My 14th Love Quilts Square

This square is for a little girl called Olivia who has autism, ADHD and minor heart defects. The chosen theme for her quilt was Tatty Teddy, which I've never seen as a quilt theme before!

I already had this Tatty Teddy kit at home called "Three Little Sailors" so I decided to use that. Because of the size limit, I decided to use one and then add a border.

I googled for the bunting border and found another border that had anchors at the corner, so I merged them together. It looks pretty darn cute if I do say so myself, but the backstitch was a bit extreme. It's all made up of tiny stitches and they're all in between stitches, rather than in the corners that would allow you to use the pre-made holes in the fabric! All in all though, the whole square only took 3 days in half term - and that wasn't 3 full days either!

Love Quilts Square no. 14

 

DMC Kit: Tatty Tatty - Three Little Sailors

So, naturally, I've decided to start the whole kit now - I was going to leave it for a while to have a break from the backstitch, but in the end I decided to do it while my memory on how I did it was relatively fresh. I think I'll leave the lighthouse bear for last though! 

I think now's a good time to share my next ongoing sewing project with you. I say "ongoing" because it is going to be a mammoth task. 

Some of you may know I recently celebrated my 30th birthday. *insert your own age joke here* My mum bought me the most amazing gift. She's had a cross stitch chart made of a photo from my wedding day!

Almost a year ago!

She said she was originally just looking for a photo of my bouquet on its own, but - unbelievably - there wasn't one. Mum's suggested that I keep it as on ongoing project and do other things on the side as well. 

My super organised mummy!

8 pages for the chart and umpteen different colours - think she might be onto something there! Lots of Stitch and Bitch meetings will be needed I feel! I'm excited to get started though 😄 

Macaroon or Macaron?

So today, my husband woke up with a burning desire to bake French Macarons for the first time. I've no idea why, but we tried it anyway. Now, bearing in mind that I don't have any macaron recipes so Bren amalgamated several recipes he found on the internet. Also consider that I've never even tasted a macaron, let alone made one.

All things considered: what's the worst that could happen?? 

Well, they turned out ok in the end. Well, that's what Bren says. I have nothing to compare it to but they do taste pretty good! 

First we made the meringue from egg whites and caster sugar. Then, we added some red food colouring to turn the mixture pink. We made the main mixture from ground almonds and sifted icing sugar, then folded that into the meringue. After that, we piped the mixture into circular discs onto baking trays (covered in baking paper) and banged the trays in the surface to release air bubbles. Of course, the discs are all different sizes, so let's say that's part of the charm! Then, we left them to rest on the side for half an hour before putting them in the oven for 15-20 minutes. 

Soft Peaks!

While they were baking in the oven, we made some strawberry buttercream filling from butter, caster sugar, milk and strawberry jam. Finally, Bren sandwiched the filling between two macaron discs and voilá! 

Bon Appetit! 

 Bren says that as far as macarons go, the mixture is good but the meringue is usually crispier. Again, I wouldn't know! Either way, was a pretty good experiment for a Saturday afternoon!

A Crafty Update

I realised the other day that I hadn't shared any of my creations for a while. Mainly because I was working on a surprise gift for Christmas and then forgot to share the pictures! I know you were all missing me...lol =D

The surprise Christmas gift was a cross stitch picture for Bren. His favourite console game as a child was Final Fantasy VII (yes, you could argue we're a pair of geeks...lol). So when I found this chart on Cloud Factory I thought of him!

It was quick and fun to stitch - even though I only know one of these characters, and that's because he was voiced by David Boreanaz in the Kingdom Hearts game !! I bought hand dyed fabric from Crafty Kitten - it was a cloud effect. I'm happy with how it turned out, and I think Bren liked it too! It's framed and sitting next to our computer now.

Final Fantasy VII: Cloud aka David Boreanaz and a bunch of other characters. lol

On the subject of Christmas, I managed to do different crafty projects. Most importantly, I FINALLY managed to finish that stocking hat I started 3 or 4 years ago! A truly momentous occasion! Of course, I suppose I could have finished it sooner if it wasn't for the fact that I would only work on it in the months of November or December. Otherwise, it didn't feel very Christmassy!! 

The stocking was made on a "sewing by numbers" basis. It consists of different numbered pieces of felt. After you cut out each piece, you may have to embroider, sequin or stuff it before you applique it to the main stocking. It's a completely different skill to cross stitching or dress making and my mum made several of these when I was younger so I wanted to try myself. I'm pretty darn pleased with how it turned out!

3 years in the making!

Aside from that, there's the traditional Christmas baking...

Christmas cake - fruit based covered in icing.

Homemade Mince Pies

Chocolate Orange Cupcakes, courtesy of my trusty Primrose Bakery Book

One of my favourite Christmas gifts this year was a breadmaking machine from my Mum. Sounds like the most random gift ever, but I find it hard to buy bread and pastries in the shops because I have to check the ingredients carefully for vinegar (which I'm allergic to). When you make your own bread, the vinegar is unnecessary! You can make so many things in a breadmaker -it's truly marvellous! So far, I've made Buttery Brioche bread, sandwich bread, pizza bases and iced buns. All you do is follow the recipe - put all the ingredients in the bread pan, set the machine and press start. If you're making a dough for pizzas or buns then you'll have to work the dough after, but if you're making a loaf of bread it's pretty much ready to eat once the machine bleeps.

Iced Buns. Not the most finessed of icing, but the buns lasted all of 4 hours before they were eaten!

Homemade Pizza: A lot bigger than it looks in the picture. Almost defeated me!

Buttery Brioche Bread: my favourite loaf (even if it has got lots of butter lol)

The last complete project I can show you is a decopatch mannequin that I've had for a while. I had a weekend where I was going down with the flu so I stayed in bed to rest, so I figured a bit of decopatch would be good, especially as you don't have to especially focus your eyes to do it - ideal when you're ill!
After a lot of consideration, I chose these patterned papers to create an effect of a cool skirt. If you've ever watched the Great British Sewing Bee, you'll know on the opening credits that girl swooshes that blue stripy skirt around...that's what I was thinking of!

I'm hoping to make a purple skirt similar to this soon! Although not in stripes. Stripes make me look weird.

As for my current ongoing projects: I'm working on a Tatty Teddy cross stitch for a Love Quilts square - that should be finished very soon so I'll be able to post pictures of that soon. I'm also working on another secret surprise gift, so I can't post that yet. I'm also updating my Alphabet Adventures Scrapbook - I need to add I is for Ireland and now L is for London (which we just did today!). My mum also gave me a mammoth cross stitch kit which I'll share in another blog post - I'm hoping to start soon after I've finished the secret surprise gift!