Monday 6 October 2014

Summer's end

The weather changed suddenly overnight and I woke to a blustery day and rain. A perfect day to get my sewing machine out if only for a short while. This afternoon we are back to summer but I am not sure it will last.

I settled down to finish the flower pot blocks which will be on the outside of the cutting mat bag that I am making in class. The flowers are saw-tooth stars with machine appliquéd stems and leaves. The green fabrics were scraps from my stash and I used a simple zigzag to outline the leaves.


The inside of the bag will be Kaffe Fassett Shirt stripes- I just love saturated colour!


We were asked to choose some highlight fabric to add a border to the group of 4 flower blocks but I decided that since I had so much bright colour I would use a dark colour to frame them. The following is an example of how not to take a photo- please excuse my shadow! The border will be squares of the gold background and squares of the dark green with black squiggles. It is  Pheasant Hill by Kanvas Troubles for Moda. The green matches the flower pots and the green in the Kaffe Fassett fabric perfectly.


I love autumn with a passion. Maybe it is because this is my birthday month or maybe it is the rich colours around in the garden. I picked a few dahlias for the table in the sitting room. We finished off the last of our ripe tomatoes on bruscetta for lunch and I labelled my green tomato chutney for the cupboard. There is something so satisfying about filling the cupboards with preserves for winter.


My friend Jane gave me 4kgs of green tomatoes last week. The recipe contains onions and sultanas with brown muscovado sugar. The house reeked of the spiced pickling vinegar for a few days but the results are worth it. Six huge jars to accompany cheese and meats. I'll leave it to mature for a few weeks before we sample it. I might give a couple of jars as presents at Christmas.

Lastly, I have made some progress with my Coastal ripple crochet blanket. It is becoming quite heavy to manoeuvre on my knee but is lovely and snuggly. 33 ripples done and only 51 to do.


I have been fairly busy this weekend visiting family and I am enjoying spending today pottering around the house and catching up.

Have a great week,

Catherine

I'm linking this week to

and 

Quilter in the Closet

6 comments:

  1. Those flowers look fabulous and the gorgeouse lining it will look so good together. The preserves look delucious and the blanket is coming on a treat well done!

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  2. The ripple blanket is gorgeous - love the colours you've used, and your bag is going to be bright and beautiful! Like the sound of the chutney too - if I can get my act together I want to have a go at my Mum's apple chutney recipe, we're coming down with apples!

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  3. love your flower pot blocks - all that Kaffe Fassett pink is too gorgeous :-)

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  4. So many lovely things! Your bag is going to be brilliant.

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  5. Thanks for leaving a message on my blog and it's good to know another knitter who is taking part in the crochet blanket CAL. My yarn has still not arrived so I'm practicing the first part of the pattern with some yarn I have in my stash - if I make enough squares before my yarn gets here I might make a pillow from it.

    I really like your quilt, what beautiful work! I enjoy quilting and occasionally make blankets, but they are not nearly as neat as yours!! And that ripple blanket is lovely. :)

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  6. What wonderful projects! I love the flower pots, love the coastal colors of the blanket, and would love to have some of those preserves in my pantry! Thanks for linking up too.

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