"Fat legs are better for quilting!, vegie and straw bale gardening."

Hello,

Did you know that fat legs are better for quilting?

 This week has seen me working on completing the Letter's quilt. You see the outside legs on the letter N were too thin. I unpicked and sewed and did a bit more of that then realised it was those skinny legs that were the problem. Fat legs won in the end. The cat fabric is what I am using for the backing.

 Raised garden beds are the way to garden here. The water seems to retain a bit more in the soil. This bed contains some  Summer Squash that has taken off. It also had Purple Carrots and Round Baby Carrots. Beans were grown at the bottom. I left some of the stalks to use as mulch.

 The smaller raised bed is growing Amish Paste Tomato's that I grew from seed. They have supplied us with tomato's each day.

 November last year I saw a review for a book about Straw bale Gardening. The author is Joel Karston, for those in Western Australia you can borrow this from your library.  You have to prep the bale for a while, first you must soak it for a few days then apply different fertilizer to activate it. I used a variety of fertilizers including some Power Feed, Scots Lawn Fertilizer and Urea. I added some Sheep poop as well. In the bale above I planted some Beans, unfortunately the pesky slater's have been having a field day eating them off at the stem base. There is also one Zucchini plant that has had several flowers but no fruit as yet. We have had extremely hot days which means the bee's tend to stay away.

 The other bale has two Beefsteak Tomato plants which were also grown from seed then transplanted into the bales. These are growing well. One thing the book did say that all sorts of fungi will grow. You can see a blob of yellow on the bale. This grew overnight.

This bed up amongst the fruit tree's has been taken over by self sown Pumpkins. There are a couple of different types growing here. The other side of the bed has Beetroot and Carrot's growing.

How is your garden going? Is is supplying you with lots of fresh veg or lovely flowers.

Happy days.
Bev C

"True Blue"

Hello,

Very little sewing has been going on, I needed a little rest from it. Watching the tennis has taken over my life. You would have heard me yelling and clapping the other night when Nick won his match. Can't wait until this evening to watch again. Just love January for all the tennis across Australia which leads up to the Australian Open.

 I finished the "True Blue" wall hanging and gave it to Jacob yesterday for Australia Day. The little bear is looking up to the Southern Cross. This design is available as a freebie from Abby designs. I realised I should have put the Teddy further down in the corner as I had to squash up the stars a little but it doesn't really matter. This hanging could be made up in applique if you don't have a embroidery machine.

 The only other sewing has been a very quick and simple camera bag.

Made up with two of the samples of fabric from Hong Kong. The owl fabric was perfect for the bag as it has a thickness to it and rather soft so not to harm the camera.

I have joined in OPAM again in 2015. OPAM stands for One project a month.

Looking forward to finishing some projects that have been around for a while and starting new ones.

I hope everyone had a great Australia Day yesterday and enjoy the week ahead.

Happy days.
Bev C

"Shopping in Hong Kong."

Hello,

There is nothing quite like shopping in Hong Kong. Look at these goodies.

 Lots of charms.

 Lace  edgings  and Ric-Rac.

 Fabric.

Iron- on motifs.

 Fabric Samples.

More samples. These samples hang outside the shops and are free to take.

Thanks Chris for the parcel of goodies.Sister's are the best friend you can have.

Hope everyone has a good weekend.

Happy days.
Bev C

"Friday With Friends and a fire and a rabbit."

Hello,

On Friday I  joined in Friday Night with Friends, though I sewed during the day. This monthly event is hosted by Cheryll at Stitching Cubbyhole. Thanks so much for hosting this event Cheryll.
It had been so hot earlier on in the week I decided some snow needed to be involved with the sewing.

 So in the morning I machine embroidered these little houses. These are all done in the hoop of the machine and stitched out in just over 20 minutes for each house. The one in the middle I made a small boo-boo on it, I put the backing and wadding the wrong way around so the wadding is at the back This is Ok because it makes it a very snow covered house. Two of them will be put in with the Christmas decorations and the one on the right I will use as a mug mat. I used some of the spotted felt that is on the door for the backing so this will make it a bit heatproof. This house designs is a freebie from a blog called Stickbaer

I did say it was hot earlier on in the week, we had a couple of days of temps that were 44 and 45, on one of these days I opened up the blinds and curtains to see what was going on outside. A fire had just started over the next hill. It must have just started because we couldn't smell the smoke first. We waited and looked to see if anyone else had seen it. We soon heard the fire brigade attending. There was lots of lightening at the time and it was probably caused by this. Later on there was a bigger fire further out of town.

Friday afternoon I started this little mini quilt. Using up scraps of blue and luckily I still had some scraps of velvet that I made my sewing chair cover with last year for the Teddy Bear. I still have another embroidery design to add to the quilt.

I did say in my previous post that I had a few very old UFOs to finish off. I have had this Bunny in one of my sewing drawers in several pieces. There was a set of arms and legs and a partially stuffed body and a set of ears. I had made a small start on the top part of the dress. I needed to un-stuff the body as I hadn't done anything about the face. I  purchased a set of eyes and stitched the nose and mouth. Bunny was eventually finished with a lovely set of clothes including some rather lacy pantaloons. Don't you love that word Pantaloons. Can you imagine wearing them today under your dress. Bunny is quite big at 33 inches tall. Now I will have to find a new owner for Bunny as I don't really want her now! I am glad she is finished though.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend.

Happy days.
Bev C

"Happy Hat, Food Throw,Christmas Bauble,Cross Stitch and Crochet Bunting."

Hello,

I do hope everyone had an enjoyable and relaxing Christmas. Ours was just perfect, all the children at home this year. Thankfully Ainsley and Julian put on the Christmas lunch this year. I only had to supply some rather delicious cupcakes. .

I have crocheted this hat twice before, once for me and a blue one for someone little. This one is the child's version and was made especially for Jacob, our Grandson. He did look rather cute in it. I used a 5 ply Pellicano cotton and a 3 mm hook.

I made this  food throw for a gift for Debbie for Christmas. I machine embroidered some bees, ladybirds, pansies and a piece of cake on some pink netting. I found some curtain weights to hand sew on each corner to hold the net down.

Hooray, I even made up this  Christmas patchwork bauble, it was given by a fellow blogger just before last Christmas. Lots of folding and pinning involved.

The cross stitch is finished. I changed a few of the thread colours and are happy with the colour choices I made. This will have to wait until Summer is over before I drop it into the framers. Hot weather and travelling in a car are not good for framed items.

My last finish for the year is another crochet bunting. This time I used up some size 10 DMC  Cebelia crochet cotton.I could have kept crocheting these little motifs.

As I finish typing this my 600th post I want to wish everyone a Happy and Safe New Year. All the best for 2015. I wonder what 2015 will bring , I have been looking through my sewing room and de-cluttering and have found a few projects from pre-blogging days that need finishing. Hopefully January will see me finish one or two of them.

Happy days
Bev C