A chilled day —

Day 20 of my August blogpost a day challenge

It was a fairly relaxed sort of a day today.

We started with another frost!!! That's our third heavy one in the last few weeks; it's a bit of a record for us here in Northland!

But it morphed into a lovely day - I enjoyed my lunch in the sun —

These 30 oldest calves moved into the ranks of Big Calves today as I put them on once-a-day milk feeding. 

They're eating lots of grass now and I get the problem that if I'm feeding them twice a day, that some are full of grass,etc, that some don't drink, so the others drink too much and then they get poo-ey tails and it's a bit of a messy cycle. Easiest to put them on once a day which also encourages the grass eating. They get a more concentrated milk feed so don't lose out that way.

Anyway, that's 30 less to feed in the afternoons now - yaay!!

Our calving has really slowed down in the last week, 3 calves in 5 days I think BUT last night 8 new calvers came in so I had 8 babies to teach to feed this morning! That took a while and all of a sudden the calf shed seemed overflowing. (When it gets to 40 it starts to feel a little crowded.)

These are the new ones —

I had some lovely sewing time this afternoon. I continued on with the Summertime Quilt I chatted about yesterday; I laid out another new block and sewed yesterday's unfinished one in conjunction with the new one and got them both finished. 

The family so far —

I need 3 more of these blocks.

And I had time to tidy up a few more leader-ender HST for my as yet undisclosed quilt! Very scrappy and nice easy sewing —

Funniest tail of the season award goes to this calf —

'til next time,

happy stitches,

Raewyn

The Summertime Quilt

Earlier in the year, we at the shop started a Summertime Quilt sewalong. It began because three of us liked the pattern (by sew.be) and starting up a sewalong gave us a good excuse to make it.

We each started with a different fabric bundle and because it's essentially a scrappy quilt, we had the freedom to add other bits and pieces to it.

Here are our very first fabric pulls, one pile each (mine on the right) before we played around with them, 'borrowed' each others fabric, added more, and so on.

We then decided it would be fun to make the Summertime Dilly bag which uses blocks from the quilt - 

I got tied up with visits to Australia and Hawaii and have lost momentum on mine. I made a couple of blocks initially but haven't touched it for ages.

My first blocks - 

While the other girls got moving on their versions, I stalled and really needed to pull it out again.

In the last week I've grabbed moments in between calves and feel like I've finally made a more decent start.

I realised I didn't have enough medium value fabrics so raided my stash and threw a few more in.

Two more blocks - 

It wsa only today that I realised I placed some fabrics wrong - I have mediums where I should have lights and lights where I should have mediums (grey/white and yellow/white)! However I'm not changing it now and those two can stay and remind me that I just aren't perfect after all.

Another nearly finished block with correct fabric placement -

There are 8 of these blocks in the quilt so I'll continue on with these while I'm on a roll. There are lots of wide open spaces between the blocks (the 16-patch block in a previous photo) and I can see it's going to be quite a fun one to make if I can keep going!

Well, it's bedtime,

'til next time,

happy stitches,

Raewyn

On the run again

Day 18 of my August blogpost a day challenge

It was another cross country day today. Last week was the combined rural schools event. Today both of the primary schools our grandies attend had their school cross country events...luckily one was held in the morning and the other was in the afternoon!

Again all the kids ran well.

Kokopu School is the smaller school; it is great fun for the kids - they run and cheer their friends on, and I'm sure they've all run at least 3 cross countries by the time the event is over.

Such a lovely setting for a school!

This is typical; sometimes you can't tell who is in the official race and who isn't! Xavier running with his two sisters and cousin Odie running alongside him, to encourage and cheer him on -

Dad and sisters waiting for Xavier to run around the paddock of the farm next door-

This was the fun final race - adults vs senior children. Our son (in the black) was one of the four adults who ran-

And again, an energetic cheering party; his three kids making sure he lasts the distance - 

And accompanied by his kids, he's on the home straight and on his way to the wrapped chocolate as he passes the finish line - 

Then I had a quick lunch at ED's and her and I went to her kids school for the next round of cross country.

Maungatapere is a bigger school and the kids were all kept under control while they waited for their turn to run-

I couldn't get a photo of George running (only a distant one that shows nothing) but I was pleased to see Lily run as she didn't (want to) run at the Taniwha Challenge last week. She said that when she saw her Mum and I cheering her on, she felt like a Panther on Roller blades!

And went on to have a fabulous sprint to the end! -

So that was my day. It's quite exhausting watching the kids run!

'til next time,

happy stitches,

Raewyn