Pictures, Bread, Quilt Block, Socks, Nut Butter, Knitting

I didn't realise later would mean the next day. Sorry. Here are pictures, as promised!

Beautiful bread:

 Sorry - I realise now it doesn't look as beautiful as it did before I grated chocolate all over it then tore great hunks of it off to gobble down in satisfaction. But I didn't take any photos before I did that stuff, so you'll have to use your imagination. It looked a little reminiscent of this

 I made a loaf of it the other week with the wife, but we followed the instructions exactly and it turned out like lead. This time I just added an entire sachet of yeast, and I chucked all the ingredients into the breadmaker and got it to do the dough bit. Then I rolled it out and up and so on.







Then my block for the Quilt Around The World II:


It isn't finished yet. I still need to edge all of the appliqué and do some fabric painting fun on it. But they're supposed to be scarlet pimpernel. and yes, I know they aren't scarlet. Neither are the actual flowers, apparently! But they are native to Britain, which is what I wanted.

 This is the first sketch I made, when I was getting a feel for the scarlet pimpernel. I'm not very good at drawing, so sorry about that. But I used this to then trace onto greaseproof and position everything; then onto bondaweb.

and there's a flower up close. I'm going to put a sort of fabric paint wash fade thingy into the centres of the flowers in pink to mimic the actual flower. Then, once I've done that and appliquéd it all, I can send it onto the next person who is, incidentally, my mum. This is why I feel less bad about not getting on with it. I should be doing it right now, but I know my mum knows what I want, so I've been lazy. But I need to finish it and get it up on flickr for the other members to find out what I want - which is a neutral background (any greys, black, white or cream) with a flower that is native to their own country. I don't' care about flower type or colour, or how they put it on the background - appliqué, paper piecing, whatever. Just a native flower on a neutral background, with the flower name and a signature block to go along with it. Now all I need to do is finish it, and work out how to use flickr! Should be easy, right?!

and some beautiful socks:

When I visited my sister ages and ages ago, she set me up with some needles and self-striping yarn and instructions for making socks. I finally finished them! They're blue and stripy and cosy and comfy and warm and I love them oh so very much!

 Especially, can I just say, I love the triangle detail that comes with the joining of the heel flap to the rest of the sock! Not too bad for a first pair of socks, eh?










And one last thing:

 

 Some mixed nut butter. This is roast almond, pecan and walnut butter. I didn't just make that piffling little amount - I made about a jarful. But I promptly used most of it in some no-bake energy bites rather like these. I really like them, as shown by this being the second time I've made them! They taste really good, and I can pretend they're healthy!

I'm going to vanish now and either sew a little on my block or knit some on a baby blanket I'm making for my pregnant friend. Pictures of that will come at some point, but not right now!

Love love xx