MORE Preserving!

I have been making Fig Jam every second or third day for a couple of months now, and now the figs are starting to come to an end, with this last lot being made last Saturday:

  

I was starting to look forward to some time to sew or knit instead of bottling food, but then my boyfriend says to me that the Choko vine is starting to produce and he came in with a bucket of chokos last night...

GROAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

so I cut up lots of chokos and vegetables last night, set it aside to soak, took the excess chokos to work and gave them away to my fellow workers, then came home from work tonight and made some Choko Pickles:

I have found an interesting Choko Relish recipe, which I will make up next week with some of what is picked then.

Until next post...
Cheers...Jewells

Update your blog Mum!

My daughter phoned me last night and told me to update my blog, as she says that it has been too long since the last post, so I grabbed my camera and looked for something new to show you.

My first photo is a belated Birthday gift from a friend who knows I love Bingo (tragic isn't it?).  I go once a week and have withdrawal symptoms if I don't go.  I have taken this bag with my markers and money since receiving it.

It says "I only play BINGO on days that end in "Y"

Next is a photo of my Choko vine taking over.  The 2 trees it is growing over is a Banksia Tree and a Bottlebrush Tree and underneath is what I call "Pennyweed" but the real name is Nasturtium. At the moment I have only picked one choko, but there are many, many baby chokos coming on.

Now I have 2 different Frangapanni trees...this one is the traditional white with yellow centre and is huge, shading the corner of my house, and sending out a wonderful perfume with all the flowers.

 
Then across the yard is the other Frangapanni, called "Tropical".

Well that is it for now... no sewing or knitting being done as I am preserving fig jam every 3rd day, along with cucumber pickles and Curry Ketchup on the other days.

Until next post....

Cheers....Jewells

My Birthday Bear

It was my birthday yesterday and I received this gorgeous bear from my Daughter, son in law and 2 grand children.  

They went to a "Build a Bear" shop and made my bear.  The grandchildren held a heart shaped object, rubbed it over their heart, eyes, ears and mouth, then put the heart into the bear so the bear would always love me, see me, hear me and speak to me.

The bear has a birth certificate and the grandchildren named it "Nanna Bear".

Then they recorded their voices in the bear, so when I squeeze the paw, it says "Happy Birthday Julie", (from my son in law), "Happy Birthday Mum" and 2 lots of "Happy Birthday Nanna".

It made me cry..

Until next post...

Cheers...Jewells

The Yuletide Quilt - Part Six (Final)

By the time the quilt came back from the quilter, Dulie was back at work, full time, so she sewed the binding on for about a week, during her lunch hour.  That was NOT an easy job, as the quilt was huge and Dulie hand sewed the binding down.  Also it was January, and that month is the middle of summer in Australia, so it was HOT, HOT, HOT!

But finally The Yuletide Quilt was finished!
 It measured 78" x 98".

Told you it was HUGE!

It is now packaged up and ready to post it to Legina in the States.

So that now brings this little story to an end ....
(at long last, says you!)
a quilt made with love from an Aussie (Dulie), to her recently widowed friend (Legina), with hindrance (Ron) and help along the way (Bane & Feather).

THE END!

The Yuletide Quilt - Part Five

Recap of people in this story: 

Dulie – the Aussie

Legina & Bane– American friend’s of Dulie

Ron – Legina’s late husband.

Dulie managed to finish the quilt top while she was in the States, but a quilt is not made of a quilt top alone, so stupidly Dulie decided that she wanted to make a backing out of the pile of 6” Christmas squares that were from another swap amongst the same ladies. As Dulie’s time in the States had run out, she carried the quilt top and 6” squares home to Aussie Land in her luggage.

She was not game to post the quilt top home (along with the 50 8 boxes she had posted home to herself with the 1000’s 100’s of yards of fabric), as last time she visited Legina & Bane, she worked on a quilt while there, and posted it home to herself, only to have the quilt top and all the additional fabric for that quilt to be “misplaced” while being inspected by Australian Quarantine…. Never to be seen again 

Unfortunately when Dulie got home, she was unable to get started on the backing, so when her Mum ,“Feather”, came for a few day’s visit, Dulie thought it would be a wonderful opportunity for Feather to add her expertise to the quilt.  So with Dulie measuring & cutting and Feather chained  sitting at the sewing machine the backing was made over 2 days.

 
Feather at the machine

 They decided on making alternating rows of 6” squares and 6” strips, raiding Dulie's own stash to add to Legina's squares.  The quilt back, front & wadding was bundled up and taken to the local quilter to be joined together.





The backing

Stay tuned for Part Six of THE YULETIDE QUILT… same time, same station.

Until next post….

Cheers...Jewells

The Yuletide Quilt - Part Four

Dulie sat there stunned – how could the SAME block go missing AGAIN?  Straight away, she looked in the scrap bin, but it wasn't there.  So again she retraced her steps…. around the sewing machine, the ironing board, and the breakfast bar, nothing.  

 Dulie spoke out loud "ah come on Ron, don't do this to me, where is it?"… again retracing her steps.  Then there, on one of the breakfast bar stools, tucked right up under the bar was the missing block.

Dulie finished off the row without any more incidents, and managed to add another row before Legina came home from work.

Legina was not in the door more than a minute, when Dulie asked her if she felt the presence of Ron in the house…and without hesitation she replied "oh YES! many times, why?"  Dulie explained the missing block and spread the unfinished quilt out and asked Legina if she could pick which block she was talking about.  Straight away, Legina pointed to "I Believe in Family" and burst into tears.

This called for a strong drink lots of hugging.  Bane came over that evening and she was told about the strange happenings of the day… more drinking hugging.

Stay tuned for Part Five of THE YULETIDE QUILT… same time, same station.

Until next post….

Cheers…Jewells

The Yuletide Quilt - Part Three

One day while working on the quilt, Dulie found that one of the panel blocks was missing.

She had been working on the second set of 3 blocks from the panel at the breakfast bar, measuring and cutting borders to add to the blocks, then went back to the sewing machine to sew on the borders, but realized that she only had 2 of the 3 blocks with her. Dulie retraced her steps to the breakfast bar, - no block- she then went back to the sewing machine, - no block – she went to the ironing board, - no block – back to the breakfast bar, then the machine, then the ironing board – still no block.

 

 One of the 3 Blocks

Dulie was now questioning herself, then started getting quite frustrated, upset and bordering on thinking she was going mad – she would have spent a good 20 minutes retracing and retracing her steps, even looking in places that was impossible to find a missing block.

She sat at the machine, in total defeat, when for no reason at all, she happened to look down into her scrap bin and there it was – the missing block.  There was no rhyme nor reason on how it got there, but it was there.  She picked it up and a cold shiver went down her spine, because the missing block was “I Believe in Family”….. Do ghosts exist?.. Is Ron here?

Dulie had a strong cup of coffee to calm her nerves, told herself to stop being silly and get back to the quilt.

  She added the borders to the 3 blocks, ironed them and went back to the breakfast bar to cut the fabric to join the 3 blocks together to make a row.  She went back to the machine with all the pieces, sat down and realized she was missing one of the pieces…. Yes, the same block had gone missing again….

Stay tuned for Part Four of THE YULETIDE QUILT… same time, same station.

Until next post….

Cheers…Jewells