If...gifts

Gift ideas if...

I was feeling patriotic...

http://www.eternalmaker.com/london-scenic-stamp-set-yellow-owl-workshop

If I had bigger boobs

http://www.eternalmaker.com/the-ashland-dress-sewing-pattern-by-sew-liberated

if I had a small child to sew for...

http://www.eternalmaker.com/music-class-blouse-skirt-pattern-oliver-s

If I could still sew tapestries...

http://www.saintsandpinners.co.uk/product/nancy_nicholson_cat_stitch_kit_/

If I wanted some colour...

http://www.saintsandpinners.co.uk/product/spots_/

If the fabric fairies are listening...

http://www.thevillagehaberdashery.co.uk/sewing-patchwork/fabric-stacks/build-a-bundle-chicopee

If i needed to prod somebody ;)...

http://www.thevillagehaberdashery.co.uk/sewing-patchwork/notions-tools/misc/straight-tailor-s-awl

xxx

Living the Dream: Village Haberdashery

I am sure there is a little part of every fabric lover that dreams of a bricks and mortar shop, it is going to remain as fantasy for me but for Annie of Village Haberdashery she is living the dream as she expands her business bricks and mortar as well as online.  Time to drool for fabric, yarn and embroidery fans...

I swear I would explode if this shop was near me: Anna Maria Horner and Denyse Schmidt are in the building- please Annie, think of opening a Southwest branch!

Next weekend there is a special open weekend before the business opens in the new year.  The London Modern Quilt Guild will be on hand and have your pennies at the ready- there is a generous sale shelf including the newly added Nursery Versery.

Something for everyone...

I would be there but I have a prior date with Amanda and Danielle which I am looking forward to hugely.  Wishing my best to Annie in this new venture and have a great time to those that go!

You will find The Village Haberdashery at 47 Mill Lane, West Hampstead, London

Wordless Wednesday Winter Quilt

xxx

Can you help Fabricate?

Hello from another Kerry! Kerry has very kindly granted me a guest post today to tell you about my modern quilting magazine project, Fabricate.

Fabricate is set to be a monthly magazine for modern quilters here in the UK. We haven’t really got a magazine tuned into contemporary trends for patchworkers for reasons I can’t really go into too much, so I decided to take the bull by the horns and try to do something about it!

I know a magazine is hard work- I used to be the editor of one. I graduated in Publishing a few years ago, before I had ever expressed an interest in quilting myself, however I’ve been crafting since I was very small. Nowadays you can find me at the PennyDog Patchwork blog where that’s pretty much all I do now. I love quilting and I know there’s a lot of us in the UK who do too- 33,000 people attended the Festival of Quilts last year alone and I'm pretty sure we’re not all traditionally minded.

The reason I'm appealing to you now is that I need to raise £5000- or $8200 including fees- before the end of December in order to rent shelf space with WHSmiths and make the project worthwhile. If I can’t fund this then it can’t be a reality. It’s a really rubbish time of year to try but to get my launch date of 21st March which will hit the Sewing for Pleasure show and also the Easter weekend when craft magazine sales are at their highest, it needs to be done now. I have a meeting with my distributor on 20th December so it would be great to be able to give them a definite answer by then!

So if you have $1 spare (about 65p) then it would be very welcome, however I am offering early subscriptions, one off copies by post and even advance advertising at reduced rates just to try and hit this target. Can you help? Please tell your friends and keep up with the progress at http://www.indiegogo.com/fabricate

Would you like a free project? I've got a file over on the Indiegogo page for the above clock project, or you can put your email address in on www.fabricatemag.co.uk and I will email it over to you.

Have a great Christmas!

Day one...

Start of advent and a tingly feeling of excitement (and a little fear) for Christmas coming so soon.  Advent stockings sewn years and years ago come out again and have been filled with chocolate are ready for Lula.  Damian bought us each a card calendar too- I adore these, no chocolate, just nostalgic Victorian scenes, cherubs and an excess of robins.   I wanted one so much as a child that I would create my own out of plain paper and felt tips, preparing little scenes underneath the tiny window.  I finished my winter quilt but there never seems to be sufficient daylight to photograph it and now it is crinkled with use and has the usual cat and dog fur clinging to it!  You can see it under these pics.  It is well loved on these chilly, dark evenings.

I don't buy many Christmas cards and so for the few I do purchase I fancied something different.  These little  letter press drink mats (perfect for a beer) can be found in the Little Red Press Etsy shop alongside some extremely tempting Keep Calm and Make a List notebooks and other fancy paper goods.

And these cuties came beautifully packaged from another UK Etsy seller, Charlotte Vallence.  She has some beautiful prints and cards for sale, The Amsterdam greetings cards are so charming and the mini silk screen Union Jack in green and pink is so a favourite colour combination for me and a lovely take on the flag.  Both these card ideas were random finds on Etsy and I was so pleased with them.  Meanwhile, a big stack of fabric squares is calling me, and I know you are busy too, in the midst of gift making and thoughts of presents, wrapping and how it will all be done in time

Tutorial up at Sew-Ichigo

I have just posted a quick and easy tutorial for a 'Noel Tree' mini quilt at Sew-Ichigo - just saying...

Kerry's Very Berry Christmas Cake

A rare departure from sewing into baking.  I am not a domestic goddess, apart from in my head, but I do like to bake.  Every year I attempt to make a great Christmas cake, starting early and feeding with booze, and every year come Christmas eve when I break into it I am a little disappointed that it is too dry or just not right, so this year did a test run and adapted a recipe so much to the point where it was completely different from the original and I was so happy with the result.  It is golden, sticky, fruity and moist.  I add marzipan cubes to the mixture which for a marzipan lover like me is glorious but feel free to omit.  It is not a bake ahead cake- I will mine in mid December for Christmas but like any rich fruit cake it will keep for a couple of weeks.  I made a half recipe to test it and it came out fine with a smaller tin and reduced cooking time.  I made mine dairy free with Pure Sunflower seed spread rather than butter or margarine but they will all work equally well.

Ingredients

200g Pure spread/butter/margarine

100g raisins

200g glace cherries halved

100g dried sour cherries

100g sweetened dried cranberries

200g sultanas

Zest and juice of 1 orange

50ml Marsala/sherry/brandy

250g light brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

4 large eggs

200g Self Raising Flour

100g ground almonds

1 tblspn mixed sweet spice

250g Marzipan

1. Cube marzipan into 1/2" chunks and place on tray in freezer. 

2.  Heat oven to 160c/140.  Line 20cm cake tin with parchment paper extending the lining an inch above the tin.  (I used the same size tin with half the quantities and it worked fine for me).

3 . Place all dried fuit in a pan with alcohol, orange juice and zest, bring to the boil and cook briefly until the liquid has evaporated.

4. In a large bowl, cream sugar and fat until light and fluffy.  Add eggs, vanilla.  Then almonds, flour and spice.  Then add fruit mixture and finally the marzipan cubes from freezer and stir well.  It is quite a wet mixture!

5.  Spoon into tin and level out the  top.  Bake for 1hour 20 mins- depending on your oven.   If your oven is fierce you can place a loose square of baking foil over the top of the tin to shield the top of the cake.  Check with skewer or use hard spaghetti to test the centre.  A half quantity mixture took 60 mins in my at 140c in my fan oven but it is a fast oven!  

Hope it works for you x