The Quilting Project

I love to learn new skills and I love fabric so for me quilting is a perfect project. My future mother in law, Anna, is my quilting hero and inspiration. Here are some of her quilts:

Anna's Sashiko Quilt 

A detail of the sashiko quilt

for a sashiko tutorial click here

At the quilt show in Malvern

Quilting is the is a sewing method done to join two or more layers of material together to make a thicker padded material. Anna make all of her quilts by hand from start to finish. I am going to cheat a little and us a machine to piece the patchwork top together and add the quilting stitches by hand. 

I am a huge believer in don't run before you can walk so I am going to make a simple quilt top from fabric strips that I cut myself from fabrics I wanted to use up. You can buy ready made packs of these strip called Jelly Rolls. Here are some suppliers; The Cotton Patch or Quilters Haven, both of these online store have a good selection of jelly rolls amongst other things.

Keep checking back to see my quilting progress and get the tutorial for your very own shabby chic quilt!

Here are my fabric strips cut and ready to go!

Firework Fun

Hebden Bridge loves to throw a good community event and the rotary club bonfire is no exception. My friends joined us from the city and we warmed ourselves on hotdogs with mustard and hot mulled wine!

Here is my Mulled Recipe for you to try;


Ingredients


2 bottles of red wine
1 glass of orange juice
2 measures of brandy
3 cinnamon sticks

5 tbsp brown sugar (more if you require)
a small piece of root ginger thinly sliced
1 orange, sliced
1/2 tsp cloves
2 star anise
1 whole nutmeg, grated


Method


Put all of the dry ingredients in a big pan. Then pour in just enough wine to cover and simmer until the sugar is dissolved. Keep this boiling you may need to add more liquid, use water until the mix is a nice syrup. 
Now add the rest of the wine, brandy and orange juice and simmer until the wine is warmed through.

I got to play with leaving the shutter open for pretty photos here are some of the results.