August ends....

It's time to report on the churn dashes I'm making for the Churn dash SAL.

The quilt I'm making has several different sized blocks and my personal goal was to get all the 6" blocks made by the end of August. These are the last of them, made over the past week —

The yellow isn't as insipid as it looks in the above photo —

I took a family photo —

And a fancy photo —

And then did a proper count up - I realised I was one short!!!
So one last, lonely 6" churn dash was made!

(39 x 6" blocks.)

Next I'll start on the 12" blocks - 11 are needed. I have made one already so hopefully they'll all be done by the end of the month. Chooky has a list (with links) on her side bar of those of us who are taking part, so take a look *here* if you want some churn dash inspiration ♥

I finished the stitchery I'd started in my last post. I'm happy with how it turned out but still haven't decided how I will use it. One thought is maybe a gardening journal cover, as a gift....?

And speaking of gardens, the daffodils at the cowshed have started flowering...they're very pretty. Most of our daffodils have finished flowering (we seem to have had 'spring bulbs' since May!) but these ones were only planted in May so are a bit later.

And I spoke previously about my concern that the Magnolia tree would lose its flowers in the nasty weather we were forecast 10 days or so ago. 

It was pretty windy but the blooms held on and we have had a wonderful show.

Not to mention a gorgeous fragrance which wafts around and catches you unawares as you're walking by!

The bees have been busy. Check out the pollen laden legs —

The leaves are growing now, a delightful splash of lime green.

I'm sure the calves are enjoying the Magnolia too - you can just see it here in the background while they are feeding!

Must away,

'til next time,

happy stitches,

Friday Night

I haven't been able to join in with Friday sewing events for a while so I was pleased when the stars lined up last night, and I could take part in Wendy's Friday Night Sew In this month.

Friday's a busy day for me, it's the day I work at the quiltshop then I race home for farm chores - at the moment there are lots of hungry calves needing feeding. But I was relatively organised with dinner and by the time it was dark, I was happily ensconced in my stitching chair ♥

First of all, I finished sewing the last of my hexie-flowers onto background fabric —

Here is the little team of hexies I have made for my 2022 quilt —

Next I started a stitchery I have had my eye on for the last few weeks but hadn't got to.

It's a sweet stitchery gifted in the Tilda Lovers Group (FB). I have a rough idea what I would like to do with it, but I am hoping that a firmer plan will form as I stitch! As you can see, I didn't get very far but I'm pleased I made a start.

(To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow. Such a sweet sentiment.)

On Saturday morning I was able to sew a few last seams on my latest churndashes. August has been a slow month in the land of Chrundashes but I'm hoping to dedicate a bit of time to them in the coming week to get my tally up. I need 39 of this size (6") for the quilt I am doing and I am up to 31 so that's not bad!

Thank you very much Wendy, for hosting Friday Night Sew In. To see who else took part, you can visit her Sugarlane Designs blog *here*.

'til next time,

happy stitches,

One side border!

After a relentless few days on the farm, I was glad of the chance to shut myself in The Palace yesterday. I got two hours of uninterrupted sewing time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My focus was to get a side border for Memory Lane done. You may remember, in my last post, that I have done both top and bottom borders and I still needed to plan how to do the sides.

The top and bottom are based on 2" (finished size) squares. That was what I was wanting to do for the sides too, but my stitcheries were going to be too small. That is because I've gone rogue - the original quilt has them trimmed to 3½" (I think) whereas mine needed to be 4½".

I had came up with an idea that I thought might work and had done my cutting.

Yesterday's sewing —

Planning on the Design Floor —

Here is the side border completed —

A bit of a closeup —

I'm loving how it's coming together and will be excited to sew the last border and get it all joined up!

We have some wet and wild weather forecast for the next few days (much of the country does) so I took some quick photos of our Magnolia tree in case it loses all its blooms. The blossoms are not quite open yet but you can see they are a lovely colour when they are.

And another 20 calves have ventured out of the calf shed to new premises. These ones are in a shed which I have to access via the road. Not quite as convenient but it is cosy and they do have a nice view looking out towards our daughter-in-law's photography studio. The kids can also easily visit them on their way to and from school.

'til next time,

happy stitches,

Time for a catch up!

After my spectacular blogpost a day (nearly) in July, I realise it's now ten thirteen fourteen days with no post!

Generally, the farm has been keeping us all busy, but I have made progress on several things.

I've added just 4 more churn dashes to my collection (these are 6" blocks) —

I took apart my disastrous 'stitched by candlelight' hexie rosette and remodelled it, forming two more. Out with the old —

In with the new —

(Different lighting, but that 'red' is the same fabric!)

Six is enough for what I want to do; they'll be appliqued onto larger squares for my 2022 quilt.

I had needed a little more fabric to complete my Raining Cats and Dogs block/row...so here it is in all its glory!

This is actually 12" x 60 so is a decent size (!). It will also be part of my 2022 quilt. Its width will dictate the size of that quilt.

And Memory Lane has seen some progress too. I made 5 more blocks, joined them together and sewed them on as the bottom border of this quilt. 

(Yes, if you notice it, I did change the order of the above blocks...I had muddled them when joining.)

And I've attached the top border too - here is how that is looking now.

I have a bit of thinking to get the two side borders done. They will look similar to these, but with different sized and shaped stitchery blocks to work with.

On the home front —

Miss Lily (and family) had a brief visit one day. She insisted 'we' do some more sewing while here. She wanted another dolls' quilt.

Her attention span was long enough to quickly sandwich two squares of fabric with an offcut of batting, two diagonal lines as quilting and a zigzag around the outside. I wasn't even allowed to trim it to tidy the rough edges! Here it is in her (birthday) dolls' house —

Just perfect I'd say!

Last weekend one of the local gardens opened their gates as a fundraiser, while their beautiful magnolias were in flower. ED, YD and I (and a couple of children) went along.

We were amazed at the size of the blooms on this tree!

The same weekend, the older twins had their first ever 'dance recital'. This was quite well done, and each little group spent only 5-10 minutes on stage - with one or two routines. Our two loved it. (They do mini-acro; a bit of gymnastics/acrobatics in it which seems quite fun!)

The other day when YD and Odie were out, we went out the back. He remembered exploring from another time and took us off for a bit of a bush walk. 

These three were entertained, watching Gandad in the paddock with the cows another day —

I am bursting at the seams with calves. I have approx 60 that I'm rearing right now. And we've sold a couple of dozen which I reared through to about a week old. 

They're starting to fill up the sheds 

Three mobs (of ten) in this shed now. The older ones now have access to the outdoors so they can start to learn how to eat grass.

It's always a good workout, carrying buckets of milk to the calves! 

We're still having to help the first-timers calve, as the bull we were sold is throwing big calves. They're all doing well. It is always amazing to see how resilient calves are. This guy was rejected by his mum, unlicked even. We got him to the shed, I managed to make him stand and got his first feed of colostrum into him. I left him for the night with an old horse-neck cover draped over him —

Next morning (10 hours later) he was unrecognisable from the other calves —

A nice scene one morning this week —

OK, must away, and (finally) get this posted!

'til next time,

happy stitches,