baby quilt

a friend of mine is having a baby any day now. i have been busy making her this baby quilt since last year. i can post this now because i finally sent it off to her last week.  i started with this tutorial found here. 

 

i had my fabric cut into squares and matched up right sides together

i drew a diagonal line and sewed on either side of it

 

i wasnt sure about this way of doing but it it was actually pretty quick and easy

 

then you cut along the line

 

voila, 2 pieces

open and press into place

 

i did that for all of them

 

i used dots and zig zags for the coloured pieces and a subtle white on white pattern for the other.

 

its important to trim extras, this makes it much easier later.

 

it looks like i could be done, but not yet

 

if you want to go the next level of pattern you cut the new 2 colour sqaures in half diagonally!

and then swap them around to make the 4 part new squares to be sewn together.

 

then the tricky part, figuring out the best layout to find the right balance of colour and repetition. in the end i went all sudoku and made sure only one of each colour was in each vertical and horizontal row. i know very OCD of me. 

i used some fabric i had already for the wadding and backing. and pinned it all in place to be quilted.

you can see on the back here the chevron quilting pattern. i used multi colour thread for that. its a bit tricky doing the quilting on my little domestic machine but the results are good enough for something that is to be used and loved.

here is the front of the finished quilt. i bound it in a light green and white stripe. although we know the sex of the baby, i wanted to make a quilt that was neither too girly or boyish and not the primary red blue yellow you see in all the kids toys. i think it is a pretty good quilt. i had fun making it and i know the new family will enjoy using it.

in the garden

i have been emailing and texting a friend in canada recently and we were talking about things that can kill you in australia.

the very next day there was this red back spider right near the tap in my backyard (middle of photo)

 

from a distance you can barely see it but it is right near where i have to put my hand to turn on the tap. danger in my own back yard. luckily they are not aggressive so i am ok. 

also in my backyard, my trees for life are beginning to sprout. one little tree there

 

and a few more of the other variety coming up

 

its exciting and stressful watching them grow, but i think its going to be ok.

recently in Radelaide

here are a few of the things happening recently in Radelaide

i got to check out the bee hive at our studio with bob

 

they are a happy, passive hive, busily filling their home with honey

we may not get any honey this year, but it a long term project so that is ok.

 

there have been plenty of baby ducks and swans along the river - watch out for their territorial behaviour when riding your bike past

 

otto and i had a trip to the beach the other day for a walk 

it was perfect weather for a stroll on the beach and a quick dip in the water

 

here is otto before he ran through the puddles

 

there was a panda cake made to celebrate a friends birthday

this was enjoyed over lunch last weekend

 

and until today the weather here has been perfect not too hot not too cold - and today is perfect inside computer activity weather - 39 degrees and only to get hotter tomorrow!

trees for life seed planting

now that the tubes are filled with soil, i had to wait until the advised date to sew some of the seeds. i had three boxes to do on the same day.

first you wash the gravel and leave it to dry

 

i had to pre treat 2 sets of seed, by putting them in a cup with boiling water and letting them sit over night.

 

these are the other seeds that were ready to go without any pre treatment

 

i planted 2 boxes of silver mulga

 

and one box of drooping sheaoak

 

i put the seeds on a plate and then using a chopstick i made a hole in the soil and placed the seeds in the hole.

 

there are 60 tubes per box, but there are enough seeds to put a few in each tube.

 

they tell you to plant all the seed they give you, so i went back over the box with the excess seed to use it all up.

 

then you cover lightly with the soil and then put the small gravel mulch that was washed earlier on as a mulch. this helps keep the seed and soil from blowing away int he wind or washing away in the water when watering.

 

this box is done

 

a close up of one of the seeds in the hole in the tube

 

with three boxes planted i then needed to cover them with 50% shade cloth.

 

a few sticks and voila a shaded seed raising place. the shade cloth stays on until the second set of true leaves are in place. I plant out another box in a couple weeks and then the last 2 just after christmas. now I just wait and hope they all sprout!

volunteering

i have been thinking about volunteering for some time now. the problem is that i am often very busy and short on spare time. so having responsibility to be somewhere at a certain time would be difficult. my friend has bee doing trees for life for many years now and i thought it might work for me as i can do it at home in my own time. so i signed up.

how it works is you get a growers pack, with instructions, seeds, soil, plastic tubes, fertilizer everything you need to grow the native trees. you are responsible for filling the tubes with dirt, and planting the seeds. then you need to water the seedlings and care for them from December to May. once the seedlings are about 30 cm tall they are ready to go to the landowners who will plant them out.

 

 i am growing 6 boxes, each with 60 trees - so 360 little trees to care for! 2 boxes silver mulga, 1 box each of golden wattle, drooping sheoak, pink gum, and inland southern blue gum.

 

these are the 6 boxes of soil, as i picked them up from the depot. they need to be in 8 hours of full sun each day, and set up off the ground so bugs and such cant get into them.

 

because i had 6 boxes with 60 tubes in each to fill, i called in some help. borris' folks came and we all worked together for a few hours after lunch to fill the 360 tubes.

here they are, all ready for the next step. planting the seeds. and i will plant 3 boxes this week.

bees, beds, and table

a little while back i had a furniture maker i know deisgn and make this new coffee table for the lounge room. this was the beginning of a new era - since then we have repainted and tidied up the whole house. and otto is there on the sofa.

love the table, good size, i just could not find one anywhere that i really likes and that fit the space. bespoke furniture is great.

 

i found some dog fabric to compliment the cat fabric, and this time made cat beds with the dog fabric. 2 local cats and one interstate cat were the lucky recipients of these cat beds.

and just for something totally different i organised to get bees at our workshop. a friend of mine is bee keeping, and needs places to put his hives. so we give him space in our yard, he does all the work and then when it is time to extract the honey we get 1 jar of rental honey.

 

right now there is just the one level but soon we will get a second story and that is where our honey will be stored until we extract it at the end of summer.

 

you barely even notice it is there, and i like the idea of helping the bee population out.