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!

a miscellany of things

I've got a real mix of photos to show today. First, the last cushion cover. This one sits on the chair in the dining room which is why I missed it in my original count of Christmas cushion covers I needed to make.

Last weekend - or maybe it was the one before that?? - we went to visit Debbie and Jason. I did take lots of photos but most of them are out of focus or not worth sharing for some reason or another. Here's Molly wearing her antler headband - for all of about 5 seconds!

And this is Tilly wearing her Santa hat headband - for less than 5 seconds!

This is what can be done with a Tunnock's teacake, some icing and holly leaves and berries decorations. I admit it looks like I just threw the leaves and berries on - that's because I did! LOL

This was a wondrous thing. Joanna was helping Debbie to decorate her tree and she put her hand into the box of hanger things and didn't manage to grab one - she managed to grab a hundred and one!! It actually looked like it could be used as a decoration on its own.

Joanna asked me if I would make her a flower brooch for her to give as part of her Secret Santa gift at work. She asked for a dark tartan so I used Black Watch. I embroidered the design on my embroidery machine, cut around it then attached it to felt and sewed on a brooch pin on the back. We'll find out tomorrow how the recipient liked it!

I made another couple of owl keyrings - one of these will be in that same Secret Santa package.

I've actually done some dressmaking this week - but not for me. This is - believe it or not! - a brown pinafore dress for Joanna. The winter light does not make it easy to take photos of brown things!

This is a wee bit better but I have a deep dislike of using the flash. Blech! Anyway, this is the stripey bias binding - home-made, of course - that I used to bind the neck and armholes.

I used this pattern again - view A this time, all in one colour in case that's not obvious!

And then this afternoon, I made 2 batches of tablet - well, 3 if you count the stupidity that was my first attempt. No, Anne. 1 cup of sugar is NOT the same as 1lb of sugar so your tablet will NOT turn out right! Aaaargh!

Anyway, I made a batch of the usual recipe (no photo as Joanna took it all away before I thought of it but the recipe is here) for Joanna to take to the Secret Santa gift-giving party tomorrow and I also made this lot.

I have no idea where the recipe came from but it's made in the microwave. Very easy and very tasty - although I've found I can't eat more than one piece at a time. Maybe that's a good thing!

Here's my version of the recipe - I changed it around a bit.

1 tin of condensed milk (mine was 397g)
100g butter cut into smallish pieces
500g caster sugar

Put everything in a microwavable bowl with highish sides and stir.
Cook on high for 2 - 2½ minutes to melt the butter. Stir again.
Cook on high for 10 minutes in total stirring regularly. I stirred at 3 minutes, 3 minutes, 2 minutes and 2 minutes.
Pour into a lined swiss roll tin.
Cut into squares before it's fully set.
Eat.

One word of warning. Don't use a plastic spatula to stir the end result. Ask me how I know! :oD

lost my mojo!

I seem to have lost my sewing mojo. I wonder where it went? Is it on its summer holidays? It's certainly not here with me. I keep looking for it but can't find it anywhere. I hope it comes back soon - I'm beginning to feel a wee bit antsy without it!

The only thing my sewing machine has done recently was to hem a pair of curtains. I hadn't intended getting green ones but they were on sale in Ikea and who am I to turn down a bargain?

I keep looking at them and thinking "they go with the grass"! Ridiculous to think your curtains go with the grass? Let me tell you, that's about the sanest thought I've had for a while! LOL

Whilst my sewing machine is waiting for the mojo to return, I've been doing a wee bit more playing on my embroidery machine. There's no project in mind for any of these - and you don't know how hard that is for me. I can actually hear voices in my head (told you I was losing it, didn't I?) asking me "what are you going to do with these? what's the point in making them if you don't know what you're going to do with them?". I've told those voices to shut up and mind their own business a time or two!

Anyway, here are the no-project-in-mind-at-the-moment appliqués. My fingers are in the photos to give the scale.

Here's where the no-project-in-mind-at-the-moment appliqués hang for now. I quite like seeing them there. At least the embroidery mojo hasn't gone on its summer holidays! What would I do if it did? Housework??? Aaaaaargh!

The only other thing I've made recently was a batch of Meg's biscuits. Sadly they're all finished now so I suppose I could bake something else but - and who would ever think I'd say something like this? - it's too hot here to bake!!! Incredible, don't you think? Scotland? Too hot to bake? I never thought I'd say such a thing! *gasp*

The recipe for these is here.

If anyone sees my mojo, please send it home. I miss it so much!

ten things

1. Today the weather … started with HUGE thunder storms with lots of lightning and VERY loud thunder. Then, in the afternoon, it dried up and Douglas got the grass cut!

2. I am wearing … at the moment, I'm in what I call my comfy trousers and a polo shirt. During the day I actually wore a dress and I loved it. I need to wear dresses more often - they're very comfy in the sticky heat!

3. I am listening to … Aled Jones' CD "One Voice".

It's Aled (the adult) singing with recordings of himself when he was a boy. I bought it last week and have been playing it repeatedly ever since.

4. In the kitchen … I've been making Mars Bar cakes. So easy and so good. The recipe is here. (Scroll down)

5. I am feeling … too warm. It's almost worse than feeling cold. At least, when you feel cold, you can add more clothes or blankies or quilts. When you're warm, you can only take off so many things before you embarrass yourself - and all those around you too! :oD

6. I am going … to the supermarket in the morning. Not my favourite place to go but I'm thinking of looking at the duvet covers to see if I can pick up any bargains.

7. In the sewing room … I'm planning to make some bags like the one I made myself -

- to sell in the tartan bee. I've got the denim and plenty of lining fabrics - just waiting for some cover buttons to come in the post and I should be ready to sew.

8. In the garden … our raspberries are ripening beautifully. We had some with ice cream tonight - oh so good!

9. I am reading … a book on my Kindle called "Pariah" by Catherine Gayle. It's the second book of a series of three. I enjoyed the first one ("Wallflower") so am hoping that this one is good too.

10. A quote to live by … Don't criticise others until you've walked a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticise them, you're a mile away … and you have their shoes!!

some dressmaking, some LTP blocks and apple pie

I finished the dress for Joanna which I made the muslin for last month. It looks a lot better in the real fabric than it did as the peach-body-navy-sleeved muslin. LOL

This is the pattern I used. McCall's 6503, view D.

Here's a close up of the fabric and buttons. There were supposed to be 3 x 1.5cm buttons on that piece but when I laid 3 buttons that size down, the buttonholes would have been almost touching. I decided to only use 2 smaller buttons - they're about 1cm in diameter.

I have another dress cut out and ready to sew for Joanna but I decided to do some selfish sewing and cut out my next jacket. This time it's royal blue. A very wearable colour for me.

I'm a bit further on with it than that photo - I'm hoping I'll get it finished soon.

These are blocks 30 to 37 of my LTP (long term project) quilt. I'm still really enjoying making these. It's always fun to choose the fabrics and see how they look together.

This is another thing I made this last week. I like to think I'm a fairly good cook but apple pie has never been one of my best things. Douglas's mum makes a great apple pie so I asked him to ask her for her recipe. Not so much for the apple bit but for the pastry bit. I tried it out on Sunday and, whilst it's not exactly the same as MIL's, it was fabulous! I will definitely be using her pastry recipe again! (See below)

Granny Lee's pastry
12 oz plain flour
4 oz marg
4oz lard
1 dssp sugar (= 2 tsps)

Whizz the flour and fats in the food processor and add a little cold water to bring it together.
Divide into 2 pieces and roll one of them out to fit on an ovenproof plate.
Fill with apples.
Roll out the other piece of pastry for the lid.
Wet around the edges of the base and stick the top on.
Pierce a few holes to let the steam out.
Fork around the edges to make a good seal.
Paint the top with egg and dust with sugar.
Cook for about 45 minutes to an hour at 160ºC (fan oven).

My mouth's watering just thinking about that apple pie! Nom nom nom. :o)

leek and potato soup

Last night, for tea, we had home-made leek and potato soup. There was enough left for me to have at lunchtime today so I decided to take a photo of it.

It tastes as good as it looks - even if I do say so myself.

I made the recipe up as I went along but am not claiming it to be an original. I'm sure others have done the same as I did and ended up with delicious soup too.

Anyway, here's what I did.

Leek and Potato Soup

4 leeks, thoroughly cleaned and chopped into about ¼" slices
4 medium potatoes, peeled and chopped into about ½" dice
1 onion chopped (or, if you're like me, some frozen chopped onions)
2 chicken stock cubes
salt
boiling water

Melt some butter in a pan and add the chopped leeks, potatoes and onions.
Put the lid on the pan and leave the veg to sweat for about 10 minutes.
Dissolve the stock cubes in the boiling water and add to the pan to just cover the veg.
Add about 1 tsp of salt.
Bring to the boil and cook until the potatoes are soft - should be about 15 minutes.
Whizz with a hand blender or put it in a liquidiser.
If the soup is very thick, add more boiling water.

Eat with buttered oatcakes.

Delish! :o)

baking, sewing etc

I don't seem to have blogged "properly" for a wee while so, yet again, I have to rely on my camera to tell me what I've been up to.

First of all, I baked: crunchy cookies - recipe below.

And sultana cookies - recipe here:

I folded all my summer clothes up ready to go into the suitcase under the bed. They've been like that for about 2 weeks now. It's not hard to pull the suitcase out from under the bed ... I just haven't done it yet!

I got myself some new patterns in the Simplicity half price sale.

I've got some dumpling bags on the go - free pattern and tutorial here.

Joanna made us a chocolate cake for our anniversary. It was delicious!

She also made up a date night basket for us.

Needless to say the chocolates are all gone but the rest is waiting for us to decide on our choice of movies to watch.

Here's the recipe for the crunchy cookies. Before we were married (35 years ago last Monday!) I went to cooking classes which were called "Budget Cookery". I could cook and bake - my mum taught me well! - but I thought it would be good to learn some new things and maybe, as a young wife, be able to do it without spending too much money. I still use a lot of the recipes I learned and this is one of them.

CRUNCHY COOKIES

6 oz marg/butter
4 oz soft brown sugar
8 oz plain flour
¼ level tsp salt
demerara sugar for covering

Set oven to 160ºC

Beat marg and sugar together until soft. Sieve in half the flour and salt. Blend together and then add the rest of the flour. Roll into a sausage.

Sprinkle a piece of foil with demerara sugar, place sausage on it. Roll so that the outsides are evenly covered in the sugar, adding extra if needed. Place in the fridge for 30 mins to firm up.

Slice into ¼” slices. Bake for about 15 - 20 mins. Leave on trays for about 5 - 10 minutes then cool on a wire rack.

Almond Biscuits

Here's the recipe for the almond biscuits I showed the other day. This is another of the recipes from my Auntie Mary's collection. She was my mum's oldest sister and she was an amazing baker and always had so many good things on the plates when we went to visit her.

A few years ago, I asked my cousin if she would send me Auntie Mary's recipe book so I could copy them all and she was kind enough to do that. Douglas scanned the recipes for me and I then printed them all out. It's a great source of memories both of recipes but also of Auntie Mary - a lot of the recipes are in her hand-writing. :o)

Almond Biscuits - makes about 24

200g/7 oz butter
90g/3¼ oz caster sugar
½ tsp almond extract
280g/10 oz SR flour
25g/1 oz ground almonds
glacé cherries for decoration

Heat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF/GM 4.

1. Put the butter in a large saucepan and slowly melt.
2. Take off the heat then add the sugar & almond extract and stir together.
3. Add the flour and ground almonds and mix to a smooth dough.
4. Roll into small balls and put on to baking trays spaced well apart.
5. Flatten the tops with your hands (or a wet fork or tattie masher).
6. Top each biscuit with half a glacé cherry.
7. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes until golden brown.
8. Leave on the baking tray for 2 or 3 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool.
9. Eat. :oD

As you can see from the photo, the outside edges of mine got slightly browner than they should have done. It didn't make any difference to the taste - they were still delicious! :o)