I've been cooking

Bruce picked a load of vegetables from our garden, so I thought I had better get in and do some preserving yesterday.

From the left, they are: Curry Ketchup, Yellow Squash Pickles & Zucchini Pickles.

Then I thought I would make a recipe out of a "Slow Cooker" book I received for Christmas..

It was a jam cake in a mug... tastes yummy, but a mug is too much serving for one person,

 so next time I will put all the mixture in one bowl and see if it comes out as tasty. 

Until next post..

Jewells

Up to date with my Block of the Month

Yah!!!  I managed to get block 4 finished ..

 ...then I added it to blocks 1, 2 & 3..

..so I am up to date (finally) with this Block of the Month...

..until the next one comes early next month!

Until next post...

Jewells

SSCS 2015 opened!

As mentioned 2 blog entries ago, my secret Santa was Sylvia and this is what she sent me:

Just LOVE the table runner.. it is on one of the tables now.

The chocolates are always accepted well in this house  (and they hadn't melted in the heat!).

All the gifts are very much appreciated.

Thanks to Chooky for organising the swap and thanks to Sylvia for sending to me.

Until next post...

Jewells

Block 3 of my BOM

I have had a bit of "me" time this week, so I got in and made block 3 of my BOM

 Then I joined it to blocks 1 and 2

Now I have to get onto block 4 before the 5th block arrives early next month.

Until next post..

Jewells

2015 SSCS..at long last received!

Again this year, I joined Chookyblue's SSCS.  We all posted our parcels on 23rd November and I have patiently been waiting on my parcel to arrive from ???

...29 days later by AIR MAIL (or should I say SLOW mail) this arrived..

 My Secret Santa is Sylvia from Germany.

 I opened the box and found all this inside.

 This is the "ornament" parcel I am allowed to open straight away.

and this is my BEAUTIFUL ornament.

Thank you Sylvia... now I have to wait until Friday to open the other parcels..

...they have all been squeezed and shook to "try" to work out what is inside.

Until next post...

Jewells

Santa Sack Revealed!

I participated in Cheryll's Santa Sack Swap again this year and my swap partner was Peg

We were allowed to open our gifts on Friday and look what I got!

I am blown away with all my goodies.

The Santa on a bed spring was just what I wanted, as I tried to purchase one, but I was too late!

I even received a diary, which was something else I tried to buy 2 weeks ago at our local store & they were all sold out, so I was waiting to go into a bigger shopping centre to buy one...now I don't need too!

I got table runners, a sewing organiser, chocolate, hand soap, Santa hat and lots lots more...

I was SO LUCKY.... starting to think my gift to Peg wasn't quite as good as what I received!

THANKS again Peg & thanks to Cheryll for organising the swap.

Until next post...

Jewells

Santa Sack Swap arrived

I am participating in Cheryll's Santa Sack Swap....

 

.....and look what just arrived this morning!

My swap partner was Peg Coen.

Aren't I a lucky ducky?  Just itching to open them!

Until next post...

Jewells

Block 1 & 2

This week while my quilting machine has been covered over due to the renovations to my sewing room, I was able to get onto Block 2 of the BOM I have been doing.

 Then I added it to Block 1

 I have Block 3 sitting here waiting to be done & Block 4 should be arriving sometime this week.

This is what it is going to look like when finished....one day.

Until next post....

Jewells

Dungog Show Wins

First time ever...

I won a Champion ribbon for something I made:

 This quilt was made up of 12 embroidered squares, then joined together to make one HUGE quilt.

I made the embroidered squares (a few years ago) in a workshop on learning how to master my Bernina Artista embroidery machine.

They sat in my cupboard for a while before I worked out how I wanted to join them together...as I embroidered them all "on point".

Now that it is finished, it is rolled up and again stowed away in a cupboard.

This is one quilt that I am keeping for "me".

I received 3 other "Firsts" at the show:

This is one of the table runners I will have at my sale next month, but the jam & the pickles are now in my fridge for us to eat.

I am one happy little Vegemite with my wins!

Until nest post...

Jewells

I learnt something new

On Wednesday, I was invited to spend a one on one lesson with a lovely lady in a town nearby.  She had perfected a crazy patchwork quilt using cut up denim jeans.

She uses all of the jeans...zippers, pockets, labels, and the legs are mainly used as the borders in between each rectangle.

Here is my first 15" x 17" rectangle:

 Then she got me to use an actual pocket:

I was half way thru making one with a fly, but the day got away from me and I had to come home.

It is a bit like quilt as you go, but you work on a piece of fabric instead of wadding.

Not enough hours in a day to keep doing it at the moment, but I will defineately get back to it as soon as possible.

Until next post...

Jewells

2 Quilts Finished _ Tractor & Chickens

Another 2 quilts finished by "Mum & Me".

Both are for my Quilt & Craft Sale in December.

In between customer's quilts, I managed to quilt & bind the "Girl Feeding the Chickens" quilt Mum sewed together last week.

Then we got together and made this "Tractor" quilt from a kit I bought at the Newcastle Quilt Show.

My "hubby" said..right colour, wrong tractor".  He owns a McCormick tractor.

Wish they made fabric with this image on it!

Until next post...

Jewells

Feeding the Chickens

Another "Mum and Me" quilt.

This kit was a VERY simple quilt to make.  I bought the kit & gifted it to my sister, as she loves her chooks...she is actually known as "The Chook Lady" in her small town.

Well, she has moved her love of quilting to loving Scrap-booking & Card-making, so she asked me to sell all of her kits & patterns on eBay.

Well, seeing I gave this kit to her, I kept it to make up myself!... well Mum & I to make it up.

I quilted it with a leaf pattern..

My Quilt & Craft Sale is coming up (5th Dec), so Mum & I are busy making those last minite things to go into it.

Yes, this quilt will be in the sale.

Until next post...

Jewells

 

Another Quilt Finished

"Flip's Flower Garden"..just complete by Mum & Me..

 This kit was gifted to me by a friend in America. 

 She knows I am a sucker for cute things and bought this for me.

So, as usual, I cut, Mum sewed, and I ironed, quilted & bound it.

I thought it would be a fairly quick quilt to make... but I was wrong!... there were LOTS of sewing, cutting, matching & more sewing to this quilt.

The quilting stitch I used was a "Buzzing Bee" to compliment the bees around Flip and also on some of the border fabric (hard to see).

 

At the moment, Mum is busy with applique on her September installment of a block of the month and I am quilting customer's quilts, as well as making nighties for my sister, as she asked for me to make her some.

Until next post...

Jewells

Lemons!

My lemon tree is groaning with so much fruit.

So today I have made:

Lemon Curd/Butter

 and Lemon Hand Scrub

 This was the first batch

The lemon tree doesn't even look like it has been touched!

I had better make some more...

....hopefully, the Bingo ladies will buy lots off me tomorrow!

I have also been busy quilting customer's quilts in between batches!

Until next post...

Jewells

Out with the old & in with the new!

Yesterday, Stew, Casserole & T-Bone (we have owned them for 2 years) were sold at the Dungog Cattle Sales and they brought in the highest price for the day...even beating the top price paid for a cow & calf... we were happy with that!

It was the first time I have been to a cattle sale...interesting!

I went to the pen where they were being held before the sale, to see them and when they heard my voice, they turned around and looked at me, as if they were saying "what are we doing here?"

Then again, when they were being sold, I was in the front row (so I could hear & see what was going on) and they saw me and kept looking at me.

I wasn't sad about seeing them go, as in the last few weeks they have been pushing & shoving each other, and that was upsetting me...so I asked Bruce (my "husband"!) when it was time to sell them...he said that it was time and he was afraid to mention it to me, as he thought it would upset me. 

So off they went to the next market.

Now...meet Sirloin, Mince, Fillet & Rump... they arrived yesterday morning and will be keeping us company for about 2 years.

I had forgotten how small they are when we first get them!

 Now I have to train them to come when I call.

Until next post...

Jewells

A Perfect Day!

Well here is the first photo of Bruce & me on our wedding day.

It was drizzling rain in the morning, but an hour before the midday ceremony the sun came out and stayed out with no wind. The weather was perfect..not cold or hot.

My dress was silver satin & lace with a matching silver jacket.

The ceremony was held outside & the meal was on a verandah overlooking lush green paddocks & mountains, with an occasional kangaroo hopping by.
The rain came again, just as the last guest was leaving.

PERFECT DAY!

Until next post..

Jewells

Cheats Quilt

I came across a Santa panel in my stash, only to realise I have two of them.

So I decided to just quilt one of the panels without adding any borders:

I used a Christmas Holly Stitch.

I even used left over binding to finish it off.  It is about 35" x 42".

I will tizz up the other panel...can't be lazy with both of them!

Oh! how I LOVE my quilting machine!

Until next post...

Jewells

Cross Stitch to Patchwork!

Over the years, I have worked on quite a few cross stitches, (not now as my eyesight isn't as good as it use to be...even with glasses!) I framed some (not many) and just filed the others away in the cupboard to do something with them later on...

So what do you do with little cross stitches like this?

I had plans on making them a middle feature in a patchwork quilt, then I came across this idea, and ran with it:

.. I was so impressed with the first attempt, I got a bit carried away..

 

..then I thought...why not fussy cut something?...

...needless to say, I have made quite a few.

 

While I was making the above bags, Mum was sewing this together:

 

It is a single bed sized quilt, using a Jelly Roll I bought in the States a couple of years ago, then we had to go to the local quilt shop to find something for the 2 outside borders... even with all the fabric I have here (and trust me, I have hundreds of metres!), I just couldn't find the right colours to make the quilt "pop". ... $50 later, I found just the right fabric.

Until next post...

Jewells

 

This time next week...

 As my wedding is in a week today (YIKS!), we went to where we are getting married at the same hour the ceremony is to take place to check out the position of the sun etc... then onto where the photos will probably be taken.. I tried to take a nice photo of Bruce while there...I hope he doesn't play up on the professional photographer, like her did with me!

 Meanwhile, it only took one attempt to take a reasonable photo of me!

Onto a different subject now...

 When I was at the Sydney Quilt Show in June, I signed up for a BOM with Kidsquilts which started this month.

 ...and here is Block 1... I made it straight away, instead of putting it away for another day.

Now that Block 1 is finished, I will probably will start on this next...

It was gifted to me from a friend in America.

 So cute... great presentation too!

 

Well it is too late to start now...maybe tomorrow...

Until next post...

Jewells