As you may already know, my mother-in-law is visiting from South Africa, and it was also her birthday this week. She's under strict instructions that there will be "no touristy activities" (she'll share them with her husband when she returns next year, we hope) and so what's a girl to do when she has a birthday and a whole city to shop explore?

















It may have been raining, but we had a fabulous time.



It started in the haberdasheries of Walthamstow Market as we chose ribbons, braids, ric-rac, cotton and zips. We dashed between shops in-between heavy showers of rain, and we all got quite wet. But, oh!, the choice! The ribbons! The trimmings!

















Then, we enjoyed the stalls and shops of Covent Garden. We watched a string quartet belt out party tunes, and we hastened from bag shop to bag shop comparing red bags and leather satchels.






















We arranged old printing blocks on a tray, and got covered in ink.



Then, onwards to the Charles Dickens Tea House where we escaped the rain once more for tea and shared pecan nut pie with a side of brownies (I know) on Drury Lane.

















... and what is a good birthday without an impromptu miniature ice cream? We completely agreed and popped into Fortnum & Mason's on the way past Picadilly Circus.

















We may have shared scones there, but I'm not confessing to anything.

















At some point, we stopped to admire these beautiful measuring cups at Spitalfields Market. Aren't they amazing? I would put them on my wall to admire them, but I suppose that defeats the purpose of having measuring utensils, doesn't it?






















And, believe it or not, the rain did eventually clear and we enjoyed a few moments of summer colour.






















All in all, a jolly good time. I'm particularly pleased that we bought ourselves travel cards: we hopped on and off buses all day, we scooted between Covent and Garden and Kensington a few times as we somehow lost our brolly (and found it again!), and we took full advantage of the trains that zipped us around in no time at all.

There hasn't been much crafting here at Bakercourt this week. My mother-in-law is visiting from South Africa and we've spent most of our time scooting around Oxford, London and Hobbycraft.

We've been spoilt with some really beautiful weather recently - which is lucky when you have to go and watch your other half run like a nutter around a pretty park in a work-sponsored fun run in the beautiful Victoria Park.






















So, while the crazy folks gathered in their masses at the start of the fun run, I found myself a lovely little bench along the track and settled in for a bit of sunshine and reading.

















I recently bought The Colette Sewing Handbook in my attempt to learn how to properly read a sewing pattern and actually sew myself a garment I might regularly wear. It's a fabulous book, full of easy to understand instructions and explanations and great pictures. It also makes excellent reading material for a late afternoon in the park.






















The book is spiral bound which makes it really easy to read, and especially easy to use if you're planning on following it (ahem) with acute attention as you sew alongside on your machine. It also makes it much easier to put down quickly when your husband and his team mates jog into sight and you suddenly need to stand and cheer and generally be a good noise-making supporter.

















All in all, I couldn't have asked for better weather or better reading material. I've made it to the end of the first section in the book which means that I now have to sew "pattern one" ~ the Meringue Skirt. I see fabric shopping in my future!

We have a rule in our house: if we go away for a weekend, I need to take a project with me. There's nothing I find more fulfilling and relaxing than blocking out thoughts of the week, work and worries with a cup of tea and a bit of creative stitching. I've taken knitting camping, I took English paper piecing hexagons to Silverstone, and I regularly take a bit of cross-stitch to Faringdon.

Cross stitch is wonderfully portable.

This weekend past we went to a Big Family Event in Toddington. There was roast chicken and assorted buffet foods, there were children playing mini-Olympics, and there was the ever-important Big Family News (we learnt, this weekend, that we will soon be welcoming a new mini Cousin to the family!). There was champagne and wine, designated drivers, and hours of sunshine. And there was cross stitch.

















This is the project I've started working on. It's an Emily Peacock design from the Cross Stitcher magazine, issue 254, July 2012.

















I gathered my threads before setting off for the weekend so I didn't have to lug around a bag full of extra embroidery floss! I've swapped the red in the pattern for a dark pink, and I'm still undecided about the green. I'm either going to use the dark green on the right, or the mint green on the left. The pattern calls for the dark green - I'm just being difficult.

















This is the Aida I chose - 14 Count Rustic Aida. It's not quite cream in colour, more like a flecked oatmeal. I like the way the pastel colours show up on this. We had to stop off at my Local Yarn Shop on the way to the Family Event to pick this up because I didn't have a piece of Aida big enough. It turns out, neither did they. I had to settle on a piece that is 15cm short, all round. It's okay. It looks like the balloon will just fit.

Did I mention that this is, according to Cross Stitcher, a 75-hour project? Good golly.

After a good few hours of stitching, this is how far I am -

















The sizing issue is starting to make me feel nervous. I might stitch the outline going up so that I know whether or not it will fit in before embarking on detailed balloon patterns, guy ropes and baskets. It's very difficult to resist the urge to stitch in straight left-to-right lines when you're working in counted grids like this!

It's Rosh Hashana, y'all.

Happy New Year!

As we move into the new year, it's important to take a few minutes out of your day to take stock of what has passed, what you've achieved, what you're thankful for, and what you're aiming for in the new year.

What has passed: We spent another year in London, we got married, we visited Prague, we made new friends and learnt new skills. I joined the EEWI, and I bought a sewing machine.

What I've achieved: In the last year I've successfully run my own business (and reached the end of year 1!) and met some fantastic people in the process. I've focussed on the skills I want to develop, and I've rediscovered a passion for design.

I'm thankful for: an amazing and supportive husband (it's still odd to use that word, almost one year on), an incredible family who constantly stay in touch with me through the magic of Skype, and a group of irreplaceable friends who are spread across the globe but still feel like they're going to pop around for tea at the weekend.

It's also an opportunity for something new. This year I want to: sew a dress, from scratch, using a pattern that comes in a book or packet (and not from a dress I already have). I want to give workshops and craft classes to share what I've learnt. I want to create a book of home projects, and print fabrics to go with it. I want to bake flawless soufflés.






















Shanah tova! Isn't this picture lovely? It's exactly what we should all be doing all of the time - and I know I'm guilty of doing this almost none of the time. May the new year be full of tea-drinking, tree-thinking moments like these.

Everyone knows that I love me some giant squid.

There's something quintessentially British about tea and scones. Or, Sc-oh!-nes, as they say here. I've always had a bit of an aversion to scones and cream with jam, but I love savoury scones. Especially when they're made with cheese.






















So, this weekend, the East End WI ladies served cream teas at the St Barnabas Community Fete. We baked, kneaded, rubbed butter, blended and perfectly cut 6cm scones to sell on the day.























But it was all worth it. The stall was lovely, the fete was lovely, and best of all: there were savoury scones and fruit scones, tall scones and little scones. And, some lovely EEWI ladies serving your choice of scone with cream and jam, or cream cheese and chutney. What's not to like?






















Here are my savoury contributions: pumpkin and parmesan scones. Yum! I really like this recipe (recipe in a previous blog post, here) and they seldom last a day in our house. They're especially good served hot out of the oven with a good helping of Lurpak.






















There were lots of delicious goodies arriving throughout the day - with biscuits for those who aren't scone people. All butter oat and fruit crunchies, anyone? Yum.

















We also sold some of the fabulous screen-printed EEWI bags. Some of them are really beautiful, and they're so cheery in their Indian Summer colours.

















After serving scones all day, the only thing I wanted when I got home was a fruit scone. So, against all the odds, I whipped up a batch of delicious fruit scones to take with to Granny's for the weekend.

I had every intention of writing today's post all about my beautiful Garden Party Quilt which makes me smile from ear to ear every time I see it... but alack! The quilt wadding and quilting threads I ordered NINE days ago still hasn't arrived (despite delivery estimates of approximately 3 - 4 days!) from The Cotton Patch.

And so, last weekend, I had to start something new.






















This is the Animal Alphabet Quilt pattern from Don't Look Now. I bought it at the Festival of Quilts from Creative Quilting - a fantastic quilting shop based in Surrey. I can't wait to have a free Saturday so we can take a drive down there! Anyway, back to the animals. There was a made-up quilt on display which looked incredible, and I knew straight away that I wanted one.

I wanted one.

For myself.

I know, I'm selfish like that.

















Here are my alligators. They're made from Moda Basics green dots, Amy Butler's Soul Blossoms Delhi Blooms, and a charm square of Moda Marble in lime.

The pattern is fantastic. Each animal is made up of layers of appliquéd fabric, and you can trace it directly off of the A3 pattern paper onto Bondaweb/Heat 'n Bond/applique transfer iron-on stuff.

















The Bondaweb lets you get really accurate cuts - new favourite sewing accessory, ever.


















These are my butterflies. I cut these out of Amy Butler's Soul Blossoms Sari Bloom and Riley Blake's Woodland Tails Dots. The letters are cut from Moda Marble basics.

















I'm really looking forward to stitching these down! You're supposed to free-motion the edges, but I'm going to use a satin stitch instead. I'm not brave enough for free-motion in colour cottons just yet.

















This is what I've chosen for the binding: it's from the Amy Schlimer Animal Party Too range. Some of these fabric ranges have odd names.

I am going to carry on with this as an "in between" project because it's so easy to pack away. I have all of my cut-out animal shapes in a ziploc bag, and I'm using up lots of scraps and remnants on the appliqué shapes, yay.

And, hopefully, my wadding and threads will arrive some time this week so I can finally get started on the much-awaited quilting-binding-stitching-free-motioning-stencilling extravaganza that is the Garden Party Quilt!

This is the latest addition to our Bakercourt Family: the Panasonic SD253 Breadmaker.






















I like to call her Sally. She comes with a recipe booklet, and the first Recipe of Deliciousness (yet untested) I spied when I flipped it open randomly was a recipe for Sally Lunns. I love Sally Lunns.

She's a pre-loved bread maker (her official title is bread bakery, I'll have you know) that I found on Gumtree.

I used to make a lot of bread by hand, but we found that as work got more demanding, "quick" loaves were a thing reserved for weekends - and even those were few and far between. Seeing as I can make bread, I don't think this is cheating. Much.

















... now all it takes is a bit of this...

















... and some of this, if you're in the mood for soya bean and sunflower seed loaf...

















... to fill the house with the smell of freshly-baked bread, and to give you one of these!