Stash Avalanche

Chaos and Discoveries

Well, we've moved. From the sunny West Country right across the country to the Essex/Suffolk border. We've swapped urban sprawl for rural delights, although at the moment, the house is in complete chaos and we're opening boxes like it's Christmas. What will be inside this one?

The garden here is ginormous and there are plenty of fruit trees, mostly apples but a few plums and a mulberry (how I LOVE mulberries!). The plums were mostly over but I've managed to get a few boxes of Victorias into the freezer - stewed and uncooked halves (the latter for plum cake using this recipe).

One of the apple trees is a Discovery - my favourite variety. It's an early eater so, as with the plums, we only got the tail end of the fruit. They are so fragrant, flavoursome and beautiful to look at.

You can sometimes buy them in the shops. I've had them a couple of times from M&S but they never have half the flavour of the ones off the tree - probably picked too early. Perhaps if you find them in an independent farm shop or at a farmers market they might be better.

This was the last hoard. Don't they look pretty?

One of the things I like about this variety is that when you cut them, they have a pink blush inside. So pretty!

This lot went in the oven with a splash of water and didn't need any sugar added. We ate them with porridge and yogurt for breakfast two days running, and they were delicious.

I'm already looking forward to next year's Discoveries but in the meantime there will be plenty of other varieties coming in the next month or so. Time to research chest freezers...

 

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Giveaway winners!

Thanks everyone for commenting on my giveaways, it was lovely to hear from you all, and apologies to those of you who thought your comment hadn't got through and ended up commenting again* - I forgot I had comment moderation on (embarrased face).

Anyway, let me tell you what you need to know! I stuck some numbers into random.org and ...

Giveaway #1 - the stars - was won by comment number 1...

...from Kelly Williams who said...

Congratulations Kelly, there will be an email on it's way to you shortly. I like toffee and liquorice, and together they're even better!

 

Giveaway #2 - the little Christmas kit - was won by comment number 17...

...from Laura, who said...

 Congratulations Laura, there will be an email on it's way to you shortly too. You have better weather than we do, it's gales and rain here today, but we'll be in Germany for Christmas so there is still hope for snow.

Thanks again everyone for joining in.

 

*where people commented more than once, I counted their first comment and disregarded the rest, which seems to me to be the fairest way of doing things.

 

 

Late Giveaway #2

We moved in the summer and when I was packing, I found lots of interesting and useful things that I had fortoggen I had, including this little Christmas decoration kit. It came with some fabric I bought a while back and I have never had a chance to do anything with it, and seeing as it took me three years to make the last lot of christmas decs, it might be better off going to a more productive home than mine!

Would you like it?

This week is Sew Mama Sew's Giveaway Day week, and this little christmas kit is up for grabs. There's some fabric, a few buttons and some ribbon - just enough to make a little Christmas decoration. I've also added a bit of Merry Christmas ribbon, some pretty pins and some glitter - you can't have Christmas without glitter, right?

All you have to do to have a chance to win is leave me a comment telling me what the weather will be like a in your part of the world at Christmas. We'll be in Germany and I have fingers crossed for snow, even though I am always the first to fall over when the world turns white.

I'll keep the giveaway open til bedtime on Friday, which will be around 10pm UK/Irish time, which if I've got my sums right is 12 noon PST. I'll pick a winner at random using random.org and post early next week. International entries welcome!

Thanks everyone for your comments. The giveaway is now closed. Winner to be announced tomorrow.

Update: the winner is Laura -  full details here, and congratulations Laura, there'll be an email coming your way very soon!

Late Giveaway #1

Would you believe I started making these for a giveaway three years ago!? But what with the not-so-wee-anymore Stashlet and life in general, it has taken me until now to finish them.

Would you like them?

This week is Sew Mama Sew's Giveaway Day week, and these little stars are up for grabs. They're made of felt with little bit of stuffing lots of beads. You could hang them on a Christmas tree or in your window or wherever you like!

All you have to do to have a chance to win is leave me a comment telling me what flavour toffee you like best. Why am I asking you this? I have a sudden craving for liquorice toffee - my favourite!

I'll keep the giveaway open til bedtime on Friday, which will be around 10pm UK/Irish time, which if I've got my sums right is 12 noon PST. I'll pick a winner at random using random.org and post early next week. International entries welcome!

Thanks everyone for your comments. The giveaway is now closed. Winner to be announced tomorrow.

Update: the winner is Kelly Williams - full details here, and congratulations Kelly, look out for an email from me coming soon!

Advent calender

I made an advent calender. Posting this late because Stashlet spent the weekend feeling rather poorly but here it is. Pockets will be filled with haribo, chocolate coins, toy cars and anything else I can think of.

The whole thing measures about 82 x 52cm, and I used fabrics from two Moda Christmas charm square packs which I got a couple of years ago, Cherry Christmas by Aneela Hoey and Joy by Kate Spain. For want of anything better in a rush, the back is Bomull from Ikea.

Apologies for the crappy photos - I had to stand on the sofa to take them and I couldn't stop wobbling. It happens.

Happy Tuesday.

Happy Spring

We don't really do Easter at Stash Towers, so depending on what you do...

Happy Easter or Happy Spring!

ps. I am inordinately pleased with my tree. Just wanted to gush for a second. Thank you.

Show and Tell Tuesday - quilted placemats #3

Well, hello. Welcome to Show and Tell Tuesday, hosted by Randi at I have to say...

Last weeks S&T went int to the trousers (as Mr G would say) but I'm back on track this week, and all the typing I failed to complete late last Tuesday night will make an appearance in a couple of Tuesdays' time.

So then, remember the quilted placemats (here and here). I was going to get a shade card for DMC perlé cottons and try to match a turquoise thread but it was all taking an age, and I just couldn't wait. I have never had a strong urge to quilt before but these placemats really made me (nearly obsessively) want to hand sew. I got hold of  some non-DMC perlé from my LYS last week and there's been no stopping me. I've been sewing in front of the telly , in the car, at the supermarket...

I decided on a semi-random circle design and marked the circles out with a soft lead pencil (I don't know whether this is 'good' quilting practice or not...), using cups and plates for the smaller circles and my trusty extendable compass for the larger ones.

I think the patterns work just as well on the back as on the front, and it would be nice to do something like this in a plain colour (perhaps a navy or dark red with white thread). This technique is  Japanese I think but I can't remember what it's called.

I was going to bind the mats with a dark blue edge but having tried a tiny bit of dark blue thread for quilting, I've decided that it wouldn't go with the turquoise which is a bit of a difficult colour to match. I think I'll probably end up using the same calico as the backing, unless something pops inspiringly out of my stash.

So next time you see these, they should be finished and probably covered in pasta sauce.

Happy Tuesday!

 

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More catch-up

Foof!

It's crazy busy here at Stash Towers so apologies for another absence. I have loads of tunics to show you - finally a tunic frenzy that I can wear! - and a very belated thank you to post but unfortunately those will all have to wait until next time.

In the meantime, here's the rest of the catch-up from earlier this summer.

Bean bags!

Stashlet has a little play area in the kitchen by the back door and he likes to watch the birds feeding so I thought I'd make him a bean bag to sit on (comfier than a stone floor, even in a big, fat cloth nappy!). The first one turned out rather too big - as you can see, it takes up nearly the whole play mat - so I made a smaller one...

Sorry, not the best of photos...

The big stripey one is 75cm square (which for some reason my imagination saw as about half the size, sigh) and is made from an Ikea cotton that (looking at their website now) seems to have been discontinued. I shall see if I still have the label. The smaller round one is another Ikea fabric, Fredrika. I used the width of the fabric to determine the circumference of the cushion so it's just under 150cm around and 40-something cms in diameter. 

These are both covers, with the actual polystyrene beads in a calico bag. And it's just as well, because the smaller one is already covered in biro and snacky smears!

I'm tempted to put some more beads in both of them, but they were such a pain to fill, that it's not a high priority. You have to do a Kirsty Allsopp and be prepared to get covered in them; they stick to everything, especially when an excited Stashlet jumps on the cushion halfway through filling...

The other thing I did was make an extension to the pushchair hood. It was only when we went looking for a more portable stroller in the spring that I discovered that some pushchairs/buggys/whatever! come with additional segments of hood that you can pull out as a sunshade. Wish I'd known that this time last year!

Anyway, this one is made from a stiff vilene-type interfacing sandwiched between two cottons. I strengthened the outer edge with a double strip of boning, and hand stitched it to the existing hood using a cotton tape to act as a kind of hinge.

 

There. That's a better photo of the fabric.

I was going to ask Mr G to help me sew it on by machine - him supporting it as I went round using a zip foot - but in the end the hand stitching worked out fine.

I can't say it's 100% successful, because it doesn't fold back under the existing hood very neatly, but it does the trick.

 

 

Wigwam bam

More catch-up...

I'd been wanting to make Stashlet one of these for a while, and had been constructing little graph paper models to try to decide on the best way to do it. Fortunately, Stashlet decided to 'play' with said models and I had to look on the internet instead, which was much quicker and more help than the graph paper, to be honest.

I found Alexandra's post very useful on how to cut the fabric and then went off on a tangent with seams and so forth.

I want this wigwam to last so I top stitched the seams, made little button holes for the front ties, and little loops for tent pegs. The fabric is Ikea's Sofia and I used the full width of the fabric (150cm) to make the panels. The stripes worked out well; I was afraid that they wouldn't match up but somehow (I can't remember now if it was by luck or design) they went together perfectly.

I used cotton tape to bind the long open edge and top, and hemmed the bottom. I had wanted to use a straight stitch to attach the tape but my line kept going wonky and the stitches kept falling off the tape, so I abandoned that and used a wide zigzag instead, which won't get me any marks for neat workmanship but does the trick.

The canes are held in lace by 3 loops of elastic sewn into each seam. My original plan was to do a kind of giant french seam and push the canes through the channels that would be greated by the two lines of stitches, but in the end I thought I wouldn't have enough fabric to do that and have decent sized panels. The system works ok with the canes, but would be better with dowel, I think, as the elastic would be stretched a bit and therefore hold the fabric more firmly.

There are a few things that still need sorting out.

The tent pegs: I got big plastic ones on the basis that they would be less dangerous than the metal ones, but I can't get them into the lawn, so I suppose I shall have to get metal ones and make sure they are well pushed/hammered in.

The front fastening: I think it could do with another tie lower down but that's not a high priority.

The canes: these are 6ft bamboo canes which are the right length but are too thin and whippy, so I either need to find thicker canes or buy some 1" dowel and use that instead.

And the top: I can't get the top of the wigwam to stay up very well or the canes to stay together in the right place. My current solution is to drill a hole in each cane and tie them together with wire, which holds the fabric up but the wire has sharp ends, so that's not ideal.

Anyway, Stashlet likes it and on the few rare occasions that we've had enough sun to be able to use it, has spent his time running in and out of it playing peekaboo with the flaps.

If anyone would like more detailed photos, let me know and I'll stick some up.

 

I ain't dead...

I know, I know, it's been ages since I managed a post. Every day I think either "perhaps I'll get some time to post today" or " bugger, that was another day I didn't get to the blog". Sigh. You'd never think that working three mornings a week would make that much difference. And poor Stashlet has been suffering too, getting him into bed has got later and later these past few weeks, although Mr G and I are now making a concerted effort to rectify this.

I have been doing some crafting though, and have plenty of posts in my head to get on to this blog. I hope that this post will be the kick start to resume blogging  - that is, assuming you haven't all upped and left in search of someone more reliable!

So as to not be a photo-less post (always a bit dry, I feel), here is some recent Stash Towers weirdness....

... a tomato whose seeds had already sprouted (never seen that before!)...

...carrot seedlings in the patio (we have carrots coming up everywhere this summer and I have absolutely no idea why) and...

... what Satshlet eats in one morning when he is with the childminder. My father commented that the wee S had lost weight after a recent week of gastro-enteritis so I sent him this photo to show him it wouldn't be long before the chubby baby cheeks came back. I still marvel at the Tardis that is Stashlet every time I empty his lunch bag and find everything has gone.

And finally, Typepad has introduced what they call Recommended Links where it automatically detects certain words and provides links to sites like Wikipedia - in the case of this post, it has recommended links for "Tardis" and "gastro-enteritis". I'm in two minds about using this, on the one hand it seems like a good idea to enable readers to look up things they might not be familiar with, but on the other hand I can't help feeling that it makes the post feel very cluttered. I wonder if anyone else is using this and how you find it.

That's me done for the night. I feel so much better now I have actually managed to get a post done. Fingers crossed for more of the same in the much less distant future. Happy Staurday everyone.