B is for bookbinding, baubles and Bristol

This blog is brought to you by the letter B. Firstly, as I share my latest Christmas project – bookbinding inspired baubles - and secondly for some lovely things going on in Bristol in November and December to help you with your Christmas shopping.

The baubles are constructed from twelve pairs of fabric circles bonded back-to-back and then bound together through the centre, a bit as if they were pages in a book.  The time-consuming bit is cutting out circles in Bondaweb (double-sided, heat-fusible webbing), ironing one side onto fabric, cutting them out again, ironing the other side onto yet more fabric and cutting them out again. This leaves you with two circles of fabric bonded together with the ‘right sides’ of the fabric facing out and slightly stiffened by the webbing. You then press each circle in half. I find that this process is best done with the ironing board set up in front of the television or with a really good drama on the radio as it is a bit long-winded but doesn’t need much concentration.

You then pair up the circles, lining up the pressed creases ‘back-to-back’, and stitch them together with two large stitches that form a sort of figure-of-eight through the centres of each.  For this I used bookbinding thread, which is waxed linen, but mainly because I had it to hand. Line the next pair of circles up between the first two and stitch them together and then keep going until you have a bauble as full as you desire.  Finish off by stitching a loop at the top from which to hang your bauble and you are done.

I used Christmas-themed fabric for these, using 12 circles of fused fabric, but I do want to try some in different fabrics and will let you know how I get on.

If making your own Christmas decorations and presents isn’t really your thing but you do prefer to give a gift that is handmade or a little bit special I urge you to check out these events if you are in the neighbourhood.  Both are organised by Made in Bristol who run arts and crafts events, exhibitions and pop-up shops in venues across the city to celebrate, showcase and promote the wealth of local creative talent.

The first is the Christmas Design Temporium (that’s a temporary emporium in case you were wondering!) It’s at the Architecture Centre on Bristol’s Harbourside and runs from 22 November until 23 December 2014, Tuesday to Sunday, 10am to 6pm. This will feature a collection of jewellery, textiles, prints and artworks inspired by architecture and made by Bristol and Britain’s top designers.

The second is a series of Christmas Gift Fairs at the Colston Hall, just off Bristol city centre. These take place on Saturdays 29 November, 7 and 13 December. The fairs will showcase up to 150 local designers all of whom are based within 50 miles of Bristol, showcasing jewellery, toys, ceramics, art and home accessories.

Whatever you decide, I hope you will find (or create) something a little bit special!

Curry

I do like a good curry but finding one can be hard and making one from scratch always seems to involve a lot of forward planning. Of course, there’s the option of having a jar of curry paste in the fridge but I’m never quite sure how much sugar, salt, oil or other preservatives they contain and it also feels a bit too much like cheating.

A couple of times this year I have been organised enough to gather all the raw ingredients and make up a batch of my own curry paste but it always seems to make enough for about three curries. The surplus is placed into a pot in the fridge and somehow always gets pushed to the back and forgotten about until it goes off.

For a couple of years now I’ve been buying root ginger in bulk from the fruit and veg stall at work – anything in a bowl for £1. I take it straight home, peel it and then chop it finely in a food processor and use it to fill an ice cube tray. This way, whenever a recipe calls for chopped or grated ginger, I take out a cube or two – simple! It suddenly occurred to me that I could do the same with curry paste. I really don’t know why I didn’t think of it sooner!

Anyway, a trip to the fruit and veg stall resulted in a haul of limes, chillies, ginger, garlic and coriander; out came the mini-food processor; the spice rack was raided and I was all set. Well, nearly all set. I did actually need some recipes. Fortunately Jamie Oliver has a selection of 5 different Indian-style curry paste recipes on his website and the BBC provided a simple Thai curry paste .

 

As you can see, my chillies were red rather than green so my Thai green curry paste was always going to be a little different. This is what I tackled first. I actually had some small pots which had originally contained Indian pickles from Tiffins our local Indian take away (a rare treat but somewhere where you can be guaranteed of a fresh, healthy, locally sourced meal!) Since the recipe says it makes enough paste for a curry for 8 people, fitting it into three of these pots meant that it should make three generous curries for two, with perhaps a bit left over for someone’s lunch or dinner the next day.

I next moved onto the Jamie Oliver recipes and took a while deciding which ones to make. Over a cup of tea I settled on the Korma and the Rogan Josh as the seemed to offer distinctly different flavours. These I did put into ice cube trays. Fortunately there’s no worrying which is which thanks to the quantities of tomato puree, roasted pepper and paprika in the Rogan Josh, which gives it an unmistakable red hue. Of course, once frozen it would be easy to pop the cubes out of the trays and into a freezer bag, which would be easier to label.

Korma paste

Rogan Josh paste

Having three different curry pastes in the freezer now means I have spicy variety to hand. And yes, I’ve used some already in the form of a Thai fish curry with mango and a Cauliflower biryani – delicious (even if I do say so myself!)

Autumnal Blanket

As the days are getting shorter, so they are getting darker and cooler - all things to make me want to hibernate. That's not to say I don't like autumn.  In fact, I love it as it's a great excuse to get out all the lovely cosy things such as blankets, favourite jumpers, recipes for warming casseroles... you get the picture!

One such thing that is coming out of the cupboard is the blanket for the guest room which I made last January. I was at the beginning of my applique journey and spotted a workshop being run in Bristol for an applique heart quilt. I wasn't too bothered about learning the quilting skills (although I do admit that I did pick up quite a few sewing techniques) but I was keen for someone to show me how to applique 'properly'. However good books and videos on YouTube are, there is really no substitute for someone showing you in person.

The quilt in question was small and made from a single charm pack, which is made up of about forty 5" x 5" squares of co-ordinating fabric. I can't say the selection of charm packs on sale at the time was very exciting. I therefore wasn't too happy with what I ended up with but I eventually got over the fabric choice and set about learning the technique. After all, that is what I was there for.

I ended up with a fairly multi-coloured piece of patchwork complete with appliqued hearts that measured about 35" by 24". For some reason quilters always work in imperial measurements but I work that out very roughly to be about 90cm x 60cm). Not one to make something that can't be used I then spent some time trying to work out what to do with it. It certainly wasn't going to be turned in to a wall hanging because I really would have nowhere to put it.

However, it occurred to me that a few of the colours matched those in the guest bedroom curtains so I set about making it into the centrepiece of a blanket to cover the bed. Not only did I think that this would this turn it into something useful, but the vast acres of fabric that I would need to add to make it big enough may work to tone down the colour scheme (which I still wasn't happy with).

I spent hours planning out the surrounding fabric and then working out how I could cut and join the bits together to use as little fabric as possible. I was also very keen to make the back as tidy as possible. This resulted in me buying 9 metres of navy blue fleece fabric. I thought it was challenging enough carrying it all home until I began to spread it out on the floor in order to cut it and then piece it together. (Oh, and the observant out there may now guess where I got the pieces of blue fleece that became my first appliqued cot blankets!)

Anyway, to cut a long story short, I was really pleased with the results and it has to be one of the warmest blankets I have ever experienced, since my way of making it look neat on the back was to make it double thickness! Now that it is time to get it out of the cupboard and put it back on the bed I thought I'd share it with you.

 

And, if you are coming to stay and are rather warm-blooded, do let me know in advance and I'll swap the duvet underneath for the summer-weight one. Why, you didn't think I'd offer to remove this labour of love did you?!

The C Word

I know it's only October but I have to admit that I've started getting ready for Christmas. Actually - big admission here - I started in January!

I personally think that it's the perfect time to start since I'm already feeling festive and have had an overload of Christmas ideas that I'm just itching to make real. Obviously, by February I'm completely fed-up with the whole thing and put everything into a bag in the projects cupboard. However, by the autumn when journalists start talking about how many shopping days there are until Christmas, I can just pull out the bag and continue where I left off. And so, Christmas project number one is now complete and some may not be surprised to see that it is bird-themed (since most of my projects this year seem to feature these feathered creatures).

I am not very good at sitting and doing nothing. Even 'just' watching television is not enough so I have spent many a calm hour sitting on the sofa sewing felt doves and robins and here are some of the results.

The plan is to get (make?) some parcel labels to attach that will turn them into Christmas greetings that can also be hung on the Christmas tree or mantelpiece and, hopefully, kept for years and years. I just hope the recipients enjoy looking at them as much as I enjoyed making them.

I just now need to work out what Christmas project number two is going to be!