I finished the current quilt top.


I pinned it out on the clothesline (the long way is pinned to the line so it wouldn't drag on the ground). It was hard to get a clear picture because it's kind of breezy today.

Here's a closeup:



Most of the fabrics are from Westminster - either Kaffe Fassett or one of their other designers. (And yeah, I haven't run the lint roller over the top yet to get rid of all the thread scraps - I realize now you can see a couple loose threads on there.)

I think I've found a fabric in my "stash" that will work for the backing, as well.

I think my next sewing project is putting bindings on the three quilts I have tucked away that are quilted, but not bound. I don't know why binding takes me so long to do...

I also baked bread again this weekend. I used the "rapid light wholemeal loaf" from the Sara Lewis Bread book. This is the second time I've made the bread; it's so good I've decided that it's probably going to be my 'regular' loaf. I altered the recipe slightly to make it work better in the bread machine:

1 cup warm water (may need to add a bit more as bread is mixing; I usually do)
1 tablespoon cooking oil (I use the "light" olive oil in this. You could also use butter, I'm sure that would be good too)
1 1/2 cups white flour (I use King Arthur unbleached)
1 1/2 cups "wholemeal" flour (my personal favorite is Hodgson Mills' "Graham" flour - it's a bit more coarsely ground and seems to have more of the germ in there. I keep mine in the freezer to keep it from getting rancid, which can happen distressingly fast with wholemeal flour in this climate)

2 teaspoons sugar (I used the Demerera sugar; it's sort of like raw sugar)
1/2 teaspoon salt (but I think I will go up to 3/4 next time; the bread needs a bit more salt

I also added 2 tablespoons of ground flaxseed to add nutrition and flavor (I also keep this in the freezer) and 1 tablespoon of vital wheat gluten to help with the rising.

2 teaspoons yeast (the recipe says 1 3/4, but my yeast is a little old...)

I ran it through the bread machine on the "regular" cycle and it worked fine (I suppose you could try the whole wheat cycle; the loaf might rise more).

It makes a good bread - good textured, nice taste, keeps fairly well. It makes a small loaf but that's good for me.

If you like baking bread, I highly recommend the book this came from - it's called "The Bread Book" and is by Sara Lewis, published by Hamlyn. So far everything I've made from it has been good.

Sometime I want to try the fougasse she has in there but I will need a block of time to do that, as it is a shaped bread that you can't really do in the breadmaker.