Thursday 15 January 2015

Cooking Notes

Do you like cooking or baking? I do. Very much so, especially when I have spare time and the weather is cool. I am always on a lookout for some new quick and easy recipes and new ideas. I tend to bring home a new recipe from places we travel to. Just like the one for muffins (they are truly the best!) I pulled from a local Queenstown newspaper three years ago when we went skiing there.


Gina, one of my readers, left a comment on this post a while ago (Darling little squares with your fruits and veggies!!! They would be cute maybe for a little coupon keeper of the cover of a gardening journal :) I love the little gingham apple!!!) that gave me an idea for this project. I don't have a garden or even a small herb patch, so as my friends, so a gardening journal wasn't an option for me but a cooking journal/recipe book cover was exactly what could've been useful. It still amazes me how one simple word or picture or fabric can inspire you to create something totally new. Thank you, Gina, for your comment that inspired me! :-)


I decided to go with a bit of a "messy look" for this notepad cover, kind of like scribbles on paper done with free motion machine stitching. For the spine and the lining I used this pretty lemony cotton with bright red cherries and lemon slices on it. I had it for a while and thought that it would look lovely paired with linen in stone colour. A simple label on the back of the cover. How can I make anything without labels?


The little "windows" turned out to be a bit bulky. Next time I wouldn't add an extra fabric (yellow in this case) for frames because it causes to much of a build up of thickness. I should have simply turned the linen inside and stitched it. But it's not about the finished product really, it's all about learning and coming up with new ways of making things and improving my skills.


So I am happy with the end result and with what I have learnt along the way. Happy stitching and learning everybody! Larisa xox

8 comments:

  1. As soon as I saw the thumbnail to your post I couldn't wait to see what you had done with the cute fruit squares!! This journal is just perfect and I love those little squares just as much as the first time I saw them!! Too bad the squares turned out a bit bulky as I really love how the lemon fabric frames them between the linen. So glad that you read my comment and then ran with an idea and cooked up this cute little number :). I always love the things you make but this is my new favorite!!!

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    1. Thank you again, Gina, for your inspiration and for finding the time to leave a comment every time you visit my blog. I treasure every single comment my readers leave. Maybe if I used a lighter weight linen, the frames would've looked less bulky but in case of this particular cover it looks alright, kind of a county/rustic look. :-)

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  2. It looks great! (And I like your attitude to making things:-)

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    1. Thank you, Catherine! I am still working on my attitude, trying hard to see even a tiny bit of positive in anything negative. :-)

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  3. Just popped by as seem to have been really busy and nipping back and forth to UK inbetween. I love the journal covers and am going to try two one for cooking and one for garden, thank you for the idea and yours look amazing, so cute.x

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    1. Nice to see you here, Carole! Have fun making your own covers! Would love to see your creations, Carole.

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