A tale of two purples (and more)

It's obvious that not even 31 days of non-stop blogging is enough to get me into a regular blogging habit!!

It felt like there was a lot of  'other' life stuff catching up to do once August finished and here we are looking at the tail end of September start of well in to October already. 

Although it seems like little sewing has been done I have been chipping away at a few projects so some progress has been made. During September I made the Purple Split 9-patch blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. Once the month's colour of Purple was announced, I was intrigued to see if I could come up with enough fabrics to make a block. I don't use purple very often and wasn't really sure what I would find.

I did actually manage to find quite a few but it got tricky - as with all colours, who knew there were so many shades? I really didn't like how some of my purples looked next to some of the other ones (mauve vs plum - or whatever all the different shades are called!), so ended up making two blocks —

They are very different from each other. I also admit to purchasing a very small piece of purple to get the last 2 ½" square!!

Back in June, pastel was the chosen colour of the month. I left it out as I didn't know what to do - now that I've made two blocks for September I am back to nine blocks for nine months so that worked out quite well.

And now, for October, the RSC instruction was light or dark neutrals - along the lines of sashings or borders. I'm not ready for sashings or borders so when the urge and a colour family hits me, I'll make another block to add to my collection. (These blocks are 12" finished so I'm not quite ready to make them into a quilt.)

In other stitchy news, I've made a good start on the NZ 365 days kiwi cross stitch. I spent some time going through Mum's thread books and managed to find most of the threads that were needed.

As a reminder, this is the book I bought —

There's a little New Zealand flavoured picture to stitch for every day of the year. The book started with January, naturally, but because of where September was positioned on the chart it was quite easy to start there. When I first wrote this blogpost, this is what I had done —

(Ice-cream, pie, flax flower, Auckland Harbour Bridge and Wellington hills)

And this is where I'm up to now — 

I've not quite finished September so I need some serious stitching time if I'm going to make it within the year - I'm not sure that will happen but because several other friends are stitching it too, I'm hoping that I'll stay motivated to keep going!

I've done a bit of quilting on a baby quilt I'm trying to finish. There's a border of feathers - of course they show up much better on the back than the front! I spotted them in the early morning light one day and thought they looked quite cool —

One reason why I seem to take so long to write a blogpost is that it takes me forever to decide which are the best photos to share! And then another day goes by, and another day goes by.......

Biting the bullet, here's some from the other day when I had two/three of the kids for most of the day. It's been school holidays so Ganma duties were called for.

Lily and George saying hello to a newborn calf - they were very excited as it was one of a set of twins - one boy and one girl - perfect they thought, being twins themselves —

Picking up cousin Odie for a ride out the back (no, they didn't stay on the buggy like that while I was driving!) —

Ganma's idea of fun, climb the hill to look out over the back of the farm —

And back down to the buggy again - you can just see them running down that hill) —

Lily and George wanted to visit the pet calves they had this time last year - they've grown! —

More running, more hills —

And later on, after some food and a play, they 'helped' Gandad bring the new set of twins in —

It was a fun day!
One last picture. I thought Tammy cat looked really cute sleeping here in the kids' room —

'til next time,

happy stitching,

Raewyn

31 days

Day 31 of my August blogpost a day challenge

I managed my 31 days in a row of blogposts!! 

In that time ——

I fed numerous calves (the main activity of the month!) —

 I travelled to two countries (in my writings!) —

I attended 3 school cross country events, watching 10 relevant races —

Shared 8 projects that I'm working on, and two more I'm about to start (gulp) —

Sewed with friends, sewed with kids —

Sewed 28 blocks (I would have liked that to be a few more but oh well!) —

Showcased one finished quilt —

Enjoyed sunshine, frost and rain —

Shared some of Mum's makes —

Lost (and found) my phone (yes it was fine!) —

Celebrated a pussy cat —

And more bits and pieces!!

My goal was to catch up on some posts, and to get back into blog writing mode. When I get behind with blogging, it feels like there is so much to say that starting a post is difficult. Hopefully I've got over that roadblock.

Thank you to all those who have read along and made it easier to keep going by adding the odd comment and encouragement ♥ I haven't yet replied to all the comments but I hope to keep chipping away at them....and now that I'm not formulating and writing blogposts 24/7, I do hope to reciprocate and visit you all too!

'til next time,

Happy stitches,

Raewyn

Travelling from retreat (Going back in time)

Day 30 of my August blogpost a day challenge (nearly there!)

(Photo heavy)

Five days ago, I did a catch up post from my trip to Australia in April, when I joined buddy kiwikid Sue and we travelled from Melbourne up to Scrub Stitching at Baradine, NSW.

Now I need to catch up on the trip from Scrub Stitching back down to Tullamarine, the Melbourne airport.

We left Baradine and all the lovely ladies at about lunch-time on Sunday. We wanted to get away smartly so that we had finished travelling by dusk which is when the kangaroos come out - and jump across the road - no late in the day travelling for us; crashing into one is a complication non of us need.

We stopped at the Coonabaraban information centre to get a t-shirt for Deana.

I had bought myself a t-shirt there on the way to Baradine, thinking it was a cute Wombat shirt, but later discovered it was a DINOSAUR t-shirt - this fellow was found near Coonabarabran so is world famous in the area...and now I have a dinosaur t-shirt to rival that of the grandies!! (Strictly speaking, it's a marsupial fossil rather than a dinosaur but he's close enough, the locals reckon.) Anyway, Deana decided she needed one too so we got her one :-)

We headed to Cowra, where we were to stay for two nights. 

The area was vey dry and they were all hoping for some rain soon (they got it, thank goodness).

After passing through Dubbo we happened upon a Sculptures on Bikes tour along Banjo Paterson Way which was lots of fun -

The next morning we may have visited the Cowra Patchwork shop (hehe) and then continued on to the Information Centre. As Cowra had a Prisoner of War camp during WW2, there is some interesting history to learn. There was a hologram theatre telling the story of a big prison camp breakout.

We visited other areas of historical interest around the town. 

Beautiful painted water tanks -

A nod to the town 'as it was' on this tank —

Lots of history on this site of the POW camps —

World Peace Bell, back in town —

This photo shows how big it is. It had a beautiful sound but I wondered if the locals get tired of the tourists ringing it!

Sue and I had a lovely lunch at the Japanese Peace Garden cafe —

and then thoroughly enjoyed the walk around the gardens. Very lovely.

There was a bonsai area too —

And a wee museum —

After our two nights at Cowra, we started heading south again.

Because we travel inland/rural Australia we see lots of quirky little things —

Sheep at Boorowa —

Dirt roads! 

A commemoration for a Police Sergeant killed in a 'gun battle' with a gang, 1864, at Jugiong —

Wide open spaces —

We visited the Ettamogah Pub...built/based on a very popular Australian cartoon series.

After our night in Albury we spent a bit of time walking around town...visiting another quiltshop and also Lincraft.

Back on the road again, we went through Glenrowan where there are a lot of Ned Kelly (famous outlaw) attractions. The Discovery Hub was designed to mimic the helmet Kelly wore in his last siege.

Another dirt road. But this one was unplanned and we still have no idea why we ended up on it!

At nearby Benella, more Ned Kelly —

And the most gorgeous mural in a wee church —

One last quilt shop —

Our last dinner together —

The next morning I was on the plane and back to New Zealand. Just reading through our travels, I am exhausted - we covered a lot!

If you've got to the end of this - well done!

'til next time,

happy stitches,

Raewyn