The Twelfth Night - Taking Down the Tree

The Christmas Tree came down today in celebration of the twelfth day. I played the Christmas albums one last time before they too went away. Sometimes it is just as nice to celebrate the passing of Christmas, as it is the arrival of Christmas. I think we should do it more often.

We’ve had a lovely Christmas with family at both ends of the island. The camera was misplaced on the day and as a consequence, the day was spent very much in the moment. The photos above are from our Pre-Christmas feast.

A ginger bread house that actually worked and baking with grandma. You can also spot Little E trying to eat the dough off her hands. While it’s not strictly traditional, Christmas isn’t quite Christmas without a festive coloured lobster to start the meal. Can you tell I come from a family of fishermen?

Taking down the tree can have its traditions too; from the Galette du Rois with crowns and charms celebrating the epiphany in France, to reducing the tree to just a whisk shaped branch to use for the next year in Switzerland.

This year it was a vineyard lunch with friends. Who knows, I might even try to make the Galette, a week late, for some guests too.

Graffiti Knitting Helpers Needed

I have been putting my mind to ideas for a bit of graffiti knitting. I am looking to populate a tree with birds and bees and I will need some helpers. If you can put together a small bird of bee by January 22, drop me a line and I will email you my address. To get the creative juices going, there is a delightfully simple bumble bee pattern over here.


See, bumble bees are hard to spot when there is just one, but imagine a whole swarm. It’s going to be great.

Christmas Cards For Two Year Olds

We have made our own Christmas Cards this year. Little E is very proud.


To do the same you will need:
1 A5 Sketch pad
1 set of crayons, especially white
paintbrushes
Water based paint - I have used water colours, my friends have assured me food colouring does the trick too.

Step 1 - Get drawings, with the white crayon. Add some coloured bit so you know where to paint.

Step 2 - Pass crayons and paints to 2 year old and let them go for it.

I couldn't resist touching a few up to cover all the drawings with paint, but my favourites are the ones where Little E has taken it upon herself to draw a whole new picture over my careful Christmas illustrations.

Dear Family Circle

Dear Family Circle,

Your recipe is a crock. How could you let me down like that? My gingerbread houses fell in a crumpled heap and I hold you responsible.

I have remained loyal for years. As the recipe books were thinned annually, I kept you along side my beloved Nigella. I extolled the virtues of your Vichyssoise, gingerbread, Chicken chasseur, fish pie and so many others.

However, your royal icing recipe left me cold. I had visions of beautiful snow capped houses made of sweet gingerbread. My sister and I were left holding the walls up, waiting for the icing to take hold. First they fell in, then the roof slid off. I think buttercream would have been a better solution. It would have worked too, if it wasn't 26 degrees in the shade.

I have checked, and your recipe, yes the one next to the ginger bread recipe, uses half the amount of icing sugar compared with other royal icing recipes. My trust is shattered. You're just lucky the ginger bread tastes so good.

Sincerely,
Amy

String Tutorial 4 - Blue Cross Quilt

This quilt uses 45 degree triangles cut from string pieced fabric (refer to string tutorial 1). Triangles are then pieced to give 8” finished blocks. This quilt is similar to String with Red Centre from Gwen Marston's Liberated String Quilts

To make these blocks, start with a 45 degree offset when joining the strings. Continue joining the pairs until the fabric is 7” or wider.

Note : To minimise wastage, keep the width as close to 7” as possible (this is the difference between getting 6 or 4 triangles out of a piece of fabric, with more triangles in the narrower). Additionally, 44” long strings give a quicker result as there is less wastage at the ends of the fabric when cutting the triangles.


Cut the strips of string fabric into 45 degree triangles as shown, using either the angles on a ruler or a larger square.


Divide the triangles into two piles.

Cut 1” strips from a contrasting fabric – in this case the teal fabric. Join the 1” wide strips to the long side of the triangles from one pile and press. Next, join the remaining triangles to the other side of the contrasting strips and press. Square up the pairs of triangles to 8 ½”.

Layout the squares and start to assemble the quilt top.

Note: The joining seams are on bias (stretchier) edge of the fabric. To minimise distortion, use a walking foot to join the squares or ease off the pressure on the machine foot.

This concludes the string piecing tutorials for now. Let me know how you get on and if you have any questions, I will try my best to answer them.

String Tutorial 3 - String as Squares

This tutorial explains how string pieced fabric, from string tutorial 1, was used in the “If It’s a Boy” quilt that I made earlier this year. String pieced fabric is cut into squares and rearranged at different angles to create the overall effect.

The quilt uses approximately 3 pieces of 44” long string pieced fabric. The strips were cut from fat quarters and joined with at least one other string to create the full length to increase the number of joins seen in each block.

The first piece was 5” wide and then cut into 5” squares on the straight. The following pieces were slightly wider than 5” (say 6-7”) and the squares were cut at varying angles from these pieces. The remaining scraps were joined and cut to 5” square to create the orphan blocks on the back.

String Tutorial 2 - String as a Fabric

This tutorial looks at using the strings by replacing a conventional piece of fabric with one that has been created with the strings, as in string tutorial 1. The blocks above have used the string fabric, in place of a patterned fabric, to create the two different patterns.


These Christmas decorations also use string pieced fabric in place of a plain fabric. They were made by creating string fabric to the width of the pattern piece and then cutting the pieces from the string fabric.