Plum Chutney

Whilst at the supermarket the other day I came across 2 large bags of plums that were reduced to 49 pence - I couldn't walk past them because Plum Chutney came in to my mind.  Armed with my fruit, some onions and a bottle of vinegar I looked through some recipe books and struggled to find a suitable recipe, until, I rediscovered one of my Grandma's old books.

The recipe goes like this:
4 pounds plums - chopped
1 pound onions - chopped
half pint of vinegar
1 and half pounds sugar
half pound dates or raisins
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons mixed spice
Put all ingredients together in large pan, bring to boil and then simmer for approx. 2 hours until thickened.
Pour into sterilised jars and store for 2 months before eating.

I think the camera lens was covered with steam at this point !

And here we are.  Loads of chutney to keep us going all year - as long as I don't give it away for Christmas.  We'll see how it matures!

New Purses

Here is a selection of the new purses that I made for the Museum Craft Shop.  There's quite a mixture of sizes and fabrics so I am hoping that they will appeal to customers whilst doing their Christmas shopping!

And below is a purse that my daughter recently made for me.  She used some Herdwick woollen fabric (Herdwick are our local sheep) and then lined it with some beautiful Liberty cotton - a lovely contrast.  It fastens with a Mother of Pearl button.  Lucky me.

New bags for MOLLI

This week in between 'house' stuff,  I've been spending spare moments of time making some new bags for the craft shop.  We affectionately call the museum and shop MOLLI which stands for Museum of Lakeland Life and Industry.  I thought I should stock up a bit for the Christmas season.  Here are a few more.

These were all made from furnishing fabrics. Some of it is quite stiff which gives a good structure to the bags and some of it (mainly the William Morris designs) lends itself to a pleated design.  I often use the same proportions for my bags but it depends on the size of the fabric and what I have to co-ordinate it with, so no two are exactly the same. 
I have some purses cut out and waiting to be sewn up so hopefully I'll be able to show you those tomorrow.