More lino cuts, a star and a bizarre hotel...

This lino cut design I have made from a photo of a rudbekia flower. It came out well on paper and then nicely on to some hand dyed calico.

I'm not sure I can bring myself to stitch on to the prints yet, but maybe I will run off more when I get up the courage!

Just recently Janet Bevan, who has been the leader of Wombourne Quilters, has stepped down to make way for new blood. We, as members, wanted to give her a gift and she has asked us all to make a star block in blues and greens so that she can make up a quilt. As you know I am definitely NOT a pattern follower so I have wrestled this weekend with these two:

The one on the left is pieced and I have decided that faffing about with cutting square which measure two and seven eighths of an inch is worse than trying to entertain two children at home on a wet Sunday. Combining the square cutting and being a lovely, interesting and kindly Mummy is definitely NOT ON. So when it became apparent that the points didn't match I did the one on the right with good old foundation

piecing (which is like wearing a safety harness and having a crash mat for me).

Last weekend my husband and I celebrated his birthday in The Cotswolds near Stratford-Upon-Avon and I booked a traditional looking hotel (or so I thought) near Chipping Campden. We had the last room available because the whole of the U.S.A. decants to that area of Britain in the summer. Quirky or what? The room was homage to Lyle's Golden Syrup. There was a very weird bed with a canopy that was built to resemble dripping syrup and this was echoed in the pelmet of the curtains. There were syrup pictures on the walls, a lampstand made of syrup tins and a recipe for sponge and syrup pudding on the bathroom door. We slept well because we were exhausted from all the laughing!!


Just think, some poor textile designer had to actually make this!!

Tasteless?

We had a marvellous walk the next day around Hidcote Manor Gardens. The huge area is designed into small garden "rooms" each with a theme or colour. We enjoyed dodging the monsoon showers.

I think there may be fodder here with these lovely spiky plants for more lino cut designs

Lino cutting, raspberry jam, farewell ducklings and a bit of a teasle....

I have carried on with the next stage of Dijanne Cevaal's lino cutting online course and am pleased with these two reverse image leaf prints - they look rather African to me. I must say I am completely hooked and have ordered more lino and a couple of different Jacquard colours ... this will lead to dyeing more fabric - oh no!

I think I'm quite keen to print some sort of stylised teasel from the garden next. That will be fiddly to cut - should I book a place at Accident and Emergency in advance?

The ducks have been gently captured and taken to a local wildlife lake where they swam off happily on to a more appropriate expanse of water than our little back garden pond where their mother had set up home.

We miss them but seem to have acquired two guinea pigs in their place!!

I've made a big batch of scones and raspberry jam from our fruit. It knocks spots off shop bought jam and is so simple:

RASPBERRY JAM
Making a few small jars of jam doesn't have to take all day or use special equipment. This recipe can be prepared in the time the scones are cooking.
Preparation time :
15 minutes
Cooking time :
20 minutes
Total time :
35 minutes
Makes: 3 x 200ml jars
Ingredients
450g raspberries450g granulated sugar
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 170°C, gas mark 3. To sterilise the jars, place 3 thoroughly clean 200ml jars on their sides in the oven for 10 minutes. Then turn off the oven, leaving the jars inside until the jam is ready to pot. Place 2-3 saucers in the freezer to chill.
2. Rinse the raspberries. Place in a pan and cook over a gentle heat for 2-3 minutes until the juices are just beginning to run.
3. Add the sugar and stir over a gentle heat for 1-2 minutes until the sugar has dissolved. Then increase the heat and bring to a vigorous boil for 5-10 minutes.
4. Remove from the heat and test the jam by dabbing a little on one of the cold saucers. Cool for a few seconds, then push the jam with your fingertip. If it wrinkles, it has reached setting point. If not, boil for a further 2 minutes then test again. When the setting point is reached, spoon the jam into the jars. Cover the surface with a disc of waxed paper and seal with a lid. Label and store in a cool dark place for up to 3 weeks.

Isn't this hover fly amazing. He was on a Verbascum in the garden this morning. I love the lacy wings and the colourings.

In which the Mad Mummy tries to cram everything she ever wanted to do all into one day because the kids break up from school tonight....

No work today and the children break up at 4pm and are then here for seven and a half weeks...

Most Mums would be getting nails and hair coiffed. Oh no, not me. I have been a whirling dervish as I have made lino prints and red currant jelly at the same time. It can be confusing as you imagine.
I am doing an online lino cutting course with Dijanne Cavaal at the moment and I made the first prints today. It's all a lot easier than I remember school lino cutting ever was. The lino can be warmed in the oven (along with the jam pots) and is lovely and soft to cut. The cutting tool is sharp and glides through the grey matt lino beautifully unlike that hideous shiny brown stuff that I seem to remember (my art teacher would say I have "false memory syndrome" but I beg to differ Kate!!). That stuff used to make the cutter slip and slide and head right for the main artery between one's thumb and first finger whereupon it became instantly as sharp as a dagger and sliced lovely gouges from one's fingers causing the printing paper to have an instant hand-dyed red effect!

Anyway this is much better and I'm happy with my first results.

Here's a little picture of one of the wild ducklings in the garden (see posts labelled Mallards).

Oh yes, and can anybody tell me how a massive bowl of red currants yielded half a pot of measly jelly??