Rosella Jam

 
Yesterday while at the quilt group Mountain Quilters I was fortunate to be given some Rosellas.---
Not the feathered variety,but a member of the Hibiscus family!

Until I moved to Queensland some 30 years ago I had never come across these plants/fruits or jam,but now I would be one of my favourite jams.

The seeds are planted out in October and by late February through to April the fruits form and need harvesting before they mature and coarsen.
The plant itself is in my opinion worth having in the garden : it can grow to 5 foot in height,has shaped deepish green leaves and reddish stems and veins in the leaves;
The flowers are lemon single hibiscus-type blossoms and the fruit (hips) are a delightful waxy ruby red.
The only draw back is that they are an annual.

The jam is made by first boiling up the seed pods (which are removed from inside the red petals) in order to obtain the natural pectin for helping set the jam.
I'm off now to start on my first batch.

mmmm....homemade scones with Rosella jam and cream! 

Hearts for Jan.....and others?

 
Not a great pic,but just to give you an idea.

The heart is yet to be appliqued to the WoW(white on white,self patterned) background fabric.

I was wondering what my readers would think of maybe making a small donation of cash that could be forwarded to some charity to help someone maybe restock their pantry or freezer.

Just a thought.....what do you think?
I know the Commonwealth Bank is accepting donations,and the Red Cross;

I wonder if anyone is doing anything for the animals! 

The photo

 
The photo that started it all:

Blue green algae on the Murray River. 

AJQ mark2

 
Not really much to show (with me you get warts and all blogging)

In Mark1 I was happy with the water effects: the swirls of blue/yellow/green to represent water swirls and algal blooms so I'll attempt a similar procedure.

The river bank I've attempted this time with smaller fabric pieces and more mottled colourings.
After all,if I wanted true representation I'd use a photograph wouldn't I 

March AJQ "mark1"

 
When I first committed to this project I thought to use various stages of the Murray River as my theme........
The March quilt started life as the February quilt..went into the "too hard"basket and my Cat-tonic came to life instead as a bit of idiot relief.

Returning to the proposed "Blue-green algal blooms" this is the result which still needs binding,etc.

I'm not happy with the "heaviness" of the top..........meant to represent the river bank,so it's back to the drawing board and see if "mark2" is any better!