A morning in the autumn garden

We are really in the midst of autumn, the grass is covered  in   leaves and apart from the evergreens, the other trees are sporting  bare branches or autumnal leaves that are falling off daily. However on a positive note there are still things growing. The living compost that we put down on 10th October now looks like this ……

Twenty days after germination

We have five squash growing from one plant and we picked the first one today, so I hope  to make soup a bit later.

Hiding its light under a large leaf

The purple sprouting broccoli are also doing well.  The fig tree is full of figs, that I think we should have pruned earlier,  but Sue suggests we leave them because if  we don’t have a hard winter they may survive, otherwise the frost will get them.

An autumn fig tree still full of fruit

As we are in the garden I have chosen as today’s ‘make’ a wind chime.

A copper Piping  wind chime

This wind chime is  the perfect autumn colour,  particularly as the copper ages. It makes a beautiful noise. I hope you can see it in the photo below as it is camouflaged by its surroundings.

You will need

*22ml copper piping

Copper piping wind chimes

*plumbers pipe cutter

*4mm drill with bit

*1.5mm reel of thin copper wire

wire cutters

A circular piece of 9mm ply with a diameter of 115mm. Get the D.I.Y shop to do this for you

Acrylic paint  and brush to paint the ply

Instructions

1. At even intervals drill six holes into the ply 10mm in from the outside edge. Drill one hole in the centre. Paint the ply and leave to dry.

2. Using the pipe cutter cut the tube into 7 different lengths: 620, 530, 440, 350, 260, 170 and 140mm.

3.Cut 3. 50mm down from the top of each piece of pipe drill a hole through so you have 2 holes opposite each other.

4. For each tube, cut a 300mm piece of wire and thread it between the two holes. Bring first one side of the wire up and over the top of the tube, and then do this to the other side.  The result will be a piece of wire stretching across the tube 10mm from the top. These are for hanging the tubes so that they will touch each other in a wind and make a chime.

5. Cut seven pieces of wire each 200mm long.

6. Thread the wire through the ply, one piece of wire for each hole. Pull the wire so there is 45mm on one side of the ply disc and the longer piece on the other. Turn the shorter ends up to form 15mm up-turned loops.

7 Twist the longer sides of the wires together in pairs and then twist them altogether including the central wire to form a big loop from which to hang the chimes.

8. Attach the chimes, by hanging the taut wires across the diameter of the tubes to the hooks, with the smallest on in the centre.

Spooky Halloween

This lovely pumpkin head was made by Matthew Skidmore  whilst he was staying in our house. He even wrote the instructions. I would have put this in kids corner, but because of the use of sharp knives, It should be  made under adult supervision!

Halloween Warrior Pumpkin

What you need:                                                 

A pumpkin

1 large sharp knife

1 small sharp knife

A non-permanent pen

1 night candle

Instructions

1) Take the pumpkin and wash all over to give a clean, fresh glow. Then decide on which part of the pumpkin will make the perfect canvass for the Halloween warrior pumpkin face.

2) Use the  large  knife to slice off the top of the pumpkin by placing it on its side, being careful of fingers. If fingers are lost, these will make perfect props to be placed in between the pumpkin’s teeth!

3) Scoop out the seeds and throw away or dry to use in salads. Put the  juice and flesh in a separate bowl. (These can be later used to make a delicious pumpkin soup.)

4) Using the non-permanent pen, draw the scary warrior face lightly getting the proportions of face features correct. The pen can always be rubbed out with a lick of your finger and re-drawn.

5) Using the small sharp knife, start to carve delicately the main facial features, starting with the eyes then moving to the nose.

6) Producing the teeth from the pumpkin is tricky, certainly not a treat, but is rewarding by simply making an incision and following the outline until you meet your starting point. Then carefully cut out each tooth one by one until you have a whole set of razor sharp fangs.

7) Add  the warrior stripes to  the sides of the face to customise the pumpkin.

On Halloween, place the night candle in the centre of the pumpkin and put the head back on to create an eerie atmosphere while enjoying slurping pumpkin soup!

Papier Mache fish

Flying fish!

Papier Mache comes from the french word meaning chewed paper. It is made by building up layers over a mould. The mould can be a cut out shape, a bowl, a balloon. When the paste dries, the paper is quite firm and can be painted and varnished. You can use a variety of glues . Wall paper paste is one of the easiest.

To make the fish

You will need

Glue/ we used wall paper paste

Old newspaper

Cardboard (an old cereal packet will do)

Masking tape

Pen or pencil

Scissors

White poster paint

Coloured poster paints

Instructions

1. Draw a simple fish shape onto card. Cut out the shape.

2. Draw round the cut out fish  onto card,  cut out the second fish shape. You will now have 2 cardboard  fish  the same size and shape.

3. Using masking tape, stick   the 2 shapes together leaving a small gap to stuff with crumpled paper.

4. Stuff with bits of paper and then close the gap.

5. Mix the glue according to the instructions on the packet.

6.Rip the paper into long strips and spread with the paste. Stick the glued paper strip onto the fish shape. smooth each piece down into place. Apply about 4 layers in all and leave to dry.

7. When the paper shape is completely dry , this may take up to 2 or 3 days- paint with the white paint.

8. Leave to dry  and then decorate with coloured paint.

A cooking day today – Juliet’s orange cake

I’m not sure if it was the one and a half hour walk at 5.30am or just the general feel of autumn in the air and leaves underfoot,  but today was a cooking day. So I started with my Heritage recipe. This is the one I make for celebrations, for marmalade lovers and is the one i want to be remembered by.

In case any one is interested!

The Luddites were a social movement of British textile artisans in the early nineteenth century who protested—often by destroying mechanized looms—against the changes produced by the Industrial Revolution, which they felt were leaving them without work and changing their entire way of life.

Orange Cake

You will need

Better in the tummy than the tin

5 or 6  small oranges

6 eggs

225g (1/2lb) caster sugar

225g(1/2lb) ground almonds

1/2 tsp baking powder

Oven temperature 190C  Cooking time 1.30 hours

Instructions

1. Boil the oranges until they are soft – An added bonus  this makes a great smell in the kitchen. Leave the oranges to cool as it makes them easier to chop up. I boiled mine last night.

2. Grease and flour a loose bottomed cake tin or line it with grease proof paper.

3. Cut up the boiled fruit and throw away the white bit in the centre of the fruit and any pips.

4. Place the cut up orange including the skin  in  a bowl and mix with an electric whisk until you  have a wet pulp.

5. Add all the other ingredients to the orange pulp and mix well.

6. Turn the mixture into the tin and bake for about 1 1/2 hours. It is best to check after an hour to make sure the top is not getting too brown,  if  it is then cover it with  a piece of greaseproof paper.

7. Eat by itself or with yoghurt, creme fraiche or cream. It is very moist and is almost like solid marmalade.

This has to be the best cake ever!

Trimmed Towels

Trimmed Towels

Although one can buy towels in many colours, it is not always possible to get the exact shade one likes. We have dyed these specially in complementary shades of lilacs, Wisteria’s  and blues. To add that extra something, we have trimmed with pale colour small print fabrics and also ribbon. Either use old age faded remnants or reverse the fabric to get a more faded look.

Instructions

1 Dye the towels according to the manufacturers instructions.

2 Cut the fabric into strips 1.5cm  longer than the towel and the width of the woven decoration plus 1.5cm seam allowance.

3 Iron the seam allowance under the strip and pin and then sew the piece into place.

Dye and trim tired looking towels

Hat boxes

Hi anyone out there who is reading this blog.

Dotty Hat boxes

It is possible to dye fabrics that  already have a pattern on them, for example we dyed these   polka dot fabrics. The ones shown here were originally white dots on a red background, white dots on a navy background – these were both dyed in fuchsia pink resulting in pink dots on red and pink dots on navy blue. A fabric with  white dots on a red background was dyed in turquoise which changed the background  colour as well as the dots. The red ground colour  turned into brown the dots became turquoise. The resulting fabric was used to cover cardboard hat boxes.

You will need

Polka dot fabric in 100% cotton

Machine dyes

Fixative

salt

rubber gloves

cardboard hat boxes

Wadding

glue

scissors

Instructions

1 Dye the fabric according to the manufacturers instructions.

2 Leave to dry and iron flat

3 Cut one circle of fabric the diameter  of the lid plus  another the size of the base plus 1cm turnings for each .

4 Cut a piece of wadding exactly the size of the lid.

5 Cut one oblong of fabric the size of the box side and another the size of the lid rim with a 2.5cm turning on each.

6 Cut 1cm -deep snips around the edge of the base fabric. turn the box upside down and cover the base with glue . Centre the fabric over the base and smooth out from the centre. Glue down the snipped edges.

7 Press a 1 cm turning along the wrong side, of one long edge of box side fabric. Attach fabric so pressed edge is level with box base. Turn the  box as you stick and fold overlapping end under  to neaten.

8 Glue 1.5cm seam allowance to inside edge to neaten.

9 Cover box lid as you have the side but glue the wadding in place first.

Going dotty

A very basic mosaic teapot stand

So O.K how many of us use teapots these days. Well quite a few actually. So here is a very easy tea pot stand and it uses recycled materials.

You will need

A ceramic tile

Coarse sand paper

Tile cement

Orange acrylic paint or any colour you choose

A piece of felt the same size as the tile

PVA glue

Bits of broken crockery in lots of colours and patterns

Instructions

1. Sand the surface of the tile to give it a rough texture. This will help prevent the cement  from sliding off the tile.

2. Stick the felt to the underneath of the tile.

3. Arrange the pieces of china in a pleasing pattern  on a square of paper the same size as the tile.

4. Mix some paint into the tile cement  until it has the depth of colour you like.

5. Cover the tile with the cement and working speedily,   stick the pieces of china onto the cement. Leave to dry and then use as a teapot stand or  make lots and decorate the bathroom wall with them.

A tea pot stand

Wired up

Turn a mirror tile into a decorative mirror.  With the use of two thicknesses of wire some glass nuggets and  Araldite I have managed to create a mirror suitable for a bathroom or bedroom.

To make a magic mirror

you will need

1x 15cm  (12ins)mirror tile

4 x 240cm of wire for each 1.6ml thick wire to wrap round the mirror

12 x 41cm of 1.6ml thick wire to make holders for nuggets

araldite epoxy resin

12 glass nuggets

Step by Step

1 Take 1 piece of wire 240cm long and wrap it round one side of the tile five times. Make sure the pieces of wire are close together so that a band of wire threads is formed. Twist the ends of the wire together at the back of the mirror tile.

2. Do the same as you did in step one but on the opposite side of the mirror. Secure at the back in the same way.

3.Turn  the tile so that the wrapped  round  sides  are on the right and left of the tile. Cut a length of wire and wrap it round the bottom  edge of the tile but this time wind the threads under those on the left hand side.

4 Cut another length of wire and wrap it round the final side of the tile but weaving under the wires on the right hand side of the tile.

5 To make the wire wrapped nuggets cut a 41cm length of wire and wrap it round each nugget 3 times so that it forms a nest for the nugget to sit in. This will leave  long tail of wire. (  to weave in and out of the wire frame) When the nugget sits in the wire, glue it in place with epoxy resin.

6 When you have wrapped twelve nuggets, divide them into four groups of three and  twist them in and out of the wire frame  at each corner. Secure with a twist on the outside of the frame.

WIRED!!!

Bagged it!

Wash bag

A simple draw string bag complete with laundry label decoration is perfect for dirty clothes.

You will  need

2 pieces of linen 1240 x 1580mm.

2 linen strips each measuring 40x1000mm.

Fat fabric markers.

Laundry label to copy from.

Scissors.

Sewing machine or needle and thread.

Dressmakers pins.

Iron and ironing board.

Large safety pin.

Instructions

1 With right sides together using a 10mm seam allowance, on and sew one piece of linen to the other, along one short side.

2 Pin and stitch along the two long sides, using a 10mm seam allowance and stopping170mm from the top of each side.

3.With the seam allowance still turned in, fold over the top by 75mm turning under the raw edges of the open side. . Sew around the top opening along the bottom edge of the fold, crossing the side seams. Sew another line of stitching 30mm above the first lineto create a casing or channel for the ties. Turn the bag the right way out.

4.Make the ties by pressing the strips in half down their length and turn under the raw edges so they are hidden. Sew along the turned in edges. Press flat. Thread the ties through the channel between the two lines of stitching by pinning one end to a large safety pin and pushing it through. Knot the ends of each length together.

5. Copy washing instructions from a label onto the bag using a fabric felt tip

Making the grade

Make the grade

Create colourful fabric by Grade Dyeing

This very effective dying method is called gradation of colour and is carried out by wrapping one part of the cloth in plastic to protect it whilst dying another part.

You will need

.Musin (As muslin is rather narrow and very fine it may be better to dye two or three lengths of cloth together.)

Three different coloured cold water dyes.

A red, a pink and a shade of orange are used here.

A washing up bowl

Fixative and salt.

A sink with a draining board Cling film or saren wrap

Instructions

1 Wash the muslin and squeeze out the excess water.

2 Mix the lightest colour with the salt and the fixative in the washing up bowl and put it in the sink. Follow the makers instructions and put all the muslin in the bowl for as long as is needed for the dye to take.

3 Empty the first colour out of the bowl and down the sink. Squeeze out the excess dye and cover the first third of the fabric in cling film.

4 Put the first cling film wrapped piece of fabric on the  draining board. Mix up the second colour adding the salt and the fixative. Add the none wrapped fabric to this dye bath and leave as you did the first colour.

5 Leaving the first piece of cling film still on , wrap half the next piece of dyed fabric in cling film and then mix up the third dye bath.

6 Add the last piece of unwrapped fabric to this dye bath.

7 When all the fabric has been dyed un-wrap the cling film and rinse the fabric. Leave it to dry.