Wip Tree skirt, fabric bargains
Well it’s been a busy week putting the rest of the house to rights after working on the craft room floor for so long. This lovely parcel came from Stephanie at Loft Creations. A beautiful snuggly flannel pillowcase and some gorgeous Earl Grey cream tea. I haven’t seen it in the shops around here and it is wonderful! It smells like it tastes and I’m sure you could even use it as potpouri it is that wonderful. Thank you so much Stephanie.
You know the rods I mentioned from Ikea with clip bits instead of the usual rings? Well here are a couple more in action in the Living Room. The Autumn Quilt.
The Crow and Pumpkin Quilt. You can see the clips more easily on this one. I am just glad they are both hung properly. The net cord on the Autumn Quilt wasn’t strong enough for the weight so it had started to sag in the middle which made the quilt look messy. I’m glad that job got done.
This is my current WIP a Tree Skirt. i’m working on the centre circle of reindeer at the moment.
I tried to make each house individual.
You might just see the blue lines where I’ll be sewing reins, legs antlers and Santa’s face.
Another current WIP- 16 ct Aida Suffolk Punch horse.
Choc Squares got made- old biscuits digestives preferred, honey and cooking chocolate. Heat honey and choc together, break biscuits, pour choc/honey mix over biscuit bits and mix well. turn into a greaceproof paper lined deep tray and leave to set. When partially set, score along the future cut marks to make it easier to divide later. You can also add spices, dried fruit, nuts etc.
Spice cookies. I have a proper recipe for these:
6 tablespoons of sugar
1 small egg
10oz plain flour
2 oz syrup
1 level teaspoon baking powder
4 oz soft brown sugar
1 table spoon of ground mixed spice
oven 325F 170C Gas 3
Sift flour spice and baking powder
Stir in sugar
Rub butter and flour mix to breadcrumb stage
Beat egg, add syrup until smooth
Make hollow in flour mix, add egg mix. Mix thoroughly
Put dough in fridge 30mins.
If you want plain circles I make mine into a 1 1/2″ sausage and just slice the set sausage.
If you want to cut shapes, roll to 1/4″ thick
Place on greaced baking tray in oven for 15-20 mins depending on oven.
Now to the fabric bargains. The above lot was all £1 at a car boot sale on Sunday.
Top row left to right: viscosey blends, wool, cream corderoy with yellow and blue curtaining below.
Bottom row left to right: linens, white patterned cottons, cottons.
I’m very pleased. Most lengths were around 1m.
The above lot in this pic and the denim in the pic below came from a charity shop who only wanted £3 for the lot so I gave a little extra.
Top row left to right: Wools, corderoys, toweling.
Bottom row left to right: green felt, plain cottons, chinese style jacard in pale green, thick cotton velvet green curtains.
Top row denim from the charity shop. Some plain white cotton middle left. On the Middle right are a couple of lengths of white damask which were on the ground covered in mud left by a car boot seller. They cleaned up really well. I’m so pleased I rescued them as everything left at the car boot sale is binned by the farmer whose field it is.
At the very bottom is the fabric for my daughter’s prom dress for next year. There are 9 yards of lilac and 8 of the blue so oodles to play with. She’s already started sketching designs for me to follow. LOL
Finally this whole set was just £1. It all matches. So far it is sitting on one of the treadle machines. Most of my time though has been spent cleaning and trying to tidy and catch up with a knee high pile of washing.
I’ve just finished reading “The Runaway Quilt” part of the Elm Creek Quilt series by Jennifer Chiaverini. I recommend the series to any quilter. The book mentioned how much vital family history was lost in the Civil War in America. That is so sad. It also mentioned a lot about the history of certain designs such as the log cabin to commemorate Abraham Lincoln. Fascinating stuff. Just what is “Birds in the Air” quilt pattern though? Does anyone have a book recomendation for the history of quilt designs with lots of pics- or know of a web site that shows these older designs?
I’ll catch up with you all soon.
Posted in Uncategorized by House Elf with 25 comments.