What is that?

Yesterday I asked you if anyone had any idea what this is?

This reflection of my laundry tub tap, my friends, is perfectly clean drinking water (in an old orange bucket) after I hand-rinsed a few pieces of dark coloured fabric!

I used to pre-wash all my fabric on the advice of a friend who has been quilting for many years.

Then I started taking classes and my new teacher said it was better to sew with the sizing in the fabric. Plus I think I just got lazy!

But when my sewing machine looked like this after attaching the binding,

I decided I should pre-wash; at least all my homespun (made somewhere in Asia) fabrics.

So, on Thursday, I emptied several buckets of water that looked like that, and washed dozens of metres of fabric. I have yet to iron all of them but my DD (who has returned home to prepare their house for the move and the rental market) did iron some of them – eight half-metre pieces (thanks DD).

My washing line looked like this pretty much all day (the temperature here was 30°C (86°F) with a constant breeze so it was a good day for me to get a whole lot washed and dried.

This was the first load (of light colours) and, although it may not look like it, there are fourteen pieces of fabric hanging there in the sunshine!

And this, my friends, is what the two-and-a-half seater lounge in our family room looks like at the moment.

Anyone want to do some ironing in return for food and a comfortable bed? LOL

Christmas is coming

There are signs that are hard to miss.

Like the decorations in the local shopping mall.
The ads creeping onto the television.
And family activities.


On 10 November, WM, DD, the Grandboys and I, went to my new church for fun and fellowship – to make a gingerbread house.


WM did the initial construction and icing.


DD soon joined in the fun of creating. Unfortunately, both WM and I were too busy watching the Grandboys to take a photo of her!

Older Grandson wanted to help (well, really he wanted to eat the lollies but settled for helping a little bit).


But, truth be told, Older Grandson was more excited about playing football with the big boys.


And I was thrilled with these boys behaviour towards OG. (Yes, I've deliberately cropped his head because I don’t have permission to put his face on the internet – but you can see the tenderness in this gesture).


Younger Grandson just wandered about, taking it all in.
The house needed some finishing at home.


And here is the finished house, all wrapped in plastic waiting for it’s chance to take pride of place at our Christmas festivities.



A few days later, DD and I got together at home to make the Christmas puddings. Despite the fact that we Australians could be sweltering in a summer heat wave, it is traditional in my family to have the full English hot meal, including the fruit-laden pudding (with custard, cream and/or ice-cream) for dessert.

A special part of the pudding-making is tossing in the threepenny pieces (which have been saved in the family from pre-1966 when Australian currency changed to dollars and cents). Threepences are made from silver and won’t contaminate the pudding. We once had three dozen threepences, we are down to twenty-one now – I wonder where the rest have gone? (or is that “too much information”?)


Younger Grandson just wondered what we were going on about! He was only five months old the last time we made puddings!


Here is Older Grandson having his turn at throwing in a threepence and burying it in the pudding mixture.



And here he is, helping mummy and Grandmum put the pudding mixture in the bowls.



Finally OG was allowed to eat some of the uncooked mixture.



To finish this post, in this time of madness, the so-called “silly season”, Younger Grandson has only one message for us all:

planning + preparation + process = product

There is a certain amount of planning and preparation that has to take place before embarking on any project, whether a craft, a chore or a home renovation.

In a recent post, Carla of Lollyquiltz talked about preparation in relation to making quilts for “free” from leaders and enders.

Interestingly, I had been thinking along the same lines myself. You see, yesterday was one of the two monthly meetings of Caring Hearts Community Quilting group. I needed a hand stitching project to take along with me. I had finished the last of the appliqué heart blocks last month so I knew I needed to prepare a few blocks.

So, on Wednesday I decided to prepare all the blocks for which I had already cut the fabric –- if i was going to get everything organised to do a couple of blocks, I may as well do them all, right?

It was during this time that I realised just how much preparation goes into quilting projects.

If you are not a knitter, you may not know that the planning stage for knitting and quilting is the same. There is the choice of pattern and materials (whether yarn or fabric) and the gathering together of the necessary tools.

But here the similarity ends. In most knitting situations, once the tools, the yarn and the pattern are gathered together, the knitter can cast on and go straight to the process of knitting. Sometimes hanks or skeins have to be prepared by winding into balls or yarn cakes, but that’s usually about it.

Compare this with the above mentioned hand-appliqué project. I had already cut 18 x 4.5” squares of fabric. Let me walk you through the rest of the preparation.

1. Measure and cut 18 x 4.5” squares of iron on fusing.
2. Set up the Accuquilt Go Baby, the die and the cutting mat.
3. Put all 18 slippery squares through the die cutter. Throw the outer border in the bin, stack the curling hearts (yes, my fusible comes in a roll).
4. Put all 18 fabric squares through the die cutter. Throw the outer border in the scrap bin, stack the fabric hearts face down.
5. Turn iron on to heat. (The ironing board is always up in my sewing room).
6. Pack up the Accuquilt Go Baby, the die and the cutting mat.
7. Place one Teflon sheet on the ironing board. Place fabric heart (face down) on sheet, line up fusible, hold tight, cover with second Teflon sheet (I don't want glue on my iron or new ironing board cover), press.
8. Lift top Teflon sheet, place another heart (face down) on bottom sheet, line up fusible, replace top Teflon sheet, press.
9. Repeat Step 8 twice more.
10. Lift top Teflon sheet, remove first pressed heart (which is now cool enough to touch) at end of ironing board. Repeat Step 8.
11. Repeat step 11 until there are no more hearts left.
12. Cut away any excess fusible hanging outside the fabric.
13. Remove white fabric from drawer. Press.
14. Take to cutting table. Cut 18 x 6” squares. Stack squares as you go.
15. Take squares to ironing board.
16. Place white square on Teflon sheet (still on ironing board). Remove paper from back of heart. Centre heart on square of white fabric using a 6” square ruler to make sure everything lines up correctly. Hold in position, cover with second Teflon sheet. Press.
17. Remove top Teflon sheet. Pick up white square by corner (keeps the square clean and stops me from burning my fingers on the still hot glue) and move to skinny end of ironing board.
18. Repeat Steps 15 and 16 seventeen more times, stacking the white squares between each pressing.
19. Wipe excess moisture from Teflon sheets, roll and store.
20. Take out the cases of stranded cotton and open them. (In case you are wondering why one is crammed full and the other is not, the case on the right holds the threads of my current cross stitch project).
21. Find a thread colour that closely matches the fabric of each heart. Go for something slightly darker if an exact match can’t be found. Put aside any heart where no match can be found (a trip to the LQS or Big Box Store will be needed).
22. Put the hearts that have been matched into the project case, put the matching bobbin of thread into a zip-lock bag.
23. Put the cases of thread away.
24. Check that there is a packet of needles, a needle threader, a pair of scissors and a container for scraps in the case before closing.

The eighteen squares are now ready for hand-stitching! I could have knitted a six inch square with a heart motif in the time it took me to do all that - just as well I love what I do!

Have you ever thought about how much preparation time goes into your sewing projects?