Garden Goodies

 We may have had more than our fair share of wet weather but it seems to have done the veggies a world of good.  I have had abundant broad beans.  I have never grown them before but I shall be growing them again.  They are so easy to look after.

 I have very few carrots this year and they were rather hard to start.  I don't thing that the area I placed them in helps as it is rather rocky.  Unfortunately I don't have any areas deep enough to grow them.  We will see when these few are ready

 My mange tout seem to be doing rather well.  I have quite a few fruits growing and will be harvesting them soon.  I also have 2 other mange tout plants growing in the green house and will plant those out when these have finished.

 My very first attempt at patty pan squashes.  I never realised how big the leaves and feelers would be.  They have grown out of the raised bed and have attached themselves to the lawn.  I don't want to remove the feelers because there are fruits on them.

 This looks good.  I also have beetroot and broccoli in the same raised bed

 I am really surprised with these potatoes as they were grown from potato peelings.  They were from the compost bin, put in the growing container in February, to make the compost rich before planting anything.  They grew so I left them in situ and pulled these out today.  I have a bag which has potato peelings growing, as an experiment.  It looks like they might work

I picked these strawberries this afternoon and one of them was super sized.  We had them for dessert with ice cream and they were lovely

The Finished Article

At last...it is finished.

This is my grand daughters new quilt.  She asked for a blue cover so I used shades of blue and added two shades of pink to break it up as well as bits of yellow.

I used the disappearing 9 square block to make the quilt up.  I used 9 different squares, each measuring 6" and sewed them together, three on the top, middle and bottom.  Once sewn together, I cut across the four center squares, leaving me with four small square and oblongs.  I then rearranged the squares so that two of the 4 small squares were in the center.  Once all the squares were sewn together again, I then matched up the squares, 5 rows of 3, to ensure that they matched.  

This is the finished article after sewing on hundreds of sequins and beads to quilt rather than sewing around the quilt.  I will take the quilt to her tomorrow and I know she will love it.

Nearly There

Well the quilt is almost finished although I have had to take a diversion on the journey.  The quilt is made from blocks of nine squares which have been rearranged and then re-sewn and then sewn together to make the basis of the front of the quilt.

I have now added the boarders, the backing and the wadding and this is where the diversion takes place.   I tried quilting the piece but it is difficult rolling up the fabric to sew around squares so I have had a brainwave.  As the quilt is for a 12 year old girl I have decided to finish it off with sequins and beads.  At each square corner I shall sew on a sequin which will have a bead in the centre.  When I have completed every square it will be "quilted" saving me all that hard work and then I can continue by overturning the boarders to finish it off.  Meg will have her quilt in no time.

My grandson, Jack, is a Manchester United fan and would like a red, black and white quilt to match his room.  For his quilting I shall be using football buttons on the corners.  Watch this space..photos to follow.....

New Day New Name.....

Welcome to my new style blog.  I have changed the name, simply because I am doing far more than living a GF lifestyle.  I am quilting, jam and marmalade making, growing my own veggies and I am a country person living (unfortunately) in an urban jungle by the name of St Helens.

After years of longing to live in the country (which won't happen unless I win the lottery) I have decided to bring the country to my little corner of surberbia.

I have a greenhouse, last years Christmas present from the wonderful man in my life, grow beds which cost me a fiver each and enough patio space to grow fruit and veggies in containers.  I use any kind of containers, usually recycled from the recycling centre.  Anything will do.   I compost and recycle items such as paper, tins, glass, plastic and fabric as well as intending to up-cycle some of my soft furnishings.

I hope you enjoy the journey with me.  You are welcome to comment as long as they are constructive and not nasty or undermining.  Welcome aboard .........................

Quilting Mania

I have started a new quilt for No1 grand daughter in shades of blue.  I am staying with Dreamer again and I went to a sewing class with Linda Woodfield, who has her own shop in Newton Stewart and she offers all kinds of craft workshops.  Linda introduced me to new patterns one of which is made up from 9 6" squares.  You sew nine squares together then cut them across the centre, up and down.  Now the squares are rearranged back into a large square, with 2 smaller squares in the centre.  See the picture below

You end up with organised chaos, with always the same two colours in the centre.  As I used 3 different colours of spotty material I was a little confused at the beginning and it took me a while to "get it".

When I use this pattern again I shall be using a single, plain colour for the centres as it will be easier to identify.

I have found it really interesting using a different type of quilting pattern and it gives me scope to do far more.  Watch this space folks.................

Oranges and Lemons...

 I have been having a lovely time with Dreamer for the past few days.  On Thursday we went to a Coffee Morning at Linda Woodfield's shop and on Friday we attended a workshop there.  Dreamer learned to knit, doing amazing dishcloths, while I started my grand daughters quilt.  Pictures to follow.  She wants blues which is her favourite colour.

Today we mooched around the charity shops, where we managed to buy some lovely bargains, including 2 pairs of knitting needles for Dreamer.  I think she has the bug.

We nipped into the supermarket for a few items before heading home to start making marmalade.

This is lemon marmalade, made from ready prepared lemon pulp from Hartley's.  We added water and sugar and brought it to a rolling boil, turning down the heat and letting it gently simmer for 20 minutes.  The jars were steralised in the dishwasher (lucky Dreamer) and when the marmalade "set", we loaded the jars and left them to go pop.  I can't wait to taste them.

We also decided to do orange marmalade and added grapefruit segments to bulk it out.  Here is the mixture sat in the pan waiting for it to boil.  Again it consists of Hartley's saville orange pulp, water and sugar.  The smells are heavenly

Here are the finished articles, the lemon marmalade in red check covers and the orange and grapefruit in the white spotty covers.  I am so looking forward to sampling them and I may just give one away as a present......but then again..............

Fad Diets......

I came across this from another GF blog and it worries me

It tells about how people are using different diets to suit their moods, such as GF, Low Carb, Lactose Free, Atkins etc, etc.  It is having quite a knock on effect for people who need to use diets, especially the GF, lactose free, dairy free, as a lot of restaurants and chefs are preparing special diets only to have people, supposedly GF, digging into the bread basket.  This is giving rise to places refusing to provide special meals and people are having to prove that they can't eat certain foods.  Disgraceful.  The article shows just how stupid some people can be.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/01/fashion/rsvp-ps-no-gluten-fat-or-soy-please.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all


Why are healthy people using a GF diet, to loose weight and then diving head first into the bread basket.  GF diets are there to enable people with Coeliac or Gluten Sensitivity/Intolerance to live a normal life.  Gluten, particularly for Coeliacs, can cause damage to their gut which can, in extreme cases, lead to cancer.  The affects for a person who cannot eat gluten can be debilitating, making it impossible, sometimes to eat out as they often need to be very near to a loo.  Believe me no fun.  I am not coeliac but I am gluten intolerant and I would not wish this on my worse enemies.

So come on you restaurants, food outlets, please understand that not everyone are using this diet to loose weight or for any other reason, other than to enable to get a good balanced diet.