slow coming of summer

Lost and lots of rain.............

Wet winter, wet spring means that our small garden is very lush and green; 

but with little sunshine now and then some colour is coming through at last!

With so much time spent indoors I managed to finish two projects in May.

Crojo Retro blanket - so pleased this is done. 

It is all wool and very warm, so not very comfortable on my lap any more. 

Also my Cherry Picker's Garden quilt, all done.

The colours in the picture are not exactly true,

what looks red here is actually more salmon pink. 

Whenever I am working an any project, 

my sewing room is a total chaos;

but all tidy now....ready to start on something new. 

What is it going to be?

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2010-2024

hope of spring soon

It has been very mild (but very wet) in my part of the world. Looking outside, one could be fooled into thinking that spring is very close. 

Pair of Blue Tits seemed to have already claimed a nesting box in our garden, and there are another signs that nature just can't wait to burst into spring.

Spending lots of time indoors, I decided to tidy my work room (again, from which you can tell I am bored, 

although I have been reading a lot); 

that is when you come across past projects hidden somewhere in the corner, 

like this Crewel embroidery, long forgotten. 

It is a welcome break from crochet and quilts.

Back to my quilt project ( "Cherry Picker's Garden") 

shown in my last post: 

I have now finished the last two 10 inch blocks, 

it is time to choose border fabrics.

I am still trying to use my stash.

The final green border is actually much nicer colour in reality,

and it was the inspiration for this quilt.

So, back to Crojo Retro blanket. 

I have now joined all the parts together, but because the flowers and leaves are different shapes, you can see what the problem is now - big gaps! 

The solution to that are more flowers, small ones this time.

Many of them!

Yes, it will take some time to fill in all those holes!

-------------------------

As I do every winter, I made some orange marmalade,

enough to last us until next year.

But this year I have also come across Bergamot lemons, not seen normally in our local supermarkets.

They are very small and actually look more like very small satsumas.

Apparently used often for preserved lemons, so having only 4 of them, I experimented:

one small jar of preserved lemons,

and the rest to make lemon marmalade.

I made this marmalade before, using supermarket unwaxed lemons,

so I knew we would like it.

The recipe 

( which includes a spring of rosemary - yes, it does work) 

comes from this book.

Of course, the result was a very small yield, just one jar!

But it was worth the effort, it is very nice.

I have managed too buy some more Bergamot lemons,

so I will make some more,

 and mixing them with normal lemons will surely work

and will make a larger quantity.

So, that's me for now.

I hope all is well with all of you. I haven't been very good blogger again - life just gets in the way,

I am sure you know what I mean.

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2010-2024

new year, new projects?

After weeks and weeks of very mild and extremely wet weather in our part of the world all is calm now and even sunny; what a difference little sun makes! 

Even my work room is not as gloomy now and I can enjoy being here again,

 although I still find difficult to take a decent picture here.

So - new projects?

Not quite; I have been working on some stuff for a while now. 

"Crojo Retro" blanket (design by The Mercerie ) has taken me a year to get to this point, but I now have all the flowers and leaves, ready to be joined together!

So, long job yet, but I am on the case now.

When I finished Butterfly's Ball quilt I could not wait to get lost in another applique project.

I started to play with some new blocks - 

I am calling this "The Cherry Picker's Garden" (for now anyway).

And some new inspiration -

Santa brought me this lovely book, 

"Welcome to the House of Quilts" by Janine Alers,

published by Quiltmania.

I had already made one quilt featured in the book, "Surrounded by Flowers", in 2021. 

The pattern was previously published in Quiltmania magazine.

The quilt is now hanging on my workroom wall.

There are other projects in the book I am itching to make.

That is not all - another present from Santa is this bag of Scheepjes yarn,

to make "Macaroon Blossom" blanket.

As it is mostly cotton, this will be lovely summer garden project -

I can't wait!

Busy year coming up................

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2010-2024

May at Barrington Court gardens

Another beautiful sunny day, but with north winds, which is a shame.

The house at Barrington Court is closed for repairs, but it is a pleasure to take a walk through the grounds.

Information office thatched roof being repaired: 

Back at home - flowers of different kind;

production line of hexie flowers for the next border of Butterfly's Ball quilt

 and all 36 flowers needed for Crojo blanket.

And now something completely different:

The two most important men in my life, at the start of this year's Mendip Vintage &Classic Tour, driving 47 years old Holden Kingswood (some of our Australian friends might remember Holden cars - apparently it was the "car which got Australia moving")

My son bought the car many years ago in Perth, Australia, at the start of his year long trip around the country, eventually finishing in Melbourne. When it was time for him to come home, the car came too, loaded onto a container ship for a long journey to England. 

It is has been restored to its full glory, now taking part in the Tour every year. The Tour finishes on the green, in front of the Wells Cathedral, so the public can stroll around and have a good look at the various cars.

There is a YouTube video from this year, which you can see here:

 

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2010-2023