Blue Skies

Finally some real summer weather, blue skies and hot sunshine, in fact it was straight out onto the veranda for tea and muffins this morning. I think we may have set a record as within 10 mins of arriving everybody was sewing ...not sure what happened, we must have all been on a roll since our Sunday retreat where we all got lots done.

Muffins were Oatmeal Chocolate Chip from Muffins- fast and fantastic by Susan Reimer, a book I got from Lakeland many years ago. It was the first time that I had made these but will definitely make them again as they were delicious. 

We had the Tuesday puppy with us today, before starting on her projects, Chris took her out for a walk where she came home with a souvenir to play with.


The next door's cat wished Tuesday puppy had stuck to playing with the fir cone rather than exploring the long grass where she had been enjoying a snooze in the sunshine! Apparently the cat jumped out of the grass at Berry, scaring the life out of her then made a very hasty exit through the hedge. Much patrolling of the hedge and grass followed to ensure that the 'intruder' didn't slip back in.

 Janet completed sewing a binding on her Christmas parcels quilt, details of fabrics and pattern were in last post. It looks great - it seems far too early to be thinking about Christmas but when you are quilting things you have to start early. Some of us of course have to start a few years early to ensure that quilt gets finished by Christmas!

Amanda was sewing ends into a Tiny Turning Twenty quilt that she had done at a class with Janet a couple of years ago. It is done in Portabello Market fabrics by Moda and looked gorgeous. Sorry Amanda, I didn't get a picture of the whole quilt, maybe you could add one?

I was crocheting blanket squares together, it seemed to the best way to join sometimes differing sizes of knitted squares. The square have been knitted by lots of different people at a knitting group that I belong to.  I will add a crochet edge to it to make it a little firmer. This is destined to go to charity in the near future. Hopefully it will keep somebody warm this winter.

We enjoyed a summer lunch of salmon and asparagus quiche with assorted salads then dessert today was lemon mousse with homegrown loganberries and ginger biscuits. I did add another lemon to the mousse recipe to make it really lemony.


The ginger biscuits are a very simple recipe from my Auntie Edna .


Auntie Edna's Ginger Biscuits        sorry it's in imperial measurements it's an old recipe!


Sieve together:    


6 ozs SR flour
3ozs castor sugar
1 teaspoon Bicarbonate of soda
1 large teaspoon of ground ginger


Melt:
4ozs of margarine or butter
1 dessertspoon of golden syrup


Combine together,  roll mixture into balls size of walnuts then lightly flatten with a fork on a baking tray.
Bake for 10-15 mins at 180 degrees

After lunch we headed indoors for a bit as it was getting very hot on the veranda. Amanda got busy finishing the blog entry from Sunday while Chris was cutting out squares to create a border for her Christmas tree quilt that she had put together on Sunday.

Caroline had been hand quilting round the stars on a quilt for her father and decided to try quilting it using my Hinterberg floor standing frame , she found it to be very comfortable and is thinking about putting it on her wish list.  I must say she looked like a natural sitting at it and I know it would be a lot cooler that having a quilt draped over your legs.

Janet was by now sewing the ends in on another quilt, she definitely wins the prize for most achieved today!- this time it was her  2nd Tiny Turning twenty quilt done in MacowerLondon fabrics, one for each of her children. It looked so good that Chris and I have decided that we need the fabric too. It is a fabulous souvenir of the 60th Jubilee year and the hosting of the London Olympics 2012. (We have both now ordered it and hope we are lucky as the website seems to indicate that the packs have now all sold out- hopefully after our orders!) 

Janet also brought along some granny square blocks that she has been making and wanted some opinions as to whether to sash or not. After a long discussion we decided that we liked the sashed option but the non sashed version looked just as good. 


After another cup of tea and more chat, everybody decided that it time to wend their way home to Surrey. It had been such a lovely relaxing day with everybody together, hopefully won't be long till the next one.

Later in the afternoon, the cat returned to her normal spot to survey her kingdom - she seems to think she lives here!


Hoping that everybody gets a bit of sunny weather to enjoy.
Till next time.