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!

the rest of my makes for June

Last time, I showed off my Christmas Supernova wallhanging and was debating with myself if it was too early to hang it up. The consensus of my commenters was that, no, it wasn't too early so I did that today. It's beginning to look a lot like ... 🎄🎅🏻

I made a couple more dresses for Emily and Isla. Emily's is the purple one and Isla's is the pink one. If you ask the girlies what their favourite colour is, Emily always says purple and Isla always says pink. Let's hope that doesn't change before I get these posted to them! This is the Kitty dress from Puperita which I made for the girlies back in May and they both fit perfectly.

Next, I had some lilac spotty fabric left from another project and decided to make the girlies the Petite Fille dress also from Puperita. According to the pattern, I didn't have quite enough fabric but I managed to get all the pieces cut out and it was a breeze to sew together. I added the pockets from the above Kitty dress as both girlies LOVE pockets - who doesn't?

Next, Joanna asked me to make a couple of tray covers for her. A great way to use up some scraps. This first one is reversible.

I suppose this one is too - depends which side you prefer!

One day, Douglas came to tell me that he'd had a bit of an accident in the garden. I had visions of blood and gore but this is what the accident was! Woops!

I had made that cover for the swing back in 2017 so, to be honest, I was quite pleased that it had lasted so long. 5 years outside in our Scottish weather? Definitely not too shabby!! When I'd made it last time, I'd written down all the sizes and how I'd made it so I dug out the leftover fabric from that making and had just enough to make a new cover. This is it hanging in the sewing room but it's now on the swing and has been sat on a time or two since so all is well.

Another busy month of making for me. I wouldn't have it any other way!

Do you think it's too early to get out the rest of the Christmas decorations? The tree? Maybe! 🎄🎅🏻 🤣

where to start?

Well, here we are again. Thinking about giving this blogging malarkey another go. Why? Well, because I missed it! I missed being able to look up when something happened or when I made something. I know I can look all the photos up on the computer but it's not the same. I actually enjoy reading my blethers that go along with the makes - don't know if anybody else does but that's okay. I'll eventually post all the things I've made in the last 2 years in backdated posts. It might take a while as there are, not really surpringly, a LOT of photos!

In the meantime, what's been happening around these parts? Well, these parts have changed in that we moved house. The house we're in now is as close to our dream house as we can get. Not in a town. Not in the country. Big enough for me to have a sewing room that doesn't have to double up as a guest room. Big enough for Douglas to have a study/office where he does whatever he does in there. Safer not to ask! LOL

The garden is fairly big but not too hard to look after. The street we're in is quiet but there is also always some activity. We live close enough to big towns to be at the supermarket in under 10 minutes but there's a local shop & post office close enough to walk to - which we do often. Use it or lose it, as they say!

We got a wood-burning stove fitted last month and that just makes the house even more of our dream house. We've always wanted a fire and this one is just the bees knees! This was the day it was fitted - Douglas couldn't wait to get it lit and just sit by it. Of course, Tilly had to sit beside him!

We still need to redecorate that wall but all in good time.

The most important change is that our new granddaughter, Isla, made her debut last October. A wee sister for our Miss Emily and adored by all. She is now 4½ months old and watches everything Emily does.

You can see that she's desperate to be able to play with Emily. Won't be long!

Emily is nearly 3. Where has the time gone? She is such a clever wee thing. Her (lack of) hearing has not stopped her in the slightest. In fact, the speech and language lady who came to their house just to check how her development was coming on has signed Emily off as she is as good as, if not better than, hearing children her age. So proud!

She's a good help around the house for her mummy - although I'm not sure the Clangers appreciate her trying to iron them! Hahaha

The tartan bee is doing well. I sold so many Christmas stockings last year that I've already started sewing them so I might have a good stock by the time the buying of Christmas stockings restarts - in about August!! I've also recently designed and sewn some project bags which I am inordinately chuffed with. This is the one I finished this morning and just loaded into the shop.

We'll see how these go before I make more.

I'm going to stop there. There's so much more I could say but we'll go with this for now.

PS: Gosh, it took me a while to remember how to load in photos and make links open another window. I think I got it!

pink jacket, cinnamon buns and more

This week I've had a bit of a sore throat along with a chesty cough (still got the cough - yuck!) so I haven't done as much as I wanted to do. However, I did get the pink jacket made.

It's another incarnation of Butterick 5616 - previous versions are here, here, here and here.

This next photo is more like the actual colour.

This morning we had some cinnamon buns for breakfast. I didn't make said buns - I bought them in the fridges aisle of the supermarket. Mmmm, I see they're called Cinnamon Swirls. Oh well, they're cinnamon buns to me! ;o)

We've had these before done in the oven - as you're meant to - but, this morning, we cooked them in the waffle maker. Success! They only took about 3 minutes in there as opposed to 11 to 14 minutes in the oven (which has to be preheated) so much, much quicker.

They were crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside but the best bit - there's plenty of room for the icing to sit in the holes! Delish!

Joanna and I took a trip along the coast to the patchwork shop and, needless to say, I got some scrap bag bargains ...

... and some fat quarter bargains and a sale piece of fabric. No plans for any of this except to add it all to the stash.

This afternoon, I cut out some more pinnies -

and some bags for the tartan bee.

I need to get some fabrics for linings for the bags but I'm thinking I'll just get a sheet or two from Asda's as they usually have some nice colours in there. Well, they're nice for bag linings, I'm not sure I'd want lime green sheets on my bed but I'm sure some people do!

Now a couple of random photos. Our first strawberries of the season - much better than any in the shops!

And this is what happens to a plate that says "microwave safe" on the bottom of it when you put it in the microwave.

Thankfully, my baked potato survived!

some happy things

I was working in my sewing room this afternoon when I looked out the window and saw the washing drying on the line. I love it when I can get the washing dried outside so I took a photo of it. As you do. I even managed to catch a train in the background as it passed the house on its way to Edinburgh.

Then I looked back at the sewing table and saw my iPad where I was watching the tennis from Queens Club. I don't have a telly in the sewing room so it's nice to be able to watch stuff on my iPad.

Then I looked at my sewing machine where I was in the middle of making some buttonholes for the blouse I was making. I do love when I get to the buttonhole stage of a blouse - it means I'm nearly finished!

I then looked around my sewing room and took a photo of my buttons. I do love buttons and have, as you can tell, quite a few. Oh, and I've just noticed, the brown basket under the buttons is empty. That's my ironing basket so it being empty is really happyfying. (Yes, I made that word up but it should be a word, don't you think?)

Then I remembered about my relatively new methods of storing some of my sewing stuff. I bought some divided boxes and used them to store - with different types in the separate compartments - machine needles:

Some of the feet for my sewing machine:

And my bobbins:

And then, at the end of my sewing afternoon, another thing that makes me happy - my next project. I do like it when I have something already cut out and ready to start when I next step into my sewing room.

I always think it's the wee things that I don't particularly notice that make me happy. These are just some of those wee things I noticed today.

a bag, more bags and the rhodi

Another week gone by with no blog posts from me. I can't even tell you what I've been doing since the last time I was here - not because it's a secret, but because I have no idea! I do remember sitting outside in the sunshine with a notebook and pen and making great plans but those plans mostly involved things like "tidy out kitchen cupboards", "tidy out all drawers in the bedroom". Have I done any of that - no, of course not! :oD

Since I can't remember what I did last week, let me show you what I made yesterday and today. It's another version of the "For Pleats' Sake" bag from Lisa Lam, found here. (It's free).

This is the inside fabric. Don't you just love it? I do!

I decided to make my own handles this time using the same fabric as the outside of the bag and some round metal rings I had in my stash. I'm very happy with the way they've turned out.

Next on the agenda is more shopping bags. Debbie's shop is running short of them - yay! - and I've got a special request for 2 more from a previous customer from my Etsy shop - yay, again! As you can see from those piles of fabric, I have lots of bags to cut out before I can get on and get them sewn.

The eagle-eyed among you might have spotted that my ironing board and cutting table have changed places in my sewing room. This was because I always seemed to be standing in my own light at the cutting table so I've put it right in the middle of the room. It's actually given me more room to work as I can now get to all four sides of the table instead of just the one side.

My last photo is our rhododendron. I don't think it's ever had so many flowers on it. Isn't it fabulous? :o)

homegrown food

I've been really busy today taking what feels like hundreds of photos of stuff to get loaded into the tartan bee shop. I've got to crop all those photos and then write descriptions of all the stuff - a long drawn-out process and nowhere near completion.

To give myself a wee break from that, I thought I'd show a couple of photos of things we've grown - and eaten. First of all is an apple which Joanna grew in her garden.

She said it was the only one on her tree but, if you're only going to be able to have one apple, you might as well make it a good one! It was delicious! Tart and juicy and just what a homegrown apple should taste like!

And next a few potatoes which we grew.

Douglas planted the seed potatoes in a potato bag and this is what he pulled up last night. We had them with our salad and, boy, they were good. Plenty more to come which is fab!

We also have some tomatoes and peppers in the shed which are beginning to turn red and the raspberries are still producing a few fruit here and there. There are carrots and a couple of cucumbers which should be ready soon. Homegrown food really tastes so good! :o)

living room re-do

I've wanted to move the living room around for a while and today I got my way. This was the start of it with one couch pulled out into the middle of the room and books being taken off shelves.

I didn't get any other shots of the before or even the during but I think the afters more than make up for that. This is by far the best bit of the re-do - the Farmer's Wife quilt up on the wall. Oh my goodness, I just fell in love with it all over again. Fab-U-Lous!

Here's another shot of it with Debbie lolloping about on the couch. Another of my favourite bits is the bookcase just next to the couch where all my cookery books are. We brought the bookcase through from the dining room. I *love* it!

This shot shows the wall where the 2 matching units of book shelves and drawers are with the telly in between. Wonderful!

Molly was exhausted after all her hard work! She wasn't the only one! :o)