Summer Holidays

We are halfway through our first full week of the school holidays and so far we are all a bit under the weather! Why is it that we are the picture of health when we are living life in the fast lane, but come relaxation time the four of us are afflicted by a random virus - how typical.

Still it's giving me some time for knitting, reading and film watching so it can't all be bad. I've put my sewing machine away for the early weeks of the summer hols in a bid to finish some festering unfinished projects. Some of these were discovered in the spare room whilst decluttering in preparation for decorating. These are largely knitted articles and some have, I am ashamed to say, have been on the needles for *ahem* a year - maybe even a leeettle bit longer. Oh dear!

My current finishing off project is a cable cushion cover from Amy Butler's Midwest Modern Knits. I wonder why it got left along the wayside for so long as I love the pattern. The Aran wool makes it a relatively quick knit. I plan to only knit one side of the cover at this point, using fabric, possibly an Amy Butler print for the other.

At the end of the week begins the cake marathon - my friend is getting married and I have 168 red velvet cupcakes and a 6" cutting cake to make! Madness! This is why I don't do full time cake decorating - the wedding season would be too manic!



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Birthday Cushion

There aren't enough hours in the day at the moment. So much inspiration but oh so little time! There are 2 days left before school breaks up and I have my Big Girl home - I'm looking forward to lazy mornings and not having to be out-the-door by 8.30 am.

I made my friend Mari a birthday cushion for her little girl who turned one last week. I'd bought a delicious fat quarter pack about a month ago - quite literally delicious as the fabric, by Makower, is covered in cupcakes and other sweet delights.

I had some 30X30 cm cushion pads so I calculated that nine 4 and a half squares arranged in three rows of 3 squares would give the correct dimensions. The fat quarter pack contained 4 prints so two 4 and a half squares were cut from each - the remaining square would be white fabric so I could embroider Gwennan's name onto it.

The cut squares ready to go:

And sewn together:

I used a fabric marker to write Gwennan's name on the white square after I'd sewn the squares together to make sure I centered it properly.

This was then embroidered with running stitch in a hot pink coloured silk:

The cushion was backed simply using the envelope method. I am very pleased with the result and it was well received by Gwennan herself! I was in a bit of a rush to complete it and would have liked to have embroidered some flowers around the name on the centre square but time did not allow! However, I've cut out another set of squares to make a similar cushion for a little 3 year old called Efa - her much shorter name lends itself to lots of embellishing!!



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Bread

I've been making my own bread for about 2 years now, mainly with the aid of a breadmaker. However, for the last month I've ditched the machine and I've been experimenting with handbaking. Suffice to say, I won't be buying a loaf of bread unless I have to and the machine is having a rest in the utility room. Handbaking is one of life's simple pleasures - I cannot believe how tasty the end product is and how very therapeutic all the kneading is!

I'm making one to two loaves per week, using an adapted recipe that I found on the back of a bread flour packet:

Mix 500g Bread flour (sometimes I use white, sometimes half white half wholemeal) in a bowl with 1 tsp sugar, 1 tsp salt and 1 tsp yeast - I use Dove's Farm quick yeast:

Rub in 25g butter:

Then add 300ml tepid water to form the dough:

I knead the dough on a floured surface, punching and pulling for about 10 minutes - I've found doing it while I listen to the Archers a big help while passing the time. The dough is placed back in the bowl, covered with cling film and left in a warm place to rise. After this 'first rise' the dough is knocked back and then shaped into a round batch type loaf. I then leave it to rise a second time for about half and hour. Following this the dough is placed in a preheated hot oven and baked for about 35 minutes.

The result:

Best served (at the moment anyway!) with slated butter from Swansea market and lashings and lashings of blackcurrant jam - can you believe I tasted this nectar for the first time THIS WEEK!!!

I'm hoping to branch out and experiment - at the moment I have a starter culture on the go, which hopefully will allow me to make some sourdough at somepoint next week. Exciting times!

Quilt Progression

An update on the progress of the 'Freebird' quilt today. After I managed to complete sewing my charm squares into 9-patch blocks over the weekend, on monday evening I got on with the next step. Many apologies for the dodgy picture quality - there was what can only be described as a monsoon going on outside! As well as this I was watching Andy Murray's first round match at Wimbledon so was slightly distracted while taking the photos!

I cut the 9-patch block at the halfway mark vertically and then did the same horizontally:

Each 9-patch block yields 4 smaller blocks - I had 12 9-patch blocks in total so now have 48 smaller blocks. Tonight I may get on with the fun bit - arranging and organizing the little blocks into a combination I like! This is largely dependent on whether the wallpaper stripping in one of our reception rooms keeps calling me! I must learn to complete one thing before going on to another one of these days!

Productive Weekend and a Happy Monday!

Good Morning! And what a beautiful morning it is! The sun is streaming through the windows and I am going to have a lovely organisational and pottery type of day, hopefully with some sneaky quilting thrown in a bit later! I've had a productive weekend involving much crafting (well as much as two children and a Dr hubby on nights can allow!), a lunch out, lots of cricket (TMS mostly on the radio) and some bread baking!

Since baby boy arrived in February I've had to snatch crafting time here and there, which is as it should be :-), but my blogging has been rather sporadic as a consequence. Over the weekend I was inspired by a post on the rossie blog highlighting 'the process pledge'. In a nutshell this is an appeal to all the bloggers out there to post about the process of their projects - creative and practical, the highs and lows, finished and unfinished objects! In the past I've been very guilty of posting a picture of a finished project but with little information about how it got there. The process pledge is quite liberating for me as I have many, many projects on the go at once that I could be sharing as progress is made rather than waiting for the completed article! So here goes - a new blogging plan of attack!

Do you remember the lovely Deb Strain fabric in the previous post? It was purchased to complete a project started last summer (ooops) based on the 'snippets' quilt I made previously. It had been left so long I couldn't remember what went where due to poor or non existent labelling! There was nothing to be done but start from scratch but this time using a differet pattern.

Firstly I sewed 3 charm squares together - the charms are all from the Moda 'Freebird' range by MoMo - love MoMo fabrics! After reading Elizabeth Hartmann (of Oh Fransson fame)'s book 'The Practical Guide to Patchwork', I decided to change the habit of a quilting lifetime (not long!) and press my seams OPEN! I have to say I found piecing for the next step of the quilt much easier with the seams open - I joined three strips of 3 charms to form a 9 patch square:

(Sorry about the picture quality - it was dusk and my hand was shaking!)

My hope is today to cut the 9 patch blocks up to start making a disappearing 9-patch quilt top over the next couple of days!

Half Term

It's half-term week here and I am loving the lazy mornings and slightly unstructured days - I am a control freak so my days can never be completely free of routine! After the excitement of yesterday's sporting events (Swansea City being promoted and England's fabulous win against Sri Lanka in the cricket) today has a slower, more relaxing pace. I had a lovely time this morning trying out a new coffee shop in Mumbles:

It's an off-shoot of The Junction cafe in Blackpill and I absolutely loved it. The coffee and toast was sublime and the surroundings - well just inspiring!!! I loved the beach hut/whitewashed style and the little gifts on sale gave me lots of ideas for crafting!

On the crafting front I got a parcel in the post the other day containing some fabulous fabric:

It's from the 'Cherish Nature' range by Deb Strain for Moda and I think it is just beautiful. I love the colour and the gorgeous little bees. It has been bought in a bid to finish a quilt top I started last summer. I've been looking for a while for a complimentary fabric for the quilt background and finally came across this. I have made a start with cutting out 5" squares so I hope to progress further over half-term week! To completion? We shall see!

For Rosie!

My friend Rosie requested a picture of the cut rainbow cake - I am happy to oblige!