Thursday 10 November 2016

Those catching up jobs


I've had a couple of days at home this week, which has enabled me to catch up on some of the outstanding jobs that needed doing.  This much-mended and loved old Welsh quilt had an outing last week - only for me to discover that whilst it had been airing on the outside line back in September, a bird (which had eaten blackberries!) had left a little gift.  I tried getting the stain out by hand, on a discrete area, but it didn't really remove it much and then I got a spread out area where it had been wetted, so it ended up just about fitting in the machine.

Unfortunately the stain is still just visible, so the blackberry made an effective dyestuff . . .  Below:  Ah well, I could always turn it back to front and sell it with the reverse up!



Below, here is a delightful antique Welsh quilt, all hand sewn, and stuffed with wool which had been gathered off the hedgerows and/or left over from spinning.  It was too large, when dry, to go in my washing machine, and so I had to soak it in the bath.  It took some doing and three changes of water only lightened it a little, to pale teabag brown!  It had an old laundry ticket on it, but gosh, it hadn't been washed in a great number of years to get this filthy.

I managed to shove it in the washing machine after the quilt above came out, and it got it much cleaner.




It has two different materials - a blue and beige side, and a pinks, greens and blues side.  This will now be offered for sale at my next big Fleamarket.


Below is an antique narrow loom Welsh blanket in need of tlc.  I had to rebind the ends as all but a few inches of the original machine-blanket-stitch had come undone.  It also needed the central seam resewing in parts, and a couple of darns affected.


Meanwhile, my husband hasn't been idle and below is his latest restoration project.  It's a lovely old Georgian coffer with coloured geometric inlays.  Some of these had fallen out and so he has been busy replacing them.  Some will need staining to fit in with the pattern.



For 10 p at the weekend, I bought a very old copy of Country Living magazine, and it had some ideas for using up a glut of apples (I have that alright!)


One of them was Apple Marmalade, which can be used as a glaze, a filling for cakes, or as pectin for jam making.  It was very simple to make in the oven.  You should be able to read most of the instructions, if you can't and would like the missing bit (under the glare from the camera flash) let me know.


The final jelly.  It reminded me somewhat of the colour of that quilt water . . .  I did have a quince, and so just made half the amount in the recipe.




Above, a little treat for me this week when I was in Charlie's for bird food.  I just couldn't resist the Cow Parsley design on these oven gloves.


Finally, another project of my husband's which has been sidelined for months now.  When finished it will be a solid oak grain ark, which I will keep my various bags of flour in.

I hope you are keeping warm - it's not good gardening weather any more, that's for sure!

4 comments:

  1. Love that quilt. It would go fab in my bedroom, not sure I could part with it if I were you!

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  2. I have some home-made quilts for our beds here, so this one has no emotional attachment! Just needs someone to cherish it. Glad you like it anyway.

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  3. Entering your world Jennie is like going back to past generations, love the flour coffer Keith is making, the quilting on the once dirty quilt looks like handwork?

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  4. I've recently discovered washing soda as a laundry aid--I wonder if making a paste with it and applying to the berry/poop stain would be effective--too harsh for an older fabric? Washing quilts is an undertaking! I have a huge washing machine but it tends to wad up heavy articles and go into an 'uneven load' protest. [Think of me down there heaving many pounds of wet wash about trying to appease the washer so it will continue in the spin cycle.]
    I'm wishing Jim would use his skills and some of his collected wood to create me some 'coffers'--would settle right now for a big linen cupboard.

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