I have a book on embroidery from the Royal School of Needlework that is just fascinating. I got it as a Christmas present a couple of years ago. The section on Blackwork was amazing (if I have the time I will post some pictures of the book). I finally decided to give Blackwork a try. This is a very simple pattern from the British magazine Mary Hickmott's New Stitches. The pattern is one of three that was done for a series of birthday cards. The saying on the original pattern was Happy Birthday, I changed it to Live Simply for the one I stitched. It measures about 2.5 inches by 3 inches. I used DMC number 498 (forgive me I don't know the actual color but it's a cranberry kind of red) and stitched this on 18 count Aida fabric. I usually like to stitch on linen or even weave (when I am not stitching on dryer sheets!) but since this was my first try at Blackwork I decided the Aida would be easier to work with. I am stitching a companion one that will say Be Kind. I think I am going to hang them in my bedroom. Perhaps this is the motivation I need to finally decorate our room. We moved in three years ago and have not really done a thing with it. I'm going to try a more complex Blackwork pattern next.
Monday, September 15, 2008
Monday, September 8, 2008
Bountiful Pears...
We have four pear trees on our property that we planted two years ago. We will get about thirty pears from those trees this year. Our neighbor, Mr. Miller, (he is the gentleman whom we bought the property from) has two very old pear trees on his property. He called me last week and told me that he has never seen them bear this much fruit before. He asked if Andrew and I wanted them? He said that he was never going to eat that many pears. Andrew and I and the girls went over there and picked the pears from his trees. I figured we would get thirty to forty pears. I was wrong, we got a whole bunch more than that! When we were done picking we had filled three five gallon buckets of pears! Andrew is making some pear wine. I will let you know in a few months how that turned out. His father made wine as a hobby for years, mainly apple and boysenberry. He got pretty good at it. So Andrew is going to follow in his father's footsteps and make some wine.
Spiced Pear Jam
I love making jams. I don't know why, maybe it is because I consider it along the lines of making something by hand and home made. I feel a real sense of accomplishment when I make jam and it turns out well. (I've had some that have not turned out so well!) Over the weekend I decided that it was time to dig in to all of these pears and make some jam. I downloaded a recipe for spiced pear jam off of cooks.com and followed most of the recipe. The recipe called for Allspice which I did not have. So I substituted a quarter of a teaspoon of Ginger and half a teaspoon of apple pie spice. This jam turned out so good I was giddy all evening! The only thing I will change the next time I make it will be the amount of sugar I use. (This may ultimately affect the yield but it shouldn't affect the taste.) The recipe called for six cups of fruit and eight and a half cups of sugar. The next time I will cut it down to six or seven cups of sugar. This is a very sweet jam with hints Cinnamon and Ginger. This would be very good warmed over vanilla ice cream. I can't wait to make more. I have a recipe for Winter Pear Butter that I am going to try next.
Best Friends...
I snapped this photo of Fiona and Hailey (the dog) watching T.V. on Saturday. Fiona was eating popcorn and using Hailey as a living stool. Hailey was very happy to oblige as she got lots of free popcorn in return! The girls lounge on Hailey like this all of the time and Hailey seems to just love it. Fiona goes to pre-school in the afternoons and when I come home after dropping her off Hailey follows me around and whines. It's almost as if she is saying "hey where is Fiona? Where's my baby? She is suppose to be with you". Once Hailey is used to the back to school routine she will stop the whining but boy does she love her girls! Have a great week.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Cupcakes, Beads, and a Peek...
Over the weekend my daughter, Fiona, wanted to make brownies. So we got out the Betty Crocker cake mix and were all set to make brownies. Then she had to see this beautiful cupcake "birthday cake" on the back of the box. (For lots of great ideas for really cute birthday cakes go to bettycrocker.com/birthdays, I want to try them all!) After seeing the "birthday cake" she decided that she wanted to make Halloween cupcakes. Fortunately I had all of the stuff to make cupcakes. With my help she did an outstanding job of decorating her Halloween cupcakes. Of course chocolate is her favorite so they had to be chocolate cupcakes with chocolate icing. I helped her with the icing but the sprinkles and candies are all her doing. I actually enjoy making cupcakes because you don't have to be a pastry chef; no matter what you do to a cupcake it always looks good!
There is a Michael's Craft Center in Avon, Ohio, about forty miles east of Norwalk but very near to where my parents live. I stopped in there the other day to look for something for an Aunt who is in the hospital. While there I browsed through the needlework department and to my glorious surprise, there, in the one dollar clearance rack were Mill Hill Glass Seed Beads! These beads are normally sold at needlework/cross stich stores and they are not cheap. As you can see I couldn't help myself! I found about eight different types that I really liked and took them up to the cashier. (Mill Hill Beads for a dollar! I was in heaven!) I asked the cashier why they were so cheap and she stated that she wasn't sure why they were marked down but that she had bought herself some the day before. From now on when I am there I am going to check out the clearance section of the needlework department. I walked out of there feeling like I had won the lottery!
Here is a peek at a Halloween embroidery that I am doing. I am almost finished with it but I have some plans for a frame to go with it as well. I don't want to post the completed embroidery until the frame is finished too. It might be a week before it is ready to post. I'm excited about it as it is turning out much better than I thought. I drew the design on paper first (which took me three days because I kept erasing and starting over!) then transferred it to my dryer sheet. Once I ironed the dryer sheet to the fusable interfacing I got very excited because the heat from the iron changed the colors of the dryer sheet slightly and created a really nice background for my drawing. Hope you all have a great week and I can't wait to show you my completed project!
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