Sunday Gardening

What a glorious Autumn day we had on the plateau yesterday! Even the chooks were out enjoying themselves in the warm dust.

I find myself being drawn the the outdoors more and more since moving here six months ago. It does tend to rain a lot here on the north coast, so fine weekend weather is a rarity. So while the sun was shining and I had a small list of jobs to get done out in the garden:

Filling in holes left by an old tree root system or maybe some bandicoots.

They were quite deep and so I used pine cones to fill up the spaces and tunnels before overlaying with soil. You can see the depression where one of the chickens helped themself to a dust bath just after I had finished!

I spent about an hour smoothing out the exposed soil and removing the rocks and old tree roots and sticks. This will make it easier to mow once the grass grows over. My husband came out to do some whipper snippering of the weeds trying to take over the slope.

I had to liberate a couple of agave plants that had outgrown their pots. ( I had my husband move the pots to the back deck and I will have to think about what I will plant in them).

I found a perfect hole for each of them between the exposed roots of the camelia trees.

They were so pot bound that their roots were  even square.

Both of these holes were already there and the agaves fit into them perfectly.

With dad's help, oldest son Duncan planted a mandarin and a naval orange tree in the far paddock. I am hoping to establish a fruit tree grove along the fenceline there. There's already a lemon, lime, orange, kaffir lime and mango trees established there.

Then my husband taught our son Tristan to ride without training wheels! A huge achievement for an eight year old.

I did a bit of hedge trimming,

along with the Rosemary bush.

By this stage of the day it was getting pretty late. So I did some pruning of the camelias and the branches that were hanging down a bit far,

along with the May bush which had a lot of dead branches.

Being out in the garden all day was so good for my mental health. By sunset it was finally time to enjoy a well earned cup of tea sitting on the log with my husband.

Afterall we did buy the place for the view.

Sunday Stash #63

More Scrap Love

Today Sunday Stash link up is over at Sew Happily Ever After with Rachel but it may come online a bit later due to the time difference. 

Recently our family holiday took us to Coffs Harbour. 

Marieka and I

Some of the Wombat Stew girls and I caught up, with our kids, at North Sapphire Beach at the fabulous park and Cafe there.

Kristy and Jane

It was a time for eating, drinking coffee and swapping stories, blocks and scraps!

So much scrap love that I felt embarrassed actually.

But the girls are like that - so generous.

And these ones came in the post from Lara.

Fran had a bit of fun with them all.

She's been home with a nasty cough most of last week. She still has it so I am not sure if she'll even go back again tomorrow.

Today is my 2nd Blogiversary but I will have a fabric give-away next Sunday Stash. There might even be a scrap bag on offer as well - after all I have plenty now.



Linking up to Sunday Stash over at Sew Happily Ever After later today.

Snap! That back!

I had no sewjo about 11 days ago but getting along to quilt group kick started it again. That, and the girls in my Wombat Stew group who seem to be whipping through their projects at the moment.

Yesterday I printed off some yet to be released paper pieced blocks from Kristy at Quiet Play. She made these up for Gina of Party of Eight when she made a polaroid quilt. 

I thought they would make great blocks for my quilt back for the Wonky 9 Patch Polaroid quilt that my QCA Bees help to make.

I decided to do them in some boy colours as I hope that this Bushfire Quilt will make it into the hands of a young lad. I also used up some of the boy I-Spy fabrics that have been languishing in my stash for some time.

The shot at the top was the best that I could achieve with autumnal sun on a windy day. Fran did try to help but it was easier to climb the hills hoist instead.

So I am hoping that, as a second pattern tester for these blocks, Kristy will release them into the wild soon.

And I am so pleased to have featured her fab Polaroid camera block (made by her).

Now to manufacture up enough Sewjo to get this thing basted next week!

Linking up to TGIFF being hosted by Wombat Stew girl Midgey at Ms Midge.

Dr Seuss Block Progress

I have been plugging away at my Dr Seuss blocks this past week.

I made four each of The Cat in the Hat and four of The Lorax.

I have only 4 panels left to make into blocks. 

I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

This Week's  Sewing  Stats

Completed projects  -  0

Currently in progress -    

                                                  Lorax Quilt top

                                                  Dr Seuss Quilt top

                                                  

                                                                                           

Yet to start  -   'Polaroid 9 Patch' Quilt back

                                  QCA Bee #1 block for May

                                 'And Sew On' May block

         

Linking up with WiP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.

Sew Mid Century Modern

Wombat Stew Sew Mid Century

All of the blocks for my March month are now in. They are all so good and theWombat Stew girls went all out to find clever fabrics in MCM colours. 

I am not sure what I will end up making with these blocks but cushions or a canvas wall hanging are my thoughts for now.

Have you any thoughts?

Mother's Day Sunday Stash #62

Mama Said Give Away winners announced at the bottom of this post.

Please excuse the crinkles - it is dress making cotton so it does not iron quite so well.

It's Mother's Day in New Zealand, Australia, Canada and the USA today. The UK had theirs back in March. So I have found some flowery dress making fabrics for Sunday Stash this week. 

These will not be for me, just not large enough cuts nor my taste, but they are perfect for my daughter. 

We are heading into wintery temperatures in Australia now.  Yesterday I cleared out my daughter's wardrobe of all her summer skirts and shirts (plus any size 2/3 clothes to pass on). So some new dresses and skirts are in order come springtime.

I have used this great book by Emma Hardy a couple of times. 

I have made about five of these gypsy skirts before.

I'd like to make a few of these cute capri pants.

More immediately I need to make a few of these sweet cordouroy skirts.

To be honest, I had thought of making some long pants with polar fleece but the prices at the discount stores for the same thing are LESS than what it would cost me to make them myself. Sometimes you just got to weigh up the time and effort. I feel the same way about fleecy pyjamas too.

What about you? Do you ever make your own clothes? And have you got any pattern or book recommendations?

Just a reminder that NEXT WEEK Sunday Stash will be over at Sew Happily Ever After. Rachel has just used a new pattern to make herself a new dress out of Loulouthi. Check it out here.

Mama Said Give Away Winners

I am happy to announce that the winners of the SMS Give Away picked by Mr Random. I was surprised to have 101 entries for Bundle #1. And I thank the ten folks who linked up to Sunday Stash last week.

Bundle 1 - Entry #52 Little Ella Lu

Duplicate Bundle 2 - Sunday Stasher #10 KellyG@Madebykelly

I hope that you can make goood use of these 4 fat quarters ladies.

I think I picked up about 5 new followers over the course of the week so that is lovely. Thank you for clicking that button. I hope to see some of you link up with Sunday Stash soon. Maybe even this week!

Link up below for this week's  Sunday Stash.

Kick Starting My Sewjo

Just to remind you that I have 4 FQs to give away this week during the Sew Mama Sew Give Away week. Find it here.

With a lot of work to do around our property my Sewjo has been a bit supressed. I was happily pruning on Sunday morning and even contemplating not going along to my monthly quilting group that afternoon. But I am glad that I downed tools and hopped off the mower to get along.

Rainbow Patchwork owner Karen opens her back room on the first Sunday afternoon of each month. Last Sunday it was just Karen, Kirsten from Gemini Stitches and I. 

Karen was using a French General jelly roll to make a gorgeous table runner. Kirsten was sewing long strips of Denyse Schmidt together for her Scrappy Trip Along quilt. You can find Kirsten's SMS Give Away here.

I took along my Dr Seuss panels and fabrics to sew four more blocks together. Karen helped me to chose some solids to match my Dr Seuss prints. So I was happy to purchase those. I will post about them soon on Sunday Stash. It felt good to cut, sew and press again. And great to chat, drink tea and sew with two great women.

This Week's  Sewing  Stats

Completed projects  -  'Let's Party' paper pieced block for Gemma

                                         'Polaroid 9 Patch' Quilt top

Currently in progress -    

                                                  Lorax Quilt top

                                                  Dr Seuss Quilt top

                                                   'Polaroid 9 Patch' Quilt back

                                                                                           

Yet to start  -  QCA Bee #1 block for May

                         'And Sew On' May block

                                            

My bloggy friends also have Give Aways at:

Pretty Bobbins    Quiet Play   Blossom Heart Quilts   Ms Midge


Also you might want to check out the Give Aways at:

 My Year of Crafting Dangerously

Linking up to WiP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.