The Three F's and a T.

A hodge-podge sort of fortnight, full of threads, fabrics, flour and family. 

• A random little patchwork project for no other reason than I fancied doing it. Started as a doodle, and then ended up as a near 12" square. Rather pleased with it too. If your wondering it's a quote from the Mad Hatter, Alice in Wonderland. A quote I can get behind "It's Always Time for Tea". Here, here!

• More thrifty finds - Went in search of shelving units for the bathroom and instead came back with some cheap reels of Sylko thread for my aunt, a rather lovely plain white linen table cloth for £9 and a thimble rack; no I haven't started collecting I have other plans for it.

• I love, love, love Nigel's Lazy Loaf - Lives up to it's name. Second week I've made it now. I have found I had to play about with the amount of flour as Sainsbury's only sell Buttermilk in 300ml not the required 350ml. And I don't like to buy more than I need. So chopped down the flour to 175g and I think it's worked even better this week. Either way, it's super yummy....and toasts nicely too.

• More adventures into Wonderland - The quote that I featured on the little patchwork piece is back again, and this time I've decided to embroider it. Currently work in progress. 

 

Can never find my white tissue paper, so pale pink was used. I tend to find it easier stitching a rough outline on linen that can't be drawn onto, rather than using the prick, pounce and paint method. It's quicker, well for me, and less messy. If your interested in the other method, my good friend, Jen Goodwin, has an excellent tutorial. 

Of, course my favourite stitch is back, trailing for the win! And there is going to be quite a bit of it. Can't help it.

See, I told you there was going to be more! You can just make out the start of a clock, with multiple hands. 

• Giving child marriage the finger! And you can too. Let children, be children. I have recently supported this campaign, and you can too. If you can't donate, but have a social media account, a blog even. Post a link to it. Spread the word. 

At last!

I've finally, and I mean finally finished the pink quilt. 

You have no idea how thrilled and relieved I am that it is complete. It's been the longest project in progress I had hanging about, years in the making. That's what you get when you have it in your head that your going to hand quilt, whilst trying to do several other things as well. It certainly has been a labour of love but I don't regret the hours, and hours of time it took to get it complete. Sure there are parts of it that I am not totally thrilled about but you know what it was a learning process, I had never put together a quilt, technically I hadn't actually put the blocks together, but I have done that before, it was the actual hand quilting I had never done. I wasn't even sure or certain how you actually achieved a good finish, especially on the back (which I won't show....)

Still it's done, and it's ready to be used in the new place, which you'll be pleased hear is progressing, slow as hell but I know these things take time.

With it finished, it means I can get back to a couple of other works in progress, and really need to get finished. I don't want another wip to take years. Ha, though I say that and I just remembered there are a couple of projects that have been gathering dust for years,  a knitting project and a complex cross stitch...I am not sure I'll actually finish them. Should probably do something about that...possibly.

 

What else have I been up to this weekend? Pottering about mainly I started the buttons for the private commission did one test button to see how it would turn out and they are looking good, I couldn't stitch the others as I am low on one of the threads so I prepared the fabric and put it to one side. I could have worked on a few other things to stitch but I wasn't actually in the mood so instead I got out some paints I was given at Christmas and decided to colour some project designs. 

KOH-I-NOOR HARDTMUTH watercolour paints. Highly recommend them. 

A good little set of great colours. Nice to use too.

Such as the one below. I almost forgot how much I love painting and I really need to get back into the swing of it. And if your looking for a good set of paints, that also don't take 

Painted it, now to decide when to stitch it.

Now I must dash as I am off to have lunch with my mum. But before I go, I thought I would leave you with a few lovely things to look at, or to do. Enjoy!

A pretty watercolour of a squirrel.

Peekaboo, I see you.

Can't turn down a slice of pie.

Want it Wednesday: Baking Love

It's a little bit of a different Want it Wednesday, but you know it's good to switch things up a bit, right? Well tonight its just going to focus on one thing a book. A book that I fell in love with whilst visiting a very good friend last weekend. Now, you might have twigged over the years that I have a bit of a thing for baking, it's a side hobby in a way I don't do it often but its nice to just whip up a batch of scones as and when you feel like it. I almost have the recipe memorised to a point I only need to glance at the ingredients to make sure I've not missed anything.

So when I saw this book 

Miette Bakery Cookbook: Recipes from San Francisco's Most Charming Pastry Shop

I knew it had to be mine when I saw the recipes that would make good gifts, well it's not mine yet but I am damned well going to be! Sorry Sophie, it nearly ended up in my bag....

Start of Good Weekend

Nothing makes a weekend go well when most of your chores are done before Saturday, and all the errands are run before the morning is out. Followed by a spot of shopping and baking and that's it. Holed up for the weekend with good food and a box set.


Sweet!


Spelt bread, with organic set honey, raspberry leaf tea and a new mug! Couldn't resist the mug, after all it says tea and scones on it. I wouldn't mind living on Tea Street or Scone Close! 


You will recall that I have recently completed the Peacock Stumpwork, and I had hoped to get a suitable frame for it, but couldn't get one. Which is a tad frustrating so I will have to look on line now for a suitable box frame and then list it. However, all is not lost. What I did buy today was some new plain button shanks ready to make some more liberty tana lawn buttons. A set of which will be given away as part of a competition which I hope to get under way this weekend! Keep an eye out for the post on it :D

For the Spelt loaf recipe taken from the Telegraph site:THREE-MINUTE SPELT BREAD

This recipe originally appeared in The Daily Telegraph a couple of years ago and has since built up quite a following on the internet.

Mixing up a yeast dough and then baking it without giving it time to rise (let alone kneading it) is counter-intuitive, but it works. Baker Andrew Whitley says that if you let it rise slowly, in a cool place overnight, it will be even better.

• 1lb 2oz/500g spelt flour
• 2 sachets/10g fast-acting dried yeast
• ½ tsp sea salt
• 2oz/50g sunflower seeds
• 2oz/50g sesame seeds
• 2oz/50g linseeds (optional)
• 17floz/500ml warm water

Heat the oven to 200C/400F/gas mark 6.

Combine all the ingredients, adding the water last. Mix well and turn the dough into a greased loaf tin.

Put straight into the oven and bake for an hour.

Remove the loaf, turn it out of the tin and then return it to the oven without the tin for a further 5-10 minutes.

Baking - Sharing is optional

It is true what they say that practice makes perfect, at least I find that with baking and I must say I am really getting into the rhythm of making Iced Buns. They are such a cheerful, easy recipe to make that is just lush with a cup of fresh tea.

So here is the recipe enjoy!

Ingredients:

500g White Bread Mix (usually only costs about 85p)

100g Caster Sugar

1 Medium Egg

300g Icing Sugar & some luke warm water (1 tbsp if not more..take it slowly when you add it.)

Sprinkles and Colouring (I use pastes and natural colours)

250 - 300 ml of Luke warm water

Method:

1. Preheat an oven to about 200 for non-fan over or 180 for fan
2. Pulse together the bread mix and sugar in a processor
3. Whilst the mixer is running add the egg and the water until a soft dough is formed, I find that it gets rather sticky but don't panic. 
4. Tip it out of the bowl onto a floured surface and with either lightly oiled hands or dusted with flour knead it. And keep dusting with flour if it keeps on being sticky. Patience. Knead for a good 5 - 10 minutes or until your wrist gives out.
5. Form into a nice smooth ball and put into a lightly oiled bowl and cover with cling film leave in a warm spot until the dough double in sizes. Usually takes a good thirty minutes to an hour.
6. Once doubled, or nearest dammit, knock it back with your fist (good stress relief).
7. Get a tray and lightly oil it and now divide the mixture up into as many decent sized pieces I usually get about 16. You could probably get more, but aim for about golf ball size if not a bit bigger..play it won't really matter. Now you can either roll into sausage shapes or keep them proper bun shaped. I've had more success with them looking like round buns than iced bun fingers.
8. Leave to rest on the tray, covered with cling film (may want to oil but I've had no issues with not), let it double in size again.
9. Then once doubled put in your preheated oven for between 7 - 9 minutes or until they have a slightly golden, basically they look a bit like a bread roll. Leave to cool on a wired rack.
10. Fun time! Ice and decorate your buns. You want your icing to be nice and thick too runny and it goes everywhere. So keep it stiff as possible. Put the sprinkles before the icing sets.
11. Sit back and eat with a nice cup of tea. Sharing is optional. 

YUMMY

Even made....Foccacia!
It's not all for me, I am actually having a picnic tomorrow but had this recipe that I wanted to try, and it's not turned out to badly!

Doing a little bit of what I love....

Coming life from my little kitchen. Something rather satisfying about cooking isn't there? I have been finding that it's highly enjoyable of late, perhaps not so much during the week, but at the weekend I find it rather pleasant coming up with something nice to eat, perhaps something that will even last me throughout the week. The meatloaf week was testament to that. But yes anyway I am in my kitchen cooking a one pot meal effort, Honey & Mustard Chicken anyone? I also baked some scones. I love scones and I hadn't had any in ages so I found my cheese and chive scone recipe that I posted up here....though now I come to find it I can't. Anyway will locate later. 


I am still here and I am still stitching. I have my little store up as I announced last week, and have been adding the odd new line to the sale area go and check it out. Today I added....

There are a further two colours in these sets as well I added turquoise and hot pink, you might remember them though? They are items I made back when I first opened my Etsy store back in 2006 and whilst they never sold I took them off and never did anything with them. So I decided to take some more pictures and list them as a set rather than individually, and each set is a bargain £12.50. It's not that I want to get shot of them, but really its time to move on. It was a phase I enjoyed but I don't think I'll return to. 


So if you have a spare few minutes go and have a look. Other things I have been doing is stitching, I have a WIP piece from before Christmas that I am finishing off, it's like a mini art quilt is the best way to describe it and I made something for a friend of mine which I'll be posting to her tomorrow though she doesn't know anything about it...so I look forward to seeing what she thinks of it. I'll post something up about it once I know she's seen it


What have you been working on?

Baking, Posting & Other ing's

I have officially died and gone to baking heaven.

I am not a fan of muffins I find them to be just a tad to much for me, being as I often navigate to fairy cakes, I like things small. I even find cupcakes a bit daunting to eat.

However this cheese and chive muffin recipe is the best and simply made me say aloud, Oh my god....

What's even better is that the recipe is simple as, just mix all the ingredients together till they combine then whack them in the oven.

Ingredients:

 1 egg

3/4 cup - Water

1 cup - Self Raising Flour

1/2 tsp Salt

1 1/2 cup - Grated Cheese

1 tblsp - fresh chives

As I said you mix them all together till they combine, then divide the mixture into a muffin tin (I used silicone ware and its great cause you don't need to mess about with cases)  

Bake in a preheated oven, at about 190 for about 15minutes. For my oven it was perhaps longer but I'd say until the cheese crust goes a nice golden colour.

Then eat as many as you can.

----

I am happily content also with getting back to sewing and these two little projects so far have been a joy to work on and I'll be just about to dive off the computer to carry them on so other pictures to follow.

Tell me what your working on?

------

Finally but not least!

Normal posting has been resumed! I am no longer beholdant to Saturday posting, so rush out and purchase....nah only kidding (unless you want too :) )

Happy Moo-Tard Day

Ginger Bread Loaf

Yep, it's not Mothers Day in our house, mum doesn't like being called Mother, so me and my sister call her Mootard, not sure why, and where it came from, but it's sort of stuck.

So Happy Mothers/Moo-Tard Day!