October 3, 2012 – 12:16 pm
Hey Denyse Schmidt fans- check out this cake!
This cake is by Baker Days, they offered me a free letterbox cake in order for a review. Not one to turn down cake(!), I said yes!
At Baker Days you can personalise designs for all occasions and upload your own photos which are then printed on a cake of your choice. I thought a fabric cake would be a lovely gift for a fellow sewer, a close-up of a quilt block would look stunning too! I chose to photograph some of my Flea Market Fancy fabric- the colours are reasonably accurate, the orange looks a bit dirty on these photos- it’s actually much better in real life.
The letterbox cake starts at £14.99 for a madeira sponge which seems like quite a lot for such a small cake (it’s about the size of a side plate and shallow so that it fits through the letter box as the name would suggest). However this does include first class UK delivery (which was pretty speedy- I sent off my photo and the cake arrived 2 working days later), careful packaging, a lovely tin, a notecard with your chosen gift message and even some balloons and streamers! If you pay a bit extra, other cake flavours are available including chocolate chip.
I must admit, it was pretty tasty- the sponge is, well, spongy, and the jam and slight butter cream used to attach the icing to the top is nice too. And because it’s not a massive cake you don’t feel guilty about eating half in one sitting….
For more information, go to www.bakerdays.com
December 23, 2011 – 10:21 am
I used a jelly roll of “Summer House” (plus a couple of Meadow friends strips chucked in when I was short) and Kona white to make this quilt, and it’s back is a beige fabric (with a tiny strip of yellow as I ran out). Ther block is a repeating log cabin design and it’s for Norah, hence the name!
Sorry for the poor photos, it was 10.30pm when I took these and our light in the living room is… ambient. Maybe I will get a better photo at Christmas- I will make sure I take my camera.
I only noticed one of the blocks is the wrong way round once I finished and photographed it though – so annoyed with myself!
The binding of a quilt always proves a challenge for me so I stippled just the top and wadding (a nice smooth one not a ratty polyester) bagged this one out and then did a little bit of contrast stitching in blue round the edges to secure it so I could miss this horrible step. I used a Sizzix strip die against my 1/4″ foot to keep it even all the way round as I couldn’t find my ruler and it was a nice width just to hold there and save me drawing a guide. I do like a shortcut. I really must start hand stitching my binding but I’m always in a rush to complete and never have the time for it, though I love the idea of sticking a DVD on and just stitching at my leisure. Maybe next time?
There were some incidents of swearing and sewing through my thumb (surprisingly unrelated) in the making of this quilt, and it resulted in me spending last night finishing it, when I should have been chilling out for my birthday! The swearing part was due to a thread fault, which I shall be blogging about at a later date, I am just waiting for a manufacturer response before I share this story.
Anyway, all the stress is over thankfully! I’m just packaging up some food gift baskets this afternoon and Christmas is officially dealt with and I can enjoy myself! Well sort of, I still need to finish Crafteroo magazine issue 2 which comes out 1st Jan, and Alix needs time to proof read it first!
December 11, 2009 – 10:14 pm
Here’s the last of my Christmas promotions, hope you’ve enjoyed them!
www.pennydog.com
November 16, 2009 – 12:25 pm
Shop Handmade have opened a Folksy shop to promote and showcase the talents of UK designers by selling the sort of sample boxes you want to buy. They’re a little more expensive than other sample boxes in the region of £30-50 each depending on contents, but each box contains a wealth of full size items from a mix of UK designers and all money taken goes straight back to those contributors- how nice of Shop Handmade!
I have managed to get in almost every gift box available, contributing ice rings, fruit stud earrings and image pendants. Contributions from other people include knitted items, brooches, cards, artwork, candles and bags. Please take a look at the Folksy shop for an unusual gift for Christmas, or maybe just to treat yourself!
PennyDog Patchwork (and illustration, recipes, other crafts...) 