My Stitching Treasures...

I have got alot of stitching done and even some beading and charms have been stitched on.

However, as you can see from the picture, yet again, I have put the peacock in the wrong place.  I am really annoyed, it is my own fault but I am not happy because I made such a nice job of the tail feathers, working from the blue on the inside to the outside green.  Cross does not come into it - aaarrrggggghhhhh.  That's another half hour or so to unpick them and then another couple of hours to stitch them again.

The rest of it looks good, not sure how much longer it will take to finish as I have to work out the placement of my name in the top box, which was the reason for putting the peacock in first so I knew how much space I had.

Never mind, count to ten and start again.

My Stitching Treasures...

WOW - What a difference a day makes...

I worked really hard today, unpicking, cleaning up, tweezering threads, tidying up and look at the results.  About 7 hours of stitching today which is a little over the top but I wanted to get back the time I had lost through the unpicking.  

I have a couple of leaves to go across the top, the other peacock, then it's the alphabet and my name and finishing with the charms and beads.  I am really happy with how it looks, the purple fruit is better in satin stitch rather than cross stitched and it has lightened that area.

The wording doesn't look straight on my picture but it is and will be more aligned once it has been mounted and put in the box I am using.

I am off to bed now, probably dreaming of stitches at this rate.  I will post the last picture on Monday evening of it all finished and boxed up and maybe a little hint of what I am working on next, it's not a cross stitch as I am going to have a change.

Hope those Monday blues don't get to you too much, have a great week.

My Stitching Treasures Progress...

Progress... I don't think so...

I did have alot of stitching done.

Then I decided it didn't look right, after checking, I had the beautiful blue peacock stitched one over one - in the wrong place.  I spent most of yesterday unpicking the very tiny stitches and trying to tidy up the linen, I can still see where I have unpicked them on the picture.

I also checked all the other boxes, my chimney is missing, I don't like the 'n' on the word need with the little flourish as it looks like an 'm' to me so I am changing that as well.  I cross stitched the fruit on the flowers and they should be in satin stitch, that's another unpicking session.  I think I found two other faults on my stitching as well.  I fell out with it alot yesterday and did seriously think about putting it away, but I am that close to finishing it I am going to carry on stitching today.

Hope you are all enjoying the weekend and will be back tomorrow with a better looking piece of work I hope.

Gluten Free Dark Chocolate Muffins

I have just tweaked this recipe again and found it works even better as follows:-

Ingredients:-

300 grams of Bob's Redmill 1to1 Baking flour - gluten free

1 heaped teaspoon of baking powder

175 grams of golden caster sugar

2 good tablespoons of good quality cocoa powder - I use Callebaut

250 grams of dark chocolate chips - again I use Callebaut

3 eggs

100 grams butter melted

220 ml milk

You can use dark/milk and white chocolate chips instead of just dark.  The taste will be sweeter than using just the dark chocolate.

Method:-

Preheat the oven to gas mark 6 and get your tin ready with 12 muffin cases.

Mix all the dry ingredients together except the chocolate chips.

Mix all the wet ingredients together.

Make a well in the centre of the flour mix and pour the milk/egg mix into the middle, gently incorporate all the flour into liquid and stir until there are no lumps of sugar or flour.

Put the chocolate chips into the mix and stir again.

Add a little extra milk if you think the mixture is too thick.

Spoon a good heap into each muffin case.  Use all the mixture.  They will look really full but don't worry they won't spill over.

Place in the middle of the oven and cook for 30 minutes.  Anymore and they will start to burn on the top.  

When you put them in the oven after about ten minutes you will look and think that they are not going to rise.  Just leave them for the full time - when you go back they will look like muffins.

Sprinkle with a little icing sugar before serving with your favourite hot drink.

It took me a while to get this recipe right for muffins as I wanted something that was like the real thing and this is it.  

My Stitching Treasures...

Friday's stitches...

Quite a lot of work got done on Friday.  I finished the house, put the tail on the bunny, the light leaves across the top and the golden pears in the bottom right hand corner along with the scissors that I love and the roses that look gorgeous.  I am going to change to a smaller needle now as the peacocks are stitched over one thread and I chose a 36 count linen to stitch on so the stitches are very small and it will be easier I think.  The gold needle that I started off with at the beginning has lost all of it's gold but I am going to put it in the needle case accessory and not in the bin.

I used the warm bulb on the daylight lamp for the photograph and I think it shows the colours alot better than the cool bulb.

Back later, off to make cake for hubby and his workmates now.

Enjoy the weekend all.

My Stitching Treasures continued...

Wednesday and Thursday evening stitches...

Still on course for finishing it at the weekend.  

The darning was a nightmare and if I was doing this project again I could do it first to get it out of the way.

It does look stunning though and I am pleased it is a project I started.

Gluten Free Blueberry scones

Ingredients:-

450 grams Bob's Red Mill 1to1 Baking flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 egg mixed with sufficient milk to make 250 ml

85 grams Caster Sugar

100 grams Blueberries

100 grams block butter cold and diced

demerera sugar

Method:-

Preheat the oven to gas mark 7.

Mix the flour, baking powder and sugar together.

Rub the diced butter into flour mix until it resembles a breadcrumb mix.

Add the blueberries and lightly stir.

Pour the milk and egg mix in gradually until the mixture starts to bind together.  Don't knead it like bread just lightly mix until it comes together.  It may take more milk to do this or you might find you don't use all of the milk.

Flour your work surface and the cutter.  Gently roll the mixture until it is the height of the cutter you are using or about one/one and a half inches high.  Cut rounds out using the cutter and any leftovers can be bound together and repeat the cutting out.  You should get 12 scones.

Place on a baking tray, brush with any leftover milk/egg mix or just milk and then sprinkle a little demerera sugar on the top.

Bake in the middle of the oven for about 12 to 18 minutes or until they are golden brown on top.  When you take them out of the oven you can check that they are cooked by looking on the underside and this should also be a golden brown colour.  Gluten free baked goods seem to take longer to cook so don't worry if they have been in 20 minutes or more.

For a non gluten free scone just replace the gluten free flour with a self raising flour of your choice.

Enjoy with loads of butter.

Gluten Free Blueberry & White Chocolate Muffins

A beautifully light, moist and really tasty gluten free muffin.

Ingredients:-

250 grams of Bob's Red Mill 1to1 Baking Flour

50 grams of butter - melted

1 egg

2 teaspoons baking powder

100 grams castor  sugar

150 grams white chocolate drops

150 grams blueberries - fresh or frozen

250ml milk

1/2 teaspoon of vanilla essence

Method:-

Preheat your oven to gas mark 4.  

Prepare a 12 quantity bun tin with muffin sized papers.

Mix all the dry ingredients together except for the chocolate drops and blueberries.

Mix all the liquid ingredients together.

Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry cake mix and stir well making sure you get all the flour incorporated and then add the white chocolate drops and the blueberries, mix again but not for too long.

Use a large ice cream scoop and place one scoop in each of the muffin cases.

Place in the middle of the oven.  Cook until they are browning on the top.  Mine took 32 minutes, normally muffins are quicker than this but when you use gluten free flour they seem to take longer.  Anywhere from 22 minutes onwards so just keep an eye on them.

If you want to bake these without gluten free flour just replace the flour with 250 grams of Be-Ro self raising flour or equivalent.

Enjoy with a cup of your favourite hot drink.

I cut one open so you can see how light they are.  They are the nearest I have got to a gluten containing muffin and as you can see from the picture I don't have 12 left - families in!!

More Stitching Treasures....

Day 8

Tuesday evening...

It is looking great.  I have a dislike... it's that pineapple in Algerian Stitch.  I am really not sure if I like it and it could before I finish be unpicked, I look at it and it looks like a rabbit not a pineapple, never mind.

It's been a long day today and I haven't got as much done as I wanted in the last 36 hours but nobody is timing me so it doesn't matter, not going to pressure myself.  I think I am just a little impatient to see it on the box.

My Stitching Treasures continued...

Day six and seven

Sunday and Monday

I worked out that my average stitching time per day is four hours so at this point the total number of hours is 28.  I don't think that is too bad for me.  Just the evenings and maybe grabbing an hour during the day when chores let me stitch.

I left the daylight lamp on to take this photograph and it certainly shows the colours off to their best.

Tip of the day would be when you are stitching and have a small length of thread see if there is another box you can use it in.  This is one of the most economical kits I have ever completed, I have hardly any waste considering the amount and variety of stitches.

Tomorrow is a hospital appointment so not sure what I will get done but I am getting ever hopeful that this piece will be finished this week.

Enjoy x

My Stitching Treasures continued...

Saturday and Sunday evening's stitching saw me complete five more boxes.

I love all the different stitches that are going into this project.  However, a little piece of advice if you do it, check the boxes as you stitch and maybe you won't put the strawberry in the wrong box to start off with like I did and then have to reverse stitch the whole strawberry and put it in the right box.

I will post some more updates of the progress and maybe show some pictures of other stitching that should be finished soon along with a stocking tutorial for your Shepherd's Bush Christmas Stocking.

Happy Stitching x

Jeannette Douglas My Stitching Treasures

Here at last is a picture of last weeks progress on the stitching treasures workbox top.

I am working the sampler on 36 count linen which does nothing for your eyesight.  I stitch with a large magnifying lamp/light which is I couldn't do without.

I do love the pattern on the sampler however I am struggling with some of the threads knotting and splitting which is driving me a bit bonkers.

The black thread that you can see running vertically and horizontally in the linen is my centring line.  This helped alot during the stitching of the initial framework because it meant that I didn't have to keep checking the lines and as the frame was stitched I could slowly pull the centring thread out so it didn't get caught in the stitches.  

The work above is after five days of stitching just in the evenings.

I will catch up with some more photographs in a couple of days.  I do hope to have it finished soon.