Hugs and Kisses

Here is the Hugs and Kisses lap quilt made from two Tilda charm packs.  It's pretty and so easy and quick to make. A joy to put together.

First border on the Hugs and Kisses quilt

16 blocks sewn together.

Adding the white corners to the 5" squares

 Use co-ordinated charm pack fabrics.

I used 64 5” squares and 128 2½" white squares.

• Chain piece each 5” square with the first corner.

• Cut apart and add the 2^nd corner.

• 4 squares make up one block.

• My first border is 2" which gave me 1½” border

• My second border will be 3½ giving me a 3" border (the width of the coloured material), with matching binding.

Blackberry Jam

Four jars of delicious wild Blackberry Jam

Bubbling blackberries

Blackberries in abundance ready for picking.

Seamus Heaney's poem Blackberry Picking says it all:
"Late August, given heavy rain and sun 

For a full week, the blackberries would ripen. 

At first, just one, a glossy purple clot 

Among others, red, green, hard as a knot. 

You ate that first one and its flesh was sweet 

Like thickened wine: summer's blood was in it 

Leaving stains upon the tongue and lust for 

Picking. Then red ones inked up and that hunger 

Sent us out with milk cans, pea tins, jam-pots 

Where briars scratched and wet grass bleached our boots. 

Round hayfields, cornfields and potato-drills 

We trekked and picked until the cans were full".

On this beautiful Indian Summer day, I set off to forage and pick wild blackberries in County Wicklow, to make blackberry jam. I know from foraging expeditions over the years where to find these hidden treasures in abundance. The world is certainly an abundant place if one looks hard enough. 

Beautiful ripe blackberries
from the recent sunshine and the rain.

Lovely blackberries picked from the hedgerows.