Day 29 of Block a Day December

Suddenly I feel like my month is running out!!! 

I have three November Temperature blocks to do, and I really really want to sew a '2020' block for my Lockdown quilt plus the five temperature blocks for December!! Oh golly. Sewing time over the next two days will be minimal as we have visitors coming tonight. Never mind, I'll see what I can do!

We had a nice family day today and then all of a sudden it was evening. Luckily I'd started stitching this basket block last night and it didn't take long to complete —

I did spend far too long today hunting through my scraps finding the perfect fabrics for the above mentioned 2020 block. Oh well.

And I've realised that I haven't showed you something I made as a Christmas gift for a lovely co-worker. It's a wee spool holder, something to tuck into a bag for a bit of handsewing —

She likes Tilda fabrics and the colour purple so I hope I got it right!

The pattern is called  'Ready Threader' by Annie of the flowergarden blog and can be found *here*. I've wanted to make one of these for a while and this seemed the perfect time to make it.

'til next time,

happy stitches,

Day 18 of Block a Day December

Another basket block for my Lockdown quilt —

Fridays are my busiest day, as I have work (I only work off farm one day a week) and then I usually do

a grocery shop, etc, afterwards.

So Fridays are easy block day. I actually prepped this block last night and stitched it tonight after dinner.

But it's done and I continue to meet my challenge!!

'til next time,

happy stitches,

Day 15 of Block a Day December

By the skin of my teeth —

A full day but I squeezed in some stitching tonight.

Another basket for my lockdown quilt.

Short and sweet,

'til next time,

happy stitches,

Day 12 of Block a Day December

There was a lot of excitement at our place today as all three families visited to go Christmas tree hunting. There are a lot of self seeded pines up in the bush and along the edge of the tracks so it's always fun to find the best ones.

I was at work today so missed all the adventures; however there is some photo evidence which I have enjoyed. And I'm looking forward to seeing all the decorated trees!

It was another last minute block for today. The basket block by Michelle Ridgeway Designs —

I made a few earlier on for my Lockdown quilt. This wee design/idea was gifted by Michelle during lockdown. The idea that stitching the basket blocks would prevent us becoming Basket cases during the time! Fun :-) 

These are some that I have done previously —

'til next time,

happy stitches,

Day 9 of Block a Day December

Today I started on the next border of my Lockdown quilt. 

This picture shows my original idea for the layout and I think that it is still what I am going with —

I wanted to do 6" blocks in the next border, after 4" bubbles, so it was a challenge to do the maths to make it work.

Therefore the flying geese have to be 5" x 2" rather than the standard 5 x 2½". So I'm foundation piecing them. 

One block is two of the geese so that means I've tallied up two blocks for today.

I'm not 100% convinced that this will work, as the centre of the quilt is a little small. However I'm not going to overthink this quilt - it's a 'make do' one because of the circumstances of lockdown and I decided at the outset that anything will go - and no bought fabrics either!

Hopefully it will all pan out in the end :-)

Short and sweet tonight,

'til next time,

happy stitches,

Day 3 of Block A Day December

Today's block for my wee challenge is an Apple block. 

Back in May I started a Lockdown quilt, something to commemorate this year. I've done a little on it from time to time and had lots of ideas for it way back then.

As it was autumn during lockdown, it needed an Apple block.  

It all went well this afternoon, until I realised one of the scraps I'd used had a small cut in it!!

This was a foundation pieced block so there was no easy fix. It would have meant no block for the day if I'd had to remake it. 

I considered stitching a wee grub or worm over the cut but didn't trust myself to come up with something that looked halfway like it was supposed to!

Instead, I carefully removed the piece of fabric (haha don't forget foundation piecing is sewn at a short stitch length so this was a mission!) and cut another at a similar shape and size —

I needleturned it into place. The pieces I'd left in were nicely pressed so it wasn't as hard as it sounds —

Added a stem, and I had a finished block!

The pattern I used can be found *here*. I reduced it to a 6" block. Fun and a little different, and another excuse to rummage through my scraps 😀 

'til next time,
happy stitches,

Lockdown quilt and more —

I've made a little progress on my Lockdown quilt recently. You may remember I was starting with a centre block —

This was the centre of a Lockdown pillow offered by Ellie's Quiltplace, who started up a FB group, Lockdown quilters, way back when lockdowns started happening around the world.

This piece actually got thrown in a corner a couple of times. You can see why in the photo below —

On the right of the block, it went really baggy - something to do with a bias stem on bias grain and me not prepping properly.

I kept telling myself I would 'quilt it out' but knew in reality that option was a bit of a cop-out. Finally I unstitched the right hand stem, re-stitched it, and it sits a whole lot better. 

And then I spilt a cup of coffee one evening which splashed all over the place, including the corner of my block. I washed it. And the house fabric ran. Anyway several washing and soakings later, I was good to go!!!

The first border of my quilt has a round of bubbles, to signify the time we spent 'in our own bubbles'. I'd originally thought of doing 49 of them to signify the 49 days we were officially in Level 4 but decided I wanted to change it up a bit.

There is a blank square there which I will fill in with a bit of written info, when I work out what I want to say. And two bubbles in one square signify going into Level Three and being allowed to merge our bubbles slightly.

On Saturday YD and family came out to the farm. I was able to gift baby Odie his latest vest - the same size/style as before, YD wanted one in this yarn as his 'going out' vest.

The next day, he 'went out' and I was dutifully sent ths photo — 

This is a pattern I've made several times before and you can find it on Ravelry *here*.

Later in the day ED and her family came out. George was wearing the vest I'd dropped off at their place the day before —

Lily had claimed it and wouldn't let him near it —

This time he was allowed to wear it —

As with the vest I made for Lily, this one is a Pathfinder vest from Twig and Tale. George's is a few inches longer at the front. Both are lined with brushed cotton/wincyette. George's outer is a wool mix and I suspect Lily's is too. Often these are made from old woolen blankets; I haven't hunted down some colourful ones to use yet, but these ones are actually a good weight for our Northland climate.

I can't believe how quickly time is flying by, once again. I'll keep trying to squeeze it all in :-)

(Oh and PS, I've written this post in the new blogger and it seems to be working!)

'til next time,

happy stitches,

FNWF and the Chookshed Party

Even though I thought I'd finished them, I realised I hadn't made ties for the toddler slippers I've made recently.
So the first thing I did for Friday Night with Friends was to make the ties.

They're not included in the pattern but I remember last year they were needed to keep the slippers on the small feet a lot better.

So now they're properly finished!

I have a french knitting gadget which makes the cording nice and quickly so these didn't take too long to complete.
Having got those out of the way, I pulled out some applique. With the baby knitting, etc, I've done, I haven't done much hand applique lately. I'd already needleturned two of Michelle's baskets for my Lockdown quilt. I completed one more on Friday night and have since completed another on Saturday night.

Thank you Cheryll for having us to sew with you on Friday Night :-) Visit Cheryll's blog *here* to see what others got up to.

There was more social shenanigans this weekend with Chooky holding her annual Chookshed Birthday party.  A bit different this year with two days of 'zoom'. We had people from all around the world join in over the weekend, everyone coming and going as they were able. It was really lovely to meet people, put faces to blogs/names, discover new blogs, and just chat and share with our common love of quilting and blogging. In between family comings and goings, some stock work and so on, I managed an hour or so on Saturday afternoon and then some more time on Sunday, . 

I just did some knitting while chatting; Odie wants another wee vest. This one wasn't supposed to be next in line but was bumped up for the weekend as I'd already made all the decisions on wool, etc so could just pick it up and cast on.

This is about the 7th one of these I've made, it's a nice easy pattern.

Thank you so much Chooky for inviting us all along to celebrate your Chookshed's birthday. And thank you to all the ladies for your company over the weekend.

'til next time,

happy stitches,