It is Lemon Butter time again.

This has been a great year for lemons and everyone's trees have been heavy with fruit, so it's time to make "Lemon Butter" again. ( I wrote a post about this back in 2014.)

 

I am still using Mary's recipe, with a couple of changes.  This is because I have a new microwave which has a higher voltage  (I reduce the 3X 30 second wizzes at the end to 25 secs.)

I also remembered my grandmother's pastry tartlets and have been making lots of pastry cases.

I used the old recipe for the pastry.

Shortcrust Pastry

1 cup Plain flour

1 cup Self Raising flour

250g (real) butter

2 tablespoons of icing sugar.

1/3rd cup cold water

Method

 Sift flours and icing sugar

cut the butter into the flour

Rub in until it looks like breadcrumbs

Mix in water with a knife until the mixture hold together.

(you may need a little extra water here.)

Turn onto a floured surface and knead lightly.

Cover with Glad Wrap and place in the fridge for about 30 mins.

Roll out on a floured surface to size required.

Cut with a metal cutter.  (an egg ring is just the right size.)

Bake in a moderate oven for about 15 mins.

 

I found that I liked a very thin pastry.  This just melted in the mouth.

Every time I make these I think of my Grandmother.  I loved both of my Grandmothers so much.

 

A bit of recycling

I picked up some old embroidery from an Op shop, Oh, maybe 2 or 3 years ago.  This piece was so badly damaged that the only thing I could save was this bit of 'white-work'. I thought that I would cut away all the fabric right up to the stitching and hope it wouldn't fall apart, it all held.  (I had been putting that off for some time thinking I might wreck it.)

 

It has been sitting on my desk along with a bundle of scraps since then.  I knew I wanted to use if for something, but nothing came to mind.  And then, out of the blue I had a brainwave.  Well actually I need a needle case for my longer and thicker needles and this looked as though it would fit the bill.  Firstly, I hand stitched the piece onto the background with a fine white cotton, leaving the open bars unattached so it still looked like white work.

The backing fabric came from a quilt I made some time ago.  This piece was from the edge where it had been trimmed back so the wadding was still attached.

I used a piece of silk shibori fabric for the linning, stitched around the edge and turned it through.  I decided not to top stitch the edges as that might distract from the embroidery, the batting was just a bit thick.   Then I added some wool batting leaves in which to put the needles.  It is just great for those larger needles and the white leaves stand out from the Shibori fabric making the needles easy to see.

I did a double row of stitching, sewing either side of the mid way fold to attach the leaves.  This makes a good fold.

I then got out my button box and lost a good hour deciding which button to use.  (Button boxes are a trap!)  I stitched the loop in a perle 8 thread.

So now when I go to patchwork meeting I have a proper needle book and I will not be pricking my finger as I dive into my sewing pouch looking for my needles and I have saved that piece of embroidery.  I love looking at the stitching used to make the bird's feathers.  Someone put a lot of love into that bird.

 

Where I live

We have lost a number of really big trees here on the island over the last 6 months.  Some looked so big and healthy but with the dry weather followed by big storms they just came crashing down.  This one was on the edge of the road the runs from one side of the island to the other, everyone knew it.  I now see a resident has repurposed it.  I hope that the fairies move in.

Cross Stitch

It has been some time since I have been 'web-surfing' but I needed a break from the project I was working on and 'web-surfing' just fitted the bill.  By chance I came across the 'Farmhouse not Forgotten' blog and there I rediscovered cross stitch, again.

This is cross stitch of the 'rustic' type.  Simple and charming.  There are a number of free projects to work on this site.  They are listed under 'freebees'.

I thought the photo above reminded me of my grandmother's old house but when I looked at a photo of it the only real similarity was that they both had two stories. My Great- great grandfather added the wrought iron and replaced the roof after they moved in here.  They still kept another house which was on a farm.  I think one of his son's lived there.

I didn't realise that he had settled in Kentucky in the USA after he left England.  His first wife died and he then returned to England, remarried, and they then moved to Australia.  I have other relatives in Kentucky and now I understand the connection.  Boy, those old people got around.  No air travel, just sailing boats that took months to get anywhere.

WIPW

I thought that I had lost my computer!  My cleaner had lifted everything off my desk to dust and I'm not sure what she did but it has taken ages to get it all going again.  As to work in progress, not a lot.

I am back working on the applique for the back of my quilt.  Looking at it I see that I have reversed one of the eyes.  That is going to have to come undone.  Good thing I have had some practise at unpicking the unpickable.

This applique only comes out at Patchwork or Embroidery meetings, so not a lot of progress, but, I think it will be quite pretty.

But I am not running all over the world taking my grand daughters all over the place for the next few days so I will finish the quilt back and I have another quilt in the cupboard that I have begun to quilt, so that will have to come out.