A Break from Stitching

I'd like to start by saying that I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and wish you every good wish for the New Year to come. The eerie scene above was through our porch window a few days before Christmas when a thin layer of snow lay on the ground and freezing fog in the air.
I was pleased to complete all my planned homemade gifts by late afternoon on Christmas Eve. I made the fudge and lemon curd above on consecutive days last week and these were given in gift bags along with damson jam and runner bean chutney.


I also finished table runner number 2 and fingerless gloves number 2 (forgot to get a photo of these in my rush to get them wrapped). The khaki fabric was from an old linen skirt of mine; the rest of the squares were scraps from ebay and the green fabric was new from my stash. The blue binding is the backing brought over to the front and is also thrifted.
My brother and his family arrived safely from Germany despite the bad weather and are staying until New Years Day. We've had a great time catching up with lots of laughter and tears (good ones - sister number 2, especially, cries at the drop of a hat). Twelve of us sat down together on Christmas Day to watch Doctor Who as my brother is also a fan, with the subtitles on for those whose English is not quick enough to follow. The cousins are getting on together particularly well - anyone would think it was 10 minutes since they last saw eachother not 10 years.
-
There's been no stitching for a couple of days and I'm now attempting to take stock of what I've done and what I want to tackle next, now that the Christmas projects are out of the way.
-
Here's to lots of stitching in 2010.
Bye for now
Teresa x

Kitchen Capers

I bought some cream solely for the purpose of trying out Rhonda's method for making butter on her down to earth blog. I hadn't got around to it, but then I was inspired and reminded of it after watching butter-making the tradtional way on The Victorian Farm. By then the cream was 4 days out-of-date but I opened it and sniffed and it was fine. And this is the result!! I am very pleased with how it turned out and it was so easy to do. I added a little sea salt and it was just right. According to The Victorian Farm I would have made a good dairymaid seeing as I normally have such cold hands. It means the butter didn't melt if they touched it, I don't think the cows would have been very happy about the cold hands though!

When I first married I wasn't a bad cook but could never get the hang of Yorkshire Pudding. If we had roast beef on a Sunday, I would valiantly attempt to make some and it would invariably turn out flat and crunchy. I tried all sorts of recipes and tips but nothing seemed to help so I eventually gave in and resorted to Aunt Bessies (the uncooked batter ones, not the ready made) and sometimes even these were unsuccessful! I had no trouble with Toad-in-the-Hole which is weird as it's essentially the same thing.
-

The last couple of times we had beef, I decided to give it another go and, even though I used a recipe I've used before, I've had much better success for some reason. This week I was very pleased with the outcome.

Here they are with the dinner. Beef on the left for OH, quorn on the right for me.

I dashed into Morrisons this lunch break to claim my £25 voucher for spending over £40 on 5 out of the last 6 weeks in their store. I also quickly ran around the aisles with a trolley and picked up a lot of the little Christmas extras we ususally buy including a few extras for my brother and his family who are coming over from Belgium. I did rough calculations as I went and manged to get to £48, so was able to get the £25 off. As I won't be in this area again within the time limit of the voucher I was quite pleased I managed to find the time to do this because £25 off is well worth having!!

-

Oh, I nearly forgot. I've won a little competiton so will show it here when it arrives.

-

Bye for now

Teresa x

Is it a Shed or is it a Sauna?

An exciting development on The Shed Project is that the wood burner was lit for the first time on the weekend!! My OH spent Saturday afternoon working to complete the chimney and when he came to tell me the fire was lit I rushed over to see. It looked very 'Scandinavian' to have the fire burning away merrily in the wooden surroundings. My OH checked on the fire at intervals and informed me that the temperature had risen to 85 degrees F at one point, so the Scandinavian theme continued in that it was more like a sauna than a shed! It even smelled like a sauna!! I'll have to learn how to contol the temperature somehow. Unfortunately, in my haste to go and look I didn't think to take my camera (and was too lazy to go back and get it) so you'll have to make do with photos from Sunday when I risked life and limb climbing over the garden gate in a skirt and wedges to get these (it's kept locked a lot of the time and I can never find the key!!) when it brightened up a bit.

It's only little but it's mighty powerful

The view from in front of the stove. Junk (working materials) that needs to be cleared out then all that's left is to paint the walls and get a floor covering.

I said I would give my opinion of this book when I finished it. I have to say I found it very confusing. There were times when I agreed wholeheartedly with the views and sentiments and times when I couldn't have disagreed more. Some sentences were so sweeping and final and WRONG that they didn't seem to fit with the rest of the book. I nearly gave up after a couple of chapters but ploughed on and the annoying bits became less frequent. I agree with the general sentiments of the book but Tom Hodgkinson's attitude was irritating and if he was trying to be 'tougue-in-cheek' at times it didn't come across very well. It's all very well trying to live a life free from 'the system' but sometimes his methods didn't show respect for other people and being 'free' doesn't mean being rude or breaking the law.

-

One Carol Service down, 3 more to go, plus 2 other services and one concert before Christmas, so plenty of singing still look forward to. Also, one and half more gifts to stitch and more gifts to cook/bake, decorations to put up and friends to meet up with. How long have I got?

-

Bye for now

Teresa x

My Package Arrived!!

A little while ago I was lucky enough to win a sweet giveaway being run by A Piece of Wood - my first win :-) - and the package arrived a couple of days ago. I'd forgotten that APOW said she'd include a couple of extras so imagine my surprise when I found these inside. The giveaway was for a handmade card and you can see it here; it's a lovely simple design effectively show-cased on red card. The 'extras' consisted of a Breast Cancer charity pin and a plain calico shopping tote. The pin is quite poignent as my mother has recently recovered from breast cancer. The bag will come in very handy in these days of trying not to use plastic bags. If you're in the UK, are you covered in a blanket of fog today too? Isn't it dreary! Such a difference from the sunny skies of yesterday. I was hoping we were in for a stretch of cold, crisp, sunny winter.

Here's the progress on fingerless mittens no 2. No more than when I mentioned it previously! I still don't know if they're going to be a wearable size.

-

This weekend is the last practice for our Sing Hallelujah which is taking place next Friday as part of a concert involving the school children, with lots of other items of which I don't have details yet. I do, however, know that I was asked a few weeks ago to sing 'How Beautiful are the Feet' which is also from The Messiah. I wasn't at home when I was called to see if I agreed, so don't know yet whether I've been included. I don't really know if I'm up to it, so I'm hoping I can have a practise this weekend too. The pitch may need to be lowered a little for me though as it's quite high.

-

Have a great weekend

Bye for now

Teresa x

Lost My Appetite for Christmas

The boxes of decorations were brought down from the loft last weekend and, although they haven't been put up properly yet, I dug out a few things that didn't need any effort to display.
This little Nativity group was bought last year while in Cowbridge on one of my shopping/lunch/meet-ups with a friend. We went to a nice tapas bar for lunch if I remember correctly. I think I bought this little gold wire tree last year too but can't remember where from.
-
I bought this painted, wooden hanging 'noel' a couple of weeks ago from here, and I've just realised it was also while shopping with the same friend! I think she may be a bad influence on me - making me buy things (although I don't need much encouragement!!).

When I say I've lost my appetite for Christmas, I don't mean I've gone off the Festive Season. Certainly not! What I mean is that at this time of year, around November/December, my appetite for food decreases. It's happened every year for about the last 10 years and I've no idea why. Normally, I can eat any time, anywhere although I do try to keep some control! Before this started happening I would never have thought I could have a rumbling tummy and not think of anything I fancied eating. At times like these I eat what I fancy, when I fancy it, because I can lose weight otherwise (which I don't want to do!). It also helps me to understand how slim people can truthfully say, 'I eat what I want and don't put on weight; it's because what they want to eat isn't the same as the rest of us. The first time it happened I lost a stone (but I was heavier at the time and needed to lose some weight) and it's varied between half a stone and a couple of pounds since then. There's no need to worry though because my appetite returns sometime in the New Year and remains 'normal' until the next Christmas season.

-
Anyway, I feel perfectly fine in myself and not having to worry too much about putting on weight over the holiday period is a bonus!!
-
Bye for now
Teresa x

Giveaway Winner and Baking or Sewing (not both)

I must begin by saying I'm overwhelmed, amazed and excited by the number of visiters and commenters I've had over the last few days as a result of taking part in Sew Mama Sew's Giveaway Day! My aim was to attract a little attention from like-minded bloggers and start a little interaction going so hopefully that will be the result. I want to thank very, very much everyone who has visited, commented and especially if you had a little browse while you were here. I used the obligatory Random Number Generator to choose a number between 1 and 63 and it came up with 11 which is Peach Rainbow who has a fairly new blog showing lots of giveaways from around blogland. So well done PR and I'd love to see what use you make from the items. I'm sorry I can't reply individually to all entrants but I do appreciate your participation and look forward to welcoming you back if you call in for another visit.


I've realised this past weekend that if I concentrate on baking I don't get any stitching done and vise versa. No baking was accomplished this weekend, not even a loaf of bread! I did however run up this little zipped bag for a birthday present. The fabrics are all new from fat quarters I bought before I decided to concentrate on using recycled materials. The zip is part of a bundle I got from ebay. If you click to enlarge the photo you can see the rain on the window pane. It seems to have been raining for months. We could do with a bit of cold, crisp, sunny weather to make things feel more Christmasy.

I also made a start on table runner Christmas present number 2. I had no fixed plan in mind, although I did get an inkling of an idea from one that a lady at Saturday's quilting group made for Show and Tell (which, by the way, I meant to take my camera to but forgot. One member did take photos though and said she would email them to me so they may appear here at some point). Anyway, where was I, oh yes - well my method went something like this: 1. Choose colours. 2. Choose fabrics. 3. Cut shapes depending on sizes of bits of fabric. 4. Decide on design/layout. This probably isn't the way most people approach a project as I suspect they would start with number 4!! So here we have it so far; the cut fabrics above and a first try at a layout below. I may or may not use this arrangement. The pieces were all cut to the size of the furthest centre fabric as that was the smallest.

And finally, I made a start on another pair of fingerless mittens. This time I'm trying a finer yarn with the same size needles and not reducing the pattern. Goodness knows what size mittens I'll end up with!!

-

Before I sign off for today I have to say again what fun it was to take part in the giveaway and I'm sure I'll do another one sometime. If I average 2 posts a week, as I seem to at the moment, it will take me about 24 weeks to reach my 100th post which would be a good time to do one; however, that would be too long to wait and I should reach the 2nd anniversary of my first post before that (April 2010) so I'll try and remember to do one then (as well as the 100th post). I'll try and find time to make something next time.

-

By for now

Teresa x

Did, Done and Yet to Do

Drum roll please..................I present the finished table runner (well actually I'm lying again - the binding wasn't stitched down at the back when I took this photo).

I'm quite pleased with the result. I just hope it goes down well at Christmas, as much as a handmade gift as a table runner. Don't look too closely at the first photo - I know the centre doesn't line up very well.

The light blue fabric is from a pair of linen mix summer trousers and the rest is mainly from a pile of 4" squares I bought from ebay. I did have a slight hiccough when I made the first try at binding and it was too narrow. Instead of looking up instructions in one of my many quilting books, I 'thought' I remembered what the width should be. This one's a bit too wide but at least it covers the edge - the widest bit is on the back which I haven't photographed! I did consult a book for the corner mitres and I was pleased with the result of those.

-

Lastly: A few things I'm looking forward to -

-

Two whole weeks off work over Christmas and the New Year

A week with no OH at home in Jan and/or March while he goes skiing
A weekend singing course here next March

And a week in a cottage in Cornwall in July

-

Bye for now

Teresa x

Muffins and Progress!

Here is one of the Muesli Muffins I made recently from Muffin Magic which is a great little book. I've tried a few of the recipes and they've all come out well. These are sweetened mostly with honey and just a little sugar, so if you prefer your little treats not to be too sweet, these are perfect. And what's that in the background? Oh dear, I said I wouldn't show any more bread due to bread overload here, but must just mention that I tried a different tack with it and made rolls after just making the dough in the machine. The family approved of these more than the loaves so they may be appearing more often around here.
-

Quilting in progress on the Table Runner above. Stitching progress around here is like waiting for paint to dry or a kettle to boil but I should be able to show the finished product in my next post! I'm quite pleased with how it's going but I want to make another before Christmas so I need to get my skates on.

-

And last but not least, here's a reminder to enter the Giveaway in my previous post if you'd like to win the little pile of goodies on offer. You can also go to Sewmamasew who are organising it, to enter more great Giveaways.

-

Bye for now

Teresa x

Giveaway Day

I thought it would be fun to take part in the Giveaway Day being organised on Sewmamasew, so first of all I'd like to say 'Hello' if you're visiting here for the first time because of that. What with Christmas looming and trying to make some presents I knew I wouldn't have time to make anything to giveaway (I'll leave that for an occasion like my 100th post or anniversary) so I looked through my stash and picked out these lovely, co-ordinating, jewel-coloured pieces of fabric. The colours are actually much more vibrant in 'real life', I'm afraid it hasn't been good weather for photo taking lately! In fact, it's been thoroughly diabolical. The daylight, yesterday, hardly rose above a grey gloom for the whole day.

This little pile didn't seem much to offer so I went on another rummage and came up with a few more bits and pieces to add. There are buttons, binding, ribbon and a little frame; some of which match the fabric.

I didn't even know I had these little white rose buttons! They are lovely and quite dainty.

Now for some details as per Sewmamasew:

-

Anyone who makes a comment on this post will be entered into the draw.

Closing time for entries is 6th December.

I will pick a winner at random on Monday 7th December.

The package will be posted by 12 December.

I'm sorry but I'm afraid this draw is only open to UK based entrants.

-

I hope this little selection will be useful to someone and am looking forward to making a little connection with someone else who has a passion for stitching.
-

Bye for now

Teresa x

Yippeeeeee.....We Can Now Recycle Plastic

(Photo of a moody sky taken from my office window. Surprisingly it didn't come to rain from this cloud! I thought the 3 different trees made a great contrast.)

I am so pleased because our council is starting a new recycling scheme next week, which means we can now recycle plastic along with all the other things we collect. I used to take plastic milk cartons and bottles to the recycling centre but other plastic like yogurt/margarine containers etc went in the general rubbish for landfill. I collected a couple of bags full in the hope that I could find somewhere that would recycle it and I got to hate putting anything plastic in the bin, so I'm really excited about this. There was some local opposition to the scheme because it means putting things like tins, plastic and glass altogether in a purple bag and some people think it won't be sorted and recycled properly. I hope this isn't the case!! All paper, thin card, junk mail etc goes into the red bag. Another advantage will be that I won't have piles and collections of different items all over the kitchen and back yard. Just 3 bins - one for the red bag, one for the purple and a green kitchen waste bin. I'm looking forward to getting it sorted out and having a more streamlined system.

I thought, in the absence of any stitching progress around here, I'd show my first solo patchwork/applique project. It's a Christmas placemat, coaster and napkin set that I made for a Christmas Challenge at my montly quilting group last year. I didn't win the challenge (obviously!) but I was quite pleased with the outcome. We were given a small piece of fabric to incorporate into the project and I think mine was the red with snowflakes on.

This tea cosy was made just before the table set as my first practice piece. It's foundation pieced by machine and the fabrics all came from the tutor's scrap bag. Only problem is, it's too small for any of my tea pots :-( so it's never been used!

-

Bye for now

Teresa x

A little progress is being made

My not-so-busy weekend started badly, with a 2 and a half hour journey home from work. Most of it spent in a 10 mile jam caused by a collapsed drain, which more than deflated my mood despite just filling up my car with fuel for free because the 'system went down' on the pump half way through my transaction (I waited in the shop for 15 minutes for them to try and sort it out). Therefore, including getting my shopping, filling the car and the traffic jam it took 3 and a quarter hours to get home!!!
-

Saturday drop scones with sultanas half cooked on the bakestone. Batter in the bowl.

Below is the result of what's in the skillet on the right of the first photo. Runner bean chutney from a recipe I've been meaning to try for a while from Shoestring Alley. I used up runner beans from the freezer and made 6 jars full altogether. Although it won't be ready to eat for a couple of months I had a sneaky taste and it was good. I was a bit worried that it wasn't thick enough but decided to trust the recipe as I've fallen into the trap before of over cooking and ended up with rubber. After a few hours it seemed to be setting nicely.

What! - how did that get in here again! Oh, well..........

Half of the jars of chutney will go towards Christmas presents so progress is being made on that front at last. Also managed to finish one pair of mitts (well almost, very nearly finished, I lied, but it felt good to say it :-) Just got to darn in ends and pick up a dropped stitch..........whoops.)
-
No stitching, baking, cooking or work of any kind whatsoever is going to be done tonight. I am going out for a meal with my OH, DS, DD and her partner, just because. Time passes so quickly and we don't get together often enough so I arranged this last week and am really looking forward to it. 

-
Bye for now

Teresa x

Nothing Nasty on a Thursday Evening

This is what we had for dinner last night. Chicken/quorn curry. As I'm a veggie and the rest of the family are not, this is my usual system for preparing this sort of meal. Exactly the same ingredients in each pan, with chicken in the larger one and quorn pieces in the other. This picture shows the last of the ingredients just before stirring in. I had plenty of time to make this from scratch by my usual method of throwing in anything I can find lying around. In this case, onions, chicken/quorn, left-over tinned tomatoes, cumin, garam masala, carrots, frozen peas and spinach, sultanas and a chopped apple.

Later on it was off to my monthly Ladies Group meeting where, during my pre-ramble I informed them I'd be standing down from leading the group. This will free up a small amount of time but the main benefit will be one less thing to think about or plan for.

-

Our speaker for the evening was the lovely Elin from Nothing Nasty who makes 100% pure 'natural aromatherapy beauty and skincare products'. The products are sold in glass bottles which can be returned for refill at a 20% discount. This particularly interested me because even many organic and natural products come in plastic tubes which cannot be recycled easily if at all. Elin didn't promote her products as much as inform us about looking after our skin in general and the effects of a healthy, more natural lifestyle on the condiditon of our skin. The evening went well and we had a good turnout of members despite the wild and wet weather putting on its own performance outside.

-

At the end of the evening Elin asked for volunteers to test a new product (a night moisturiser) she was developing (see above). Those who agreed gave their details and will be contacted for feedback in a while. I also ordered some Organic Rosemary Castile Soap to try on my hair as shampoo is the product I've had the most trouble finding a natural form of that isn't an exhorbitant price and packed in plastic.

Talking of natural products packed in plastic, here's a hand and body lotion I received in the post the other day. It was offered free in a magazine when sending back a coupon and is apparently worth £8.00.
-

I'm looking forward to a not-so-busy time this weekend so hopefully some stitching progress of some sort to show soon.

-

Bye for now

Teresa x

You Will Always Find Me in the Kitchen at Weekends

Once a month a Whist Drive, organised by the Church, is held in our village hall. Now, I have absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with it except that my name is on a rota to make a loaf of sandwiches for the refreshments twice a year. It happens to be that time of the year. But........... I am also on another rota, as a member of Ladies Group, to clean the church, also twice a year. Do they get together to co-ordinate the rotas or is it just a coincidence that my turns comes up on each rota on the same weekends? Hence the sandwiches above, which are egg mayonnaise and cress - and the church cleaning that took place Saturday morning!

The rest of the day was spent in the kitchen (apart from an hour rehearsing for Sing Hallelujah and an evening at a Children in Need charity Stars in Their Eyes competition). Cake was required, and I was going to make scones but didn't have enough eggs left! I wonder why (see above and below). So I made rock cakes instead subsituting white flour and sugar with brown because that's all I had. They're going down well so far though so most of them were thrown in the freezer before they disappeared too quickly.

I made this cake for my BIL's birthday.

And this is the best loaf of bread so far, but now I'll stop showing photos of my bread because I'm even beginning to bore myself (although I may show some if I make something different).

-

Bye for now

Teresa x

Slow But Sure / Kiddies Cross Stitch

Progress is slow around here but at least some is being made. One fingerless glove is complete, apart from darning in ends, and another is on the needles. Apparently, having the right side of the knitting on the inside is not the correct method as I found out after consultation with an experienced knitter! I tried doing the thumb the 'correct' way and got in such a tangle with the needles, so I think I'll stick to my left-handed, 'wrong' way.

I came across these little (about 2" across) cross-stitch motifs in my son's bedroom the other day. He and my DD were into cross-stitch for a little while when they were younger (pre-teen I think), especially my DS, but from the look of these the interest wore off quite suddenly. The letter N and the dog's face look finished but the bottom one, which is I think a turtle on a rock in a pool with a lily pad, is unfinished.

These 2 little framed cross-stitcheries were the first ones they did. The flower by my DD and the K by my DS (the K being his name initial, don't know what the N is for above though).

This is the progress of the table runner (I didn't tell you it was a table runner before did I?). The squares have been turned into triangles but they are still spread over the kitchen table. I would hope to get them together in one piece this weekend although (as usual) it's a very busy weekend which involves, amongst other things, a Sing Hallelujah practice and a Witness performance.
-

Bye for now

-

Teresa x

Quilt Raffle and Lovely Cadw Jewellery

Jess, the daughter of Welsh Quilter, aka Elizabeth, is going on a trip to Africa through her college and one of the rules states she has to raise the money herself. She cleverly came up with the idea (amongst others) of raffling one of Elizabeth's quilts. It's a gorgeous quilt, which I hope I win, so pop over and have a look because it could be you. The trip to Africa is partly to help out in deprived areas so you would be supporting that as well as getting a chance to win a beautiful handmade quilt.
The main subject of this months quilting day on Saturday was to make a hanging of a Christmas/winter scene. Whilst I was interested in it I don't really have the time to take on something like that at the moment so I took notes instead (in case I decide to make one at a later date) while finishing sewing the lining into my crocheted bag. The only problem is, I don't know what to do with it now. I don't need another bag myself and can't think of anyone to give it to. Why, then, you may ask did you make it. Well, I liked the pattern and wanted to see how it turned out. I was also itching to make something with yarn and found a pattern to use up some I already had.

I also had time to cut out a pile of squares (above) which are going to be turned into a Christmas present, when I've decided how to arrange them. They are sewn and pressed and scattered all over the kitchen table as I type.
-
The jewellery set and pen are from the Cadw shop at the local castle. My mother and father had some Cadw vouchers and very generously decided to take my sisters and I to the shop to spend them between us. I chose the earring/necklace matching set and pen (above), we also chose something for our brother (who lives in Belgium) and mother was able to get a necklace for herself.
-
Our brother and his family are hoping to visit us over Christmas and the New Year so we are all looking forward to that, especially as it's been 11 years since we last saw them!

More progress on the Christmas present WIPs to come soon I hope. I'm going to try and make as many as I can this year, including some munchy treats nearer the day. None of the prospective recipients read this blog as yet so it's safe to show them as I go, which is good because there would be nothing else to show here otherwise :-)

-

Bye for now

Teresa x

Giveaway (not mine), K-I-T-R & Custard Slice

There's a great giveaway going on at Block Party this week. On offer to those who blog, Twitter, Facebook etc and then leave a comment, is one of these fabulous piles of fabric. Getting people to spread the news like this is a great idea but, although I'm having a go, I hope I'm not disqualified for not having enough of an audience on this little blog.
-
These are the 2 piles on offer if you win.

I think I got the hang of this knitting-in-the-round business. I completed quite a bit more than this yesterday but I'm going to have to start again because it's too big. That's what comes of using British materials with an American pattern. However, I'm more confident about the actual method now and look forward to finishing at least one pair of these fingerless mitts by Christmas.
-

My auntie does wonderful baking and quite often leaves some custard slice or warm pie for us by our front door. I decided to show her latest offering on one of a pair of plates that I bought at a charity shop on the weekend for £1.

-

I'm off now to leave a comment on the Block Party Giveaway (which closes on 9 Nov).

-

Bye for now

Teresa x