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Summery Sunday Seeds

Today was the most beautiful day here, it was warm and cloudy...I like warm and cloudy. Such a lovely Sunday to spend in the garden and plant seedlings. Except I ran out of yoghurt containers, so a quick search on google solved the problem. I decided to make Newspaper Seedling Pots, there are lots of tutorials on the Internet...You just need some newspaper and a glass or can, how easy is that?

Here is my effort not so perfect though, but the seedlings won't mind! I'm not too worried about the ink print, people say it's fine as it's made of soy. I'm not too sure what the inks are used here hopefully it's soy too...

Your hands get a bit dirty making these wee pots...INK!
You can fold in half too...just depends
what size you want or the thickness
You can use other objects, like a small tin...
 But I could only find a glass
My glass wasn't the same roundness at the top so I
kept going wonky....
Doesn't really matter if it doesn't look perfect,
so long as there is enough turn-over to
keep the soil/potting mix in...
Use your fingers to fold down the end a bit before you
 stamp/flatten the bottom with the glass
My pot is looking promising...
Cute and cheap too...I'm not buying
peat pots ever again
All finished and ready to put soil in and place seeds inside.
The good thing about these pots is you can just unfold the
bottom, and then dig in the newspaper pot with the seedling
straight into the garden...

Dusting Cloths

My dusting cloths are made the same way as my cleaning cloths. A very easy sew I thought until the overlocker unthreaded itself....Almost an hour later (I've lost my threader) I finally managed to re-thread the machine and continued sewing.

During my many attempts I noticed the lower looper threaded with woolly nylon thread wasn't threaded properly (I hate that and to make it worse it's woolly nylon, my worst nightmare).....It can stay that way for now, threading the TruLock is a mission at the best of times.

Who wants to thread the woolly nylon again? not me that's for sure!

Pink this time (micro fleece)
These are going to a friend.....

A Kinda Strawberry Jam Day...

I guess it's time to make strawberry jam. There is one lonely bag of frozen strawberries sitting at the bottom of my freezer. It seems such a waste to just chuck the bag out when you've grown them yourself....Last time (a season or so ago) I used Jam Sugar to make Strawberry Jam. You just use the still frozen strawberries and add Jam Sugar to the pot. Not very hard at all......

This batch was given away at Xmas...
This time for my jam making there was no Jam Sugar and I know strawberry jam can be difficult to set. So to avoid this I bought a packet of Jam Setting Mix. Though I had one problem you needed 1.7kg of defrosted fruit and I only had 1kg...

In the end I decided not to take the chance and make my strawberry jam using 1kg berries and 1kg of white sugar, plus a squeeze of lemon juice. I have plenty of glass jars, I've been collecting Craigs jam jars for a while now......

Although there are other ways to sterilize jam jars, I do it the old fashioned way by placing the jars and lids in a saucepan full of water. Bring this to a rolling boil for about 10 minutes. I also sterilize my jug and tongs in there too.

My Strawberry Jam Recipe:
1 kg of white sugar
1 kg of Strawberries
1 whole Lemon (squeeze to use juice)

Cooking time is approximately 45 minutes, but I just cook till the jam is a gel like consistency and the saucer test shows the jam forming a skin.
Tips:
When freezing strawberries hull them ready for jam making. You can do this with a knife and I did see somewhere you can use a straw to hull and remove the core (must try that myself).
Always sterilize anything that has contact with the jam making process.
Use a saucer to test a small spoonful of jam to see if it is ready.


I defrosted the strawberries, usually I cook them frozen
for jam making. So I wasn't sure if this was going to
work out...What if the jam didn't set?
Who froze the strawberries with their stems still on?
I used a strainer and knife to remove the greenery and
core....not an easy job but I managed it.
Sterilizing my jars and lids in a big pot and cooking the
 defrosted strawberries...I mashed them  down with
the potato masher while cooking
1 kg of white sugar to add to the 1 kg
 of cooked strawberries
Bubble, bubble toil and trouble.....
I hope this Strawberry Jam works out!
Testing my jam to see if it is ready yet. I always look
to see if it has formed a skin when I tip he saucer
slightly...
Using a small piece of butter to dissolve scum...
You can scrape it off too with a spoon if you
 don't want to use butter
Testing again just to make sure it has thickened
I do make a mess when pouring my jam
into the sterilized jam jars
Just have to scrape the rest of the jam out...
Put the left over jam in a dish to eat...YUM!
It tastes so nice so much better than shop bought...
Out of my 1kg of de-frosted strawberries I made
four jars of jam with a tiny bit left over
Testing again to see how thick my strawberry jam is....
Yes the jam was thick enough. When I tipped
 the heart dish the jam stayed against the side
of the dish....

I'm Sewing...

I cut out this dress in June and sewed a couple of seams and left it in a heap....Which is really not like me, I usually finish what I start...It's really not a good idea to leave a sewing project, then try to sew it later on. I forgot what design I had cut out and all my notches had frayed into the fabric. Then I wasn't sure which markings were which...I assumed I was making size 2, but I think I cut it out too short. Never mind...

I've now made the dress up in style A from Mccalls 6154 sewing pattern. But I added the pockets from style C to the dress. I couldn't fine my iron-on stiffening I cut out for the front yolk. So instead I used a much stiffer one...That wasn't a good choice because it was like cardboard in the front and the back yolk was nice and soft.... This pattern is pretty much an easy sew, though slightly fiddly as smaller garments are. The finished dress looked a bit wide I thought, and I would have liked more gathers...

I was pleased with my fabric choice of baby pincord. Though I did have a bit of trouble with the front yolk, I had an excess of fabric when top stitching (but that was probably due to the cardboard stiffening causing problems). Overall I'd make sew this style again.


Yes it's too big but then I thought it would
 be as it's a size 2. Her mum pinned her
up at the back... luckily she has a
big sister, she can wear it!
McCalls 6154 Size 2-5

Extra Feet for the Juki F600

Here are my extra sewing feet for the Juki F600 I chose these ones:
Invisible Zipper Foot-Part No. 40080955
Button Attaching Presser Foot-Part No.40080969
Applique Presser Foot- Part No. 40080951
Pearl Attaching Presser-Part No.40080956 (not sure why I got this one I think it was a case of if I didn't buy it I might need it...crazy huh!

They were all bought online in Japan from a Japanese web-site mishin-net-store. Not that I can understand how to navigate this site as it's all in Japanese....Now I'll have to find myself a wee container to keep my Juki feet in or I'll lose them...


Packaging & instructions
Extra Juki F 600 sewing feet, they don't come
with the sewing machine...
Top view of feet L to R... Invisible Zip,
 blue tipped- Button Attaching Foot,
Applique Foot, Pearl Attaching Foot

and some snips from Japan....


Friday Ramblings...

This is a close-up view of the Bernina Activa 220 needle threader, it's all I could think about to post today..... But I've been so busy, I bought myself an old sewing table and I've been tidying it up (well wiping it out) and then putting all my sewing things in place.

I was so happy I found my button foot for sewing on buttons for my old Bernina 801, it has been lost for ages. Funny thing it was tangled and entwined onto another Bernina sewing foot. I was really pleased to find it as the generic ones (on e-bay) are slightly different to mine and a new one for the Activa 220 is so expensive...Lucky I didn't replace it!

Oh and I've had some excitement, I have managed to get some sewing machine feet for my Juki F600 in Japan. I just can't get them in NZ. My gorgeous little girls went on a holiday to visit their family and bought them online over there for me (much cheaper than buying from the U.S.A.)....When they bring them over to my house I'll post, they are all sick at the moment....

I actually like this needle threader I can use it. I get totally muddled up when I use the Juki F600 one...in fact I think I've broken it!


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