Border Progress - Not much its too damn hot

The weather has been really humid recently in Adelaide so progress on the border appliqué has been slow but here is what has been done so far.

I also want to let you know that the final block will be removed from download at the end of the month  and I will post my border option requirements and where the templates I used for the flowers vases etc but you can probably work that out yourself.  There are no new templates for the borders.

The vines are free form and do not follow a set pattern I just glued it down and meandered up the length of the border to approximately half way so you can make it just your own at this point.

Kombucha Production

If you follow me on Facebook or Instagram you have probably seen my attempts at making Kombucha.  My initial scobie (mother) has grown enough that I know can have at least 5 jars going at once.

So what is Kombucha? well it is a fermented tea which started in China (I think).  Basically you start off with a scobie and some culture (previous brew) which is kind of an ugly blob of stuff that grows on the top of jar when you make a batch that takes care of the fermentation process.  Add it to a jar of surgary organic tea and leave it to do its thing in a dark cupboard for 8 to 12 days.  You then remove the scobie and pour the brew into bottles reserving some of the liquid for each of your scobies.

I then flavour it, my favourite is blueberry and vanilla and I have just tried a batch of pomegranate which is quite nice too. You can probably add what ever fruit you like and there would be countless recipes on the internet for you to try.  I have learnt though that you need to release the stopper every day to get rid of some of the gas... we did have an exploding bottle in the middle of the night a couple of weeks ago.

Kombucha is supposed to detox your liver and give you a good dose of all those good bacteria that live in your gut.  I have to say that since I have been drinking it most of the side effects from the medication I have been on disappeared so I'm thinking that maybe it is helping.

This time I'm doing a white tea, green tea and black tea batch just to see what the different brews taste like.  You can buy Kombucha in some shops (IGA) but it is quite sweet and I noticed that one brand was sweetened with stevia and I really don't enjoy the taste of stevia.  For the cost of a small bottle I can make 4 jars of it at home and it really is super easy.  The taste is like cider and it is a great sugar free alternative to soft drink just wish I could convince the kids.

Check out my latest post on Quilting Focus there is a free pattern

Free Pattern available at the end of the post so take a visit and come back regularly for great information about Quilting.

Check out my latest Post on Quilting Focus

I have done an article on free BOM the links at the bottom especially the first one are great to have a quick look in one place of a lot of BOM that are on offer at the moment.

I'm Still Stitching

Borders are a work in progress and I have the vines stitched down on two corners. I think it will be a while before its finished.

So far I have used the vase from block 1 and the bowl from block 7.  I'm not worrying about making the opposite corners the same apart from the base that the flowers are in.  I will try and keep the flowers evenly balanced and will keep a track of how many flowers of each block I use to help you along the way.  I will keep the final block up for another month and then publish the border setting and what I have done so far.

Handmade Vol 34 No 8 is out by the end of the week and it has my quilt North and South.  I was stitching it this time last year so I am a bit ambivalent about it now.  But the spread looks pretty spectacular and the colours are pretty true to the original quilt so you have to love that.  I even made it to the magazine index page.  

Working on Borders

I have been less apathetic about finishing the borders on Flowers for Alison, I think it is because I see the end in sight and I really am enjoying figuring out what to do.

I have added a small cream writing border and then a 12 ½" border of black script fabric to the outside.  As I needed to mitre the corners I underestimated how much border fabric I needed so there are quite a few joins in one of the borders but I don't think you can really tell as it hides pretty well in the print and I will use appliqué to cover where it looks obvious.

The finished quilt will be 220 cm square which will fit nicely on my queen size bed.  Haven't made a quilt this big for quite some time but I am looking forward to the challenge of machine quilting it, but I think I have a few more hours of appliqué before we need to jump through that hoop.

I am also going to have to work out how I am going to photograph it when it is finished.

Flowers for Alison Block 7

Here is the final block for Flowers for Alison head over to the BOM Page to download.  Now this one is my all time favourite for the quilt.  

I will start working on a border option for you next month.  However you may decide to just leave the quilt as is it us up to you.  I am thinking of doing a wide border and I will use the templates from the various blocks to fill the area.  

Here is the finished quilt centre.  I'll let you know when the border option is ready so stay tuned.  

Remember if you want to join in now you can purchase all the patterns from my Etsy shop.