"Growing Luffa, a new book and a finished cross stitch."



 Hello,

I hope your week has gone well. This week I picked our first Luffa from the garden.

I had been waiting for one of them to dry on the vine, I have a little while for the one in the photo to dry out. When they are brown on the outside and dry you pick them then peel of the outer layer. Leave to dry completely and remove the seeds from inside.

You are then left with a lovely luffa to use for a body scrubber or for scrubbing dishes or even put a little in your soap making. The bonus is I have lots of seeds to share. When the luffa are small they can also be eaten, very similar to a zucchini I think.

 



Back in March when I saw that my favourite gardener Sophie Thompson from Gardening Australia was publishing a book I decided to treat myself.



I even got her to sign it for me. My Friday nights are always spent watching Gardening Australia. Now that it goes for one hour it is just delightful.

 

 







I managed to finish a cross stitch this week, a simplistic design but I still had to do some unpicking.

 

Are you a book buyer? What was your latest ?  I would love to hear all about it. Nothing better than a good book of your own.

 

Happy days.

Bev C.

 













Hexagon happiness makes a return.

Hello,

Well my motivation to craft has finally returned.  A bigger break than I thought but that is life.

Upon pulling out the hexagons and being realistic I decided to break the hexagons into two quilts. One for me and one for someone else. Nothing better than getting two quilts out of one.

So it was a case of finding the box that contained all the calico/white fabrics. Lots of hexies cut and finally I have one quilt top. I didn't worry about if the calico were all the same colour after all it is a scrap quilt.

I did find a you tube video that showed how to finish the quilt which means I have to make some more small hexies for the binding part. This way the shape of the edges of the quilt will remain the same rather than adding a border fabric to the quilt top.

Stitching by hand is rather time consuming, but oh so relaxing. I did time myself doing one section and realised how long it would take me to finish the white hexies. At least the top part is done now.

Do you add up how many hours a project takes?  I would love to hear.

Happy days.
Bev C

"Ticking Roger off the bucket list."

Hello,

What a great start to 2017. I managed to tick one off the bucket list.

 We had tickets to the Hopman Cup to see Roger Federer play on Monday. We were part of the record breaking crowd. Definitely the best night of sport and sportsmanship I have seen. No wonder they call him Mr Perfect.

This year we got tickets alongside the court, perfect viewing. EXCEPT for the biggest man ever sitting right in front of me.  I should have let Ian go in first! When he went to sit down I thought he wasn't going to fit in the seat. We watched him squeeze himself in. The armchair rests do have a bit of give. To think I was worried about a lady outside who was big.  Apart from that it was a great afternoon/evening of Tennis. So much goes on that you don't see on TV.
As per usual we stayed at our favourite Bed and Breakfast in Bedford after.

Happy days.
Bev C

"Oh dear me it's nearly 2017."

Hello,

December has flown by.

 Christmas has been and gone. Thanks Ainsley, Julian, Jacob and Jude for having us for the day. Lots of memories to keep and treasure.

 The Apricot tree has finished for the season. We started picking  only a few then it was a bowlful every day. Even had enough to make some jam one day. Looking forward to the next tree producing early in the year.

Sewing and crafting took a back seat this month but I did manage to do two more face washers for Jacob and Jude for Christmas. Designs are from Kreative Kiwi.

I found two tea towels that were blank in the sewing room. The Christmas design is from Urban Threads and the Kiwi is from Kreative Kiwi.

As 2016 comes to a close I want to wish everyone a Happy New Year. I hope 2017 brings Peace and Happiness to you all.

Happy days.
Bev C

"OPAM finishes for November."

Hello,

November has passed in a blur of busyness. Lots of things happened that certainly weren't planned and are continuing for a bit. I have my fingers crossed all will be well with everyone soon.

I did manage to get some Christmas decorations made up on the embroidery machine.

 These were a free design from Creative Machine Embroidery site. I didn't have glitter to put in them so used some small white beads for the snow. Instead of using felt on the back I had some snow globe Christmas fabric left over from last year.

I purchased a couple of designs from Kreative Kiwi Embroidery designs and have made a start on the popular swirly place mats.  I still need to wash out the wash-away from the edges. The "Construction Set" is perfect for the little boys in my life. I enlarged the design a little and have two of the designs stitched out on some face washers.

Thanks to our children we were treated to a day at the Regal Theatre watching Fawlty Towers.  Or should I say Farty Towels.(You need to go to the show to see what I mean by that!!!) What a great show, so many laughs and the actors were fantastic. My favourite was Manuel, he was the spitting image and had the actions down pat. It was sad to see that the actor Andrew Sachs who played him in the show passed away.

I hope to get back into the sewing room some time very soon and I also need to attend to a lot of dead heading roses in the garden.

Enjoy your weekend.

Happy days.
Bev C