the patchwork dress

new year

happy new year to you - may this be a rich and inspiring year for you, full of abundance and creativity!

I've often found New Year in Scotland a bit of a strange time. There's the Hogmanay pressure to have a hootin, tootin, tartan time - and to be honest it doesn't really do a lot for me, so these days I prefer a peaceful meal, a movie, see the bells in and get up fresh with good intentions on the 1st.

Several years ago, while living in England, I felt the urge to come up to Scotland as celebrating New Year in London just wasn't the same. We rented a small cabin in Argyll near Lochgilphead, and prepared for a quiet and remote New Year celebration. On Hogmanay I suggested to N that we should go to Dunadd and a nearby stone circle at Kilmartin. Whilst at the stones I had an unsettled feeling, as if trying to remember what the stones were for - just a memory away in my mind. We walked over to another set of stones, and at that point I heard a car draw up and someone call my name. The lady that got out of the car was Liz, a fellow member of my meditation group in London. By coincidance she had taken a last minute offer of a New Year in Scotland from her friend. We were both booked into cottages on opposite sides of the same village, a remote forestry commission settlement 10 miles down a no through road. The rest of our meditation group, we knew, had gone on a pilgrimage to India. To me this felt as if this were a message to say - where you are is good enough! We agreed to meet up again on New Year's Day, and had a walk with thermos coffee and a slice of fruitcake.

This year has reminded me of that cabin... we have been relistening to Goldfrapp's Felt Mountain album which totally has that vibe... and last night inspired this rather 1970's scenario

lots of candles, vegetable and cashew nut curry, and a glass of beer... yum

I have also been taken with an urge to bake recently, and so far have made mince pies, carrot loaf and chocolate/courgette(!yes!) muffins.

Having made one batch of mince pies at Christmas, I was delighted with their Dickensian appearance, and made another batch for Hogmanay. I was finding it really hard to source g-free mince pies locally, so the gift of a jar of mincemeat from my friend Susan, inspired me to make my own gluten free pastry.

As all previous attempts at gfree pastry have been pretty disastrous, I returned to the trusty, and previously mentioned Evelyn Rose's Jewish cookbook, and used her almond pastry recipe which works and is delicious. If I remember correctly, the recipe goes something like this:

* * *

Almond pastry for mince pies - makes about 9 large Dickensian pies

** I am doing this from memory, as just loaned the book out!!**

9oz of gluten/wheat free flour
3oz (caster) I used demerara sugar, as all I had in house
6oz margarine/butter
1oz of ground almonds
1 egg yolk
2 tablesp.'s milk or cream/ricemilk etc

Grease a muffin tin with oil.

Rub the flour,sugar, ground almonds and marg together until resembles breadcrumbs (it may go into a big lump, but don't panic!).

Add the egg yolk and milk and mix to a soft pastry

Divide the mixture roughly into 2 - keeping half for the tops.

Line the muffin casings with the dough, lightly using your fingers to mould the case.

Put the remaining pastry for the tops in a bag and pop into the freezer to chill for 30-60 minutes. The tray can also go in the fridge if you like.

When ready, add the mincemeat to the cases.

Evelyn Rose recommends grating the topping after chilling it, but I managed to roll it out lightly - just flour the board and rolling pin - and use a shaped cutter to cut and lift the pastry onto the pies.

Put in a preheated oven 190C for approx 25 mins.

The pastry is sticky to handle when raw, but cooked is light and crumbly in texture - thick and holds together well. Let the pies cool until firm in the tray before taking them out. When eating just reheat at around 200C for 5-10mins.

spot of blogkeeping...

Sun(!)day, it's been raining since yesterday afternoon..

...sleeves rolled up, time to do a little blogkeeping... you know, those things you mean to get round to...

First of all a big thank you again to Sally Anne at quiteahandful for this wonderful package she sent me...

I'd hope to wait until we had a better light to photograph them in, but really wanted to show these bright colours to contrast the day!

I love all of these fabrics, and colourful bits - and Sally also included 2 little embroidery kits and a great booklet to teach yourself embroidery. I think I will be needing it to work through some of the kowabunga hoard. I feel as if someone somewhere is giving me (and mum!) the nudge to do some needlework - Grandma probably! They are such lovely kits and much nicer than some of the slightly 'twee' ones that are about. I was just admiring some red/whitework on someone else's blog - so just the thing. I look forward to doing these, Sally, on days like this to come!

I've been busy putting together mini packages for the autumn giveaway, now all ready to post - and preparing for a scrap swap with Alisa that was organised by redheadedsnipet. Check out Alisa's quilts.. her industriousness puts me to shame. I'm really enjoying doing this swap, and sometimes I think I get more out of playing with the fabric than actually making something out of it..

On that note I thought I'd catch up with a couple of simple ideas for when you have little energy to create. A couple of people have asked about the photo printing onto t-shirts from a couple of posts back... but before that fortify yourself with some simple autumnal coloured soup...

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simple soup:

I've had a bit of an upset stomach this week, and not feeling like anything too fancy..

simple soup:
3 large carrots
1 potato
1 apple
1 pint water
salt & pepper
splash of olive oil
dash soy sauce
(chopped parsley)

Put all in a pot and simmer for 40 mins add the parsley and blend. Adjust seasoning to taste. Simple.

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T-Shirt "tutorial"

I feel a bit of a cheat calling it a tutorial and was surprised people wanted to know how to do this, as it really is crafting for the lazy! I then thought some folks don't feel so comfortable with image sizing and computers/printers, so I'll focus on that. But it makes a great simple and personal gift - good for men you don't know what to buy for. So many possibilities, you could add a photo, some text, or a drawing... photo/scan of a kid's drawing etc.

So this is more 'tips' than tutorial!

You need:
•1 teeshirt - preferable white, then you can experiment with other shades..
•a pack of iron-on tshirt transfer paper (you can buy this anywhere - good stationers, computer shop etc - you get about 10 sheets) I recommend if you can buy one from a company whose range you know works best with your printer - ie Epson, HP etc
• an iron
• a pillow case
• flat hard surface to iron on (you could use an old flat board on a tabletop.. or table top if you dare!)
•oh yes, a computer and printer!

1. read the instructions pertinent to your transfer pack and follow them!

2. if you have the technical ability to print out a photo onto paper, you can do this. If you want to size the photo, you can scale against your self in the mirror with a ruler what size the final image should be. You can adjust the picture under 'image size'. You probably want to keep the dpi quite high - so images off the internet blown up probably won't work very well (you might be lucky) but you could lose a lot of sharpness.

if you can, start with an original photo - or scan of a drawing, or computer art file. Add text if you like.

3. once you've got the image sorted, print it out onto A4 paper and just check it against the shirt, or hold up in the mirror until you are happy with the scale - make the adjustments now before you use the expensive transfer paper!

4. before printing onto the paper, you'll need to mirror the image so it reads backwards. You'll either be able to do this with your photo software, or in the print options that come up when you ask your printer to print.

5. take your sheet of transfer paper, which may have a notch cut off the corner to show which side to print on... (if you have a confusing upside down printer, mark a piece of paper with the words 'right side' and cut notch off in same place. If you print the image and it comes out on that side, then that's the right way!!)

6. follow the instructions for the print paper setting - mine says 360dpi ink jet paper

7. and print! cut the image down (if required) - leaving a small border about 6mm around it. You need this to help peel away the corner of the image otherwise you might damage the printed image.

8. make sure the iron is hot... lay the pillowcase flat on the flat hard surface (don't use an ironing board)..
use an even and heavy pressure (putting weight on it is the secret I have found) - iron as per the time and number as per your pack instructions. A slow and even movement.

9. let the image cool for a minute, but not completely, it's easier to do when still warm... gently peel back the backing paper. If the image is coming away you haven't done it for long enough/iron too cool/you weren't pressing hard enough - so if you can, just lay it back down and go over it a bit more.

10. all being well - hey presto! you've done it.

11. told you it was cheating.

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What's it like outside?

Hm, time for a coffee methinks.