Making good use of a LONG weekend

Beautiful Autumn/Indian Summer weather and a long weekend combined to provide the perfect opportunity to finally get some SERIOUS gardening done at our DD's home.

Here is the weekend in Fast Forward!

There were Weeds....

.... and more weeds
It was backbreaking work digging them out of  the dark / sticky Volcanic soil

but ever so gratifying once it was done
and the topsoil loam was spread

Then the lawn seed was finally able to be sown!



All through the day as we worked, we had the company of the local bird population - waiting and watching - we were sure THEY knew what was happening...

(Free bird seed for all!)

Shade cloth over the new seed should help protect it until it has sprouted.




Well, that is the new lawn sorted - now what is NEXT on the list?
Taming the Veggie Patch!

The Veggie patch is producing lots of lovely produce but that sweet, rustic, meadow grass between the beds is about to die off and leave sticky mud between DD and her Crop.
Time for some "Extreme gardening"

Slash it all down to the ground, Prune up the plants

... barrow in a nice thick layer
of Chip Bark mulch.

Good! - that should keep their boots clean over winter
and THAT 'little job' is done!



While all of  this was going on I had my own pet project I keep coming back to ....
The FRONT garden.

This is a perfect example of WHY you should finish one project before you start another...
but that being said - this has been my hobby that I go back to when I am not needed elsewhere...

Time to get it FINISHED!

Much better!

The Sunflowers were sewn from just half a packet of Cheap Bird Seed as an inexpensive way of filling in a very large garden bed while we worked out what to do with it!

I did find it fascinating that after all the hours I spent working on this project by myself - just as it is nearly completed - The Guys appear!
Oh well, if they want to pull out a few weeds (and rocks) who am I to argue with them?

(To be fair: D-SIL is actually installing a watering system, while DH & DS#2 contemplate a rather deep rooted weed.)
* * *

At the end of the weekend we were all very sore and tired (my Fitbit registered many more steps than usual) and justifiably pleased with ourselves! 

 I think it was a VERY productive 3 days!

Another UFO bites the dust ...

Jinny Beyer's Crystal Star was started so long ago I can barely remember buying the kit.

I have plodded along with this, often a distraction from what I was meant to be doing - making mistakes along the way until finally finishing the centre May last year.

Jinny Beyer - Crystal Star
150 Colours

The borders proved to be a challenge. 

Firstly, the fabric chosen when I bought the Kit didn't compliment my recently painted sewing room, requiring new fabric to be found.  

Then, even though I followed the instructions to the letter - they were too short! 

What a relief to discover that my mitred borders (the black ones in the photo) were not exactly 45 degrees and once they were unpicked and re-sewn the feature border fitted.

I can't say that my heart has been with this quilt towards the end, so I am happy that it is finished and can be folded and put away for now.  Once it is quilted I will decide whether to hang it above my cutting table or throw it over an armchair.

Time to Tame those Scraps . . .

It doesn't happen very often (only once in 4 years) but this week I got an extra day in my week!  Decisions.. decisions... what will I do with all that time?

Take a great big LEAP into that Scrap box!

In the grand scheme of things my Fabric Scrap Stash isn't that big - but it still needed some decisions to be made and some sorting out.

For Quilters, scraps are sorted into usable pieces - things you can make another block from - That is the easy part.

But what happens when you dabble in Appliqué?

I decided to set a benchmark -

If I could wrap the fabric around a 5 cent coin it would make a sweet 2 cm (3/4") circle, dot or flower centre.
So it can stay!


These bits were also quite big enough for one of the La Passacaglia pieces....

And the strips?

If a strip off cut would fit the smallest bias tape maker in my set (that's about 1/2") ...

It too can stay.


There you have it - decisions made and just how much "Usable Fabric" did I salvage from that box of Batik scraps?
I have done the maths ....

770 gm of Fabric lengths

1 meter fabric (16 Jelly Roll pieces) = 125 grams
My scraps weighed 770 grams
that equals a staggering 6.2 meters of fabric or 24 fat Quarters or 2 1/2 Jelly Rolls!
At a conservative $4:00 per fat 1/4 that works out at .......
$ 96.00 worth of fabric that was heading for the bin!

I shudder to think what my Robert Kaufman scraps are worth... but I shall leave them for another day!

I shot down a UFO . . .

UFO #2
Jinny Beyer's FACETS Quilt

I pulled it out of the UFO drawer yesterday to see what needed to be done to this small quilt -

I have obviously made a start and have completed one set of diamonds.

Just need to start to cross-cut the next set and ...
Oh my!
A little moment of distraction and my strips were cut 2 1/4" instead of the required 2 1/2"

Just as well I had lots of fabric left over and I can cut some more.

Well - I would have cut some more...
It seems someone else had other ideas!


Once I was able to move 'His Lordship' off the cutting mat, the quilt went together very easily.

I started putting the blocks together this morning and was happily attaching the borders this afternoon!

Now all I need to do is QUILT IT!

Oh Blah . . . . .

Southern Cross Quilters have been chatting about clearing out UFOs recently  - so I decided it was time I took a look at just how many I have.

I try and keep my projects moving along, and I don't THINK I have that many..... So let's have a look at them - in no particular order to see just WHY they are officially a UFO.

UFO #1

Yoshiko's Garden by Kona Bay

Sometime early last year, I thought I would run up a quick quilt.
Found some pretty fabric in my stash and downloaded a pattern from one of those companies that give out free patterns to showcase a range of fabric.

I worked on it for a bit, but something wasn't quite right with the design. I couldn't put my finger on the problem so it was neatly packed up and put on the shelf.

Almost a year later it comes out to be stared at intently once again -

I like the colours - I used Jinny Beyer's Colour Palette to choose them.  Not too thrilled about the quality of the Tone on Tone, it has a bit too much stretch for my liking.
But that wasn't enough to keep it in the UFO box.

Then I realised it was the pattern itself!
Beautiful big framed Snowball blocks to showcase a pretty large print fabric in the centre of the quilt that were chopped off at the edges!
The lattice that the Tone on Tone created had nowhere to go!!

I know what to do ..
I can fix it
I can finish this UFO
I   ... don't have enough (pink) fabric......

Oh BLAH!
Back on the UFO shelf it goes!

A Christmas Gift

One Christmas gift I received this year definitely came with 'Some assembly required'.
It was a batch of cookies - in a bottle!

It was so pretty I didn't want to open it - but that was not the point of the gift.

And I was determined not to let it go stale in the pantry.

All I had to do was toss it into a bowl, add some melted butter and an egg - stir and place 12 spoons-full onto a cookie tray then bake.

12?
Very generous sized cookies if it only made 12!!

The first time I saw something like this was at the Yarra Valley Chocolate Factory when we visited in August - I thought they were awesome!
I have since discovered many recipes on line for this wonderful gift.
(Just search for "Cookies in a Jar").

"ONLY" one sixteenth of an inch ....

You would not think that one sixteenth of an inch would make all that much difference.  It is in many cases just the thickness of a (blunt) pencil.

Yet in quilting it makes a HUGE difference!

This photo shows TWO one inch square reference blocks -
I would have said that they are both the same size, yet the square on the left is just ever so slightly out.



I didn't realise anything was wrong, I measured the block drawing, it was only a little bit out so I concluded it "was not to scale"...





I made up my first block and fussed over the fact it did not sit right. No matter what I did it would not go together!

I blamed everything from my own lack of talent to the 'dodgy' 1/4" seam of my machine -
I re-measured the reference block, I checked my computer - it was set to print at 100% - so what was wrong?

What I didn't know was, when we unplugged the Printer for a day recently it reset the custom settings to "Fit to Page" when it was turned back on.
Apparently it didn't matter what my laptop was programmed to do - the printer ALSO had to be set to 100%.

Here in the pieces that make up the block you can see the subtle difference.
On each piece it is only a 'bees whisker' on the side seams - But the REAL issue was that One Sixteenth of an Inch at the bottom of the fan shaped piece on the right hand side.


Mystery solved and now my pieced 6 1/2 inch blocks are going together like a dream!