Sunday baking

Not Christmas baking yet, I will need to get to that soon!

This is a batch of biscuits from the wonderful first Ottolenghi cookbook, published in 2008, called simply "The Cookbook".

I made these biscuits a couple of weeks ago, and although they tasted great, they never "dried" out; the problem being that I used soft brown sugar only

(as that was all I had at home at that moment) instead of mixture of the same and caster sugar.

It was the caster sugar (or lack of it) which made all the difference. Which just shows...

And because they tasted so great, I had to make them again, this time with the proper mixture of sugars, just to prove myself that it was the caster sugar and not my baking!

White Chocolate and Cranberry Biscuits 

(and this time they are perfect!)

All this is going on in my new kitchen, which DH finished installing early in the autumn,
and hopefully the last large project inside the house (for now anyway).

This week was another very slow stitching week.
I blame the wonderful Scandinavian TV programs like "Bridge III", for not being able to stitch and watch TV at the same time ( I haven't yet mastered the art of reading subtitles and sewing at the same time!), and Christmas online shopping, and ...............
That's my excuse, what is yours?

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2015

when Christmas Eve was over

                                                           

                          and everyone had gone.

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2014

Scandinavian Rose 14 and signs of autumn

At last, the last stitchery block, number 14, of Scandinavian Rose BOM quilt is finished!

Now I have to decide what to do with  14 stitcheries. I don't think I will follow the original pattern, which suggest borders in red and white patchwork. 

I have no definite idea yet, well, there is no rush..

The nice weather is still with us, but it is beginning to feel like autumn, with early morning mist.

When that clears, there is still lots of colour in our garden.

              The spiders have been busy.

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2014

slow blogging and Mrs Beasley

Our beautiful summer just goes on and on, and getting hotter, as if the nature was making up for the horrid wet winter we had.

I am spending little time in the house, well as little as I can get away with and there definitely is no housework (what housework?) happening in our house. 

The replacement lavenders have arrived, all 20 of them and they are the right kind this time.

Our new garden is full of colour now and the seating are is large enough for family get together.

I waited for issue 11 of Vignette magazine, with part 2 of Mrs Beasley's Sampler Quilt, to make a start, and I am now working on both blocks at the same time.

I come in just to machine stitch what I need and get my hand stitching ready, and out I go again. It is a wonderful "stitching in the garden" time.

The Chicken quilt is all ready for hand quilting, but that will have to wait for cooler weather.

I hope you too are having a wonderful time.

Thank you for stopping by.

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2014

four seasons have come together

It has been a while since I posted last. 

I "blame" our lovely summer for that; now is time to be outside and simply enjoy it.

My stitching is also on a slow burner. There has been some more boring sewing, like taking trousers up. 

I definitely have shorter legs than average, because every time I buy trousers, I have to take them up..boring.

I have managed however to bring my four chicken blocks together. 

You know how after you have worked on separate blocks for a long time and then you join them together, it suddenly all makes sense? Well here we are, my four seasons chickens. It is only the outer border which is missing; it will be just plain and quite narrow. I am very pleased with the flying geese, I think they work well here.

It will be some time yet before I'll completely finish it. I think this calls for hand quilting and that will take time...

I have really enjoyed stitching applique blocks; I think I will use applique more often in the future.

The chicken tails were little more time consuming, choosing and stitching all those narrow strips of fabrics together, not really knowing how they will look until they are done.

Now the weather has cooled down, I will be back knitting squares for Mystery Knit-Along.

The plants in our new garden have suffered little with the heat of last few weeks, but nothing serious.

We have however lost our new plum tree; not due to shortage of water, but possibly due to some virus. 

The garden centre has agreed to honour the guarantee and replace it in the autumn.

Some disappointment with the new lavender hedge. In the autumn I ordered lots of lavender, Hidcote for the hedge, and a low variety, Little Lady (picture on the left), for underplanting roses.

Now all lavender is in flower, it turns out that all of the lavender the nursery sent me was Little Lady, which looks great in the rose bed, but of course is making very miserable hedge.

But they were great about it, admitted fault, and are sending new Hidcote for the hedge.

Hidcote, by the way, is in the picture at the top of this post.

I will leave you with some great hydrangea blooms from our new garden.

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2014