Sweet Mary

For the last few days I have been washing, ironing and sorting through my stash of vintage linen. Its an eclectic (or just mad!) mix of inherited pieces and collected by me along the way. After this weekend I will probably have more. I am in Auckland over the next few days to see my dear friend Kate and to go to the Vintage Textile Fair . We went for the first time last year and loved it so much we have made a date to go every year if possible. I have my comfy shoes, clothes and backpack packed as its pretty crowded with ladies on a mission. Can't wait. I may have to make something with my linen stash and thought this idea was pretty perfect.

Over the last few years I have read bits and pieces on blogs about "no-knead bread". The idea of not having to knead the bread is strangely attractive to me. Unusual I know, as most people love the kneading bit and feel they can meditate while doing so. Today, I finally baked the loaf pictured above. I started it yesterday, checking occasionally to see what interesting things were happening. It only has 1/4 teaspoon of yeast so its a slow riser. Its mean't to cook for 30 minutes but it looked so brown at 25 minutes that I took it out early. Its delicious but probably should have had the slightly extra time as it is very moist. If you try this recipe you may need to play around with the timings a bit. The men in my life have declared it a winner though so I will be cooking it again, quite soon. Click here for the recipe but also read Jane Brocket's post on the same bread - find it in her Archives section, August 2010. Scroll down to August 21st and do read more of h...

For my birthday this year my sister gave me a book voucher. I knew straight away what I wanted to buy with it so I put my order into our local Poppies bookshop. Within the week this fabulous book by Jane Brocket was waiting for me to pick up. I follow Jane's blog anyway and had read her tantalising snippets about her new book. She has a very special talent with words and pictures. The book is beautifully photographed and Jane writes about quilts in such a way that I found myself constantly nodding in agreement. The front cover is printed to resemble a quilt. Can I say beautiful again? Naturally, I am inspired to make another quilt, this time for myself. Surprisingly, I have never made one for our bed although I have made quilts for family and friends. My favourite combination is red, white and blue so I have been pulling out some of my stash to get some ideas. Last December I used up a lot of my red fabric stash on Christmas bunting so I think I may just have to collect some m...