Here is the full photo of Santa and his sleigh. I always am in a bit of a quandary regarding embroidery in quilt, like what to do? Well my very good friend Kathy said crosshatch and match the thread to the fabric. Well I did and I like the result, although I got carried away (someone carry me away PPPLLLEAASSEE) with the spacing and it became quite intensive crosshatching, as I really do like crosshatching. I use it as a method of quilting around applique and find it great for not overshadowing the customer's work. I also like crosshatching in the final border, especially if it is a really busy fabric.

This very unusual plant is a West Australian native, known as a Zamia Palm (Macrozamia reidlei) and is one of the plant dinosaurs. Very slow growing and slow to germinate. Toxic to stock, humans and dogs, prickly and a plant with attitude. The red coating on the seed is very thick and apparently emus love them. Some people reckon that the seeds need to pass through an emu to germinate, I'll let you know if they grow without passing through an emu. I showed them to the chooks and their eyes watered. Two seeds in an 11 y.o hand shows you how big the seeds are. I'm going to remove the flesh off them all of them and plant half in the ground, where it is undisturbed and heavily leaf littered. The other half I will put in pots and wait a year or two to compare the growing methods. Lovely day here so I off outside to the garden and hang the quilting, I'll be the mucky one smelling of damp earth.