Hi there. Thursday December 6 Ashburton will be a-buzz for the Rural Co Card Holders Day and this year Annie’s is a part of that. We will be open all day with some great specials until 8.00pm. Everyone is welcome and so if you feel like popping in for a piece of Christmas cake and a glass of something come on in.

We will have 30% off all Batik and Christmas fabrics and up to 50% off selected kits, patterns and everyone is welcome. The Bernina Sale continues with some fantastic savings on machines and overlockers and 20% off machine accessories.

In last week’s newsletter I mentioned that we have a new Block of the Month starting next March. The Field Journal combines beautiful stitcheries, exclusive hand dyed threads from Cottage Garden Threads and Liberty Fabrics resulting in a stunning heirloom quilt at the end of the program. All the details and the pricing are now on the website. This is a gorgeous project, an opportunity to make something very special. I believe it is very good value for money at $46.00 per month when you consider that you will receive 4 new threads (usually $9.90 each) as well as four preprinted stitcheries, a piece of Liberty fabric and patterns each month. Click here for more details.

Join now!

Just arrived in are some new patterns from Sue Spargo which come complete with a very handy re-useable plastic template. Great for tracing your designs onto Freezer Paper or Vliesofix to make templates, and some very handy circles are included as well. The pattern and template set is $34.50 and is available as the 'Flower Play Sampler Series' or 'Chick Play Sampler Series".

If you want to make a start on one of these wool projects or need to set aside some time to work on the one that you have on the go already, don’t forget that this Saturday is our Woolly Stitchers Day (10am-4 pm), so bring along your wool applique projects and enjoy a day out from the pre-Christmas madness!

I am also excited about this new range patterns from Australian designer Chris Jurd which I discovered when I was in Melbourne recently. They feature both foundation piecing and applique with very clear instructions, and a good way to use up some of the stash fabric.....if you need a new project for 2019, this could be it!

Oh...and before I forget the winner of the $50 voucher from Annie's for November is Trish Best from Tinwald. Well done Trish, your voucher is waiting for you.

Now...on to the recipe. We have an abundance of red beet in the garden at the moment, so I thought I would share this recipe...a delicious way to get in other of your 5+ a day vegetables.

Red Velvet Cup Cakes (makes 24)

• 5 red beets (about 500 grams each)
• ½ c buttermilk
• 175 g butter
• 200 g brown sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 300g Self raising flour
• 40 g cocoa
• 1 tsp baking soda
• Cream Cheese Frosting: 250 g cream cheese, 185 g icing sugar and 1 tsp lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 200C. Was and trim the tops from the beets. Wrap each one in foil and bake for about an hour or until very tender. When they are cool enough to handle, peels off the skin. Roughly chop and puree the beets with the buttermilk until smooth.

Cream the butter and sugar and add the eggs one at a time, and then mix in the vanilla essence. Sift together the dry ingredients into a large bowl. Make a well in the centre and add in the butter mixture and the beet puree stirring until just combined.

Spoon the mixture into the prepared cup cake papers and bake at 180C for about 20mins or until they spring back when touched. Cool and ice with the cream cheese frosting.

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Rachel Maw

Annie's Country Quilt Store

167 Archibald Street Ashburton

7700 New Zealand (03) 307 6277