Things to do

Yesterday I went to the Malvern Quilt Festival with a friend and had a totally fab day. Although looking at the quilts on display made me feel totally inadequate, it also inspired me so I want to make about 20 more quilts! In an effort to stop myself starting them all straight away, I am reminding myself of all the other projects I currently have on the go.

As well as the quilt I've already started, there's my knitting. My knitting basket currently has 10 projects in it

At the quilt festival, I went to a braiding workshop and have the key ring/tag I started there to finish off

I have jars of chutney and rosemary from last weekend still waiting to be labelled.

When I baked for the bake-off a couple of weeks ago, I promised my husband that I would bake some cakes or cookies for him, and I still have to do that. Plus today I am also baking bread.

There are also the apples I've been given that still need to be turned into something - I may be getting some more soon as well :)

Back out of the kitchen, there are Christmas cards to continue making. I've made 20 so far and the materials are sitting on the corner of my desk waiting to be picked up again.

So while I long to get started with my purchases from yesterday,

I will content myself with stroking them in admiration and get on with some of the things I've already got on the go. For now at least ...

What's for lunch?

This was my lunch today. I don't usually photograph what I eat, but this looked so good, I did - just look at those gorgeous colours! This was made on impulse, as I had a load of mushrooms that needed eating up before they became candidates for the compost heap, so I chopped those, then looked further in the fridge and found half a courgette, half a yellow pepper and a load of baby plum tomatoes.

I chucked the mushrooms, courgette and pepper in the wok first, and then added the tomatoes for the last few minutes. I ate it with some bulgar wheat (it was going to be couscous, but there was none in the cupboard).

 It was delicious :)

Rosemary, that's for remembrance

We have a Rosemary bush in our front garden. And apart from using the odd bit of it in cooking, cutting it back occasionally and appreciating the smell when I brush past it, I've done nothing else with it in the nearly 10 years we've lived here. So I decided it was time to fulfill my intentions and have a go at drying some.

I found a couple of websites explaining how to do it, and mostly used this one.

I cut 16 springs, deciding that for my first go, I'd just try two bunches of it. Rinsed them under the tap and then left them for a couple of hours on a clean teatowel to dry off.

I then made my two bunches. The webiste said to tie with cotton string - I had none, but another site I'd seen had used elastic bands, so as I had some circles of elastic some fat quarters I'd recently bought had been rolled in, I grabbed a couple of those to use.

Instead of attaching them to a hanger, I used Christmas-tree-decoration hooks (aka paperclips)

Then I hung them from a shelf in the airing cupboard and left them there for the 4 weeks specified - having a quick peek at them and enjoying the smell when I went into the airing cupboard for things.

After 4 weeks they looked like this.

I pulled off the leaves (this stage smells great!)

 I put the leaves in little jars (the idea being they bill be crumbled into cooking when used rather than at this stage, which should keep their flavour and fragrance for longer) and swept the Kitchen floor (the dried leaves to have a tendency to go all over the place).

Then I went and cut the next batch, which got jarred-up yesterday. I'm hoping they will be a nice addition in some Christmas goodie boxes. I know very little about gardening (something I'm hoping to learn more about) but I have a feeling that now it's getting colder and winter is approaching it's not the best time to be harvesting, so I shall leave doing another batch until the warmer weather returns.

Bake-off

Yesterday I baked. We had a bake-off competition at work today, as part of a belated MacMillan coffee morning. There were two categories, 1) large cakes and 2) cupcakes, cookies and biscuits. I entered both categories; I didn't win or come second (there were some delicious cakes there), but people seemed to like them.

This was my biscuits entry:

Mocha hearts, recipe from Rachel's Food for Living. Two coffee biscuits sandwiched together with chocolate butter icing. I'm not a fan of mocha, but they passed the taste test with my husband.

And this was my large cake entry:

Summer fruits upside-down cake. Again from a Rachel Allen book, this time Bake. The recipe in the book is for cranberry upside-down cake, but I couldn't get cranberries and the recipe said other fruit could be used, so I grabbed a bag of mixed fruit from the freezer. I've never made this before and, while it was perhaps slightly heavy in the middle, I am quite pleased with the way it turned out. Definitely one to bake again.

Hot off the needles

I've just finished this and thought I'd post the photo straight away, as otherwise, knowing what I'm like, it won't get put anywhere for ages, if ever.

The yarn is Fruttamix trends cotton. I bought a load of this in four (I think) colourways at the beginning of the year, and this is the second scarf I've knitted to this pattern, both using this yarn. They are intended for Christmas presents and if time allows I shall knit some more.

The first scarf started off as a bag for me, following this pattern and evolved to a scarf when I got to about two-thirds of the way up the first side. I do intend to knit myself the bag at some point as well.

Patching it up

This morning I went to the official opening of the new quilting shop in Burford. I was even brave and chatted to people. There are some beautiful quilts there - and some lovely fabrics, but I limited myself to just a couple of fat quarters. Inspired by that, I've been working on my patchwork this afternoon.

This is my first patchwork project, and I started it nearly a year ago, knowing practically nothing about how patchwork and quilting should be done. I have an old sleeping bag, bought for me about 30 years ago, that we use to snuggle under on the sofa in the winter, and it's starting to get a bit worse for wear.

Rather than chucking it out and getting a new one, I decided to make a new cover for it. I decided a long time before I started it that it should be hexagons, so that's what I'm doing. The back I originally thought of doing small squares, but I've since decided that that will take me forever to complete (based on the rate the front is going), so I'm going to use large squares for the back.

When I started, I don't think I'd heard of fat quarters, but since then, I've read a book on quilting my friend gave me - and discovered I'm probably not doing anything properly, but I have several future projects lined up in my mind (thanks to that book), and will make sure I learn the right techniques for those.

Here's my efforts so far. No two hexagons are the same and I'm hoping to keep that up.

It's had a few more hexagons added this afternoon, and I'm hoping to go to my first quilt night on Thursday and get some more done at that. I am switching to knitting this evening though, because I can do that while I watch Strictly Come Dancing.

Here's one I made earlier

I'm posting this to cheer myself up after an ice-cream-making failure earlier this evening.

I love these! I knitted them in August. They've had one wearing so far, but I carry them with me when I go out, because I don't want to miss the chance to wear them again when it gets chillier. I used a pattern a friend of mine had made for glittens as my basis for how many stitches to cast on and how many rows etc. I just stopped short when I got to the fingers. The yarn is a cotton yarn that another friend of mind dyed and sent to me. I have such talented friends!

Hello

After dithering for a while about whether to start a blog or not, I've finally gone ahead and done it. Don't expect me to write anything brilliantly witty or earthshatteringly clever, or even (based on livejournal experience) to be regular with updating. But here I am giving it a go.

I chose the name 'Liz makes it' because I like making things - knitting, making jam/chutney, baking, making cards, sewing, the list goes on. There are also quite a few things I'd like to learn to do, like spinning yarn, making soap, making candles, crochet and so on. Plus, 'making it' can also apply to so much more. I want to make my life healthier, more environmentally friendly, more fun and to make the world a better place - just a minor ambition ;) So I intend to blog about those sorts of things as well.

So hello to anyone who reads this, and welcome to my blog.