Quilt progress

42 blocks done, trimmed, pressed and laid out on my 'design floor' ie the lounge room (that's OK, we spend all our time in the kitchen anyway).  I think I'm happy with the arrangement, there was a fair bit of swapping around to get the prints in as random order as possible.

Now onto stage two, sewing the top together!

Harvest-ish Monday and sprucing up the front garden

Today is harvest-ish Monday because this bowl of beautiful lemons and oranges didn't come from my own trees, but rather the food swap that was on recently. I've blogged about this fantastic gathering before.  This time we took along celery, asian greens and herbs and returned not only with the citrus but bread, olives, cake and preserves.  We've been enjoying the lemons, especially the Myer's which have a lovely, sweet flavour, in tea but I think I'll have to make some marmalade or cordial to get through this lot!


Orange tree with plum and apple to the left


Hopefully in a few years we will be able to share our own harvest.  MMSTL and I spent a happy day in the garden on Saturday doing some work.  About  a year ago he dug up about a third of the front lawn and put in a barrier to stop the couch grass invading. The front garden gets a heap of sun, even in winter so it's an ideal spot for edibles.

Dwarf apple  under planted  with strawberries

We'd already  planted an orange, dwarf apple, donut peach Myer lemon and pear in that area and over the summer we grew a pretty successful crop of tomatoes, basil and capsicum.  Since then though it had all got a bit weedy and overgrown so at the weekend we got the worst of the weeds out, trimmed back the large Camellia against the fence line and put in some meandering paths between the fruit trees.  What a lovely day it was to be working outside too.

We bought a couple of new trees  - a bare-rooted grafted blood plum (2 varieties on one tree to ensure pollination) and a tangerine.  The deciduous fruit trees are under planted with strawberries which are gradually filling out and there are some other edibles scattered here and there - Rhubarb, a goji berry, fejoas and strawberry guavas. Still in the planning stage is a berry patch, I'm imagining raspberries and loganberries.....The idea is the front becomes a sort of edible orchard, the new paths totally transform the area and are a big hit with the kids too who can now explore the space more easily. Now all we need is for the trees to bear fruit!

Op-shopping: vintage patterns and (more) fabric

I've found a few treasures recently.  These lovely amber glasses and a vintage sheet.  I like that the glasses are all slightly different shapes and thicknesses.

Sewing has been on my mind so I couldn't go past these vintage patterns from the 60's and 70's and a huge piece of green cotton fabric with white flowers  ($7.99 from Savers). I'm thinking a skirt maybe?  I made a little discovery in one of the patterns, this letter:

It's a rejection letter for a sales job at a Sydney wine merchant. It was in tucked inside the pattern that was dated 1968 and I wonder what became of the person who didn't get that job. Maybe they went on to be a sales representative somewhere else?  Maybe they did something completely different with their life.  That's one of the reasons why I find buying second-hand things so much more interesting. There is a story attached to them, perhaps not as obvious as this one, but I like to imagine how these items may have been worn, used and enjoyed by others and it's nice to be able to give them another home.   Oh and I've recently found a great blog where people can drool over other fab op-shop (thrift) finds. It's called Flea Market Finds and is hosted by Sophie Isobel at Her Library Adventures every Sunday.

Starting my first quilt

After a lot of procrastinating over colours and designs, far too much time spent browsing quilting blogs and a few practice efforts with small projects like these and this one, I finally started LittleFB's quilt.  I'm using this free patten (thanks Fresh Lemon Quilts!) but in browns, greens and blues. I chose this design because there is a bit of randomness about it, and because the blocks are trimmed to size before piecing the whole thing together - which means that it should be forgiving of my wonky sewing!

When  picked the fabrics I I tried to choose something that would  appeal now (he's 5), but that he's still be keen on in a few years. The fabric is just georgeous, look at those little robots!. Most of it is from a mixed bundle from Fabricworm with a few other bits and pieces mixed in, and I decided to use a linen/cotton mix from my 'stash' for the neutral bits.  I'm doing it the slow way, one block at a time so that I can get a better idea how the fabrics look in each block and it's coming together.  11 blocks down, 31 to go :)

Oh, and LittleFB is happy already. When I asked him whether he liked his future-quilt he threw his little arms around me and said "I love it". As if I needed another excuse to sew....



 

Harvest Monday June 13

It's the queen's birthday today so we get a holiday here in Australia. I know that we are part of the Commonwealth and all that but I've never really understood why there is no such holiday in the UK where the Queen actually resides.  Not that I'm complaining, it's been a nice day off.

Here is the today's harvest, a small but brightly coloured basket of beets and rainbow chard.  I just love growing this chard, it brightens up the garden, grows like a weed and is really versatile.  I decided to make a dish based on a recipe from Plenty. It makes a great, quick lunch or you could serve it with bread or even over rice for a more substantial meal.  I usually use chick peas but I only had a can of mixed beans which also worked well.

Carrot, chickpea and silverbeet saute - serves 2
Olive oil
1 tsp cumin seeds
2 carrots, peeled and cut into 1cm dice or diagonals
5-6 stems of silverbeet or rainbow chard, stems separated from leaves and chopped
1 small clove garlic, crushed
Can of chickpeas (or mixed beans, Cannellini beans might also work here)
1 tbsp mint, chopped
1 tsp coriander, chopped
Lemon

Good olive oil and yoghurt to serve

Heat a couple of Tbsp of olive oil in a large frypan and add the cumin and carrots, cook for a few minutes. Add the silverbeet stems (not the leaves yet) and cook for another few minutes until just starting to soften.  Add the chickpeas (or beans), and silver beet leaves and cook for another few minutes with the lid on.  Add the garlic, herbs and season to taste  Cook for another minute.  Finally add a good squeeze of lemon juice.  Serve with a dollop of yoghurt and a drizzle of good olive oil.

For more harvests, pop over to Daphne's.

Winter garden tour

Don't worry, I didn't venture out in the garden today give then weather. These pictures were taken last weekend when the weather was beautiful and MMSTL and I spent a happy few hours outside dealing with the weeds and getting things in order.  The  garden has been very weedy this year, and we are battling with oxalis, an annoying weed that spreads with bulblets in the soil so it is a complete pain to get rid off. It's everywhere out the front garden and we've also found it in the back now :(  It's very had to get rid off, so we are resigned to regular weeding (and swearing) sessions. Anyway, enough whinging.  Here are the nice veggie pics....


Snow peas



Asian greens (Asian broccoli ,tatsoi and bok choi), broccollini, spinach, lettuce and rocket.  These are all growing in the new bed that we built a couple of months ago.  We dug up all the couch grass, dumped in the contents of the compost bin, covered with some soil and mulched heavily with lucerne.  The greens seem to love it.

Celery, chard and broccoli in the no-dig bed.  The celery in particular is doing really well this year with all the rain we've had in Melbourne.

Garlic (in the foreground), some beets, onions and at the back, Brussels sprouts and cabbage.

There is some other stuff growing too - carrots, turnips, kohlrabi (a first for me), broad beans and leeks.  It looks like the weather might be a bit kinder to us at the weekend so there might be a chance to get out there again.  In the meantime I'm off to put on another jumper and have a hot cup of tea!

Bad blogger...

That's me. It's been so long since my last blog post that I almost forgot my password.  I don't have a very good excuse, although I was in China for a few weeks where access to all blogs is blocked (as well as Facebook) and before that, well just busy. 

So, I've got some catching up to do. The winter garden is going well and producing lots of green things: bok choi, tatsoi, broccoli, celery , lettuce and the green manure crop is about 20cm high.   The weeds have taken over the front and need a good session to tidy things up, and I still want to get some peas and broad beans in.
 

As for non-garden activities, before I went away though I indulged in a little bit of op-shopping and got this great dress. It is perfect for winter layered with a top, tights and boots.  I love the belt too.  It's not an op-shop find, I got it from Novica which is linked with National Geographic and sells products from local craftspeople all over the world.  They are based in the US but their shipping rates are really good.   As well as belts and other leather goods, they have heaps of other things, including some really lovely glasses from Mexico and categorised by corporate gifts, green gifts and unique gifts.

OK, I'm off to plan the weekend gardening now...