Never say never

A couple of weekends ago the Lifeline Bookfair was on again in Canberra.  A huge second hand book sale with all proceeds to charity - how could I resist not increasing my (ever growing) stash of sewing books and patterns?!

If you can get past the dated photos the Singer sewing collection books are great sewing reference books.  Every Bookfair I find a couple more.  (Oh, and that's my little Janome).

Some retro (and a little vintage) patterns.  I hadn't planned on buying the men's safari suit, but MH and I couldn't resist its charms..!

 

And because it seems I'm a complete sucker - I saw this quilting book and thought "hmm, why not, maybe I'll make another quilt sometime soon".  (How can I have already forgotten the pain the last one put me through?!  Ah, but such joy too!)

My first quilt!

I've been sewing like a crazy lady over the past couple of months and I can finally post photos!

A very dear friend of mine recently married her wonderful man.  In my haze of happiness for her I thought it would be a wonderful thing to sew them a quilt.  I've never made a quilt before and have been sewing long enough to know that I should have modest ambitions - but still have ambitions!

So I made a queen size quilt, but in fairly large squares.

I'm quite happy with how it turned out.  I know it isn't perfect, but it was all sewn by me (with colour and pinning help from MH!), even the quilting to sandwich all the layers together (I sewed straight lines every 10cm).  I learnt a lot, including that it may be some time before I make a quilt again!  I now understand how much time, effort and money goes into making a quilt so better appreciate why hand made quilts are so expensive to buy.

I was so pressed for time getting the quilt finished before the wedding that I didn't even have the opportunity to take photos until after we left home and arrived at the our accommodation (the wedding was in beautiful Tasmania).  Please excuse the wrinkles from being stuffed into a suitcase for the flights from Canberra to Hobart!

 

 I machine stitched the binding in place.  

I used a gold beige colour to match the gold flecks that were in a lot of the fabrics.

My friend became quite emotional when I gave it to her.  I know it is because she appreciates the thought and effort that went into making the quilt, so that was really lovely.  I encouraged her to use it because I would rather it get well loved through dirt and damage than sit unseen in a cupboard (and who knows, maybe I'll make her another one one day...!).

My 'Beautiful Lengths'

I've been growing my hair for a couple of years and a few months ago I heard about the Beautiful Lengths campaign where people can donate their hair to be made into wigs for women who have lost their hair from cancer treatment.  So I grew my hair for a bit longer and finally had it cut off last week.

Before

After

I was able send in a pony tail over 30cm long, and look at my fabulous new haircut!

A floral update

We've had some amazingly warm weather the past couple of weeks so our garden is blooming.

 A baby cauliflower.  

We grew some cauli's last winter and after cutting the heads off I left the plants in the ground to harvest leaves for the chooks over the summer.  Then in late summer/ early autumn the plants sent up heaps of new shoots and over the past month we've been eating lots of baby cauliflowers.  One plant alone sent up four or five baby cauliflower heads.  So if you like cauliflowers and have space in your garden to leave the almost dormant plants over summer, you'll be rewarded with a crop in the second year.

 Nectarine blossom

We have a double grafted nectarine tree and  the blossom on the different grafts are slightly different pinks.  Both pinks are pretty and both are loved by bees!  This will be the third fruiting year for this tree, so we have our fingers crossed for a great harvest (if we can keep the birds away!).

 Cheerful spring stars

These are in a pot, but we are thinking of planting them under one of our fruit trees so they can spread through the garden.  A house not far from us has spring stars all through their front garden, it looks lovely and makes me smile every time we pass it.

Tulips

I never realised that some tulips have a scent - these have a gentle lemon scent.

Our lime tree had a good harvest this winter and I've been trying out Lime Pie recipes (but we eat them too fast for photos!).

Four Corners - Fashion Victims

Long time no speak (write?).  Sorry about that.

If you are interested in social justice issues around the production of cheap clothing you may want to watch tonight's episode of 'Four Corners', which reported on clothing manufacturing in Bangladesh.  If you don't have access to this highly respected Australian television show, you can read a bit about the story here - including some of the background research used.  'Fashion Victims' 

Tick tock

On Saturday I'm flying to Queensland for a week for work.  It's a race against the clock for me to try and find time to finish this item because it will be just right for the warmer weather up there!

Learning to love Sydney

Since moving to Canberra a few years ago I've visited Sydney several times and I just never really enjoy it.  To me it is just a big, grey city without any of the charm of Australia's other big city (and my one time home), Melbourne.  But it is only three hours drive away and is full of sights, shows and shopping, so last year I decided that I needed to learn to love Sydney.  MH and I went again recently for a wedding, the weather wasn't very nice that weekend, but there was some yummy food, a couple of impressive views and a quick visit to a great fabric shop!

Zumbo's dessert train

It's like a sushi train, but with desserts.  Sadly it sounds more exciting and delicious than it was, or maybe I just over hyped it to myself?

More desserts...

View through a taxi window - yes, it's the Harbour Bridge!

People actually live with this view everyday!  I can't imagine what the house prices here are like though...

Surely one of the best views from a wedding reception venue?  Later in the evening we could even see fireworks across the harbour.

So I still don't love Sydney, but I'm starting to like it (that's a good start!).