Hello, hello and Happy New Year!  Yes, we are back bright eyed and bushy tailed and ready for a fabulous 2016!  It is going to be a fabulous year with lots of exciting things happening including our visit from the very talented and award winning Australian quilter and  tutor Katrina Hadjimichael 26-28 August.

The quilt that she will be teaching for the two day workshop is ‘Longbourne’ featuring lots of applique and English paper piecing the fussy cutting.  One you have mastered these skills a whole world of possibilities opens up in terms of creating absolutely stunning heirloom quilts that will be treasured for generations.

Katrina will also be bringing with her a collection of her quilts to share with us as part of the Trunk Show on the Friday evening.  Circle these dates in your new 2016 diary and we will have more details to come once the costing for the workshop have been finalised.  Katrina is also sending over the Longbourne quilt in the next few weeks, so we will have plenty of time to drool over it in the shop.

Brand new in the mail this morning is the new book from Anni Downs of Hatched and Patched called ‘The Story of My Day’.  This is a really lovely book packed full of more than 25 stitcheries and projects in Anni’s quirky fun style.  The cost of landing the book here will make it $56.00, however I still think it is good value when you consider the cost if you had to purchase all patterns individually.

I have been trying out some new recipes over the past couple of weeks including this one for a gluten, dairy and sugar free loaf which is very tasty and guilt free.  It is quite a wet mixture and will vary according the consistency of the pumpkin, so you may need to cook it for longer.

Pumpkin and Almond Loaf

• 600-700 g pumpkin
• 250 g almond meal or ground almonds
• 2 tbsp chia seeds
• 2 tbsp ground linseed
• ½ tsp cinnamon
• ½ tsp nutmeg
• 1 tsp baking soda
• ¼ tsp sea salt
• 2 grated carrots
• ½ c sultanas
• ½ c pumpkin seeds and extra to garnish
• ¼ c coconut oil, warmed to consistency of soft butter
• 3 eggs

Preheat the oven to 175C and line a large loaf tin with baking paper.  Chop, steam or boil the pumpkin, mash and set aside to cool.

Combine all the dry ingredients and then add the grated carrots, pumpkin and eggs.  Stir until just mixed and then spoon the batter in the tin and bake for 60-85 min or until firm to touch and a skewer comes out clean.

Well that is all from me this week, but before I forget the winner of the $50.00 voucher from Annie’s for December was Jude Box of Ashburton.  Congratulations Jude!

Take care and happy stitching.

Rachel

Annie’s CQS