An update on something sweet

At long last I have finished putting all the hexagons together for my Candied Hexagon project.  Just have to sew on the half and quarter hexagons for the borders so it will have a straight edge on which to add a couple of further borders to bring it to the size I want.  Please excuse the wrinkles as I haven't ironed it yet....

If you wish to see some of the hexagons before they were joined click on the link 'candied hexagons' under Labels in the right hand column.

I'm loving the way it looks.  Hope you do too.

Scatterdays - No.4 T

Well, here we are again.  This week's letter is 'T' and the subjects are Tasty;  Tiny;  Terrifying and lastly from  our quilting room - Threads.

At first I thought, great a letter that should be easy to work with.  No such thing.  I actually found it hard to correlate this with the subjects and the letter T.  A few things came to mind, but I thought they were really dull.  I needed to get the thinking cap on.

Tasty - this should be easy shouldn't it?  I ended up going back to my childhood and one of the most delectable and tasty things I was only allowed on special occasions was the 'Toffee Apple". It was a special treat when we went to the Melbourne Agricultural Show.






And who could resist these decadent ones - with chocolate nuts and Smarties.   Yum.









Tiny - I was going to show you my Thimble collection, but, they're small not tiny. I even had a photo, then remembered I posted one on the blog a couple of years ago.





Getting the grey matter in my head to work and stepping outside the square once again, I've gone with........ta da.......Tiny Tim.  An icon of music in the 70s & 80s.













Terrifying - there are a number of things I find frightening like a tornedo, tarantula spider, huge trucks that tailgate you on the highway, frightening but not necessarily terrifying.  But there is one specimen on our planet that I truly find terrifying - snakes - and one of the most deadly, and is common in my state Victoria, is the Tiger Snake.  These snakes love to hide in your wood pile or any other type of rubbish pile you might have on your property.  They are also found in the suburbs as they are attracted to the family chook pen and also the backyard pond, especially if you have frogs.

This is the most least frightening pic I could find of a Tiger Snake.  Some specimens like the one above - a King Island Tiger Snake - don't actually have distinctive stripes and can be mistaken for the Common Brown snake which is also venomous.



Lastly, Threads.  Threads come in all sorts of colours and types - but a thread that starts with 'T'.  Umm.

So here is a photo of a collection of Threads - my Trash.  Yes, my stash of trash!  Ever since I started to dabble in a bit of art quilting and making ATCs and Postcards I have collected my stash that I cut off after sewing.  I know, you think I'm a tad mad but when these are sewn down onto a wash-away stabiliser you can actually make some beautiful lacy fabric and use it to embellish you work with.

Dear readers, that is it for another fortnight, please go to Cinzia's blog and check out the other Scatterdayers.  I hope you are all enjoying this 'Thread' of interesting postings.  Why, didn't I think of this before typing, but how would I find a photo.......

Till next time, take care,

Joy

Saving a Post Office

At least I hope we are!!!

A couple of weeks ago my friend Jenni posted an interesting story about a beautiful little Post Office in the US which if USPS has it's way it might close.  You can read about it here on Jane's blog.  Jane the owner of this little PO is also a mixed media artist and she thought it would be great if people sent her a postcard and she will post one back, depending on how many she received and to limit herself to posting back to the first 100.  Jane wrote about it here and you can see a photo of the quaint little post office.

I thought this a great idea and have loved sending postcards and receiving them in the past with exchanges.  So I looked into my box of goodies that I have for such things and found one that wasn't quite finished.  Just needed the backing and zig zagging around the edges.  Off it went.  This is what I sent to Jane:

I have been waiting to post, just in case it hadn't arrived. Today Jane posted on FB that she has received over 700 cards!!  How fantastic is that!! A tough decision to make to send back cards, but she said she is trying to upload ALL she has received (what a huge job that will be) and she is going to try and reply to all the international ones she has received. Upon checking her uploads I found mine, yeah it arrived safely after it's loooooong flight the great big pond.

Isn't it great with today's technology and the generosity of crafts people over the world that we can all help in a small way.  Let's hope so.  It bring us so much closer together as a society - a pity there are some out there (I won't name names, I don't want to get political....) don't take a leaf out of our books and try a few of these  practices!

Another one bites the dust....

Since joining Stashbusters last year the motivation to keep finishing UFOs is fantastic.  Here is another one that has been sitting in my pile for a few years - slightly larger than lap size - 45" square.

It is made from string squares sewn with the matching blue and then cut into triangles and sewn back.  The blue fabric I received from my local group I go to - Regent St Stitchers.  We are lucky to have a visitor who comes semi regularly and often brings along a suitcase with material in it and I found this blue one night and thought it would look good with the strings I was sewing at the time.

Quilt does not have name - I will donate it back to our group for one of our Charity Quilts parcels.

Winning Parcel

In a previous post (30 January 2013) I wrote how excited I was about winning a prize on Chris Jurd's blog.  Here it it is - my postie delivered it the other day.

A copy of the latest Australian Quilters Companion mag together with a copy of Chris' DVD in which she explains and shows you how to do New York Beauty blocks.  I have already watched the DVD and now I can't wait until I start a block - am going to do the pattern she has in the magazine - you can see a copy of it on the cover the DVD.  But first I must finish a couple of UFOs that are on my sewing table.

Quilters Companion is one of my fav Aussie magazines and this particular DVD by Chris is very easy to watch and she has some great tips for you.  If you are thinking of some reading and a bit of watching the box then mosey on down to your nearest newsagent and grab yourself a copy.  I don't think you will be disappointed.

Scatterdays, Week 3 - Q

'Q' Cinzia says is the letter for this week. 'Q'??? Not many pages of words in the good old Oxford that start with 'Q'.  We have the task of finding - a plant;  night-time;  something healthy; and something Quick from the Sewing Room.  Q.  The little grey cells in my head have worked overtime on this one.  But I did find some Q items.

Plant - Quince Tree.  You will find this tree in many older Australian family backyards.  Not a good eating fruit without first cooking it, and not very pretty looking either;  in fact rather ugly with a wrinkled tough skin. But it's like the ugly duckling - absolutely delicious when made into jam or jelly. A favourite of mine.

Night-time - Queue's - there is nothing like New York's theatre district at night.

The footpaths are chock full of people waiting, waiting, waiting in queues to get into a theatre for a play or to see a movie.  This photo is of one such crowd jostling to get in to see Mary Poppins at the Amsterdam Theatre, just off Broadway.  We were lucky as we had pre-purchased tickets and could wind our way through.  I actually had to hold my camera high to get this head shot, otherwise all you would have seen is bodies!!!!

It's not quite dark, but around 7.45 pm, so it is night-time, just not dark!!!

Healthy - My breakfast - Quick Oats - I love porridge for breakfast, especially in the winter, with hot milk, honey and dried fruits.  Yum.  There are a lot of brands around, but this one, even though it's generic, I like the way it cooks.












Last but not least is Something 'Quick from the Sewing Room' 

- easy peasy - from my ever so bendy bookcase - a copy of the book Quick Quilts.  Of course I've never made anything from it , yet!  But I will one day...... I think that is a quilter's muse - I will make that one day!

That's it for this week, wonder what Cinzia has in store for us next - hope it's not 'X'.