Puttering

I've been struggling with illness for a couple of weeks, and went right off sewing-the horror! I did a bit if this....

  

......then picked up on the old knitting habit.  

Don't worry, I have not gone off quilting: I discovered 

Pinterest 

and have spent  lots of immobility time looking for free motion quilting inspiration-follow me!)

I bought some yarn about 6 moths ago in a fit of enthusiasm to make tops for my daughter in law and myself,  then promptly  forgot it.  Perfect for an immobile occupation, I have almost done the vest top from this yarn in white, it was very quick to knit up. 

I was looking for my knitting needles to start,  I have around 50 pairs, mine, my mums, my aunties, I put them somewhere safe a month ago. VERY safe. 

After an hour and a half or 'tidying' to find them, no luck.  They will turn up eventually!

So, I have been knitting on circular needles.

 I found a ball of yarn that I chain crocheted about 5 years ago from (5 x 1 ply=DK) industrial yarn bin end cones in the 'tidy up':  it is too tight really and has made a rather unyielding yarn,  but in the effort to use it up I made a cowl, it came out rather well.  It only took me a day on giant  circular needles.   I'm making one as a Christmas gift with the rest of the ball.  

Now winter is here I can get out my Kaffe Fasset inspired woolies.  I would be lost without this coat. It's the second one I made in this colour way, I have had one for 20 years. It has become part of my identity. It's calf length, absolutely huge and snuggly (much bigger than ME and I'm 'generous'!)

I made a grey and blue one for my mum but she won't wear it as its too heavy, so it's my winter dressing gown now. Cozy.

I am gluten free and there are not often treats in the house for visitors as I have no willpower if left alone! I wanted some of those old fashioned recipes for biscuits where you store a roll of stiff dough in the fridge and cut rounds to bake-I found this 1970's gem in the charity shop, that also has lots of gluten free un-messed about with (i.e.  not modern and faffy!) recipes for sweet treats in.  

8000 recipes for £2!!  There will be warm fresh biscuits, cheezy and fruity, on the menu to go with tea and coffee for guests this Christmas.

There is also this surreal section-Tales from the Raj!!

Muffins for muffin tops.

Sometimes a girl has to do it for herself.  

I am a well known baker for others in return for favors done.  Most of the cake I make I give away, like this 7000 calorie chocchocchoc orange yummyness.  (The last one I made was a leaving present for someone at work, she DID choose to share it out and not take it home.  There was a possibility she would have been lynched in the car park if she hadn't!)

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I have had a hankering for a lemon and poppy seed muffin for a week, but as I'm gluten free, I can't just buy one!

So Sunday breakfast, I made a gluten free batch, just for me!  

Don't know what happened to those missing two, must have been the oven fairies.....

I need to freeze them as soon as they are cool to stop the cat eating the rest........

Back to a more destructive note, I bought three more shirts yesterday for the stash and de-seamed them at mums....

.........and a white cotton sheet for only £1, all soft from use, but not worn out: that will make a lovely back for a quilt for my son, who has sore skin and eczema-he loves soft sheets and well worn tee shirts for comfort.

Heaven

I made these yesterday. A big trimming session ahead.

I still have all these 'twosies' to sew up.

And all this on the machine!  I am so glad I didn't throw these crumbs away.

I have an idea for a design to use these.  Drawing it up later........

And finally.... I'm not much of a food blogger, but this really hit the spot for tea tonight.   Home made gluten free drop scones with three spoons of fat free yoghurt-blueberry, raspberry and Greek-and a sprinkling of vanilla sugar on the strawberries. Oh. My. Word. And best of all, there are two more for breakfast!

The end..........in a way......

Every single crumb in the bin is now sewn to another crumb.  I truly have a real leaders and enders project to dip into now.  I had to give it a good start kick start!

This is about 2/3 of the bin, I got up early and finished the other 1/3 this morning, as the mess was overwhelming me-my fault as I had thrown all the bits that really couldn't be used in the corner but there were beginning to creep all over the floor.

There is a huge bagful ready for the compost bin, cotton scraps are supposed to be good for the garden.

Now to clip them all apart. Those are LARGE scissors lost in  the pile.  I'll save that for a different rainy day.

I owed someone muffins for a favour done, I went a bit nuts and made

chocolate orange

banana choc chip walnut

lemon and poppy seed

plum, cardamom and almond

blueberry
vanilla and raspberry jam

He isn't getting them all, the favour wasn't that big! Lots for the freezer for unexpected visitors.  The chocolate ones have an orange After Eight stuffed into them immediately they come out of the oven.  Numnum.  Quite tired now.........  Rather sad I have only sample two, don't dare have more today!

Wet Sunday......

....sooooo unfair!  It was lovely all week, I had planned a walk by the sea today.  It will be sewing and reading this afternoon instead.

I went to the library yesterday to pick up this weeks read: Psychogeography by Will Self, a favourite author.  I want to go up to London to walk along the Thames-I may do this over a few days in the summer to the estuary: I am interested in this series of writings on the influence of environment on society. Must get walking and get fitter. Not in the same shape as a couple of years ago when I did my 13 mile charity walk. If the rain stops I'll go out later, otherwise I will have to resurrect the dreaded exercise bike!

I also picked up a book on Cathedral window quilts-the reason I have been snapping up sale bargains since Christmas of  black and white fabric.

I have, very sadly,had to take the decision to give up wheat products- I have known it was necessary for a while and have been dabbling with gram flour, potato flour, coconut flour, ground almonds and many Indian flours, making use of my electric muffin maker I was given for Xmas-it seems you can throw anything together and its great-very good cornbread muffins!  I tried making bread from the bag of  'wheat free' flour, it's not the best, but fills you up as it sits in your stomach for 6 or 7 hours!  It's cruel at work, the toaster goes on at 8am and doesn't seem to go off until 2.30pm, meanwhile the smell wafts round the office.  I may remove the fuse. 

Today's breakfast was Carrot and Walnut muffins made with coconut flour. And very nice too, I can get used to this!  Low carb, gluten free, low sugar.  Numnum. A nice little book for me to explore....on cooking with coconut flour

Lunch was tacos with home made corn and brown rice flour tortillas-need to work on the shape of the tortillas but the taste was good. 

And I thought they would be a disaster....

Well, the dough fell to bits as I was trying to wrap it round the truffle filling, oozed out all over.........but they look fine, the texture is a bit soft and cake like, yum!  I think they are better all leaky.  Only one at a time though. Syrup, sugar, butter, flour, peanut butter, cream, chocolate!  Special occasions only I think.  Next time I will try using crushed salted peanuts as a topping.   I can't wait to see what they are like after being kept a bit....    ~(;@? 

I made oaty ginger cookies as well, they look healthier, but they're not!

Focus

OK, so these are the hexie papers I 'should' have been sewing in: they are for the grandmothers flower garden project of which there is one more round to do, with the corners to square after that (profile photo).  I'm not going to join these hexies up into flowers as I have a lot done already.  I will keep them in papered sets and include them in the project if I need them-if I don't need them for the flower garden, they can be thrown in with the random hexie bunch.  This will be the 'few moments' sewing until Christmas, when I'm going to have a major blitz on the flower garden.  The sections must be laid out on the floor and don't get much time during the working weeks to sew, they stay there for ages and the cat can't resist the papery rustling as she dives into the carefully laid out flowers!

It is in the mid 20's here today, crazy for October-I'm afraid I am one of those heat whingers!  Autumn is my favourite season, windy days, blowing leaves, crunchy woodland walks-it will all come soon enough though.

There will be a sewing interlude this afternoon: I have found a recipe for salted peanut butter and chocolate cookies..........off to the supermarket to buy butter now. Very naughty. I'll post a picture if they last long enough.  Did I mention I'm on my own this weekend?!

I have 70 or so pages left to read of Resplendent that's calling me today too.  It's an amazing series.  I love science fiction, it suspends reality and takes me away from it all. 

And two bookcrossing science fiction rings to read and move on after that............