Miss Saigon Bake Off!

Hello! Did you see Miss Saigon, at the Theatre Royal in Hobart? what a wonderful show it was! And there was good stuff going on back stage too...the Miss Saigon Bake Off! Cast members brought goodness to the dressing rooms nearly every night to keep their tummies happy! The last night was Rowan's turn...so we went mad and made this! And these...a star for each of the stars- yum! Thank you to our friends P and J for their help!

Frustration is rife!

Hello! I am dying to update my blog, I have moved house, created a new vege patch, taken pictures of it with a lovely new camera, felted my first vest but I can't tell anyone about it properly cause I am trying to do assignments! Oh it is heartbreaking! I will be back once this semester is out of the way!

The wonderful place in which we live- Tasmania!

Inspiration for the beginning of the week. A little look back at a wonderful weekend walking in Mount Field National Park- ahhhhh...just to be there now!

Quincey Quincey Quincey paste!

One day recently, I took the plunge, I had never touched a raw quince before but I decided to make quince paste! What a good decision! Yum! My Method! Roughly chop up all the quinces and place them in a large saucepan, cover them with water. Add two strips of lemon peel (1cm/ 4cm, no white pith) (and a vanilla pod if you have one, I didn't though) and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer, cover, and let cook until the quince pieces can be broken with a fork (30-40 minutes). Then strain off the water, throw away the vanilla but keep the lemon peel with the quince. Next, you need to puree the quince pieces, I did this with a bamix, of course you can use a blender or food processor. Then, measure the quince puree, this is how you work out how much sugar you need, add as much sugar as there is quince (ie, 5 cups of quince, 5 cups of sugar). Heat the quince and sugar on a medium to low heat. Stir with a wooden spoon until the sugar has completely dissolved. Now add the 3 table spoons of lemon juice. Cook the puree over a low heat, stirring occasionally, for 1-1 1/2 hours, until the quince paste is very thick and has a deep orange pink color. it gets even darker than this, I just forgot to take the picture! Now, once it is very thick, spread it into lined pans, I put mine into a slice tin and into some patty pans. Cook in an oven at a about 50 degrees Celsius, very low, to dry it out and help it set. This seemed to take a long time for me and part way through I moved the paste that was in the slice tins onto flat trays and I spread it out further (to about 1.5 centimetres) as it just didn't seem like it was ever going to set! Once they felt 'right', solid and not very liquidy (I know I use good, proper terms here!) pull it out and let cool. I then wrapped mine up in kitchen paper and now keep it in the fridge- it is the best thing to just have a stash of! I love it! With brie! Camembert! goats cheese! vintage cheddar! it constitutes a meal in itself in my opinion! I hope you make it and love it as much as I do! Wooo hooo!!

Re- inspire yourself.

After a bit of a drought on the felting front, I re-inspired myself with some amazing alpaca that I bought at an Australia Alpaca Day celebration- which was pretty funny in itself! So I made this special scarfe, I really wanted to play with a different way of finishing the edges of the scarfe so I made little holes and loops, which ended up working a lot better than expected if I may say so! It was lovely being back at the felting board! But I haven't been again for a couple of weeks- I have too much homework! But it is winter so it is felting season, I'm gearing up for a good one! The second scarfe I have here is one of the first I ever made, I just realised I haven't ever put it up! I made it for my partner but it was too girly for him apparently so when I saw my cousin wearing a lovely knitted dress and a top that matched the blue perfectly, around her neck it went! Here she is with it.

Explorations with 3D wet felting!

This was fun! I read instructions for making childrens' booties with wet felt, and then decided to go a bit further with the concept and make some random things ...tea cosies...robin hood explorer hats...little dollies, purses, melodica cases..it was great! I really like making my big shawls though as I can create images and feelings and relate more of myself with them, but these were a fun diversion for a while- I will certainly make more booties and I want to make some handbags with the method too!