Tag Archives: Ekka

Sew 222 – Upcycled pouch with purpose

Liz Harfull puts upcycled phone pouch to good useWe carry our life in our phones these days so need to hold them close to our chest – and what better way to do that than with an upcycled purpose-made phone pouch.

At the Ekka recently with my friend and colleague, author of award-winning The Australian Blue Ribbon Cookbook, Liz Harfull, we were wandering and chatting for a while before Liz realised she had mislaid her new beaut Samsung phone.

Fortunately we could easily back-track and locate it, on this occasion. Because of the Samsung’s features (including a great camera – I also have one and take all my photos with it), the phone is slightly larger than pocket-sized but still hard to find in a big carry-all bag.  Continue reading →

Sew 219 – Jumper-skirt for Ekka

Jane Milburn wears upcycled cotton jumper-skirtThe Rural Press Club breakfast is the opening event at the Ekka, Queensland’s annual show, and a great time to catch up with rural friends and associates from around the state.

Guest speaker this year was Jason Strong, CEO of Australian Agricultural Company – talking about beef of course – but I was seated with central Queensland cotton grower Charlie Wilson.  As a former chair of Cotton Australia, Charlie has good insight into cotton production, how it sits in the textile world in relation to inputs (water and chemicals) required to grow the crop and the challenge from synthetic fibres. He runs a family enterprise producing about 4000 bales of cotton as well as organic beef and dryland cropping of wheat and chickpeas. Although he plans to grow organic wheat in future, he says it is not possible to grow fully organic cotton in Australia because of the insect pest problems. Continue reading →