Lightly Spiced Chai Tea

Nearly done with the Christmas presents now, last night was cooking night and we brewed up a big batch of Chai Tea, follwoing a recipe from The Kitchn, which we multipied by 5.

Ingredients
60 cardamom pods (about half a jar)
5 teaspoons mixed peppercorns
5 tablespoons fennel seeds (or 1 schwarz jar)
2 1/2 teaspoons coriander seeds
2 1/2 teaspoons whole cloves
5 cinnamon sticks (most spice jars seem to come with only 4 sticks, so you have to look hard)
200g chopped crystalised ginger
250g loose black tea

with the peppercorns, fennel seeds, coriander seeds and cloves, if you have the jar in the cupboard then you probably have enough as they are small amounts, but you will need a whole jar of fennel seeds, cinnamon sitcks and possibly cardamon)

Method
1. preheat over to 160 degrees C
2. with a sharp knife, split cardamom pods in half
3. toast in the oven cardamom pods, peppersorns, fennel, coriander, cloves and cinnamon for 5 minutes, or until spices are fragrant (we only did 3 minutes)
4. leave to cool for a minute or two
5. lightly crush with a pestle and mortar, breaking the cinnamon is easier with your hands, or ideally- get a man to do it!
6. thoroughly blend in the chopped ginger and tea

To brew, add about 1 tablespoon of the mix to a reusable tea bag then brew as you would a standard tea bag, but let steep for about 5 minutes, with milk and sugar to taste.

I'm not a big tea drinker, 90% of the time I want coffee, but this might just turn me and it smells so christmassy too :)

J x

Christmas is in the air!

One more super busy weeknd, does anybody have any free time at the moment?! I have got to say that I am loving the productivity though, even if it is hard work! This weekend I managed 3 finishes and some progress on a WIP as well asgoign to the wedding of one of my best friends!

So I guess the first thing to share is Helen's wedding; I have never been to Cambridge before so after the meal a group of us went punting on the river, it was icy cold as it was going dark, but it was lovely to see the city from that angle and I can't wait to go back :)

Here is Helen and Reeves outside the registry office.

And I was going to share a pretty picture of Cambridge, but it seems I have forgotten to upload it so I promise not to inflict anymore photos on you!

So, for the bit you are actually interested in, my first finish was an eternal calendar, a christmas present for a friend.

 I have wanted to do one of these for myself since I saw it on Design Sponge via Pinterest but after spending almost all of friday night working on it I am not sure I have the patience to one for myself! Originaly I had intended on hand stamping each day individually and had even bought a librarian style stamp to do it with, until Chris pointed out just how many 366 card was going to be. He then set up a photoshop file for me to just change the date one at a time but even that took forever! A disc and a half of Gilmore Girls later, I had it down to a fine art, but at 20seconds a card it was non-stop and I was pretty tired by the end.

My second present was a set of ruffled roses, I loved the mix of masculine fabric with such a girly pattern and made these into pins so they could be put onto anything.

I didn't think this fabric was going to fray much, but the second I started working with it, it practically fell to pieces; fingers crossed it frays nicely and doesnt completely collapse!

I also managed to start and finish a present for my mum, a tree cushion in black and white (ish) to match the decor in her bedroom. It was quite a simple style and I had planned on embroidering it, but I couldn't decide what shape the trees should be and while I was playing about with templates I decided that felt applique might be more effective.

The reverse of the cushion turned out to be kind of what I had in mind for the front, I am so glad I changed my mind as I would have to have some skill in drawing trees for this to have worked out well...

And last but not least, I had an extra hour on sunday night so I finished quilting Fifi's Nine Patch (it has been sitting, half done in my dining room all week) and I started binding. I have now finished attaching the binding to the back of the quilt, so all that is left is to flip it over and fix it down tonight and this guy will be ready to go! Then there's just one more to quilt and bind before Christmas!

Left on my list of jobs for tonight is to roast and can my chai tea mix for the rest of my christmas presents, if I get around to it tonight then I will have a recipe and some photos to share tomorrow, but don't hold your breath as I bought the ingredients last tuesday and have fully intended to do it every night since then!

J x

Look who's pieced!

So I planned and planned, and wrote some lists, and planned some more about all the tings I want/ need to do before Christmas (and the inconsiderate people who decided to have their birthdays in December) and, well, it turns out that there might not be enough time to get it all done before Christmas!

With my new found emergency motivation I dragged out Fifi's quilt and got to work, and look who's pieced together now!

I love the pinks and red in this quilt, and whilst there is one or two blocks I would reconsider if I was to repeat it, I think they all work pretty well together.

Last night I also squeezed in time to put together the bindings for Fifi's Nine Patch and for the Mystery Mix Tape,  which now needs to be quilted and bound asap as the recipient was born a week early at the weekend!

and no, I am not showing you my list! Off to do some quilting (and maybe some roasting of extra Christmas presents if I have enough time tonight)

J x

A Bee Block

After updating my Winter Stitching list this afternoon, I realised that I never posted my November Bee Block, so here is a quick pic of my monstrous 24" block.

Nice work Hadley I knew this was the size of four 12" blocks, but don't worry I will forgive you as I quite enjoyed all those HSTs and for a change they kind of worked from me, it was definintly all in the measuring and double checking... and that there was probably only one spot that it really mattered if they met up, but they do, see...

J x

Busy busy busy

I finally sat down and cracked on with my christmas presents this weekend, and I can at last check one off my list... I present to you, the GrandHands Cushion!

It has been sitting in pieces since I last posted about it, but this weekend I finally got around to putting it all together and I can't believe how easy it was- why I have I not made a cushion before?!

I went with option 4, from this post, (omg I can't believe that was november, I have been so lax with this!) and Laura's suggestion of swapping the white and beige hands around and I think the little white hand stands out a bit better this way.

After outlining all the prints with a long running stitch, I traced and backstitched a signiture of each grandchild next to their hand.

A quick panel for the back flap with the date, so we can all marvel at how small Maddie's hands are in a couple of years time, and I was done!

Not only have I finished something, but it was something on my Winter Stitching List too- woohoo!!!

Now just to sit down and plan out all the things that I must absolutely get done before Christmas, time for some finger crossing.

J x

Big Sister in progress

Next on my list of quilts (on my Winter Stitching list anyway) is Fifi's Big Sister quilt. My god daughter is soon to become a big sister for the first time and as she never got her own baby quilt (she is 4 and I have only just finished my first quilt) this is her big sister quilt. It is designed to loosely match the Mystery Mix Tape, but as she is no longer a baby- I didn't a want a typically baby quilt.

As a ballet-loving girly girl, I have gone for a range of pinks and reds, but I am keeping the grey sashing and 6" blocks from the Mix Tape.

Using the mix tape layout of 5 x 6, 6" blocks, I need a total of 30 blocks, 15 of these will be 9 patch combinations (7 of these shown above) and 15 will be single colour blocks; the central single block with have an F monogramed onto it... if I ever complete the embroidery tutorials!

Jx

Too many choices

Today, I started working on a cushion for my nan for her christmas present. I took an outline of each of her grandchildren's hands over the summer and so far I have traced and cut out each handprint, but after laying them out on the cushion cover I am not sure what layout to use.

Option 3 was originally my idea; but I think the middle 2 hands are too similar for this (even though one is 24 and the other 9!!!) and it looks lost in the middle of the cover.

I will be going around the outside of the design with a brown quilting thread to border the prints and will be embroidering their signatures around the outside of the cushion; I anticipate this will be about 1cm deep.

Answers on a postcard please...

I think my new favourite might be option 4, but I would love to hear what you think; answers on a postcard (or in the comments section) please!

J x