For many years it has been an annual ritual for me to make homemade apple pies from our homegrown apples. I have some apple trees that I planted years ago at the farm and every year my lovely big Jonagold apple tree produces boxes and boxes of beautiful big sweet and juicy apples for me. As the name suggests it is a cross between a Jonathon and a Golden Delicious and it has never had a bad year. But this year I have had to compete against someone else who also wants 'my' apples......Russell! He has been eyeing them off for a batch of apple cider. He used some Gravenstein apples earlier in the year but they fermented too quick and the cider went down the drain. The first press he made out of this trummel (?) didn't work well either.
This time he made up a pack press with racks and a form for the 'cheeses'.
After all of the pulp was used it was time to put the top rack on and the jack in place.
With all prototypes there will be a few adjustments and tweeks needed.....the first being the form needs to be a bit smaller to stop all of the overhang of the 'cheeses'. It has now had the yeast added and we are waiting to see whether this batch will be a success or not.
And if it does work we will have 45 litres of our first batch of cider to enjoy. And if it doesn't at least we will still have the 15 Apple Pies!
Linda :)
Last year we built the extension onto the shop. The idea was to move the classroom downstairs to make it easier for ladies who were doing classes and using the room for sewing get-togethers....tick. Then when if we sell the farm we will live upstairs. In the meantime I would use upstairs as my work area.....cross. I found that once I moved the class supplies downstairs my sewing machines quickly followed and then it was just easier for me to sew in the new room. Meanwhile upstairs was used as a storage place and got incredibly messy, especially while I was getting organised for and returning from AQC. As I didn't want to be featured on an episode of 'Hoarders' or found dead underneath a collapsed pile of fabric, kits and other quilting stuff, on Saturday I tackled this.....
Two rooms in two days was my mission. I was ruthless with some of those old unfinished projects......I asked myself a few questions....Do I still like it? Do I want to finish it? Have I got time to finish it? If I answered 'No' to all three questions it got thrown in the rubbish bag......and yes I did throw quite a few out!
By 4pm on Sunday afternoon the rooms now looked like this.....
And no I did not push it all up one end of the room! .......although the big pile of rubbish is in the other room behind the door. It's 'tip day' on Tuesday so I will be loading up the ute tomorrow and off it will go. The next job will be to bring my sewing machines back upstairs and to clean up the Classroom ready for classes. Yes the Class List is being worked on at the moment, more details soon.
Linda :)
PS. Now I probably won't be able to find anything!
During the week I received a big box of hexagon papers from Paper Pieces.
I have a variety of sizes available, which include 1/4" , 3/8" , 1/2" , 3/4" , 1" , 1 1/4" , and 1 1/2". There are three different sized packs - Bulk , Large , and Small, and they have been uploaded onto my online shop here for those who live further away. Russell is helping me to make up a display rack for the packs but in the meantime the rest of them are still in their box.
Linda :)
I have little ones
I have round ones
I have squares ones
I have ones with handles
I have ones with writing on them
And I have a new one that is much bigger on the inside than it looks!
Linda :)
Over the weekend I decided to make up a couple of the lovely projects from Gail's new book, Simply Christmas 2013. The first is the cute little Gift Bag. A stitchery design with a little wool applique is the feature of the bag.
The other project I made was the Starry Night Table Runner. This time I quilted with some of the red Cosmo Stitch Work thread and was really happy with the different look that it gave.
I ran out of time to get the binding done, but it won't take long to finish it off.
Linda :)
With the nights getting colder we have finally lit our wood heater. It will now go day and night until probably sometime in September......unless we get some warmer weather in the meantime. The cooler nights also mean it's a perfect time to get stitching again. I was inspired at AQC to get back into my new hexagon quilt and have spent the last 3 nights in full stitching mode. If you are looking for a winter project why not check out Gail's new book.....Simply Christmas 2013.
I was lucky enough to get my copy signed at AQC........
it was funny though, Gail was signing a copy of her book for me while I was signing a copy of my book for her! I have copies available at the shop or online for just $19.80 each.......great value!
While I am talking about books, these arrived just the other day for the shop.
Simply beautiful! I love these books and have picked out quite a few of the projects to put on my to do list.......but I'd better not start as I really must stick to my hexagon quilt deadline!
Linda :)
Wow what a whirlwind of a week it has been. This time last week I was running around doing last minute kitting, cutting and packing for the AQC adventure with Lenora from Elm Grove Patchwork. The whole experience was a huge learning curve and as AQC 'virgins', I'm sure it will be remembered for a very long time.
I met so many lovely ladies and talked that much that I was sure that my voice was going to give out.
I was blown away by all of the wonderful comments about 'Prudence', especially those who said it was the best quilt that they had seen at AQC.
I was embarrassed when asked to sign my book, especially when asked by 'famous' people like Jodie, Gail & Helen! I am just an ordinary person.
I was so glad that Hannah was able to help out for the 4 days.......she was fantastic!
And after talking about my hexagon quilt for 4 days she has gone home with fabric, 1 1/2" papers and a glue pen to start her own quilt......go Hannah!
And in what seemed like a blink of the eye it was all over and we were packing up our displays and heading back home to cows, calves, kids (Lenora) and husbands.....that would either be very happy to see us home again or a little angry that we had been away for 5 days....lol! (Mine was happy - bonus!)
So while it is back to farm work and away from the buzz of the city, these boxes are still waiting to be unpacked.
At least I bought home a lot less than I went with!
Thank you to everyone who called by to say hello......maybe I will see you again at the 2014 AQC......
Linda :)
PS. Jodie is having a give away for a copy of my book so why not pop over and check it out here.
