Needle Felted Hearts and Raspberry Square Recipe

Last night I enjoyed a wonderful evening sharing needle felting techniques with creative women at Art Mind and Soul Studios in the Fort Andross mill. This renovated brick mill sits beside the Androscoggin River in Brunswick, Maine. The interior has been beautifully renovated into office and artist studios, the building is also home to restaurants and antique shops. Art Mind and Soul recently opened their doors as a center for the visual arts community. It's a wonderful place to hold workshops, create for an hour or two or rent a small studio space.

My approach to teaching this needle felting class was to hand everyone a kit full of supplies and impart as much technical knowledge as I could. I demonstrated wet and dry felting techniques along with flat and three dimensional construction. The joy of needle felting is that you immediately start poking fibers together with a felting needle. I was thrilled with the originality of the finished projects. They were stunningly beautiful raised designs abstract to illustrative on wool felt rectangles, charming three dimensional hearts and even a few white bunnies.

If you missed out on this workshop, don't fret I'll offer it again soon with a different theme and new construction techniques. I'm looking forward to sharing Polymer clay millefliori beads and stamped charms on Feb 23 and Pysanky egg dyeing on March 28. If you're a parent of young children please click the sidebar link to find a listing of my inexpensive family workshops also held at Art Mind and Soul studios.

The other hit last night was my mums' raspberry coconut bar recipe named 'Louise Cake'

My parents are British, my mother kindly converted the amounts from weighted quantities. For the sake of the workshop I doubled the recipe and baked the bars in a 11"x13" metal brownie pan, I needed 35 minutes to brown the crust.

Preheat the oven to 350

Cream 1/2 cup of butter and 2T +2t of sugar together.

Add 2 egg yolks to the creamed butter and sugar.

Stir in 1 cup +1T of flour and 1t of baking powder.

Press the crust mixture into the bottom of a greased 7"x11" baking pan.

Generously spread raspberry jam over the 'crust'.

Whisk the 2 egg whites until they're stiff.

Fold in 2/3 cup of sugar and 1 cup of sweetened coconut.

Gently spread the topping over the jam.

Bake 20 minutes until the top puffs and starts to brown at the edges, let cool completely before cutting into squares.

Easy embroidered felt heart sachets - Free tutorial!

I just finished creating these Valentine craft project samples for my Feb 8th visit with Curtis Memorial Library's fiber arts club. The children in the group are 7-12 years old. Felt is the perfect material for introducing kids to embroidery, its sturdy enough to hold it's shape without an embroidery hoop. I like to use a full strand of embroidery thread so the stitches stand out. A crewel needle has a sharp enough point to get through the felt without poking fingers. It also has a wide enough eye to accommodate the floss. To keep Celia happy while I created this sample I handed her a felt heart and along with a threaded needle. With a minimal amount of help she was able to stitch her favorite finds out of my button stash onto the front of the heart, she was so proud!

If you're local please preregister at 725-5242 ext 225 and join me for this free workshop. If not follow the directions below, break out the embroidery floss and buttons and get your kids excited about stitching!

Materials:

1/4 yard or less of pink and red felt - I love the felt National Nonwovens sends me. (http://www.commonwealthfelt.com/)

Embroidery floss, pink red and white - I'll use any excuse to break into the box full of colors DMC shipped me. (http://www.dmc-usa.com/)

Assorted buttons

Poly-fil stuffing (http:www.poly-fil.com/)

Scented plastic pellets - from plastic sleeve sachets (available at major box stores)

4" section of ribbon or cording for a hanging loop

Tools:

Scissors

Pinking sheers-optional

Crewel needles

Large heart shaped cookie cutter

Sewing machine - optional substitute sewing needles and thread

1. Use the large cookie cutter as your template to cut out the felt heart top, add a 1/4" seam allowance to all sides.

2. Thread the crewel needle with a full strand of embroidery floss and begin stitching flowers, cross shaped kisses, buttons even messages onto the front of the heart. If desired add a blanket stitch around the edge of the heart (see the red variation). Tie all knots on the backside of the heart and trim the ends.

3. Pin the heart to a second uncut scrap of felt, make sure it extends a half inch on all sides of the heart top. Position the ends of the hanging cord between the layers.

4. Machine stitch (or hand stitch) around the edge of the heart, approximately a quarter of an inch inside the cut edge. Trap the hanging cord in your seam and leave an inch and a half opening for stuffing.

5. Lightly stuff the heart and then pour a teaspoon of pellets into the heart. Hold the opening closed and position it back under your sewing machine presser foot to stitch the opening close (or hand stitch closed).

6. Use the pinking sheers to trim the heart backing so that it extends a 1/4" from the heart front.

Enjoy your sweet soft heart, make another and share the love!

New Year's Kringler!

Almost a week after we planned to make Kringler, Jon woke up making it his first task of the New Year. He’d already loaded the stand mixer, pressed the dough crust onto the cookie sheet and was stirring the pudding like filling over the stove top, all by the time I made an appearance downstairs. The recipe comes from his mother, my mother in law Jan whose mother (Jon’s grandma) is Norwegian. I like to think this is a family recipe that has been passed down although I need to confirm if that is truly the case. Jan would serve this Scandinavian pastry at the annual Boyd family Christmas in their Des Moines home. I have fond memories of feasting on this warm danish while the kids unwrapped their stockings.

If you’re beginning the year with a renewed commitment of health you might want to skip this culinary delight. It has only a few ingredients none of which make an appearance at the bottom of the revamped food pyramid. It’s an ideal treat for a cold winters morning when the pantry is bare. The main ingredients are butter and white flour the flavoring is dependent on the magic of almond extract. Relatively easy to make it has a wow factor when it emerges from the oven puffed up and golden brown.

Wishing you the sweetest of years filled with blessings, happiness, health and lots of crafty goodness!

 Heidi

Scandinavian Kringler

Crust:

1 cup flour

1/2 cup butter or margarine

2 TBLS ice water

Puff Topping:

1 cup water

1/2 cup butter or margarine

1 cup flour

3 eggs

1/2 tsp almond extract

Frosting:

1 cup powdered sugar

1 TBLS margarine

1/2 almond extract

2-3 TBLS milk

slivered almonds

Oven - 350 degrees Divide dough in half. Press each half into a 3 x 12 inch strip on an ungreased cookie sheet. Heat water and ½ cup margarine in medium saucepan to boiling. Remove from heat & immediately stir in one cup flour until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, and beat until smooth. Stir in ½ tsp. almond extract. Spoon ½ of the batter over each crust. Bake at 350 until golden brown and puffy...about 50-60 min. Immediately remove from the cookie sheet and cool. Topping will shrink. Spread frosting and sprinkle with almonds.

Easiest Candy houses to make with kids!

Nothing like telling a four year old you're going to make candy houses to ensure that it happens. I carved some between playgroup car repair and work deadline to squeeze a sugar rush into our afternoon. Elliot had his good friend Gabe over who was very willing to participate in the eating and building. Yesterday I'd purchased a good selection of candy and cookies at good ole fashioned Reny's department store in Bath. The only other preparation was sifting through the recycling bin to turn up cardboard bases and an assortment of food boxes and cartons for the building structures. You can easily cut boxes in half to get the right size. It's a good idea to cover the cardboard base with wax paper so that the frosting and candies don't permeate the base. I'd like to say we make royal frosting but we don't, simply crack open tubs of white frosting and pass out the knives. These are not masterpieces but they're incredibly simple and provide instant gratification. Celia can spread the frosting on the side of a carton and stick the cookie wall in place by herself. I read her Jan Brett's 'Gingerbread Boy' before bed and she noticed that our houses were not of the same caliber as the elaborate illustrations. One day I'll roll out the gingerbread and make a real house again but for now this project is a winner.

Girls Night Out Winter Craft Workshops

Please join me for an evening of jewelry making (Jan 19th) and/or needle felting (Feb 9th) at the beautiful Art Mind and Soul Studio in Fort Andross. Enjoy a relaxing couple of hours of creativity, all supplies dessert and coffee are included!

Santas in the Workshop

During the kids snowday Wednesday Elliot took Celia outside to play, giving me some time to escape into the garage. I'd been itching to spruce up the wooden Santas Jon and I have been working on. Like our popular Lobsters they're made from old fence pickets. Jon cuts out the wood pieces and I get the easy job of playing graffiti artist. I apply multiple layers of old house, spray and dimesional craft paint onto the cut boards. Santas' eyes are washers and upholstery tacks, and his glasses are formed with rebar wire. Something was missing and I had an ah hah moment when I delved into the scrap bin and found small wood pieces for eyebrows. They perfectly frame the top of his face. A few hits of silver spray paint helped give his beard and moustache some more dimension.

When I came back in the house I tripped over a mound of abandoned wet coats, mittens and boots. The clothes didn't dampen my good mood though, I was happy to have had an undisturbed half hour to give our Santas finishing touches before the holidays.

Penelope or Henrietta the Hedgehog?

I unveiled this new softie design at North Yarmouth Fair over the weekend. I was thrilled by how well she was received. I was completely surprised that each woman who purchased one had already named her. The names were absolutely hysterical, and perfectly fit each hedgies' personality.

The body is simply three pieces of felted wool sweaters. The spines are sewn in place as a complete strip and then later cut apart. I had pitched the design to Stitch magazine for their upcoming Spring issue. On Sunday morning I awoke to an e-mail from them asking me to make the hedgehog along with five other projects. I'll make her with easy to find fleece for their baby story.

I'm hoping to whip up a few more for this Friday and Saturday fairs. My sweater supply is drying up. Sewing with felted sweaters has definitely become popular this year. I found a yard of white wool suiting for the face and underside at JoAnn's. Fortunately I still have a supply of the wonderful Feltworks tm flowers sent to me from Dimensions. She wouldn't be the same without them. This time I'll make some child friendly versions without the wooden bead eyes. It'll be tricky to keep the same expression with sewn wool scraps but I'm up for the challenge.