Quilts glorious quilts

We'll have the next quilting block up for you shortly, complete with step by step instructions. We hope you'll take the opportunity to quilt along with us and share your results on our Facebook photo page 

Meanwhile I thought it would be a good idea to share with you some examples of the kind of sampler quilt we 're working on. Hilary, my very skilful "Quilting Mum" made these beauties.

Instructions for our first quilt block - Rail Fence are on the website

Clare F

Abundance Fruit Day

On my riverside walk this morning I spotted some posters advertising the Abundance Fruit Day this weekend here in Chiswick.

When I got home I googled it and found Abundance is an movement that started out in Sheffield and now has branches here in west London, and in Brixton, Haringey, Hackney, West Ealing and Manchester. They are mapping fruit trees - in a similar way to the chaps we highlighted on the website recently who are mapping foraging locations.

The West London Abundance Fruit Day sounds fun - there's a 60 litre fruit press which will be pressing local apples all day, apple games, fruit swaps, a jam-making workshop at 2pm, craft stalls and a bicycle operated smoothie maker so you can feel virtuous when making your own! More info here

It is really heartening to see how many initiatives there are now to encourage growing and sharing produce. We also recently highlighted Crop Swap, which is building up a national fruit and veg swapping databaase. Story here

Clare F

Additions to my quilting stash

One of our Facebook friends warned that once you get your hands on some fat quarters they become an addiction. I told myself I wouldn't let it happen but would stick to remnants. They are however strangely seductive and I felt in need of some other patterns as I build up my quilt blocks.

Not sure about the owls but I think the colours will work with what I already have. We'll see...

Join me in my efforts to learn quilting - see Join me in my first quilting lesson on the website

Clare F

Tomato Mania

Clare O has been really besotted with her tomato crop. She's made all sorts of things with them including jam, marmalade, chutney and sottolio as well as using them in salads and sauces. She's also been brightening up her kitchen with trays of them on display, so I thought they'd make a good subject for her birthday card and got my paintbox out and did this.

Least I could do after she has bestowed so many on me - not to mention runner beans and chard.

Clare F

My first London Grapes

They may not be huge but they taste pretty sweet - my first crop - on a vine planted 2 years ago.

Clare F

Preserving green tomatoes

I've just experimented with green tomatoes preserved in olive oil - using some of Clare O's bounteous tomato harvest and Lina Negri's recipe. I only had a few tomatoes and as this is a first attempt I've only made one small jar - but it was very easy. You can find the recipe on our website.

Here are the tomatoes after their 30 seond boil - cut into pieces and put into a bowl under a weight (I used the olive oil bottle on top of a saucer) so the excess water comes out.

When I compared notes with Clare O I discovered that she uses a different recipe  - one Lina gave us first as a footnote to Clare's earlier piece on tomatoes. Clare says it's absolutely delicious. I'll need to wait a while to find out how mine taste. I think the key difference was that in Clare's version you add vinegar to the water you boil the tomatoes in whereas mine involved a separate vinegar and wine marination stage.  Also hers uses onion and mine just garlic and fresh oregano.

Anyway I can't wait to taste them. At MIAMI we are falling in love with all forms of preserved tomatoes. Clare offered me some Tomato and Chilli jam last night which was truly scrumptious. She 's also been busy making raspberry vinegar.

>> Green tomatoes under oil (and a recipe for under vinegar) on the website

>> The other Green tomato recipe from Lina can be found in the Comments after this article What to do with Green Tomatoes

The death of cheap clothing

There! Did you hear that sound?  

Apparently that's the death knell of cheap clothing ringing out loud and clear across Europe.  According to all the papers, the floods in Asia will mean that we are going to see a rapid rise in the price of cotton, which in turn will mean a rapid rise in the price of clothing in shops like Primark, Asda and Tesco.

Whilst financially this is going to be a blow for some, for many it will just mean that they think more carefully before they purchase new outfits: which in environmental terms has got to be a winner. 

For far too long society has been condoning, if not encouraging, people to purchase clothes that they don't need and to throw them away shortly afterwards.  Apparently in the last five years we have seen the proportion of textile waste rise from a meagre 7% to a whopping 30%, which we the taxpayers have to pay for.

As a society, we've become used to disposable fashion, without giving a thought to the effects that this might have on our environment, or on the poor people who have to produce these cheap items. So from my perspective, this price rise can’t come soon enough and this rise is all grist to our revolution.

However if you're worried about how you'll manage without all this cheap clothing, fear not, for in reality we really don’t need all these clothes especially as we supposedly only wear 20% of the clothes in our wardrobes, 80% of the time.   With a little bit of care and attention your can make your clothes last a lot longer.  And if you really do want something new to wear for that special night out why not try altering, adapting or refashioning your clothes.  If you are worried that your skills wont stand up to the task find a friend to help you….or if all else fails why not try ‘swishing’ at a clothes swap party.  With a little bit of thought and creativity we can all find a new wardrobe for a fraction of the price, but not at the expense of the environment.

Come on join our revolution and think before you buy, because life’s too good to throw away!

Hilary

Related posts on the website 

A beginner's guide to swishing 

Holding a swap party

Getting new life from old clothes

How to reinvent your holiday wardrobe

Makeover your summer wardrobe without spending a penny

Quilting is easy and fun

Following my earlier post I thought I'd update the blog on progress so far. Hilary has helped me get off the ground and we had an enjoyable day cutting out the pieces for my first three blocks.

I've posted the instructions on how to do the first one, Rail Fence, on the  main website and we'll soon be following this up with step by step instructions and templates for the others.

This is Rail Fence - which consists of simple strips and so is easy to cut out and to sew - a good one for a beginner like me to kick off with.

This one is called Card Trick and consists of lots of triangles - it requires a bit of fiddling and juggling but I really enjoyed doing it.

And here's number 3 which is called Wild Goose Chase.

I followed Hilary's advice and did all of these by hand - it's only running stitch so very quick and easy and as she pointed out the pieces are so small that using the machine is probably more trouble than it's worth. It also means you can do it anywhere anytime.

So I've lost my quilting virginity so to speak and am surprised at how relaxing and easy it is. If you haven't tried give it a go. You don't have to do a sampler of all different blocks as I'm doing - you can choose just one block pattern and stick to that. The possibilities are endless.

Here's how to do the Rail Fence and get started A First Lesson in Quilting

Clare F

Recession-proof your Christmas

Wow…did you realise that there are only 99 days until Christmas? (Oops! as there have been a few days since writing this and before posting it - it's now only 93...). Does that send you into headless chicken mode?  Or are you already rolling your eyes and moaning about people who talk about Christmas too early? 

Frankly I'm in the latter camp, but if you want to beat the recession this Christmas, now is the time to start planning.  With a little bit of forethought and a little bit of creativity, you can have a real recession-busting Christmas. Here's how:

1. Budget – set a figure and stick to it

2. Start saving -  How about stopping that daily Starbucks habit, start taking a homemade lunch  to work...

3. Start planning – Now's the time to plan - making home made presents, decorations, your own mince meat... 

4. Start harvesting - There's still time to dry some lavender for homemade lavender bags and you have plenty of time to start making your own homemade pot pourri.

5. Start collecting - Paper and images that inspire can be saved for wrapping your gifts and making your own Christmas Cards. You also still have plenty of time to start collecting all your left-over bits of soaps and/or candles – enough to reuse and make your own gifts.

If our Top 5 Tips have inspired you there's a great 2011 money saving article on our mainwebsite Take a look!

Hilary 

Foraging for jelly and syrup-making

Even though we'd left it late in the season for South East England, there were still just enough elderberries and rosehips left to pick with my lovely God-daughter Florrie and her sister Martha this weekend.

They love finding things and helping out, well, when not glued to CBBC of course. Here are some of the pictures and Martha's home-grown explanation of how to separate the tiny elderberries from their stalks.

If you live further north, or at higher altitudes, I expect there are still plenty of elderberries, rosehips and even sloes to be picked.




Making the jelly and learning a bit of chemistry
I've been making preserves for years and learned a really good lesson yesterday. If you want your jelly or jam to set when adding pectin or lemons, make sure you add the sugar AFTERWARDS. If you don't, it won't set. So having followed the recipe for my red-currant recipe (see link below) with the elderberries, I added the sugar before boiling the juice with the lemon juice. Now I think I may have some delicious and very concentrated elderberry cordial on my hands!

Rosehip syrup
I'll be tackling this later today, but in the meantime if you're looking for how-to, see the link below for our rosehip syrup recipe (or at least, one of them).

See also Foraging map on the MIAMI Forums
Recipe for red-currant jelly
Wartime recipe for rosehip syrup

All the best from Clare O

Ready for quilting

I've just  bought my first set of fat quarters!

If you'd asked me a few weeks ago I wouldn't have known a fat quarter from a thin cent! In fact it turns out it is a standard measure for a piece of material for quilting - based on cutting a yard of cloth into  quarters - which works out as approximately 18 by 22 inches.

I have bought ten of these pieces and here's my stash.

I'm planning to make a sampler quilt, which means incorporating a series of different square blocks of quilting each in a different pattern. Hilary is going to be my "quilting mummy" to get me started and mentor me through the process. As I progress, we'll share Hilary's templates for the blocks I'm making and will pass on Hilary's top tips on our main MIAMI website

If you want to join me please leave a message  on the forum -  to ask any queries and share advice as well as posting pictures of your own quilts.

See also: Quilts at the V&A
Making a journal quilt

Clare F

Anyone tried Streetbank yet?

Still in the old Blitz spirit of sharing and being neighbourly, I've just come across an interesting website, Street Bank, which shows you what your neighbours are prepared to give away or lend. It claims to give you access to a whole load of stuff, is good for the environment, saves you money and builds community all in one go. 
It's free to join, but you have to show that a bit of community spirit by offering up anything you would be willing to lend or give away. It can be low value items like DVDs, a book or higher value like an old TV or a bed you want to get rid of. (A bit like Freecycle).

I’ve joined and offered to lend out my stepladders (well it's a start!). I have my new homemade Roman blinds to hang so will be calling on the lady who lives 250 yards away and is offering the loan of a power drill.
Check it out at www.streetbank.comor via the link on our Facebook Page under favourite pages