We went bearing gifts - pizza for dinner, a pretty photo frame for the Grubbery, a bottle of whiskey from the Bushmill's distillery to toast the new arrival, and of course, a patchwork quilt. I wanted to use an animal theme and found the most gorgeous pattern on an American website called From Me to You. They were really helpful and put the pattern in the post before they'd even charged me the money! I try not to have favourites among the quilts I make because I make each one with thoughts of the people they're going to be for - but this one was a bit special, not least because of who it was for. It was probably the most complicated one I've made for one thing, but I just loved the animals, too. The most time-consuming part was all the little 9-blocks in the top section's background, which are individually sewn. Fortunately for me, The Grub was a bit late, which meant that with some furious sewing on our holiday. I could have it done by the time we saw him.
Since we were taking dinner I thought I'd throw in some dessert, too, and whipped up some brownies. I tried a different recipe from usual, from Cookie Madness which caught my eye because it contained golden syrup which The Scientist loves. It also uses unsweetened chocolate which I'm not sure we really get here, but I happened to have a bit left from my trip to America last November. It's unfortunate that I won't be able to recreate them until I can persuade someone to bring me some more back as they were really good - a satisfying amount of goo in the middle squares but without veering on the undercooked, and they were also nice and firm. The instructions said to refrigerate them but they were still warm when we went to bed so I left them in a tin instead and they were fine.
Why is there a rabbit posing with the brownies? Well, he helped me make them, and that will be another story anon.
3 comments:
Another lovely one-of-a-kind quilt! Just amazing, I would never have the patience or talent to make one. Your friends must have been thrilled with the quilt in addition to the other gifts. The brownies look absolutely perfect and tasty!
Gorgeous quilt!! And the brownies look fabulous too. Want me to send you some more baking chocolate? We can recreate the colonial economy - I'll send you the raw materials and then you pop the brownies in the post to me.
That sounds like a top plan, Tracy! And I can pretend it's research for my lectures on the industrial economy next semester. Everybody wins (apart from the students, who don't get brownies AND have to sit through a lecture on industrial exports)
I'm glad you both liked the quilt - I was quite sad to give it away, but it's gone to a very good home. I stupidly didn't take a photo of Birthday Buddy's quilt before I sent it over, Tracy, and I can't find the one you sent me afterwards, or it would have featured here too :(
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