I met my goal!!

All of a sudden this last week of March was here and all of a sudden I realised I had only a few days to work some little magic and get some goals completed - but - yaay - I did it!
My one monthly goal (OMG) for March was to transform a rather sad looking lump of fabric into a cushion...a ufo that had sat around for a couple of years when I got (very) behind in SewCalGals's FMQ cushion challenges. (I posted about this goal *here*).

Hunting through my shelves for inspiration, I came across the book Dream Feathers by Peggy Holt - I'd fallen in love with this book, and even ran a giveaway for a second copy, back in 2013.

Peggy has a slightly different way of making feathers, where you make feathers against a basic shape, when they get big, you use the last large (individual) feather as the spine of a new set of feathers, and so on; this methods creates lovely indulating sets of spineless feathers. If it helps the photo below shows what I'm trying to describe!

So I set about playing, had a ball, and finished my cushion centre!

A bit of simple ruler work and the border was done.

 A little more sewing and the cushion was together. In went the cushion inner I'd purchased back in 2013.

It's been a while since I've done any feather play so I really enjoyed finishing this up.

I didn't do one of the fun scrappy backs that I like to do as I actually had enough fabric this time! I did, however, use *this* tutorial to make a zipped closure rather than my usual buttoned one.

Remember the days when buttons, zips, fastenings were carefully unpicked before worn clothing was recycled and became new clothing or rags? This zip was in a pile Mum gave me and I suspect it was out of a dress!
You can find the end of month link up for OMG on Elm Street Quilts...thank you Patty for hosting us and giving me the little push I needed to complete this UFO.
I'm also linking up with Joy, of Days Filled with Joy, with Finishing Stitches, her monthly UFO Challenge. It sure is nice to have another one done!

I had a lovely few hours sewing with some friends yesterday. I hadn't yet had a chance to work on the Rainbow Scrap Challenge colour of red (for March) so I took along my bucket of red scraps. Using a couple of the blocks I was gifted by Sue (Mother Patchwork) as a starting point, I sewed two more scrappy sprout blocks.

(The photo of them all together is a little dull sorry - I took it first thing this morning well before the sun had risen!)
Red appears to be my favourite colour (as I'm not short of red scraps) so I would have expected to have made about 20 of these this month but it wasn't to be. I can always add to these later on :-)
Thank you to Angela for running the Rainbow Scrap Challenge - even though I didn't use many of my reds, it was still nice to rummage through them!

I'm not usually very big on advertising on blogs but you may have noticed that I have added some links to my sidebar. All three of our girls (our two daughters plus our daughter-in-law) are running their own businesses so I have added the links to their websites. I realise that most of you live nowhere near them, but it doesn't hurt to promote these small businesses does it? And you never know who might be reading and who knows who and so on! (And while a Chiropracter cant really help via the airwaves, maybe a Graphic Designer can?!) Thank you in advance for your interest and support :-)

Happy Stitches,

Community sewing

How convenient it is that the blocks I have to share today all fit nicely under the title of community blocks! Sometimes I really have to scratch my head to come up with a blogpost title that encompasses everything I'm talking about but whew- not today!
First of all I made a healing heart for a friend, using *this* tutorial by Allison of the Cluck Cluck Sew blog —

Allison has a chart for making all different sized blocks so I was inspired to make a couple more hearts for the Arohanui block drive Adrianne of On the Windy Side is having. She is making quilts to donate to the Aotearoa Quilters Cosy Kiwi Kids programme - at the moment these quilts are going to families with children in Kaikoura and earthquake affected areas.
She's asking for 12  ½" pre-quilted blocks that she can sew together Quilt-as-you-go style.
After the first heart —

I had enough scraps of the red flower fabric to make a smaller heart and frame it. I much prefer this second block so wish I'd done this for both blocks. Never mind.

Then I hunted out an orphan block, (more about this *here*), framed and quilted that, and so had three to send to Adrianne.

I hope they will fit in with some other blocks to make a lovely child friendly quilt :-)

Adrianne is collecting these until the end of the month so if you want to contribute I'm sure she would love to hear from you.

And to carry on the community theme, my local quilt shop is doing a fun little challenge this year, Friday's Village. Last year Moda ran this programme; this is a 'revved up' version with the inclusion of challenge fabrics we must use in our blocks. Fun.
In the two blocks below the yellow on the breast of the bird was the fabric —

This block, it was the red in the top house (I think they look like boat sheds) —

The blue print used in the silo tower is the challenge fabric below —

Also used in one of the roofs (or rooves? Apparently both are correct) here —

After making the above one I realised I'd made a boo-boo and the centre panel should have been another roof. It does look better.

Final photo with Emma, who wouldn't leave me alone! She supposed to be a farm dog but she doesn't realise it!

Sometimes it seems like lots of bits-and-pieces sewing but it's nice to have the variety! (If you can keep track of it all!!)

'till next time,

happy stitches,

A Wedding!

I've had a few people say to me lately that they've been stalking checking my blog for wedding photos... and where are they??!!
To be honest the last week has flown by but also I didn't get many photos on the day so had to wait for some to come through.
Last weekend we welcomed Nick into our family when our eldest daughter Tarn and he were married. We tried not to get too worried before hand but it was a wet week — we had torrential rain on Thursday, more rain on Friday and rain all through the night on Friday night too.

It was nice and cozy in the marquee to set up the day before...

However Saturday dawned clear (enough!) —

Look - it's fine enough to put the chairs out!

And here comes the bride!

Aren't they all so pretty?

Proud parents ♥

My lovely family.
Sadly, our daughter-in-law and the wee girls weren't able to get over for the
weekend.

The gorgeous (and yummy) cake, lolly bar (and, not shown, Rum bar).

(Apparently the cake lady was ankle deep in water in her downstairs kitchen while desperately trying to finish the cake. And using heat lamps galore too!)

The first dance...followed by a party that lasted deep into the night!

The photo below shows the beautiful view from where we were, at Tutukaka, Northland. The venue was a motel complex with enough units for everybody to stay the weekend. That meant lots of family time and fun. It was a wonderful day and weekend.

We were so lucky with the weather, on Sunday morning we were sure the marquee was going to take off, kite style; it was so wet and wild. And the farm flooded while we were away too - in fact the relief milker had to borrow a tractor and drive through flood waters to get to our farm to milk the cows!

After all the excitement, life is getting back to normal and it's hard to believe it was only just over a week ago!

It feels like I"ve been out of blogland forever, but it's just been a week or so.....I'm hoping to catch up on what everyone's been up to soon!

'till next time,

happy stitches :-)