stitchingfarmgirl

Thursday, August 6, 2026

Children and sewing

(Day 6 of a post a day during August!)

Back before we got too busy with calving, Lily and George had a sleepover so their parents could go away to watch a rugby test match.

It's a bonus when there is a calf or two to cuddle—

Helping to fetch the freshly calved cows—

Yaay, he's feeding!

There's all sorts of things that are compulsory when you stay at Ganma and Gandad's. Hunting for fruit, feeding the chooks, farmwork AND sewing.

We'll be busy doing something completely different, when all of a sudden one of them pipes up, "Ganma can we sew something?".

No point me having pre-planned ideas; their ideas are their own and I just need to go with the flow.

'Concept sketches' —

Lily wanted to make a Flower cushion. No, not a cushion with a flower on it, but a flower shaped cushion!

Her sketch involved a skinny stem with leaves and multiple petals. And it had to be turned inside out as she learnt about hidden seams last time she sewed here.

She finally realised that appliqueing her flower to a rectangular background might work best - whew - so that is what we ended up with.

They're getting old enough that they can use tools, etc, and do a lot more by themselves. I possibly did about an inch of sewing on each project to get them started and that was all they needed —

Learning about vliesofix and applique mats—

George initially wanted just a flat picture and half way through decided that he would make a cushion as well.

He wanted me to google a shark for him but I made him draw his own (aren't I mean?!). He was really proud of what he came up with.

The applique shapes were sewn around with straight stitch. I think they will last well enough —

We used every last bit of stuffing so I guess I'll be stocking up on that in case sewing is on the agenda next time they stay :-)

So much fun ♥

'til next time

happy stitches

Raewyn

Wednesday, August 5, 2026

The calfsheds are full

I knew this would happen - just as I planned a post about calving and all the farm goings-on, and explaining that we were right in the thick of it all ------

--------we had an ultra-busy day and it's just going to be a few words and a few photos----

Otherwise my month long commitment of a blogpost a day would fail on the fifth day!

Tonight I fed 8 mobs of calves (about 75 calves) in four different locations, which took me a while (that's a lot of milk to carry around!) —

(The calf with his mum, and with the bottle in the first couple of photos is the one second from the left in the above photos - 3 weeks later - he has GROWN!!!)

'til next time,

happy stitches,

Raewyn

Tuesday, August 4, 2026

LeMoyne stars

Last week Lindlee of Plains and Pine hosted a wee sewalong called One Block 5 Ways.

Lindlee makes/designs fabulous star quilts, a lot of them Lone Star style. This event focussed on five different ways to make LeMoyne Stars.

Four other designers joined Lindlee, each with a different technique for making the LeMoyne Star. As the week progressed, each one shared a video of their technique.

Of course I needed another project like a hole in the head, but I thought it would be fun to follow and sew along. I rummaged through my stash and found some suitable fabrics and then I got sewing.

Day One's tutorial by Lindlee featured the star sewn traditionally with Y-seams —

(The sun came out just as I went outside to photograph so the colours are very washed out. The background fabric is darker than it appears.)

Day Two's star was made by Foundation Paper Piecing. (Tutorial by Lisa Taylor Handmade) I'm quite pleased that I didn't have enough of my first choice of fabric (after already starting the cutting) and had to add in another one—