Baking and Macmillan Coffee Morning

The staff at our school had a coffee morning for Macmillan - world's biggest coffee morning. Many of us made cakes and the money pot was looking good at the end of break (total collected to follow) This was the cake I made and half of it disappeared - hopefully the rest will go at lunch break. Earlier in the week Em made a victoria sponge cake in food tech lesson. (cookery to you and me) She changed the butter to vitalite - dairy free and added 1 teaspoon of baking powder to the self raising flour, which helped the mix to rise as the vitalite tends to be wetter than normal butter. Her cake was such a success she got top marks and it was delicious. Finally my stitching progress on Mary Wigham; It has been very easy to work with in the evenings, I love working in all the different colours. Ali is back at Uni now, so tomorrow we are planning to go and visit. This photo was taken in the summer hols in Dorset. I hope you have a good weekend/week. Jane x

Mary Wigham Stitching Progress.

This is a lovely sampler to stitch, I love the colours. I have changed one or two medallion colours from cream because it didn't show up on the off white background, but I have stayed with the colours already in the sampler. Some of the MW's Samplers have been completed and they are beautiful as you can see on the Needleprint blog. The return to school has been busy, planning trips , getting data. etc. Em was delighted to be back with her friends, and the promise of a new academic year filled with many of her favourite lessons. Al has returned to Uni for her final year of English Lit, she's in a new house with old friends and she was glad to be back too. I have been looking around the web and found some lovely blogs devoted to both cross stitch and Quaker samplers. The Sampler Girl's Blog and her shop Quaker Inspired Blog The world's Greatest Collection of Smalls Too and the original blog The World's Greatest Collection of Smalls I also found a Cross stitch website which sells kits and charts and I fell in love with a chart called A Quaker Christmas 2007 and a chart called Spook-A-Boo So I've plenty of stitching to keep me busy. I hope you have a good week. Jane x

Holidays and Stitching

We've had a lovely break, We stayed in a cottage on the National Trust Estate of Coleton Fishacre - Kingswear, Devon. It was lovely as there was a bottle of milk, tea bags/coffee and biscuits for you to have a drink on arrival, it was so quiet too. Greenway was close by in Dartmouth which was the holiday home of Agatha Christie, it is now owned by the National Trust. You have to pre-book parking if going by car but it was a fascinating house to visit. We crossed the river Dart by the historic ferry and wandered the streets of Dartmouth. We lunched in the station restaurant and on our walk along the sea front stopped to watch the children crab fishing. Babbacombe model village was a very interesting place to visit, they have even created the 2012 London Olympics construction site amongst all the other dioramas. On our final day we visited Brixham and stopped for lunch at Tiffany's. Al is an Audrey Hepburn fan so was delighted to have "Breakfast at Tiffanys"

My Holiday Stitching

I have stitched a gift for a friend who is leaving work to study to become a Vicar in the Church of England. I chose the prayer by Saint Francis of Assisi - Make Me A Channel Of Your Peace as the verse with other motifs of family and trains. I also stitched the two sides of a stork scissor Biscornu from a pattern by xstitch happy I haven't found time yet to sew it together. Then I moved on to a biscornu pattern I had saved from The world of Cross Stitching Magazine, that is also awaiting stitching up. Finally I designed a biscornu as a gift for one of Em's Guiders as she got married in July and Em together with five other guides formed a Guard of Honour with arches of ivy as the Bride and Groom came out of church. I used Jo Verso's hearts for the centre but the rest of the designs were mine. (I have blanked out the surnames to protect their privacy) The reverse will have the girls names and the ivy clad arches that they held. Finally I have started to stitch Mary Wigham Quaker Sampler from Ackworth School, Yorkshire. The pattern and SAL can be found on the Needleprint Blog.

Holidays in Dorset

We went to Dorset and had a lovely time despite the rain. We went to the cinema to see Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince, which we all thoroughly enjoyed. We visited Tyneham Village which is on the East Lulworth Firing Ranges, because of the summer holidays the ranges were open to the public. Tyneham was taken over by the Ministry Of Defence and the Army during WW2 and it has remained so since, despite the villagers being told they would be able to return after the War. It is a very melancholy experience as the houses are all ruined but there is a schoolroom and the church still intact, both of which have exhibitions. Later the same afternoon we visited Lulworth Cove, which is a very popular spot along the Dorset Coast. We visited Great Chalfield Manor which was used for filming Wives and Daughters and Lacock Abbey, which was used for filming scenes for the first two Harry Potter films. They are both National Trust properties. Finally we spent an afternoon in Lyme Regis which is a lovely place to visit, sadly the sun was not going to co-operate so we decided the sea might be a bit chilly for paddling. Al couldn't resist trying it out - brave girl! As you can see from her expression it was freeeeeeeeeeeeeeezing. On our final day it was raining so hard we went to the pictures to see Ice Age 3 - Brilliant. On the crafting front I have been making another sampler this time for a friend of Tony's who is leaving work to study to be a vicar in the Church Of England, I will post some pictures when its finished. Shortly we are off to Dartmouth for a family holiday, I hope your holidays are fun filled. Jane x

Almost There

I've finished the samplers x 3. Em has been part of a Girl Guide Guard of Honour at one of her Guiders wedding. School finishes tomorrow and today she's at Chessington World of Adventures having a great time with her friends and classmates. Text messages from her included: 'I've been on the Vampire ride and the Rattlesnake!!!!!!!!' As for me, I'm reading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince as I want to go and see the film. Looking forward to holidays filled with stitching, knitting and reading. Time to be spent with my parents and a family holiday in Dartmouth - whoopee! Oh and a dusting of blogging thrown in too. Last weekend we went to Amberley Museum for the Steam Railway Gala. There were several visiting engines, Armstice and No 11. The resident engines were also steamed up, Polar Bear and Peter. Peter had been restored by the rail enthusiasts at the Museum and it was Peter's first day out. Some of the non-steam engines were also running. I hope you have a good start to your holiday - all we need now is some sunshine! :-) Happy Weekend. Jane x

A Sponsored Walk & The Coconut Shy

There hasn't been much to write about recently, (household chores and washing our cars doesn't count!) but this end of the week has been busy. On Friday approx 950 students and 90 staff from our school did a sponsored walk of 8 miles! There were only a few injuries and they were mostly blisters and twisted ankels. Thankfully the day was mostly dry and cool although the sun did come out after lunch, by which time over half of the walkers had returned to school and were relaxing in the shade. We don't yet know how much we've raised, but all the money is going to be used to buy materials for new classrooms in our group of partner schools in Kenya. Many of the schools we are supporting have only mud huts and they leak during the rains. They don't have desks, books, pens, pencils, rulers etc. Things we take for granted like toilets are holes or trenches in the ground. So the money raised will make a big difference to these children and their teachers in Kenya, by providing them with permenant classrooms and proper toilets.

Saturday we spent running the Coconut Shy with the Guides at the Village Fete. It was a hot sunny day with big crowds out enjoying the fete, the Guides worked hard and raised lots of money, approx £80 which they are donating to the Moorfields Lions Eye Centre in Ghana. Moorfields uses the money to save childrens eyesight in Ghana. Today is a rest day for our sore feet, but I've plenty of stitching to do as three of our teachers from the English department are moving on to pastures new at the end of July. I will post pictures of the finished stitching later in July. Mum's batch of Elderflower cordial was (and still is) delicious, I froze some of the cordial in ice-cube bags for later in the year. I hope you have a lovely weekend. Jane x

Crafting and Recipe From Dorset

Last weekend we were down in Dorset visiting my parents. My Mum had been given some elderflowers by her neighbours as she wanted to make Elderflower cordial. They were cutting back their elderflower bush. So we made two batches to share, We couldn't carry our batch home so we left it with Mum to finish. We are looking forward to collecting next time we visit. The recipe if you would like to make some cordial too, is very easy:

30-40 Elderflower heads (fully out but not going over)

2lbs Granulated Sugar

2 Oranges

1 Lemon

2 0z Citric Acid (available from the chemist/pharmacy)

4 pints boiling water

Method:

Cut the flowers from the stalks with scissors

Put into a large bowl with the boiling water, citric acid & sugar

Stir and leave to cool slightly

Add the grated peel of the lemons and oranges and the juice too, stir again

Leave for 48 hours stiring occasionally

Strain the mixture through a very fine sieve or colander with muslin

Pour into bottles, plastic is best if you are freezing any of the cordial.

Finally pour a small amount into a glass and dilute to taste, relax and enjoy.

I have been busy knitting and cross stitching again. In the absence of a model, the chair was a good substitute for showing the length of the shawl/wrap. My progress on the poppy picture has worked up the left side, but I have run out of one of the main colours of thread, so work has stopped temporarily. Happy crafting Jane x