Marilyn,

Your garden is very pretty and peaceful, It makes me want to sit for a while among those flowers and rest.

Thanks for sharing the recipe ! I investigated the elder at the back of the garden and I find they are
too far gone for this season. Now, we might get a drive in up to higher elevation next weekend, so will
look for others as they are very common here. Next year it will be on the try-out list. I don't harvest them
as often now as I did yrs back. The birds love the berries, so I leave it to 'em ! Here's a look at the back garden.
Check out that 2-tone blue sky !! Sorry things aren't in order !

You can find citric acid in the canning department of Walmart here in the states. If they don't have any you could request it.
I was making bath bomb fizzies (look them up online if you don't know what they are) and it called for quite a bit of citric acid so I ordered it from Amazon.com.
That sounds like a lot of work Rita. Bet it is good though.

Margo, I saw a post from you on the forum and can not remember where. It had the links to each show that had the slivers or inset strips that Ricky and Alex did. Can you tell me where I saw the post? Sorry I am so forgetful. I should have saved it when I read it.

Isabeau calls this 'Sunshine Drink'. I make mine slightly differently - I boil up the sugar, lemons & water and then pour it over the elderflowers and leave for about 4 days before straining and bottling. If I cannot get the citric acid I add an extra lemon.

Oh if only we could do a 'weather exchange' - then we would all be happy. Cathy you do have a lot to do - it made me tired just reading it too! Isn't it amazing how much we can accomplish in a few months?

Marilyn the elderflower recipe is very simple and really this cordial just tastes like summer to me so here it is:

ELDERFLOWER CORDIAL

30 large elderflower heads (in full flower)
4 lemons
4 pints boiling water
1 heaped teaspoon citric acid (from the pharmacy - they may look at you funny because it is apparently used by drug addicts for something?)
1 lb sugar per 1 lb elderflower liquid


Put the flower heads in a large pot. Peel the rind off the lemons and throw them in too. Squeeze the juice from the lemons and add to the mix. Pour 4 pints of boiling water over, give it a stir and leave covered overnight. If you don't have a pot to spare put them in a basin or bucket and cover with a clean tea towel.
Next day, steralize your clean bottles/jars by scalding them with boiling water. Leave the boiling water in them while you prepare the cordial. Otherwise, put them in the dishwasher so that it is finished when the cordial is ready. Squeeze out the flowers and lemon peel and discard. Strain the liquid through a sieve with a piece of cheesecloth in it. Measure out the liquid and add 1 lb white sugar per 1lb liquid. Add a heaped teaspoon of citric acid. Bring to the boil stirring all the time to dissolve the sugar. When it reaches a boil, simmer for 2 minutes. Discard the boiling water from the bottles/jars and fill with the liquid. (A funnel is the best way but if you scald a large jug you can decant from the pot to that and then pour more easily into the bottles. Put the lids on and label. (I use Kilner bottles with those metal clips on the top and plastic lids and this is why I don't steralize in the oven as the lids melt!) Dilute to taste. I find that about 3/4" of an inch of cordial in a glass with sparkling water is the nicest. Enjoy. Oh, and it's also good poured neat over vanilla icecream.

I bought the fabric to set the reels up with, but have not started yet. Summer is just so busy.
The basement remodeling we had planned to do in March is being done now, so my sewing room is a mess. That is a slow remodel, but the worst is over for the sewing area. My DS and DIL are here to help and we have accomplished alot. They are going home Tuesday, but we are going to visit them next week. They built a new home and we are anxious to see it.
We bought a new energy effecient freezer to replace our old (34 yr.) one. I need to transfer food to the new one yet.
The garden produce is starting to ripen now. I will need to can tomatoes, beans, and beets before long. The sweet corn is tasselling now too. Potatoes need to be dug up. The blackberries are just starting to ripen. I have a pie in the oven now.
The cucumbers are ripe too, but I haven't decided if I am making pickles this year or not. I still have some from last year. Gosh, I am tired just thinking of all there is to do. If I get too much produce to deal with I will donate it to the food pantry for needy families.
Well, I need to get the pie out of the oven and get to bed.
Rita, I do wish we had some of your rain. It has been so dry here. Some of the farmers are already feeding hay to their cattle. Usually that starts in late fall or early winter (Nov-Dec).

My reels are still on the board..oh, so lovely to look at !! I'm trying to finish UFOs in between starting new things !
I'll post some pictures soon. Rita..I 'd send you some sunshine if I could!! We seem to be blessed with a good spell
of weather....much of the US isn't fairing as well ! Too hot, too cold, too wet, smoke and forest fires! And it's not July yet !
Can you share about elderflower cordial ? Sounds like something to try.....

Lois, I received my reels a couple of weeks ago, looked and felt them,
then I had to put them up for Later,
i am making a quilt, Thinking it would be an easy one but I had to change the original
Idea twice. So it is taking longer to do, with other things I have to take care of.
(will let you know what I am up to when I have something done to show)

Margarita in Auburn, CA

We are not having a summer. We are having the endless winter here. Rain, rain and more rain. I believe that the UK had a months' rain in a day a couple of days ago. I wonder if you have been affected Rosemary? It is so miserable. We have lots of green growth but very few flowers. It's beginning to feel like a rainforest around here. We did have one day last week where it didn't rain for half of the day which was great because I was able to pick the elderflowers and gooseberries. I now have lovely elderflower cordial and gooseberry jam. But the strawberries have not ripened yet nor have the raspberries. I am afraid that the crop will just spoil if we don't get some sun soon. I have been working on another couple of quilts so haven't even thought about my spools quilt. I dyed some fabric which I might use as the background - it's kind of marbelled yellow - but I will have to lay the spools out on it and see how they look first. Has anybody started working on their quilt yet?

loise98 wrote:
It's summer! Summer is typically slow on TQS as far as chat goes! Can you just imagine what Ricky and Alex have to come up with to keep their thousands of members excited and active on the site during the summers! I'm just glad it isn't MY job! I'm content to just jump on TQS when I take a break from sewing, or when the sun isn't shining! (Today we sat on the deck in the sun, went for a walk, etc. Did summer things!)

Dawn
In beautiful Northwest Montana

Lois,
I got my reels as I was in the middle of moving. My sewing room is still mostly packed, although I know where my reels are. I haven't bought the rest of the fabric yet because I wanted the reels first. I kind of know what I want to do but need to sketch it out first. I did buy Edyta's book in Columbus last week. My sewing room computer with EQ on it hasn't been set up yet. Also, my daughter and her husband have celebrated their 1st anniversary and are expecting in October and the wedding quilt isn't done yet!!

I am not part of this exchange but here's my 2 cents. I miss the "natter" as Rosemary would say. Not many posts these days. I guess you are all so busy thinking very hard about what to do with those reels you can't think of anything to say. I miss you guys. Isn't anything happening? I am really sorry now that I don't have a stack of beautiful reels to stew over. I don't know where I was when all this started but by the time I saw it on the Daily Blog it was all full up. I can only enjoy this vacariously. Now I can't wait to see what you all are doing. What's up?

You're not alone, Rita! I already purchased my background fabric and I still don't know what I'm going to do... look forward to more great ideas out there!

That star spool block looks great Margo. It would look good as a centre piece in a quilt too. Thanks for the link. I still can't decide what to do with my spools. Whether to go modern and have flat topped spools or traditional - too many choices I think. I hope people will post photos either here or in the show and tell area when they are done. I am dying to see what everybody else is doing.