This morning's post brought another exciting parcel from foreign lands .......
....... if you need another clue, this is the corner of the customs form
I was very excited to receive the parcel, as it contained the very first thing that I have ever bought on ebay!! After wrestling with lots of sticky tape and bubble wrap, I finally reached the contents
Are you scratching your head, wonderfing what it is? Here it is set up on the edge of the worktable
It is a ball winder, which winds the yarn from the swift
This is the start of the ball
And this is the end result
I stuck the label back on, so that I know what yarn it is when I use it
Now we come to the reason for the cake and the change of venue. We couldn't have our usual Friday afternoon patch'n'chat at Borderland Fabrics, as there was a group visiting the shop, so I offered to host it in my studio. Of course we can't have Friday afternoon without cake, so I got out my ancient, old M&S book 'Cooking for your Freezer', by Mary Berry. The cake is so easy to make, even I can do it!!
You will need 150g of currants, 150g of sultanas, 150g of brown sugar, finely grated rind of 2 oranges, 300ml of hot tea, 275g self raising flower and 1 egg.
Put the fruit, sugar and orange rind in a bowl and pour over the hot tea. Leave to soak overnight. Grease and line a 20cm round cake tin with greased greaseproof paper and preheat the oven to 150 degrees C, 300F gas mark 2.
Add the flour and egg to the fruit mixture. Mix well, turn into the tin, then back for 90 minutes. Leave to cool on a wire rack
Malcolm and I had a slice with our morning cuppa - purely to make sure that it had turned out ok!
The cake was declared to be very good by my three guests ...... Tricia, who was handquilting her gorgeous sampler quilt
Katy, busy with tiny foundation-pieced blocks
Anne S, with yet another of her tiny log cabin squares
I made a start to machine quilting a baby quilt (I'm supposed to have it finished for next Saturday!)
I've got all my things packed ready for tomorrow's show ....... including the photography cup, which has been on the mantlepiece for the last year. Wouldn't it be good if it came back home with me!! I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, love Anne