20/10/2015

Crochet | African flower cushion

How to join and make an African flower cushion

Another finished project, high-five's all round! So today I thought I'd share how to join your African flower squares into a cushion as I recently discovered it's not quite as simple as using granny squares. It turns out that while joining squares into a bigger square is easy, joining hexagons into a square... not so much! 


Here's the tutorial: 

You'll need 32 flowers for a standard 40cm square cushion, you can see step-by-step instructions for how to crochet an African flower here.

Once you have your flowers lay them out into the following pattern 4, 3, 4, 5, 4, 5, 4, 3. The flowers in the middle will be on the front of your cushion. Join together using a slip stitch in the back loop. I found it easiest to join them into strips, then join the strips together to get the flat shape.


One they are all joined, place face down and fold the left and right edges into the centre - your cushion shape will begin to appear! Join these together using slip stitch though the back loop.
Then you'll be able to see where to join the bottom seam.


Now turn it the right way out and insert your cushion pad. Join the final seam with a wool needle, I found the neatest finish was to sew though the back loops while keeping the squares flat, not folded together like you do with slip stitch. It's a bit fiddly to start with, but gives a nice flat finish.



I'm super happy to have finished this one, it matches the feature wall in our bedroom perfectly and adds a pop of pastel colour. It's been a long time coming though, I planned the project and brought the wool back in February, yes you read that right February, but I didn't manage to start it until June. Since then apart from keeping me company in the evenings, it's been to Menorca and back, and on a long car journey to Bristol. But that kind of makes it all the more special now it's got a few memories attached to it. 



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12/10/2015

Recently I’ve been…


Attempting to grow a basil cutting. In an effort to rectify my somewhat chequered history with all things green-fingered, I'm keen to save myself some money now that our shop brought basil plant is coming to an end. Having survived on the kitchen window sill all spring and summer, it's clearly hardier than ones I have had in the past. I'm hoping to grow another one from these cutting and save the price of a new plant. Watch this space. 


Admiring our new sun tunnel. Remember this post where I mentioned 'project natural light' my mission to fill our windowless bathroom with natural light, well we've made progress! I'm saving the full reveal for once we've redecorated the bathroom (you might have a bit of a wait on that) but here's a sneak peek of the sun tunnel which has solved all our problems...



Reading Under the Paw, Confessions of a cat man by Tom Cox. It's a really fun tail tale of one man and his love of cats, following his cat-filled journey through life with plenty of funny and sometimes sad anecdotes. He really plays up the personality of each cat and I have to admit I've been watching our neighbour's cat with renewed curiosity - just what are they thinking about! 



Visiting the stunning Arundel Castle, you can't help but be impressed by its crenelated towers and sheer size. The interiors are absolutely amazing, and it’s home to my one of my favourite rooms of any historic house, their Library is the stuff dreams are made of. Sadly you can’t take pictures – but it’s double height, with big red sofas, several fire places and lots of cosy nooks to curl up with one of the hundreds of books. I could live in that room.




What have you been doing recently?



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06/10/2015

Gooey snickers chocolate brownies – a recipe


These are seriously good brownies - the perfect mix of chocolate and gooey caramel with the peanuts adding a hint of texture. Flash freezing the snickers pieces before adding to the mixture helps keep all the nougaty, caramel goodness together rather than disappearing into the bake. I whipped them up one Saturday morning and by Sunday afternoon they’d all been eaten… 


Here’s the recipe to make some for yourself, you won’t regret it!

Ingredients 
150g margarine or butter
200g caster sugar
2 eggs
100g plain flour
75g cocoa powder 
150g snickers bars, chopped into pieces

Method
Chop the snickers bars into small pieces and lay apart on a baking tray, put in freezer to flash freeze.
Preheat the oven to 150°C/140°C fan/300F/Gas Mark 2.
Grease a 25.5cm x 15cm baking tin or a 20cm square tin.
Cream the margarine (or butter) and sugar together. 
Beat in the eggs then fold in the flour and cocoa.
Stir in the chocolate.
Spoon the mixture into the tin and cook for about 35 mins.
Cut into squares while still hot then remove from the tin once cool.


It's official all brownies should have snickers in them. 



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03/10/2015

Inspired by | the pheasant


Autumn is here! It's possibly my favourite season, and while this month's bird of choice can be seen pretty much all year round, it's striking autumnal colouring and habit of wandering though country fields and makes the pheasant a perfect pick to add a seasonal touch to your home or wardrobe this October. 


Kitchen glove | Ulster weavers

Found feathers phone case | Cassia Beck 


Scarf | Highland Angel

Handmade lampshade | Ollie & Roo

Which is your favourite? 




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