Bears and some Farm Play

I had an uninterrupted sewing day yesterday and pieced together some more bear faces...these are the same (Show and Tell) pattern as the baby quilt (top) I put together last week — 

And some legs as well —

I'll put these aside until I make the small quilts these cuties hold.

Sneak peak of my progress —

Other sewing recently included making a simple purse. Cat-mad Lily happened to see a small square of cat fabric in The Palace last time they visited, and requested a purse with a zip.

I used a tutorial I had come across touted as the most simple purse pattern ever - just 6 seams and it's done!

Yes, nice and simple (and quick) but I don't like the way the zip is at the side seams so I don't think I'll be using this method again. (Sorry I didn't save the link to the tutorial so I can't share it.) I'll go back to a method with a neater finish.

But a 7 year old was happy with it so that is good - she loves anything with a cat on it!

(Warning, it gets a little photo heavy from here on in!)

School has started up again for most of the kids but Lily and George haven't yet gone back so they came to ours on Wednesday while their parents worked. Having them for a whole day at this time of the year is fun as we can get out onto the farm to play and explore.

They have a list of things they like to do —

Swing and eat fruit. Sadly this year's plum crop was a complete flop but fortunately the grapes are just starting —

Forage. The Totara trees are fruiting right now. Tiny little berries that only feed a bird, but fun to find all the same —

Go to the top of the big hill, roll down it and run back up again —

Go to the river (just a quick look this time) —

Go to the stream for a picnic and an explore —

{{As an aside; at first glance the stream doesn't look very inviting with that brown colour - but that's just because of its geological make-up. This photo shows how clear it really is — 

The stream starts as a spring in the hills somewhere above us and runs down through the bush, feeding into the afore mentioned river. It's filtered all the way down by all those stones, and supplies the farm (and our houses) with lovely water. We do UV filter it at the houses and shed but it is such a great asset.}}

Next on their list of things to do was to get the bubble machine going —

and do some sewing —

Mum (ED) came about 4 o'clock and Ganma collapsed into a heap. Haha it wasn't too exhausting but it was a pretty full on day!

'til next time,

happy stitches, 

Raewyn

End of January catch up.

I've been able to indulge myself in The Palace (aka the sewing room) this month. There has been the much needed tidy-up which led to lots of opening of and peeking into project boxes, and then rearranging them within the room. 

The biggest change has been installing another cube bookcase under my cutting bench. (Six cubes, on its side.)

I put one in for project boxes sometime last year and it has worked rather well, and after getting fed up with folders and papers everywhere - and all over the cutting bench - I decided to get another identical one for the other side of the bench to tidy up that area of my life.

Sideways bookcase #1 for project boxes—

The Palace also doubles as a Farm Office; the main hub for the farm accounts, animal and farm records, not to mention an ever increasing amount of Fonterra compliance paperwork (even online systems need supporting paperwork!). These all incessantly jostle for space with my sewing and quilting folders and paper stuff.

Of course I didn't measure beforehand and the big ring binders don't fit the cubes....(sigh). Thank goodness I hadn't found a new home for the large cube I'd been using and after a bit more rearranging, a new solution was found!

Sideways bookcase #2—

The start of the year always sees me doing some secret sewing for the shop, as we work towards our 'New Year's Launch' later on in February. 

However, while waiting for some fabric to arrive, I did have a chance for a little more personal sewing, making this quilt top for a soon-to-be-new-baby.

I started with a block from the new pattern by Elizabeth Hartman, Show and Tell.

And grew it a bit, adding to her suggested instructions for a baby sized quilt.

Here are two kiddos showing it off at the shop —

Hehe —

I then discovered the perfect fabric for the final border, and soon it was ready to be presented as a top. My attempts at outdoor photos (in the natural light) did not go well —

So indoors it came!

(Hint there may be more of this pattern sewn for the shop's New Year's Launch).

Apart from the extra fabric for the border, all the rest of the above baby quilt were scraps and bits and pieces - using those always gives me so much pleasure!!

And I've had lots more pleasure sewing more Leader-Ender blocks while tackling my other projects.

Back in October, I shared that I had joined in with Bonnie Hunter's Leader-Ender challenge. This year's block (July-July) is Four-patch fun.

I'm using any shade of red and have amassed 51 blocks to date—

I made a couple of blocks in the same fabric at the start but am now only using each fabric once. 

144 blocks will give me a 72" square quilt, and that is my goal at this stage. 

(I used 80 different reds for Mum's birthday quilt back *here* so let's see how I do this time!)

And yesterday a Squirrel sent me down a Rabbit hole. I have so much on my plate that I was not looking for another project, but I always relish the chance to pull out and play with some scraps (can you see where this is heading?!).

I saw Janice's finished Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilt on her blog the other day, and commented that the block she had used was one I'd always admired (or something like that). Of course that little seed planted itself in my brain and sprouted into a baby squirrel!

Hence —

I was quite pleased with myself because I finally mastered the web piecing technique for making this block. I was shown it a few years ago but had not seriously tried it until now. It meant that once I had all my squares laid out the block went together very quickly (and efficiently).

Blue was January's colour for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge - I'll probably follow Angela's colour prompts, and make one a month.

I know this is getting photo heavy but I just want to show you my new chickens. I like to get a few every year to keep the supply of eggs going (their laying slows down as they age).

I saw some advertised reasonably local and couldn't resist grabbing them. On my way home I picked up Odie to help me unload them and he was as entranced as I was with them......

They bob their heads around so much that decent photos are hard to get, hence I caught this one for a selfie—

(Yes, I should have waited until he'd finished his snack!)

We call them Dr Suess Chickens but their official breed is Legbar. Apparently sometimes you have to trim the feathers around their eyes so they can see. 

They MAY lay green/blue eggs but we have to wait patiently for a couple of months to find out.

Cute, huh?!

And on that happy note, I will leave you.

'till next time,

happy stitches,

Raewyn

Some Christmas sewing

In November, I shared a snap pouch which I said was a prototype for more.

It all began with a wee challenge with the Thursday sewers at the shop; we were given a wee stitchery pattern and two bullets of fabric (5"x 20") and a date to make something with them by.

The day rolled around and here is our Show and Tell.

Lots of beautiful creativity.

Here are the two snap top pouches that I made — 

You can maybe see that I was heading down a rabbit hole here; deciding to make pouches for the grandies for Christmas —

I completed six in time for Christmas - I had hopes to make another one at least but that didn't happen.

I stuffed them all with undies, chocolates and wee toys - they made a cute little additional gift.

(I think the stitcheries came from a panel for the A letter to my daughter quilt.)

Back in August we adopted McGeorgeous, a stray kitten my nieces had taken in. Getting into the Christmas spirit, I thought it would be nice for McGeorgeous to send a wee gift to Doug and Lizzy, his ex-room mates. Inspired by some scraps of Soft and Stable, and our rather worn cat-bowl mats, I whipped up a Christmas cat bowl mat for them.

I layered a FQ with the Soft and Stable and a random piece of (not very stretchy) t-shirt knit, cross hatched it all, shaped the corners and then sewed on the (bias) binding.

Coupled with a couple of cat bowls, it made a fun little gift. 

Doug was quick to lie on it, apparently, as soon as it was opened!

(One day I'll make one for our cats and see how well it washes and wears.)

You may remember in my last post, I shared a photo of a dress I'd just finished making, and said that a friend was making one using the same pattern at the same time.

We were both wearing them at a workday at the shop over the weekend so we had to take a photo. Suzanne was very creative in the making of her dress, using pieces of linen and a linen blouse for hers - check out the striped part of the skirt. You can see the neckline is the same but two totally different dresses!

Thank you for reading along!

'til next time,

Happy stitches,

Raewyn