saint Gemma Galgani. As one of our girls is named after her we had a little tea party to celebrate.

Not suprisingly, her favourite colour is pink! In addition to the pink cupcakes we had strawberry milkshakes.

I made little sugar frosted flowers out of fresh geraniums and discovered that a geranium in the bud stage looks marvellously like a miniature rose bud!

Hope you’re having a great day whatever you’re doing. God bless.

Roasted Pumpkin Soup

by Kelly 1 Comment

We have a beautiful harvest of various types of pumpkins this year so I’ve been making soup. Here is my recipe that has evolved over years of soup making! It is simple and makes a big batch.

2.8 kg pumpkin

3 potatoes (medium)

1 leek

2 onions

garlic cloves to taste (as a guide use 4ish)

2 smoked bacon bones

5 – 8 cups chicken stock

Weigh out about 1.8 kg of the pumpkin and chop into large pieces (leave skin on). Put into a roasting dish and into the oven at 180 degrees (C) for approximately 40 minutes, turning once.

Meanwhile, chop your onions and fry in a stock pot in a little olive oil and butter. Add chopped leek and garlic and stir until sweating. Throw in the chopped and peeled potato and raw, peeled pumpkin. Now remove the skin from your roasted pieces and put them in the pot too.

Add the bacon bones, stock and season to your preference with salt and pepper. The stock should be about level with the vegetables for a nice thick soup.

Allow to simmer until vegetables are very soft. Turn off and leave until the soup is warm but not boiling hot! Puree in a food processor. Serve with a dob of cream and extra pepper if you wish.

Did I mention it’s perfect with homemade bread hot from the oven?

My Creative Space

by Kelly 7 Comments

Our pumpkin harvest for this year. Some seeds were from the Lost Seed, some were saved from last year and others were given to us by other gardeners, so we have a good variety. The aroma of pumpkin soup is wafting through the house as we speak.

Here are the linen/cotton napkins I mentioned in a previous post for the purposes of hand printing experimentation.

A little messy, but not too bad!

This piece of robinia took ages to cut out as a stencil and I don’t think the results were worth it. Maybe I just need more cutting practice.

Head over to Kirsty’s for more Creative Spaces.