Melanie Makes Meringues

Cutting + sticking + sewing + baking. My creative life.

Have a Doris Day!

Bought a lovely cherry fat quarter at the new fabric shop in my town and thought I would make a pinny for friends who have a cherry business. I love these 1950s style aprons, I think I'll make some more. I recently watched the Doris Day and Gordon MacRae film…

Gonk Babies – Part Deux

Made more gonk babies! Dropped off two for my friend's birthday yesterday and just posted the other two to their new home. The fleecy bits I have left are getting smaller so I think the future gonk babies will be tinier too. Micro gonk babies?!More gonk love Melanie x

June Cake of the Month

Here is the question I posed for June Cake of the Month: -June Cake of the Month! I am going to go with "What is your favourite word?". I love words, I used to read the dictionary a lot when I was little. Put your current best choice in the…

Postcards from the Edge

Love stationery! I clip and keep images and text which catch my eye from newspapers and magazines so that I can make my own postcards as I also love snail mail! Sent this one to a good friend yesterday.Happy SundayLove Melanie x

70th Birthday Quilt

I made a quilt for my Aunty Wendy's 70th birthday. I am really pleased with how it turned out, I think it's one of my favourites out of all the quilts I've made and definately it's in my aunty's colours. I dyed and printed all the fabric myself, in fact…

Flower Corsages

We made these fabric flower corsages recently at the Salvation Army day centre sewing group. Very Sarah Jessica Parker, n'est pas? They have a brooch pin sewed on to the back so you can pin them on your jacket or your bag. The clients didn't want to make them at first…

Cake Pops

One of my Seven Sisters Quilt Group friends gave me an article about cake pops recently. Cakes on sticks! She knows I like to bake and she thought I would be interested. I bought one from Waitrose reduced from £1.49 to 49p! It was pretty and delicious. Nice idea for a gift,…

Blackcurrant & Cassis Cake

My friend Alison, who has green fingers, gave me a punnet of fantastic blackcurrants from her garden. I used them to make the Blackcurrant & Cassis Cake from The Big Book of Cakes and Cookies by Hannah Miles. Lovely marbled filling of mascarpone, icing sugar, crème fraîche, poached blackcurrants and cassis. I gave…

Strawberry Cloud Cake

Made my first Strawberry Cloud Cake! Mmmmmmm.......... The recipe is from The Big Book of Cakes & Cookies by Hannah Miles who I think won Masterchef UK a couple of years ago. Here's how you do it; make a meringue shell in a springform cake tin. Then make a strawberry…

Gonk Babies

I made gonk babies recently with the homeless sewing group at the day centre, the Salvation Army Stitchers (or SAS as I like to call them). They are made from lovely soft fleece, which one of my friends from Seven Sisters Quilt Group gave me, and they are stuffed with…

Melanie Makes Meringues