The Winterless North

(Day 8 of  my August blogpost a day challenge)

Northland, the top part of New Zealand, where we live, is often called the Winterless North. Many laugh at that description as winters can sometimes be a bit soggy and it still feels very much like winter. But we have what's called a 'subtropical' climate with 'warm humid summers and 'mild wet' winters.

That all changed this week when a Polar Blast hit the country. Snow in all sorts of places, and heavy (ish) frosts here in Northland. It's been a few years since we've had a decent frost.

So I had ice in my feeders (they hang on the gate/fence outside the pens) and a lovely white landscape for a few hours.

What was rather funny was taking Odie to school on the first frosty day....quite possibly a lot of these Northland kids had never really seen a decent frost before and the buzz was unimaginable. Such a lot of excited chatting and stories. One little girl showed me her bowl of snow she'd brought from home (!) and another wee chap told an extraordinary story about his dad covering his hair with orange juice, then rubbing his head on the ground and ending up with frozen orange ice blocks on his head!!!

Friends of mine in cooler climes would have rolled their eyes at the excitement!

Nothing like what was happening down south but it's all relative isn't it?!

This morning while feeding calves, my phone flipped out of my pocket (I thought I'd closed the snap but obviously not!). 

After a fair bit of hunting -it was on silent so I couldn't ring it- I finally found it —

It must have tipped out when I leant over to move these calves around the feeder- and then nicely trampled by them while feeding! —

'til next time,

happy stitches,

Raewyn 

Rainbow Scrap Challenge Blocks

(Day 7 of my blogpost a day August challenge)

When I've had a spare moment or bit of inspiration I've been trying to catch up on my Split 9-patch blocks for this year's Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks. (This is hosted by Angela over at soscrappy.)

Since I've mastered the web-piecing technique, I find these a lot of fun to sew up!

I enjoy rummaging through my scraps looking for the right coloured fabrics - it generally turns into another session of scrap taming and sorting and that is not a bad thing! Of course, once I sew them up I immediately think - oh that scrap doesn't belong....but such is the nature of scrap blocks/quilts.

April's colour was pink —

May was orange —

Pastel was the colour for June - I've missed this one out for now as I didn't really know what to do. When I decide which colour is needed later on, I'll sew it up then.

Aqua for July —

Yellow is August's colour which I haven't started on yet.

Taking scrappy sewing to the extreme, I'm not adverse to joining a couple of scraps to make a 2 ½" square - if that is all I have of a particularly cute fabric - but this one took the cake......I had joined two pieces to get the right size - but then mis-cut it when I went to trim it down. Not to be outdone, I decided to sew it up again and keep it as a wee memory of my stupidness!

Here's the family photo showing them all together —

'til next time.

happy stitches,

Raewyn

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