A Rainy Day

Day 29 of my August blogpost a day challenge

It was a wet day today, perfect for stitch-and-chat day at The Country Yard.

I finished all my farm jobs promptly and got to sewing nice and early.

Haha very early; I was Raewyn-no-friends for a while (lucky I have my own key or I would have been sitting in the car park!)

I decided to get back to the LeMoyne stars which I had started in a mini sewalong at the start of the month.

I got one made - I'm not totally happy with the centre of it and will probably end up doing a bit of unpicking to improve it. 

Then I thought I'd better get thinking about the cushion Miss Lily has requested for Christmas. I've selected my main fabrics and hopefully the rest will flow from there - 

And then I got sidetracked with organising and talking about a new project, egged on by the others. A small cross-stitch motif a day.  What could be more straight forward!

Back home, the rain had steadily got heavier and, although still warm, it was definitely full scale wet-weather gear weather; one very soggy raincoat - 

All the outside calves had shelter - some ventured out for a graze- 

- others were not and had to be encouraged outside - 

Then straight back to the shed after their feed!

The cows were happy though, but you can see puddles forming in the paddocks. Fingers crossed they stay as puddles!

'til next time,

happy stitches,

Raewyn

Small Treasures

Day 28 of my August blogpost a day challenge

I thought it was time I had a proper look through this basket of Mum's -

Full of treasures - 

As I've said before, Mum was a keen embroiderer. She was fully involved in her guild, always taking workshops/classes (pupil and teacher). 

She went to every conference that she could and loved attending her guild's annual Winter Warmup retreat at Tui Ridge near Mt Ruapehu - and she seemed to love to collect the badges to proof it!!

She made a few of these cube pin cushions when she first started; I have a very well used  one (initial 'R'), and she had another one she used a lot too.

Other bits and pieces. I can't work out how the balls are made; as well as the embroidery elements, they are wound with fine thread - 

She made a few of these many moons ago too - 

Bargello - 

The workmanship on some of these is amazing - so many tiny stitches!!

This one has a wee lavendar sachet inside and now lives in a drawer -

Just a small amount of what she made over the years.

'til next time,

happy stitches,

Raewyn

The Summertime Quilt continued

Day 27 of my August blogpost a day challenge

I got back to my blocks for The Summertime quilt today, and now I've completed the eight Square in Diamond Star blocks needed for it. 

I was going to be sensible and work through the instructions methodically, making 8 of this and 13 of that (and so on) but I'm starting to get itchy feet to see how the quilt will develop. 
So this is the start of the top left corner -

Below shows one at work (making better progress than me) and the pattern graphics - 

- so you can see I have some interesting stitching coming up 🙂

It was dehorning day on the farm today. The vet comes out to do this - all I had to do was make sure the calves were fed before 7am (4 hours before their anaesthetic!) and have them all in suitable pens.

All the Angus/beef calves are polled (they don't grow horns) so it was just the 33 dairy calves to be done.

They're knocked right out and also given a local anaesthetic. A pen full of snoring calves is quite cute - 

The vet uses a little gas tool which cauterises and removes the horn buds - 

A couple of hours later, they're starting to move around a bit. Stand up, sit down.

And then by late afternoon, they're feeling a little more themselves and are ready to resume their normal routine. Afternoon feed for these ones - 

And back to the paddock for the ones on once-a-day feeding - 

'til next time,

happy stitches,

Raewyn