Friday Night With Friends Stitching 

A quiet Friday evening stitching my Royal School of Needlework Canvaswork.  It doesn't look much but it takes quite a long time getting the right shading and depth to the colours to match my photograph.

Oblique Slav Stitch in four shades of DMC blue thread, two strands of each colour.  The Clouds are Cashmere Stitch in two strands of  Appletons white and one strand of DMC metallic white for lustre

Ten needles threaded at a time so I don't need to keep going back and forth with needle threading, trimming and cutting.

I am really pleased with the effect so far and it is starting to come together.  This is definitely a magnifying lamp project even with my very strong close work glasses.

Pop over the Cheryl's Gone Stitchin' Blog to check out what other friends have been working on.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend and thank you for visiting.

Elaine

 

Royal School of Needlework with Tracy A Franklin

 A wonderful week stitching with like minded ladies at Tracy A Franklin's studio in Durham.

It was a week filled with good food, plenty of chocolate and treats, some walking, drinking and sleeping!

I worked on my Certificate Goldwork stitching alongside these lovely ladies under Tracy's watchful eye.

These ladies had travelled from across the USA and Canada to work in Tracy's studio.  All of us enjoyed an early Good Friday Fish and Chip supper in Bell's restaurant near the Market Place.  A lovely meal in great company and I hope that this won't be the last I see of these embroidery fans.

Take care all of you and a safe journey home.

Friday Night With Friends

 Friday Night With Friends sign up is over on Gone Stitchin' by Cheryl.  

If you would like to join in with other stitchers and share what you have been working on over the weekend.

See you there.

Elaine :)

 Hope everyone had a peaceful Mother's Day.

I was very lucky and got some beautiful treats from the children and my hubby.

Edyta Sitar Cocoa Pink fabric bundle

Edyta Sitar Season in Blue book - a wonderful book with lots of easy, quick quilt patterns.

Lori Holt Binding Buddies - love these, never seen them before and they are massive!!

  Last but not least a pair of Gingher Eleanor large shears.  I can't believe there will be no more Gingher scissors made so got these to match one of my smaller pairs with Shepherd's Bush fob.

As always, a little chocolate was added in here and there and to top it off this year for the first time it was just me and hubby invited to Sunday dinner at my Mum's house, which was delicious.

I haven't done any sewing - apologies to my RSN tutor Tracy who will not be impressed.  I have just been lots of time procrastinating about sewing and not actually doing any!!  Hoping that will change soon as I need to finish my RSN Certificate - it's taken too long, but I know I am not along with that challenge.

Take care all.

 My Sewing Space ...

Tula Pink sewing machine, daydreamer chair, horn cabinet, ruler rail above window.

Lego in Up as it's my favourite Disney film. Renaissance ribbons on curtain track.

Some of my rare Tula collections.

The rest of my Tula collections, books, scissors, fqb, and bags.

My wonderful Bernina Q16 Plus on five foot frame purchased in June 2023 and so far has completed 9 quilts and numerous Byannie projects.

Byannie quilt ruler bag. Coffee machine a must and my matching mini fridge

ByAnnie A Place for Everything.  This bag holds a huge amount of rulers, all for my Q16 longarmer

Tula Pink DejaVu Nightshde fabric for the whole of the bag.

I try to keep it tidy - that doesn't always last as it can be a bit of a dumping ground for everything and everyone unless I keep the door closed ;)

Stitchy Update - I am still here lol

I check out all your blogs but don't always have time to comment.  I will try and be a better blogger! 

Completed stitching over the last couple of years includes the following:-

A Jenny Adin-Christie Stump work embroidery class on retreat in Durham - it was fabulous and I was probably star struck, Jenny was a wonderful teacher and a lovely patient and kind tutor.

I embroidered a Crewelwork Christmas Tree for Stitch Magazine in the UK, this was a real confidence booster as I lack confidence in my work, but I thoroughly enjoyed completing it and the magazine editor was great to deal with making it a lot easier to take part in.

I made two By Annie A Place For Everything 2.0 bags, one for my bestie (the top one) and one for me in Tula Pink Deja Vu Nightshade.  Love these bags, I use mine for all my rulers for my Bernina Q16 Plus.

My Bernina Q16 Plus which arrived in June and has since completed 9 quilts.  I have this on the five foot frame and love it.  (part of my Tula Pink fabrics in the background).

Another project for Stitch Magazine, a mermaid completed using variegated threads and back stitch.  This was gifted to one of my Sisters-In-Law once completed.

My first piece of Stumpwork Embroidery for Stitch Magazine, The Clangers - one of my favourite tv programmes as a child.  This was a challenge but the results were worth it.

I am still cooking, baking and quilting when I get chance.  I have probably bought five lifetimes worth of embroidery kits, quilt kits and fabric (that age old immortal stitcher thing).  That's inbetween five broken bones, pneumonia, stomach problems and two lots of Covid.  We have been very lucky as a family, we didn't lose anybody but both me and my husband lost our best friends.  That loss has had such a big impact on our lives.  We try our best to remember all the fun times we all had together but when your own lives are a challenge those people leave a huge gaping hole that nobody can replace and they are truly missed.

We lost our beautiful Cocker Spaniel Merlin this year who still looked like a puppy at 11 years old but unfortunately arthritis had got the better of him.  We just have our Chihuahua, Lily, who is enjoying being centre stage but is also getting old and likes nothing more than the sofa and a few light cuddles.

We gained a family member when our daughter got engaged in July to a gentleman who has just slotted right into our family (a family that are mostly nuts lol) and we are now planning and sorting what, where, when and how about the wedding.

Happy Stitching all and I can't wait to be back in the Friday Night Sew In and see what everybody is up to.

Gluten Free Morgan's Spiced Christmas Pudding

Ingredients:-

2 tablespoons Morgan's Spiced

75 ml Kopparberg Fruit Cider

75 ml IPA

2 eggs

50 grams Bob's Red Mill One to One Flour

1 teaspoon GF baking powder

110 grams breadcrumbs made from Genius Toastie loaf or stale GF bread to make it easier to breadcrumb

Zest and juice of one Jaffa orange

Zest of one lemon

one peeled apple chopped

30 grams ground almonds

300 grams Currants

 120 grams Raisins

120 grams Sultanas

110 grams GF Vegetable Suet

225 grams Dark brown sugar

1 teaspoon mixed spice

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Method:-

Mix all the wet ingredients together.

Mix all the dry ingredients together, except the flour

Mix them both together without the flour.   Cover and leave overnight so that the mixture takes in all the flavour of the alcohol.

Add the flour to the ingredients and mix well.

Fill three one pound pudding bowls and top them with a piece of foil pleated in the middle.

Pressure cook on high for 2.5 hours.  The longer you cook it the darker the pudding will be.  Once out of the pressure cooker remove the foil and drizzle another teaspoon of Morgan's Spiced over the pudding and leave to go cold.  

On Christmas Day place the pudding in a microwave and then light with your desired alcohol and serve with either Rum/Brandy sauce or whisky ice cream.

Enjoy :)