baking weekend

I have realized that I haven't posted from my kitchen for a very long time, but be assured, that many loaves of bread, cakes and biscuits have been coming out of my tiny space, it was one of those things which kept me occupied during the lockdowns.

Last few days it has been like being in another lockdown, with various storms rolling over UK, storm Eunice being the latest one, but it seems that another storm is on its way. Luckily we haven't been effected by any damage so far, I am just watching with some concern our still young olive tree being bashed about; the rest of the garden is holding up OK. 

So, I retreated to my kitchen again - thankfully we haven't have any power cuts in our area (yet), so baking was possible.

Something new - I turned to one of my favourite cookery books, by Olia Hercules, recipes mainly from Ukraine (and food not that far away from own upbringing), the country currently very much in the news, sadly not for good reasons.

I have no idea why they are called Berlin, no do I really care; the main thing is that they are very nice, and easy to make. I would actually call them small pastries rather than biscuits. They are not very sweet (no sugar is mixed in the dough), as the circles of dough are dipped lightly in sugar and folded, this process repeated a couple of times again.  

After about half an hour in the oven:

Wet and windy Sunday afternoon here, so it is back to some sewing in the front of TV, 

with a cuppa and Berlin pastry. 😉

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2010-2022

Halfway through February, is it possible? It seems that January somehow passed me by.....not much sewing going on here. It is usually a quiet month, but this year I hibernated more.

Not completely inactive, I managed to get through 900 pages of the latest instalment of the Outlander saga (book 9)!; conveniently published in November, just in time to be included in my list to Santa.

Also, my PC of many, many years, which I had been nursing for a quite a while, completely gave up last month; so a new purchase had to be made. I chose to get another PC, rather than laptop, as when you are 70 something, a large screen is the most important thing!

I am now sitting in front of 24in, beautiful screen, what a joy! 

All the Covid restrictions are about to be relaxed here in England;

it seems that we are no longer following the science, which makes me rather nervous, but what do I know?

But there is a new project in making. 

I had  something completely different in mind the last time I wrote, but I have changed my mind. 

I need something sunny and  bright.

While I was browsing through "Focus on Applique" by Irene Blanck, her "Blooming Springtime" popped up from the page, it is just the right thing, you can feel the sunshine. 

I like Irene's designs very much, this is the second applique quilt I am making from this book.

I like the simple, clear shapes. Lots of applique and some reverse applique too. The whole quilt is divided into small, easy to manage blocks. 

I plan to to use fabrics from my stash only, which desperately needs some reduction.

My first "Blooming Springtime" blocks.

This is my quick catch up, just to let you know that I am still around 😀

Enjoy your weekend!

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2010-2022

To all my dear followers - my very best wishes for 2022!

I thank you all for supporting my blog for the past year, and for being such wonderful friends.

I hope your coming year will be happy and healthy.

We usually like to make plans at this time of year, but these days this is not easy to do, but I do hope that everything you hope for, will happen for you.

How was your Christmas?

Our one was lovely, spending all of it with our children and grandchildren - very different from 2020!

I have spent this week recovering from all that happiness  😃

Christmas itself was very mild and wet in my part of the world,

even today is around 14C, very unusual.

I do have a new project for 2022 in mind,

but that is for another post 😉,

but it means that I will have to go and spend some of those fabric vouchers Santa brought me!

Happy Crafting!

the last finish of 2021

I had a very late night last night, but it is done, 

largest applique quilt I have made so far :

                                            "Barn Dance "

It was designed by Robyn Falloon,

published in 100th issue of Quiltmania magazine in 2014.

Measuring 1,80 x 1.80 m, just the right size for my bed; 

needless to say that I am very pleased with it.

I had enough of one of the fabrics used in the quilt for the binding.

I usually sew the binding to the front of the quilt and turn and stitch to the back, but this time I did the opposite, turning it to the front and securing it with chunky stitch using pearl cotton No8.

I can concentrate on Christmas now 😅😅, 

lets hope it will be "normal" one this year,

keeping fingers crossed.

pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2010-2021

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