Christmas WIPs

Now that things are easing on the farm (for me at least; the MOML is still as busy as ever) I've miraculously found more sewing time!

Back when there were still 100 days left until the end of the year, I came across a WIPS-B-GONE (2021) challenge being run by Leanne, the Devoted Quilter.

In the last year or so I've been very good at signing up for things and not following through😟 
I thought that maybe this challenge would give me an extra push to complete a few projects and therefore redeem myself. With that in mind, I remembered that a few posts ago, I had sort of challenged myself to finish three Christmas quilts by the end of the year.

So that part was easy - identifying which 'Works In Progress' to work on!

Progress has been slow but I have tried to keep these three projects at front of mind.
I've made another reindeer for Juliet's Sleigh Ride Sewalong —

I'm a bit late for the sewalong but that's how it goes. You can see below how it's starting to take shape. I have two more to make, which won't take too long once I put my mind to it.

My evening sewing has picked up a bit. For a while there I was too tired to think about much after dinner, but lately I've been continuing on with The Santa, The Tree, The Turkey and Me. 

When I'd left off, it was at this stage —

But I spent an afternoon prepping some more for the evenings —

I've since stitched these areas; the reindeer now have their harnesses and Santa just needs his beard and some trims on his suit. Then I'll be ready for the stitchery elements of the block.

Most exciting of all is that I am back to my Scrappy Christmas Ornaments!!!

The lack of a decent sized design wall means that this project was laid out on the spare bed in the guest room. I'd had it on a sheet which I quickly rolled up (way back whenever) when some extended family needed a safe place to live for a month, then Mum stayed for a bit, and then, not long after, our bathroom remodel started. The contents of the 'old' bathroom were upended into the guest room (just across the hallway) for safekeeping and sorting. Whew.

One completed bathroom later I can now access the bed so have unrolled the sheet and started working on joining the blocks into rows.

It's always been my vision to have the ornaments 'randomly spaced' around the quilt, so while I'm joining them into rows, I'm offsetting them so they all hang at different heights. 
I soon realised the small blocks need a bit more background around them so they don't look lost. That has grown the potential size of the quilt by a few inches but that's not an issue.

Here's the mess on the bed, I've joined nearly three rows and am nearly half way there.

The WIPs be Done challenge is mostly being run on Instagram. I thought it would be a good way for me to get back onto that again so maybe I'll have a look at that when I finish writing this (unless I get the urge to sew instead....!)

I mentioned that my calf duties are slowing down. We finished calving about two weeks ago (just under 3 months from start to finish). And some are weaned.

I put the youngest ones out into the paddock last week and spent an enjoyable time watching them run, which they always do with great gusto when first put out —

And another time I caught these handsome fellows being curious —

I took this one gorgeous morning —

And here is the herd another, very foggy, day —

OK, must be off, 

'til next time,

happy stitches,