When Pigs Fly

A wee while ago I thought it would be a fun idea to sign up with Joan's When Pigs Fly bloghop challenge. I say 'challenge' because it's always a challenge for me to sign up for something and see it through.

When it's months away we have heaps of time to prepare but of course we know, that like Pigs, Time sure does Fly (and I had some last minute sewing to do)!

Many will realise that a PIG, in the quilt world, stands for Project In Grocery Sack. Here in New Zealand we don't call them Grocery sacks. Project in Supermarket Bag (PISB) doesn't have much of a ring to it, and neither does Project in Cardboard Box (PICB) ...... and that is what my chosen UFO is; a project in a cardboard box.

As the box was getting quite battered, a result of being pulled out and put away numerous times, not to mention a perfect cat sleeping spot (which is why the lid is bent and no longer functional), it was a logical project to pull out, try to finish, and re-pack in a new container.

The project being Foxley Village by Natalie Bird, which was a 2016 BOM through the Australian Homespun magazine. I think I started mine in 2017 so it's bordering on a long-term UFO.

I thought it was going to be a quick finish and that I just had some columns to join, then decide on borders and it would be progressed to the needs quilting pile.

Oh yes, here's part of it-

But my memory had failed me - this block is definitely not a column!

And it doesn't fit - yet!

Some Flying Geese were made - 

Plus a 'Hovering Hawkks Variation block' - 

A little more sewing and this section is assembled - 

and finally I have complete columns which are joined -

Part of me wants to call it a day here. The pattern has an outer border that I'd rather not do. It's just not my favourite.

Jenny changed her border and I admire it every time I see it behind her when we're on zoom (Chookshed Chatterers).

(Most of the fabrics used are from various Tilda ranges.)

So while I decide what to do with my borders, this will be put back into a (new) box or bag. Thank you Joan of MooseStash Quilting for encouraging me to pull it out to work on.

Apologies for being slow to post today, I wasn't happy with my initial photos of the top so had to wait for daylight to take some more. Other bloggers who are also posting about their Flying Pigs today (and possibly have made more progress than I have!) are - 

Tuesday June 20

Quilted Delights

Ms P Designs USA

Selena Quilts

Just Because Quilts

Stitching Farm Girl (That's me)

Bumbleberry Stitches

There is a full list of the whole bloghop on Joan's blog.

'til next time,

happy stitches,

Block-a-day July Day 14

I've been doing a bit of applique in the evenings. It's for the 'My Redwork Garden' quilt we are making as a shop sample at work. The machine sewing is done at the shop and I've been doing the hand applique at home. Good teamwork!

These are the latest blocks —

I didn't get much other sewing done today - with only four lines of stitching and a bit of cutting to do, I squeezed out two more Hourglass blocks (!!!) - better than no blocks at all —

Being a Thursday, I had a small boy today. We joined his cousins in town and had a fun time playing with blocks —

It was pretty cool; the blocks are made of foam and there are hundreds of them! It was set up as a school holiday programme.

(Yes, there is a child in there!)

Back home, we had the compulsory feeding of the chooks —

(Yes, those are mandarins on the ground, all the rain has turned them into soggy pieces of fruit. We were having a good feed off this tree until the weather turned.)

'til next time,

happy stitches,

Goals for July

I had a grand plan for July, which was to make a block a day and write a post a day with it; as I have done the other odd time when I wanted to focus on block-making and blogging.

So what happened —

July 1st - YES I finished a block (which only needed a few seams sewn to finish it off) —

(Tilda Memory Lane project which I will talk about another time)

But with kids, work, supermarket and so on, a blog post didn't happen!

July 2nd was surely going to be my catch up day and a chance to get started on my mission.

A block got completed —

Omigosh! block. For the quilt by Sue Garman. It's a while since I've made any of these but now that I have finished making my 36-patch scrappy blocks (see *here*) I have a pile of 1" strips that need attention.

But with kids, the farm and a power cut, a blog post didn't happen!

July 3rd was to be the day to properly start on this mission. We did have kids and more kids during the day but later on, the time was my own so I sewed up my block(s).

(More Tilda Memory Lane blocks)

Then the hills called and I spent the last hour of daylight walking!

Today is the 4th and I am determined today will be the day to properly start this mission.

Today's block(s) —

Some nice straightforward Sawtooth stars.

I'm also signing up to Patty's One Monthly Goal. I haven't joined in for a while but this month I'd really like to get my Bears and Bears Paw quilt finished. I don't believe I have shared a photo of the finished top. Here it is —

This pattern is by Sew Fresh Quilts. I'm excited to get it completed and into the post for its recipient!

I have had a slow start to the month but hopefully it's onwards and upwards now 😀

'til next time,

happy stitches,

Sewing pretty

I glanced up at my design wall the other day and realised that this week's sewing had been 'pretty' - projects using pretty fabrics.

First up was a mystery stitchery BOM I am doing through The Country Yard, as a participant rather than designer or sample maker. I fought very hard and tried to sit on my hands but in the end gave in. This stitchery uses motifs and stitchery designs from a variety of previous years' mystery projects; having been involved with the shop for as long as I have it really is like a walk down Memory Lane, which of course is what this BOM is called.

There were three different fabric ways we could choose from, and I have chosen to do mine in the Tilda fabric selection.

Here are the stitcheries from the first two months —

Here is month one sewn up —

And the month two blocks —

Month one and two combined —

This week I continued on with the Laundry Basket 2021 mystery QAL - the second set of 'pretties' up on the wall (and discussed *here*).
I finally got my head around where I was heading with this before I put it away for a bit. And I've decided to change tack with it, by sewing it up differently to how the instructions tell us.

Because it's no longer a mystery, I can see the end result and have decided to plan where my fabrics go a little more than if I had been keeping up a day and block at a time.

Plus, sewing 20 odd of the same block can be a little tiresome so it's nice to play as I go.
I've started at the centre with darker reds and am working out towards the outer edge, ending with the pinks/light reds.

So far my centre looks like this —

Below shows me having a bit of a play - I originally planned on the dark flying geese as on the bottom row, but changed my mind, and changed them to the red, as shown on the right.

So you can see it's going to take me twice as long to make it this way, and I'm going to end up with a few orphan blocks!!

A close up of the fabrics —

I've sewn the centre blocks together into rows, just to keep them together even though we were told not to do that until the end!

They all said it was a matter of 'when' and not 'if' and now, after nearly 18 months out of Level 4 lockdown, and a long time of relative freedom, New Zealand went back into L4 lockdown last week (11 days ago). Yes, Delta has arrived here. (Level 4 is the most restricted level in NZ and only essential services are allowed to operate.)

It seems that new cases are contained within Auckland and most of us were hoping for an ease in restrictions in yesterday's announcement. On Tuesday night most of the country goes into level 3 but Northland (where we live) unfortunately has been grouped together with Auckland and we must all stay in level 4 for longer.

Down on the farm, we've continued on as usual, when you have animals and are a primary industry, you can't just stop. So we've milked the cows and reared the calves and ventured out for click and collect farm supplies or groceries when necessary.

The big hassle for us though is that we were partway through a bathroom renovation when lockdown hit and the trades weren't allowed to come to work -  we were left with no shower!!

The MOML cleverly set us up an outdoor shower with a hose which goes through the window and onto the (hot) laundry taps. 

The things you can get away with in the country 😂 (not so good on a windy night!!).

Fortunately for us, getting a shower installed was finally considered essential enough to risk trades coming to our place. After three or four days of form signing and avoiding strangers in the hallway we no longer have to use the outdoor facilities! They only did the basics though so we still have more tradie-time to come, at some stage.

So the talk of lockdown leads me to another project to share with you. As a 'lockdown gift', The Country Yard has designed a free stitchery to help everyone keep out of mischief while staying at home.

Tonight I hope to trace it and start planning which threads I would like to use.

You can access the design *here* (Thank you Kerryn and Annalese!)

'til next time,

happy stitches,

Goals and the like

I had a real muddly day yesterday, not settling to anything much so I have decided it's time to Stop, Plan and Focus.
And I'm nearly too late to sign up for Patty D's One Monthly Goal over at Elm Street Quilts. Signing up and 'pledging' to finish something is great motivation to actually getting it done!
After my efforts last month getting my Buggy Barn Tractors quilt together, it (probably) goes without saying that quilting this needs to be top of my agenda for this month so that is what my goal will be.

To quilt, bind, label and gift the Tractors quilt!!!

Backing purchased. No excuses now.

Thank you, as always, Patty, for hosting OMG. It really is helpful in making progress :-)

I also have some other goals for the month - to focus on doing some winter sewing for all the kiddies. I made a start by overlocking the edges of some brushed cotton so I could wash and pre-shrink it. This will be for some more cot sheets and a kiddie jacket lining.
Then I tidied the spare room downstairs. Climbed up into the top of the wardrobe and found all my old patterns for children sewing. They went onto the downstairs bed —

Did anyone else collect and drool over the Topkids Magazines?
I used to love these and made some wonderfully creative clothes from them for
my kids.
There's also patterns in the boxes for basic things like trackpants, tights, etc which I want
to find.

Most of those patterns have sat there in those boxes since we moved here in 2004!!!

This old sewing cabinet contains all sorts of fabrics for kiddie sewing. I'll use it as my base for the sewing and it will be lucky dip, that's for real!! There's some lovely pieces in there that I bought to make things for my kids but didn't get them done - now's my chance!!

This cabinet was actually one Dad built from a kitset when he and Mum
were first married. Most of the kitset furniture he made then is still going
strong - not like kitset furniture these days!

(I had to do all this downstairs as if I try to sort this amongst my quilting stuff in The Palace it would be bedlam!! A separate clear space was needed!)

Oh and I will be pulling out my knitting for the kiddies too. Yesterday I started a vest for wee Odie who is no longer very wee and is outgrowing the vests I made the other kiddies. Not only is he a big boy but was also born in a completely different season than all the other kids. Who knows what will fit him when!

In other news — Since finishing a needle case over the weekend, I've made a pouch to go with it. I enlarged the stitchery from the Anni Downs pouch made last month—

I made a vinyl fronted zippy pouch (pattern available *here*) —

And sewed the stitchery to the other side.

It was a bit odd in a way as usually the vinyl side is displayed as the front, but when it's all filled with a messy array of project and notions, I sometimes think the 'back' is a nice option to look at!

I intend the needlecase and pouch to be used as a set...because the needlecase was a kit I didn't have the same felts and fabrics but oh well.

And speaking of pouches, this was a project from the Tilda FB page I joined. This pouch is a lot smaller than the one above so won't fit an A4 page/pattern but will be useful for storing threads, etc. It was designed by Fee, of Fee's Little Craft Studio, who runs the Facebook group.

I used fabrics to match the pincushion I've made previously.

It's probably pinkier and girlier than what I usually make but it's pretty cute all the same!

The conditions of our Lockdown Level Two were released today - we will have a lot more freedom which is great.....now we just have to wait and see when we go into it.

'til next time

safe and happy stitches,