Testing Gravity

In the interests of scientific enquiry, I conducted an experiment on Thursday.

Here's part of the results, which appear to show that gravity still works:

Other very sore parts aren't suitable for publishing on a blog, but hopefully my right hand won't offend Blogger's new "anti-nudity" policy.

And just as a public service announcement, if you are walking around in a shopping centre, don't assume that there isn't a half-melted ice-cream on the floor in front of you. Because as I found out the painful way, half-melted ice-cream removes any traction your footwear might have, resulting in your feet flying out from under you. As long as gravity is still working...

Little Fairies

At the Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show last year, I was quite taken with a featured new release, Lewisia cotyledon "Little Fairies". Recently they appeared in the local hardware store, but at over $10 each. That's a bit more than I'll spend on an experimental plant. I'd need to know it was going to grow and survive for that money.

But it wasn't long before they appeared on the mark-down table (as soon as the flowers faded), so I bought myself some at under half price. And today one of them started a new batch of flowers:

The colour selection is a lucky-dip. It will just be a nice surprise as each one develops new flowers.

Background

At the monthly CBD SCQuilters get-together I finished stitching together the Flower Ball quilt (Geta Grama design).

However this cloud fabric I bought at GJ's sale on the way into town was universally unpopular as a background for it. I need to pin it up and look at various options before I make any decisions. I need a new design wall!

Binding

Stitched the binding to the front of this piece:

I wasn't intending a single-fold binding, but I cut it the wrong width. Doesn't matter in this case, it isn't going to be used and abused. Soon I'll post a picture of the whole thing!

Hello Possums!

Gorgeous gladdies from the garden:

Pretty Star

First flower on one of my Mystic Star dahlias this year. They are a bit late; I think where they are planted is overshadowed too much so they haven't had the sun. Hopefully I'll have a better spot for them next year.

Quilting at Last

Time to move on from practicing on scraps pieces of fabric, and actually quilt a real project with the Sweet 16:

I did a bunch of different filler designs between the letters on this small piece. I just did a search through my old posts, and I don't think I've shown the whole top of this one. Here's part of it under construction a year ago (!): Letters.  And a little of the applique in March.  As I gain confidence with the new machine, projects much older than this will see the light of day.

Up On The Roof

I don't think I'll ever see this in person:

I gave my camera to the plumber who came to find out why the roof was leaking. He thinks the problem is lack of sealing between that vent pipe and the roof. So he's sealed it up and we'll see what happens next time it rains!

Transplanting

Whether due to the recent electrical storm or some other unknown factor, lots more seeds have germinated over the last couple of days. Here's a few tiny messmates (Eucalyptus obliqua) emerging:

I spent some time today transplanting some of them into empty tubes. Here's a tiny transplant:

I'm hoping that transplanting them when they are so tiny will be more successful than transplanting older seedlings. Even when they are this tiny their roots are 2cm or so long. Their roots grow much faster than the visible part of the plant, so if you wait until the plant is a couple of centimetres high before transplanting, you can't avoid damaging the roots. Then the plants take months to get going again, and I wonder if they are ever as strong as undisturbed plants.

Weeds

This backyard seems a little overgrown:

Perhaps it is time they did a little weeding.

Seedling Maintenance

The TreeProject seedlings have grown a lot since they started popping up about 6 weeks ago. They were slow in January as it wasn't very warm, but in the last week or so they have shot up.

Today I did some maintenance tasks, ensuring there is only one in each tube, and trimming roots that are emerging from the bottom of the tubes.  Some species germinated really well, but there are a couple of disappointing results.

Three quarters of the River red gums, Eucalyptus camaldulensis, have grown and are a good size:

Ninety-five percent success with the manna gums, Eucalyptus viminalis:

About 90% success with the red box, Eucalyptus polyanthemos subsp. vestita:

But poor results with a couple of others, such as the grey box, Eucalyptus microcarpa, where less than 25% of the tubes have germinated:

I was hoping for some more germination after the thunderstorms we had a couple of nights ago, and in fact a few seedlings have popped up since. Unfortunately they have mainly been in already-occupied tubes, and of species I didn't have shortages of.

Papers Out

My flower ball is now in one piece, although not fully stitched together yet. But some of the papers are starting to escape, so today I started removing them to allow the piece to be folded up:



Soon I'm going to have to choose another hand-piecing project for taking to meetings.


Added to Sarah's Help For Hexie-Holics link-up. Go and check out her hexie nail polish!

Penguin for February

Here's the second block of the Zoo Animals block-of-the-month designed by Kristy at Quiet Play.

I decided to keep the background colour constant, but probably should have made his body a little darker so that there is more contrast.

Check out Kristy's link-up to see some more penguins. Here's the link-up: Penguins

I've just realised, looking at the penguins and at Kristy's version, that there is a mistake in the pattern. One piece is coloured incorrectly (look at the bottom of their faces). I don't think I will bother to re-make it, but I'll let Kristy know so she can fix the pdf.

Productive Day

The built-in wardrobe in my sewing room is now much more useful. I assembled some of my Ikea Ivar shelves inside it:

and filled it with magazines, patterns, books and a few boxes of quilt tops that I intend turning into quilts this year.

I didn't realise I hadn't taken a picture of the centre section, but it looks pretty much like the two parts you can see. You may remember me painting some of these shelves back in December, although most of these were actually painted in the garage of the unit.

Then I made two more curtains, this time for the downstairs loo:

All done on the treadle machine, which doesn't seem to have suffered any ill effects from being stored under piles of boxes for the last few months.

Pathway

A pretty part of the walk along the bike path to the shops:

Much nicer than walking along the road. As an added attraction, I hear the occasional pobblebonk from the creek to the left of the path.