Hi there,

Another week has rolled around and it is a beautiful winter’s day as I sit here at the computer.

This week I feel like I have being playing catch up with packing, unpacking and repacking – not to mention the ordering!  We had a fabulous weekend in Akaroa with plenty of laughs, stitching and far too much good food which is pretty much par for the course.

One of the new projects was this cute little zip bag, which is a great way to store your stitching, rotary cutters or your passport or important documents.  The kit with the pattern, fabric, zip and everything you need is $26.00, and it can be whipped up in no time.  It is also a great beginner project for new patchworkers.

I seem to be hooked on English Paper Piecing (EPP) at the moment with several projects on the go, and I have found that if you are using templates (particularly useful for fussy cutting) then a small cutter is a brilliant addition to the tool kit.

These Olfa 18mm cutters are $22.00 and the blades come in a two pack are $14.00.

If you are a follower of trends, you may be interested to know that I was speaking with one of my favourite fabric suppliers earlier and she mentioned that swans and pandas were the ‘new thing’ at market in the US recently…I am still waiting until the rest of the world catches up with kiwi’s and sheep!

Anyway, onto the recipe….

This week I have a quick and easy dessert that you can make with those frozen berries that you have stashed in the freezer, and with a dollop of cream or icecream is a delicious finish to any winter meal.

Raspberry and Apple Tart

• 1 sheet of flaky pastry
• 2 cups of frozen berries
• 1 grated apple
• 1/3 c icing sugar
• 2 tbsp cornflour

Defrost the pastry and lay it out on a greased oven tray.

Grate the apple into a bowl and mix in the berries with the sifted icing sugar and cornflour.

Pile the berries into the centre of the pastry and pull the corners of the pastry up, pinching the base so that it all holds together.

Cook for 25-30 mins in an oven pre-heated to 210 C.  When cool dust with icing sugar.

Happy stitching

Rachel