Tuesday 28 January 2014

FNSI, Australia Day & a Question

Sorry to be late posting about my efforts for Wendy's Friday Night Sew In (FNSI). The saying 'no rest for the wicked' makes me think that I have been very wicked at some point, although I wish I could remember when :).
After having my 2 nephews, Mstr 5 & Mstr 8, visiting for 3 nights, and running ourselves ragged visiting a variety of Perth attractions including SciTech and the Zoo, I was too exhausted on Friday night to be creative. So I pulled out my trusty, old faithful, fall back UFO - my Kookaburra cross stitch. I find cross stitching very relaxing and can do it without having to think too much. I have been working on this project for about 2 years and haven't done anything on it since late in my pregnancy with Miss M. It was lovely to work on it a bit more.


Thanks to Wendy at Sugarlane Quilts for hosting FNSI again. If you would like to check out what the other 60 participants did you can find their links here.

Saturday was spent preparing pie fillings for Australia Day. For more than 10 years we have been gathering with family and friends on Australia Day to share pies for lunch/dinner. Everyone brings some pies to contribute so we end up with a large variety of savoury and sweet pies to consume (and often we have so many that we continue consuming them for the rest of the week!).

This year I made satay chicken, beef & Guinness, chicken hot pot and apple pie fillings. On Sunday morning I was up early (thanks to Miss M) and, after getting a Pavlova in the oven, started making the pies. Unfortunately I ran out of Shortcrust pastry before I could make the apple pies but the savoury pies looked scrumptious (and tasted just as good, if I do say so myself).


This year was my first attempt at a Pavlova. It wasn't perfect but I was pretty happy with it and it tasted just like a Pav should...yummy!!!


We had a lovely relaxing day by the pool, soaking up the sunshine and making wonderful memories. Monday was spent making up the apple pies and 2 lots of savoury pies that I hadn't had time to do on Saturday - lamb rogan josh and potato pies. All in all, another great Australia Day weekend.

Now for my question...I have been organising my little sewing area so that I have my fabrics stored inside rather than in the shed. They are organised by size and/or theme in plastic containers. However, I've just read an article in Quilters Companion about Kay Haerland (amazing quilt artist!) and she mentions that plastic is very bad for storing fabrics and can lead to musty or mouldy fabric issues. Now I'm a bit worried and am hoping you can all help me out.

I would love to hear how you store your fabric & any hints or tips you might have for me on fabric storage. Thanks so much.

Enjoy your week & I hope you manage to squeeze in some stitching.

Cheers,
Tracy

3 comments:

Maria said...

Nice to have a project to fall back on. Love the Kookaburras..
those pies and the pav look delicious.

Bev C said...

Hello Tracy,

Having pies on Australia Day, what a great idea. Pavlova would have gone down a treat too. Hadn't hear that about storing fabrics in plastic. Mould would only grow if they got wet. Perhaps putting in some of those silica sachets that come in Vitamin tablets would alleviate that problem. Lavender sachets would help with the must problem. I can only imagine that would happen if it was stored incorrectly for many years.

Good luck with the cross stitch.

Happy days.
Bev.

Anthea said...

Hi Tracy - I agree with Bev. I store all my stuff in plastic tubs with lids - never had a problem with bugs, moulds or anything. I am interested to know what the columnist suggests if plastic is no good. Your ideas sound like they care for the fabrics, and at the same time are convenient for your needs - what could be better, I ask?!?!? x