Menagerie

A little of our home/farm life.

A rabbit that appears in our household from time to time! This picture shows the rabbit at line dancing classes! A few weeks back the rabbit ran into Landmark (rural supplies store) and gave lunch to one of our friends working there, this was at 8am in the morning and the staff couldn't stop laughing, it really made their day to have the bunny visit!

My son, Mr Z, breeds rabbits for pets and to eat; but we won't be eating this one!

These are geese that potter about, usually making loud noises when they see me on the telephone! Theylay lovely BIG eggs around Oct-Nov, one egg fills the fry pan!

Our two ducks, Henry and Jemima. We also have some younger ones about 2 months old, they grow really quickly adn the younger ones are almost identical to the older ones now! These are Peking ducks and we are breeding these to produce eggs and meat - I love duck in plum sauce! We also have a number of chooks too.

 

 The pigs have names like Pork Chop, Nibbles, Roast, Bacon and Crackling.

We have kept two sows and a boar to breed from; can't wait till we have piglets again they are lots of fun!

Miss Busy is gluten and dairy intolerant, to the point that it has had a terrible effect on her health. She is 8 yrs old but is the size of 4-5 yr old. Over the years we have visited many Dr's and had many tests done, showing up nothing. Late last year we visited a nautropath who picked up a multitude of problems with Miss Busy. The first thing was to cut dairy and gluten from her diet and supplement her with priobiotics and enzymes to aid her digestion. Six weeks later ALL of her problems cleared up, everything was caused by her body trying to cope with the gluten and dairy. Miss Busy is growing at a fast rate now, isn't lethargic, sleeps less, has a more cheerful/happier disposition, is having less memory problems and generally looks allot healthier.

She was drinking rice milk but when I found out she could have goats milk we bought a pair of milking goats. We have milked house cows here for about 8 years so adding a goat wasn't that big a deal, it made sense. I never thought I would have goats or milk them but they are fantastic pets, rather like dogs in temperament. Milking them is quicker and easier than milking a cow, currently in their low milk production time we are getting approx 1.7L a day, in two milkings from one goat (the other one hasn't had a kid yet). They don't consume alot and if you make sure they have copper sulfate in their diet your trees should be safe from being ring barked.

Dolly is on the left and Katy is on the right.

Around the time we bought the milking goats we also bought two new house cows, Jersey's this time; we already have two Friesans. This is one of the calves, gorgeous!

This is Doris, one of the Jersey cows. While they had alot of milk we had to milk daily with the calves on them 24/7, but now that the calves are a few months old we have to separate the cows from the calves  overnight or during the day to be able to milk anything. Between the thre cows we are currently milking we are getting approx 20L a milking.

A few months back I did a cheesemaking course and loved it!

The Cheesemaking Workshop

At the course I learnt how to make; greek yoghurt, fetta, camembert, ricotta, marscapone, quarg (cream cheese), blue vein, havarti, haloumi and cheddar.

This is some of the yoghurt that I have made withJersey milk that wasn't separated, you can see the rich creamy layer on top, yum yum! We add honey to sweeten it a little and often add stewed berries. I also make yoghurt from the goats milk.

Our 10kwh grid connect solar system that is on our shed.

That isn't all of our menagerie, by a long shot, but a little glimpse of what keeps us company (and busy) here.

(don't ask about the garden)

Butterfly Garden

 I got my Butterfly Garden quilt out the other day to work on. It has been hiding in the cupboard since I put it there over twelve months ago so I could stitch A Gardeners Journal.

Lynda has her Butterfly Garden quilt almost finished.

The first three blocks are finished, the fourth block is almost there and blocks five and six are prepared all ready to stitch and applique. It's so nice working on this quilt again!

 I have machine appliqued the appliques in this quilt.

 I bought this caddy some time ago (on a really good discount!) and have been using it recently to cart my ever growing stitching projects between the loungeroom and the sewing room. Keeps everything nice and tidy, rooms included!

Random Act of Kindness

close up of some of Carole's return gift

 I joined up for Maree's 'RAK', random act of kindness swap. Everyone who joined up was allocated a month to send something to any person they choose off the list. To make sure everyone recieved something you had to send a parcel back if you recieved something.

I chose two people, for different reasons. I chose Pat from Narromine, whom Peg blogs for on the Club Quilt blog. Pat has inspired me over the years with what she makes; and in particular a quilt of hers was very inspirational. I also chose someone at random, wanting to spread some love and kindness around; Carole from Abberdean was my random choice. It has been lovely reading her blog and getting to know her.

Now the slacko that I am, I didn't photograph what I sent to Pat and Carole. Initially I planned to make a gift for this swap but as my month ended up being March, an extra busy month I wasn't able to. So I put together a package of misc things; such as charm packs, threads, stitchery kit, bag handles, Cath Kidston pincushions etc etc. Both packages had some things the same and some things different. It was fun to put together these surprise parcels, a great swap! Thanks Maree for organising it!

 This is what Carole sent back to me. A gorgeous bag with all sorts of bits and pieces in it. Love the stitchery on the bag!

 Pat also sent me a gorgeous bag; funnily enough a bag that I was hoping to purchase the pattern for and make at some point; now I don't have to!

 love the buttons she used, the right ones are on the back of the handles and the left ones are on the front.

Thanks so much Carole and Pat! 

Excuse me posting twice in one day, I didn't want another week to get away before posting again!

EDIT - link to Carole's blog fixed now.

Piecing in Progress

After all my applique preparation last week I have been busy piecing. Got a bee in my bonnet about getting something DONE so I got to work! 

This is Anni Downs 'Simple Pleasures' quilt top, minus the stitcheries. I have used LuLu, a Maywood Studio's fabric; they have such lovely fabrics. I also left off the prairie points from the light border. This is a cot sized quilt and that is possibly what I will use it for, as a gift; or maybe a large table topper. Not sure yet, but it does need quilting!

I seem to have an ever growing pile of tops to quilt, does this happen at your house too?

A friend recently suggested that when the top is finished I get in and baste it ASAP. I think that is a great idea, and worth having a go at.

This is a Sunkissed jelly roll that Kerri sent me a little while ago as a thankyou for me helping her out with fabric for a quilt top that was from an older range and difficult to source. That is a frustration. With so many new fabric ranges coming out it is hard to keep up with them, they date really quick and it is often hard to purchase yardage or pre-cuts once they have been out a few months.

Anyway I ummed and ahhed over what to do with the Sunkissed jellyroll. Something that I DID consider purchasing but I kept deleting my cart as I didn't NEED it! So it was a fantastic choice of Kerri's to send me.

I finally settled on making 'Floral Bouquet' from the Jelly Roll Quilts book. I have wanted to make this quilt for ages but keep putting it off; and seeing Lynda's coming together was inspiring! Late last week I cut it out, was so nice to have found a white jelly roll in the cupboard so there was a little less cutting than if I had yardage. The next day saw me have the blocks together and at present I am stitching the blocks and rows together. I need to speed up a little as it is lying out on the floor and the floor is getting dirty....a design wall sounds great about right now!



This is Maypole by April Cornell, it's been around a couple of years. I bought this as a kit to make a braid quilt but lost the desire to do so but wanted to make something from it. I had no idea what until I saw Peg use the same jelly roll to make a Chinese Coins quilt with white sashings/borders. It was stunning!

That's when I knew I had to make 'Floral Bouquet' with it, and for the last twelve months or so this has been waiting to be made up! It's cut and ready to go now. This is for one of my daughters, the bright colours suit her so well.

Here is a block from the 'Sunkissed Floral Bouquet'. It looks so so pretty. Just right for the DD it is for.

Found It!

 I knew it was here SOMEWHERE!

I finally found where I misplaced the purse I made at GDITC Nundle 2011, it was tucked SAFELY in the side pocket of the bag I had there....duh!

I chose to do something simple for the purse applique and had this finished on the day. This is a  birthday present for DD JessieGirl later in the year. Loved making it and I love working with wool, it is so forgiving!

Seems like this week has been applique preparation week here at my house. I have got 5 blocks ready to machine applique for 'An Angels Story'. {Yesterday I thought I had 6, can't count} I did start this quilt a few years ago, using Simplicity by 3Sisters but frustrated myself ith how I approached the quilt making and ditched the project, NEVER to return. However seeing Sandy's quilt and another 'An Angels Story' at GDITC 2011 I was re-inspired to make this quilt. This time I have 'Fresh Cottons' by FigTreeQuilts. This time my plan is to prepare all the blocks, machine applique, hand stitch then piece the quilt top. Fingers crossed that this doesn't get ditched again! is anyone else out there making 'An Angels Story'????

 Kylie is about to start this quilt using 'Martinique'......

Homespun's My Town BOM

 I really wanted to have the first block of this quilt finished before showing you; however the THIRD block from Homespun magazine showed up in Monday's mailbox so I need to get a wriggle on!

This is 'My Town' block of the month that is in Australia Homespun magazine from March to December this year. The fabrics used in the quilt are 'Wild Rose' by Blackbird Designs; gorgeous fabrics. I wanted to make something from these fabrics but didn't know what. I also wanted to make a 'town' quilt at some stage as most I have seen I have liked. Then Homespun put out this years BOM project and I thought why not.

I did purchase some of the 'Wild Rose' fabrics but not all. I have got a little of 'Harvest Home' (an older BB Designs range in similar tone) here and some of 'Garden Party'; I will use some of these mixed in with 'Wild Rose'. I have two background fabrics as I didn't have enough of one and decided not to spend more money - use what I have.

The first block, the Quilt Shop by Anni Downs of Hatched and Patched; is all appliqued but only partially stitched.

 The second block, the Post Office, by Vivan Robinson. It is ready to be machine appliqued then hand stitched.

The third block, the corner store, by Melanie Hurlston of Melly and Me; is also ready to be machine appliqued and hand stitched.

I just found this morning that there is a stitchalong blog for this quilt; MyTownBOMStitchalong; and from reading the posts it looks like at least a couple of the blocks to come have a lot of work in them so I had better get stitching!

Quilts in Progress

 I may not have done much sewing lately but did find this partially together quilt top in the cupboard recently.

Brimstone Fire.

It is made with the 'Good FOlks' range by Anna Maria Horner.

I played around with cool and warm colours with it. The blue squares are to be appliqued.

What do you think?

Something a bit different to what I normally make!

 Luna Notte.

I have two rows left to stitch together on this quilt, though I don't think any rows are stitched in the actual photo. I have made this quilt with just two jelly rolls and it is approx 80" x 80" - great size for my bed!

The photo above gives a better indication of the colours, so so pretty....

FIS Hatched and Patched

 This is what Kerri made for me, the gorgeous 'Smell the Roses' bag from Anni's book 'A Gardeners Journal'. I love the teal/blue fabric she made the bag from....so rapt to recieve something so beautiful! Thanks Kerri! I have used the bag on every trip to town since recieving it; lots of room inside!

This is what I made for Razzy. I made her up a sewing set using patterns of Anni's from here and there; tied together with the same stitchery/applique pattern. The bag is 'Petite Sewing Set' pattern, the needlecase is a 'Simple Stitchings' pattern, the scissor fob was in the book 'Simple Pleasures' and for the pincushion I used a pincushion pattern for the shape and enlarged the red bird stitchery (''In the Life of a Bag" book) and made it into a wool applique. I even used some of the fabric that I used to make my 'Gardeners Journal' quilt. Love what I made, it was fun making up a sewing set.

I can't believe how long it has been since my last post, I have been laid up though. Had a minor surgery on my foot and the stitches only came out yesterday so I am still hobbling about. I have done only a little sewing, and that is secret sewing for a FIS birthday. I have the bookwork for the farm up to date and have been reading alot. I recently discovered Julie Klassen. So if you are a Jane Austen fan you will love Julie Klassen. Another recent favourite is Cassandra Clare....eagerly awaiting the next book in the mail!

What are you reading?