Knit a pet?

A couple of years ago, I started this cute as, knitted border collie that I never got around to finishing until just last week.  I think people have called them UFOs - UnFinished Objects, so finishing it is kind of hard to believe! The pattern was in a book called Best in Show knit your own dog by Sally Muir and Joanna Osborne.

It only stands about 10cm tall, so there wasn't alot of knitting to it, I just put it away and didn't come back to it. I only had a few small pieces left to finish (like ears, and tail) so without too much trouble, I soon had a little mound of knitted pieces and loose tails (no pun intended). Once I laid them out, I could see the parts that would make up the whole.

 

With a bit of stitching up of the body, it started to take shape even more so.

And before I knew it, the puppy had been born! 

                                                 Why did I take so long to finish it??? 

 

An Eton Mess...

Rhubarb Eton Mess no less!
An Eton Mess is an English dessert essentially made up of crushed meringue, fruit and whipped cream.
This variation consisted of poached rhubarb, meringue with ground pepperberries, fresh strawberries, and white chocolate ganache - the idea was in Delicious magazine.

The rhubarb, I should add, came to me from my sister whose neighbour grew the beautiful crop. You just have to do something special with such lovely home grown produce.

Kiwi fruit sorbet!

Autumn and winter is the season for kiwifruit! A funny old fruit with its furry brown skin, that I hadn't entirely embraced for its taste or variety of uses. But a kind friend had given away some of her harvest when we visited and well, it was an offer too good to refuse.

It was my sister, though, who discovered THE BEST way to use kiwi fruit. She served me a dessert that was sublime.

Kiwi fruit sorbet. 

Make a sugar syrup with 150g of sugar and 150ml boiling water. When cold, blend this with 450g kiwi fruit pulp, juice of 2 lemons zest of 1 lemon.
Strain to remove most of the seeds, chill and then either freeze, and re-blend, or churn in an icecream maker.

To serve, a scoop or two on a plate with a contrast of vanilla ice-cream and a few slices of fresh kiwi fruit and some fresh blueberries.

It is AMAZING!!! I'm inspired to try a dessert on this theme, with maybe a layer of lemon ice-cream, kiwi fruit jelly, making a kiwi fruit gel would be interesting for a sauce too. Throw in a layer of sponge or a crunchy meringue layer...so many options. I now embrace the kiwi fruit possibilities!

Rasperry, Lychee, White Chocolate & Honey...

Cake? Torte? Layered extravaganza? Damn nice, that's what it was!

A Madonna costume...

The John-Paul Gaultier cone corsets would have to be one of the most iconic costumes that Madonna has worn. So with a group of us going to the concert and the call out to wear something suitably "Madonna-esque" I decided to take on the challenge.

I didn't start till just a few days before so I spent a fair bit of time thinking about how I'd tackle it. Purchasing the fabric and other bits and pieces didn't take long - it was just a rush of two nights sewing at the end!

But when I went to start, I couldn't get my head around what shape to cut for the "cup" part, so I sacrificed an old bra to get an idea for that. Then I marked circles and with two layers of calico and a layer of the thin wadding between, I stitched like a mad thing around all the circles.

 

Then I had to close up where the V opening was (to make a dart) and bob's your uncle: two cones.

 

I'd bought a super-cheap e-bay corset thingy because I'd originally thought I might sew the parts to it but that idea went by the wayside. What it did give me was an idea of the shapes to cut out. Which I stitched fast and furious to get that quilted look.

  

Then I finished the edges with bias binding and put in a zip to do it up the front. Some heavy ribbon for straps, smaller ribbon and suspender clips, and a few little bows finished it off.

      

The full costume had suit trousers and a jacket for modesty (with a couple of slashes - ha!).

 

And the concert was a blast!

     

Hearts for Valentines

In the spirit of Valentine's Day, I've worn hearts every day this week!
Last night I thought I'd valentine up a little cardy I'd snapped up at an Op Shop with a little needle felting.

  

Needle felting involves using a special needle that has no eye, and tiny little barbs on the pointy end to punch through the layers of fibres and matt them together.

Cutwork bookmarks...

..using free-motion stitching!

These cutwork bookmarks use free motion stitching and three layers of fabric.