Holly Jolly Christmas

As I pressed a finished stitchery this afternoon —

And prepped some more —

I realised that I had barely mentioned this project yet.

This is Holly Jolly Christmas, a BOM by Lisa of Fig 'n' Berry.

I started it towards the end of last year and have been working on it in fits and starts, but I'm now up to month 5 (of 12).

I decided to make it using the Tilda Christmas range which was released last year. Of course I bought way more than what was needed but I like the thought of having more of those pretties to use in another project :-)

The pattern is available through *the shop* but not in my fabrics. We put together a simple selection of Christmassy coloured fabrics to give people an idea, so I sewed up on one of my blocks in one of those fabrics.

I didn't have the persplex templates when I made my block - it would have been a lot more accurate if I'd had them then, but I made it work!

(The pattern advises to make the hexagon shaped block first, and then to stitch in the centre of it, but I prefer to stitch first.)

The final effect (off the pattern) —

Interestingly, I was chatting with Mary at Scrub Stitching and she is doing the 'same' design...Fig 'n' Berry has another pattern which uses the same setting, but is called Birds of Liberty with different stitcheries (birds, etc) and using Liberty fabrics.

This morning we sold another 12 calves - we sell all our beefy girls, and just raise the beefy boys plus the dairy girls. 

It will feel like I am on holiday when I feed the remaining 68 rather than 80 tonight!

That's 36 sold altogether - all of them were between the ages of 5 days and 2½ weeks when they went.

'til next time,

happy stitches,

Raewyn

Cutting on Day 15

Day 15 of my August blogpost a day challenge

Years ago, my girls painted up a sewing room sign for mum. It hung on her door for a long time and became another homely feature of the family home. It came back with me when we were sorting out her place - I'd taken it not knowing quite what to do with it - but recently realised there was really only one place for it....under the sign YD made for me —

So I smile every time I enter the room ♥

With the finishing of my leader-ender project *back here*, my sewing time has become disrupted as I don't always have something to lead or end with (!). I've started making these blocks for a project that is slowly percolating in the background (more on it another day).

The trouble is that it uses squares that are nearly 4" for the half square triangles and I don't have many already cut to that size - nor triangle offcuts hanging out in my scrap bins, so I do last minute cutting when wanting to use a leader-ender 😕.

I decided to solve my problem by having a good cutting session today and pulled out my Accuquilt Go! cutter to help me with the job.

Now I bought this second hand a couple of years ago and have barely used it. It came with some basic shaped dies but I've bought the odd fancier one when they've been on special -  Curved 9-patch and Drunkards Path.

One I ordered and had sent to Sue's place in Australia, to bring home after Scrub Stitching. I didn't realise how big it was and had fun and games trying to get it into my suitcase!!

Anyway, I pulled out the cutter this morning and had a merry old time - I'd forgotten how quick it is to cut a pile of pieces using that gadget.

I cut the fabrics just a little bigger than needed, piled them up and rolled them through. 

Not too much wastage —

Then I got busy with scrappier pieces, carefully overlapping them before rolling them through too —

Wow - in no time at all I had a decent pile of triangles to use for my blocks. They should keep me in leader-ender heaven for a little while.

I have another silly animal photo to share - the Silly Chook Photo of the day —

'til next time,

happy stiches,

Raewyn

This and that

Day 14 of my August blogpost a day challenge 

It feels like there is nothing much to report today - I haven't had a chance to think about a blogpost!! Fridays are my busy day, when I work off the farm at the quilt shop.

That involves getting all my wee beasties fed and happy first thing and then racing home afterwards to do it all over again.

Happily for me today, there were no new calves to teach to feed, and I'd done a bit of mob amalgamation yesterday which streamlined my feeding and made the job a bit easier.

ED and her two kiddoes popped into work after school to collect some eggs. They live near to the shop so I often see them there. Cat-mad Lily swarmed in on a pattern that had not long arrived, teamed it with some fabric and subsequently put in a Christmas request!

It was another wet day so I spent most of the day hoping that my older outside calves were looking after themselves. It was very warm so they were well and happy and none the worse for wear —

but ready for their dinner —

I tried to entice them into the dry shed but only a few were interested (including someone with high spirits!) —

After an easy dinner it was time to settle into some stitching —

— and entertainment from McGeorgeous who thought it might be time for daylight saving to start?!

'til next time,

happy stitches,

Raewyn