Assorted Hobbies.

Today at rather short notice I was invited ( as a Patchwork and Quilter ) to take part in a hobbies display and demonstration at a primary school in the city. There was a great variety of craft being demonstrated:- pottery; spinning and weaving; scrapbooking; cake icing and decorating; embroidery; knitting; crochet; sea shell decorations; model making and flower arranging.
The one that took my eye the most was an elderly guy who had model ships on display but was still making this wonderful model of Winchester Cathedral out of match stick!
Probably the most popular thing to try , which was quite simple for the kids, was making a fondant flower. ( mostly lilies ) Then came the funny part...watching them carrying around their icing work of art and struggling with themselves .......should they keep it to dry out and take home to show off there........ or should they just eat it right there and then. The cunning ones were just licking the base of it as a compromise. ( I doubt that many got as far as home!)
I think the idea was worthwhile for the majority of kids; so achieved it's aim of interesting them in a wide variety of hobbies.

Hexagon I Spy.

My hand sewing project ( Hexagon I Spy ( Eye Spy )) is progressing well. FJ asked how I was doing certain parts so I will go through it step by step.
Each little hexagon component has 3 layers, shown in the photo. ( backing, batting and feature fabric ). The backing fabric is put wrong side up and the batting and upper layer matched neatly lie on top and are pinned in place. Then fold the edge of the backing over ( just like doing a double binding ) and pin it down, progressing around the 6 sides, mitre the corners all in the same direction as you go. I have then hand sewn the edges down. You end up with a little padded hexagon. ( it would be ideal as a coaster ; or table mat in a larger size ) I will then quilt each one ( practise at machine quilting) ( or it could be done by hand ).
The sides of the hexagons then butt up together and will later be sewn to each other, after I have decided on the correct lay out and when I have finished 100s more! (don't know how big yet.) I will need to try and get a good mix of bright colours to make it interesting. I had quite a collection of kids feature prints as I have made previous I spy quilts.( by a different method.) I an intending to use the same backing for the whole lot, but this could be varied, using different colours in plain fabrics.

Yesterday I did a massive gardening project. I started demolishing a 12 year old fence on which some of my roses grow, because it was made of untreated gum logs and was rotting away. In order to get at parts of it I had to give the big old roses a huge haircut! After lunch DH took pity on me and helped which meant the project was cleared up in one go. The posts, ( treated timber ) still solid are left and we will string a chain along them this time. I have another chain fence quite close by so it will match up with that. I will be interested to see how the roses flower after such an attack.( they are so big now they can mainly free stand , more as bush roses) As well as a whole truck load of rotting wood and prunings I also dug out 2 tractor bucket loads of agapanthus that were creeping and multiply much too close to the same roses. It has cleared the fence line for putting up the chain. By last evening I was one tired gardener with a back that knew it had been working, but the only injury I had was one rose prickle stuck in my cheek to the right of my nose which DH carefully removed with the tweezers, and it is fine today. Very satisfying to complete a project like that. Phew! Nothing too strenuous planned for today.

Prepare and organize.

With the notebooks all but finished I needed to organize myself for another hand sewing project for tomorrow when our P & Q Group meets. I didn't have any batting that was firm enough so had to go and buy some. I then had to cut out a pile of hexagons from the batting and fussy cut the same size hexagons that are going to form the front of an eye spy type quilt for a child. I then had to wash the fabric for the back ( black with little coloured stars ) iron it and cut out the larger size hexagon for the wrap around backs. A friend persuaded me it was a great way to make a quilt ( hers turned out well) and you can machine quilt each little hexagon individually before they are sewn together ( which appealed to me) and was a technique I haven't yet tried. I do know from my felt ballmaking that hexagons are a great shape to work with. So that was one project partly organized.
I have also returned to machine sewing my magic squares project started ages ago at our Midnight Madness session. In the photo you can see the paper patterns and the parts it forms when you cut each one up; sitting in little piles ready to construct the complete block. Once they were sewn I can sit and peal the paper backing off while watching TV or traveling as a passenger in the car. The next stage of constructing the blocks needs a iron at hand to press as you go. Sometimes the organizing and preparing seems to take forever but then I guess progress is quick once you get to the putting together stage. So that's where I'm at working on 2 projects one by hand and one on the machine.
I did make time to do a few hours work with the kiwifruit vines as well. Happy sewing everyone!

Tasty Nibbles.

Amongst the trees we grow a few of are some Macadamia Nuts. We gather them as they fall or just before is even better. ( just as the green outer shell begins to split ) We remove them from their outer green shell and dry them on an old sheet for about a week in the sun.( taking them in each night) We then shell them, with a special little machine that cracks the very, very hard brown shell. We then store them in plastic bags in the deep freeze and take them out to use as we want them. ( all types of nut are better stored in your freezer)
Yesterday DH got some out and prepared them as we usually do; to take as a nibble to friends.
method: Spread nuts in a single layer in a shallow oven dish or tray with a drizzle of olive oil. Put them into the oven ; turn it to 200 degrees centigrade. When the temp reaches 150 begin stirring from time to time. When they reach 200 they will have started to show signs of browning so watch very, very closely. Turn oven to fan bake and reduce temp to 170. Stir. Don't take your eyes off them till they are browned to your liking...see photo. Remove from oven and spoon onto paper kitchen towel to remove any oil. Pour into a brown paper bag; add 2 teaspoons of salt and shake closed bag. Tip nuts out into sieve to remove most of the salt. Let cool; store in an airtight jar (or eat straight away). Take to friends place with you and they beg you to bring them every time you visit ! There is no comparison between Macadamias this way with bought unroasted ones coated in milk chocolate.( Yuk! ) Dry roasted are divine and very, very good for us!

8 out of 10.

8 of my covered notebooks, ( for the sales table )the ones at the top of the photo are finished and the last 2 that look a bit scruffy still need the flaps sewn down. They feel good to hold and certainly "transform," a cheap notebook. Being reversible and removable they should be useful to whoever uses one for quite some time. I think they will sell.
Yesterday I saw another sales table ( no covered notebooks luckily! ) at the Exhibition of the local Embroiderers' Guild. Their work was beautiful as usual and I did notice that many articles now have embellishments that they didn't have just a couple of years ago. Unlike in the past I had to get permission to take a photo. ( The cross stitch irises are for you Sooziii) So I only took the one, which has a light spot, bother it. ( it was done from a commercial pattern...not an original design)
I also noticed the cross over between projects the embroiderers have tackled and ones our quilters have tackled - just approached using a different technique. They had a good turn out at the show and it is on for several days yet.The pick of all the articles on display for me was a small black card concertina book with each page a fabulous tiny embroidered work of art, in white or grey or silver or gold thread. So elegant, so appealing. It stood zigzagged across the table and would have looked good displayed anywhere. I voted it for viewer's choice.
The camellia Itty Bit, in my garden is looking so beautiful. It's flowers are just the right size. I have many lovely ones all in bloom.
We are off out early this evening to watch the big rugby game ( on TV ) ( NZ versus Australia,) at our friends' place so that should be a good night of nice food and drink and good humoured bantering. (Hope you enjoy it Downunder Dale!)

Finishing Day.

Yesterday was a dreary day here so I got up late and decided what better time to finish things. First I finished the book I was reading...."King of Torts," by John Grisham....it was okay but wouldn't particularly recommend it. Later I finished the hand hand quilting on my Apple Quilt! That's it, enough already...I just kept thinking, just another round here or another round there...but now I know that's it. The binding is done the label went on before I quilted it. ( someone said it is good to quilt through the label to save it from theft ) It even has it's own bag ( a red satin pillowcase I saw in a sale bin) I am pleased with my effort and am well ready to get on with other projects. Taking decent photos is one of the most difficult parts. The colours here are reasonably true but it is actually flatter and squarer than it looks here.

Wordsworth.

Not exactly a crowd, that Wordsworth described but my first real daffodils for the season....( King Alfred variety.) I'm glad I braved the rain earlier in the week and gave them wire supports as the buds were headed for the dirt at that stage. Now with sunshine again they look very cheerful.The tiny Camellia in the next photo, nearly wasn't as the water in the creek ( little stream ) rose right up to it. I had 3 planted there well above the water line I thought, but lost one last year. 2 still cling on to the bank.
Yesterday I went into Tauranga to the hairdresser, so look neat and foiled today, and while I was shopping got my first new money. The top line is what we have been using; the bottom line are the new smaller , lighter coins. The 5 cent on the top row right, goes completely; so 10 cents now our smallest coin. The old $1 and $2 coins on the top left are still to be used. From now till November both sets of coins are acceptable so that is a wee test. It certainly was in the dim light paying to get out of the parking building with no glasses on ( don't wear them for driving ) The up side is the new ones are lighter to lug around in purses / handbags!

I better Get on With It !

Oh what a wet weekend. We got 149 mls ( 6 inches ) of rain. Fooled by the sunshine early this morning I did quite a lot of washing....it was partly dry when back snuck the drizzle; now there's a downpour again! Never mind; no wonder it is so green in NZ! All that wetness made for a good sewing weekend.
Some time ago I showed a photo of a "Challenge fabric," that members of the Tauranga P and Q Group had been issued with...a very loud and busy fabric.......well I had approached it several times only to reject my own ideas...well time is marching on so I decided I had to act.
The instructions say: Be creative and complete a challenge no bigger than 1 metre by 1 metre ( 36"x 36"). You may use any fabric of your own choice but it must include 25% of the theme fabric.
I started by photo copying a section of the fabric. I cut it and played and partly destroyed it, but better than wrongly cutting the fat quarter! Everything I tried seemed a bit ambitious...so eventually I thought what do I know I can do that will not just be a waste......so I made a book cover! I have fussy cut the red parts of the fabric and matched them to a similar plain red. All the yellow fabric is on the inside of the cover. I am now proceeding to embellish and hand quilt the cover. It's not hugely exciting but I am working on it and it could be worse....I could have had to have a go at the confetti technique! The little extra strip in the photo is to be used as a booklock around the closed book or as a bookmark.

Green Juice.

Today I have been checking the condition of the kiwifruit we have stored for our own use. If I keep it in a cool place and check it regularly and take out any ripe ones to eat, some of it will last till December. (After the leaves fall off the vines we always find lovely fruit that was hiding above the canopy of leaves at picking time and so got missed then. So this is vine ripened for an extra 5 or 6 weeks.)
I thought you might be interested in the kiwifruit juice that is made from the imperfect fruit (not suitable to export because of the shape or they have marks on the skin etc. )
It is marketed under the brand name Nekta. (Green Kiwifruit with Aloe Vera Juice.) The label tells me it is marketed in NZ; Australia; Hong Kong and Macau. Although we have our own fruit I also buy the juice as I like to serve it to visitors especially anyone from overseas. Kids love the colour. It may be drunk as is, or diluted with water or lemonade. The gold variety is also available as juice, but is too sweet for my personal liking.