The colours and smells of our autumn ...

Blackberries and apples from my Mum's house - we 'found' three apple trees laden with fruit that we didn't know were there!!

 

 

 Damsons from a tree that is split in two, chewed on by cows, totally neglected but continues to produce fruit.  Unfortunate most were way out of reach.  Topped up with some fruit from a friend's tree ...

 

Blackberry pudding .... very easy and very delicious ...

 

Plums, from a friend's tree, thrown into the pan with all the other ingredients for plum sauce.  The smell was divine ...

 

The satisfaction when it is all bottled up ...

 

Straining the blackberries and apples for Bramble & Apple Jelly ...

 

 

all bottled and labelled ...

 

Just love the jewel like colours of this with the sunlight catching it ...

 

And the damsons ... here is the gin!  Just got to wait 3 months now ...

 

it didn't quite all fit in!  I had to decant into a better container.  This colour is after only 3 days ... and it tasted quite nice too!

A week of finishes ....

A bit of a different Finish it up Friday over here today.  Lots of finishes but not all of a textile nature!

1. The finish of my first Quilt Show entry.  I finished the quilt, please take a look over here for the full story, and it was driven up to Harrogate for the Great Northern Quilt Show.  I had planned a couple of days up there, visiting the area and the show.  I was really excited and somewhat nervous about going on Saturday morning and to my HUGE surprise I had won a Judges Merit rosette.  To say I was happy was an understatement - I was walking around like the Cheshire Cat all day!

2.  The finish of another year of marriage.  No, not the finish of a marriage - I wouldn't be quite so blasé as to announce that here, but the finish of our 16th year of marriage.  My niece came and looked after the girls and we got a child free day (which is something of a rarity in these parts seeing as we home educate!) of tiki touring around the Cotswolds.

3. The finish of my eldest daughter's birthday celebrations until next year!  She turned 11 on Wednesday - where does that time go?  She had a birthday party sleepover at the end of August and then we spent the day together as a family on her actual birthday.  We took the girls to the West Midlands Safari Park - it was amazing!!  I had never been before either so it was a great way to spend the day doing something new to us all.  The bunting was finished too in time to hang up and is another item ticked of my FAL Q3 list.

4.  And for the final finish of the week ...... eating the last of the blackberry pudding I made yesterday!!!  It is the season here in the UK for foraging in hedgerows for all things edible.  Yesterday we gathered blackberries, damsons, apples and plums on a gorgeous autumnal sunny day.  The blackberries became this delicious, and very easy, pudding, and were also mixed with apples for a bramble and apple jelly.  The damsons were placed in containers with sugar and gin to slowly become Damson Gin (and I have to say the duck recipe with the damson gin sounds rather nice!) in time for Christmas and I have just finished boiling up the plums with a few other ingredients to become plum sauce.  Our kitchen smells divine at the moment!

I have had very little time in my studio this week but need to getting in there and start starting, and finishing, things that are on my ever expanding to-do list! x

And I am linking up with Amanda Jean over at Crazy Mom Quilts today.

Out with the old and in with the new ...

 

'Tis BlackBerrying season again and I have a terrible confession ....... I still have last year's blackberries in the freezer.  Admittedly they were picked right at the end of the season and they did not taste good.  We picked them with the express intention of using them for dyeing.  Well, a year later I had a go.  It's something I've always wanted to do and I have to say there was a lot of smiling going on from me today!

 

I love the sharp distinction between white and .... blackberry! 

 

The dye bath was frozen berries, 1 tablespoon of sugar and water to cover.  I heated it and was supposed to simmer for a while but I forgot it and it was boiling!  I left it to cool for a while and then put the material in.

First lot of material in the dye bath. 

 

I used 100% pure cotton white used sheets that had been mordanted with alum.  There was also some off cuts of ?polycotton white used sheets that I had on my sewing table thrown in aswell.  I don't know exactly how long I left them.  We went into town, wandered around, drank a coffee, ate a pastry .....

And then there was this! 

 I just LOVE the colour.  Left hand side are the pre-mordanted sheets.  I realise that this is not going to be colour fast and I will look into how I can achieve something more stable but I really like the results.  Being of a thrifty nature I thought I would do another batch.  (In fact I'm now wondering what I can put in overnight!)

So the results from the second bath

 

From left to right: same 100% cotton sheet as used in the first bath but not pre-mordanted, vintage white cotton trim, 100% linen from a modern white skirt, white ?cotton twill tape and a vintage crochet doily, not sure what this was made from probably cotton.  They are a different colour which I expected because it was the second lot but maybe also because they were pre treated.

 

Well it's certainly whetted my appetite and there's now room in the freezer for more this year. x