Istanbul

Now that all the applique pieces have been cut out it is time to get on with the Quilt!

I have divided my whole cloth into 8 sections and marked a circle in the centre to give me a starting point and also prevent things from creeping into the middle.

Then carefully ironed the first section in place.

Now to choose the embroidery threads....
As you can see I have quite a stash. The result of coming across a shop that had been bought "lock, stock and barrel" by someone who had no interest in craft and just wanted to clear everything out ASAP.

Although I have had these for quite some time, they have been stored in Photo Archive boxes and are still quite sound.  The only exception being the Red which I will replace with some new skeins.

I also decided to make a new project specific pincushion.

Strips of each of the applique fabrics sewn together and embellished with some machine deco stitches.

I also placed a piece of ply (cut to size) inside the pincushion before stuffing so it had a flat and stable base.
So much easier to migrate around the house or balance on the arm of the chair.

I can now keep my threads on the respective colours eliminating the risk of picking up the wrong skein.
I also decided to use 1 needle per colour, so I can keep sewing without rethreading for the sake of six inches of buttonhole stitching!

Now that I am organised - it should just be a matter of getting comfortable and get stitching.

And to keep me from getting distracted....

It is booked in for custom quilting early February!

Now where was I?

Now that I have my Mo-jo (and Microsoft Picture Manager) back I will attempt to share my adventures with my Scan-n-cut so far ...

The Scan-n-cut was bought to help with the monotonous tasks of cutting out multiples of applique shapes - hopefully to save my hands as well as my sanity.

All these cut and ready to fuse in 3 and a half minutes!

(Well, maybe not quite THAT quick!)

For this project I am doing raw-edge fusible applique using "Applifix".
I have scanned each of my pieces and then multiplied them by the number required for the 8 repeats needed.

Then it was a simple matter of tweaking the individual pieces into the most economical configuration for both printing/cutting and saving fabric waste.

I have learnt that if you are not 100% confident that your pattern will fit on your fabric (especially if you are working on an off cut) the best thing to do is change to the pen tool and draw the pattern before cutting it out.

Also - if the fabric twists while being cut.
Stop the machine, swap over the blade for a pen and continue by drawing the pattern - you can cut it out / fix it with scissors later.

Like so many other techniques, it takes a bit of time to perfect, but when I was able to cut out and bag up an entire quilt's worth of applique pieces ready to fuse in less than a day - I can see that it was worth spending that time.

And the bonus is, now the pattern is saved in the machine's memory I can repeat each element or part thereof over and over, should I wish to make another of these quilts, or matching cushions/table runner ...

What am I thinking?? - Let's just get this one finished first!

When I'm not quilting .. or blogging ...

I am helping my DD and her BF-Fi with their Gardens.

Establishing a new garden from scratch has it's challenges - and in this case removing the rather thick waste concrete from the new drive and paths that was dumped on the front lawn space.

Then of course the 'native vegetation' aka WEEDS needed to be dug out before soil could be delivered and shifted into the newly formed garden beds.


(Sorry - no photos of the 8 meters of garden soil, it was an impressive pile of dirt!)

Once we had totally exhausted ourselves at BF-Fi's place it was around the corner to the DD's where a little maintenance was needed in her garden.

...um Where did I put my mower?

Just as well I bought myself a 'new toy' and DS#2 was more than happy to play with it.
This is what we are up against when you build on what was a cattle/dairy farm ... it is beautiful, lush and a darn shame to be hacking it down.

Out the back was no better and the Veggie garden was inaccessible by all but the brave -

Even Artemis the Huntress wasn't game enough to venture too far into the jungle...

So more hacking,
slashing,
pulling
and mowing later we were finally able to find ....

The BBQ!

and one of the most appreciated members of the working Bee

- The Chef!

Is it all worth it?

Of course it is!

especially when you can delight in the sight of a beautiful crop of Heritage Broad Beans, grown from seed and pollinated by your own Bees.

Has anyone seen my Mojo?

I haven't posted for a bit as I seem to have lost my 'Mojo".

I have looked for it everywhere - 

I tidied up my sewing room in the hopes it had been left under the pile of 

"not the right shade of Green" fabric. 

But alas - it was not there!

I searched for it in fabric stores near and far - 

which included consuming a fair amount of coffee in the process....

But it was not there.

And then - 

when I least expected it

I FOUND IT!

Who'd a thought you can buy it in bottles?

... and it comes in GREEN!

* * * * * * *

Tempting as it was, I didn't buy any - but the wholehearted laugh I got, did me the world of good, and I am back in my sewing room and anxious to get moving on my next project.

Still in the Yarra Valley

Moving on from the Chocolate Factory. We dropped our DS#2 and his Overseas Guest at Healesville Sanctuary for the next few hours.

While they enjoyed encounters with Aussie Wildlife, DH and I did a little touring on our own.

The Yarra Valley has a lot to offer, however for us, the Wineries hold little interest and it is still Winter so the Orchards are closed. You start to wonder what else is left.

But then it IS dairy country and the Yarra Valley Dairy was open and samples were to be tasted.

A little further down the road another farm gate sign brought us to The Big Bouquet.

This is a modern working Cut Flower Farm where you can learn all there is about growing Gerberas.

And when we'd had enough of flowers we said "Hello" to the resident herd of Alpacas and headed off for a wonderful Coffee and friendly chat with the staff, while trying (unsuccessfully) to ignore the awesome Alpaca garments, rugs and wool in the gift shop.

Road Trip - Yarra Valley

If you find yourself pondering if there is such a thing as TOO Much Chocolate I would highly recommend a visit to Melbourne's Yarra Valley.

Not only does it have beautiful rolling hills, stunning scenery, farm gate sales and the odd vineyard or six.... it also is the home of the
Yarra Valley Chocolaterie and Ice Creamery.

Walking through the door of this newly built Chocolate factory, we are greeted by the sight of piles of chocolate curvature buttons.
And a rather friendly sign asking you to "Please use a Spoon when sampling".

Having booked for the HOT CHOCOLATE FESTIVAL - we were shown to a table where we were treated to 45 mins of chocolatey bliss. The festival is showcasing 31 different Hot Chocolate flavours in 31 days (actually it is 8 flavours per tasting changing weekly - so you could go back each week and try them all!)

Bookings for the tasting sessions are essential as they sell out quickly - but there is still much to tempt you.

Row upon row of glistening chocolates and special treats to buy -

.. and that is before you get to the Cafe!

After all that chocolate? -
I opted for a cleansing Cup of Tea!






Yarra Valley Chocolaterie and Ice Creamery
35 Old Healesville Road
YARRA GLEN VIC 3775

Road Trip - Phillip Island

Melbourne may not have put on a fantastic day today weather wise, but we only have a couple of days to fit in some road trips.

Deciding to brave the cold and potential rain we headed for Phillip Island.

We started at the Koala Conservation Park where this little lass was enjoying breakfast, watched Sheep shearing and Whip cracking at Churchill Island...

'blew out the cobwebs' with the surf rolling in at The Nobbies, and ended the day by sitting on the beach watching Fairy Penguins come ashore.


And rounding off a perfect day - we pulled in on the way home - away from all the city lights and just looked up into the clear night sky at the majesty of a 'billion' stars.