This week I finished "Hot Cocoa Cafe" - 7th from "Santa's Village" set.

I have started a new project - see you at tomorrow's FNwF!









©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2010-2019

this and that, and teddy bears too

At last, after a month of rain, we might have some dry days.

We cleared all the roses from the middle bed in the front garden.

They were never really happy there, so we are replacing them with a mixture of perennials.

Freshly dug soil, with some addition of new compost - and now all the cats around think this is their new public convenience! A sprinkling of bin powder on the soil usually helps, but this has been washed away by the rain every night since I planted it out........😠

Hopefully, now the dry weather has been promised, we will be able to start tidying the back garden next week.

We took an advantage of being stuck indoors for so long, and sorted out lots of our books. 

Both DH and I are big book hoarders, and every few years we just have to "take the bull by it horns" and do something about it. Some books went to a local charity shop. But we took most of them, four big bagfuls, to the Barrington Court's  "Book Barn". It's a very large second hand book shop, very well run by National Trust volunteers, with comfy chairs, where you can relax while choosing your next read.

The money raised helps towards the upkeep of the Barrington Court; one of the ladies working there told us that last year they raised nearly £30,000.

While there, we took the advantage of a reasonably dry day and had a walk around the gardens.

Despite the rain, or because of it, and because we haven't had a cold snap yet, there are still lots of flowers around.

The pumpkins are ready,

and at last some autumn colour too, 

in the form of a magnificent, very old birch tree.

 

On Thursday I popped down to the Bath and West Showground.

The Craft4Crafters show is a regular, twice a year affair.

No "big names" exhibiting; a bit more textile stuff than usual, which was nice to see; also a chance to stock up with few things.

I was very "self controlled" and made only very small purchases -

I am sure these nice batik fabrics will come useful.

The creative spirit has somehow left me in the last few weeks.

I am still hand quilting St Germain quilt (a long process), and it is nice to have it on my lap, now it is chilly in the evenings.

A small nod to Christmas - I am working on the next cross stitch picture in the Santa Village series of 12 pictures; this is a long ongoing project.

This one is no 7.

May be another 2 years?.....

The 6 done so far.

So, what is is this about teddy bears?

This morning a new issue of Landscape magazine popped through the letter box; always a pleasure to read and I look forward to go through the whole magazine. But one article got my attention immediately, 

the one about The Teddy Hospital in Lyme Regis in Dorset.

Alice's Bear Shop, Teddy Bear and Doll Hospital was opened by Rikey Austin some 20 years ago and they are more busy then ever. 

There are some lovely stories in this article; about how the Hospital has grown, and about "patients" from near and far; a man who could not part with his teddy, so he had flown in with him from Bulgaria, and stayed in Lyme Regis while his bear was being mended!

This is just one of the patients waiting,

Ted Wilson having a rest before his "operation".

Why was I so exited about reading all this? Because this is where my Mary-Jane came from; I bought her during one of our visits to Lyme Regis (not long after out move to Somerset), when Alice's Shop was mainly just that.

So, meet my "gang"; they all have names (of course). 

Some were rescued from charity shops, some bought new, a couple of them I made myself.

This is George, he is rather special - a present from my son.

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2010-2019

it is April after all

Last week we had our breakfast outside,

but this week has been a very different one; the very brief summer spell has gone. 

It is very much a typical April weather now; not very warm, short spells of sunshine and showers, some quite heavy, even a thunderstorm and hailstorm. Yes, this week we had it all.

But despite of that, the spring will not be stopped. 

The crab apple in our garden is covered in blossom,

and violas in their pots just can't wait to show off.

Last week I was in a hurry to look for projects to take outside;

crochet is so portable.

I did some more work on the Mystical Lanterns blanket.

The individual motifs are joined into strips (and strips joined into blanket) -

this is strip no 11 (4 more to go).

The crochet Hygge shawl, which was Scheepjes CAL 2017 (combination of crochet and embroidery) 

has also "seen some light" this week, 

with just a little progress.

Another easy project to take outside -

I started to "build" another house for "Santa's Village" series.

But it is back to indoors - for now anyway.......

Have a good week!

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2010-2018

Tuesday baking and little bit more of Santa's Village

The backing fabric for St Germain quilt arrived from Billow Fabrics, half price in their Sale, so I am very pleased.

That means that I have no excuse, 2 quilts to quilt now.

But I needed a break from all that, and luckily I have several "in between" projects on a go, so there is always something else to pick up. My eyes need a change for a while.

Santa's Village is a very long term project. I am not a cross stitcher really, but I liked this the first time I saw it, one of those "must do". It is a lovely design by Country Cottage Needleworks. 

So last night I finished "Candy Cane Cottage", the 6th in the set.

Six done,

and six to do.

The basic colours are the same all throughout, 

but each cottage has an additional colour threads and a button to stitch on.

After the miserable weather over the holiday weekend, today is a real spring day.

And despite the bad weather we had, things are happening in our garden.

First camellia blossom is out,

and miniature Japanese cherry is nearly fully out.

Today's baking is a simple one. I used the basic recipe for Marbled cake, just without the "marble",

6 oz flour, 6 oz butter, 6 oz sugar (but I used less, because I am using sugar with Stevia), 3 eggs.

Plus some sultanas soaked in Amaretto instead of "marble".

It was the first time I used spelt flour for this cake; 

I ended up using white and wholemeal together because I did not have enough of the white, 

but it did work well together.

Only after I realised I forgot to add vanilla, despite the fact I had it ready.

No problem, little vanilla sugar sprinkled on top.

The result is a light and moist cake; 

I will definitively used spelt flour again for this recipe.

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2018

crafting this week - Quilter's Patch and more...

St Germain quilt has gone into storage, it will have to wait until after Christmas to be quilted.

Instead (after a long break) the Quilters Patch quilt (designed by Edyta Sitar) has come out of its box for another block,  this one is called "Petunia block", sixth so far. I need to be in the right frame of mind to work on this quilt, because most of the blocks have many pieces, this one (14in block) has over 80 pieces of various sizes.

(The quality of pictures is not great at this time of year, most of them taken in the evening light.)

Needless to say, there is some unpicking going on here, as some of the background pieces are so similar in size; 

if not paying attention, it is so easy to join together wrong bits.

But in the end it all comes together.

And I have just spotted a mistake! 

Oh well, I think I can live with that one (in the grand scheme of things 😒).

What else have I been up to this week?

My "Winter Quilt" has also come out of the storage and is hanging on the wall.

And as we are getting close to Christmas, the crochet project "Santa's Village" has also resurfaced for another block, also no 6. That means that I am nearly a half way there. 

May be in another couple of years.......

And here is the crochet project, "Mystical Lanterns" blanket.

Individual motifs are joined into strips, which will be joined together later.

I made another strip this week.

 Again, I am half way there.

Outside, despite some frosty nights, our garden is still refusing to admit a defeat.

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2017