The Great Christmas Preserve Swap

In the last couple of day before Christmas I embarked on making some last minute preserves for family members, I made a spiced cranberry jelly and a hot chilli jelly. The recipes were both from a lovely book I got for my birthday, Gifts from the Kitchen by Annie Rigg and were only the second time I have attempted a jelly.


 I started the cranberry jelly first, the smell of it bubbling around on my stove filled the whole house with the most delicious Christmassy smells of orange and cinnamon along with the cranberries. I think it turned out the lovely pink colour.





The chilli jelly was the most successful, it was very easy to make an apple jelly and adding in the chilli it took on a beautiful warm orange colour.  It also got the most compliments. Sadly I have no pretty picture as I finished the chilli jelly off at 11pm on Christmas Eve!

In return for my preserves I received several things back, mainly from my wonderful mum. She has been as busy as me, I got some autumn chutney, sweet mincemeat, quince cheese and some goose fat from our Christmas meal! I'm looking forward to using the sweet mincemeat for some naughty mince pies on new years... Happy New Year everyone!

Last Minute Christmas Decorations

So we get a sudden invite to go round my father in laws at the beginning of the week and nothing I had planned to make for them was ready or would last the week without going stale, my other half didn't look too bothered but I knew the box of chocolates we had as a gift just wasn't going to do.

A small box of felt scraps and a quick search on the internet and I discovered this gem, Vintage felt baubles.




I don't have any ric rac, so I improvised with metallic thread, a hole punch and seed beads... my own little twist on the idea.

I'm planning on making a few more to give as gifts if I get the chance, maybe even adding a little stuffing to give them more shape.


Thank goodness Christmas Eve is a Saturday, still crafting time!

Christmas Fair Readiness

I think I'm all ready for this little Christmas fair tomorrow, all the monkeys and some hand stitched Christmas decorations are labelled up, only thing is I haven't found something to display the decorations on. I used to have a mini fake tree but can I find it anywhere, of course not!

Oh well hopefully these latest editions to my sock monkey army might make me a few pennies!

A Sock Monkey's Life for me...

Ok so I have gone full pelt into making sock monkeys again as I am doing a local Christmas fair on the 2nd of Decemeber to make a little money. I have also undertaken a small commission of stripy & blue monkeys. So far I have completed another 5 including the commission. I have stuffed a further 3 today to stitch up in front of the TV tonight.


Hopefully these will go down a treat as presents!







My experiments this month have been to try and make a couple of 'ugly dolls' out of odd baby socks given to me by a college and to make a wolf for my brother's birthday... so far it looks more like a donkey than a wolf to me, any suggestion on how to make the mouth look better? Oh and the stitching on the side is a start on defining arms at its side. Hopefully my next post I will have the completed it!

A Crafting Philosophy and Way of Life

Welcome to The Violet Pincushion, a simple crafting blog of my experiements, gift making, and stray attempts at saving/making money by re-using or using things I got for free. My day job is working as a pharmaceutical scientist, but in my spare time I always have multiple projects/obsessions on the go. Currently this is sock monkeys, tutus, denim & cider...

 This little one was made from a pair of childrens socks from a H&M set using a pattern that is available free on the internet sock monkey tutorial, which I found very easy to follow. I have made in the region of 30 monkeys now and have managed to sell a few of them too (most people have tricked me into giving them as gifts though)! With a good sewing machine skills and neat stiching they can look very professionally made.

I have made attempts at other sock creations including a cat, a zebra, a bunny rabbit rattle for my best friends newborn and a odd blue creature requested by my brother (stupid sock creatures).

Having now followed several others patterns I have started to get to grips with designing my own sock creations and have begun experiementing. Look out for future posts and possibly a pattern or two.

Let me know if you have lent you creative self to making anything with socks!