Felt darning sample

This is a sample of felt (in my favourite colours) that I made in the December workshop I attended as part of my college course. One piece required darning for our portfolio, which I completed quite quickly as this was joy to stitch - soft to sew and the process was rhythmical and relaxing.

This next piece of felt I have not yet stitched into:
This is begging to be a sea shore of "crunchy" stitching: buttonhole wheels, seeding and french knots. This is being consigned to the "one day maybe" as its full on power for the wallhanging.

Experimental Sampler 2

Finished over the Christmas period. Procrastinated a long time about getting this done but once I had the fabric laid down it stitched itself! 

Drizzle

Took my festive deocrations down last night. That also meant Teddy had a costume change out of the Santa outfit and into this very smart duffle coat and scarf that Mummy Bear Maker knitted for his birthday. Teddy wants to let Mummy Bear Maker know that he is very pleased with his duffle coat - it will keep him warm and dry in the all pervading British drizzly weather. 

Belgian Sultana Loaf

The promised recipe. Enjoy.

Happy New Year

Oops haven't posted for a while. I have done quite a lot of stuff though: Texture design board, Recipe Card Calendar, even more cooking for aforementioned cards, felt making, stitch sampler of said felt, a bit of flat kuminho braiding, and erm, lots of procrastination over my wall hanging - time to review the action plan. My current goal is to get a collage of planned wall hanging before start of term next week. This will be a major achievement as I am currently packing up my workroom so that it can be redecorated and changed into the Master Bedroom. It will relocate at the end of the month to our current bedroom at the back of the house. In future I will need to keep the craft stash under control so that it can also be used as a guest bedroom as well. Famous last words....

Anyway, I will end this post with a picture of January's recipe from the "Tea with Grandma" Calendar I gave my sisters: Belgian Sultana Loaf. It freezes well and is particularly tasty lightly buttered (something Grandma was unable to do) with a cup of tea after a slightly damp walk/cycle ride before shopping for curtain fabric.

Recipe to follow.

p.s. Christmas day Goose cooked according to Gordon Ramsey's recipe in The Times was yummy.

Wallhanging

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Grandma's Recipe Calendar Index

Grandma Faithfull passed away 29th June 2002. I asked for her recipe notes and clippings with a view to recording some of her recipes for posterity. I thought it was high time that I made a go at collating some of them for the rest of the family. This set of recipe cards is the result. The recipes chosen were those I could remember Grandma serving up and that I had a copy of. The cards themselves were attached to a blank calendar and a copy of which was given to both of my sisters H & K as a Christmas present.




A visit to Grandma’s always involved an offer of a little something to eat and drink. Any polite refusal was usually changed, and taken back, once Grandma had described to me the contents of her cake tin. Earlier memories of tea time on weekend visits to Grandma and Grandad’s always consist of very well buttered sandwiches and a selection of cake.

Notes:

• All measurements are pounds and ounces. Grandma never converted to metric, indeedm I found one metric recipe I had given her which had her handwritten conversion to imperial measurements.
• I have tried out each recipe using the conventional setting of my oven (as opposed to my fan oven) and converted from gas mark settings (G'ma wouldn't cook on anything else) to centigrade.
• Some of these recips are a little frugal compared to their modern day equivalents. This is either reflecting the times of rationing Grandma lived through or reflecting the times of plentiful supplu we currently live in.
• I have not included any fruitcake recipes - I had difficulty choosing from the over 20 Grandma had in her collection.