A Picture for Sunday - Green Eggs

On the back of an ivy leaf - rather there than on a plate.

Free Motion Mavericks - Week 144 - Cropping Redcurrants

The fruits of my labours this week are redcurrants.  The bush on my allotment is absolutely laden. 

Yet again, outdoor pursuits have come before everything else, especially as it has been far too hot to sew.  Flaming June has given us a proper heatwave this year, with temperatures around 85°F for days on end.  I'm not used to it.  Midsummer's Day is usually marked by wind and rain and lots of wet Druids at Stonehenge.

So yet again, a week without sewing.  And somehow I think I might be making jam soon.

If you haven't been sewing, have you been doing any interesting cooking?

Here goes for Week 144.

The project that caught my eye in Week 143 was Margarita's House of Lilies quilt.  If you haven't seen her blog post yet, nip over now and have a closer look.

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 and/or grab the linky button for your blog's sidebar.
  
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 four days, from midnight to midnight GMT for the long weekend, Friday to Monday.

So far quilters from the USA, England, Wales, Australia, Canada, Germany, Holland, New Zealand, France, Macau, Russia, Ireland and Brazil have taken part.  The first participant from each new country will get a special mention the following week.

A Picture for Sunday - Artichoke

You have to make harsh decisions sometimes - eat it or let it flower?  I'm torn.

Free Motion Mavericks - Week 143 - Outdoor Pursuits

Cushion covers can wait.

The sewing machines are idle, but I'm not.  Every spare minute (hours, actually) and ounce of energy is being spent on the allotment, watching vegetables struggle to grow for lack of rain, and eagerly looking forward to the annual display of hollyhocks.

What has everyone else been doing?

Here goes for Week 143.

The project that caught my eye in Week 142 was Olena's horses  If you haven't seen her blog post yet, nip over now and have a closer look.

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 and/or grab the linky button for your blog's sidebar.
  
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 four days, from midnight to midnight GMT for the long weekend, Friday to Monday.

So far quilters from the USA, England, Wales, Australia, Canada, Germany, Holland, New Zealand, France, Macau, Russia, Ireland and Brazil have taken part.  The first participant from each new country will get a special mention the following week.

A Jam Session

This is where I have been spending hours over the last week or so, with my head stuck in the blackcurrant bushes.  It is a bumper crop this year, and one of the bushes has currants so big that the branches are weighed down to the ground.  

I am already running out of freezer space, so it was fortunate that I had enough jars in the house to make the first batch of jam.  Every batch of fruit has to be washed and have the stalks removed, then put in the freezer on the same day, otherwise it won't keep.  

Making jam in hot weather is pretty daunting, but I've done it.  I couldn't face the prospect of doing it all in one day, so I stewed the fruit on Monday, left it in the pan overnight, and added the sugar and finished the job off on Tuesday.

And here's the video.  I only kicked the tripod once. 

Cropping Whitecurrants

Last year it rained non-stop and I let the birds have the entire fruit crop on the allotment.  This summer (we didn't have one last year) is a different story.  At the moment it is scorching, with temperatures in the 80s, and I am getting in the fruit as it ripens.  The whitecurrant bush is the first one that is ready.

They are easy to pick from the bush, but it takes ages getting them off the stalks.  This batch of whitecurrants will be ready to go into the freezer later today.  

Whitecurrants are quite bitter, with lots of hard pips, but they make a lovely jam or jelly with the strained juice because they are high in pectin.  They are very handy to use with a fruit that is low in pectin, such as pears.

2012 was a nil jam year in my kitchen.  This year I am worried that the freezer will be full to bursting if I don't collect enough jars very soon.