Fiona Marie's Thread

Caramel chocolate crunch...

Don't you love it when a really, really, simple recipe surprises and delights your dinner guests? I think the best compliment you can receive hosting a dinner is being asked for your recipes. So when Anne requested this one I decided to go one step further and share it with everyone. This one is a real winner.

Ingredients:

1/2 Packet of Salada Crackers.

(If you don't have the Salada brand these can be replaced with some other large salty water crackers.)

250g Butter

1 cup Brown Sugar

350g Chocolate Chips

Line a slice tray with baking paper and cover with one layer of crackers. Boil butter and sugar for 3 minutes, pour over the crackers and bake at 180C for 10-15 minutes. Take out of the oven and cover in chocolate chips. Spread these over once melted. When it has cooled take out of the tray and cut up with a knife. At this stage it will shatter into pieces and look, smell and taste absolutely devine.

Yum! Fiona x.

 

Pocket clutch...

I made this cute little pocket clutch purse from a downloadable KeyKa Lou pattern which I purchased online. I have come across these designs umpteen times on other crafty sewing blogs and finally decided to take the plunge and try one out for myself. Yes! The  patterns are easy to follow and I really loved the tips helping to give a more professional look to the finished product. You can even use these patterns to make up and sell online, or through shops and craft fairs, as long as you credit the design back to Keyka Lou in any written descriptions.

The clutch has two pockets inside and a magnetic closure. I added the cute little silk/cotton fabric rose to the front. This purse will be just the thing for the fancy dinner I've been invited to next month, it's the perfect size for my phone, credit card, and car keys. Now I want to make a rustic everyday version and use one of my vintage embroidered covered buttons on the front. That's as soon as someone tells me where my time has gone?

Click on the picture below to view patterns in the Keyka Lou range.

Have a great day! Fiona x. 

Kids' crafternoon felting...

 

I love squeezing time into my busy schedule to get crafty with my eleven year old daughter Jessica. She is always looking for something to do and I have found it pays to have crafting inspiration easily accessible because deciding what to do, and finding the right supplies, is often the most time consuming part of the creative process. So I was delighted to receive a copy of the Kids' crafternoon felting book. The minute Jessica laid eyes on it she got excited - but unfortunately I had  a little too much to do at the time and promised her we would get to it during the holidays. 

Well that wasn't nearly good enough for a keen crafty girl and to my delight she took charge of the situation herself, went off and found my box of felt bits and pieces, along will some embroidery cotton, ribbon  and glue and proceeded to produce some very cute bookmarks, and quirky pencil toppers called Eraser Heads. 

I loved the fact she could do these independently. Later on during the holidays we did have a couple of book inspired crafting sessions. This first one involved making our own piece of felt using wool roving.

 This was great fun involving a lot of water, liquid soap, bubblewrap and elbow grease. We were making thin pieces of felt to create wrist cuffs but got addicted to the felt making process and started adding pieces of cotton and wool and anything else that was on hand, and making different shapes and sizes... Jess also made little felt balls for the Magic Balls and Sweet Felt Acorn projects.

The next session we had was making up little Plush Pins. Mine is the rain drop and Jessica stitched the Rain Cloud.

 

We still have plenty of untapped inspiration waiting for us in the pages of this book and it will be a while yet before it finds it's way into the bookcase permanently. I definitely want to have a play with the Zombie Critter Charms pattern - maybe one day when Jess is at School...

There are a few more photos in the Kids crafternoon felting photo album.

 

 

More information:

Title: Kids' crafternoon felting - 25 projects for a crafty afternoon

Edited by Kathleen Ricketson

This is a spiral bound hardcover book with 127 pages including detailed instructions to create 25 projects as well as a section on Tools and Materials, and Basic Techniques. It has a pocket of paper templates that are FULL-SIZED. Yay! No enlarging on the photocopier.

You can purchase it from your local bookseller, online at Fishpond (currently on sale at NZ$27.99 plus free shipping in NZ), or through Amazon. I have placed links on the middle column to take you through to the correct pages. 

ISBN:9781742700441 

Fiona and Jess xx

Going retro...

I was so pleased with the result I achieved sticking an old piece of wall paper to a dog-eared brown manilla folder I had been using for years. This new piece of stationery sits on the kitchen bench and is doing a very stylish job of containing the school paper war (especially overwhelming at the start of the year).

It even passed the cool test when my 16 year old daughter spied it in passing and promptly put in an order for a homework folder. Go Mum!

 

To find out how to make one of these yourself have a look at the Retro Folder tutorial I have posted on the blog. Enjoy - Fiona x  

Tell a story...

Finding a use for the abundance of beautiful vintage doilies readily available at the moment has captured my imagination. Roxy came up with the fab idea of using them as quilt labels which I loved. So I decided to use one of my favourites for a label to go on the back of a little wall hanging I recently stitched while on holiday in the Marlborough Sounds. Our trip to the Sounds was a highly anticipated family holiday in a part of New Zealand that is known for it's fabulous scenery and a favourite of boat owners all over the South Island. We have never owned a boat ourselves but finally decided to book a house in the Sounds and find out what all the fuss is about...and we did.

View of Kenepuru Sound.

View from the deck. You are probably wondering what this has to do with quilt labels. After some thought I decided my quilt label was going to tell a story, my story, of where I was, how I was feeling, and what I was doing when this little stitching creation came to life. Here is the result of this creative idea.

It reads, "Stitched by Fiona Marie, in the Marlborough Sounds, surrounded by lush native bush, curious Weka's, and in view of the changing tides. It was stitched in happiness surrounded by those I love. January 2012."

Once I had choosen what to write I picked a font on my computer and played around until I had the right size for my stitching space on the doily. The words have been stitched using one strand of a varigated embroidery cotton. After hand sewing it on around the edges with a silk thread I added a few groups of three french knots to anchor it more firmly to the backing fabric.

How interesting a find will that be in years to come at a Shabby Chic Market or second hand shop? I love the idea of giving my work a legacy no matter how big or small. It might even make it's way into the hands of a stranger one day for a few dollars who shares my passion and who will continue to appreciate and cherish it for generations to come. Fiona x  

Shabby chic market day...

I love Shabby Chic Market Day at Rochester Villa in Christchurch.

 

These are the treasures I brought home for my $20.00 spend.

Retro wall paper that I am going to use to cover manilla folders - watch this space.

Recycled lace snippets for the stash box.

Very old checked ribbon and a gorgeous little book of animal motif iron on transfers. This is my favourite purchase of the day and I have already been adapting some of the designs to make embroidered buttons. 

I think it looks great on my across the shoulder bag made from the pattern Blooming Bags by Moonshine Designs.

...and of course I found more doilies to convert into quilt labels.

...and some lovely decorative table runners to be upcycled into...

Shopping on a budget has never been so much fun! - Fiona x