Hi there,

Where to start?
Arrived back from a lovely first visit to Adelaide. Now I don't want to offend any Adelaiders but before my visit I was asked why on earth I wanted to go there...not much to do, etc. I was so pleasantly surprised. Adelaide is a really easy city to get around and there is lots to do and see. I especially loved seeing the museum and art gallery. The Waterhouse Natural History Art Prize finalists were great to see and I thought the Uni grounds ( as seen from Popeye) were impressive.
A beautiful day trip to Kangaroo Island, another to The Barossa Valley...eating, eating!
Also, everyone we met was friendly, and on numerous occasions, very helpful - got lost on the first night so it was very nice to know that people were eager to help...very nice impression.

This week was spent dyeing, printing and preping fabric for projects. We have even sent off our first designs to be digitally printed via Spoonflower. Can't wait to receive them.

 A lovely warm day and they took little time to dry.

 Lino block printed fabric in foreground

 Soy wax circles before over dyeing.

The green fabric is the end result - lovely blue circles on hemp.

Take care
Deb

fabric fun

Got a chance to play with some fabric scraps this weekend. Mean't to start dyeing some white cotton drill that I had put aside for the purpose but somehow got side tracked. I did wash & iron the drill though, so I am one step closer to the dye pot.
Making new fabric from strips of other beautiful commercial fabric is so much fun too. I had a pair of cushion inserts that had been sitting around looking sad...perfect! I spent Saturday morning pulling fabric from boxes and cutting strips. After sewing them together lengthways I ended up adding a layer of thin batting, quilting down the seams and putting the cushions together.

 

Pretty happy with the results. It's easy to do - a mad mix of pattern, plain, spot, floral worked well but I kept some fabrics for both cushions ( black/white & red) and then added different accent colours such as the blue tones.

I caught this beautiful moment of our grandsons ...a quiet 'second' of rest before the fun of jumping on a matress begins again.

Hope you had a wonderful weekend too.

Take care Deb

Windy August

Ahhh! August, windy, windy August. Show time in Brisbane...Ferris Wheel spinning as I write.

 A little bit of trivia...We have an interesting new M7  tunnel in Brisbane that has made the journey to and from Uni & GoMA soooo much quicker for Mum & Dad's taxi service. You just need to forget that for the time in it you are far underground. Being a bit of an old claustraphobe it does take some getting used to. There was an incident in the tunnel recently that required some flashing light changes etc, all easy, until...the booming voice of a tunnel controller ( I presume) echoing through the tunnel ( you could imagine "this is God speaking" etc....) gave me quite a scare.

June/July, at least part of, was spent visiting Tasmania again. This is a small part of Aussie that I love and every visit we find something new to see. We had never been to Cradle Mt or the West Coast before. Strahan, on the West Coast, is a quaint fishing village  and we were treated to reasonably fair weather which according to the locals was surprising. Went on the Gordon River cruise and I would say it was a highlight. Stayed at Ormiston House which we thoroughly enjoyed...beautiful house full of history and friendly helpful hosts.

Popping in some photos here:-

 Lovely little craft co-op store in Salamanca Place.

 Secondhand bric a brac store.

 View right outside our accommodation at Somerset on the Pier, Hobart. Highly recommended - staff friendly and helpful...great beds, view,  and self-contained.

 Queing for entry to Mona - Museum of Old and New Art. Hobart. Wished we had more time as there is so much to see. Left my coat in the cloak room by mistake and only discovered my loss at the airport. Lovely staff posted it to me.

Sound tunnel - an artwork.

 Wilderness Railway from Strahan to Queenstown. The carriages were beautiful.

 The three musketeers on the Gordon River Cruise.

 On land during the cruise.

 Lighthouse at mouth of Macquarie Harbour.

The beautiful Ormiston House.

Early August also brought a serious health scare for my hubby. Thank goodness we were not travelling at the time. Anyone who has been affected by heart disease will understand that the sooner they are discovered and treated the better. Luckily for us this was the case. It took a heart attack to make him ( as well as the entire family) slow down, take care, and make sure we smell the roses. Hubby was looked after by amazing medical staff at The Prince Charles Hosp and is now doing well.
I have discovered and am now encouraging all of the family to enjoy a vegetarian meal at least once a week. Bought a couple of vegie books and all recipes sound yummy...will pass on any great successes.

Finally managed to get Hip Hip Hooray pattern in the shop and lately playing around with colours and ideas for a winter themed doll. Fitting in some sewing for Holly as well. She has a ticket to the Royal Show Race Day next week and can't find anything to wear....wardrobe full but nothing to wear syndrome. I found a gorgeous polished cotton fabric with full blown roses in my stash and it looks promising. She has a cute little black fascinator ready to go...just waiting on mum.

Even though I have not posted anything I always love to keep up to date reading everyone else's blogs. Stephanie at My Calico Heart always has lovely goodies to show.

Take care
Deb

Hi,
Long time no type!
Just a quick one to show you these two gorgeous little free standing sculptures I am adding to my store. These mixed media creations are soooo cute (only 15 cm high) but full of character. They have leather ears, arms that move and each carry their own lunch.  Both "Dawgs" are from the clever team at Karrot Juice...wacky imaginations and solid construction.

Here is Ol Yella Dawg & Brownie Dawg.
Talk soon
Deb

Preserved

My boy's came home today and brought their Cryovac machine with them...a big effort but appreciated as it is the best way I know of preserving and maturing my cheese. In went the cheddar and fetta and it worked a treat. Just have to find a wine fridge or similar with temp control as the cheese needs to be kept around 10 deg C. A lot of trouble for a couple of cheeses? Even though it is time consuming to make cheese, and bread etc, it is so much more satisfying to do it yourself.
 Our big plan is to turn our backyard into a great big veggie patch, plant more fruit trees and have our chooks again. My hubbie has drained and started to cut up our inground pool ( that no one uses or wants to clean anymore) so if the transformation hits a snag he will be doing a lot of patching:)
I love going to the Saturday markets at West End and coming home with beautiful apples, strawberries and tomatoes ( you know the ones that actually taste like tomatoes).

Alive & Kicking!

What happened to the last 4 months? Even Blogger.com has a new look! I guess with Easter and excessive activities at school the months fly by. I have been busy ...some things turn out and others unfortunately do not. I had a few of those'do nots' while trying to get samples for the US quilt market that Pattern Press attends every year. I was not happy with my dolls so they didn't get sent. Back to the drawing board though. I hope Helen had a successful trip and am looking forward to hearing her news.

The following bag is a little design I had been working on over time...I'm happy to say it is finished and ready for pattern production. Holly was a great help with this one especially as Uni lectures were the inspiration behind the style. The bag has a zippered pencil case, space for a A5 lecture pad and a pocket for notes. It opens to form a writing mat, is easy to carry and just the right size. I have teamed it with a cute little mobile phone or IPOD holder. The owl fabric is so cute ( I made quite a few of these bags to match the lecture sets.

Catching up to this weekend...The long awaited cheesemaking course. A very full but satisfying 2 days. I did the course with my mum ( in pic) looking a little weary. The first day was so full we both slept like logs, the second day was easier and the lessons and hard work started to make sense.
This is a link to the course. cheesemaking They run all over Australia and there will be a part 2 with blue vein at the end of the year sometime, they are all booked out for now. I can thoroughly recommend the course...tutor very knowledgable and a lovely man...morning teas and lunch provided,yummy!

These are our chabichou ( in background) and camembert cheeses

This is my cheddar...very proud of this one. Needs to be sealed and stored til Christmas at least.

For now, take care

Deb

*Jam Drop Cookies Recipe*

Hope Christmas at your house was a lovely, relaxing day filled with love and laughter. We had lots of fun with the family at the beach this year, didn't really want to come back to the big smoke.
The holidays allowed reading, baking and general lazyiness. Today it is raining and miserable so I baked some family favourites -Jam Drops and have included our recipe if you feel tempted to try.

Needed: 125 g softened butter, ½ cup caster sugar, ½ teaspoon vanilla extract, 1 egg, 1 cup plain flour, 1 cup self-raising flour, 1 teaspoon custard powder, jam.

To make jam drops, cream butter and sugar together. Add the egg and vanilla and mix well. Sift in flours and custard powder, and combined with a wooden spoon. Roll into balls (I used about 1 tablespoon of mixture per a ball) and place onto baking paper covered tray. Use your finger to make an indent, and fill with your jam (I used raspberry jam in mine). Bake for about 15 – 20 mins. YUM!

January also brought our newest contribution to Homespun Magazine - cover shown below.

I had lots of fun making these two dolls.

Just wanted to wish you all a happy 2012 before January is over :) Hope it is everything you wish it to be.

Take care

Deb