This Sunday (24th June) I shall be exhibiting at We’ll Meet Again being held at Chasewater Railway and organised by Always Red Events.
They’ve been blogging interviews with the exhibitors and you can read mine here.
I’m really looking forward to displaying all my lovely textiles that are for sale, putting on a fifties frock and talking to lots of lovely customers.
And look at this amazing advert that they’ve made!
Now I must get on with the making!
Posted in textiles
Each week I go down to CoCoMeli Bakery in Lichfield and make some cupcakes which are then sold on the market stall. (Also available for order, just contact me!)
Here are what I’ve made in the last few weeks…
Cherry, vanilla and mocha…
Jubilee raspberry and blueberry and Earl Grey tea…
Strawberry and lemon…
Peanut butter and chocolate and apple crumble and custard…
Raspberry and Jaffa Cake…
Rhubarb and custard and cherry Bakewell…
And finally marbled chocolate and vanilla and red velvet.
My lovely friend Shawn asked me to make him a Kindle cover, after seeing the Union Jack version I had made Rachel. This was a little bit of a challenge as my style is usually very girly and not quite to Shawn’s taste. But with a decision to use the blue and green gingham I came up with this idea to use fifties inspired florals. The abstract plats were machine free embroidered onto the patchworked fabric before being stitched together on the felt and adding corduroy button and ribbon fastening.
Shawn has also been requesting lots of bunnies! He says for his son but he might just be collecting them for himself! Though he did say this pink one here was for a little one and is button free and printed instead.
Faith also asked for a bunny and a cat and a panda, these are what I came up with!
I also made some kitsch patriotic bunting! And then made a smaller version for myself which is now up in the living room. I particularly like how it’s hooked over The Clash vinyl!
A couple of weeks a go I finally got myself a silk screen and some printing inks and I very excitedly got to work creating some printed projects.
I ended up printing two mini collections which I plan to add to over the next couple of months.
The first is inspired by all the muddy veg we get from the farm and has vegetable printed as if they are in the ground with a stitched line for the soil.
The allotment collection is available here and currently consists of aprons, napkins and bags and more tea towels soon.
The second collection is my Jubilee themed tea party, this time with printed tableware and a stitched table cloth.
You can purchase this print on tea towels, aprons, tea cosys and coffee cosys, see them all here.
A couple of weeks ago the lovely Rachel asked me if I could make here a cover for her Kindle and judging by her tweets I figured now was the perfect time to play with making a Union Jack out of fabrics.
So I did, using a blue gingham and red polka dot fabrics to applique to a white backing fabric, wiggly red ribbon too.
The cover/pouch is lined with white felt which is great to pad the case and give the kindle some protection whilst in a handbag without being big and bulky. The back felt is covered in blue polka dot fabric and it closes with a ribbon loop and red heart button.
I’m liking the slightly rustic looking Union Jack and since this is a Jubilee year it’s the perfect time to add some more Union Jacks to my range of products and maybe even some more gadget cases and covers.
And don’t forget if you have any ideas that you think I could make don’t hesitate to get in touch!
My little sister was 20 yesterday, 20 I can’t believe it! I ended up making a giant cake, the 3 layers all rose higher than I expected them too! Vanilla sponge covered in a thick layer of chocolate buttercream and decorated with fondant icing letters, chocolate stars, glitter and silver balls.
Is this just what you need after a 3 course lunch, a slice of a cake this tall!
I made the vanilla sponge from Hummingbird Bakery Cake Days doubling the recipe for 12 cupcakes to make the 3 layers, this creates a lovely moist sponge, and went for chocolate icing partly for taste and partly so that the white letters would stand out on the top without me colouring the icing.
You do get huge slices of cakes though, just perfect for a celebration cake!
The other cake that Phil kept suggesting when I asked what cake he’d like for his birthday was a fruit cake but not a Christmas cake fruit cake or one that has nuts, I went with the ginger cake because it was more festive but this makes a lovely treat with a cup of tea on a Sunday afternoon.
Ingredients
Tagged brown sugar, butter, cake, cherries, cranberries, eggs, flour, lemon juice, milk, raisins, sultanas
Last week it was Phil’s birthday so of course he needed a cake, he requested a Jamaican Ginger Cake and believing it to be more of a brand name for a sticky ginger cake, I found this one from BBC Food and set to work.
I pretty much followed the recipe except for a couple of things I baked it in a 6inch square tin instead of the 7inch round for no reason other than that’s what I had available. Then I also mixed it all using kitchen appliances, rubbing-in was done in the food processor then every thing was mixed in the freestanding mixture as my left hand was bandaged up from my fight with a sewing machine and it was just the easiest way to get it mixed.
Plus that’s my lovely friend Kerry’s excellent icing as I was otherwise engaged frying bhajis and samosas!
The cake went down well, really sticky and gooey from the amount of sugar, syrup and treacle in it and just the right amount of spice. This is definitely on the list to make again sometime!
Tagged bicarbonate of soda, brown sugar, butter, cinnamon, flour, ginger, milk, mixed spice, stem ginger, syrup, treacle
Wednesday 29th of February 2012, after sitting at my sewing machine sewing away all day to make a tea cosy and apron set at about 3.30pm I though hey the machines out lets tackle a couple of those fix, make fit better jobs, you know the ones that linger in the sewing box or the dress that stays in the wardrobe because it just needs a little pinch or tuck to fit better. After pinning and adjusting a strap on a summer dress to fit I get sewing the 10cm strip of fabric, about a centimetre from the end, there was a bit of a crash, I felt a pinch in my finger and pulled my hand out. On closer inspection I realised the needle had gone into my finger and the end was still there!
Here you can see how the machine needle is bent from the force of me pulling my hand out of the way!
It didn’t hurt that much, though when I looked to see if I could get it out myself I realised touching the end of my finger was far too painful! It had gone in through my nail and I could just see the point of the needle behind my skin on my fingertip.
My first reaction was to tweet though!
I’ve just sewn my finger into my sewing, broke the needle and currently have the broken bit stuck in my finger, ouch!
3:49 PM – 29 Feb 12
After a bit of panicking as I was home alone and didn’t know what to do, I did realise I needed to get some help and got myself to Samuel Johnson Hospital to Minor Injuries where I waited and was unfortunately seen just after 5pm and since X-ray closes at 5 needed to go to A&E instead.
At least at this point Phil had finally decided to answer his phone and he was able to take me to Good Hope Hospital in Sutton. We got there at 6pm, the needle had been in my finger for 2 hours at this point!
At Good Hope my finger was x-rayed and then we could see that the needle was actually stuck in the edge of my bone! Then I had to wait for the Orthopeadic Doctor and that took ages!
Eventually the doctor did come down, they looked at the x-ray and decided to numb my finger, make an incision on my fingertip where the needle point could just be seen and pull it out!
So they did but there wasn’t enough needle to grab to pull it from so in the end it was pushed through using a needle and out it came. Phew, only 5hours after it went in!
I was re-x-rayed to check it had all gone and bandaged up and sent on my way with some antibiotics.
Almost 2 weeks later my bandage is off, it’s healing up but you can still see where it went through my nail and where I’m going to end up with a scar! Plus the end of my finger is still regaining it’s feeling, it’s all pins and needle-y!
Well I’m way behind on blogging, I don’t really know where I’ve been a bit of sewing, a bit of jamming my finger in the sewing machine and taking a trip to A&E, oh and attending the Prince’s Trust Enterprise course with my ideas to become self-employed!
A month a go, yes a month now I made red velvet cupcakes for Valentine’s day I’d made a red velvet layer cake before, though it wasn’t very red as I used natural food colouring, this time however I had a pot of gel food colouring and wow, it was red!
Look at that red sponge!
I like making red velvet cake as it’s such a different sponge mix to normal, the buttermilk, the mix of vinegar and bicarbonate of soda, I think I make have put slightly too much air in whilst mixing because although the recipe said makes 12-16 and I made 16, I still had some that tried to escape the cases!
A swirl of cream cheese frosting and some gold edible glitter and lots of yummy valentines treats!
Tagged bicarbonate of soda, butter, buttermilk, cake, cocoa, cream cheese, eggs, red colouring, red velvet, sugar, vanilla extract, vinegar
