cross stitch | Laura Chau

Happenings

May 5, 2015

It’s getting harder and harder to keep up blogging these days, even though I still love the format! I know I’m not alone, since my feed reader (I use Feedly) is quieter and quieter over time. I do think there’s more action to be had in sewing blog land – some favourites lately include Crafting a Rainbow and What Katie Sews. (Blast from the past, I remember Katie as a knitting blogger! Hi!)

Anyway, since I can’t really share my knitting at the moment either (I have 3 sweaters due back in the US by June 19!), here are some other things I’ve been up to, mostly from Instagram.

Dale and I went to the Knitter’s Frolic on April 25 and had a great time! I know I haven’t been around much in the local knitting circles, so it was nice to see knitters I know from here and afar. I didn’t buy much, but I did pick up a few new books, a sheepy mug from Sheppard Handmade, and a couple skeins from sweet fiber.

I finally got around to hanging a tea towel as a curtain in the bathroom window. I think it’s quite cheery!

I ordered this awesome sampler from Posie Gets Cozy, I had such a nice time stitching her previous sampler so I’m hoping to get to this one sooner rather than later.

We spent hours and hours on the weekend making macarons and they are super good. I used the recipe from the Bouchon Bakery cookbook, which has some extra steps over most standard macarons recipes I see, making a syrup of regular sugar and water to stream into the egg whites, which stabilizes the meringue and really makes it easier to get good results! We used meringue buttercream for the filling, in vanilla and raspberry. So, so good. Now that I know the process, I can really jump into flavourings!

Spring’s here – finally!

stitched gifts

December 28, 2014

I didn’t make a lot of handmade gifts this year (other than a LOT of caramels, cookies, truffles, and peppermint patties) but I did decide rather late in the game to stitch up these pieces for my sisters!

Mochi the Maltese from andiwabisabi on Etsy. I used blue Aida for this one because most of it is white! This one was really quick and simple. I cut some backing fabric and put it all in a round hoop – they didn’t have any small wooden hoops at Michael’s when I was buying supplies, so now I need a new one!

I’m pretty darn proud of this next one – it was rather a lot of stitching to start only a week before Christmas! The pattern is Bento Box Sushi by Tiny Modernist, a local stitcher. I saw her wares at the Creativ festival and was immediately smitten! I used evenweave for this piece, also from Michael’s – I would’ve used linen but I didn’t have time to go to the proper sewing shop.

I finished it Tuesday night before I was leaving for my parents’ house on Wednesday, so it was a little bit down to the wire! The piece didn’t fit into any of the frames I had bought, so I just mounted it onto a small piece of foamcore. I used straight pins around the edge, double-sided tape to hold down the edges of the fabric at the back, and some washi tape over the back edges as well. For a bit of a border, I pinned some black ribbon all the way around and added a hanging loop straight through the piece. Of course, I neglected to take a photo of the back as we were trying to get out the door!

Now I want sushi.

P.S. If you didn’t get one for the holidays, Gleener is still offering a promo code for blog readers! Get 10% off with code LAURACHAU10 at the checkout until January 2, 2015. Gotta keep those knits looking good!

grooo-oow

June 16, 2014

The garden is growing really well these days! I’m sure it could be hotter, weather-wise, for the tomatoes, peppers and eggplant – but I love this cooler weather.

Garden overview, June 12:

The cucumber is climbing! We got exactly 1 cucumber last year, but I have high hopes for this one.

The sweet cherry peppers are flowering…

..and little ones are appearing!

The zucchini also failed rather spectacularly last year, but this year we have 130L tubs to grow in! Pretty flower with a tiny zucchini behind it.

We have two types of Asian eggplant growing – white and magenta. I also sowed some radishes in there to make the most of the space.

The peas are giant, and just started flowering.

A new variety of tomato for me this year – Riesenstraube. Looking good, nice and bushy.

The bigger tomatoes are flowering too!

The indoor herbs are doing well too, though the lettuce was over-seeded and got all leggy. This morning I harvested what there was, took out the stems, and re-seeded more thinly for a new crop.

In crafting news, I finally finished this guy – and one row of my Superhero alphabet.

And I started a new summery shrug, out of madelinetosh pashmina. I had to take the weekend off to rest my arm, but I’m hoping to get lots done this week.