The last bit of sewing and Cucumber growing.

Hello,

Earlier on in the week I finished the last of the sewing for the year. I have had some waffle fabric scraps which have been waiting to be used. I turned them into hand towels.

I used fabric for the binding that matched the machine embroidery designs. The white fabric you can see on the stitching is a wash-away. This melts  in water. I also used up the last of the yellow cotton and crocheted two facecloths which are so lovely and soft.

 Each of the ladies at the Blogger's lunch received a machine embroidery stocking to hang on the tree.

Apple Cucumbers.

 For many years we just haven't been able to grow Cucumbers. We would plant them and within a day or so there was absolutely nothing left of them. This was our final time at trying. The lady at the Garden Centre suggested that maybe something might be eating them so we put some of those blue snail pallets around the seedlings. Slater's were the little pests eating at the plants.

Marketmore Cucumbers.

 Leading on from that success I was given several packets of seeds last month and amongst them was a packet of Marketmore Cucumbers. I planted these in those little jiffy pots and all the seeds grew. These have been planted out in a raised bed and are thriving. I have had them under some shade cloth. They even survived several 45/46 degrees days with no side effects.

Lettuce and Cucumber in a self watering box.

I enjoy watching Gardening Australia on television and was quite impressed with the self watering vegie box they had on a short while ago. Basically you get a foam box then place either gravel or perlite in the base about half way up the box. Then you add some way to add the water. You can use the black drainage pipe with the holes. We didn't have any of that and substituted the white down pipe with holes drilled in it. A piece of shade cloth is put across the box on top of the perlite/gravel then potting mix is added. Put a hole in the side of the box at the end where the pipe is a couple of inches from the base to allow water to drain out. Fill the pipe up with water to soak everything. This will remain damp for about a week. You are supposed to cut of the shade cloth but we left ours to put across the top of the plants on a hot day. I originally planted the cucumber seeds on one side to see how it worked and was pleasantly surprised with the growth. So a punnet of lettuce was added. I will transplant the cucumbers shortly.We actually have used two foam boxes, the outside bigger box was broken at one end so we placed the smaller one inside. This may help stabilise the temperature for growing  and help with holding the water for longer.

I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and all the best for 2014. I 'll take a bit of break from blogging over this period and will be back next year.Stay safe.

Happy days.
Bev C

"A Wonderful Blogger's Day."

Hello,

What a great day was Saturday, the air conditioning on in the car with the Bee Gees playing to me and no-one to turn it off. Then to get to meet up with some Bloggers in Perth. First I had to pick up a cross stitch from the framers.

A chaque jour suffit sa peine

So happy with the framing plus I got to drop of another cross stitch which I can pick up early next year.

Then I got to meet up with fellow Bloggers from across Western Australia.

We all had a wonderful day chatting and talking plus a little eating and drinking (tea and water) and looking at Julia's wonderful hand quilting and Maria's North Pole quilt. Thank you so much ladies, I drove home with a wonderful feeling of happiness. A special thank you to Sandra who opened her home to us with help from her Mum Maria. Of course a special mention must go to Sandra's Son who did a great job as the Photographer for each Blogger.
In the photo above are the ladies in question from left to right is:
Julia,
Maria,
Tracee,
Sandra,
Myself,
Anthea.

I took along a plate of Lemon Truffles which are super easy to make in a short time.

Lemon Truffles.
1 1/2 cups of unsweetened desiccated coconut.
plus 1/2 cup for coating
1 cup ground almonds
4 tablespoons extra virgin coconut oil
4 tablespoons honey
zest of one lemon
juice of one lemon
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
a pinch of sea salt ( I left this out,didn't have any!)

In a food processor, add all of the ingredients. Blend for a minute or two or until mixture starts to mix together like a dough.
Use your hands to form small balls.
In another  bowl, add the extra coconut. Roll the balls in the coconut until covered. Place in the fridge to set.

Eat and Enjoy.

I make my own ground almonds, it is far cheaper to buy almonds and ground them yourself in the blender/wizzer. These Truffles could even be made with Orange juice to alter the flavour.

We are in the midst of a heatwave, 46 here yesterday and a repeat of it today. We got home from shopping at 9.30am this morning and could see smoke over the hills in the distance. Toodyay had another Bush fire, 170 firefighters helped control it. The winds have been awful,hopefully only a few more days of this heat.

Stay cool.
Bev C

"An Elephant in the Room."

Hello,

Happy Monday.

 Happy to visit a garden last month that had this Elephant growing in the front garden. I was very pleased to visit this garden as you can't see it from the Highway. Lots of Gum trees growing out the front hiding the lovely garden and old home. Each time we drive to Perth now we smile as we pass, we know what delights there are just out of view.

I have had a few "elephants" that have sat in my sewing room for a while. Decided to turn the crochet bag into a Lavender sachet.

 This cross stitch was turned into a mini cushion filled with some Lavender from the garden.

This cross stitch was turned into a small wall hanging.

Glad to have three small finishes for "One Project a Month." If you click on the links you will see the two cross stitch pieces have been waiting for a few years to be finished. How did that happen???


Happy days.
Bev C

"Fabric Origami Bukuro aka Japanese folded fabric bag."

Hello,

I made this bag in less than a hour this morning using up the two fat quarters I took out of the Tuesday's Treasures parcel.

Fabric Origami Bukuro.

It was very easy to make and the good thing is it fits a coffee/tea mug perfectly. You could make them up in Christmas colours and include a mug and some chocolates etc for a Secret Santa present. I found it best to press your fabric after each step as this kept the fabric in place. I found the instructions for this bag at the Brother Sewing Site.

Have a lovely weekend.

Happy days.
Bev C

"Christmas Tablecloth, a new family heirloom."

Hello,

I have had a piece of tartan material in my stash for many years. It was from my ex neighbour who owned the local patchwork shop. I hadn't used this piece because it frayed easily.  I first over locked the edges that were fraying and then hemmed it up ready to machine embroider.

The table cloth is approximately 42 inches square with a Mary Engelbreit embroidery on each corner. I  chose designs though they are Christmas ones, it could be used at any time of the year as you tend to read the words then look at the pictures. Each of the designs each took just over an hour to stitch.  It took up 5 hours of my time with the sewing, cutting threads, getting the stabiliser ready etc this is why I have decided to call it a family heirloom even though it is less than 24 hours old!

I am linking up this post with Anthea's Christmas through the year link up.

Happy days.
Bev C

"Heartbeat" Quilt and a Weekend away.

Hello,

Today is the last day of September,can't believe how fast the year is going. Over the last couple of weeks I have been working on a quilt top. Doing about 15 minutes at a time. It has been one of those quilts you have to pin and pin and pin. Who said jelly rolls make quick quilts?



There is still a small border to go on yet. The pattern came from one of the Jelly Roll quilt books which I borrowed from the local library. I used the Jelly Roll I had won earlier on in the year for OPAM (One Project a Month)  The lime green is from the one I got at Good Sammy's. I think there is only scraps/strips of it left now.The big plan is to have it finished by the end of the year. I am thinking about hand quilting it. Though  those plans could change.

The above is taken from my blog posting on September 30th 2011.

Well, I didn't quite get it done when I said I would but I did hand quilt it.I started the hand quilting on Wednesday 16th October and finished on Wednesday 13th November, putting on the binding over two days finishing up Friday afternoon 15th November 2013.

 I ended up using the machine to quilt the border, so quick on the machine compared to hand quilting. I used some more of the lime green for the border and some brown homespun for the binding. Pink fabric for the backing completes this quilt.
I did find a wonderful fuss free method for joining the binding. I usually join on the bias but found a much simper method than what I was using. It worked the first time which was great. Thanks to Edna I will be using this method from now on.

My "L" cake made specially by Lucy"

The other event that took place last week was my Birthday. With family once again in every direction, several different lunches/dinners were on the cards.  Lucy made this wonderful double sponge filled with the most delicious strawberries between the layers and a very enjoyable icing made with cream cheese. Thanks so much Lucy. I was also taken away for the weekend to a surprise destination.

 I got to meet Elvis.

 Marvel at the Ferris Wheel, we just looked at this, our tummy's were far to full to ride on here after our dinner on Saturday night.

 Lots of lovely old building to look at, here is the view of the streets of Fremantle from the Round House.

We got to see the ocean and feel the Fremantle Doctor which is the name of the wonderful breeze that comes in each afternoon. Something that living in the country doesn't provide. We did loads of walking which was great and on the way home called into the cinema's and watched "Enough Said" A great movie to finish of the weekend. Thanks Ian and family for a wonderful week of celebration. 

David continues to supply us with some amazing medical facts. Did you know that for every extra kilo you are overweight your body needs to make one kilometre more of capillaries. Makes you think how amazing the body is and what some people are doing to their bodies.

Happy days.
Bev C

"Bah Humbug Tea towel !!! and other Christmas Sewing"

Hello,

I have had a bit of fun in the sewing room over the past week or so.

"Bah Humbug Tea Towel."

Now apparently Bah Humbug means you don't like Christmas the saying comes the fictional character Ebinizer Scrooge in the Charles Dickens novel "A Christmas Carol"  No one likes doing dishes at Christmas so I thought I would have some fun choosing the Christmas fabric and then the ladybug fabric for the words bug. I had digitized these letters which are "Copperplate" style a few years ago.

 The tea towels came in a pack of two so the other one got a basket of flowers on it. This design is on my machine. I then added some butterfly hearts.

"Style Pattern 3942 child's size 2."

 I still have all my sewing patterns from when our children were small. They are now being used for the next generation. This is a handy little pattern as it has cross over straps, which if they are a bit long you can just cross over the straps again to make the outfit fit better. I remember doing this with my girls. I did have a HUGE amount of trouble getting two button holes the same. I had practiced on some scraps,  all OK did the first one so well. Then the next one played up. (several times.) I gave up and added good old Velcro. This is why there are two buttons at the top to cover up the buttonholes. I couldn't be bothered un -picking the good one.

I must mention here that Sally was a great help in providing some elastic measurements for this project. Thanks Sally.

"Simplicity 5558 size 6 months."

I had just enough fabric to make this little romper suit, I did have to have a join in the back lining but that doesn't really matter. What fun I had with this pattern. I had the pattern and no instructions. The thing that flawed me for a while was how the bottom flap section all joined up. I managed to work it out after a lot of pinning.

It was great fun working on little people's outfits. I could get used to sewing them again

Hope everyone is getting lots of sewing done, it has been the perfect weather for it, not too hot or cold.

Happy days.
Bev C.

"Welcome Beau."

Hello,

Happy Monday.

I recently had cause to do some sewing for a new family member. My Niece Jill and Dave welcomed Beau their firstborn.

I made up a sign to hang on his door.

 I found a pattern for a book bag in Homespun magazine No.67 Vol 9.12 which is the Kids Issue.I changed things around a bit as I had this piece of fabric with Teddy on. I used DMC  Cebelia crochet cotton size 20 to do the quilting.

 This is the other side. I changed this side also. Instead of applique teddy bears I machine embroidered them.

 Being a book bag I made a cloth book for Beau to look at. The front was a Dalmatian design. This used to be one of Lucy's favourite designs when she was younger.

 Next page is a owl.

 The last one is a Teddy Bear. I found the design for the book page on the net and enlarged it to fit the designs.
Best wishes to Jill and Dave, hope Beau is a dream baby.

Speaking of babies. Look what I found the other week, a baby goanna. Over the past couple of weeks we have had so many in the garden. I am sure they are nesting in one part as they are seen each day.

The hand quilting on the Heartbeat quilt is going well, past the half way mark which is a good feeling.

Hope you all have a Happy Monday.

Happy days.
Bev C

"Heartbeat Quilting."

Hello,

Having a quilt top that needs quilting  is like having a body with no heartbeat. It is not until the quilt is quilted that a quilt really comes to life. So earlier on in the week I got out one of those quilt tops that have been waiting for a heart.A few hours spent getting the three layers together, spray glue and some big stitches to hold it all together. Quilting templates found and some new ones made. This is where cardboard cereal boxes and the like come in handy.

Using Gutermann 100% cotton for the hand quilting. Tracing around the templates as I go, no particular pattern. Some hearts are sideways, some are up side down, as long as it is quilted.

Continued stitching this last night joining in with the other ladies,( no gents yet) from the Friday Night Sew In crowd that joined up at Wendy's blog.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend.

Happy days.
Bev C

"Hexagon T Shirt, Rose Show, Primrose and friends."

Hello,

A quick project to use up some hexagons that have been sitting around for too long.

Hexagon T Shirt.

I joined the hexies then pinned them in the desired position at the top of the shirt, then roughly cut out some vlisofix to the underside of the hexies to help hold them down. I chose a size 20 crochet cotton to button hole stitch for around the edge to secure it all.

Guildford  Town Hall Spring Rose Show.

 On Sunday we traveled down to the Guildford Town Hall for the Spring Rose Show. What a great atmosphere in the room. No pushing or shoving, everyone just taking photo's smelling roses and admiring them.

 This display was one of my favourites. I was quite impressed with the age range of the visitors and the people who entered roses. Not just the older people, lots of young people wanting to join the society which is a good thing.

 Across from the Town Hall is Stirling Square which was hosting a Austin Car Day, plus a Holden Car Day. This little beauty caught my eye first. Imagine driving around in this.

Primrose

 Then Primrose took our breath away, she is 85 years old. The owner told us she could drive for hours at 40 km per hour which is just wonderful after all those years. The engine and parts even I could fix (I think!!!). Meaning there isn't much under the bonnet unlike today's cars.

Austin 1800 Ute.

This is a Austin 1800  Ute,  Ian used to own a white one many years ago. We both said we should have kept it. I wonder if it is still going.

Holden FX Sedan 1953.

Fell in love with this one, can just imagine cruising around in this, what style compared to today's cars.

The day was finished of with a picnic then a big walk around Guildford.

Happy days.
Bev C

"Sewing."

Hello,

For those waiting to see who won the Tuesday's Treasures parcel, it will be travelling to...

Susan who blogs at Susan's sewing Space. So the parcel is crossing over to the other side of Australia to Queensland.

I also embroidered this square to put in with the other items in the Travelling Giveaway. Thanks to everyone that entered.


 Flour bag Sewing.

 I am still working through that Flour bag full of scraps working out what can be made. I had these two rose machine embroideries that were test samples. I added the dragonflies on this one to jazz it up a bit.

 I used some pink braid that Lisa sent across from New Zealand on these projects. The only fabric that wasn't from the Flour bag was some cream Homespun that was used in the backing.  Now I have two small table toppers/place mats. If you are wondering the roses are "Lorraine Lee" This rose was bred by Alistair Clark a famous Australian rose breeder.

The past week I have been doing lots of sewing, some I can show like this Summer nightie and others which are for presents. I have had this fabric for absolutely ages, I must have picked it up at Textile Traders when they had one of their buy 2 metres get one free sale.I still have enough fabric left over for a child's item.

Happy days.
Bev C

"The Quilting Beetle."

Hello,

It is that time of the year when the farmers are out cutting hay while the sun shines.

 We have a neighbour who works in biosecurity and he is always telling me that to be on the lookout for a certain type of beetle that has escaped from over in Queensland. Guess what I found one in the garden amongst the roses here last week. So of course I sent it back to its owner in Queensland.

This is what the escaped beetle looks like a "Fionii Quiltoferus." Strangely enough it has a wonderful perfume of Lavender when squeezed.

Seriously if you believe that you would believe anything. You see Fiona had a photo of herself under a  Rhododendron bush and a email conversation followed as it does. I wanted to send her a surprise thank you for being such a great sport regarding the rather cheeky Santa machine embroidery samples.

The painted mural in the first photo is on a building in Goomalling.  We had a day out there last week and I decided to post Fiona's parcel from there as I knew she would have no idea where it was and what would be inside.

Happy days.
Bev C

"Tuesday's Treasures -Travelling Treasures Giveaway"

Hello,

Today I received from Lyndell the Travelling Treasure parcel.

"Travelling Treasures parcel of goodies."

"Out."

  I took out the two fat quarters and the piece of spotty felt.

"In."

Seeing that this parcel only travels within Australia I decided to add two Australian floral themed fabrics and some Clover Needles for hand quilting.

You can find out how this parcel first started its travels in Australia at Debbie's blog.

If you wish to participate in this giveaway, you must have a blog or get someone to host the giveaway for you. There must be two patterns and a fat quarter in the parcel, you may add and take what you want.

If you wish to be the November host for this parcel please leave a comment on this post. Entries will close at midnight next Tuesday 8th October 2013.

If you thought that you only had to leave your name in the comment section, sorry. You have to find out the name of the oldest Elephant at the Perth Zoo and how old she is and what team did this animal pick for the winner of the AFL Grand Final this year.
All the answers are easily obtainable by using your Internet search engine. Have fun.

Happy days.
Bev C

"Iris Cross Stitch, Melbourne, Fremantle and some Flour bag sewing."

Hello,

Well that was one busy week.
Thursday I picked up the Iris cross stitch.

"Iris cross stitch"

 So very happy with how this was framed up. Even the framer loved it. You will have to excuse my reflection in the photo.

"My gifts from Lucy from her trip to Melbourne."

 Lucy returned earlier on this week from her shopping trip to Melbourne. She did so well in the gifting department. I received a Robert Gordon tea infuser and the most beautiful tin.Thanks so much Lucy.

"Table Runner."

 This is project number one from the flour bag full of material. A table runner using up lots of the fabrics. I had strips all sewn together from a previous quilt which I used for the binding. This was also used on a strip between the homespun fabric I used for the backing. A bit of a eye spy runner.

" Dolphin Toiletry Bag."

This is project number two. A toiletry bag,directions available from Terri's blog. The other side has strips of calico and the dolphin fabric.

"Lucy's Freo Dockers cupcakes."

Last night Lucy made cupcakes and macarons in Freo colours.
Of course today we sat and cheered on the Freo Dockers in the AFL Grand Final. They didn't win but they certainly bought the whole Western Australian community together. Well done boys.

Thursday, I also picked up the Brother sewing machine from its service. It needed a new bobbin case,otherwise all was OK with it. It gets to sew for a few more years.

Friday I had my monthly sewing day. Not long after we started sewing there was a knock on the door. We needed to evacuate the building, there was smoke in one of the buildings roof. A capacitor  had burnt out and was letting off toxic fumes. One of the local electricians was on hand and the fire brigade was called. We heard the fire truck coming and it zoomed straight past the building through the roundabout and along a bit before we heard it coming back. Then it had to drive around the building through the petrol station next door and drive around the block trying to find a parking spot. We have terrible trouble with parking in this town. The truck did some amazing  driving to get through the traffic. After an hour we were allowed back inside.

Hope you enjoy the rest of the weekend, a long one here in WA.

Happy days.
Bev C