To Bead ...

I suddenly got inspired to create a necklace for a Birthday pressie.

I used black and white glass beads, along with plastic metal look bead, AB round beads & small black round beads.  Tiger tail, antiqued silver crimps & a toggle clasp.

To construct the necklace I used a random pattern to place the beads along the piece of tiger tail.

To Cook ...

So I decided to try using one of the flan pan's I bought before Christmas last night in making something for the office.

I had bought a home-brand chocolate cake mix, some butter puff pastry & a tin of pear halves.  It was a very basic thing to put together.

I first semi defrosted 2 sheets of puff pastry and molded then to the pan shape. I then blind baked the pastry with rice as weights.  I found that this doesn't always cook the bottom, so after it had been blind baked I then removed the rice weight and placed it back in the oven.  This of course made the pastry puff up from the base, but this was okay. Why? I hear you ask? Well I then used the damp tea towel to gently press the base flat, like you would if you were making the pastry layer for a Vanilla Slice.

I had already drained and sliced up 4 pear halves. All that was needed was the cake mix to be done.  With that done I proceeded to layer up my flan/tart. Firstly I spread a thin layer of cake batter over the base of the pastry. Then I placed the sliced pear all along the pan, and top filled with some more cake batter.  Baked it for about 25 mins, and this is how it looked. It was very light, not too sweet and yummy!!

To Craft!

Okay so this post is going to combine 3 things I've crafted. One very recent, one not so recent, and the other quite a while ago.

So I should start with the item I crafted quite a while ago.  This was a free form pouch that I Sashiko stitched after I finished the bag.  I needed something to keep my usb cord & memory cards in for my camera, as they were starting to scratch the screen.  I already have a camera case but this was to go inside it, as my camera is small and the case was just that little, okay make that a lot too big.

The next item is something I made for my niece's 3rd Birthday.  She has been wanting to help out in the kitchen for a while now, so I though it only fair that she have her very own apron. I used a heavier calico, pale pink tape and some ribbon Mum & I found at the Australasian Quilting Convention in April this year.  The pattern comes from ... (To be advised).  It was very easy to sew, the tricky part for me was attaching the ribbon.  I had to make sure it was straight and didn't move while I was sewing the side seams together.  So I used a number of pins, and did prick myself a number of times while turning it out! The same thing applied to the tape for the straps and the 'D' rings at the side.  I also stitched the ribbon down along the long side, once I had turned the apron out the right way, to make sure it stayed straight! This was the first time I had sewed an apron pattern too.

I also hand stitched my niece's name on the pocket in pink variegated DMC cotton. You can't see it on the photo, because I took the photo before I did it.

An the final item is another Chook! It will have a twin, I just haven't finished it yet.  I made this for a friend at work for her Birthday, as she requested them!

To Craft...

Okay so I started out this year with a project for a friend at work who was moving out of home for the first time & setting up her apartment.  I decided that I would make her some place-mats & coasters for her new dinning table, then also decided I'd make her a heat mat too.  I asked her what colours she wanted, which ended up being brown, red & black.

On my Christmas break in Noosa I had discussed this idea with my Mum, and she had a couple of patterns that I could choose from.  I decided on a large hexagon pattern, as I thought it was unusual and would suit Mariel.  So when I got back, off I went to the fabric shop looking for the colours and designs I had in mind.  It did take me a few goes to find the exact material to use. I also needed to decide what weight wadding I wanted to use, I chose a fairly light weight one, and it seemed to be the right decision when I started sewing.

So I was making 4 place-mats and 4 coasters out of hexagons.  I cut out all the material and the wadding for the 4 place-mats and 4 coasters. I ended up cutting out 32 6.5", 32 7" & 32 7.5" hexagons! I know it's not much in the scheme of things, but to a newbie quilter, it's a huge amount! I also decided that the centre hexi for the place-mat's would be boarded red instead of black to tie in with the red boarded coasters. I started out hand sewing the hexagons, and had almost completed one place-mat before I decided to see if I could do a good enough job using the sewing machine instead. Turns out I could! Which was a relief to me, 'cos I really wasn't enjoying the experience.

That was when I decided that I could also sew across the hexies to stabilise the 3 layers.  I decided to different things for the place-mats and coasters.  So the coasters ended up with black thread and point to point across the hexi, then red centre hexies also had red thread side to side too.The place-mat hexi's ended up with black thread and point to point only.

I also decided that I could do different things with sewing the boarders down.  So again used red & black thread and after the initial run of sewing the side down, stitched a second row on the red centre ones & on the coasters a third line of stitching.  Once I had done all that and then finished off all the ends I was ready to sew the place-mats together.  Which ended up being a lot easier than I thought.

Once all the hexagons had been sandwiched together and sewn down, I needed to design the heat mat. I had to figure out measurements, so had asked Mariel to measure her largest baking dish, so that I could make sure the heat mat would fit under it.  I started out with those exact measurements, but forgot to include the seam allowances and the fact that it would get smaller when it was filled with the rice & spices.  I used calico and stitched in channels to fill so it would displace the heat evenly.  I filled the channels with brown rice, whole cloves, allspice & cinnamon sticks. I then made the cover, which is removable for ease of cleaning to match the dining set.

Then Mum & I went to the Australasian Quilting Convention and found this fabulous pattern for a "Chookie Oven Mit" by Bella Embroidery Designs in Queensland.  We both saw it and said that would be a great addition to my present. So we bought it and I put one together.  It was hardest to sew on the binding for the round edge of the bottom.  It was the only thing I didn't initially sew myself. It's not perfect but it was my first attempt.

Anyway I am very pleased with the end results and Mariel was pleased too.

To Craft ...

... and these are the newest additions to my Craft Book Library!

To Cook ...

These are the newest editions to my Cook Book Library.

To Cook ... Again!

Okay so this one took me a couple of days. The only reason being is I don't have a food processor, so crumbing biscuits is done by hand, and well it took a while!

 These are delicious!!  The good thing about them is I can't eat more than two at a time, so they will last for a while!

I have to confess to not reading the recipe properly, I didn't chop the dates before heating them with the sugar & butter. So it took a little longer for them to break down enough, but they worked out anyway!

I thought about making them big, but in the end decided I'd roll them to the size of a large marble.

This is the link to the recipe for Aimees Marie Biscuit and Date Balls.