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little house

I have been experimenting a bit lately with these little patchworks.

I'm not sure what to even call this kind of thing. It's not a mini-quilt because there's no quilting involved. It's certainly not 'fibre-art' or 'textile-art' - yikes, no. And 'tiny unquilted quilts that are too small to have any practical purpose' (TUQTATSTHAPP!) is a bit wordy.

Really, it's just me playing around with fabric. Inspired by all the little houses I've been pinning, and clever folk like Rachel Castle, Inaluxe and Sonia DeLaunay. That is all.

she's apples

(excuse the phone photos)

One of my favourite wholesome-type family things to do is fruit picking. Call me easily pleased, but the combination of fresh air, happy kids and take-home bounty is pretty much a winner in my eyes. So apple picking has become a yearly ritual for us. We were a little late in the season this year, but there was still plenty of fruit on the trees.

Did you know that Granny Smiths get sweeter the longer they stay on the tree? I didn't. The kids are eating loads of these.

We came home with three buckets full of Fujis and Granny Smiths. Plus one beautiful little flat round red apple from this tree. The orchard owner told me its name - an old English variety, apparently - but it has now slipped my mind. Perhaps one of these?

I'd be lying if I didn't say that one of the big lures of fruit picking (for me, anyway) wasn't the resulting opportunity to bake something.

So, a few days later, Apple Slice. Henry has decided he's not a fan (adding yet another inexplicable item to his will-not-eat list, sigh). But that's ok because it leaves more for the rest of us.

(Wonderful slice recipe from Inner Pickle, found via allconsuming).

hearty progress

There's not a lot of time for making at the moment. So this little quilt has been plodding along a few seams at a time, all slow motion-like.

If anyone is wondering about the details, those upside-down arrows are supposed to resemble hearts. The quilt is made of 9cm squares and half-square triangles, making it a pretty small 112x142cm. It's made of cotton & linen from the stash (aside from the coral solid). I sewed it up in small sections rather than strips because that seemed the best way to keep the corners roughly matching (presicion in quilting is not my strong point!)

Once this little number is backed and bound, it's destined for the couch to help ward away some of this winter chill. There will be flannel on the back, to be sure. Hope you're keeping well, friends.