"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

"Garden visiting for a good cause."

Hello,

Happy Monday.

I was delighted to get home from shopping on Saturday. You see I had a copy of the Community paper and it showed the gardens that were open in the Hills over the coming weeks including the weekend. So plans were put in place to travel to Kalamunda on Sunday. Even the storms didn't put us of the idea. We had been to the gardens called "Congella" last year. This time around we certainly still enjoyed looking at the garden, in fact it looked better this year. With the sun not quite willing to come out as it should in Spring some of the blooms were closed over. There is so much garden to explore and we got lots of hints to stabilise the garden where steepness is concerned.

 The is a small portion of the side garden.

"Big Red" Geranium.

 Bronze Kale in the veggie garden.

 Kangaroos, this sort don't jump out in front of your car!!!

 This path runs right down one side of the garden near the fence line.

 Red Berries on a tree I have no idea of what it is.

 Part of the front garden.

 Frog Birdbath made by the owner.

 Emus made with barbed wire. These were quite close to the path. I certainly wouldn't want to fall onto them.

There were lots of Camellia bushes in full bloom.

After a look around the garden and a look at the plants for sale and the jam stall we had a lovely Devonshire tea. Funds raised from the day went to the Amanda Young Foundation. I can still remember when one of our children was 5 months old and suddenly got sick. Our Doctor was very quick of the mark and tested the child for Meningococcal Disease. Thankfully the Lumbar Puncture came back clear, though another completely different medical condition was found.

Happy days
Bev C

"Shower Cap Making, Crochet and Hexies for FNSI."

Hello,

Friday Night Sew In means a bit of time for me to complete a project and work on some smaller projects.
First of I made a shower cap.

I found a few tutorials online but ended up doing it my way.

I used a hairdressers cape for the lining. I actually had this in a bag ready for the op-shop but when I decided to make the shower cap, it came out of that bag. I drew a circle of approx 32 cm with the fabric folded in half. This could have been cut back to 30 cm. I then put the fabric and lining right sides together and sewed around the edge. Leaving a gap for turning through. I finger pressed the edges and sewed a row of stitching around the edge. Then I sewed the bias binding 2 inches in from the edge and threaded the elastic through. One very easy shower cap. I didn't use pins to hold the fabric and lining together, clothes pegs were used instead. When it came to holding down the bias binding I used some tape that I have had for ages that I use to use when sewing lingerie.

Later on in the afternoon I started some crochet. Even though the written instructions are in a foreign language with the symbols it was easy to do. Then in the evening I worked on some more of those hexies.

Hope everyone that joined in Friday Night Sew In had a productive time.

Go the Freo Dockers!!!

Happy days.
Bev C

"Making Cheese and Bread at Kainga."

Hello,

Happy Monday.

Last week I made for the first time some ricotta cheese. It was so easy, if you can make custard you can do this too. I read Madeleine's blog and she posts lots of healthy things and was quite impressed with her post so decided to have a go. First, I made sure that all the equipment including the muslin was clean and sterile.

 It was amazing to see the curds starting to form.

 The final product which was all mine. I am the only one at home who eats this.

I was left with nearly 6 cups of whey. So a quick look online found a lovely bread recipe at Terri's blog. I can safely say that the family all said "This is the best bread they have tasted."

 I followed the recipe, though I did use the dough hook on the mixer for mixing it all together. Look how much dough the recipe makes.

 Bread waiting to go in the oven. One with Poppy seeds and the other with Sesame seeds.

 Fresh out of the oven.

 Now we normally don't eat plain white bread so a few days later I made some more. This time with a mix of seeds. These were put in at the same time as the flour. I had to add 1/4 cup of warm water to make up the amount of whey/water for the recipe.

Result two more loaves of bread.

Happy to be making more produce here at Kainga. The best thing is it achievable by anyone and there is no packaging.

Happy days.
Bev C

"A single Rose can be my garden, a single friend my world."

Hello,

Have a wonderful weekend.

.
Happy days.
Bev C

"It is time to drink Champagne and dance on the table."

Hello,

Yes it is time to drink Champagne and dance on the table. I have been sewing.

 I have joined up more of the hexagons for my long term project, called A Country Garden. Lots more to do on this.

I had this flour bag in the sewing room stuffed full of off cuts from binding, scraps and even a stitchery or two.

Last week I set to and pulled out the fabric and ironed it and started cutting up pieces into 2.5 inch squares, half square 2 inch finished triangles and 4.5 inch squares.

Something to work on in between projects. I have no idea what I will make but the idea is to use up all this fabric in scrappy projects. I wonder how many "Flour bag projects I will get done?"

Happy days.
Bev C

"I most often find that happiness is right where I planted it."

Hello,

A beautiful Spring day here at Kainga. The rain will return this week though. The roses may be a bit bare from the pruning that has taken place but there are plenty of blooms around the garden.

Lavender

Crab apple blooms.

Dutch Iris

Daisies and  Grape Hyacinth Bulbs.

Stocks.

Spring time brings many treasures out in bloom.

Linking this post to Tuesday's Treasures at Melody's blog.

Happy days.
Bev C

"Jelly Roll Scraps Projects and some new charts."

Hello,

I was on a mission to use up the pieces left over from making the Umbrella Table Topper. There were two of the triangular sections and a few scraps. This is what I used them on
.

 Matching hand and tea towels.

 It was great to a few projects made with the scraps. These will be the first finishes for September. I don't know how many more I will have this month. My Brother is sick. I have booked the machine in for a service but it seems that there are a lot of sick machines. It will be a couple of weeks before it can be fixed. I did find my last service docket for this machine and it was July 2009. So I suppose it has done so well to last this long without any problems.

Good fortune was on my side a few weeks back. I won a $20.00 gift voucher from Jenni to spend at the Stitching Post. I purchased a bit more than the voucher was worth.. You had to guess what Jenni was cross stitching and it was a Pink Flamingo.

Happy days.
Bev C

"Santa Clause and his wife as you have never seen them before."

Hello,

Happy Monday.

You may remember last week I mentioned that I had tested out some machine embroidery designs. Well I posted them to Fiona and she got them Friday morning. Did you hear that laughter coming from Queensland? It was Fiona opening her mail. I sent three designs. A little warning, these are not your usual Christmas designs. In fact when I first saw them on the embroidery site I thought "oh my goodness who would do something with these?" After initially thinking that I just laughed, especially when I saw how many times these designs had been downloaded. After all we only live once and we may as well enjoy ourselves. There were a couple of other designs in the same theme which were just as funny.

Not really the designs you would put on a apron or tea towel if your prim and proper Mother-in-Law was coming for Christmas Lunch.

Happy Monday.
Bev C