September Ends

It's hard to believe another month has whizzed by so here is a quick attempt to get a post done by nightfall.

The big news is that I finished my Cross and Crown quilt!

The quilt was made from the Cocoa Pink range by Laundry Basket Quilts. It's a sample for The The Country Yard so I took a few photos before taking it into the shop to display.

I had no more dramas with stabbing myself (see *here*) while quilting. Vireya suggested putting the back-pin-cap of an enamel badge on the upright pin; a great idea, but none of my badges had one the right size - grrrr. However I managed to sort my hands out so the rest of the quilting went smoothly.

I ended up using the Westelee circle template for the whole quilt, doing semi-circles along the edges in the border. I am quite pleased with the effect.

One more scenic shot. Our son's sheep are grazing our orchard at the moment -

I don't think I have shared this block yet. It's another for The Country Yard 20 Year Challenge. The theme is 'Have a Cuppa' -

I've started joining my blocks for my challenge quilt. Here is the top row.  I've not used much of the challenge fabric so have decided to use it for cornerstones in the sashing.

It's been a whirlwind 24 hours on the grandparenting front; last night I babysat the three next door while their parents had a very rare dinner out.

Then this morning Odie and family came out - 

Then the rest of the day was spent with Lily and George while their parents were busy. Of course calf duties time arrived and they enjoyed helping for a while-

We set up a 'table' to draw at and they were busy wee bees alternating between calves and pencils. It was a wet and windy day so that limited play a bit. I'm pleased we came up with an alternative!

I'm looking forward to a quiet Sunday - hopefully I will get more of the challenge quilt done.

'til next time,

happy stitches,

Raewyn

Raindrops on Blossoms...

We had a beautiful hot and fine week last week - some family members even had their first summer swims in the river! 

However we had a wet weekend and this week it has cooled down a little (with more rain) so there's no more swimming at the moment. Thankfully, it hasn't fazed the Wisteria at all.

The Met Service actually put us under heavy rain watch so I spent some extra time bringing my calves back to this side of the river - if it flooded, I wouldn't be able to get over to feed them.

AND, once the chores are done, we all know that wet weather means inside days and inside days mean sewing days. 

I needed to catch up on my blocks for The Country Yard 20th Birthday Challenge. The celebration is next month; it's coming around very quickly!

One of the block themes is 'a favourite block'. I like the challenge of sewing a tiny block, and I also love nested blocks so started with this - 

Then this-

Resulting in this - 

All of my blocks are in the centre of a heart so here is the completed block- 

Another of the challenge block themes is 'Christmas'. It took me a while to decide what to make, but I finally decided on this foundation pieced tree - 

(The pattern I used is the Pine Tree FPP from CentreStreetQuilts.)

Completed block - 

I had a lot of trouble getting the photos of the finished blocks - the colours I was getting were orange and royal blue; these are the best I could do!

YD and I were busy chatting the other day and heard little noises coming from downstairs - I spied young Odie doing this -

Haha, he was 'sewing'! He'd removed the tiny quilt from a nearby quilt and put it under the presser foot of my old treadle machine! He really looked like he knew what he was doing! (I don't think he's seen me sewing but his mum does do a spot of mending on her machine from time to time,)

I wasn't going to do any more calf/farm spam, but as I mentioned bringing the calves back from over the river, I thought I should explain. Moving the youngstock is easy as they follow the feeder, hoping for their milk. Here they are coming over the bridge -  I always speed up so they don't bunch up and push each other off - I've not lost a calf off the bridge yet and hope never to! - 

Then, finally a feed - 

And happy and full - 

'til next time,

happy stitches,
Raewyn

Don't bleed on the quilt!

The other day I started quilting my Cross and Crown quilt top (featured in my Crazy post last month). I really thought it would be done by now, but that's just how it is :-)

I decided to use my Westelee circles template. I used this for my Friday's Village quilt. It's been on our bed this winter and every time I look at it, I am pleased with how the quilting turned out. This was finished in 2018 and I haven't used the template since so I determined it was time to play with it again.

This has a pin/large thumb tack inserted into the quilt which the template spins from (remembering I am at a sit-down machine so the fabric moves, not the machine).

It's quite straight forward and has lovely results but you do have to mind where you put your hands - particularly when you are in the groove - 

I had a warning stab the other day - and then one that drew blood....so it was time to Stand Up and Walk Away.

Since then I've made some blood free progress - maybe I was just getting tired and careless and needed a break anyway!

I've quilted on most of the blocks - 

I will do more circles in the gaps - hopefully that won't take too long.

I found this photo the other day. I think I made the block in July. A kiwi quilter put a call out for Gumboot blocks which she could sew into a quilt (or two) to raise funds for Gumboot Friday. Gumboot Friday raises funds to provide counselling for young New Zealanders. It's an effective and worthwhile cause so of course I was happy to add my stitches to it.

My block was a foundation pieced one; part of a set of patterns called The Potting Shed by Jo Westfoot of The Crafty Nomad. Slightly fiddly in places but I was really happy with how the boots turned out!

I took some photos while out feeding calves the other morning. I now have three mobs out on the farm, getting a fresh paddock every second day. These are the younger ones, about 3-4 weeks old -

This paddock floods fairly regularly but you can see in the below photo, how high the house and sheds are in comparison, and why we always say we're safe and high and dry in a flood!

Next onto this mob, in another area of the farm; these ones are about 5 or 6 weeks old. They're in front of the calving mob of cows. New calves are coming very slowly - two one day, then none the next, maybe four the next then none!

And lastly, the oldest calves. Sometimes I squeeze these in before breakfast; sometimes they have to wait till after I've had my breakfast before I get to them! These ones are nearly ready for weaning - most of them about 8 weeks old. They're in a paddock I've not put calves in before - it's over the brow of the 'back hill', surrounded by bush and very little flat ground to park the feeder. However they've had a ball in there - it's very sheltered and has a good feed of grass which they've enjoyed. The top of the paddock is pretty high up - as you can see - 

Happy calves with full tummies!

As you may be able to tell, I quite enjoy getting out on the farm with the animals!

Ok, I think that's about me done for the night. Congratulations if you've got to the end.

'til next time,

happy stitches,

Raewyn