Petite Gateau

“Petit Gâteau (in French, small cake; plural: Petits Gâteaux) is a dessert composed of a small chocolate cake with crunchy rind and mellow filling that is served hot with vanilla ice cream on a plate.

The dessert has been popularized in New York City restaurants in the 1990s. Nowadays variations of the cake/ice cream flavors have come to include fruits and even alcoholic beverages, such as whiskey This dessert has also been known to be made using crepes , in which case it is multiple crepes stacked on one another separated by some kind of filling such as warm jam or berries.”

Source: Wikipedia

Yum!

Joanna Figueroa has captured the delicious goodness of these small cakes in a new pincushion pattern,  Fig Tree Threads, Petite Gateau (FTQ #728) .  Click here for pattern.

From the pattern cover:

"These are really good enough to eat! A perfect way to play with your favorite charm pack, these yummy little goodies are just irresistible as gifts or for a special treat for yourself. Simple to construct and quick to sew, these perfect little "cakes" are app. 3 1/2" when finished. Great project for your sewing group or for a gift exchange."

She also promises that most people can’t make just one!  Well, she’s sure right about that.

So far, I’m up to four pincushions. With no plans of stopping anytime soon.

The technique starts with two pieced pinwheels, and a strip of fabric for the gusset.

I like to cut my circles to size with the Olfa Rotary Circle cutter.  Find it here.  A very handy gadget… I use it a lot. It’s like a compass from a geometry set, with a sharp central point that secures into the cutting mat, a sliding adjustable ruler, and a sharp little rotary blade on the end.

Sewing involves a gusset technique.  Pattern instructions are excellent, with many useful tips. Gusset strip is marked according to instructions, then pinned in place.  When sewn, the project resembles a wrapped candy.

The pattern guides you through assembly, and a hole is left to allow stuffing.  I like to use walnut shells, carefully filling the pincushion with a funnel.

Then, using a tip I learned from Miss Rosie, I stuff a tiny amount of Sweet Dreams stuffing into the hole, so the walnut shells don’t fall out as I stitch.

Almost done.  Just needs “icing on the cake”: covered buttons to give a finished look.

Dritz Covered Button Kits: found here.   I used the 7/8” size.

To make each covered button, you’ll use 5 items, from left to right, a plastic tool, the button back, a fabric circle (cut to size with the Olfa Rotary Circle Cutter, above), the button front, and a pusher.

 

Set the fabric circle, right side down, centered across the plastic tool.  Then, set the button front in the middle, and push.

The front slips inside the tool, and the fabric wraps around it. 

Then, the button back is set on top.

Then, push with the pusher until button back snaps into position. 

Tada!  A perfectly covered fabric button.  It only takes a few seconds. 

My finished Petite Gateau pincushions.  Don’t you just love them?

The kittens started the project by being helpful (you know… lying on top of the sewing table, playing with thread, carrying buttons away then batting them around… the usual).  But it was all too much for them, and they finished the afternoon with a nap.

 

 

Helping in the sewing room is hard work!

Happy quilting!