Scrappy String Christmas Quilt

Back in July I made three Christmas quilts for a friend out of fabric she had collected. Since then they’ve had an addition to the family and the scraps came back to me to try and put another quilt together. This is definitely the last, after this there isn’t enough to make even a stocking for an elf.

 

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Wilding Apple Trees

Over winter I dug up a few wilding apple trees that were growing at the side of the road, no doubt germinated from apple cores thrown out of car windows. Now that spring is here they are leafing up quite nicely, who knows what the apples will be like, but in the meantime I’m hoping they will help pollinate my peasgood nonsuch this year. The cuttings I took last year from that tree are flowering at the tips, not sure if that means there will be roots underneath but it looks hopeful. The greenhouse has been planted way earlier that I can outside too, it’s warm today but I’m sure we’ll get more frosts yet here in the South Waikato!

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Kid’s Crafts

At four and five our grand kids really enjoyed ‘doing’ these crafts with some help. The borax crystal names were ready by the next day and the miniature gardens were an instant success with their little solar light glowing at night and a swing suspended from the handle.

For the crystal names, help them form their name in cursive writing with coloured pipe cleaners, then suspend them in a borax solution: 3 tablespoons of borax to 1 cup of hot water and some food colouring. I added extra borax to make it work well but shouldn’t have, the solution over crystalised. The name was then suspended on a skewer with fishing line. Next day we hung them outside to drip dry.

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