Now what?

In spite of my flurry of my first (little) 2024 finish, I've still taken me a while to get myself sorted in The Palace. I've done some tidying, some sorting and some thinking.

How to decide where, what, how to start?!

I've decided to start with the decisions I have made already, and hopefully anything else will fall into place as time goes by ~

Firstly, my Chookshed Chatterers 2024 Challenge. Item #6 for this month.  Done and Dusted :-) (Featured in  *this post*.)

Deana has put a linky page up for a mid-month check in. Many of us were working on our Scrub Stitching Retreat bag but not everyone, so click *here* to have a peek at what everyone is doing.

However, I do have a couple of other Scrub Stitching projects that I'd like to do. So in the evenings I have been stitching this —

It is an older pattern but one I acquired last year when I was there. Pretty cute.

So that's one thing. The next thing is a young child's quilt I am making for the shop. I've made a bit of a start this week.

Although I may swap the colours so that one has a blue centre and the other has the yellow centre?

And I've decided on my (two) Leader-Ender projects for however long I need them.

First is the Churndash (or is it Churn dash?) quilt I started in 2022.

I think most of the group who started a Churndash quilt at the same time have finished theirs. Quilted and Bound. But of course I chose a slightly more detailed design (Barn Dance by Denise Russek) which has been abandoned for a while.

I need to lay it all out on the spare bed and see where I'm at. I also have scraps from my 2023 projects which I'm happy to put into this quilt so that will be a win-win situation.

My second Leader-Ender project will be making the blocks for the QAL I sort of started last year through On Williams Street. Each month we were to make an identical block, then a FMQ design was offered for it. By the end of the year there would be 12 uniquely quilted blocks which could be joined to make a quilt.

I got this far — 

(Not even quilted!)

I'm slowly working away at updating my blog. I've changed my profile picture, swapping a February 2013 photo for a July 2023 one - keeping it real! And I've added another challenge to my sidebar.

I think I've said recently that I have started my hill climbs on the farm again. It is a great way to get fit. Anyway, I've decided to see if I can walk 732kms this year. That only averages out at 2kms a day, but I know I won't walk every day this year. It will be interesting to see if I can reach that goal!

At the moment I can't get the image where I want it; blogger won't let me put it further down on the sidebar. Maybe I'll wake up tomorrow morning and it will be where I want it!!

And one more thing before I sign off. I've started doing my photo-a-day blog again. *Here* is the link if you are interesting in having a look.

Ok, that will do,

'til next time,

happy stitches,

Raewyn

November round-up

Cushions get a hard time around here. They are a constant prop for all the kids' play. Always used differently and creatively, depending on the child and the day.

(Actually the adults use them a lot, too, but in different ways!)

It makes my heart sing to see them being used so much. But of course, all that play means they get worn, and faded and stained. None of them are ready to replace yet, but it does mean I have a good reason for keeping on making them!

So I'm very pleased to have (finally) finished my big Boxer floor cushion. 

In my last post, I was partway through the quilting —

I used the Hourglass blocks as a basis for the background quilting. I did consider continuing on with the narrow line fill in the triangles of the background but decided I didn't really need all that extra work! —

You can see (above) that I just did a few straight lines around the outer border. (I used quilters muslin for the backing so the quilting shows up well!)

Being a cushion, it then needed another back.....so far I had used only leftovers and stash, so I rummaged through my non-quilting cupboard and found some pieces suitable to use —

The grey is a reasonable sized remnant from making shorts for my son YEARS ago ( I loved those shorts, that fabric wore sooo well!), the blue is cut off from curtains which I doubled for extra weight. The red is leftovers from making absolutely heaps of boy scout scarves for a jamboree many moons ago.
And the zip, I think, is one Mum unpicked from a pair of Dad's farm overalls. It's been waiting a while for its chance to shine again!

Tada, one finished cushion (cover)! 

More details of the cushion make are *here* but it did start life as a fun and fabulous test block for Juliet of Tartankiwi and was added onto during the Time In A Bottle bloghop run by Carol of Just Let Me Quilt.

Because of its size (32" square) it's waiting for its inner - I have that under control; I took advantage of a Black Friday sale and just need to collect it.

I'm linking up to Andree's Free Motion Mavericks - visit *here*.

My block count for November was fairly abysmal; I made a total of 12 blocks - two of them were stitchery blocks, five more hourglass blocks for my Smidgeon project. And five more Churn dash blocks.

The idea was that our Churn dash quilts/projects would be completed by the end of October. Hmm - a bit of a miss there for me, but I keep chipping away. Of course it doesn't help that I chose a pattern that creates a HUGE quilt!

The block below measures 24"!

I had to do a bit of 'making-do' to make my scraps work. I think in the long run it will be barely noticeable —

I have assembled one corner of it —

It's a fun quilt to make, keeping me on my toes. I'm trying to not repeat fabrics but have the odd double-up. The pattern is Barn Dance by Denise Russart.

In other news, I have got some new babies to look after —

14 of them! I haven't had any new ones to raise for a long time as the pet shop had trouble getting them in. The last babies I raised are in their second year of laying now. Four of these ones will go to my daughter-in-law's. 

These photos were taken when they were about 3 days old - they've now outgrown the cat cage and are in a box.

One last photo. The Tui have been singing away lately and I managed to get a photo of one that wasn't nestled amongst the branches. Not the best photo light-wise but it shows the tufts at the neck really well.

Ok time to be off, 

'til next time,

happy stitches,

September Stocktake

Well, well well, September is done and dusted already!

In an attempt to appear slightly organised I thought I would do a bit of a tally-up to see what I was actually up to during September.

First of all, the blocks.

One more Wings and Pretty Things block. I've been wanting to get back to this project for a while but my evening hand stitching time has been taken up by other things deemed more urgent —

I've now done seven of the 12 needed to surround the centre block —

Lin, who is also making this quilt, tells me I need to start on the elongated hexie borders so they don't become too much of a bear at the end (!). I really like how Lin has hers sewn onto a different coloured fabric (see *here*) so I will have to get my thinking cap on and make some decisions. (I was just going to use cream but have gone off that idea!)

Other evening stitching blocks, previously talked about *here*....these Foxley Village blocks —

And this wee stitchery - destination unknown!

I had a goal to complete the 12" blocks needed for my churn dash quilt - and in spite of other churn dash distractions, here they are —

A couple of 8" blocks thrown in for good measure —

Here are the different sized blocks I've been making, 6", 8", 12" and 18" —

(Barn Dance by Denise Russart.)

The pile of hourglass blocks I talked about in my last post is steadily growing too. 

I now have 30 of them. I have enlarged the pattern so need more than the 96 stated. Better keep sewing!

I made a total of 48 blocks in September. The number surprised me as I hadn't felt particularly productive. I've been keeping track of my block making for the 350 block project ...when you have little to show in the way of finishes, having a decent pile of blocks instead makes one feel a little better!!!

This gives me 326 blocks made so far this year!!

Yep, finishes for OPAM this month, Zilch. Not even a 5 minute Barbie quilt!!

We've now been calving for 2½ months and are just waiting for the last few (5) cows to calve. Generally, the first four weeks of calving are really hectic as about 70-80% of the cows calve then, and the rest of the cows just slowly do their thing when they're ready!

I have 117 calves that I'm rearing so the workload is still reasonably high. I'm hopeful of getting to 120 calves as that sounds pretty respectable. It all depends on what's born...all the beef heifer calves are sold and we raise the beef bull calves.

Most of the calves are now out on the farm learning how to eat grass as well as getting their daily milk feed.

Our son-in-law is still working on the farm which has decreased my workload. Sometimes YD and Odie come and 'help' too —

"A Family Affair" - a great thing about farming ♥

I'm looking forward to a quiet rest of my day today so hope to get some quilting done - it's a quilt I ideally wanted finished several months ago but more brain power than what I had was needed!

'til next time,

happy stitches,

Design Wall Saturday

A quick glance at my design wall this morning gave me the inspiration for this post.

It's got a few bits and pieces on it —

First and foremost we see the Churn dash blocks.

I said I was going to sew up the 12" sized blocks next and I made a good start, with five of them made.

I got a little restless with those, wanting to see how the whole quilt was panning out (in other words, hoping that I was heading in the right direction!).

So I made one of the 18" blocks which incorporates one of the 6" blocks previously made) —

And then assembled them. This is the top left hand corner of the quilt. 

The photo below sort of shows the layout of the quilt; there are different sized blocks scattered all over the place!

I haven't really got a colour scheme going, just using fabrics as I find them. I'm using cream/yellow toned neutrals as my background fabrics...and as I run out of one, I have a hunt through my stash, or the shop, for another suitable one. Typical Raewyn-style which works for me.

I discovered, once I sewed these blocks together that this design also has some 8" blocks which form part of some huge 24" blocks...they have peculiar cutting sizes (16ths are mentioned) but not too many are needed so I am hoping they aren't too problematic to make (and get the size right) or I will be doing some improvising!!

The pattern I am using is Barn Dance by Denise Russart.

So the churn dashes have sort-of become my main project, rather than my  leader-ender project which is what they started as.

My leader-ender project is now sewing copious amounts of hourglass blocks. These will be used in the setting of the 36-patch blocks I made a couple of months ago when I was having a sort out of my scrap 'bins'.

I had made the 36-patch blocks and hadn't yet decided on which fabric to set them with. Now that the decision has been made, I will chip away at these blocks. They are all the same fabric and all the same block - not my ideal sewing but they go together quite quickly!

The hourglasses are joined, and frame the 36-patch blocks. The cornerstones will be a light coloured square.

I love to nest seams and it annoys me, when putting blocks together, when I cant! 

To explain (if it will make sense) - on the block below I have an 'uppy' seam and a 'downy' seam where the two blocks join at the top of the blue and two 'downies' where the blocks join at the bottom of the blue. Two downies (or uppies) together means the points don't always meet - even with careful pinning!

I've discovered if I make these blocks as pairs, twirling the centre of one, and not the other, that I can nest the seams nicely, and they sit a lot better - and those points match up a lot easier too.

So below I now have an 'uppie' and a 'downie' nesting nicely, both top and bottom of the blue join.

EDIT no, I don't need to clip any seams to achieve this; it's simply a matter of pressing the seam two different ways .... and it happens like magic! I do try to always press to the dark, but you don't have much choice when making the hourglass blocks (the way I make them!)

Which makes for less bulk in the seam and better points!

Sigh - the things that occupy my mind at times!! But they do say it's the little things that make a difference :-)

And this pattern is Smidgeon by Jessica Dayon.

There are two stitcheries up there on my design wall. The bigger one ("To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow") I have shared before but the small one is one I just completed recently. With idle hands one evening, I searched in the drawers next to my night time stitching chair and found it waiting for some attention. I'm not sure where it came from and what my idea with it was, but it's very cute. Being  just 2" x 3" it didn't take too long to stitch.

Well this missive is getting a little long so I will finish it here. My PC is also doing one of its anti-virus scans and everything is a bit slower than usual.

After very little sewing time this week, I hope to get a bit done now!

'til next time,

happy stitches,