Mani Di Donna Purse pattern catch up ...

Sunday evening saw me doing a little more work on the purse pattern from Simona Bussiglieri at Mani Di Donna.

The front is completed and I am now just starting work on the back.  I was going to cut it after finishing the back but I have decided to stitch it all and then at the end.

Hope you get chance to relax a bit through the week. :)

Guess How Much I Love You baby quilt

The final day of the stitching retreat I completed my great-niece's baby quilt.  I am really pleased with how my pattern turned out.  It is pretty much fussy cut so that you can see all the hares along with the wording too.

I have a couple more pieces to go with this quilt and will share them with you when I have finished them.

I did the maintenanace on my sewing machine at the end of the week so that it is ready and gleaming for my next sewing session.

Enjoy what is left of the weekend. :)

Gluten Free Cheese Scones

Gluten Free Cheese Scones

Makes about 10 scones

1 lb Juvela White Flour Mix

1/2 teaspoon Cayenne Pepper

1/2 teaspoon Mustard Powder

2 teaspoons GF Baking Powder

2ozs Stork Margarine or Block butter

6 ozs Good Quality strong Cheddar Cheese grated

2 eggs with enough milk to make 300ml (leaving a little in the bottom of the jug to brush the top of the scones).

2ozs grated Cheddar Cheese for topping

Method

Set the oven to gas mark 7 with a middle shelf.

Mix all the dry ingredients including the cheese.

Mix in the margarine/butter until it is mixed through but not fine breadcrumbs.

Add the liquid but not all of it, then turn out onto a well floured worktop and knead for a couple of minutes, adding flour if you find it sticky.

Press out until it is the height of your cutter - about 1 1/4 inch high.  Place onto a baking tray and brush the egg/milk mixture.  Place more grated cheese on the tops.

Bake for about 15 minutes until they are golden brown and leave the tray along with a little brown on the underneath.

If you find they are not brown underneath but are ready on the top, place a piece a tin foil on top while they carry on cooking.

Once cooled enjoy with lashings of butter or a bowl of soup.

These scones freeze well.

Moda Country Orchard jelly roll race quilt...

Retreat Day 4

Having finished the binding on the quilters bag, I noticed quite alot of the jelly roll was left and the retreat ladies were discussing jelly roll race quilts and what they were. 

Basically stitching all the lengths of a jelly roll end to end, sometimes people add a square of fabric in to make a larger quilt.  The you cut 18 inches off one of the ends and start to sew the sides of the lengths of fabric, pairing together each end and stitch down, once to get to the end trim up to the seam and then pair them again side by side.  The lengths get shorter and the quilt gets bigger.

I have done one before a couple of years ago when someone ran a race day and because the fastest stitcher couldn't make the day - I won with a time of 2 hours and ten minutes.

I completed the Country Orchard one in 1 hour 20 minutes, it is now waiting for the border, backing, quilting and binding.

Quilter's Ruler & Mat Bag

Patchwork Retreat Day 3

When all the ladies arrived for the retreat on the Monday, most of them arrived with a wonderful quilter's accessory bag.  A large bag which holds a large cutting mat and a variety of different sized rulers along with a smaller pocket for your cutting tools.  They are really handy but I couldn't find a pattern anywhere.   One of the ladies let me do a lot of measuring up along with photographs.

The original pattern I believe belongs to a lady called Barbara Slee - I hear quite a lot of this lady and she sounds very talented and has done some amazing work, thank you Barbara and I hope I have done your design justice.  (I was awarded 7 out of 10 by the lady whose bag I borrowed, quilters are hard critics lol).

I bought a jelly roll - 22.00

1 metre of the brown stripe - 7.00

1 metre of the cream floral background 7.00

4 metres of the cream/pink floral bird background 28.00

1 pack of cover buttons 29mm

1 pack of cover buttons 22mm

1/2 metre of firm bag interfacing for pockets 5.00

Aurifil thread 8.35

Four rectangles larger than your cutting mat size by one inch all the way round.  Wadding is sandwiched between the layers and I quilted them one inch squares on one side and 1.5 inch on the other side.  The top of each side has binding on it.

The large pocket is 14 inches square and sandwiched with the firm bag stabiliser to give a neat finish to the quilting and to give support to the bag.  The smaller pocket is big enough to hold smaller square rulers, papers, patterns or your cutter and spare blades.

The back pocket is 24.5 x 6.5 inches and quilted and is also sandwiched with the firm bag stabiliser.

All of the pockets have machine binding and a tab with buttonhole to fasten the button at the top of the pockets.

The handles are 30 inches long and stitched with four rows of straight stitch.  I decided not to interface them as the stitching gave them support.  Each handle is stitched to the top of the bag by folding them back on each other and then a covered button is added to each handle at the top of the bag.  The whole bag is then machine bound at the sides and the bottom.

Thanks for reading, come back tomorrow to see Thursday's work :)

Patchwork Retreat Day 2

This is where we stayed for the week...

Irton Hall near Holmrook

The Ormondroyd Cottage sleeps 4

The balcony was great for lots of birdwatching and a wonderful evening breeze after the warm days

Fully equipped kitchen with dining area.

Seating area with french doors opening to the balcony.

This space is bigger than it looks as there is a couple more chairs behind the sofa from the camera angle.

Twin room

My room for the week, it was so quiet here it was amazing and you really did get the chance to de-stress.

Tuesday stitching was six little Christmas coasters that are just waiting for the binding to be handstitched, once the new glasses have arrived.

These little 4.5 inch squares were the leftovers from doing the light up Christmas trees last year.

The binding is from my collection of leftover pieces of binding from the many Christmas projects I have completed and made too much.

Day three tomorrow and maybe a new glasses reveal - was hoping for today but unfortunately they weren't ready for pick up.

Take care and thanks for reading xx

Patchwork Retreat June 2018

After a couple of weeks of re-evaluating, having a break from the stresses and strains of daily life, I found my mojo after a fabulous week with good friends at a patchwork retreat in the lakes.  I am going to share a daily catch up of all my work over the week.  Grab a coffee, like me and enjoy :)

My lovely GF Lemon Drizzle along with my usual skinny latte and today I received the great news that I won my appeal for getting my prescription flour.  I really wasn't expecting to win but I am so pleased that I made the choice to write to our CCCG, it took a bit of my time up but has been so worth it.  Hears to working on some new recipes for gluten free.

The Monday saw me working on my Gail Pan Berries and Bluebirds pattern, the applique is complete for all of the quilt with the exception of the small border pieces on some of the blocks.  The above is block number one all finished.

Monday afternoon and I got to work on block number two, the border on along with the applique pieces tacked down but not stitched.  I discovered that my glasses really aren't strong enough for me and I needed to make an appointment to get them sorted.  I have seen my optician this week and found out that in seven months my eyesight really has deteriorated and was probably causing alot of my headaches and generally feeling crap.  New glasses are now on their way - some fabulous ones which I will share with you when they arrive.

I made some beautiful cupcakes for one of the ladies 60th birthday which we enjoyed on the Monday - no photos - sorry.  We did have a gift exchange - from Christmas - as I hadn't seen some of the ladies since last year.  It was lovely to catch up with them.  I was initially a little anxious about going to the retreat - just because of everything that is happening on the homefront - but everyone made me feel so comfortable that by Wednesday I was feeling alot better, I just have to learn that I can't control everything that happens and I can't change lots of things - it's a steep learning curve!!

Come back again to see my next retreat day, thanks for joining me and take care :)