Last week's sewing & quilting

 

As mentioned in a previous entry, I have been cutting out and Mum has been sewing. 

Above are 5 Christmas Swags that Mum appliqued (by machine) and I sewed on all the embellishments & joined them together, (as Mum has trouble holding a needle now a days).

 

 Meanwhile, I added the black border and the outside border to a Christmas panel I fell in love with.  I have a thing for the Cardinal birds and have heaps of fabric & patterns for these birds.  I then quilted it with a holly & berry stitch.

 Then I decided to use up a roll of lofty wadding that I bought from Spotlight YEARS ago.
 I made a cot quilt out of it, using white fabric front & back, then a lemon "baby items" stitch on the front & white on the back, then a lemon binding to finish it off.

All of these items are now folded and put away for my sale later on in the year.

Until next post..
Jewells

Preserving

 

 Over the last couple of days I have been both busy in the kitchen and the sewing room.

Today I am showing you the "kitchen" items.

The above photo shows 2 bottles of "Curried Ketchup" ... so easy and quick to make.

The other bottles are "Lemon Cordial", again very easy to make... and SOOO nice.

 

...and now my fig tree is over producing again and I have made up a few batches of "Fig Jam" and I have another batch to make up this afternoon... jam takes a LOT longer to make, but worth the effort.

I have more lemons to do something with, so I will be making "Lemon Curd/Butter" from them... nice & rich with 8 eggs & 375gms of butter in it.  I will be taking my jam & Lemon Curd to Bingo with me to sell next Monday, as the ladies keep asking for it.... thank goodness for that, as when I retired from work just on a year ago, that way of selling (on the front counter) stopped and I had to find another way to sell my jams.

Until next post...

Jewells

My First PAID Quilting Job

After practising on 33 quilting projects of my own, I nervously quilted 2 quilts (edge to edge) on my Gammill Statler Quilting Machine for a friend (Robyn) this weekend.

Everything went without a hitch, but I must admit, even though my machine is computerised and you can set it and leave it to do a row, I stood there the whole time watching each stitch as it went along.

Robyn left the thread and pattern choice up to me..
 I used a yellow thread on the Bright quilt and a pattern called a "Daisy"
and
on the Tartan quilt I used a navy thread with a pattern called "Wish Upon a Star".

As Robyn struggles with attaching the binding, I did that for her (at no charge), so all she has to do now is hand attach the binding at the back on both quilts.

I was wondering if I should offer adding the binding to all who I quilt for... as I think it looks better to receive a quilt like this from "the quilter" than receiving it with all the extra floppy fabric that has to be cut off before you start the binding!...what do you think?

Now to parcel it up and send it off to her... I only received the quilts on Friday, so I think she will be shocked at the quick turn around!

Until next post...
Jewells

Australia Day Swaps to Non Blog people

 

As Anna doesn't have a blog, she sent me the above picture to show everyone what Jodie sent to her.

  Apple fabric

 Ugly Fabric
Strawberry buttons

 Teabag Holder

 Ribbon

 Australian made cards

 Lace

 Ink marker

 Another pack of gorgeous buttons

 

...and this is what Janice sent to Gina (my daughter)... above is my grandson looking at the box .. wanting to just rip right into it!

 and here is what she received:
Adorable apron
Unpicker & Ugly fabric
Super sharp scissors
Tasty treats
Red ribbon
Applique
Linen & lace love heart lavender sachet
Inches
Australian afternoon tea & Australian fabric

Plus an Australian Frisbee for the kids.

THANKS to all who participated.. might hold this swap again next year!

Until next post...
Jewells

OK.. I have no self control..Australia Day Swap

 

I received my parcel from Sharmayne and couldn't restrain myself... especially with my partner & mother both standing there and asking what was in it.

 

and here is what happened to all the contents:

A - Australian magnet... ON FRIDGE

U - Unique candle... ALREADY BEEN MELTED

S - Sewing thread ...IN WITH ALL MY THREADS

T - Thong notes...WITH MY MAGAZINES THAT I GO THRU & LABEL

R - Red cloth.. IN WITH MY OTHER (CLEAN) DISH CLOTHS

A - Apple mat...ON MY COMPUTER DESK FOR MY COFFEE MUG

L - Lollies..WELL THEY ARE GONE!

I - Iron on transfer...IN WITH MY OTHER TRANSFERS

A - Apple bag holder...HANGING UP (mine "died" a few months ago)

                                  

Off now to read the other blogs from participating ladies.

 

Until next post...

Jewells

Cutting - Preserving - Growing

This week I have kept myself busy with cutting out projects to keep my Mum and myself busy.

At the moment, Mum is sewing 5 Christmas Swags that I cut out first, so I don't have a photo of them, as she says that I have to now wait until they are finished before a photo is taken.

Below are the makings of 4 cushions (2 of each).  I made the original one years ago and knew I would be making more soon one day.

The following is to make 12 aprons.  The fabric you clearly see is the bottom & top of the apron... the "pretty" fabrics (main part of the apron) are folded inside each.

  

 I have also been preserving this week.  The photo shows Yellow Zucchini Pickles, plus I made Cucumber Pickles & also Pasta Sauce.

 

and lastly, this is the first of our Butternut Pumpkins that my other half (Bruce) picked this morning.  He says that there are at least another 10 on the vine.  I will be looking up Pumpkin recipes soon....

....(wonder if you can "preserve" pumpkins?)

 

Hopefully all the Australia Day Swaps parcels are in Australia Post's hands and on the way to their new owners... let me know when you receive yours, plus post a message on your blog and most importantly, send an email of thanks to your sender (please).

Until next post...

Jewells

Gina's parcel has been sent

 My daughter, Gina, who doesn't have a blog and has participated in the Australia Day Swap, asked me to post this photo of her wrapped gifts that she posted off to her partner today.

Hopefully, everyone has sent in today's mail.

Enjoy! and share when you open them please.

Until next post..
Jewells

Australia Day Swap Posting Day!

 

Today is posting day for the Australia Day Swap!

  
This is the parcel I am sending off to my partner!
Until next post...
Jewells

A lot of Table Runners!

 

I have been making a few table runners with my new toy 60 degree ruler. 

For Christmas I received a couple of table runners that had the binding sewn on a different way to what I do, so I decided to try the new way of binding on 2 of the runners.

 

I do like this method for a quick way of binding, but I will still do the binding on the big quilts the "old" way of sewing by machine on the front, then catching it at the back by hand sewing.

 

 I made 4 lighthouse runners...2 were bound the "old" way and 2 were bound the "new" way.

 

 My first runner I made experimenting with the ruler was with this adorable snowman fabric.  

Just as well I used this fabric first and not the lighthouse one, as I placed the ruler incorrectly and ended up wasting a lot of fabric.

 

I also made a runner out of Easter fabric..........

 then used up the remaining fabric to make one big & two small place mats.

Now that I have finished the runners, I will start on something new.

Until next post...
Jewells

Quilt Finished

 

I bought this Santa quilt kit when I was in the States in October of last year.

 ("last" year... a few days ago, it would have said "this" year)

I fell in love with it when I saw the sample hanging up in one of the quilt shops I visited, while I was there.

It is a panel to the thin white border, then I had to add the other borders, making it into a 56" x 64" quilt.  

It came together very quickly.  I loved making it.

 

 I had the ideal fabric for the backing in my stash.  It is the red cardinals on the green holly.  I have tons a lot of red cardinal fabric as I just love that bird.  I first saw a real live red cardinal while visiting friends in Wisconsin one Christmas a few years ago.  They had a bird feeder hanging on their back porch.  Many birds came to feed there, as it was snowing very heavily, and the feeder was a haven for them.

  The male cardinal is red and the female is grey.

 

 The pattern I used for the quilting was a "Poinsettia" flower.  (excuse the piece of thread on the centre of the flower..didn't see it before I took the photo..it isn't there now..it wasn't attached).

The poinsettia stitch I used matched the outside border.

I have also been sewing bindings onto table runners and will photograph them and show you when I have finished.

Until next post...
Jewells

Last Day to Sign Up!

 

Today (Monday 6th January) is the last day to sign up... 

closes midnight EST .

AUSTRALIA DAY SWAP.

I sometimes feel that us Aussies aren't as patriotic as we should be and I want to play a part in some sort of good old "mate ship" and show some kindness to a fellow person and give some lovin'.

The way I thought we could "celebrate" is to send 9 items to a fellow swapper.  Now the way these items are to be chosen are – they have to start with each letter in "Australia".

For EXAMPLE:

A – Australian Made item (you could make it)

U – Utensil, Ugly fabric

S – Sunflower seeds, Smiley fabric

T – Tea Towel, Trims

R – Ribbon

A – Apron

L – Lilac, Lavender, Lolly

I – Ink pen

A – Apple fabric

 

Posting date is the 16th January and Only open to Australian residents (sorry to overseas people!), due to there being so many items, it could be too heavy to post..

 

PLEASE EMAIL ME with your:

Name

Snail Mail Address

Email

Blog (if you have one)

and if you will send to someone without a blog or prefer someone with one.

Anyone else interested?  

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie.

Oi!  Oi!  Oi!

Jewells

T-bone, Stew, Casserole & Fruit Trees

 

Meet the boys!!!

From left to right, T-bone, Stew & Casserole.

They were part of my Christmas present from my other half  (Bruce).

 

Since moving here, I have wanted to run a few cows steers, but the ground was so run down by the previous owners, that it took Bruce over a year to get it back to being able to run a few head of cattle.

Not being born "on the land", I personally call them "cows" much to Bruce's disgust.  Come on!, when you were learning about animals as a kid, you were taught that "cows" go "moo".. well these animals go "moo" so they are "cows"!

I am going out to them nearly every day on my quad, throwing them bread or fresh pumpkin leaves so they might learn to come to me over time.  They are about 6 months old and we will keep them for about 12 months, then sell them to the abattoirs..hence their names "T-bone, Stew & Casserole".

 

 The other part of my present were these fruit trees.  This is the Apricot tree...

 

and the following is the Peach tree.

 

Might seem a strange Christmas present, but when I was asked what I wanted for Christmas, I asked for these 2 fruit trees and the "cows"

 I am starting to have quite an orchard... they will join the fig, orange, lemon, green apple, red apple, mulberry, raspberry, elderberry trees.  The apple & citrus trees were here when we bought the place, and they too still need some TLC before they produce any fruit.

On another topic... don't forget the Australia Day Swap.. the taking of names closes on the 6th January.

Until next post...
Jewells