Pineapple and Pear Chutney

A rainy day is the ideal opportunity to stay in and make the most of the pears from the trees in the back garden.  I decided to combine them with pineapple for a spicy chutney to serve with curries.  A dry orange also went in, the sort that turns out to be a disappointment when you cut into it and find no juice.  Rather than throw it away, I saved it for the chutney.

I followed the basic formula that I have adapted from a recipe in a 1930s cookery book, namely:-

1lb sugar

1 pint white vinegar

1lb onions

4lbs any fruit and/or vegetables you like

8oz any dried fruit you like

a quarter of a teaspoon of salt

any spices and/or herbs you like

To speed up the cooking, I chopped up the pineapple, orange, pears and onions and left them overnight in the saucepan with the sugar.  This extracts the juice and firms up the fruit and prevents it disintegrating during cooking.  For the dried fruit I used apricots, and cut them up and left them to soak in the vinegar overnight.  The next day I added the apricots and vinegar to the pan, together with crystallised ginger and spices (much the same spices as in the mango chutney I made last year).   After a long slow cook, with the lid off it to allow evaporation, it had reduced down to the right consistency and was ready to pot up.  It came to 3 small jars, 3 large jars, and a tiny bit left over which is now in the fridge ready for us to try when we have a curry.  

The longer you leave chutney, the better it tastes, so ideally we shouldn't open a jar until about Christmas.  I'm looking forward to it already!

Free Motion Mavericks - Week 295 - Using Up The Stash

Excellent choice of fabric for a big burly bloke, don't you think?

I have been raiding one of the boxes in my sewing room to make a weighted blanket for my niece's husband.  Rather than buy new fabric at this stage, I am using leftover pieces of brushed cotton to make a prototype.  The hope is that the weight will help ease his insomnia.  If it works, then I shall make another in more manly fabric, and this first version will come in useful when the second one is being washed.  

The plan for the blanket is scribbled on a piece of paper.  How it eventually turns out will be a gamble.  Because brushed cotton has plenty of give in the weave, it should be comfortable, but it is a devil to cut straight because it keeps shifting.  Pretty florals aren't generally what the daddy of the family should expect, but there will be both joke value and sentimental value to the blanket when it is finished because I am using up fabric left by both my niece's grandmothers.  My sister in law's mother left a great stash of fabric that she used for children's nighties and pyjamas, and I also have a length of fabric left by my mum, which was bought in the late 1960s or early 70s.  I am glad to be able to put it all to good use.

Here goes for Week 295:-

Many thanks to Carole for linking up last time with some beautifully quilted little birds.  If you haven't seen her blog post yet, nip over now and see more.

If you have no free motion quilting to show, feel free to link up and show any project you like.  Here are the usual rules, but feel free to ignore them.  To keep the original emphasis, however, preference will be given to free motion quilting when featuring projects from the previous week.

If you love free motion quilting, whether you are a beginner just taking the plunge, or you have reached the stage where you can do ostrich feathers with your eyes shut and still achieve perfect symmetry, then please link up.

Remember, FMQ is FMQ, whether your machine was made last week, or it is older than your granny.

Here are the very easy and slightly elastic rules:-

1.  Link up with any recent post, ideally from the last week but within the last month, which features a free motion quilting project, whether it is a work in progress or a finish.

2.  Link back to this post in your own post.

3.  Visit as many of the other participants as possible and say hello in the comments box.

4.  The link up will remain open for five days, from midnight to midnight GMT for the long weekend, Friday to Tuesday.

So far quilters from the USA, England, Wales, Australia, Canada, Germany, Holland, New Zealand, France, Macau, Russia, Ireland, Brazil and Sweden have taken part.  The 

first participant from each new country will get a special mention the following week.

A Picture for Sunday - The View From The Top

Beautiful Wales!  

Nothing like a good aerial view without having to pay the air fare.  This was the reward for climbing The Skirrid, a mountain in South Wales that has an easy path to the top.  This was the sunlit aspect.  Meanwhile dark clouds were approaching from the opposite side of the mountain, and half an hour later we were drenched.  All very predictable, and a bracing day out.

 

Spotty Buttons

One project finished today, and not before time!  I changed my mind at the last minute as to which buttons to use.  Definitely the better choice.

I thought they wouldn't show up well enough against the button band, but now they are sewn on they look perfect.

Free Motion Mavericks - Week 293 - Another Knitted Blanket

 

This is the latest baby blanket, in the woven effect stitch I showed last time.  It has been a great way to use up all the odds and ends I have left over from previous projects.  Joining one strip to the next is done as you knit, knitting the last stitch of each wrong side row into the edge of the adjacent strip.  The random baby yarns add to the stripy effect and make the texture a little more snuggly, and the big bold blocks of maroon and yellow are left overs from cardigans I made for myself.  When I was about a quarter of the way through I thought the effect was all too loud and busy.  Now that I am three quarters of the way through, it has grown on me.  I hope the baby who eventually has it will find the colours interesting.  I always love imagining the the little fingers of the future owner pointing at the colours in quiet moments.

This week I had a request from my niece for a weighted blanket for her husband.  This meant a bit of research on my part, as I had only vaguely heard of them before, and half a day of thinking how I would make one and with what.  A quick check of the stash confirmed that I should be able to make one without buying any new fabric, so I should soon be back to sewing in a big way!  Now that we have the new carpet in the dining room we are gradually putting the room back together, and then I will be able to get the sewing machines out again.  After weeks of chaos (don't ask me where my cheque book is) it might come as a bit of a shock.  

Here goes for Week 293:-

Many thanks to Rebecca Grace for linking up last time with her Spirit Song quilt, now finished and looking beautiful.  If you haven't seen her blog post yet, nip over now and see more.

If you have no free motion quilting to show, feel free to link up and show any project you like.  Here are the usual rules, but feel free to ignore them.  To keep the original emphasis, however, preference will be given to free motion quilting when featuring projects from the previous week.

If you love free motion quilting, whether you are a beginner just taking the plunge, or you have reached the stage where you can do ostrich feathers with your eyes shut and still achieve perfect symmetry, then please link up.

Remember, FMQ is FMQ, whether your machine was made last week, or it is older than your granny.

Here are the very easy and slightly elastic rules:-

1.  Link up with any recent post, ideally from the last week but within the last month, which features a free motion quilting project, whether it is a work in progress or a finish.

2.  Link back to this post in your own post.

3.  Visit as many of the other participants as possible and say hello in the comments box.

4.  The link up will remain open for five days, from midnight to midnight GMT for the long weekend, Friday to Tuesday.

So far quilters from the USA, England, Wales, Australia, Canada, Germany, Holland, New Zealand, France, Macau, Russia, Ireland, Brazil and Sweden have taken part.  The 

first participant from each new country will get a special mention the following week.

A Picture for Sunday - Evening Light

How I wish photographs could convey smells.  Not only was the evening sunlight magical, but there was also the scent of camomile and pineapple weed in the air.