adding to my stash

At the end of October, Jo and I went to a Crafter's Destash and had the best time. I think everyone there, at one time or another, said to one of the ladies (and men) who were manning the stalls that they really didn't need to be buying more stuff. But, oh it was fun! Here's what I got:

Some fat quarters:

Some bigger pieces:

A couple of scraps bags:

This is what was in them:

and, finally, some books:

I was delighted with everything I got! If we spot it being on next year, no doubt we will be there!

I was laid up for a couple of weeks with a bad cold so I made good use of the Christmas Cheer book in the last photo and made this wreath. It's been decades since I did any hand-stitched patchwork and I was surprised how much I enjoyed doing it. It helped to while away the long hours I spent on the couch trying not to cough up a lung!!

This is what I made the wreath into - a wall-hanging - door-hanging actually!

A few weeks later, we went to a Quilter's Exhibition. The quilts were lovely and very inspiring. The best bits for us were the various sales tables dotted around the room. Needless to say we spent a little money there too! First some books:

and some fabric pieces.

Actually, I have to admit, the absolute best bit was the free coffee and home-made cakes and biscuits. Those alone were well worth the price of the ticket!

When I was finally feeling better, I made another wall-hanging. This was self-designed and I LOVE it!

Jo mentioned that she wanted a Bourbon biscuit decoration for her tree so, after a bit of searching, I found one and made it for her. She's delighted and it's hanging on her Christmas tree! This is the embroidery design I used but I changed the M to an N using my Embrilliance program.

The last two things I made were these. I have a Tiffin recipe and a Peppermint Slice recipe already but they sometimes don't work as well as I'd like - no idea why! These are both from the Baking with Granny website. Both were very easy and very delicious.

This is the tiffin:

And this is the peppermint slice:

I really should make them again! Nom nom nom!

lemon curd, sewing, dogs and a quilt

I had an urge to make some lemon curd so dug through my recipe book to find the recipe I used to make many, many years ago. Here's the result. Oh my goodness, it was delicious. I say "was" because it didn't last long. I really need to make some more!

In case anyone's interested, this is the recipe.

Lemon Curd
Makes 2 x 250 ml jars.

4 lemons
200g granulated sugar
100g unsalted butter cut into cubes
3 eggs plus 1 egg yolk

Method
Zest and juice the lemons and put into a heatproof bowl along with the sugar and the butter.

Put the bowl over a pan of simmering water. Stir now and again until all the butter has melted.

In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs and egg yolk. Add to the lemon mixture and stir until everything is combined. Leave to cook for about 12 minutes stirring every now and again.

When the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, remove it from the heat and pass it through a plastic sieve to remove the zest and any egg white that hasn't mixed in. Set aside to cool, stirring occasionally.

Once cooled, spoon into sterilised jars and seal.

Keep in the fridge for up to 3 weeks if it lasts that long!!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ I made myself some trousers. I used the old faithful pattern which I've used many times before - the Jalie pull-on pants. If it ain't broke, don't fix it!! I forgot to take a photo of them before I wore them so took one after I'd taken them off hence all the creases! LOL They are black, by the way. It doesn't look like black in the photo, but they are black!

Next, let me show you what we did with the frame for our old swing which finally gave up the ghost. Well, the swing part did. The cover needed replacing - it would have been the third time I'd recovered it - but, before I even got the idea in my head to make another one, Douglas sat on the swing and one of the metal parts holding the seat part together sheared off making it unsittable-on. (I'm sure that's not a word, but you get the idea!)

We had put it beside the side gate with the intention of taking it to the tip when our big bird feeding station bent over in one of the storms we've had recently depositing all the bird feeders and seed and suet balls all over the grass. I wondered if we could re-use the frame of the swing as a bird feeder thingy. It's not perfect but it works. The birds don't care what it looks like - in fact, I think they like it!!

Next, let me introduce you to Maisie. Debbie (and her family) got a new puppy. She's a Cavapoo and a wee terror by all accounts but then she is a puppy so that's her job! Isn't she adorable?

I was chatting on FaceTime the other day with both Joanna and Debbie and both their dogs put in an appearance. I suspect Tilly was quite glad that Maisie was in Canada. She really isn't sure what those funny little squeaking noises are. We're just telling her it's Maisie's Canadian accent! LOL

Lastly, Jo's neighbour is expecting her first baby so I offered to make them a baby quilt with all the appliquéed squares like one I made before shown here. This is the pile of all 49 appliqués. It took me nearly 2 weeks to make them all!

Here's the quilt all finished.

And here's the fleece on the back and the label.

If I make this again, I need to remember that it takes a l-o-n-g time to make all the squares but that it's worth it in the end. I just LOVE this quilt and hope Jo's neighbours and their baby will too!

February's bits

I've been trying to get this post written since the end of February. So many things wouldn't work the way I wanted them to - specifically the photos were annoyingly fuzzy and I couldn't figure out why. Today, for no apparent reason, it all started working again! So I'm going to post this in a hurry just in case it all goes to pot again!

We started February with Douglas's birthday. Jo got him this card - soooooo brilliant! LOL

I found a recipe in my recipe file which I hadn't made before. I have no idea where it came from but I decided to have a go and am glad I did. These are sooooo delish!!

Here's the recipe:

I finished the stained glass quilt for Jo. I loved making this. It's such a happy quilt!

I always keep notes of how I made my quilts so, as this was a repeat, I looked back at my notes to see how I made the back. That saved me so much time as I just followed my own instructions and it worked out perfectly! Here's the label and you can see the yellow fleece I used for the backing.

Lastly, I made another smalls bag. I found myself getting annoyed at only having one when I might need one for lights (my bras) and one for darks (my tights) so now I have 2 smalls bags and don't get annoyed (at that) any more!

I'm currently knitting a cardigan for Isla. I'm up to the armholes of the second sleeve so nearly done. I hope to get it finished soon and make a start on one for Emily. I doubt I'll get Emily's finished in March but I should have Isla's ready for showing off in March's post. 🤞

some December makes

I'm posting this earlier than normal but I doubt I'll do any more sewing this month. If I do, I'll just include in January's post.

First of all, I had 6 tea towels in a box in my sewing room waiting to be embroidered. I had bought them with the intention of selling them in the tartan bee (closed for now) but changed my mind. They've been languishing in that box for a while (maybe 2, 3 or 4 years??) so I decided just to get on and make them and use them myself. So I did!

The tea towels show up kind of creamy in the photos but they're white.

In case anyone is interested in these designs, they're all from Embroidery Library. In order of my photos, they are:

trees:
https://www.emblibrary.com/EL/Products.aspx?Catalog=Emblibrary&ProductID=ESP79736-4

tree:
https://www.emblibrary.com/EL/Products.aspx?Catalog=Emblibrary&ProductID=M16381

mittens:
https://www.emblibrary.com/EL/Products.aspx?Catalog=Emblibrary&ProductID=M33122

tree:
https://www.emblibrary.com/EL/Products.aspx?Catalog=Emblibrary&ProductID=M22034

Santa:
https://www.emblibrary.com/EL/Products.aspx?Catalog=Emblibrary&ProductID=M22059

Bells:
https://www.emblibrary.com/EL/Products.aspx?Catalog=Emblibrary&ProductID=M22054

Next I made a couple of placemats like the ones I made last year. I had always intended making 6 but only made 4 last year. I always write down how I make things so it was an easy job to find the instructions in my book and make 2 more.

This embroidery made me laugh when it came to my email last week from Embroidery Library. I bought it and made it immediately - a record for me! It's stapled on to a 20cm square canvas frame which makes it easy to display - see next photo!

It's now sitting on the piano along with the Ho Ho Ho banner I made last year - see here for how I did it.

The following photos are of some of the wall-hangings that I've hung on our walls (!) this year. I mainly took the photos to remind myself of where they fit as, every year, I have to think about that so maybe next year I won't have to! LOL

This is a tree that I made long before I knew much about patchwork and quilting - must be about 30 years ago if not more! The corners of the binding are not good but, you know what?, I love it as much now as when I made it. I remember the sense of achievement that I felt when I finished it and, boy, that felt sooooooo good. Perfection is NOT necessary to make beautiful things!

This corner has the presents wallhanging I made last year - the link for the instructions is in this post. The other tree hanging is one I made last year following the tutorial on youtube by Jordan fabrics.

This is a shot showing the reindeer hanging above the living room doors - originally blogged about here and here. It also shows the tree out on the hall, the circles tree hanging on the right wall as you go up the stairs and my Christmas Supernova is hanging below the stair window. In the distance you can see the door into the sewing room with all sorts of little hangings there! You can also see the hoover sitting out - just keeping it real! LOL

And finally, a couple of things I made yesterday - fudge on the left and tablet on the right. Recipes for those are in the "my recipes" link at the top of the blog.

I always laugh at the notes on my tablet recipe.

"This is kind of a hit and a miss recipe. I’ve been making it for years and it sometimes doesn't set. If that happens, I just scrape it all back into the pan, re-boil it, re-beat it and try again.

Sometimes, it sets before I can get it out of the pan on to the baking tray - no worries. It still tastes good even if it looks ugly! 😀"

This batch proves that point! Ugly but it tastes soooooooo good!

Finally, let me wish you all a very merry Christmas. I hope Santa is good to you all!

a runner, some stockings and bread

I've done quite a bit of sewing - but then, that's not unusual for me. As the sign on my sewing room wall says "my sewing room is my happy place" so it makes sense that I spend a LOT of time in it. So, what have I been making?

Well, Joanna asked me if I'd make her a runner for her living room window sill. She gave me the sizes but told me she didn't mind what colours I used or the design I chose. I had a bit of a think and decided to do a sort of bargello design and this is what I came up with. I am sooooo happy with it.

For the back, I used a piece of Russian doll fabric that I've had for quite some time. Joanna loves Russian dolls so I reckoned, if she didn't like the top, she could always turn it upside down ... but why she wouldn't like the top, I just don't know! She does like the top! She's only seen it in photos but, as soon as we are let out, this will be heading her way.

After that, I made some stockings for my tartan bee shop. First a couple of patchwork stockings -

And a couple of cuffed stockings.

I've temporarily closed my Etsy shop as I'm not going out right now - even to the post office. I have plenty of other cuffed stockings cut out and ready to sew and have 4 sets of squares ready to be sewn into the patchwork stockings so plenty to keep me going.

We were running out of bread so I'd been using my breadmaker quite a few times. It makes perfect bread every time but I got a (crazy) notion to make some in my mixer instead. My problem - always! - with non-breadmaker made bread is getting it to rise properly and this time was no different. After waiting nearly 5 hours, I finally just thought "to hang with it" and put it back in the mixer for its last 10 minute knead. It then went into its tin and did rise - because I set it on the open grill door whilst the oven below it was on! After baking it looked good.

It tasted good - if a little salty - but, as I said to Douglas, the breadmaker bread is so easy in comparison and tastes good too so why put myself (and my Kenwood) through the torture?

I'd put in an order for groceries 3 weeks ago and they got delivered yesterday. There seemed to be an awful lot but, since it's nearly 6 weeks since I was at a supermarket, I'm not beating myself up about it. As expected, there were some substitutions most of which I understood. The one that puzzled me was, I ordered 2 small bags of shredded iceberg lettuce. The bags weigh 100g each (about 4oz). They didn't have any so what did they give me 2 bags of shredded iceberg lettuce weighing 260g per bag. OMG! I don't know if we'll get through that much lettuce - I thought it might be a bit of a struggle to get through both 100g bags! I'm going to have to investigate if lettuce soup is a thing.

Stay home! Stay safe! 💕

jam, tops and thank heaven!

I decided that it was about time - way past time - to make jam with the berries I bought and froze last summer. I made a batch of raspberry jam:

And a batch of strawberry jam. They are both soooooooo good.

Last week I made myself another top using this pattern: New Look 6344.

I made view C but lengthened it by 2" and changed the sleeves to a split sleeve.

Here's a close up of the sleeve - very comfy!

I made another embroidery for Miss Emily. The embroidery is from here. (They don't know who I am - just passing on the info in case anyone is interested.)

It's stapled on to one of those canvas frames that you can buy to paint on - or make a clock with like I did here. (Good grief, that's nearly 4 years ago!) I have quite a few more of those canvas frames so no doubt I'll be making a few more embroideries to attach to them.

This week I've made another top using the same New Look pattern as above with the adapted sleeves. Isn't this fabric just so much fun?

And here are the sleeves.

And finally, a photo of Emily lying on the starry quilt I made for her watching her new embroidered toys hanging above her. She has a hold of the orange octopus in one hand and later had a hold of the pink fish in the other hand (at the same time).

Fun times! :o)