sewing strips

I saw a pattern for a folded pouch made from 1 1/2" strips and I just got the urge to sew strips. So I put together 10 width of fabric strips in Christmas fabric. I didn't really want a Christmas pouch so I cut it into 4 squares and made a table topper. So I could use it all year I made the backing with some of my NZ fabrics - the Tui's and matchng green.
My travel bag sits very patiently while I play.

I also saw that someone had done a lovely ribbon tree and thought that idea would be perfect for selvedges. I have drawn it up ready to do. I got side tracked with a stripy cat that just had to go first. I think it will go on a tea towel.

I drew the pattern on thin interfacing sewed on the strips then stay stitched around the outline and cut it out. I will use a bit of spray basting to hold it on while I stitch it on the tea towel. There is a tail and a stitched face to complete it.

 Mum and I had time to go and have morning tea up at Mt Tamborine at the Polish Gallery. There is a lovely view down the valley. It was a bit hot so not a good place to go in summer.

And finally here is the garden progress. When the cucumbers grow big I will train them back over the bed to keep the sun off the lettuce and maybe a capsicum. The sun is so fierce here all the veges can do with some shade.

Happy Quilting,
Val

Past and present garden

Lots of quilters seem to have lovely gardens. After quite a few years of no vege garden I have finally made minimum effort to get something going. It feels really good and I am very pleased with the progress of the little seedlings. I have planted lettuce and little cucumbers and some parsley.

I just tore the bag open and planted.

Unfortunately I am a little ashamed of how minimal it is so I have included some pictures of the garden I used to have. It was based on the mandala method with a chicken dome to nourish each of six beds. I would plant 3 beds in winter and three beds in summer. I had quite a seed sowing thing going, a worm farm and compost piles. I think I kept it going for about 4 years.

One side

Close up of the chickens

The other side

I have plans to start up my vege garden with new energy late next year after all my traveling has finished. It never works to leave someone else in charge of sensitive vegetables. Funily enough I have noticed that keeping up a vege garden is quite a drain on the finances. It is lovely to have fresh veges but having the garden doesn't seem to save money. I may have to sacrifice some of my fabric money to keep it going but since I am traveling in search of fabrics I should have a pretty good stash by then.

My travel bag is coming along nicely. Instead of making pockets for my passport, phone and purse I am going to make a special wallet to keep them all together in the inside zipper pocket. I have experienced losing a pair of expensive glasses as I rummaged in my bag before boarding once so I think a wrap up wallet will keep things more safe. I plan to have only that wallet in the zipper pocket so I won't be rummaging for anything else in that pocket. I have made the tote quite deep to try to stop things overflowing and the top is narrower than the bottom also to discourage overflow. It is becoming quite a work of art :)

Happy quilting,
Val

Time to Evaluate the Schedule and Get into the Garden

This is my lychee tree. We got a few lychees last season

After answering some comments about my housework I thought it was time to do an evaluation of the routine. The last few weeks I have not been looking forward to 90 min of housework on Mondays and Thursdays. It is becoming a chore! So today (Thursday) I am cutting down on the vacuuming. There are three sections. Now on Thursdays I will do the bedrooms and the family/kitchen and on Mondays i will do the lounge room and family/kitchen. I picked that breakdown because I already have clean out our bedroom for the first Thursday of the month and clean out the lounge room on the second Monday of the month.
I also thought that I have been wishing I could find time to get my vege garden going again. So instead of wishing I scheduled in 1/2 hour just after breakfast to be in the garden. Started today.

The whole bed was full of weeds. I have pulled a few out already.

All done.

The bed was delivered by Birdies. They have all sorts of sizes.

I have also been letting the non dishwasher things build up a bit and get a bit lazy stacking the dishwasher so I have written at the bottom of my schedule page that I will do the dishwasher on Mon, Wed, Fri and washup little things every morning before breakfast. I hate washing up at night. I was scheduled to have my shower between 8:30 and 9:00 but the water is off so I am at the computer.

I did some more bitty sewing with the triangle scraps from my star quilt. I made a pincushion and needlebook that I will offer to my neighbour.

Everything I do now has free hand machine stitching :)

Now I am 7 mins late for vacuuming!
Edit at 10:15 - 1 hour today. I finished at 10:07.
Happy Quilting,
Val