Weekend progress

I made a bit of an oopsie when I traced out the stitchery element of the final block of The Santa, The Tree, The Turkey and Me.

This block is a long narrow-ish one and has two overlapping design sheets...so of course I traced the lettering off one sheet, changed sheets and for some stupid reason traced the overlapped lettering a second time. Being night time I didn't see that I already had writing on my fabric. And of course they weren't perfectly lined up —

(It almost looks like it reads 'Now Disaster'!! hehe)

I couldn't see a way that I could stitch this tidily so I had to come up with an alternative way to complete the block. Most of the blocks on this quilt have a extra piece of linen which is decorated with stitchery or wool applique and then attached to the block. I realised I could do the same thing here.

So on Friday Night with Friends I set about to correct this, and got this far. I actually think it's going to work!

Thank you Cheryll for hosting us on Friday night as we all stitched along. You can visit her blog *here*.

I got a wee bit of sewing done over the weekend. Firstly Lily needed some tights sorted. You know when tights are baggy, they're no good! (And I do know quilters don't do 'mending' but occasionally this one does!) I've done a trial bit of seaming so that she could try them on for size....which she has....they were great....so now I can tidy them up (and do the second pair) and get them back to her.

I continued on with the scrappy Christmas Ornament quilt. I've decided to add a piano keys border top and bottom to make it just a little longer so it will fit better on a single bed. I spent a nice bit of time going through my Christmas scraps - pleasingly some of the fabrics I'd used for the ornament blocks were already all used up and now a few more are finished as well!

'til next time,

happy stitches,

October update (in November) —

We've had lots of wet and/or drizzly days lately which have been great for the garden and for my sewing.

Even though we're at that time of the year when we are supposed to enjoy every drop of rain before the summer dry, we're not appreciating the continual up and down of the river, causing all sorts of hassles and dramas.

I had two requests for 'small' sewing lately which boosted my October finishes - from 0 to 2!!

Firstly three year old George requested a Paw Patrol sunhat like his sister's. 

I made her one last summer. This is it, which she really loves wearing —

And below is the matching one for George. I used a totally different pattern, which we felt was less 'girly'. I found the pattern *here* at Red Poppy Designs.

His favourite colour is green so he wanted the same green lining Lily requested for hers, but I found something I thought he'd like better —

And speaking of tractor linings, Odie has inherited the vest I made for George last winter. Apparently he had a really fun time discovering the tractor lining of that! —

The second bit of requested sewing was a new pair of Wayfarer Shoes for Odie after major foot growth. The oilskin I have been using for the outers is working really well, and I still have plenty left for future projects. And the camo fleece on the inside is a good match.

This is the third pair I have made in this combination now! The photo below shows how these can be reversible if you wanted. There was just a 2"  gap to handsew after turning them through.

Finished! —

Once the serious sewing for children was finished, I was able to get back to my fun sewing. (Working at getting my Christmas quilts done by the end of the year.)
In my last post I'd started joining the Scrappy Christmas Ornament blocks together. After adding fabric to one side or the other of each block, I finally joined them into columns —

And now the columns are joined —

I have added borders to the two sides, but not the top and bottom yet. 
Really pleased with how it's turning out —

I've not joined in with Patty D's One Monthly Goal for a while but I've decided to get November off to a good start and sign up this month. I would like to see this quilt quilted and bound by month's end.

The next photos belong to the "Why I make Quilts" category.

We had five of the cousins here playing one day. Of course the games got busy and involved. Lots of quilts and cushions got pulled out to use for props. I love seeing the kids do that - the quilts are just part of the furniture here at Ganma's.

Must be off, I'm hoping for a little more sewing time before I start the evening meal prep :-)

'til next time,

happy stitches,

Christmas WIPs

Now that things are easing on the farm (for me at least; the MOML is still as busy as ever) I've miraculously found more sewing time!

Back when there were still 100 days left until the end of the year, I came across a WIPS-B-GONE (2021) challenge being run by Leanne, the Devoted Quilter.

In the last year or so I've been very good at signing up for things and not following through😟 
I thought that maybe this challenge would give me an extra push to complete a few projects and therefore redeem myself. With that in mind, I remembered that a few posts ago, I had sort of challenged myself to finish three Christmas quilts by the end of the year.

So that part was easy - identifying which 'Works In Progress' to work on!

Progress has been slow but I have tried to keep these three projects at front of mind.
I've made another reindeer for Juliet's Sleigh Ride Sewalong —

I'm a bit late for the sewalong but that's how it goes. You can see below how it's starting to take shape. I have two more to make, which won't take too long once I put my mind to it.

My evening sewing has picked up a bit. For a while there I was too tired to think about much after dinner, but lately I've been continuing on with The Santa, The Tree, The Turkey and Me. 

When I'd left off, it was at this stage —

But I spent an afternoon prepping some more for the evenings —

I've since stitched these areas; the reindeer now have their harnesses and Santa just needs his beard and some trims on his suit. Then I'll be ready for the stitchery elements of the block.

Most exciting of all is that I am back to my Scrappy Christmas Ornaments!!!

The lack of a decent sized design wall means that this project was laid out on the spare bed in the guest room. I'd had it on a sheet which I quickly rolled up (way back whenever) when some extended family needed a safe place to live for a month, then Mum stayed for a bit, and then, not long after, our bathroom remodel started. The contents of the 'old' bathroom were upended into the guest room (just across the hallway) for safekeeping and sorting. Whew.

One completed bathroom later I can now access the bed so have unrolled the sheet and started working on joining the blocks into rows.

It's always been my vision to have the ornaments 'randomly spaced' around the quilt, so while I'm joining them into rows, I'm offsetting them so they all hang at different heights. 
I soon realised the small blocks need a bit more background around them so they don't look lost. That has grown the potential size of the quilt by a few inches but that's not an issue.

Here's the mess on the bed, I've joined nearly three rows and am nearly half way there.

The WIPs be Done challenge is mostly being run on Instagram. I thought it would be a good way for me to get back onto that again so maybe I'll have a look at that when I finish writing this (unless I get the urge to sew instead....!)

I mentioned that my calf duties are slowing down. We finished calving about two weeks ago (just under 3 months from start to finish). And some are weaned.

I put the youngest ones out into the paddock last week and spent an enjoyable time watching them run, which they always do with great gusto when first put out —

And another time I caught these handsome fellows being curious —

I took this one gorgeous morning —

And here is the herd another, very foggy, day —

OK, must be off, 

'til next time,

happy stitches,