In Hazel's quilt Does Anyone Fancy a G&T? she used seeding in various colours and thicknesses of thread to great effect for shadows to ground the items on the table. If you look closely ou'll see it is also used for texture in the lower sections. Can you spot her favourite french knots? Look for the bubbles!

Of course, sewing at this level makes you hungry so there was plenty of cake and a bowl of tasty homemade spicy pumpkin soup for lunch.  Hazel grows the squash on her allotment and this year they have become HUGE, so there will be plenty of soup for our workshops this year!

Begin by heating a small frying pan and dry roasting the coriander, cumin and cardamom seeds – this is to toast them and draw out their flavour. After 2-3 minutes they will change colour and start to jump in the pan. Remove them from the pan and crush them finely with a pestle and mortar.
 
Cut the pumpkin in half through the stalk, then cut each half into 4 again and scoop out the seeds using a large spoon. Then brush the surface of each section with the oil and place them on the baking sheet.

Season with salt and pepper, and then pop them on a high shelf of the oven, gas mark 9, 475 F (240 C) to roast for 25-30 minutes or until tender when tested with a skewer.
Meanwhile melt the butter in a large saucepan over a high heat, add the onion, stir it round and when it begins to colour round the edges, after about 5 minutes, turn the heat down. Let it cook very gently without a lid, giving it a stir from time to time, for about 20 minutes.

Then remove the pumpkin from the oven and leave it aside to cool.
Now add the stock and the milk to the onions, and leave them with the heat turned low to slowly come up to simmering point. Next scoop out the flesh of the pumpkin with a sharp knife and add it to the stock together with a seasoning of salt, pepper and nutmeg. Then let it all simmer very gently for about 15-20 minutes. Next the soup should be processed to a puree.

Because there's a large volume of soup, it's best to do this in two halves. What you need to do is whiz it until it's smoothly blended, but as an extra precaution it's best to pass it through a sieve as well in case there are any unblended fibrous bits.

Taste and season well, then when you're ready to serve the soup, re-heat it gently just up to simmering point, being careful not to let it boil.  We like to serve our soup with a swirl ofcrème fraiche and cubes of creamy feta cheese.

This recipe is a combination of two from Delia's winter collection

Makes about 20 scones

1. Lightly grease two baking trays. Pre-heat the oven to 220°C/425°F/Gas 7.
2. Measure the flour and baking powder into a large bowland then rub in  the butter using your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar.
   
3. Beat the eggs together until blended and make up to a generous 300ml (1/2 pint) with the milk, then put about 2 tablespoons of the egg/milk aside in a cup for glazing the scones later. Gradually add the egg/milk mixture to the dry ingredients until you have a soft dough. It is far better that the scone mixture is on the wet side, sticking to your fingers, as the scones will rise better.
4. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and flatten it out with your hand, or use a rolling pin, to a thickness of 1-2 cm (1/2 – ¾ inch). Use a 5 cm (2 inch) fluted cutter to stamp out the dough by pushing the cutter straight down into the dough (as opposed to twisting the cutter) then lift it straight out. This ensures that the scones will rise evenly and keep their shape. Gently push the remaining dough together, knead very lightly then re-roll and cut more scones out as before.
5. Arrange the scones on the prepared baking trays and brush the tops with the reserved beaten egg/milk mixture to glaze. Bake for about 10-15 minutes or until the scones are well risen and golden. Cool on a wire rack, covered with a clean tea towel to keep them moist. Serve as fresh as possible, cut in half and spread generously with strawberry jam and top with a good spoonful of thick cream.

This is a tried and tested recipe from the every delightful Mary Berry.

1. Sift dry ingredients into a large bowl and then stir in remaining ingredients.
2. Spoon mixture into 12 large muffin cases or 48 mini muffin cases (we had the mini ones!)
3. Bake for 18-20 minutes at 200c or Gas mark 5

A recipe often made by our lovely friend Anne!

350g caster sugar
110g soft unsalted butter,
2 large eggs, at room temperature
225g plain flour
1/4 teaspoonbaking powder
1/2 teaspoonbicarbonate of soda
3 large over-ripe bananas, peeled and flesh mashed
1 teaspoonvanilla extract
75g chopped pecans (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 180°c. Lightly grease and line the tin with greaseproof paper.
2. Beat the sugar and butter for 3–4 minutes until soft and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating continuously. Sift the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda into the mixture and fold in. Now stir in the mashed bananas and vanilla extract. Add the pecans, if using.
3. Pour the mixture into the prepared loaf tin and bake in the oven for 1 hour 15 minutes. Check if it’s ready by inserting a skewer into the centre of the bread – if it does not come out clean, return it to the oven for another 10 minutes.
4. Let the banana bread cool completely before turning it out of the tin. Serve sliced, toasted with butter and enjoy for breakfast, lunch or dinner!

This amazing recipe for banana bread comes from the Three Sisters Bake cook book

Hot on the heels of Lin Kerr's workshops, this week we had the pleasure of a two-day workshop with Arleen Wild. For those of you who aren't familiar with her work, Arleen is a mixed media artist, and her work is an energetic mix of painting, free motion stitch and fabric.  She produces stunning landscapes, seascapes and flowers some of which are huge! You can see more of her work on her website.

Don't you agree that all the work looks amazing? Some aren't quite finished yet but all are well on the way.

You will have spotted that there are scones and home-made jam with clotted cream in the picture. Well we couldn't let all these lovely people work so hard without some kind of reward, so over the two days there were raspberry muffins, banana and pecan loaf and chocolate oat biscuits and the aforementioned scones. Recipes will follow!

If you have been inspired by the work shown, and fancy a creative day out with friends (and cake!) why not check out our Textile Adventures workshops.  There are three left this year and we will soon be adding next year's programme.

That's all for now - thanks for reading! ​

Hazel & Terry

Just where does time go to?  If you know, please drop me an email letting me know!  We are so busy here at InStitches that keeping up with our blog seems to drop to the bottom of the list.  But I just wanted to show you the work from another creative  workshop with calligrapher, Lin Kerr.  Two days this time, exploring the work of David Jones.

With examples of David Jones' texts as inspiration we first drafted our own texts before transfering them to prepared paper.  Lin has painted these beforehand using gesso and acrylic paints to give the impression of an old distressed wall.

So many letter choices for some!

Then it was time to paint in the letters.  Using a limited colour palette suggested by Lin we never the less were able to create an array of schemes!

Of course there was cake, how could you think there wouldn't be! 

Today it was a chocolate and sweet potato loaf cake from a Waitrose recipe card.  you can find the recipe and 'how to' video here: https://www.waitrose.com/content/waitrose/en/home/recipes/recipe_directory/c/chocolate-sweet-potatoloafcake.html