Sarah Appleton - Textile Artist Blog

OK... it's not the right season at all for all these squash recipes but I'm naughty and not really into PCV (political correctness of vegetables) and more into eating whatever I feel like. Which is everything, all the time apparently. You can sub with a different kind of squash or sweet potato if you're crazy and don't like pumpkin. Ingredients: 400g (14oz) pasta (whichever kind you like best) 85g (3oz) butter 2 crushed garlic cloves 450g (16oz) cubed pumpkin pieces 2 tsp rosemary Lemon zest (to taste) Ground nutmeg (to taste) Salt and pepper (to taste) 1. Melt the butter in a big pan and add the garlic. Stir for approximately 1 minute and then add the pumpkin , rosemary, lemon zest, salt and pepper and nutmeg. Cover it and let it sweat for 15 minutes or until the pumpkin is soft. 2. Cook the pasta. 3. Mix it all together and for an extra special touch add a witty sprig of rosemary to each serving. 4. Eat and enjoy your seriously yummy pumpkin pasta. ...

I made this little starry eyed frog guy for my friend Rhonwen's birthday! It was tough to let him go... I used some strange green woven patterned cotton for his back with brown corduroy for his belly. All made from scraps of leftover fabric and lovingly hand sewn! Then I filled his guts in with polyester stuffing. A cheapy, quicky project with the hardest part being the darting. Boy am I making myself sound like a big time cheapskate today! Here's a not-so-great picture of his belly to get you back on my side: Awwwww! I don't know why that's cute, but it is. Unfortunately [again] I can't take too much credit for this project as I got the instructions and pattern from here ; I just simplified it very slightly. I would like to take credit for having extremely relevant bed sheets though. This froggy was born with the aid (or not) of a broken heart! Know what else aside from crafting cures a broken heart? New shoes . Oh yes. It's true.

I've recently hit some tough times finance-wise, so seeing as I'm such a huge fabric hoarder I've started working my way through my archive pile of fabric to avoid buying any more and to spend time crafting inside instead of spending money outside. I finally decided to make a bag from this cotton flannel fabric - a regular square tote bag seemed too boring so I knocked this up based on a shape I've seen in Matalan in the past! Not bad considering that I was sick as a dead dog with a virus that day - I even managed to line it! The fabric was from The Fabric Fairy (as always), although I think I got the last couple of yards. Turns out flannel isn't the strongest or most ideal fabric for making a bag; it's best to sew around the seams a few times for extra strength or the fabric will stretch and fray very easily. Or maybe I was just carrying too many beers in my bag that day... It also tends to bobble and grow a lint layer very quickly. Oh well, it's g...