Tag Archives: north Queensland

Sew 263 – Kitchen creativity

Tablecloth upcycled to topIn a previous life, Helen Hill was a paper artist turning fibres found from nature into works of art. Now her creativity is directed to developing a new organic fruit crop Achacha in tropical north Queensland.

It was great to have the opportunity to spend time with Helen and Bruce at their plantation and hear the story of their transition into food growing from professional careers, and their desire to farm using organic techniques.

The plantation is just south of Townsville and my friend Fiona Lake spent a few hours today chatting, checking out the property, cattle and wetlands. The fruit matures in December but there were plenty of flowers, baby fruit and bees active in the trees – so a good crop is forecast.  Continue reading

Sew 100 – Bring on the buttons

Upcycle using buttons to hide marksButtons are useful, decorative, sentimental, collectable, fun … and they cover a multitude of sins when upcycling.

In a long-ago Sunday Mail magazine article (23 November 1997), I wrote about the magic buttons and the stamp of individuality they bring to garments. The story included a north Queensland grazier who was making buttons from timber on her property to generate income during hard times. The buttons were made by pruning branches from native hardwoods on the Charters Towers property that were 1-2cm in diameter, dry them for weeks to harden the sap, cut them into circles and treat with durable varnish to keep the bark in place and make them washable. Sunday Mail story on buttons Continue reading