Babies, Babies and More Babies.

The first of our babies for the year has arrived. This is Violet, my niece's daughter.

 

 I have enjoyed sewing and knitting for a little girl. The dress is thanks to a link via Rhonda's blog. The infant peasant dress for newborns can be found here. She was sound asleep so I didn't want to wake her to try on the dress, so just laid it on top of her to get an idea for size. Should do her for a few months and as the days get cooler it can be worn with leggings and a light cardi. Such an easy garment to sew.

I was so nervous that both the dress and booties would be too small but as you can see there is plenty of room for little Violet to grow into them. Thee booties are from a book called 60 Quick Baby Knits. The pattern is for a 6month baby so I just used a thinner yarn and these are much closer to a new born size once her little foot fattens up a bit.

This year will see the arrival of many babies within our family and close friends. Another niece is due in two weeks, a friends daughter in April, my own daughter, Meghann, in May, and two more friends in July. Looking forward to meeting them all but also sewing and knitting for each and every one of them.

My Creative Space

Finding the space within the busyness of farm life for a little creating has become a priority for me over the last few years. Whether it's sewing, knitting, spinning or whatever new thing that comes along, I make time for some each day.

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I picked this pattern up from an Op Shop for 50 cents. I'm always on the look out for these older patterns because they are designed around cloth nappies. Modern patterns, I find, just don't fit over cloth nappies.

This week, with the slightly cooler weather I was keen to give the pattern a go, so I've decided on a little pair of  leggings in a 3 month size as my daughter Rhonwyn is  expecting her 2nd baby in April. Not knowing if it is a boy or a girl I decided on navy blue which can look lovely on either, I think.

The size of the yarn has been a little limiting as it requires 3 ply. Not much, but white, pale blue or pink in this ply, in wool, at our one and only yarn shop, so I've opted for a wool blend. It's not too bad but I do prefer knitting with pure wool.

I'm still working on my ripple rug as well. I hope to have it finished soon, and with a very helpful hint from Nicki it will be finished much more quickly than expected. Nicki explained how to weave in the ends as I go , so that's the tedious job at the end taken care of.

I spent one day with my friend working on the wedding quilt. After showing her how to use the sewing machine there are now patches sewn into 4 strips. We will be meeting again this week so I'll take some photos to show you of our progress.

I spent another day with Meghann and Rhonwyn on our mother daughter get together. Rhonnie made some repairs while Evan played along side us, and Meg and I started tracing and cutting out a pattern for a theatre costume Meg is making for a friend. Quite an ambitious project but I'm sure she'll manage it.

Do you have a need to create? How do you find time to fit it in? I tend to take my knitting with me if I leave the farm, and that way if I'm waiting around for something or just chatting with a friend, I can take out my knitting. I often have a few things going at once. Something quick and easy that doesn't require too much concentration that I can pop into a bag and carry with me, something a little more complicated where I need some peace and quiet to work on it, and maybe some sewing project as well.

My Creative Space

Finding the space within the busyness of farm life for a little creating has become a priority for me over the last few years. Whether it's sewing, knitting, spinning or whatever new thing that comes along, I make time for some each day.

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The Wedding Quilt

A few months ago I offered to help a friend create a quilt for her daughter's wedding present. My friend is not a sewer but dearly wanted to make this quilt after her daughter made a passing comment about family heirlooms. She wondered if she could possibly make a quilt that could be passed down from mother to daughter . She had a project in mind..a crazy patchwork quilt that she had won a few years back was the inspiration for the wedding quilt.

 Now I've made a few crazy patchwork cushions in my time...

..and so thought I could be of some help.

My friend chose the fabrics and gave me the combinations for each block and I sewed the patches. It has been great fun working together to make this quilt. I have enjoyed teaching my friend some simple embroidery stitches and she has enjoyed learning them and feeling a great sense of achievement at completion of each patch.

There is the patch with a little piece of lace from her own wedding dress, another patch has fabric from her mum's wedding dress and others with doilies made by her grandmother..truly an heirloom.

And there are little pieces of embroidery that have meaning specific to this family.

I feel so privileged to have been a part of this creative project, spending time with this dear friend, sharing some of my skills, and creating something so beautiful and practical. 

Yesterday we decided to lay the quilt out in preparation for sewing the patches together. We placed them all down, then moved them round, and then moved them round some more. Stood back and decided that they needed to be more balanced so started all over again...

Here's what we come up with..

There are still two patches that need a little more embroidery and then we will be ready to sew the patches together. We will get together next weekend for a lesson on the sewing machine.

We have enjoyed these times together. Once we were joined by two of my daughters which motivated us to have ourselves a mother/ daughter craft day once a fortnight. And now there is a beginners sewing day in the pipeline. Once upon a time women got together to combine skills and teach each other crafts. I now understand why!

Edited to add a link to Linda's  post today. What a coincidence that we both post about quilts and the sharing of the making of said quilts.

Recycling

Gee it's been hot this year, and there's nothing Mark and I enjoy more, after a long hot day in the garden, then a nice cool cider. ( Sounds a bit like a TV commercial). And so after a few months of this, the bottle tops start to pile up, (not to mention the bottles, but that's a whole other story).

A few years ago my daughter and her partner went to Africa. Now there's a country that knows how to use every little resource. They came home with shoes and bags and wallets made from tyres and inner tubes. And Meghann brought home a trivet made from bottle tops and scrap fabric. Last year Meg made me a trivet  from bottle tops and scrap fabric and so that's what I decided to do with my excess of bottle tops and scrap fabric.

Here's how it's done....


First cut out your circles just a little larger than the bottle top.

Sew a row of running stitch around the edge

Place the bottle top onto the fabric circle and pull in the gathering stitches until tight around the top.

and then sew the ends together.

                            
 Make enough circles for your design and then sew them all together with a few little stitches where they meet at the edges.

Once all tops have been sewn together in your desired shape, trace around it. This will be the pattern for the back. Cut two frommatching fabric and sew a 1/4 inch seem around edges leaving one side unsewn so that you can turn it in the right way. Iron it and hand sew opening closed and place it on the back and sew edges where they touch the bottle tops to secure it in place.

I love that I can  use up scraps of fabric that are too small to be of much use for anything else and save the bottle tops from going to landfill. And they are turned into a useful and practical item.

They make a nice little handmade gift, don't you think!

Cheesemaking

Our weekend started with cheesemaking. A beautiful group of woman turned up to learn the art of cheesmaking......

and yoghurt making.....

Mark teaches the cheese making. They made a colby which is a washed curd cheese. A bit milder in flavour than a cheddar and has become a favoured cheese.. While that was resting they made a paneer, which is an uncultured cheese that can be fried once set, a bit like haloumi. In between rest times during the hard cheese process we also made yoghurt. Only 1 of the ladies had made yoghurt before and so the others were blown away at how easy it was. With all our courses it's just like we are giving people permission to have a go, or something. Nothing we do is hard, but it's like we have been told that all these things are too difficult so why not just buy them, and all the additives that go along with that.Invariably our participants say,' wow I can do that!.'

Here are the cheeses we made, drying for a few days before they are waxed. Once they were finished we made ricotta from the whey.......

and had some with banana and honey on pancakes for breakfast on Sunday morning.

After breakfast Mark asked if I would like to come for a drive, to pick up some feed barley from a Biodynamic farmer that we know. So, instead of sewing like I'd planned, I grabbed my knitting ( it was a long trip) and headed off. Their farm is in a beautiful bit of country, unfortunately surrounded by open cut mines. So glad I had my knitting to distract me from the ugliness of it all. I'd started my dishcloth the night before, after a couple of wines , so don't look too closely or you'll find a mistake or 2.

Anyway, once we got there I was so sorry that I hadn't taken my camera. What a stunning view and no sight of the open cut mine, although evidence of the underground mine was there in the form of subsidence. The place was just full of history. D. was quite keen to share the family's history with us, once she realised how interested I was, and offered to show us the old house, that is now vacant, but watched over lovingly by the couple. D.'s husband's family had been there since 1920. When they arrived the top floor of the original house had been burned during a bush fire. They rebuilt a single story house in amongst the ruins and there the family, 3 generations, had lived until quite recently. The house was built of local stone, crumbling in parts now. We walked in through the old laundry door into the kitchen, so tiny in this day and age, but big enough for a family of 8 in years gone by. No hot water in the kitchen and just a tap attached to a wall for water... no sink!. In the next room we were shown where the family moved aside their table to make the room ready for dancing, where the piano would have stood and the cupboard full of music books.The neighbours from across the creek would come over in their sulky when the creek was down to play tennis on the ant bed tennis court and dance on the dance floor. D. said that it was her grandmother who came over the creek! Inside we saw the damage to the walls from the blasting from the mines. They have another 25 years of blasting to look forward to and in the meantime do enough repairs to keep the house structurally sound in the hope that future generations will renovate when the blasting stops.Through into the back of the house, close to the kitchen where we started, is the pantry, lined with shelving for  jars of preserves. D. spent a lot of time with her mother in law, stocking these shelves year after year. She now keeps her empty jars here but stores her preserves up at the new house that her and her husband built 20 odd years ago to raise their children. The day ended with a cuppa and home made fruit cake and more stories, and of course a wander around the garden. D is so generous, and we came home not only with the barley, but yarn, biodynamic preps, and cuttings from the garden. Such a wonderful day, I really didn't want to leave and I've been thinking about it all day.


I did manage to get some sewing done when I got home and made my grandson a pair of Anna  Maria Horner's Quick Change Pants

 I'm showing you the back so you can see the contrasting yoke.And then turn them inside out and you have another pair....

Once again the back.

The fabrics came from the op shop...an old sarong and an oversized red linen dress. Hope my daughter likes them. They should fit Evan in winter.....