Thursday 31 July 2014

Quilting Bee this Saturday


We would love you to see you there anytime between 10.30am to 3.30pm to be part of a quilting bee for this very special charity.

Tuesday 29 July 2014

Let meatloaf night begin!

My camera went missing over the weekend - I took some pictures of the blueberry melting moments I made last Thursday and put my camera down. Actually I put it down on top of one of my storage baskets and put that away. It just came to light yesterday. So now I have some photos to show!
It was so hot I had to store them in the fridge because the icing kept melting. I'm having a bit of a thing about sideways pictures at the moment.
Golden crispy palmiers
Crochet flowers which I am making into a garland. These are some more:
I am addicted.

Talking about addictions:
Playing peepo with Mama - Daddy's strong arms make the impossible possible! He's into 'appearing' from behind things at the moment, apart from when he's watching Thomas the Tank Engine.
All curled up in my nest - he fits better than I do!

This week is sandwiched between two busy weekends. Last Saturday I spent the day in Buckingham - more to follow later and this weekend Hilary is hosting a Quilts for Comfort Day at High Street Quilting. I'll post more details tomorrow night - this is going to be a super day - all are welcome to share in making a quilt for a fabulous cause.

So for now I am going to put some peas on to cook to go with the turkey meatloaf which has just come out of the oven and is tempting me beyond measure - tender juicy turkey mince flavoured with chilli, sweet luscious tomato and lots of black pepper all wrapped up in crispy serrano ham. 

Let Meatloaf Night begin!



Monday 21 July 2014

All downhill

Is that Good or Bad?  School broke up on Friday although we have 80 Year 6 pupils in for our Summer School Drama Class for the next two weeks. Our kitchen staff do not work during the holidays although two are coming in to help with the lunches thank goodness.  My assistant has been off for a month - the busiest month in the year and I've been pulling extra long shifts to cover some of her work. I have worked the traditional week before the end of Wednesdays since she's been off.  

I bought these at our school fair (reports on our stall later) I ate the lemon cake, Will had the Oreo cake and we shared the chocolate orange cake. Mmmmm. 

Our end of year drama productions (Bugsy Malone) took place last Thursday and Friday as well as a Glastonbury style music festival on Friday. I crawled into bed at 1am on Saturday morning after working 41 of the 48 previous hours.  (I'm too old for this!) I didn't get up until just after 8am which is very unusual for me.  I slept quite a lot this weekend!  The next few weeks will be much quieter of course without the rest of the school (and staff!) so I will be able to get on with some work with constant interruptions.

So there is not much to report of the craft front except this! My multi-coloured granny blanket is done - I put the finishing touches to it on Saturday whilst watching the F1 Qualifying.  I have to thank Margaret and Julie for re-introducing me to crochet.  I had done some a long time ago but couldn't remember how to do it.  Julie showed me how and this is the result!


I decided on the layout and then made ten little piles of ten squares.












I used a neutral grey thread and slipstitched the squares together.












I put the colours in order for the border - finishing with a bright red scallop edge









I pinned and blocked the whole thing but despite my careful efforts the centre medallion is tighter than the border which is quite wavy - lesson learnt for next time. I think I will join as I go. 


So this the the finished blanket - it measures about 40" and because it is pure cotton it is quite heavy. I love it even though it is just an ordinary granny blanket.  The bright colours just make me smile.

I'll be finishing at 4pm every day for the next fortnight - hooray! and then I'll be on holiday for a fortnight with the odd day here and there for the next week when I shall be making some spiders homeless, painting fences and perhaps squeezing in a little craft time.  I might even blog more than once a week (or in this case once a month).  Well I better go to the shops to get the bread buns and other bits for the lunches. Eek - just looked at the clock. Late again.