Blooming Winter

It's been, so far, a mild winter this year; no need to shuffle about cursing the cold so in this instance the title's 'blooming ' refers to flowers.
Although it is the ideal time to admire the architecture of the leafless branches, it can be quite rewarding to perversely seek out flowers. They take some seeking this time of the year as the petals are tiny and more subtly coloured than those of the other seasons.  Even though the wind and the frost make their marks,  there is always something a little unexpected; flowering early or still hanging on from the previous seasons.

 Viburnum as planted by Mother Nature, and I am delighted she selected one with pink and white flowers.

 This is the time of year when I most appreciate the ground cover of the bergenia. Most of the time I feel it warrants the name Elephants Ears as the leaves tend to sprawl carelessly over the space I try to confine it to. But now these pink petals add colour, even if they are somewhat nibbled at the edges.

Clematis Cirrhosa 'Wisley Cream' planted for its winter flowers rambling up the trellis on the front of the house.

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At its feet a clump of leucojum or Snowflakes, appearing very early.

And hanging on way too late, when there simply won't be enough light and warmth, even on the sunniest of days, to open these weather beaten buds, is Souvenir de la Malmaison, determined to display the last roses of the season.

But of course this time of the year is really snowdrop time, and sure enough, here they come pushing their way up through the leaf mould and the last vestiges of the grass.

A Cushion Throw - tutorial Part 2

This part of the tutorial follows on from part 1's revelation on how to fold up the throw to fit into the cushion - should you have decided to make one. This part 2 goes through my process of making one. Apologies to all of you whose logic says the making bit should come first because you can hardly fold it up if you haven't got a throw/cushion transformer in the first place. I just needed to be sure it would work before I put in the effort to make one; it also helped to make sense of and get the construction right.

I used:

1. A bought microfibre throw - 176cm x 146 cm (regardless of what the label said)
2. A piece of unbleached calico - 50cm x 52cm  - for the cushion back cover.
3. Crocheted squares joined to make large square - 50cm x 50cm for the cushion front.
4. Cream jersey fabric 51cm x 51cm - to line the cushion front.

You may decide that actually you don't need a cushion back or lining for the front and you could just use a piece of coordinating furnishing fabric for the cushion front cover - it would make the whole process a little simpler.

Steps I took:
1. Fold down one of the longer sides of the cushion back by 2cms and press it so that you have a 50x50 square. Place this right side up centrally on one the shorter sides of the throw with the folded edge furthest from the top edge of the throw. ( Much as I was unimpressed with the fancy edge on the throw I bought I couldn't quite bring myself to trim off the eyelets and  scallops - I figured some would end up in the seam allowance any way.)

2. Stitch along the folded hem of the right side of the cushion back. You could use the sewing machine for this. Or do as I did and find a seat by a sunny window and stitch it by hand.

3. Now layer up all four of the elements as shown remembering to note any right and wrong sides. If you are just putting a front as I did when I made my mock up in Part 1, just lay that right-side down  (wrong side up)on the centre of one of the short sides of the throw. Please note that the cushion back and front will be aligned edge to edge and the lining will overhang a little all round; I just staggered them out like this for illustration of the order and orientation.

 4. I placed the crochet front on top of the calico back, wrong side up as shown above.  I thoroughly recommend that you tack the layers at this stage -1. throw-2. calico back-3. cushion front,  firmly into place - (yes, I know more hand sewing, but I had several layers one of which was quite thick and it just seemed a good way of saving unpicking if things started to shift around or ripple ahead during the stitching. Decide for yourself)

5. You might like to refer to the previous tutorial Part 1 to see just what needs to be stitched now. Basically you need to sew three sides of the square allowing about a half a centimetre seam allowance for the back and front of the cushion. Setting the sewing machine to a wide zigzag stitch and easing off the tension enabled me to sew the three sides to secure this. See the diagram in Part 1. You will need to sew along one of the sides parallel to the longest sides,  then along the side nearest the short end and down the other side parallel to the longest sides. Make sure you secure the  beginning and end well as this is likely to take the most wear and tear in use. Try turning the cushion cover inside out to make sure that the back layer has been caught in the seam allowance. You want it to look good when it is being simply a cushion, after all.

6. I then used the zigzag to neaten the jersey lining for the front and pinned that over the seam securing the cushion front.You can see this in the picture above. I don't have an over-locker or serger - either of which might also make a neat seam. Depending on how thick the layers are and how rugged your sewing machine is you could tack and zigzag that layer into place and more intrepid, competent souls than I am will probably cope with both steps 5 & 6 in one seam. I decided to use hand stitching again and blanket stitched my way around to secure the front lining on three sides and then slip stitched the open side crochet and lining layers together.

7. Once you have checked all these seams are fine, you're done with the sewing. Now refer to Tutorial Part 1 and follow the instructions to fold  the throw into a cushion and just check that it all looks good either way.

Personally I am wondering if a crocheted border around the front wouldn't set it off a little better. Or is it simply because it has taken me so long to finish such a simple project that I don't want to let it go?

And finally a tiny tutorial on how to unfold the cushion to use it as a throw, just in case it isn't immediately obvious from tutorial part 1.

Step 1
Reach into the open end of the cushion and pull out the folded throw.

Step 2
Reach up into the cushion and grab the top two corners from the inside and turn the cover inside out. Then simply shake the throw gently to let all the folds open out.
 You will see the wrong side of the cushion front is now visible which is why I lined my crocheted square.

This project has been a long time in completing and I felt that having posted Part 1 I had to complete Part 2 before moving on to some thing else. Phew! At least the crocheted squares have been put to a practical use. 

New Year, new subject then.

A Cushion/Throw "Transformer" - A tutorial - Pt 1

So much water under the bridge! My blogiversary and various landmarks seem to have slipped by unheeded, unmarked, uncelebrated but as this will be post number 60 I am determined it should be something of note and what better than a craft 'how to'.  I have been looking back over a year of postings to see what thoughts I had, what projects that suggested a follow up to me that it was high time I dusted off and made something of.

Almost exactly a year ago I posted Hooked Again. I had made enough squares for a cushion cover and was hankering one of those cushions that unfolds to release a throw. So many stores sell  micro-fleece throws and in the drafty winter evenings ahead they can be very useful to snuggle into on the sofa. No matter how carefully you fold them up, they never look quite as attractive in the cold light of day, so disguising them as a cushion seems worth a try. I realise that some would call this a 'quillow' but as I don't think of the blanket as a quilt or the pad as a pillow, this doesn't sit so well with me. To call it a throw-cushion is possibly to invite sport and chaos to the light fittings but I have the ideal word from the most knowledgeable six year old I know, who has assured me that because it transforms completely from one thing to another, I should call it a transformer. So there you have it.

A little research on the internet into how a quillow might be assembled helped of course but I didn't want to get into quilting and patchwork. I wanted as simple method as possible to put together the cover I had already made and the fleecy throw I had just bought, in a way that would give me something that worked and would withstand frequent use and I think I have the answer. It comes from an old BBC magazine called Good  Living with Jane Asher.Years before Kirstie Allsopp led us down the Meadow Gate path to all things Handmade, Jane Asher was showing us she could do far more than decorate a pretty cake. This magazine supported a series she had done back in the nineties.

In order to build up confidence in the whole project, I thought I had better make sure I was entirely happy with the 'transforming' technique. I don't usually plan in great detail but in this case I decided to do a mock up to make sure I could interpret the instructions accurately and as I am not going to do all the patchwork and quilting, I wanted to know just what would be on show at either phase. So I quickly put together a sample knitted square I had just finished and tacked it onto an old tea towel to roughly approximate the proportions of the crochet piece and the fleece throw albeit on much smaller scale. So bear with the rather strange illustrations as I work through the basic 'How it works' using my mock up.

Instructions - Part 1 - How to transform the Throw into a  Cushion

1.The throw should be about 3 times the width of the cushion front and 5 times the length. The cushion front is sewn onto the centre third of the throw at one end. It is sewn on three sides ( as marked by the large arrows) leaving the side facing down the throw open. I think this is shown in my diagram.
2. To begin the transformation, turn the throw over so that the cushion front is face down and fold the throw lengthwise into thirds, each side overlapping the centre.

3. Now turn it over so that the cushion front is uppermost. You now need to reach inside the cushion front. Reach right up to the top corners and pinch these up to include all the layers folded underneath. You then turn the cushion front inside out.

4. When you have made sure that the folds are straightened up again and the corners pushed through properly, it should look like this.

5. Now starting at the end furthest from the cushion front, fold up the throw. Try to make sure that the folds are the same depth as the cushion front so that it will tuck in neatly.

6. Take the end fold and tuck it up into the cushion front and there you are! All done.

From this mock up I learned that the transformation is easy to do and quite neat. I also realised that I would want the completed cushion to have a proper back and not just an exposed part of the throw. And because the front would be showing the wrongside of the crochet when the throw is unfolded, I think it would be better to have a lining.
The steps on how to make up the Transformer throw are coming up in Tutorial part 2, when at last I start to work with the materials for the finished product!

Shirley Cake

Remember Molly Cake? I believe I introduced you back in February. Here then is her sister, Shirley Cake.

They are definitely related, both having softened dates running through their crumb but Shirley is the slightly more sophisticated, decidedly more decadent of the two. I have known 'Shirley' since I was a child and lately I have found myself feeling very nostalgic for cakes as they used to be. Maybe I have just been in the wrong tea-rooms and cake shops lately and I know one doesn't turn to cake to  seek dietary, nutritional virtue, but it seems to me that  stylized presentation is placed above all other considerations. The cakes themselves are often little more than bland platforms for disproportionate amounts of filling and  elaborate, brightly coloured frosting. So here then is a cake where the crumb is distinctive and the frosting is simply 'the icing on the cake'.

Shirley Cake

Ingredients

For the Cake

• 70g stoned chopped dates
• 50g walnuts chopped (plus extra for decoration)
• 130g plain flour
• 125g butter
• 65g caster sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 1 tablespoon golden syrup

Preheat the oven to 180C,  170C for a fan assisted oven.
Lightly butter and line a cake tin. I used a square 20cm x 20cm tin.

You will need to: 

1. Mix the bicarbonate of soda with half a cup of warm water and add the chopped dates to soak.
2. Beat the butter and sugar together until creamed and then add the golden syrup.
3. Beat in the egg.
4. Mix in the date/soda mixture.
5. Sift together the flour and baking powder and stir into the mixture. 
6. Pour the mix into the tin, level it and bake for 45 minutes. Use the skewer test to see if it is cooked properly.
7. Allow to cool in the tin for 5 minutes before turning onto a cooling rack. When it is cool you can procede with the topping.

For the  topping.

Ingredients

• 125g dark brown Muscovado sugar
• 25g butter
• 2 tablespoons milk
•  1 teaspoon vanilla essence

You will need to:

1. Put the sugar, butter and milk into a saucepan and stir over low heat until the butter has melted and the sugar has dissolved.
2. Boil for 3 minutes.
3. Take it off the heat and add the vanilla essence. Let it cool for a minute.
4. Use a wooden spoon to beat the mixture until it begins to thicken. 
5. Spread over the cooled cake and decorate with walnut halves.

 Tip:
 If you want the glossy, soft topping just like Mother used to make - and why wouldn't you? - then don't get distracted at the boiling stage and leave it any longer. Over beating will also make it matt and grainy (and I should know).

So when the evenings start to draw in and afternoon tea in front of the fire seems a very welcome idea then this is the kind of cake that would go down very well. Not all dark brown cakes have to be chocolate or coffee - there is scope for a dark caramel flavour too. Isn't that a comforting thought?

Magnificent magnolias

This time of year I am captivated by the Magnolia Grandiflora that came with the garden when we moved here all those years ago. At that time it was tiny. spindly and struggling in a very crowded part of the garden. I have no idea how long it had been there but while that over-crowding persisted for the next few years it made scarcely any progress - it simply held its own, staying alive but getting no bigger and never flowering. Then we took out two thuggish conifers and it found that it had light and breathing space and it began to grow and in gratitude produced a flower or two each year.  A couple of years later we took out a honey suckle and its collapsing pergola  and gave the magnolia nothing more competitive than a summerhouse to cast its shade over and it has been truly magnificent and flourishing ever since. Each year I find myself smiling when I reach the point where I realise I have lost count of the flowers for the season.

The leaves are rich, green and glossy on the top and a russet velour on the underside. Yes, there is a time in late spring when it drops a lot of them onto the lawn but that is all in preparation for the tour de force about to happen.

The petals are luxuriously thick with the texture of finest glove leather and an exotic, lemony scent. The central boss defies all the thick scuptural quality of the leaves and petals with an intricate arrangement of stamens. Even when the flower is spent and the petals fall there is still something fascinating to look at. The boss having dropped its stamens now looks like delicate little brush with a magenta handle.

 I love the parchment colour of the fallen petals. The other day while I was out indulging in my admiration for this tree I noticed  these two dropped petals in particular.

I make no secret of the fact that I like to dabble when it comes to crafts but I found myself wishing that I had the skills and know-how to replicate these in some form of pottery.  Wouldn't they would be wonderful little dishes with their upturned handles and glazed with that speckled mixture of cream and caramel? Somehow I can't see any great satisfaction in attempting the replication in any of the fabric and yarn crafts I have tried. I feel compelled to record the inspiration here, never-the-less. May be one day...

Something completely different

This post is a departure from my usual reports on the pursuit of small joys and tiny pleasures. I haven't been cooking or crafting or buzzing around the beautiful countryside where I live for over 2 weeks now.
The main reason for this is that out of the blue I have been diagnosed with cancer of the colon. To go from feeling amazingly fit and healthy to being in hospital in a matter of a couple of days has taken some 'coping with' both for me and for those nearest and dearest. It was however one of those just in the nick of time discoveries and I was truly blessed and fortunate to have been among some exceptionally compassionate and skilled professionals and to have the amazing support of wonderful friends. 
I am home again, patched up and told to build up my weight in order to prepare for surgery in a few weeks' time. In case you have ever wondered, a low fibre, high calorie diet sheet looks like something a ten year old with no concept of basic nutrition would dream up. Most of the things my GP has urged me to reduce to infrequent treats in order to keep my cholesterol within bounds, are back on the list and many fruit and veg are either off or in small amounts. Such a shame when the garden and the local markets are coming into the most productive time of year.
Day by day I feel I am regaining strength and energy and mastering the new regime. I will take each step as it comes and I have gained some sense of proportion about the whole thing. In short I will be back buzzing about indulging in the kinds of things I love to do and recording them here. No doubt there will be further gaps in posting from time.But this disease doesn't define me.

The Love of Lavender

Lavender is in bloom and on several farms around here, there are fields covered with mounded rows of purple and mauve. It's a wonderful sight and if we only had the sunshine and warmth that July should bring, the air would be redolent with the  soothing perfume of lavender.

As a child, I loved helping to make lavender sachets to store amongst the linen. I doubt I was a great deal of help as my main aim was to handle the dried flowers as much as possible so that the scent would linger on my hands. Back then I had no idea that such places as lavender farms existed or I am sure that I would have harboured the ambition to have one when I grew up. Since that clearly didn't happen hasn't happened yet, I 'll just make do with visiting the ones around here. With that in mind, last week I arranged to catch up with a friend at Long Barn during their Lavender Week. We sat and had coffee on the terrace over looking the nursery field.

 

We had also ordered lavender shortbread. The heart shaped biscuits came elegantly garnished with sprigs of fresh lavender and looked so tempting and  tasted so delicious that I have to confess that we had eaten them before I thought to take a picture. ( Yes, I know that's the second time that has happened recently; note to self "Photos first, feed later") Even with the threatening skies and the all too inevitable downpour it was a fascinating place to spend a morning.

A perfect reminder of the recipe on  the wonderful Millefeuilles blog and a good excuse to try it. Ever since I had seen a recipe for shortbread buttons in the May issue of Country Living magazine I had promised myself that the next time  I made shortbread biscuits, they would be button shaped. So here, I present 2 ideas brought together.

Lavender Shortbread Buttons

Such a success! You can find Stephanie's recipe here in the post Pomona and the Poet's Rose. I used about half a teaspoonful of lavender flowers and for me, that was just the right amount. Not enough to overwhelm but it is still discernible. I used a 5cm cutter and then used a small glass to press halfway through to create the rims of the buttons. I used a skewer to create the holes and in some cases had to re-open these after cooking. Easy enough to do while they are still hot and fairly soft before transferring them to a rack to cool and crisp up. Should the thought of eating flowers trigger a shudder response instead of salivating, then substitute grated lemon zest for the lavender. 

You may well notice no sign of the apricot coulis  Stephanie made and I just know it would work so well as  an accompaniment for  these biscuits. Last December I had the  sublime good fortune to eat apricots fresh from the tree in my brother and sister-in-law's garden. Since then I have sworn never to have anything to do with fresh apricots unless I am within 2 km of the tree on which they were sun-ripened. The supermarket ones here have very little in common with what apricots should be. Hence no apricot coulis but the shortbread are also extremely good just as they are. 

Although I don't have a plot extending to acres and I suspect our heavy clay here isn't just what lavender thrives in, it's obvious that the half a dozen or so lavender bushes we have are simply not enough. Just as well that on Gardeners' World last night, Monty Don pointed out that now is a good time to be taking cuttings. May be I should be out taking some just in case I need a lot more plants sometime soon.