Inspired by nature...

When I looked around the corner of the house this morning and saw these daffodils, I knew what colour hexaflower I wanted to sew today!!

That's 17 of these retro-ones now... my garden is growing very slowly but it is nice having the weekly challenge to add to them.
Last week I said I would show you what I am doing with my 'pretty' hexaflowers. I could have sewn flat out today to finish it but I had a few other things I needed to do instead. However, here is a sneak preview!!

As you can see I have sewn the hexagons (5/8 inch sides)  onto four and a half inch squares. Next comes a chequerboard. So far the effect is very pretty and sweet. Its not the best photo sorry, I had trouble with getting the light right and didn't want to take them outside. (Indoor plants these ones!!)
A cow and I had a bit of an incident this morning, she was pushing to get somewhere we didn't want her... in the process the fingers of my hand got bent right back. As the day progresses, my hand is becoming sorer and more immobile!! Fingers crossed it will mend itself FAST!! So far it hasn't slowed down my hand sewing :-) (That's my main concern!!)

Missing...!!

I hunted and hunted the other day but do you think I could find it??
What was I looking for?
Here it is, under some scraps!! - My quickunpic, I always seem to be hunting for it!! I think I need to attach a locator beacon to it!!

What is the thing YOU lose most often in your sewing room?
I had a fun day yesterday; the local quilt guild had their once-every-two-years exhibition. I was helping out at the booth of my favourite quilt shop and look at the view from it!!
Hexagon quilts!! I wasn't sure about the ethics of taking photos of people's work that I didn't know so I just took a distant shot.

The quilt on the left is made from ties. This lady had several hand sewn quilts in the exhibition and they were all absolutely beautiful. The quilt on the right is made from larger hexagons - the note said that the fabrics were from several generations of clothing and that it therefore held very special memories. Lovely too. the quilting on this one was lattice-like and suited it very well.
(PS I think there will be some photos from the show here, soon.)
Below are some scenes from the farm this week. Very localised heavy rain - we shifted two mobs of stock at about 10pm but took a calculated risk and left the third mob over the river.

By next morning they were cut off - but high and dry, well fed and safe. Once the river had slowed down a bit and was safe to cross, the MOML was able to kayak over to move them!!  By the next morning we could cross the bridge and mend the fences!!. That's two floods lately, we hope that's all for a while!!

Five Flower Wednesday

Because these are nice and tiny, I managed to complete 5 hexie-flowers this morning. Here they are "lined up" with others done previously.... I think they are kinda cute.

I have enough of my 'pretty hexies' now to make them up into their planned project...hopefully this time next week I'll be able to show you what that will be.

I have also been doing some of the larger ones.. below is one I was sewing the other day... and my faux pas of the week!! Oops!!

Something else finished in my garden this week has been the first month of Lynette Anderson's "My Garden"... I am using her range of fabrics and they are so lovely!! (See the button at the side of this page for more details on this project)

And maybe I should have trimmed the edges and re-pressed  it before showing a photo of it to the world!!

That's it for now, thank you for visiting, and happy stitching everyone!!

The first ones are always the cutest.....

.... by the time I get to number 120 I no longer look at them through rose coloured spectacles!!!

Yes, calving has started, slowly right now but we will be busy in the weeks ahead. These calves  have been born earlier than their due date so I can enjoy them for a little while! The pace of life will soon change!!
Number 1 here has progressed from a bottle to a little feeder. Tomorrow I'll pull out the 'big calf' feeder for her and her mates. I took these photos yesterday and they are out of date already; we now have 3 and all are drinking off the feeder well. Its amazing how quickly 2 day old calves learn!
Although it was a beautiful calm, warm day I spent the afternoon in 'my cave' getting stage 2 of my klosjes quilt done.

Here is the scenic shot —

Here is what the whole of it looks like so far —

Most of the outer border klosjes were sewn as leaders and enders, I just made sure I had a pile of them prepared, so in a way it felt like I was sewing them for ages, but then again it felt like I hadn't even been working on them... and they were done :-). I just LOVE 'leading and ending' - I find it really hard to cut a thread!! I was also really pleased as I had spent a lot of time planning my outer klosjes, to get the size right for this border... and guess what!! - it was perfect!! I didn't even have to measure - just sewed!!! 

I'm still not sure what my next border will be, I have the odd idea (colour again) — if anyone has any ideas, please feel free to let me know!

I haven't updated my klosjes page for a while so will do that soon (but not tonight) with the finer details of my latest spools, as I have had the odd enquiry about them.

Tea is nearly ready for me to dish up so I will leave you with this shot - 

 (And no, it's not chicken for dinner tonight!!)

Happy stitching everyone...

Weedfree Wednesday

It's so nice to have a garden that needs no weeding!! Just a little trimming perhaps but no wheelbarrow in sight!

I didn't show a pic of last Wednesday's flower, so here it is. I didn't realise how much sewing there would be to put the white garden path completely around it so finishing this size was quite an achievement.

(oops the white fabric is a bit see through here and you can see the writing on the card behind it!)

This week, I have changed tack slightly with some different little hexie flowers. I pulled out my 'pretties' fabric (and shopped for some more) and reduced the size of my template... and here's the next little batch of blooms.

I thought using templates this small (6/8ths of an inch) would be fiddly but it isn't, and they are quick to sew — I pretty much had these sewn before breakfast!!

Bits and pieces...

Life has been a bit of a whirlwind since I last posted; I have had several posts floating around in my head but none of them have made it anywhere near the keyboard!!
Last Thursday I sacrificed my weekly 'stitch and chat' at my favourite little quilt shop. After conferences and busy stuff, I needed some ME time. I informed the MOML that I was hibernating in my 'cave' (as he calls it) and he was to pretend I had actually gone out after all.  I did  make him a cup of tea at lunchtime, but had a peaceful day, mostly tidying and sorting.
Before and after shots of one corner....

Very satisfying (you can see why I needed all day.. imagine 4 corners like that!!)

All while I was there with the camera, I  thought I should show my Flirting With Flowers blocks so far (please don't count them, you'll see I'm a month behind!)

In amongst the tidying I did finish this little pincushion. 

I have always been intrigued by the shape of these Biscornu (apparently that's French for irregular) pincushions, so when I saw the tutorial on Janet's Quiltsalott blog I decided I needed to make one. I gave this to my MIL and she really liked it.
Can you see the doily its sitting on? Its Irish Crochet, from memory, I just love the layered flowers. I actually made it when I was 17 so I must have been a Clever Miss back then, couldn't do it now!!
We've had a weekend of 'out to tea' 'out to lunch' for various celebrations (translate that into 'Ate Too Much"!). Then on Sunday night the girls cooked tea.

A delicious meal, culminating in the dessert course with this.....

... thank you girls :-)!! (Chocolate Mud Cake - very nice!!)

This morning we woke up to some flooding. We had to swim/wade to one mob of stock to get them to swim to dry land.

There's actually quite tall Willow trees under the water to the right of the photo above!

The river is retreating a bit now but it was pretty full on for a while!! And it will be a good day or so until we see the bridge! A good day for staying inside.
So that's me all caught up on the latest news.
Happy stitching everyone :-) , have a great day.