Visible Mending Workshop

This morning our Simple Living Toowoomba group held a 'Visible Mending: Boro and Sashiko Inspired ' workshop which was presented by our co-ordinator, Margy.

So we all brought along our jeans etc. and after Margy explained to us how she had embroidered her jeans which are pictured above, we all started out to produce our own work of art. Unfortunately, the creative ideas weren't coming through in abundance this morning as far as I was concerned so after a tentative start on my jeans, I wandered around to take some photos of how the other ladies were going with theirs.

 Of course this is a process which will take some time so I have no doubt that once everyone gets home and has time to work on their fabric we will be receiving inspirational photos of the finished product.

Not everyone had learned how to sew at school or at home so Margy was a great help....

 

 ...as was Margaret who brought along her pot holder which she had made a while back showing some of the Sashiko stitches. The binding on her potholder is actually red so I am not sure what is going on with my old camera. Perhaps it is time to use the new one I bought some time ago but I hate change unfortunately and like to work with what I know how to use.

Firstly Margy glues on her scraps of fabric with fabric glue and then starts the stitching. There is a lot of information on the internet about how to do Sashiko stitching and one of our ladies brought along her new book....

 ...Mending Matters which I am pleased to say she has asked our local library to purchase. It is a fantastic book and full of good ideas. Another book I can recommend is the 'Alabama Stitch Book' by Natalie Chanin. I was very blessed to be given this book by an old friend. If you have a fantastic library like we do, you can ask them to purchase books that you recommend.

At our May workshop Margy brought along her Date and Banana Slice which was meant to be cooked as muffins but she just cooked it in a slice tray instead and it was very much appreciated. Lots of ladies wanted the recipe.  She has sent the recipe to all those who are on the group's mailing list but it hasn't gone up on the Simple Living Toowoomba blog as yet so I will add it here as I am sure Margy won't mind.

Date and Banana Slice

Ingredients

 

Wet Mix

 

1/2 cup butter

1 tablespoon honey

1 egg

1 1/2 cups of mashed bananas (3-4 med bananas)

Dry Mix

 

1 3/4 cups GF Self Raising Flour (can be normal flour)

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 cup walnuts chopped 

1/2 cup dates chopped   

Method

 

Preheat oven 180 degrees.  Blend together the butter and honey and then mix in egg and banana.  Mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.  Place in a lined slice tin and bake for approx 20-25 mins.

The topic at our next workshop on the 13th July will be about mosiacs, leadlighting and copper foil. Jo will be presenting this workshop and I am certainly looking forward to the mosiac tips as I have lots of leftover tiles from our kitchen and bathroom renovations although some of them are going to be used when the builders come back to do the laundry I believe. I really hate the waste that happens during renovations and rescued some of the tiles from the rubbish pile.

I am writing this blog post on the old laptop so hopefully it will publish.  The new PC is sitting in a box beside me waiting to be set up. You can tell how excited I am about having to learn to use Windows 10 :-(

 Have a great weekend everyone!