Gosh, it’s been a week since I last posted and I’ve got a whole mish-mash of “stuff” to share with you!
First off let’s take a look at my creative space…
I’m making another birdie pincushion… this one is going to be sent to the very lovely Mary Jibson at Fresh Hope as a sample… because I am donating the pattern to this wonderful charity :-) The instructions are part-written and once the pattern is tested, the pieced birdie will fly up to Queensland and join new friends among the Fresh Hope Patterns range.
Fresh Hope is in the process of updating its website, so if you are interested in any of their patterns you can still view them but they’re unavailable to purchase at this moment in time. However, if you email Mary here, she will take a note of your enquiry and notify you as soon as the patterns become available again! She’s a sweetie isn’t she? You can read all about Fresh Hope on Among the Gum Trees, HERE.
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Next up, I’d like to say a big fat juicy THANK YOU to the lovely Rebecca Jane and another gorgeous lady who I do not yet know the name of (you know who you are, sweetheart!!) for giving me links to some fabulous tutorials on creating hexagons.
Melanie at Texas Freckles has some great tutorials, and her blog is absolutely gorgeous! Visit here to learn how to piece hexagons – although you won’t want to stop there - there are also many other fantastic tutes! My other recommendation was to visit Lori at Bee in my Bonnet – another inspirational place to hang out! and I’ve been chatting-up the lovely Dawn Hay to find out how she makes hers, too!! Here are my very first hexies, made for Dawn on her birthday…
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Okay – I have a little smirk on my face as I share this next story with you! In my last post I showed some delicious cinnamon scrolls I had made, and shared how I planned to attempt a gluten-free version. Well – I went for a substitution of wheat flour for this:
Gluten free flour, and a teaspoon of Xanthan Gum to help give the bread a stickiness that is most definitely lacking when no gluten is otherwise present.
My DD and I made one batch with gluten free ingredients, and then I made another batch with wheat flour. The wheaten scrolls are on the left of the pic:
Notice how different they look? The gluten-free versions were so much smaller and didn’t rise very well. They didn’t taste too great either! I gave my daughter a bowl with a freshly iced scroll and came back some 10 minutes later to her sitting with an empty bowl… I was astounded that she liked it, but when I asked “Wow, you ate it all?!!” she replied, “No, I thought you had eaten it?”
Together, we peered down under the couch where – as predicted - our pup was chomping away on the scroll. And when I say chomping, I MEAN chomping!!! So if you ever have the urge to make a rubber ball – I can provide you with the perfect recipe!!! :-P
So – having a child with Coeliac disease I have learned to always have a fail-safe on stand-by whenever we attempt to bake something new. Gotta love this!
Because with 5 minutes preparation time and 10 minutes in the oven, you end up with these…
Soft and squidgy in the middle and tasting as good as they look! :-) But shhhh! Don’t tell anyone my secret ok? When people ask, “did you make them yourself?” there’s every truth in saying YES, isn’t there?!!! Ha ha!
Speak to you soon!! I’ve made plenty of progress on my cot quilt and have some more sneak peeks to share soon, too! Oh, and Karen sweetie, I haven’t forgotten to share some pics of the Wearable Art exhibition – I was going to add them to this post but it would be a marathon read! LOL
Catch you round like a fruit loop!
Vikki x :-)
