Another catch-up

I've gotten behind again so sit tight for lots of photos!
One day when the 5 year-old twins came to visit, they insisted they needed to make some shorts for their Barbie and Ken.

Out came the pattern and out came some fabric. George was the most keen to sew - 

After they had gone, I finished up the fiddly bits for them-

And we had two happy children!

Another time they visited, they wanted to go adventuring down at the stream-

Amazing how quickly these two are growing up!

Sewing wise I haven't been up to much lately, with other commitments taking my time. However I have made another small quilt for our series of them at the shop. A single block quilt this time-

Simple walking foot quilting- 

I really do like this 'block' so made another one using some leftover bits and pieces- 

There may be more of these in my future!!

Back in February, the MOML and I had a weekend away, travelling down to the Bay of Plenty to celebrate the 80th birthday of one of my uncles.

We stayed at the Karangahake Gorge on the way down. A beautiful area with a rich gold-mining history. We did one of the walks there, it went over some swing bridges, along the river and through an old railway tunnel. Very cool.

We then carried on to Papamoa, where Mum lives. 

The next morning, we climbed Mount Maunganui with my sister and her husband. A great workout! And great views...

After a quick dip in the sea, we spruced ourselves up for my uncle's birthday lunch-

Mum, my sister, and I - 

The next day we travelled home, having had a brilliant few days away.

I'm about to start another adventure-------more on that next time!!!!

See you then,
Raewyn

February and now March ---

I'm not sure where the months are going and I can't believe that I've gone nearly six weeks without blogging here...

February was a busy month and there was also a bit of family stuff going on which threw me a bit.
[However, I have been keeping up with my one-photo-a-day challenge over *here* so I was pleased about that.]

At the beginning of March, The Country Yard had its annual launch of new projects and BOMs, etc. So most of my sewing in February focussed on that.

I didn't contribute as much as I would have liked, however these were my main projects —

First up was our Starry Delight Mini quilt for our Mini Quilt Club —

🠉Oops slight error in my chain piecing!🠉

My finished mini (20" square) —

I folded a square into a triangle to form hanging corners —

I've also been making some spool blocks for a SAL at the quilt shop. I chose to make mine from Tilda fabrics. I used a bundle which contained various ranges - I was a bit concerned initially about how they all sat with each other but in the end I was really pleased with how they turned out —

I made use of some cute wooden pegs I found in a $2 shop - they have numbers on them which were handy when I was keeping track of the rows I was joining. (Usually I use scraps of paper plus pins to number my rows.)

Tammy helped. Of course —

I forgot to take a photo of the finished top (only, so far) before I took it into the shop so you have to put up with this inadequate one!

I chose to make just 2 of each block, and bordered it with strips of leftover fabrics.

The launch at the shop went well. We spent the day before sprucing the shop up, hanging new quilts, moving others, moving fabrics, and displays and so on. I took a couple of photos just as we opened on Saturday morning. As you can see the place was looking nice and fresh.

We had a birthday in early February with youngest grandie Odie turning four. He had a low pressure birthday party with a couple of friends and his cousins to play with.

Odie and Lily relished getting totally soaked!

YD made the cake - covering all of his requests nicely. He asked for dinosaurs, lollipops, trains and a volcano! —

An interactive cake!

Ok so that's probably enough for now.......

Apologies to those I haven't visited and replied to in recent times. I think I'm back on track now 😊

'til next time, 

happy stitches,

Raewyn

January---

----comes to an end.

While it seems such a long time since Christmas and the New Year, I can't quite believe we are one month into 2024 already.

January has been a mixed month. We've had some long hot days, the odd cooler day, a lot of humidity and then none. We had a little rain at the start of the month but have missed out on much of what has fallen in Northland lately - even though we are only 45-60 mins west OR east to the coast, we have quite a different climate at times - they've had a good amount of rain this month. 

Which means things are drying out on the farm. The grass has changed and the MOML has started feeding out from our big stack of silage bales. 

(The kids have really discovered the bales this summer. The two older girls used to play on them a lot,  singing, acting and dancing.  The younger kids are now making their own games and fun on them.)

They'll be out of bounds soon as the bales will get moved around for the cows.

Soon the MOML will stop milking at night (just in the mornings) to reduce stress on the cows and the milker. Things change a lot in a month!

It's been a month of family busy-ness with visits from relatives and close family. We've child minded when parents returned to work. And dog-sat while their family went to the beach for a week.

The plums are never-ending, although I think, after this morning's pick, there will be just one more big pick of the main tree for the freezer. Add in the courgettes, cucumbers and tomatoes and I've made jam, pickles and chutney. The windfall apples are starting, and the Damson plums are ready to pick.

I've continued on with my daily hill climbs, just missing three days in January, and this morning I clocked over the 100kms mark for this month! Almost one seventh of my goal for the year.

It's always rewarding to get to the top of the first hill to see these great views —

I've fought with wee Tammy in the evenings trying to do handwork but have managed a few wee finishes. (She is slowly learning to do the cat-thing and nap in my lap instead of scragging and playing with everything I try to do!)

I had started this singlet back in November. A group of the ladies who belong to the stitching group at work are making singlets for a premature baby unit. 

It is my second one, and I have enough wool left for another, plus some beanies.

In my last post I shared that I started a wee Pin and Scissorkeep set, a pattern that I acquired up while at my Scrub Stitching retreat last April. I haven't yet made the scissor fob but when I get an empty night or two, I will 'whip it up' - it will be a fairly quick make.

My first make for this challenge was the pouch —

I had a big enough scrap left over from making the bag to line the scissor keep, so that was nice :-)

The pins are poked into the 'gusset' of the pin keep as the stitcheries are gathered around cardboard circles. I've filled it with crushed walnut shell. Check out those tiny cute scissors!

It was good to start the year well by meeting my Chookshed Chatterers challenge goal #6 of finishing these items.

I will link up with Deana's end-of-month link-up when I have posted this- there are a lot of people who have joined in so that's pretty exciting. 

There's been a bit of block sewing happening lately but I'll stop here as this is more than enough photos for one day!

'til next time,

happy stitches, 
Raewyn