Block 6 The Sewing Room, and a trip to Lucinda...

 

I'm sure you'll agree that you cannot have a sewing room without fabric, and whether that be a small amount, or a large stash, it's what we rely on to sew garments, quilts, gifts, useful things for the home, and also for mending. 

I chose to feature eight different fabrics (perfect for scraps!) and sew them together in two rows of four. The squares were cut to 1.5", and after sewing together with a 1/4" seam, and turning the outer border under by a 1/4" before appliqueing to the background fabric, I had myself a cute little 2" x 4" "quilt". 

When I completed the hand embroidery, I hand quilted the little appliqued quilt with small running stitches. I hope you enjoy making this block and using up your own scraps. :-) 

Use the link below to download the free pattern...

DOWNLOAD block 6 of The Sewing Room

If you missed the first five blocks in this nine-month BOM, you will find them HERE

Today we went for a drive north to Lucinda, a beautiful spot on the water, and with a great fish shop. The weather is glorious for the first day of winter, 27C (81F), which is what it will be most of winter. It's so nice not to need air conditioning for a few months, and also a blessing to be able to sit outside and not dissolve in a pool of perspiration. 

We had grilled coral trout (our favourite fish) and salad, overlooking the Lucinda Bulk Sugar Terminal. Kelly was at our feet, waiting for titbits of fish to come his way (and he did indeed enjoy our leftovers!). 

The Terminal is the longest in the southern hemisphere at 5.76 klm long (almost 3.5 miles) and has been called an engineering masterpiece because it follows the curvature of the earth. 

The terminal allows Lucinda to handle large bulk sugar ships of up to 50,000 tonnes, and around 20 ships every year export from here to markets all over the world. In case I've not mentioned it before, we live in the midst of the 'sugar cane capital' of Australia, and right now many fields of cane are ripe for harvest. The sugar crush begins in June and finishes in December. During the crush, when you drive north or south of our town, you will see cane trains moving across the highway, carrying cut cane from the farms to the sugar mills (of which there are many). The smell of molasses fills the air, and the steam rising from the mill looks like thick smoky tornadoes. It's an amazing sight and one we love to watch on our Sunday drives. When the crush begins I'll take some pics and show you. 

As lovely as the beach is at Lucinda, you cannot swim there due to crocodiles. One day we were there enjoying lunch and watched a crocodile enjoying the water, so we take the warning signs along the beach very seriously. We come here for a nice fish and salad lunch, not to be his lunch. ;-)

Now that its June many of the mango trees are in bloom, which means its only 4-5 months until mango season again - something we all love in our family. Christmas just wouldn't be the same without fresh mangoes. I plan to make lots of mango chutney and mango pickles in February as the season winds down.

Where we live there are also loads of strangler figs, and though the host tree beneath eventually rots and dies, these monstrous figs are incredibly beautiful, and can live for hundreds of years.

I hope you are having a relaxing weekend, wherever you are. We did some gardening when we arrived home in the early afternoon, and I roasted a chicken for meals during the week. I also tried something new - roast a sweet potato, then scoop out the flesh and mash it with coconut milk, salt and pepper. WOW!!! It's delicious...and I had to hold back from sampling the lot as its a side dish for dinner tonight. 

God bless you dear ones, and I shall be back during the week to chat about homemaking and gentle domesticity...

Bless you heaps,