Craft Club: Strawberry Pincushions

Why a craft club? Why not. After much dithering, daydreaming and wittering I spoke with Caroline at the Book Boutique about my wish to start a Craft Club up. She agreed and I Decided on a date and then figured out how to make an Event on Facebook right here. Please click if you feel like venturing into the deep dark heart of Derbyshire and dragging your crafts along.

CRAFT CLUB: STRAWBERRY PINCUSHIONS

Learn to make strawberry pincushions. Come along to the craft club and make some small strawberry pincushions. We shall have some small strawberry making kits available to purchase or bring your own fabric and sewing supplies.

Where: the Book Boutique, Church Street, Ripley, Derbyshire.

When: Monday the 26th of September
Time: 7pm-8:30pm
Contact: Apryl meridianariel@hotmail.com with any questions you may have.

The Craft Club is a brand new friendly and informal place to hang out with like-minded crafty folk. We’ll be here at the Book Boutique In Ripley 7pm until 8:30pm on the Monday the 26th of September. If things go well there will be more meet ups in the future.

Please do pop along and join us. Please feel free to bring along any craft project you are working on, chat, learn some new skills, browse the bookshelves and have fun. There will be tea and cakes to purchase and we really hope you have fun joining us for some crafty fun.

steampunk strawberry

steampunk strawberry pincushion

A little while ago on twitter the delightful Eirlys of Scrapiana tweeted about her pincushion vintage fabric strawberries on the cover of Mollie Makes magazine issue 2. If you are lucky enough to track down a copy of the magazine inside is a strawberry tutorial, written by Eirlys. I haven't been able to track down a copy of Mollie Makes, there is a dreadful lack of the good craft magazines around here (somebody should do something about that.

Scrapiana/Eirlys challenged me to make a strawberry on the darker side, something zombified or steampunk or dripping in blood... honestly what do people think I am?... *looks at books, dvds and dolls and monsters*Never mind don't answer that. ;o)

scrapiana Eirlys

@

@meridianariel PS Please take my strawberries over to the dark side. I need to see that. ;)

the above is an actual twitter quote. See !

I haven't been crafting much recently but with scrapiana egging...or should that be strawberry-ing me along I gathered together some scraps of material. Sent her a few messages as I didn't have the magazine to work from. And worked out a strawberry with her help and past experience making the Slightly Sinister Strawberry last year. I sacrificed a small rusty key and the inner workings of a watch that I bought the other weekend in Wirksworth and went to work crafting a small steampunk strawberry. It was fun to have been challenged and I look forward to seeing who else adds their strawberries to the flickr group.

I think I may need to make another Slightly Sinister Strawberry. Something a teeny bit darker than the previous one turned out last year though I still love the story and Lillian too.

Strawberry Muffins

Ingredients
1/2 cup unsalted butter ( room temperature)
1 cup caster/white granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt (a good pinch)
2 1/2 cups fresh strawberries (sliced and sprinkled with a tablespoon sugar)
2 cups self-raising flour
1/2 cup milk

Heat oven to 375° F (180° C ish)

Grease 18 regular-size muffin cups (or 12 large size muffins) or line muffin tins with paper cases.
In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.

Add eggs one at a time, beating after each.

Beat in vanilla, baking powder and salt. With a spoon, fold in half of flour then half of milk into batter.

Fold in the remainder of the flour, and then the remainder of the milk.

Gently fold strawberries into the batter and spoon into muffin cups.

Bake 20 minutes, or until golden brown and springy to touch.


cooks notes: I made these last Saturday to use up some strawberries that were of the use them or compost them state. We had Flame staying with us so I thought muffins would be a nice morning treat. Any excuse really, you know me and my baking. M said they were the nicest ones he has had and H didn't want to stop eating them so I must have done something right.

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Sorry I'm behind on updates, I will be posting a few more things soon.. as well as a giveaway when I have managed to actually sell something in my etsy shop *tilts head meaningfully to the right* to pay for a giveaway.

Strawberry and Lime Mini Cheesecakes

Strawberry and Lime Mini Cheesecakes

Ingredients:

2 pkg. (8 oz. each) Cream Cheese, softened
1 pkg. mascarpone cheese
1/2 cup caster/white sugar
1 tsp. grated lemon zest (2 limes)
juice of 2 limes
1 cup sliced and hulled strawberries
1-2 tablespoons of caster/white sugar

for the base:
12 biscuits (makes roughly 1½ cups crumbs)2 tablespoons melted butter
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional)

6 glass ramekin dishes.

Crush the biscuits and add the melted butter and cinnamon (optional). Mix well and press firmly into the ramekin dishes (alternatively for a larger cheesecake us an 8-inch pie pan). Pat down using the back of a tablespoon. Place in fridge for 30mins to set.

While base is setting. Mix together cream cheese, mascarpone, lime zest, lime juice (I normally put the lime juice in to taste roughly about 2 limes worth but if you would prefer a zestier cheesecake add 1 more) sugar, using a wooden spoon or electric mixer. Pour the cheese mixture over the base and spread evenly. Put cheesecakes in the fridge for at least 1 hour to set, (if making a large cheesecake it will need at least 4 hours to set, preferably overnight).

While the cheesecakes are setting, slice the strawberries and sprinkle with a generous amount of sugar (1 to 2 tablespoons). Just before serving spoon the sliced strawberries and juice over the mini cheesecakes.

cooks notes: I originally made these mini cheesecakes for Cinco de Mayo (the 5th of May a Mexican holiday) I served them after we had nachos, burritos, and refried beans. The cinnamon in the base blends well with the sweet strawberries and the lime cheesecake. M was very impressed, he ate 4 of the 6 ramekins I had made,. H was initially sceptical about it being lime but after eating all the strawberries off the top of his cheesecake he proclaimed that the cheesecake bit was actually "quite nice" .