Wild Blackberries as a gravy base

A couple of weekends ago we spent time at our friends second home on some land in the middle of nowhere. All the blackberries were ripe and so the boys and Aaron came home from a walk and swim very proudly bearing a bag of blackberries.

 Well yesterday there were still some remnants in the fridge. I made a pork roast with free range pork from my sisters farmlet. In the bottom of the dish I put a finely chopped onion, a finely chopped apple and the remainder of the blackberries. When I took the pork out to rest I put all the juices, onion, apple and berries through a sieve, pressed quite hard. Then into that liquid I mixed 1 Tablespoon of cornflour. It was deep red and delicious.

Having fun at the river just before picking blackberries.

I forgot to take an after photo but it was AMAZING. Quite subtle but fruity and it got he thumbs up from us all.

Ruby red rich roast quince

Straight out from the oven. Delicious with whipped cream. One of the upsides of the foul weather is it blew all the quinces from the tree so I don't have to try to pick them off the high branches.

If you roast them the skins just peel off and the core pops out. Oh so easy.

A dedicated follower of fashion

Well not really. But last winter and through our summer all the crafty bloggers seem to be making cowls instead of scarves. A good idea I thought. Last night I finished it and just in time for this foul weather today. I wore it to my stitching group this morning and it looks like the trend may be passing on!!!

This is made from the recycled angora (goat) wool that I posted about unpicking etc here. I only started this when we were camping at Molesworth Station three weeks ago. I looked in my knitting stitching book and found a stitch they called twisted fisherman's. It is soooooo easy. It is just knit stitch but every second row you knit into the current stitch and the one below. So fantastic for watching TV and knitting.

Me wearing it as a hood and scarf at stitching this morning.

Aaron and Eli love this too so I have started knitting Aaron a scarf using the same stitch and the same wool. What an awesome upcycling project. One jersey and this is the fourth knitted item from it and I still have more wool.

A close up of the twisted fisherman's knit

I link to these places.

and

Learning to iron

Now for some of you learning to iron may not be that thrilling! But I am super thrilled as my 8 year old has started to learn how to do the household ironing and has been asking to do more.

Here he is with all his beautifully ironed and folded washing

He was bored last weekend and offered to do a job (so he must have been seriously bored!!). I was changing the beds and had no pillowcases in the cupboard so I set him up with a pile of 20 pillowcases. Showed him one, assisted with one and then watched one. 20 minutes later he said it was a bit tedious ironing without music or something and as I usually watch TV while ironing we turned that on.

The bonus is that now when he is wanting to get some extra screen time he offers to do the ironing and has been disappointed that there is none... yay....yipee.....soon I will move him onto doing shirts!!!

A lot of unpicking but it is done

Well a while back I shared that I was using some Asian Taupe materials to do some hand patching using a stretched hexagon block. I finished the patchwork a long time ago but it took until last night at the girls get together to get on with turning it into my new wallet.

The inside. Hidden zip, lots of pockets for cards etc.

I am really happy with the result. Though my mind took a bit of getting around how I was going to make it and I had to unpick about 5 times, which is not like me at all. But as you can tell from the lack of blogging I have had a pretty full week and I think it caught up on me. I have meant to make this for about two years as my old wallet (also made from asian taupe fabrics) was totally worn.

I link to these places and to Crazy Mum Quilts

Oh the deliciousness...

Drop one in your mouth and the explosion of flavour makes you immediately want another.

I decided to use my big pick of tomatoes in an experiment. I made semi dried tomatoes and they are to die for. Before I could put them in the container Aaron and I had munched our way through a tray full. But that's OK as it is healthy.

How to: Cut piles of tomatoes in half and put them in a tray cut side up (where the juice cannot flow over). grind on black pepper, be really generous with fresh thyme from the garden, grind on salt to taste and sprinkle 1 teaspoon sugar per tray.

Put in a normal (preferably not fan) oven at 180 deg C for an hour and half. Turn down to 120 deg C and leave in the oven 3 hours. Turn the oven off and allow to cool inside. Pop into a container and keep in the fridge. These will only keep for about two weeks.

Eat at room temperature. Ooooh yum. Put into a salad roll, eat by themselves with a pre dinner drink. They are so moorish that it is hard to stop eating them.

I made this recipe after looking at HEAPS of different recipes. I did not peel the skin off the tomatoes as that is too much work and low ovens for 8 hours or overnight just drive me mad.

I link to these places

A rather extravagant animal

Yesterday I finished this dyed wool and velvet pig. I love him. Eli wants him and I have said "I don't think so". He is sitting in pride of place on the top of the fire at the moment. He is made of dyed wool, velvet, sequins, beads and lots of stitching.

another angle of piggy extraordinaire

sequins and stitching

This pattern is designed by Jane van Kuelen - who runs Stash Palace. She comes to Kaiapoi twice a month and anyone who is available can go and peruse her wares and sit and stitch and chat. Loving it.

A Treasure Trove

Oh how lucky am I!! On Sunday I felt that I had Aladdin's cave before me. Val who is a crafty friend of mine has moved and downsized considerably. How do you fit three bedroom and four car garaging worth of stuff into a two bed one garage place? You give it to ME!!

 I enjoyed opening the bags to see what was inside. I got a lot of huge pieces of flannel that are now all washed and ready to use as backing for my charity quilts. Enough blocks I think to put together to make another quilt. A huge assortment of material for scrap quilting and more. Beatrix Potter by the metre........ oh the list goes on. Even my boys started oohing and aahing when the dupion silks came out. Waistcoats are requested.

Thank you so much Val. Loved seeing your new place. Eli came home to tell Dad that your garden was just the right size and so lovely to sit in.

Finished - the Orphan Block Quilt

I have just had a three hour stint at the machine to finish this. The boys are having their party and they certainly do not need Mum when they are XBoxing. So I got onto the sewing machine. I had thought the quilt was too small so I added another row. Now it is large!!. But it has used up ALL my orphan blocks. 10 years worth. There is not one block left in my bag and as you can see on the top right corner I had to put a piece of material in to finish the row. Yay.

This is the what it looked like last time I did a show and tell.

I even used a leftover binding that I had unpicked a couple of years ago. I used black and white materials to try and give it a cohesive look with such disparate blocks. And it was gifted to me so therefore free. This will now go into the pile of "need to be quilted".

Thrilled to be linking this to these places, and Crazy Mum Quilts.

Junk Food and XBox

Yes turning 11 has made parties easy. All he wants is junk food all day and to play XBox, computer games and watch movies. Well that is easy to cater to!! Food all ready and waiting for the friend to arrive.

I must be organised today as it is Saturday and I am not normally out of bed by now. But I have hung out washing, completed the party prep, picked tomatoes and put them in the oven to "dry" them. Better stop soon as I don't want to be an over achiever!!!

An Origami Bukuro - Fabric bag

Yesterday I went to the quilt and craft fair in Christchurch. And at a Make area this is what I made.
It is a fabulously simple pattern and quick to make - 45 minutes at the most if you are used to sewing.

It was free making and pattern if you had your own material. As I had purchased material at the Fair I thought that was the way to go. The area had Brother sewing machines for you use and it was really a promo for them. The pattern was given away by Brother. I have to say I loved two things about the machines 1.the way the speed was regulated 2. the automatic threader. Now I have a Bernina and never thought I would change, but I did enjoy sewing on the Brother machines.

For those of you who have not yet gone it is still on tomorrow from 10-4.30. I really enjoyed it. I took quite a different approach this year as the last few quilt shows or fairs I have been too I have been a tad disappointed. This time I focused on any free tutorial or class and anything new that I had not seen before. I had the best time ever!!

The other hands on class that I did was with a pattern making system and I really enjoyed doing that. I came away with a vest pattern that fits me. Now vests are not particularly In at the moment but some can be very funky. So two hours of my 5 hours there was in hands on classes. There was so much more I could have done. I am pleased with my new approach.

I link to these places and especially Finish it up Friday over at Crazy Mum Quilts.