Clearing Up

In between mystery clues I am trying to finish off a few things that have been hanging around for too long. A few days ago I made backings for three tops that need quilting. Yesterday I basted the first of them, and today it started its time under the needle:

It is the the butterflies and dresdens quilt which has has been a top since August. I was surprised it has been that long. Definitely time to get it finished and out the door!

Walks in Two Parks

The first part of our final field trip for the year was a walk, guided by Kevin Tolhurst, through Park Lake Botanical Reserve in Creswick:

Kevin talked to us about the history of the reserve, then gave us a tour through the area for which he designed a planting scheme a few years ago:

Some parts of the new plantings are quite advanced (see first photo), although others are still very new (see below). It will be a lovely place to visit in several years (Kevin suggested "80 years") when the plantings are mature.

After this we headed to the La Gerche Trail, also near Creswick. The trail commemorates the life and work of John La Gerche who was a forest bailiff in the area from the 1880s.

Part of his role was protecting the forest from illegal timber-cutting, and part was to repair the already cleared sections of forest. He planted thousands of trees,  most not native to the area. The trail is 2.2km long, and passes through some of the remaining experimental plantations of pines, and oaks, and other trees:

Near the beginning of the trail, this amazing building was the office of the nursery, built in 1912:

The oak tree it is under was planted in the 1920s.

This nearby fountain dates from the same period:

It must have been something to see when it was working!

The actual trail is closed to the public at the moment, due to a recent storm which brought down a few trees:

But we were granted special access because we were there to work. Our jobs included cleaning signs, replacing missing signs, cutting back overhanging branches, and treating a few weeds.

I loved the colour and texture of the bark of this maritime pine, Pinus pilaster, a large tree which was planted in  1888:

It comes from southern Europe, and is invasive in parts of Australia. It is one of several species of pine that La Gerche tried out:

Along the way there were many little native wildflowers to be seen.

Rather frilly goodenia

Milkmaids with several tiny black and white moths:

A more comprehensive list of plants along the trail can be seen here: La Gerche Trail plants.

We saw a few birds, but not much other wildlife. However according to this sign a lot of the animals we see at home are also present in the park:

It was quite a warm day (28 at our place, could have been more where we were), so the walk up and down the trail was hard work, even without pulling branches off the trail and the like. It was a relief to get back to the starting point, have a big drink of water, and eat our picnic tea.

Frolic Part Two

The latest clue for Frolic was released very early. If I hadn't had to go out last night I would have spent the evening working on it. This morning was taken up with shopping for my parents, but I still managed to get this week's clue made today.

Here's a few of this week's units hanging out with a few of last week's.

 It is looking a bit dark so far, but there's a long way to go.

Floral Delights

A few flowers in the garden today.

First waterlily flower of the season:

I don't know if those little flies are attracted by the smell or just the colour?

A month or so ago I thought the sweet peas had finished due to an under-watering oversight, but fortunately enough of them have survived that I should be able to collect some seed and do better next year:

I've been growing these from seed originally given to me by a friend five years ago, so I'm glad I haven't killed them off this year!

Something a bit unusual:

This flower is from a single bulb that was in a Garden Express end-of-season bulk bulb clearance box. It is a "firecracker" plant, Dichelostemma ida-maia, which is native to the west coast of the USA. It normally sells for $18 for one bulb!

Lastly. lots of flowers on a little hebe:

We have two different varieties of hebe alternating along a path in the back garden, and all these ones are flowering despite still being very small plants. I think this is "Marie Antoinette".

Growing Things

Things are growing in the orchard.

Back in July I posted pictures of the male and female flowers on our hazelnut tree. Some of them did their thing, because now there are some baby hazelnuts growing:

Cherries ripening:

These are male kiwifruit flowers. They smell quite pretty, and there are bees buzzing in them.

Unfortunately there are no flowers on the female vines yet.

Raspberries ripening:

Yum!

Apples:

There are several apple trees, some with other varieties grafted on. The chooks have decided that the leaves of the Redlove apples are the tastiest:

So everything they can reach has been shredded.


Meanwhile inside, the wonky star blocks I made back in September have multiplied, and today became a top for a donation quilt:

Almost all of this fabric came out of my scrap basket, or from other people's scraps. The only parts that came from my stash were the remnants of a couple of mini charm packs I originally bought to add some variety to my temperature quilt. They only added up to 0.2 of a metre of fabric stash used, but I did empty 2 spools of thread sewing it all together, so that's something. At this stage it looks like I will get to the end of the year with a little bit less stash than I had at the beginning.

Alice Challenge

Ballaarat Quilters' annual challenge was this year based on Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. My memory of the story was hazy, so I read "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" (for the first time since childhood) to remind myself of the details and look for inspiration.

My inspiration came from chapter 10, "The Lobster Quadrille", in which the Mock Turtle sings a song beginning:

"Will you walk a little faster?" said a whiting to a snail.
"There's a porpoise close behind us, and he's treading on my tail."


Later in the chapter, as the song is discussed:
"If I'd been the whiting," said Alice, whose thoughts were still running on the song, 'I'd have said to the porpoise, "Keep back, please: we don't want you with us!"'

'They were obliged to have him with them,' the Mock Turtle said: 'no wise fish would go anywhere without a porpoise.'

'Wouldn't it really?' said Alice in a tone of great surprise.

'Of course not,' said the Mock Turtle: 'why, if a fish came to me, and told me he was going a journey, I should say "With what porpoise?"'

*************

So I went looking for a porpoise pattern of some kind, and rather than finding a porpoise-related quilt design, I found this cross stitch pattern for a patchwork dolphin. Dolphin, porpoise, close enough. I've never done cross-stitch before, but I found it a very relaxing process.

Week One (27th March):

I read about gridding the Aida with fine fishing line, but buying a whole reel for this little job seemed like a waste. I used some Bottom Line thread, which did slide out easily, but also was possible to pierce with a cross stitch needle, so it wasn't ideal.

Week Two:

Week Three:

Week Four:

Week Five:

Week Six:

This could be a "spot the difference" puzzle, because looking at the photos now I can't see the difference between weeks five and six. Maybe I did the white stitching that week? I can't tell from the photos.

Week Seven:

Week Eight:

Week Nine (22nd May):

And there he sat for a few months. I eventually stitched the quote, and then last week I popped him in a frame:

Not a great photo because of the reflective glass. But I'm pretty happy with the end result!

Tonight was the challenge reveal. I wasn't the only person who hadn't made a quilt; the eighteen entries included cushions, an embroidered hanging, an actual clock, and a bag as well as quilts of various sizes. An amazing array of creativity. I really should have taken some photos.

Frolic Part One

Since Bonnie announced the colours for this year's mystery quilt, Frolic, I've been trying to decide which fabrics to use. My initial colour post was here, and then I played with a few options here. I ummed and ahed for the rest of the month! Eventually a few days ago I made my final decision. And then the first clue came out and I started second-guessing myself.

I made a handful of 4-patches to see how they looked, then just decided to go with it:

My dark blue is Bonnie's berry colour, and for Bonnie's blues I am using berry colours: dark red and lighter purple. My 4-patches each have two corners of dark blue, one of dark red and one of purple.

The rest of my colour scheme is much the same as Bonnie's; chartreuse instead of the grassy green, a bluey-green for aqua, and then the neutrals.

There are no blog link-ups for this mystery, which is a shame. I loved the blog link-ups; visiting all the links and leaving comments on as many as possible. Many of the blogs I read regularly I first found through the mystery link-ups. Reading beyond the mystery-related posts allowed me to find people with common interests and interesting lives. Will Instagram do the same? I don't know.



Stash report for November:


Thread:
No spools emptied, none added.
Year to date - down 13 spools.

Dress fabric:
None used, none added.
Year to date - down 2.25m.

Quilt fabric:
1.6m used, 1m added
Year to date - up 0.9m.