Quilt Show, blocks and rain

I wonder how many other people took advantage of the free 'Quilt Show' episodes this weekend?  I used up our month's internet allocation but had a lovely weekend pottering in my cave; headphones on, iron going, machine going, listening to and watching wise and entertaining quilters share their quilts and techniques.  Pure Indulgence! (Lucky for me a new month's internet bytes starts on the 20th so I won't have to go without at all).

I have managed to get this round of my Stay At Home Round-Robin quilt done. (This is being hosted by the lovely Sunny over at Quilting Dreams). This round was to be pinwheels or hour glass blocks. I decided the movement of the pinwheels would suit the butterflies. Next round is to be applique which will be a calm round after the previous busyness.

This is the first time I have done this little bit of seam unpicking to make the centre of the pinwheels sit nice and flat. I was a bit unsure about doing it as it seems strange to unpick part of that quarter-inch seam. (And as you can see, I was a bit afraid to go ALL the way).

ONE of the quilt shows I watched in the weekend talked about clipping the seams so that the part that needs to lay one way can do that, and the other the opposite, but it still is cutting into that seam.... the jury is out - any hints or thoughts??

I've also completed my 6th Hop To It block (from the book by Edyta Sitar). Yaay - half way there!!

And now that I have 6 completed I can lay them out for a photo shoot, like Joanne and Wendy have done recently.

I'm loving them!!!

I've also been having a bit of a play with invisible machine sewn needleturn. I do love my hand needleturn but I am always wanting to try new ideas and have an excuse to start more projects!

I found it time consuming to prepare the templates using freezer paper (particularly as my hand applique is done the back basting method which involves no templates) but then found it VERY quick to sew!!

I used a Superior Threads monofilament on top, Bobbinfil on the bottom, a fine needle and a narrow zigzag. Seems to work (the polyester coped with ironing which was another query I had) so think I'll be having a bit more of a play with this.

One reason I was able to hibernate was the rain bucketing down outside... we've just had 2 months' worth of rain in a day. Once we'd made sure the animals were all on high ground, fed and warm, there wasn't much to do but stay inside.

This was the farm yesterday -

-here is it this morning -

 We are lucky that we drain fairly quickly but it will still be a few days before we will be able to get over the bridge to the rest of the farm. As you can tell, our house and main buildings are all up at a higher level than the flood plain. 

Other parts of Northland faired a lot worse than us, and I understand the rough weather is now moving down the country. I'm hoping that anyone else suffering from weather adversaties gets through it safely and drama-free.

On another note, Anne from Rotorua, who emailed me recently about the Hop To It blocks, please can you email me again. My main computer has crashed and I have lost your email so cannot reply to you.

Thank goodness I had done a recent back-up but I do know there are things that I will never see again!

Have a good week everyone,

Thanks for visiting,