Quilting Excursions

Yes I know my blog has been neglected for far too long but so many things have happened and I've not been able to get an update done. I hope to do it this week and bring everything that's occurred over the past eight months up to date. In the meantime I thought I would share this post.

I went down to the Festival of Quilts at Birmingham NEC as I've decided to have a play with patchwork. I have say spendingwise I was quite restrained in comparison to what I could have spent. I neglected to go armed with camera so no actual pictures of what I saw while I was down there but I did come back with the below :)

Well first of all I bought this:

Yes I know it's not fabric thank you very much! However I've decided to make a loving friend of mine (who shall remain nameless on this open space) a toilet roll doll for Christmas. Its intended to be extremely ghastly on the eyes and I saw these in a basket for £1 a ball and thought putting the two together along with the Action Man doll would give it just that perfect touch!

Now on to the fabric:

These two Paddington Bear pieces I bought from Doughty's. I've seen them at other shows but because I've not been fabric buying haven't really paid any attention. This will go together with some other Paddington Bear fabric I discovered earlier in the year and will be making something nice.

Now these two I saw at Fiddlesticks Fabrics.





























They are e-bay only but the three go together really well (as far I'm concerned), with the cats and their antics on the left, the yarn balls in the middle and the muddy paw prints on the right.

These two pieces are going to be put together to make something for OH although I am not sure yet. I have joked with a friend of mine saying that they were going to be boxers but I don't think my sewing skills are in place for clothing just yet!


Picture on this hasn't come out too well but they're rulers :)


I'm not sure whether these are sewing pins or knitting pins but either works for me.

Spools of sewing cotton (obviously)

And then this all rounder. I'm going to be putting the above together and making some sort of bag. I got these from Van Rooyen Fabrics. They're based in the Netherlands but unfortunately are not doing mail order at the moment due to the amount of shows that they have on the go. I'm hoping that once these are over that they will start mail order again as there were other designs they had that I would want to be getting.




I went shopping to the Button Lady and got these. I haven't got any specific in mind but then do you really need to when getting buttons?

Then my final purchase of the show was this book:


Its obviously aimed at quilting which I can move on to eventually but I found the instruction section helpful for patchwork as well and also a few things which gave me creative brain food for thought.


Then some material that I bought a few weeks ago but haven't yet utilised as I had intended on doing but just to share it with everyone:

Christmas Cake Recipe

1lb Currants
6-8 eggs
8oz raisans
12oz plain flour
6oz mixed peel
Pinch of salt
4oz glace cherries
Grated rind of 1 lemon
4oz shelled almonds
Lemon juice
10oz margarine
A little milk
10oz caster sugar

Preparation:
Wash fruit thoroughly by putting it in a strainer or in a sieve and running water through. Spread it on muslin or a folded cloth placed on a tin and allow it to drey slowly and completely before use. A quicker alternative method is to rub the dry fruit on a wire sieve or in a cloth dredged with flour. This is very satisfactory for removing small stems and stalks. Remove any surplus sugar from peel, and shred or chop finely. Slice or chop cherries, using a light dusting of flour. Shell the nuts. Blanch almonds by pouring boiling water over them, in a few minutes the brown skin can be slipped off, and the nuts may be halved or chopped.

Making:
Clean fruit and chop the peel and cherries. Blanch and chop the almonds. Have all other ingredients ready. Warm the margarine slightly, if hard, but do not over-heat. Cream with sugar until soft and light. Break the eggs seperately into a basin, beat lightly and add one by one to the creamed mixture. Beat each egg in very thoroughly before adding the next. The mixture should be light and fluffy. Sieve dry ingredients into a bowl and add fruit and lemon rind. Fold gradually into creamed mixture. Continue to mix in the dry ingredients lightly, adding a squeeze of lemon juice and a little milk. Put the mixture, which should be a stiff dropping consistency, into a lined 9" cake tin. Bake in a moderate oven (350?F) for about 2 hours, then reduce the temperature to about 300?F and continue to cook for 4½-5 hours in all. When the cake is sufficiently brown, cover it with a double sheet of greaseproof paper. Leave for a few weeks. Cover with marzipan. Leave for 3-4 days. Decorate.