Hi again, everyone, it’s time for another chat. The weather is turning cool here, needing to close up the windows by about 4:30pm each afternoon. I do so love this time of year – cool mornings and evenings, but warms up by 10:00am to a very pleasant temperature.

MD(my darling) and I are preparing for another trip away – this time we’re heading off to Darwin in the Top End for a 7 day safari camping adventure, then onto The Ghan Overland Train for a two night, three day journey from the top of Australia to the bottom, right through the middle of the continent. We arrive in Adelaide just in time for MD’s aunt’s 100th Birthday. Should be fun.

Of course my biggest concern is “what sewing do I take with me?” The camping trip has got me stumped, it won’t be dust free out there, so I won’t be taking anything that might get marked. Perhaps some English paper piecing, that might do the trick. Of course I’ll have some embroidery to do on the train. I’m very fortunate that I can sew on any form of transport – I never suffer from the motion. It’s good to be able to make the most of the idle time.

The third article in the series “Accurate Rotary Cutting for machine piecing” was posted last Sunday and I’ve had some positive feedback from my lovely readers. Thankyou those who have emailed me, I’m more than happy to clarify any of the instructions. This third article deals with the final trimming and cutting of the shapes, and machine preparation in readiness for machine piecing. Here’s the link to the third article:
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art10166.asp

There are two more articles to go in this series, and they’ll be posted just before I depart for our holiday. Unfortunately I won’t be sending any newsletters to you for the four weeks were away, but I’ll still be able to post an article every Sunday, as I’m able to post date them to go live on a certain date. Unfortunately, I’m unable to do that with the newsletters.

My little gift to you this week, is some more hints when cutting and preparing your fabric. I have found these to be very useful ideas:

More Cutting tips

If you’re cutting a fabric that’s difficult to see against your cutting mat, try turning the fabric over and cutting on the wrong side, which is often lighter than the right side.

Washing fat quarters: Place fat quarters of fabric in a mesh lingerie bag to launder. Place the lingerie bag in with the other items without losing the fabric and very little fraying.

Use a fold-up, wooden, laundry rack for organizing your strips for a project.

So dear friends, I’ll say Cheerio for now, I do hope this newsletter finds you all well and busy creating up a storm. See you next week.

Judie Bellingham, Quilting Editor
http://Quilting.bellaonline.com

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