Flying Fox Caught

I asked my boyfriend (BF) to pick the figs for me this morning, as I call it "Fort Knox" to get to it since he put up the mesh so the birds wouldn't eat my figs this year. He called out to me to tell me that there wouldn't be any figs today and come down and have a look why. So down I went thinking that fruit fly had taken the last of my crop, but I was wrong, as you can see:

We have no way of knowing how the flying fox got in, but it certainly made a feast of it while it was in there, as there wasn't a ripe fig left, only a few small green ones coming on. My BF opened one end of the netting to let it out but the fox panicked and got one of its wings caught through the netting:

So my BF had to cut the netting away from its wing and then let another side of the netting open out and finally, after some coaxing the flying fox flew away.
I was so taken by the size of the flying fox as it flew away, I forgot to take another photo of it...I'd say the length of each wing was over a foot long. I hope it doesn't come back tonight and bring its friends!

Well I won't ne making Fig Jam tonight!
Until next post...

Cheers...Jewells

Lighthouse set finished

This weekend I managed to sew both tea-towels and both potholders, and also finished the second dish cloth... all with the lighthouse theme...Yes they are a row of lighthouse on the tea-towels.

Now I am deciding whether to give both sets to my friend Robyn for her birthday in March, or just one set along with some jam.
Until next post..
Cheers...Jewells

What a Bargain!

Last weekend I travelled to my parent's place (5 1/2 hours away by car) and on the Saturday morning, Mum and I went "op-shopping" and the biggest bargain I found was this box. It said $2:
So I opened the box and this is what I found!
There are 3 applique books, a LOT of scrap material and also a few larger pieces , all in 100% cotton, and lots of applique templates already cut out.

One word for this find... BARGAIN!

Until next post.

Cheers...Jewells

Awaiting the 3rd Expense

Well, they say things happen in threes... so two things have been thrown out and now I am awaiting the third thing to happen.

The first thing I had to throw out was my preserving pan (and it was a nice thick bottomed expensive one!). You see, I was reheating some jam to make it thicker and kept emptying the bottles into it, but forgot I had turned the hotplate on high. So as you can imagine, the jam burnt on the bottom, and when I say burnt, I mean BURNT! I had to throw out 8 pounds of fig jam and after 2 days of trying to scrub the bottom of the pan (even my boyfriend tried to clean it), I threw it into the bin, along with the jam for collection last Tuesday night.

The second thing I threw into the bin was my heavy duty iron. I went home from work today at lunchtime with all intentions of ironing my blouses, so I plugged in the iron and BANG! went the power to my house. I reset the trip switch and used a different power point, but the iron set it off again. So needless to say the blouses are still in a wrinkled heap!

Oh dear... what will it be???

Until next post..

Cheers...Jewells

Some Sewing at Last!

Tonight I came home from work and made another 4 kilos of figs into jam, and then I decided to make my grand daughter's dress, so here it is.

It was so good to "play" with my machine again. One dress done and now tea-towels are calling me.... oh I wish I didn't have to work, but as the song goes... "I owe, I owe, it's off to work I go".. isn't that the way it goes?

Until next post.
Cheers...Jewells

I have been busy...honestly!!

Even though I haven't had time to do any much loved patchwork, I have been very busy with making Fig Jam twice a week (the tree just keeps producing!) and also knitting these Dish Cloths.. all being done after a full day's work as a Secretary.
I have knitted 9 of the 12 patterns out of the Dish Cloth Book I have, just got another 3 to make and then I have made them all! The other 2 multicoloured cloths are made up of left over balls of cotton, using the first pattern I had, which is oh so serviceable... the first cloth I had made in this pattern, lasted nearly a year with daily use and weekly washes.
The other things I am working on is a gift for a friend who's Birthday is at the beginning of March. She loves lighthouses, so I have decided to knit a dish cloth (blue item in the middle), make a tea-towel (or 2) out of the white honeycomb fabric (underneath dishcloth & fabrics) and decorating the tea-towel with a strip of the lighthouse fabric on the edge, then with the other pile of fabric, I am going to sew a paper pieced lighthouse pot holder.
Then lastly, my daughter asked me to make this dress for my granddaughter, so I bought the fabric and now I have to sew it together. The instructions said to buy a metre of the fabric, which I did, but I think they meant a metre of the UN-shirred fabric... ah well, there is enough to make 2 dresses for her... just have to buy more ribbon. I will make the second one a tad longer with different ribbon, so she will have 2 different dresses, 2 years apart.
Until next post...
Cheers..Jewells

Now Zucchinis

My boyfriend's small vegetable garden is producing more than we can eat, so tonight after work I made Zucchini Pickles and Zucchini Muffins. I used up all the zucchinis and the few onions I picked on the weekend.

Tomorrow I will be picking more figs off my tree, so I will have to make more jam soon. I am fastly running out of bottles!

I have been googleing on the computer to find interesting recipes for all this cooking, and todays two things are from that.

Until next post.

Cheers...Jewells