Making a basket from a free sack

Sometimes coffee shops and garden centres give away hessian sacs for people to recycle. Often coffee grounds too. A friend brought one back for me recently and I’ve been wondering how best to use it. I decided a lined container might be nice. I wanted to keep the thick sewn edge and make a feature of it, and I found that it is possible to sew them together using a heavy needle and one of the weave ....

I’m making the lining from an old curtain plus it’s interfacing, that was part of another friend’s clear out. I’m just a girl who can’t say no! The lining of the curtain was faded and weak. But the Laura Ashley cotton fabric was still nice. 

Remember our Family Textiles? Cushions completed!

We had colourful fun trying to create some new posh cushions for our sofa ... Here is Daisy's Tiger, painted and with pastel detail added ...

And Mary's Meerkat featuring a nice bold green outline. 

And Matty's Fox, also showing great colour mixing and shading too. 

You dont have to encourage me to be colourful, the top i was wearing in the photo this was drawn from is almost that bright pink. 

Then we all tried quilting for the first time, and I began to make the art into actual cushion covers using a fun table cloth I found second hand.

Mary sewing and keeping a nice tension on her running stitch ... She is now 7 years old and very fond of sewing ...

Matty May and Daisy can now all enjoy a new cushion when reading books on the sofa ...

My own cushion receives approval by Salt Ferret herself! so much so she stayed still long enough for a photograph!

Union Jack!

Remember all that bonding over some cutting out?



It was time to do some sticking!



And we think it worked out very well!

tarts again!

i made another batch of oinion tarts, i am so happy to have found a fun way to use up lots of onions, and feed the children an interesting lunch at the same time ...

first fry your onions gently, not to brown them, in a nice oil, and after about half an hour cover with water and simmer till is disappears. This brings out the sweet taste of the onions ...



i read a lot of recipes on line, before deciding on a method, but I tend to cook by feel! The pasty is a short crust, I don't bother to sieve or rest in the fridge (the pastry, not me!)but this is a batch using 4oz flour and 2oz fat ...

here is a try of tarts ready for the hot oven ...



and baked, the hot steamy tarts, now I feel hungry all over again!