Extreme Patchworking Tutorial

Okay... Turns out it's not called "Extreme Patchworking". It's called "Cathedral Windows". There's a fabulous tutorial here . Thanks very much to Louise for sharing that. This is the way I did it, I'm making a little make-up bag. Feel free to give it a go and share your finished products!

1. Start by cutting 24 8cm squares. Fold square in half and sew up the sides as pictured.

2. Bring the ends of the sewn seams together and sew the opposite sides together, leaving a small opening so you can turn it out.

3. Turn it right side out and fold the opening in so that it can't be seen. Don't worry about sewing it back up, it will be turned under later on. I would suggest not doing your opening in either of the corners or in the centre-those bits are quite important geometrically...

4. Iron your squares down. Your iron is your friend with this project.

5. This is where it gets quite fun and foldy. Take your newly ironed squares and bring the corners to the centre, making a new, smaller square.

6. Sew the corners down to the centre with a couple of tiny stitches.

7. Sew your squares together, using tiny slip stitches . Each side of the make-up case comprises of 3 rows of 4 squares.

8. Make the "Windows" by folding back the edges of the cross-folds and carefully stitching down. They naturally make that lovely curved shape with hardly any coaxing.

9. Sew in your zip and there you have it! The pros of the project so far are-great for using up small pieces of fabric, it's fun folding and manipulating the fabric and the result is very textural and interesting, and you don't need any lining. Cons are-very very fiddly, and you have to keep your stitches so neat and tiny, but still very enjoyable and worthwhile and definitely much simpler than it looks! Happy stitching xx

Something Different

Merry Christmas for yesterday everyone. I hope your day was, like mine, filled with smiley children, wonderful food, surprises and a little bit of magic.

Over the last few days I've been watching my Mum as she makes progress with her holiday project. (Like myself and so many of us crafty types, she needs something to keep her fingers busy in every possible quiet moment.)This technique is quite fascinating-sort of a patchworky fabric foldy type process. We've named it "Extreme Patchworking".

Here Mum's using a sturdy canvas type fabric. I think it's going to be a bag when it's finished. But you could use it for anything really-I'm thinking scarves, wall hangings, purses, cushions...

It looks like it would use a lot of fabric but the beauty is that no lining is required, the technique is such that there are no raw edges exposed. I just had to give it a go- I've done three squares so far and if I can produce anything worthwhile I will definitely do a tutorial. Extreme Patchworking... My Mum is cool.

Lemon Curd

My absolute favourite thing to spread on toast, in the whole world, is Lemon Curd. I made some today, to give as Christmas presents.

I used the last of the lemons from my tree. I think the best Lemon Curd uses fresh lemon juice. Isn't it the most wonderful colour?

Lemon Curd Recipe

Ingredients

9 large eggs

360ml fresh lemon juice

450grams white sugar

165grams butter

3 tablespoons lemon zest

Method

In a stainless steel bowl, placed over a saucepan of simmering water, whisk together the eggs, sugar and lemon juice until blended.

Cook, stirring constantly to prevent curdling.

Cook until thick, and pale coloured.

Remove from heat and whisk in the butter, cubed. Add lemon zest, pour into jars and cool.

This Year's Swap.

What do you call them? Jandals? Flipflops? Thongs? Depends on where abouts you are in the world I guess...

These are my contribution to the Kiwi Christmas Ornament Swap 2009. You can check out the pictures from the swap here.

Last year I made my Speckled Angels, but this year I was feeling a bit more Kiwiana inspired.

And, unknown to me, I was creating something almost impossible to photograph!

But there you have it.

So much more fun than drying dishes...

Instead, why not cut up your tea towel to make an iconic softie? This is a commission project that I'm proud to say I completed in a week. If you're not familiar with Kiwi birds, they are a flightless and somewhat strange looking but nonetheless very sweet native New Zealand bird. The brief was to create a kiwi from a New Zealand map, ensuring that the Whakatane was in a prominent place. You may remember the NZ Map train from a while ago?

Right-I'm off to finish my decorations for the great swap! Looking great so far everyone! I just lOVE those colourful birds. Mine are going to be less traditional, but very New Zealandy-I think the Kiwi above has reignited my love for Aotearoa xx