Sourdough Love

As you may already know I love baking my own bread. I've increased my repertoire from the basic loaf to include focaccia, ciabatta, baguettes, tortillas and flatbreads and lots of other bready goodness! I can
recommend Paul Hollywood's 'How to Bake' and the 'Bread' River Cottage book for great recipes and invaluable tips.
I've entered a sourdough phase in my life most recently. It never ceases to amaze me that natural yeasts in the atmosphere can not only make the bread rise but also give it such a wonderful flavour. Yesterday we enjoyed this fabulous white chocolate and raspberry sourdough for breakfast:








I mixed the sourdough starter with the salt and bread flour at about 5pm on Saturday evening, kneaded it and left it to rise in my warm kitchen. Just before bed I kneaded in the white chocolate chips and raspberries and placed it in a proving basket. I left it wrapped in a plastic bag until morning when I turned the dough out onto a baking sheet and baked it. There is something truly wonderful about freshly baked bread in the morning - especially with home made damson jam.

(Recipe by Paul Hollywood, available on BBC website)

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Century of Progress

Well, it didn't take me a century, but it was a challenge and it did give me quite a headache.  'Century of Progress' is completed and I am very pleased given how many times I unpicked the thing! If you look very closely (maybe don't!) the points don't exactly meet in the middle, but given the number of triangles and templates involved I am overlooking this issue ;-).  I did iron it VERY badly and I even scorched one of the pieces, but it remains as it is - there is no way this one will be redone.

Ribbons

Hello!  Just dropping in to share this one block so far this week.  It is called 'Ribbons' and I am ecstatic to say that this is my 60th block! 

I think this means there are 23 left to make and I'm about two thirds of the way through.  Happily,after a quick flick through the book, I've realised that the remaining blocks I have to chose from are not all horrendously difficult!

There's a bit of white fabric love going on in my last few blocks so I'm hoping to move away from that and introduce more colour.  The block I'm currently working on is called 'Century of Progress'.  Aptly named - seems as if it's taking me a century to progress at all.  It's a template job - there is no getting away from it.

Slow

Craft life has been so slow these last couple of weeks.  I blame The Party - build up and recovery - as detailed in my last post.  Today has also yielded little time in that respect because of a husband on call and a house in chaos!

I can't remember if the FWQ blocks I am sharing belong to this week, last week or the week before but share them I will.  Hopefully I can find some time for catching up post -weekend!

 (Flock of Birds)

 (Cats and Mice - possibly my New Favourite!)

And finally, I redid the 'Bouquet' block:

Sooooo much happier with this version :-D

Party Time

Crafting hours were far and few between last week.  This is because it was the week leading up to The Party.  My seven year old became an eight year old and left me wondering where the time had gone, not to mention the fact I don't feel old enough to have an eight year old!  In a moment, in which I must have completely lost all my senses, I consented to a four hour party in my own home for eight little girls plus birthday girl on a Saturday afternoon.  By this morning I am nearly recovered.

We had definite activities plus adult help to marshal the troops which I think made the experience a lot less stressful than it could have been.  After an initial welcoming period and present opening time the girls spent an hour decorating cupcakes:

Followed by film watching and popcorn:

And hot dogs, chips and birthday cake to finish!

Whirlpool III

I have started re-doing some of the blocks in my reject pile - to be honest it is not a very large pile.  I really struggled with the 'Whirlpool' block.  The first attempt was before Christmas and it didn't even make it onto a post - it went straight in the bin.  A few weeks ago I had a second attempt which was a lot better - however, during the time I fell out with the FWQ a few weeks ago, 'Whirlpool II' also joined it's first cousin in the bin!

A few weeks and a lot of spray starch later, I present 'Whirlpool III':

Soooo pleased ;-)

And here are two more blocks for the week:

 (Temperance Tree)

(Steps to the Alter)

Enjoy the Bank Holiday weekend whatever you are doing!

For Mel :-)

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