Author: Anne S

Brightening my life one stitch or one card at a time, and sharing my joy of needlework and card-making.
Christmas Ornaments, Cross Stitch, Finishes, Mill Hill, Prairie Moon, The Drawn Thread, Works in Progress

Works in Progress and an Ornie finish

Anne S

Not much to say today … I struggled with a migraine all of last week, with two full days spent in bed, so my computer time has been limited last week and I’m way behind with emails etc – hopefully I’ll manage to catch up over Easter 🙂

While I’ve been away from the PC, I’ve also been away from the TV this week, so yesterday was spent curled up in bed catching up on taped programs … then today I’ve been curled up in bed once again but this time watching Seasons 1 and 2 of The Tudors – such hardship 😉

Following are the latest WIP progress piccies of projects that are “on the go” …

A very blurry progress piccie of Merry Xmas by Prairie Moon

Joyeux Noel by The Drawn Thread (I added the snowman and started the border today)

And finally a small victory today compliments of The Tudors – a start and finish in one day, with another ornie hitting the “to be finished into ornies” pile 🙂

Mill Hill-Poinsettia Tiny Treasured Diamond
“Poinsettia – Tiny Treasured Diamond” by Mill Hill
stitched as kitted, with recommended fabric, thread and beads

And of course there’s also some commitment stitching that I can’t show just yet, until it’s been received, so here’s just a little teaser … and on that note it’s time to switch off for the night as it’s going to be a huge week at work this week thanks to skeleton staffing levels and more project deadlines that need to be completed prior to the Easter break.

Cross Stitch, Food, Gifts TO BE FIXED, Prairie Moon, Works in Progress

Profitable day and gifts

Anne S

I’ll start the post off by showing off some exquisite knitting that I received from my beautiful and talented friend Nicki as my birthday gift – and I totally adore it!!  How could I not?  The knitting is perfection itself, and the colour is so very “me” – it’ll be perfect for our Sydney winter for that extra bit of neck warmth.  Thanks again Nicki 😀

Also, I just realised that I haven’t posted my earlier birthday gifts yet – they arrived while I was flat out at work in February, and didn’t realise I hadn’t uploaded the piccie yet!  That doesn’t mean I love the gifts any less, ‘cos I absolutely adore everything … they’re all duckies!!!  I can’t believe Tessa found all these little lovelies on her travels – they’re fantastic additions to my duck collection, and they really put a smile on my face.  Thanks once again Tessa, for your beautiful and thoughtful gifts – I especially adore the framed duckie button, that’s an awesome idea, it’s just wonderful 😀

Both Nicki and Tessa were initially online friends, but then became real-life friends after meeting face-to-face (Nicki in Auckland, and Tessa in Melbourne) … life is a much brighter place with friends such as these lovely ladies 😀

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Now, before I get on to today’s achievements, here’s the latest stitching update of Merry Xmas by Prairie Moon – not sure if they look more like aliens rather than skeletons with those big eye sockets haha … alas I need a skein of Old Crow before I can fill those eyes in, so I’ll have to continue sticking with the white, cream, pink and red for a while longer 🙂

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After spending the day yesterday blobbing out playing computer games, watching TV and doing a little bit of stitching, today was a different story … partly helped by the extra hour in bed thanks to the clocks going back last night.  Today there has been no stitching to be had, but instead plenty of time spent in the kitchen … baking of all things!  Trying to use up some cupboard stocks (why on earth I have two big bags of coconut, etc I do not know!), I opted to bake items where I had to buy next-to-nothing and came up with the following (I know, Mum, this is ME … baking … whatever next?!!!):

Cinnamon Ginger Cake ready to go into the oven

Cinnamon Ginger Cake keeping company with Caramel Walnut Slice

The ultimate sin … cutting the cake before it’s 100% cold … but oh so scrummy!!!  😀
Another 1/4 of the cake went to my elderly downstairs neighbour as a treat

Then another quick trip over to the supermarket for some ‘odd’ items I didn’t have in stock, I sliced up some rump steak and whipped up some Asian-style marinade so it can stew in the fridge overnight … which means I’m having stir-fry tomorrow night – yum (admittedly the pre-mixed beef doesn’t quite look so yummy in the photo thanks to lumps of lemon grass and garlic LOL) 🙂

I can’t wait to cook this up tomorrow night!!! 😀

And to top the kitchen chores off, I pulled my finger out and prepared a couple of salad lunches for work Mon/Tue this week, and also chopped up some honeydew melon and rockmelon … hmmm, me thinks that a good start to eating more healthily this week! 😀

Cross Stitch, Works in Progress

Quick drive-by posting

Anne S

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 … 🙂

Canvaswork, Finishes, From Nancy's Needle

Crazy January Challenge #4

Anne S

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.

From Nancy's Needle-Lavender Blue Celtic Knot Quilt
“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! 😀

Canvaswork, From Nancy's Needle, Works in Progress

Canvaswork updae

Anne S

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 🙂

From-Nancy's-Needle-13Mar11
“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 🙂

Food, recipes

Cheese Crisps

Anne S

As promised earlier, here is the recipe for Cheese Crisps:

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

Cross Stitch, Finishes, Freebies, Heartstrings, Works in Progress

Stitching update

Anne S

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).

Bittersweet-Season

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.

The Stitcherhood-Autumn freebie

“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).

Food, recipes

Orange Liqueur Chocolate Tartlets

Anne S

As promised earlier, here is the recipe for these divine little morsels … a little bit fussy to make, but oh so worth it! 😀

Orange-Liqueur-Chocolate-Ta

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!)