Homemade and a Happy New Year

I have been a quilter for over 20 years. I went off quilting for a bit lately to take up other textile interests. I still love quilting and try to finish at least one quilt a year around Christmas time. I also like to start a new quilt during this time. This Christmas I completed this quilt I started years ago with my friend Geo. It's a quilt made from recycled fabric either from clothing or fabric that we found in thrift stores. Both Geo and I have shared all the fabric we found. I got the quilt machine quilted a couple years ago, but it was only this Christmas that I decided to add the binding. So I can say I completed at least one quilt this year.

After I finished piecing the top I decided to add a border with some writing. I called it 'Rags to Riches' and I put that around the borders.

Geo and I choose the fabric randomly except the "F" (feature) fabric which we each bought at the beginning. It might look like a total scrap quilt without patterns, but there really is a pattern throughout the quilt. The pattern is called Trail Mixed. If you look carefully, you will see the pattern right through it. I really had fun piecing it, but it took me a long time to finish. 

A close up of the quilt top. I even put fabric from a Hawaii shirt in there and also some 1950s fabric. The blue fabric you can see there was from Geo's mother's dress. Another homemade activity this year is preserving.

Every summer around Christmas time our only apricot tree gives us plenty of apricots. This year we have more than we can eat. I started preserving them the weekend before Christmas knowing that I would get busy once Christmas came. I was glad I picked them then because soon after that our dear friends - flocks of birds started to visit and picked what was left on the tree.

I bottled two batches of them and also made two batches of jam and one batch of chutney. I did them in time to give them away for Christmas. I also took them to DS's family. Everyone greatly appreciates the homemade goodies.

It was a lot of preparation getting the fruit ready for bottling, but I have to say I love doing them and seeing the end result of jars and jars of bottled fruit to be used in the off season.

Jars were packed in the boiler and boiled in a slow cooker for an hour. I had to do that a few times because my preserving pot only holds 9 jars at a time. I think I worked until midnight that day.

The beautifully stacked fruit was well packed. Even after steaming the fruit didn't rise to the top as had happened in the previous year when my helper was in a hurry to get them done quickly. Nothing is more pleasing than seeing them stack in the cupboard ready to be consumed. 

We are away at the moment to visit DS and our DGC. We took a quick trip to see our block of land on the South Coast of NSW. It was such a lovely day that day that we went in for a swim at our local beach. I will share some photos with you on my next post. 

I hope everyone had a great Christmas with your loved ones and a Happy New Year to you all. 

Until next time

Nat