FNwF and into July

After very hot June, July is so much more pleasant. 

Cooler, with the occasional (very welcome) rain.

It is so much easier to look after the garden, it is flourishing now,

not just surviving.

Small lavender harvest from our front garden

(little earlier then usually, probably due to the hot June).

On Friday I joined others for FNwF, first time in a while.

Thank you Cheryll for getting us together again.

As I was watching tennis on TV, I didn't want to get involved in anything which needed too much concentration, 

so I decided to start working on my new crewel embroidery kit.

 Earlier in the week I got around (at last) to choosing fabric for the final border of 

the Butterfly's Ball quilt, and after trying various options, I settled on this pretty pink.

I have enough of this fabric for the backing as well, 

so that's sorted.

That's all for today; I leave you with the view from my kitchen door.

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2010-2023

FNwF and the rest

My Friday ended up a busy day; it also became a baking Friday morning in the end. 

Chocolate and almond cake, from Hairy Bikers' Baking book, one of our favourite cakes.

Also a loaf of bread, which I made in Remoska.

"In what?" I hear you ask.

Our Czech friends will know exactly what I am talking about. 

For the rest - Remoska is a "mini oven", a Czech invention, which has been around for more than 70 years.

It is very simple and clever, just one "on and off" button,

it is the lid which does the cooking and is self regulating.

Later that day I made macaroni cheese in it; 

it also makes a very good risotto. 

I could had made the cake in it earlier, but this recipe makes a rather large cake, my Remoska is the smaller size, but I do make other cakes in it as well.

Good on energy. 

What else can you ask?

My Friday afternoon was spent in my sewing room. Recently I resurrected Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt. 

The next stage is a border around the centre part, made of 3,5 inch log cabin blocks, 

I need 52 of them, so lots to do.

But I did join others in "Friday Night with Friends" in the end!

I have been playing with some applique blocks and in the evening I finished the top block.

I have no idea where this is going, but it is just fun for now.....

Big Thank You to Cheryll for getting us together again!

Also some last colour in the garden.

I hope you all have a wonderful week crafting!

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2010-2022

FNwF

It has been a while since I joined Cheryll's group for Friday night get together.

Thank you, Cheryll,  for getting us together again!

This time I didn't do any sewing, but I did manage to crochet two more squares for Tobermory blanket.

Actually, there hasn't been any sewing going on all this week. After the winter months my tiny work room was in such a mess, some very overdue action was badly needed. 

I decided to do this properly this time, and even sort out all my craft books! I did collect too many over the years, crafts I wanted to have a go at, but never quite around to it, and unlikely I ever will.

 The only way to tackle this is to take all the books down, and then to decide which to put back on the shelves. 

I started with two book shelf units, and  managed to get it down to one! 

The charity shops in the town are very pleased about that 😀. 

This has given me enough space for a small 

"office" corner.   

 

I am not showing the rest of the room just yet, 

there is still lots to do!

If you are lucky to have a sewing room or just a corner somewhere, 

you know how quickly it can get out of control! 😉

After a very dry April we had some rain in last 10 days or so, and the garden has been soaking it up; it is getting quite green now, although we still need some colour.

There is a semi wild patch under the olive tree, which is looking quite pretty now,

with blue Camassias coming through.

The quince tree growing in the pot is covered in blossom this year,

so delicate.

I am having a go at growing strawberries in containers this year.

At last I am enjoying writing the blog again - we had new fibre broadband installed last week, what a difference! Uploading pictures is quick again, how it should be...

I wish you all a very productive crafting week!

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2010-2022

FNwF

It has been a while since I joined one of Cheryll's special evenings, 

and even this time it felt a bit rushed.

But even so, thank you, Cheryll, for getting us together and for the chilled wine; I needed it, as you will see, although something stronger was needed.

It is my husband's birthday this week, and we had a family get together on Sunday. 

So my Friday was taken up by shopping and preparing some of the food; the evening was mostly taken up by making the birthday cake, of course! It actually turned out to be a near disaster, as about half way into the baking time 

I realized I was GRILLING the cake, not baking it!!!!😓 

I obviously turned the setting one notch too far and had the grill going! 

By then the top was pretty dark and raw inside. The option was to grin and carry on, or to go out, get new lot of ingrediencies and start again. I did not fancy the second option very much, so I covered the top of the cake with a foil, turned the oven to a lower setting and carried on. It actually worked! By the time it was all finished, with lots of chocolate and cream on (after I cut off the offending top part), no one was any wiser.

So, yes, you can grill a cake 😏, but I would not recommend it! I am still recovering!

But even so, I managed to sit down for a while and finish the latest small block for Blooming Springtime (before I could smell the burning!)

This will join the other small blocks,

which now form about a third of the top.

I can see a couple of places where some corrections will need to be made, 

but in the main I am happy with it.

I will come and see what the others were up to some time this week; 

it was a busy weekend, I need to rest!

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2010-2022

FNwF

Cold and windy Sunday here, indoors is the best place.

Friday evening I joined  Cheryll and the others for another Friday Night with Friends, 

a virtual get together, which I had missed for some time. This was for the last time this year.

You can use the link Cheryll's blog to see what the others were up to.

I finished another flower block for Quilter's Patch quilt (no 14),

after that I snuggled under "Barn Dance" in front of TV and continued hand quilting, 

using a simple echo hand quilting method. 

This quilt is so lovely and warm, I spent the rest of the evening doing just that.

I am working on the final borders now and I really hope I finish it this year!

I will pop over to Cheryll's to see what everyone was up to....

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2010-2021

FNwF and the rest

 Thank you again to  Cheryll for getting us together for the last FNwF of this year.

Like most, I will not be sorry to see the end of this year, and hopefully we will have much better time in 2021.

I had just a small project ready and managed to finish it as well - small kit by Corinne Lapierre, French Hen, part of the "12 Days of Christmas" set, which many bloggers have been making.

 

My hen looks little more skinny than the original picture, 

but I am quite happy with it, not bad for one evening's work.

My crafting seems to be dominated by crochet at the moment, and although this stack of squares is only about one 1/4 of what I need for the Tobermory blanket, I got seduced by another one of Jane Crow's designs - the Persian Tiles blanket, and on Friday afternoon I finished the first block.

 I like the "Sandalwood" version, but there hasn't been any colour breakdown published, it is available only as a kit from Mary Maxim. I prefer to use Stylecraft Life DK, which has some wool element, so I have made up my own colour combination, which is probably little brighter.

There have been many birthdays and anniversaries missed this year; 

there is a couple of our family ones we will not be able to celebrate as a family this month,

we hope to catch up on all of those next year, when we will be able to get all together at the same time.

Last month was our golden wedding anniversary - 50 years of married life, and friendship for more.

Due to the lockdown we celebrated on our own, with nice dinner and a bottle of wine.

But that morning we did get a surprise -

a truck pulled up outside and unloaded a big parcel.

     

This turnout to be new garden bench - a present from our children, who know how much time we spend in our little garden, and that our old bench was literary on the last leg.

I think I should use this as a motto of my blog!

All we need now is spring!

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2010-2020

FNwF and another month

This year is moving along in an alarming rate; one day we might think of this year as a lost one - or possibly not, depending on how many quilts, socks, jumpers or other projects we have made during this time.

Friday night was that time again - to virtually meet up with others at Cheryll's, who very kindly lends us her blog for monthly "hang outs".

What was I doing? After a rather wet mid week, the sun came out and it got very hot again. The result was that Friday evening turned out to be very pleasantly warm and so we stayed outside longer than normally and while the light permitted, I worked on the last applique part of the Manor House quilt, nearly finishing it, I just stitched the last leaf on yesterday morning.

The next step will be two borders, but those will have to be done inside, as the sewing machine will be engaged - not my favourite pass time at this time of year, I prefer to be outside.

With some rain and sun, our little garden it looking rather lush; this has been our oasis since spring.

Last weekend our family got together in our daughter's garden, to celebrate all those birthdays missed during the lock down - 4 of them, including mine. We all chipped in with food; I made a summer cake, which I first made last summer; made with almonds and honey instead of sugar. I have come to a conclusive that apricots work much nicer here than nectarines.  

Once cut, it went rather quickly, before I had time to take a picture of a slice.

I am off outside again, to make few more 2 in hexies!

I hope this post will come out OK, I am trying to get in to grips with the Blogger version 😕

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2010-2020

the last bonus FNwF,

again back at Cheryll's, who always manages to get some of us together, thank you for that, Cheryll!

So, here we are, another week and we will be officially in summer. Spring is usually my favourite time of year, but this year we have missed out on so much of it, although we watched the small steps in the tiny space of our back garden, but no open fields or woods, where we would normally enjoy the arrival of spring...something to look forward to next year........

There was a point during the last few weeks when my brain needed to focus on something totally new, to move forward.

When I came across "Manor House" quilt by Dawn Heese, it seemed just 

like the right project to get into. The original pattern was designed for wool applique, but I much prefer to work with fabrics.

I am not overly keen on dark fabrics, but here it works so well, and not being able to visit a real shop, I spent some time online trying to find the one for the background, one which would work for me - and here it is - from "Winter Garden" range by Lewis & Irene.

At first glance it looks like the whole main part of the quilt is made in one piece, but actually there are 4 very wide parts, joined together.

I started to work on part 3, the actual Manor House, as this is probably the most important section,

and also it is a while since I stitched an applique house and I was looking forward to doing it.

For the main part of the house I used one of Moda Grunge fabrics, which has that nice "aged" look, and another one for the roofs.

So, that was my project for Friday night, 

 to finish this part.

I am using some fabrics, which I would not normally consider as being "me", but I am trying to go with the spirit of the quilt, and I think they work well.

At last we have been having some decent rain during the last few days, which the garden is just lapping up, and everything is looking much fresher, and also the water buts have been replenished.

I wish you a very good week, and be careful out there, it is not over yet!

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2010-2020