Sewing away....

It looks like I've had my pedal to the metal when I go through these photos but I haven't really. Most of these projects are ones I have been working on for a while that are slowly coming together.
After our frosty week last week, the temperatures warmed up a lot but that was because we were having massive amounts of rain instead. A lot of the country suffered some pretty bad flooding - we had much more rain than we needed but didn't suffer the flooding that we thought we might.
 So why am I mentioning the weather yet again? Well it was the perfect excuse to spend some time sewing this weekend. I thought I was going to be partying up large with Chooky in her Chookshed Birthday Party but by the time I got my machine threaded, her party was nearly over. Nice that we had a long weekend (NZ 'celebrated' the Queen's Birthday on Monday) so I could carry on with my own little sewing party then :-)
I had a little handwork to do and finished the sheep block of the Barnyard quilt I've been making for The Country Yard this year —

And inserted it in the gap I had in the quilt top. It's got a nice mix of fiddly and simple blocks and has been a fun make.
The weather's too dodgy to get a decent photo - the colours are a little washed out/off in this but you get the general idea of it.

I also finished the last couple of EPP stars I needed to make for border 5 of Evandale.

It feels like I've been working on this one forever but once I settle and focus on it, it sews up relatively quickly.

There's one more border to do...it's a real scrap buster; it's the same as border two with the small EPP diamonds.

After getting these two tops under my belt, I switched to my latest baby quilt.
When my back was turned, Timmie managed to totally upset my tidy and carefully counted pile of cutting —

But I did manage to salvage the pieces and got a little sewing done on the next blocks.
When Piglet gets a mouth, I'll show the top properly :-)

In April I worked on my Omigosh! quilt as part of a 'List of 12' UFO-busting some friends and I are doing. The number drawn out in May saw me working on my Life is Beautiful project. Hardly UFO busting, but I managed two more blocks this month —

(Again please excuse the washed out photos).

There are 32 stitcheries altogether, I've done 19 so far.

Whew, like I say, it seems like a lot, but I have been working on all of these for a while!
It's cooling off so I'm away to fill up the wheelbarrow with some more firewood.

Happy stitches,

 

The weekend already!

With a busy week last week, the weekend came around very quickly, but not so fast that I didn't forget Friday Night Sew In, kindly hosted by Wendy of Sugarlane Designs.
I settled down in the evening for some hand stitching and appliqued another of my EPP stars onto background fabric... a little more progress on Evandale.

The next step for this block is to decide what fabric to use for the pentagons which frame the star. This project keeps getting put down as often as it's picked up but I am moving forwards on it, be it ever so slowly :-)

I put that aside and finished the evening with a bit of crochet..it was close by and I was tired and thinking wasn't necessary! When the ball of wool ran out it was bed time!

I joined in with other FNSI-ers in different time zones on Saturday morning. I decided this was the weekend for getting closer to a finish on two quilts...so bindings have been decided on and made —

I basted the baby quilt. You can see I've used the board basting method... I've done this a few times and find it quite a handy technique to use.  My boards are a little long - I wanted them long enough to cope with a large quilt but they are a bit awkward to manouvre without hitting the wall or ceiling! They're also a bit long to fit under the spare bed when not in use. I see a date with the saw in their future.

Here's a tutorial on this method...I've also seen this done with pool noodles instead of boards.

This morning I've started the quliting on this quilt - the baby it's for is now a week old so I need to keep focussed here! Just SID (stitching in the ditch) at this stage, then it will be decision time later for the next step.

Our daughter visited for tea last night and brought these beanies to show me. She's recently taken up crochet and is getting the hang of it quite nicely I think :-)

That quilting is calling and the washing machine is beeping....

Happy stitches,

A finish and FNwF

With a few completed stitchery blocks under my belt lately, I decided it was time to give some attention to my Evandale quilt, which has seen little progress lately. Last time I blogged about it, I was making the stars for the main border blocks.

When I pulled out my Evendale box, I discovered several star blocks in different stages. I'd made a whole lot of the inner stars and had spent some time working out which fabrics to use where, to complete the blocks. Which made it an easy ufo to get back into - all I had to do was pick it up and sew, rather than try to remember where I was at and make decisions.

My latest-nearly finished - star block

Friday Night with Friends saw me (nearly) completing the second block this week. And then it will be some more rummaging to complete the last few star blocks. Progress feels great!!!

This week's work.

Pop over to Cheryll's blog to see what out creativeness other crafters got up to on Friday night. Thank you for hosting us Cheryll :-)

I had a finish in February which I haven't yet shared. For the last 'little while' I've had this wavy crochet afghan on the go (I've just looked up my Ravelry page and see I started it on June 8th 2015). It started as a road trip project and as a way to use up ends of balls of wool. I had a vision of a scrappy colourful blanket. One that grandkids will remember for years to come. My dreams of using up all my scraps of wool did not come true as I'm sure I've still got enough leftover to make another one! (Just like my fabric scraps that multiply behind my back).
My photo shoot got off to a slow start —

Animals started appearing.....a chicken, the sheep and the pig....

How appropriate - wooly sheep with a wooly blanket....

..then I tried to get them to pose properly by feeding them grapevine leaves
but they didn't do what I wanted them to do!
(Don't they say, never work with animals...?!)

I moved around the corner, leaving the pets to munch on the leaves

It was breezy around this side of the house so I still couldn't
get a 'proper' shot.
Ended up with this 'interesting' shot :-)

We had a fun little birthday dinner for the MOML last night. Always great to have an excuse to get the family together. As well as both our daughters and their hubbies, we had their furbabies attend. So that's 3 extra puppies (3 months to 6 months old) running around having a grand old time with our 2 resident dogs. Not all are allowed inside, but whether they were in or out, they entertained themselves and us hugely. Our wee chap spent some time growling at the youngest pup - not letting him come up the stairs to see his mum and dad.

This was the sight that greeted me this morning when I first got up! Believe me, I had vacuumed before they came!

YD is well known in our family for her fun and creative birthday cakes. Here's what she whipped up yesterday - isn't it cool?

Funny how people were asking for a bit of rump steak or some oxtail when I was serving it up!

We went out to the back of the farm for some stock work this morning but I'm looking forward to this afternoon here in my Palace...maybe a bit of tidying, maybe a bit of quilting - who knows what I will find to work on?!!

Happy stitches,

FNSI for June

On Friday night I continued on with some knitting I had started earlier in the week. With the All Blacks vs Samoa on the telly and fellow FNSI friends from around the globe, it was a very enjoyable evening. 

Last weekend the MOML (hubby) and I spent a few days away (as our son put it; the MOML's annual weekend away because the cows are dry!). I had hoped that we were going to do enough driving that I could start and finish this wee vest in the same trip.

First time I've done knitting in the round with these cable needles.
Because the cable was too long I had fun and games... I changed to
a shorter one the other night and it was a lot easier!

Typically for me I got sidetracked and spent one leg (or maybe two) of the trip crocheting before I even started the knitting.

Fancy little cable - first time I've done this for a while!

However, I think one more session and it will be done. It's a Milo vest which I am making for the Little Sprouts group here in NZ. I'm officiallly making the 3 month size but as I haven't done any tension/gauge testing, it may be a surprise size!

This is a cute little stitch/row marker my lovely friend Joanne made me.
Much nicer to use than the plastic ones!

Thank you everyone for your company and to Wendy for hosting us :-)

The crochet that sidetracked me - progress on the assymetrical shawl.

I'm still making my way through my latest Evandale blocks, basting another one the other night as well. Getting there with this border :-)

Outer shapes basted on and waiting for hand stitching on - maybe tonight :-)

I mentioned a (long) weekend away that the MOML and I had; we spent time with family and visited a few friends.
I barely took any photos while we were away but here are a couple to share —
It was nice to see Mum's cross stitch on our bedroom wall. These have been framed since we last visited. She bought these when we visited my son when he lived in Rockhampton a few years ago.

Lorikeets.
'scuse the reflections in the glass!

Very Australian looking!

A gentle frost one morning made a lovely scene.

It's the end of the weekend already, this one has flown by really quickly. I managed a little sewing this afternoon but nothing much to share just now. I'm looking forward to a peaceful week with not too many things on which means I may fit in some quilting time :-)

'til next time,

happy stitches,

Chooky's Party

Chooky threw her annual Chookshed party this weekend and invited us all along; naturally I accepted the invite...but, to be honest, I didn't quite make it :-(
I was the one who had the flat tyre, or who couldn't decide what to wear...while I squeezed the odd bit of sewing in, you couldn't really say I was there with bells on...maybe next time!
But I've got a few photos to share, things I've been working on lately.
I've joined up with the Holly Cottage Christmas SAL this year..it officially started this month...this cute wee bird is appliqued to a cute wee stocking.

And I'm making good progress on these Evandale blocks. (I last shared a progress photo of this quilt *here*)

I'm getting a good little pile of English Paper Pieced stars.

And also getting some block assembly done!

We spent a day out as a family over the weekend. Sitting-in-the-car time meant a good chance to pick up my latest crochet project.

I started this on my trip over to Australia to visit my son.

The night before I flew out I had to get the wool into a useable state!

The stitch is easy but it took me a bit to understand it :-)
It's like a herringbone pattern.

After the car time on Sunday.

I'm making a Main Street Shawl by ktandthesquid. This is an asymmetrical pattern - you start off with just a few stitches and increase regularly on one edge until it's either grown big enough or you run out of yarn. (Each row gets a little longer). Once you master the pattern it is pretty mindless and a perfect travel project. I like No Thinking Required!
We don't need too many winter woolies here in Northland but there are times when they are hugely appreciated!

This weekend I also had to decide what to use as my project for One Monthly Goal. A mystery quilt I did last year was this one, Friday's Garden (more about it *here*). I started the quilting last year but life got in the way and I never got back to it. I am hoping that this month I can complete the quilt!
Pop on over to Patty's Elm St Quilts if you would like to join in with this motivating link up. I'm very pleased as last month I won a Fat Quarter Shop voucher for taking part - I was happy to meet my goal so this was the icing on the cake!

Friday's Garden needs finishing!

I'm also linking up to Linda and Julie for their regular Sew-Stitch-Snap and Share feature. A nice way to see what others are up to - click on the logo to get to their blogs and the link up.

Something else that kept me occupied over the weekend —

Some new little chickens, they are too cute really.
My kids say I am in danger of becoming the Mad Chicken Lady.
Or perhaps the Mad Quilting Chicken Lady?

Thanks Chooky, for inviting us all along to share in the fun at your party! Sorry I didn't really turn up, but, as you can see, I was nearly there:-)

Happy stitches!