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

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 

it is official, and I don't mean the weather

Start of autumn - time of misty mornings and cobwebs. We are having some glorious sunny days right now, although the nights are very cold; the heating has been on in the evenings.

There is still some colour in the garden.

The Editorial in the latest issue of the Quiltmania magazine talks about a study conducted by the

University of Glasgow with a group of thirty quilters.
The conclusion?
That this activity is is extremely beneficial to our health. The article is quite long, but I will just quote this part:

"Mathematics, geometry, accuracy, working with matching colours, particularly bright colours, which stimulate the brain, planning a task, developing a project and sewing with precision are among the tasks needed for Quilting and which make many million neurones work together to obtain magnificent quilts at the end of the process! Add to this the social network, the benefits of sharing a passion, 

the communication and solidarity found in a group, the challenges".... ..............."and you have one of the best mental exercise regimes to keep a clear, quick and razor sharp mind! 

No other activity can provide all these benefits!"
It goes on to say that from nursery age through to care homes - "don't lose a moment, put down the Sudoku and the crosswords. Not only is Quilting a more complete activity but you will also have the immense satisfaction and pride of having completed your project - as the sense of fulfilment is important as well!"

Of course, we already knew that, didn't we?

The weather has been too good to sew indoors, so I managed to stitch only 3 more sets of flying geese sets.

I have been doing some work on a couple of small projects, which are easily taken outside.

This is no 5 (out of 12) in Santa's Village set of cross stitch embroideries,

and the 4 finished to date.

I have also started stitching the Pansy Tile from the Pansy Collection by Sue Hawkins.

I already made the Pansy Needlebook from the same collection a while back. 

I love it, I use it all the time.

Thank you for visiting my blog and having the patience to read it!

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2015

Mrs Claus' Cookie Shop

We had a first light frost last night and I finished another embroidery in the Santa's Village series,

Mrs Claus' Cookie Shop,

This is the 4th one, 

as you can see, at this speed I am aiming to finish the whole series by Christmas -

2014! LOL

Have a great weekend!

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk  2013