Anzac Day Soldier Biscuits

A beautiful biscuit this week in honour of Anzac Day in Australia and New Zealand. And while Down Under, Australia and New Zealand are into autumn (which where I lived in South Australia doesn't look any different to any other time in the year), my little garden here in Norfolk is blooming! 

If we look out of the window, there are great things happening...

Such beauty coming to life....

Why does Checkmate always look as though he has been caught doing something wrong?

Maybe it is a mistake to look outside when the day is so perfect...

Actually, one more thing before I get down off the soap box...I get REALLY fed up with people always going on about the terrible English weather! It is just wonderful actually. We get some rain which keeps things green (no bushfires either, or snakes) and we get some snow which has to be expected. The rest of the year we get some beautiful clear sunny days with birdsong and flowers. I was never a fan of the Australian weather - the year we left, the temperatures did not fall below 46 degrees Celsius for a week!

The walks in the forest are lovely too and our sandy beaches (here in Norfolk anyway) are wonderful for walking for miles. Rant over and thank you for listening!

Before we get on with the topic of the day, I would like to claim bragging rights on another cover. This time it is in the beautiful Sewing World magazine in the UK and thank you so much to the lovely Julie who is the editor who made it happen. 

That's my cushion right there! It was super fun to make and is so easy. Brings summer into the room.

But back to business. First of all, what is Anzac day exactly? Anzac, or properly ANZAC stands for Australian New Zealand Army Corps and the name forever bonds Australians with their New Zealand neighbours. It is a proud tradition and a day which is celebrated on the 25th April each year with private celebrations and a march of old soldiers down the main street of the towns. It is a time to polish the  medals and very old soldiers are so proud to take part,

Anzac day itself marks the anniversary of the first battle fought together by the Australian and New Zealand troops in the First World War. After having lived in Australia for forty years of my life, I think that I would be justified in saying that the day is dearer to the locals than the official national day, Australia Day which is celebrated with altogether less pomp and ceremony on the 26th of January each year.

I was looking through my grandmother's very old recipe book (from which she taught me to cook) and I found a recipe for Soldier Biscuits. Elsewhere in Australia they are known simply as Anzac Biscuits.The recipe differs slightly from time to time but the essentials are pretty much the same. Anyway, I would like to share my Nana's recipe which is out of this world and easy to make too.
Here is the book itself....

It is very fragile now with age and use.

And here are those biscuits.....

Such golden deliciousness and they will make your house smell divine indeed.

So let's get baking!

Ingredients:
1 cup rolled oats
125g butter
2/3 cup sugar
3 tablespoons golden syrup
1 cup flour
3/4 cup dessicated coconut
1/2 teaspoon bicarb soda
1 tablespoon boiling water

You don't need any special equipment, only a mixing bowl, a saucepan and a tray plus the usual measuring things that you normally use.

Here's how:

Step 1- Place the dry ingredients into your bowl (oats, sugar, flour and coconut).

Step 2- Place the butter and golden syrup into a saucepan and melt gently.

Step 3- Working quite quickly, mix the bicarb soda with the freshly boiled water and then put it into the melted butter and syrup.

Step 4- Stir this magical concoction quickly into the bowl of dry ingredients and mix until combined. 

TIP: it is useful, if it feels as though it is too dry, to use your hands like mixing a pastry. this will help it to come together.

Step 5- Place just-a-bit-bigger-than-walnut sized amounts onto a baking paper lined tray, leaving room for spreading as they cook.

Step 6-Cook until golden brown in a moderate oven. Keep an eye on them so that they don't over cook.

Step 7- Cool on trays (they can be a bit of a trial to handle when they are too warm) and then enjoy!

By the way, they will be soft until they are fully cooled and then they are quite crisp and crunchy. The next day (if they make it that long) they will be back to a softness as you would find in a certain sandwich chain. They are still yum.

And our old soldiers? Forever. We will remember them.

Love and hugs

Debbie xxx

Block of the Month- April 2015 Economy Patch

Welcome to the block of the month for April. This time, we are looking at one of my all time favourites. It is called the Economy Patch and I am sure that it will come to be a favourite of yours too.

I am going to give you a double serving too because last month, we made a Classic Four Patch so as well as showing you the Economy Patch, I will show you how to do a variation with last month's offering and turn that into an Economy Patch too!

Enough chat! Let's get on with it!! Here is the Economy Patch in all its glory....

And here is a variation...

As you can see, the variation has a patched square in the middle and this time the square is what we call en pointe. Soulds a little bit like ballet and  it means that the square is sitting on its tip instead of flat. Somehow sounds more exotic in French! The variation also only has one row of triangles.
Triangles can sometimes strike fear into the heart of beginners but there is a simple golden rule that you will read about later on.

So, to business! Let's concentrate on the basic one for now and leave the variation for a bit later on. You will need three different fabrics for this one.
Begin with the square. Cut a square 8.5cm x 8.5cm.

TIP: your starting square can be any size at all - we have to choose one so I have gone with the size above.

Next cut another square 2cm larger than the first one. This is to be divided into quarters to make some triangles like this...

You now have four triangles and they are added to the square. Notice that the triangles are flipped around though so that the long end goes against the square. Place the first one on this side....

then the opposite....

then the remaining two overlapping the ends....

iron it now and trim the daggy ears off and it is looking like this....

WARNING!!! When you trim, NEVER trim back to the point on the square! This is your seam allowance and if you trim it off, you will not get a sharp point when you put the next layer on.

Your block measures 11cm x 11cm at the moment. From your final fabric, cut another square 13cm x 13cm. Divide the new square diagonally again as you did before. Now flip and add these four triangles to the block as you did before too....

then the opposite and the last two....

I have pressed and trimmed so that the patch is now exactly 15cm sq. That's it! This little patch can be made in any size at all. The golden rule is to remember to always make your triangles 2cm larger than the square to allow for the seam. This is vital because the points on the squares have to be sharp enough to prick your finger! This would be wrong....

This is what you are after....

Now I did promise a variation and here it is. Take the Classic Four Patch from last month 

and measure it, add the triangles, measure the new square and add the last few triangles and you have this....

You don't need to have a solid square in the middle - for the ordinary Economy Patch, I guess you do but variations are how new blocks are born. You can applique too - sky is the limit!

I hope that you had fun with this one and, once again, thank you so much for stopping by!

Hugs and kisses
Debbie xxx

Week Four of the EPP Medallion Patch-along

Nearly there folks! We will finish the paper piecing part of our medallion patch -along this week and the applique. I thought that you could cope with two things this week!

But before we get going, I have another ta-dah! moment! Two in a row - this time the cover of Pretty Patches magazine. This time it is the grey and brightly coloured quilt. It is called April Showers.

Okay , back to the business of the day...finally we can  make the medallion project into something practical. You will be pleased to know that I have decided what to do with it too. I thought that we could make a tuffet - you know, as in little Miss Muffet?  Stay with me and you will love it I promise.

There are no new pieces to learn, only using two that we already know quite well. This time, it is all about the hexie and the small diamond.

Here is what we have achieved up to this point...

The next bit is to add some more hexies to make a pink and white (in my case) border and then we will finish with six more diamonds.

Begin by covering your hexies. As I said, mine are pink and white but it will depend on your fabrics. The hexie border is quite a big feature so I would avoid green and go back to the star and look at that. Pink features and so does white so that is how I made my choice.

You will need 18 hexies like these...

You also need six diamond and these are exactly the same as last week....

We begin by adding the hexies. It doesn't matter which one you start with or where you put it. I have chosen a pink one and I am starting in the middle....

Next comes white (not easy to see and you have the paper showing through but don't worry about that).....

And so on until you have a ring of hexies alternating colours like this....

Now you will also start to be aware of the positions for the last diamonds.....

Sew those in too and that is it! Let's have a look at what we have now....

And that is the EPP bit finished! Obviously you can keep going and make it huge but we will stop there and get ready for the next bit....

I love the pretty fondant colours. Okay, very sweet but not much use to anyone in its present state. The next thing to do is to make it up. As I said, a tuffet is just the thing and that is going to begin right now! 
Carefully remove the papers from your medallion. Be very careful to preserve the shapes on the outside. It will look a bit sad and deflated for a bit but don't be disheartened. 

Choose yourself a piece of fabric which coordinates but does not clash with the medallion. I am going with a lovely blue and cream spotted upholstery weight fabric. Plain is good too because it will make the medallion jump out. Basically, the medallion is the big feature so 'audition' a few fabrics to make sure that you have the best supporting act for your star.

You will need to have 70cm x 70cm of thin wadding and enough of your fabric for TWO 61cm diameter circles. The reason that I am not giving an actual meterage is that you might want to mix and match the fabrics. You can have a different one on the top to the bottom. Maybe an oil cloth bottom so that it doesn't get damp outside.
Anyway, cut the chosen fabric into two 61cm diameter circles. Put one aside.
Do you know how to cut big circles? No? It is easy. Take a piece of fabric about 2-3cm larger than your circle so outs might be 63cm x 63cm. That gives a little bit of working room. Fold the fabric in quarters....

going from the centre, measure 30.5cm (half your end circle). Use a water soluble marker to mark this measurement all around the quarter like this....sorry that the dots are not easy to see, they will be more apparent in the next shot...

join the dots to make an arc....

Now cut it out and unfold it. Ta da! A large circle! Don't cut the wadding though. Place the fabric circle onto the untrimmed wadding. Find the centre of the circle and find the centre of your medallion. Pin your medallion to the centre and then pin it all around so that no movement is possible in any direction. This is what you will have now.....

We will begin the applique process by quilting (strangely enough!). The method behind this particular bit of madness is that if you quilt from the centre out, you smooth as you go and avoid puckering which is ugly. Fabric moves and you cannot easily stop it. Start quilting in the ditch (hand or machine) in the very centre like this....

You can see how the needle is in the dead centre of each seam? This will make the patches themselves rather than the quilting the main event. The quilting will be invisible. 

Sometimes I quilt by hand because I like it and I have more control. Not only that but it preserves the portable nature of the project. But machine is faster and if it is all invisible anyway.....

Keep going unto the whole medallion is secure and then make a neat overcast stitch around the outside to anchor it down. THAT is better done by hand I find. Now stabilise the edge with a running stitch and trim the wadding to match the circle and this is what you will have.....

I found a wonderful button just crying out to be used in the centre too.

Next time, we will finish the tuffet. Make sure that you have some 2-3mm piping cord (about 4m), some polyester stuffing and fabric for the sides (25 cm strip). Choose a fabric from one of the ones in your medallion to cover the piping cord too. I am going with the stripes from the star.
You already have the bottom circle put aside. The bottom fabric can be the same as the top or different, it is up to you. I have gone with the top, bottom and sides the the same and then striped (one of the medallion fabrics) for the piping.

Whew! That was a big one! Well thank you for bearing with me and I will see you all next week for the final stage.

Love and hugs
Debbie xxx

Block of the Month -March 2015 Classic Four Patch

It makes sense to me to begin the Blocks of the Month with the simplest block of all, the classic four patch. This block is very versatile and it is often the first one learned when people take patchwork and quilting lessons.

Here it is....

As you can see, it is made up of four pieces and they are square. That is all there is to it. The real trick, however, is to get the four pieces to match up perfectly in the middle.

So how do we begin? Well, we need a square. I am not going to complicate this by giving you a template to print off. You can draw a square by yourself. If you are a beginner, make your square a little bit larger so that you have something to grab onto. I would suggest 11cm x 11cm.

Draw your square onto a piece of card so that you can use it again and again. Now, audition your fabrics! When you are happy with the choice, cut out four pieces like this

Sew the first two together so that you have a unit like this

Repeat for the other two. You now have two of these

All that is left now is to join them together but before you do, finger press the seams so that they are away from each other like this

See how one seam goes one way and the other seam faces away from it? Finger pressing simply means to run your finger (or fingernail) along the seam to crease it. You don't have to get the iron out for everything.

Pin your pieces together and sew the last seam. Open it out and you will have something that looks like this

You have made your first four patch! This is a mighty useful little critter and never consign it to the realms of the raw beginner. Use it for borders and repeating patterns. If you make a few of these with this diagonal pattern, when you join them up, they will create their own repeats.
You can mix them up with triangles too to create en pointe designs. We will get to that later.

I hope that you have found this useful. Thank you so much for stopping by and please feel free to put in requests for a block that you would like to have featured.

See you next time!

Love and hugs
Debbie xxx

Valentines Day love birds - for your pot plants!

Who can tell me where the year is going!? It is almost half past February and of course, before we can turn our thoughts to spring properly, we have to get Valentines Day out of the system.

It is starting to be a little lighter in the evenings now and our bulbs are defiantly poking their heads up...

It is starting to feel springy! I am very busily crocheting things (much to my son's dismay) like wreaths with flowers and bunting and little covers for my pot plants and all in the brightest colours.

Big photo: ripple effect crochet. Top right: inspired by an Attic24 wreath that I thought was just beautiful. Middle right: Potted plants obviously need jerseys! These are so easy made in dc and htr. Bottom right: part of some granny bunting with flowers; perfect for brightening up a winter room.

Now I love heart motifs but there are plenty of those around at this time of the year so I thought that I would make some pretty birdies to liven up the potted plants until they bloom. Here is one....

And another one....

They are just the bee's knees and we will use some sparkly beads which catch the sun too. Makes them great in the conservatory or on a sunny windowsill. Placed correctly, they can brighten a whole room! So what will we need to gather?

-cotton fabric in pretty patterns You will need one sort for the body and a contrast but coordinating bit for the wings.
-polyester stuffing
-sparkly beads like faceted crystals and crackle glass although miracles work well too in the right light. Stick with 6mm and 8mm ones for the crown.
- a couple of orange 4mm beads per bird for the eyes
-bamboo chopsticks for making the stands - or some normal sticks if that is what you have to hand. Sharpen the bottom with a pencil sharpener or sharp knife.
-beading thread and a beading needle
-hot glue gun
-water soluble marker

With reference to the stuffing, I get an awful lot of questions about the sort of stuffing to use. You do not have to use the 'proper' stuff in a tiny bag from the craft shop! Wash and pull apart an old pillow or cushion if you have one for the ultimate in recycling. If you need to buy new, buy cushions or pillows from a cheap shop (Ikea is good) and use the stuffing. Much cheaper and exactly the same.

First you will need to print off the pattern. The bird body when you print it out should be about 21cm long and the wing is 15cm long. It really doesn't matter but it will alter your results if they are too different.  And remember that the pattern pieces represented by a dashed line are behind another piece. Here is the pattern-

I would cut the shapes out and then draw around them onto the fabric with the water soluble marker for ease. Make sure that they are mirror image though!
This is what we have so far...

You will have two bodies and four wings. Cut them out and it is time to sew! I have made two love birds and swaped the wing and body fabrics.
Begin by sewing the wings. Pin the two wing pieces right sides together and sew all the way around, leaving a gap for turning out. Clip the curves and turn out the right way. This is what we have now...

Lightly stuff the wing with some polyester but no so much that it loses its flat shape. Move the stuffing around until it is well distributed in the wing. Slip stitch the opening closed. You will see on the pattern that there are some lines on the wing? These are stitching lines. Mark them with the water soluble marker if you need to and then either hand or machine stitch along them. The wing now looks like this....

Repeat for the other wing. Now on to the body! Again, pin the body pieces together and sew all around leaving a gap for turning out and then clip the curves, turn out and stuff the bird really well. 
NB: when you sew the body, leave the opening in the bottom of the bird and then when slip stitching, leave a small gap to insert the stick or chopstick.

Slip stitch the opening closed and now you have something starting to take shape! Next let's attach the eyes. Take your chosen beads and attach with beading thread and needle to either side of the head. Draw the thread in a bit too to give the head a nice shape.

The crown is made by first taking a longish piece of thread and stringing 7x 8mm beads onto it...

Close the circle, go back through all of the beads with the thread until you are back where you began and tie it off really well. This gives a double thread through the beads. Snip the short thread off leaving the one still in the needle...

Now attach this to the head with a few stitches around....

Take an 8mm bead and thread it on and weave the thread through the next bead. Keep going right around the crown. You will have seven of these and they will be a little floppy but not too much. finally, weave back again and this time pick up a 6mm bead (I have used an orange crystal) and go inbetween each 8mm bead.

Keep doing this until you have a second row on the crown. The more you weave, the tighter and more solid the crown becomes. The weaving will gently draw the crown together.

When you have a nice crown, finish the thread by weaving a little more and then cutting it. We can put everything together now.

Hot glue the wings to the sides of the body and insert the blunt end of the chopstick into the bottom of the bird (you may need to wriggle it between the stitches) and then hot glue it into place. 
It is okay to make the chopstick a little shorter too, they look better if you cannot see the chopstick, like the bird is nesting in the plant. It all depends on the size of the plant.

We have this now....

Now find a nice potted plant and insert the stake gently into the pot.

How pretty is that! I hope that you have enjoyed this free pattern and tutorial. thank you so much for stopping by and don't forget to sign up by email or like my FaceBook page so that you never miss a post!

Thanks for stopping by!
love and hugs

Debbie xxx