Here is my choice for this week’s “ABC Wednesday” – brought to you by the Letter “K” … K is for the Old Village of Kakopetria in Cyprus:
And this week’s “one I prepared earlier, stitchy/crafty content” is “Kitty Klaus” ornament:
Month: March 2011
Quick drive-by posting
As normal, I’m running late this morning, so this is just a really quick posting with my latest WIP piccies – one a commitment piece for Katie’s Christmas gift (2010!), and another of my Crazy January Challenge pieces (LHN’s Ladybug Ladybug) – alas the LHN piece needs one of the small leaves to be frogged due to my own stupidity and stitching when I’m too tired … but that won’t take long. Mum’s been asking after my stitching, so I’ve made an effort to take a couple of quick piccies 🙂
I have more commitment stitching to do this weekend for gifts/exchanges, so alas I may not have much stitching to show for a while … and on that note, really gotta run … 🙂
ABC Wednesday – J
Here is my choice for this week’s “ABC Wednesday” – brought to you by the Letter “J” … “J is for Jail cells” at the Old Melbourne Gaol:
And this week’s “one I prepared earlier, stitchy/crafty content” is Pacific Pohutukawa by “Jen’s Jems”:
Crazy January Challenge #4
I’ve been in a lot of physical pain with my leg this week, which has meant having to keep it elevated with an icepack on it … the perfect position being sat up in bed … which means the perfect position for stitching, and the chance to complete my canvaswork project. This also means finish #4 for my Crazy January Challenge for the year.
“Lavender Blue Celtic Knot Quilt” by From Nancy’s Needle
canvaswork stitched with recommended threads
(and the project uses almost ALL the thread skeins in total)
It also means plenty of TV viewing time so I’ve started watching season 1 of The Tudors today – along with a few other TV shows I’ve had taped from during the week … all-in-all a very lazy and relaxing couple of days! 😀
ABC Wednesday – I is for Iguana
Here is my choice for this week’s “ABC Wednesday” – brought to you by the Letter “I” … I is for Iguana:
And this week’s “one I prepared earlier, stitchy/crafty content” is “It’s Halloween” by The Drawn Thread (stitched back in 2007 when I was housesitting in Melbourne):
Canvaswork updae
My weekend plans didn’t quite go as planned, so instead I sat in my room and got some ‘needle’ practice in … and loved every little stitch. Here’s how my canvaswork piece looks like after a full day today and a few hours yesterday (inbetween sleeping half the day) … another 1-2 weeks and this one will be finished 🙂
“Lavender Blue Celtic Knot Quilt” by Nancy’s Needle
And after that quick little preview, it’s time to settle in for the night and my final 1/2 hour of stitching … then it’s back to hydrotherapy in the morning 🙂
ABC Wednesday – H … and some stitching
Here is my choice for this week’s “ABC Wednesday” – brought to you by the Letter “H” … Hong Kong trams:
And this week’s “one I prepared earlier, stitchy/crafty content” is a Hardanger doily from a class I took in Auckland (unfortunately the shop is no longer in existence, for I spent many an hour and many a dollar in that shop!!):
And just because I can’t be bothered typing up a second post ‘cos I’m getting tired (I didn’t get home from work until almost 9pm tonight), here’s my latest stitching update … one of my Crazy January Challenge projects … I’m loving stitching this one – the only problem is that once it’s finished I’m going to get a serious urge to start another canvaswork one straightaway, so it’s going to take some willpower not to! 😉 Alas the photo is washed out due to dreary non-daylight lighting, but what the heck …
Cheese Crisps
As promised earlier, here is the recipe for Cheese Crisps:
1/2 cup self-raising flour
1/2 cup grated fresh parmesan cheese
60g butter
2 teaspoons paprika
Filling:
1/2 cup grated havarti cheese
1 1/2 tablespoons cream
2 teaspoons chopped fresh basil
Sift flour into bowl, stir in cheese. Rub in butter, press mixture firmly together into a ball (or process all ingredients to form a ball, which is what I did). Cover, refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Roll pastry between sheets of greaseproof paper until 3mm thick. Cut 2 1/2 cm rounds from pastry, place onto lightly greased oven trays, sprinkle half the rounds with paprika. Bake in moderately hot oven for about 8 minutes or until lightly browned; cool on trays. Sandwich plain and paprika topped crisps with filling.
Filling: Stand cheese in bowl at room temperature for 30 minutes. Beat in cream and basil, beat until smooth. (In fact I blended my ingredients in a mini food processor, which ensured I got a nice smooth consistency with the basil flavour being distributed nice and evenly.)
Makes about 45
Stitching update
I’ve managed a tiny bit of stitching over the last few nights, including finishing all the actual stitching on Bittersweet Seasons – all I need now is to buy some little gold embellishments for it (a tiny gold star and bell) then it’s totally finished. It’s hard to pick up the little details such as the beads and metallics, but I’ve tried to capture it as well as I can in the below photos (although when I do compilations there is a lot of quality lost in the conversion).
Then, after a trip to Spotlight yesterday afternoon to pick up the DMC thread I have mislaid (so, what’s new??), I put the finishing stitches into the Autumn freebie that I started last year.
“Autumn” freebie by The Stitcherhood LLC
Stitched on 32ct hand-dyed Belfast linen by Countrystitch ~ colour Merino
with recommended DMC threads
(the chart is still available here)
I’m not sure what happened to the photo of this one – the fabric is a beautiful mottled creamy fabric, not the putty-like colour that is showing in the above photo!! I hope to turn this into a little pillow soon, which is timely considering we are now officially in the first week of Autumn here “down under” and it’ll be nice to have it on display (gee I’m so sorry to say farewell to Sydney’s summer … not …).
Now I guess it’s back to the Drawn Thread Joyeux Noel, although I have to admit I’m really not enjoying stitching that one in the slightest – which is disappointing, as I’ve had the urge to stitch this one for the longest time … I’m tempted, instead, to do an hour or so of one of my Crazy January Challenge projects, as unfortunately they’ve been taking a back seat just lately while I’ve been finishing up some older WIPs … I’m starting to think I have bitten off more than I can chew this year what with both the CJC and my personal challenge of two ornies per month ho-hum (not to mention some other commitment pieces that aren’t able to form part of my CJC!) 😦
Talking of which, I also need to kit up my two March Christmas ornies, and make a start on Katie’s Christmas gift from last year plus get cracking on my outstanding PIFs from last year.
In the meantime, though, it feels really good to finally get a couple of WIPs from last year into the finishing pile (even if one does still need its embellishments).
Orange Liqueur Chocolate Tartlets
As promised earlier, here is the recipe for these divine little morsels … a little bit fussy to make, but oh so worth it! 😀
1 1/4 cups (185g) plain flour
1/4 cup (25g) cocoa
125g cold butter, chopped
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon iced water, approx
Filling:
300ml thickened cream
1 2/3 cups (250g) White (chocolate) Melts
2 tablespoons Grand Marnier
1 tablespoon grated orange rind
Candied Rind:
1 medium (180g) orange
1/2 cup (110g) caster sugar
1/4 cup (60ml) water
Sift flour and cocoa into bowl, rub in butter, add egg yolk and enough water to make ingredients cling together (or make pastry in processor, which is what I did). Press dough into a ball, knead gently on lightly floured surface until smooth, cover; refrigerate 30 minutes.
Divide pastry in half. Roll each half between sheets of baking paper until 1mm thick (mine were about 2mm thick ‘cos I’m obviously not an expert roller!!). Cut pastry into 5cm fluted rounds, press rounds into 5 x 12 hole tiny tartlet trays (3 teaspoon capacity) (note I used mini muffin tins – so they didn’t sit as ‘flat’ as the recipe suggests, but they still held their shape well and held the filling beautifully). Prick pastry bases with skewer; refrigerate 30 minutes. Bake pastry cases in moderately hot oven (200-210C; 400-425F; Gas Mark 5) about 7 minutes or until crisp; cool.
Spoon filling into piping bag fitted with small star tube (which I couldn’t find, so I had to use a plain round piping nozzle). Pipe filling into pastry cases; top with candied rind (which I didn’t bother with because a lot of people don’t like it).
Filling: Heat cream in small pan until boiling, pour over White chocolate Melts in bowl, stir until White Melts have melted. Stir in liqueur and rind; refrigerate until firm. Beat mixture with electric mixer until fluffy; do not over-beat (mixture should resemble whipped cream).
Candied Rind: Using a vegetable peeler, peel rind thinly from orange. Cut rind into very thin strips. Combine sugar and water in small pan, stir over heat, without boiling, until sugar dissolves. Add rind, simmer, uncovered, about 5 minutes or until mixture is syrupy. Remove rind from syrup, place on greased tray, separate strips of rind.
Makes about 60
(in my case because the pastry was rolled a little thicker, I managed to get 42 nicely, but then ran out of baking tins anyway!)
Feather Stitching 