Just to prove I am not all ‘puff & wind’ about the strawberry jam making, here is the evidence! Sweet & luscious & not good at all for the waistline.
I was explaining to
devliegendekoe in an email that I am competing with the blue tongue lizards for the strawberries. They are our major strawberry ‘predator’, and we share with them willingly. They are beautiful, passive creatures. The best they can do, when under threat, is to poke out their amazing blue tongue at you.
I am always relieved when a rustle in the grass turns out to be a blue tongue, and not the less beautiful, less passive, and very deadly common eastern brown snake! Thankfully, I have only come across one of the latter so far this season.
(The reptile photographs are not mine. They came from
here and
here. I can only photograph flowers – they don’t hiss!)
Sixty stitched & appliquéd heart blocks done ... next, only sixty one nine patch blocks! Didn't I say it was madness?
Thought I'd share a little technique I came up with to help me to get through these heart blocks more quickly. I find this to be really useful in situations where you have a lot of blocks with the same appliqué on each. It isn't 'rocket science', but it assured perfect & uniform placement of the hearts on each background square.
Cut a square from template plastic the same size as your background square. Trace the appliqué shape onto the plastic square in the position you want it to be on your blocks. Carefully cut shape from the centre of your template plastic square using a craft knife.
For my block, I also traced the second smaller heart from the larger one and cut it out carefully.
Prepare appliqué shapes with fusible web as desired. I used Heat 'n' Bond Lite. Place square template over background fabric square. Place appliqué shape in place.
Remove plastic template carefully, without moving appliqué piece, & press.
Repeat process with second appliqué layer using the second smaller heart as a template for placement.
Press second appliqué layer, et voilà, perfectly placed appliqué shapes every time. Hope that makes sense!
