My granddaughter finished her miniature quilt/wall hanging, which she also designed.

 I think she has done such a wonderful job.

You can read about the method she used in my post 

"Easy miniature quilts" on 5th March.

Unfortunately we have lost the lovely warm weather; it has turned cold today, with some more frost yet to come. The weekend was still pleasantly warm and sunny, good enough for stitching outside. 

 I finished another bird block, the largest one so far, for "Calling All Birds" quilt.

I am enjoying playing with these bright fabrics.

I just want to show you this beautiful clematis 

which is growing through the fence from our next door neighbour .

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2017

easy miniature quilts

First March Sunday is only half way through and we have had it all - sun, rain, hailstones....yes, it is a miserable Sunday in England.

The first long awaited blossom of new camellia in our garden is here at last,
all soggy;

and the first primula. 

Like every spring, it is all there, just waiting...........

You might remember that I have a young stitching friend, my granddaughter. 

She is working on her new project, a miniature quilt.

This is an interesting applique method, where you don't actually have to stitch the applique pieces to the background fabric individually (to her great pleasure - impatient youth 😀). 

She just arranged her fabric shapes on a background fabric and secured with a temporary fabric glue (using a glue stick), we "sandwiched" her project as usual (wadding and backing), overlaid the top with a piece of fine tulle (you could use very fine organza), and now she is ready to quilt, which she will be doing on her machine, using just straight lines all over.

 The tulle keeps the shapes secure, as long as you stitch over every shape at least once.

This is a method Julia Gahagan from Home Grown Textiles is using, making her miniature quilts.

You can see her YouTube video here.

                                                         I started hand quilting Chateau Hexagon,



                             and last night I returned to a rather forgotten wool embroidery project.

I hope you are having a better weather where ever you are!

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2017

Anna's wall hanging

My granddaughter (age 11) has been working on a present for her other grandmother (with a little help from this one). 

She designed it herself and we shopped together for the fabrics.

And this is it!
(It is actually more straight then it looks on the picture.) 

It has a little pocket for those small treasures.

The background fabric for Les Fleurs du Mardi quilt has now arrived and I have started to plan the layout of the blocks. 

Quiltmania has used a dark fabric for their quilt, which I think is a very good idea. There are so many colours in my blocks; it would be difficult to find the right one.

I think this fabric is the right solution.

And a little cheer at the local garden centre - they really do move, play and sing 😉

Take it easy this week!

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2016 

catching up

It seems like ages since I blogged about any stitching!

First of all - my granddaughter (age 11) also finished her wall hanging, her first one; 

you might remember - we started making the same project at the end of the summer holiday - same pattern, different ideas about fabrics and colours.

both together

Being away for a couple of weeks, we seem to had missed the best of the autumn colour;

a quick visit to Stourhead last week just proved the point - a sharp frost few days earlier brought down many of the beautifully coloured leaves.

But I did take several nice pictures, despite it being a very dull day.

We never go home without a quick visit to the farm shop.

At home it is a busy time in our small garden - new long bed of roses is being planted in the front of the house. 

At the back we changed alpine garden, which wasn't doing very well here; we planted an olive tree and grasses instead. There is also a "re-shuffle" going on in the rest of the garden -

we will have to wait until next summer to see if it all worked.

Our quince tree produced its second harvest, a big improvement on last year, but unfortunately we lost some fruit to the brown rot.  Never mind, we are learning.

Still, there is enough fruit to process,

quince jam,

cake,

and there is still quite a few in the fridge waiting for me to do something with them.

Today I finished block no 18 for Quiltmania's BOM "Les Fleurs du Mardi".

The end is near, only 2 more!

Do you remember my holiday project? 

It was a kit by Nancy Nicholson and I embroidered the nice bag the kit came in, before we went away. 

This is what was in the bag, "Cuckoo", a cushion cover embroidery kit, very easy stitching, with the design printed on the fabric, just the thing to take on holiday.
You can see more of Nancy's kits, if you click here .

But the weather was much warmer then expected, and even sitting outside on the terrace of our hotel, my hands were getting too warm, so this is all I managed!

It's OK, it is a nice project to have around when I don't feel like doing anything demanding!

I hope to see you back here soon!

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk  2016

Our summer continues in a normal way; some good days, some bad, but on the whole the weather is OK.
The rain in the last couple of days was very welcome, DH was getting fed up having to water the garden every day.
And now we are due for another mini heatwave - yes, the English summer is still with us.

I really got into crochet recently, and my Bohemian Rhapsody wrap is coming along, be it very slowly - so many colours and very fine wool.

So I got easily seduced when I saw this blanket pattern by Jane Crow ; worked in a double knitting yarn (with 10% wool) and larger hook, it grows quite quickly.

It is made in strips, connecting the lantern shapes as they are being completed, using the wool randomly.

My St Germain quilt has been resting in its project box for long enough; time to do some more work here. 

I have now started the second long border.

My "play cloth" has been out too.

I am filling in another block; just playing, no idea where this will take me, but just enjoying practising french knots for a while.

My young stitching friend (my granddaughter) has brought her first sewing machine - a present from her parents for her 11th birthday earlier this summer, and together we discovered "how it all works".

One of the first projects she has made is a present for her younger brother.

Back in the kitchen and more jam making.

We now have new English plums in the shops - time go back to my roots again and make "povidla", a traditional plum preserve.

I make it similar to the way I make all my jams, but the cooking time is longer, at least 2 hours, to get a thick texture. The taste will get even better with age.

At the last week's market I bought first Discovery apples this year - rather early, but they did look inviting. 

Unfortunately, despite the look, they were not ready to eat, but just nice for a pie.

 I use a simple quick shortcrust pastry (flour + 2/3 butter + enough water to make a soft dough). To avoid using any sugar, I added to the apples some dried fruit I had at home - apricots and cranberries, and flaked almonds for little crunch,

and some cinnamon . Brush the top with milk before baking

Result.

It tastes wonderful, good with little fresh cream (even better if it is whipped with little icing sugar) or vanilla ice cream.

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2016