September's flying by -

I surprised myself when I checked out my camera this morning and realised I had a couple of things I could blog about :-) My progress on any projects this month seems to have been so slow I was sure there would be nothing to share!
First of all, I have made a couple more heart blocks.

I started these *here* and am enjoying hunting out my reds - I'm sure there are many more where these came from!

In my last post I also shared the applique block I made for a Mystery SAL (Friday's Christmas) at The Country Yard.... we had the show and tell for the next round the other day. There are several options for this and so all the quilts will turn out quite differently. Here are some pics from it —

Kerryn's

Bernice's

and mine.

There are three challenge fabrics.... at least one has to be used each time. And if you look carefully you will see the similarities between the three...the same but different :-)
Hmmm I wonder what the next step of this mystery will be......?!

And I've finished the August block for our Holly Cottage Christmas SAL...I'm loving how these are turning out ♥

*****

Down on the farm we're sure we will soon be growing fins and webbed feet as it's been a soggy few months. With nearly 2 months of calving under our belts, we're both as physically and emotionally exhausted as we have ever been. And while the farmlife photos I usually share are cute or scenic pictures, we all know it's not always rosey.

Ahhh lovely!

 After a challenging week, I thought I'd share a little more of the realities of country life ....

The hot water cylinder at the shed blew its element. To have hot water for
mixing milk powder for my calves, the MOML got a good old fashioned
fire going!
(Better than earlier in the day when I had to carry buckets of hot water from
the house to the shed).

Getting stuck has become the order of the day. This was me, trying to get into
a paddock to feed my calves.
Step one was to jettison the milk and lighten the load (ie feed the calves)
.... then detach the feeder and wriggle the bike out (Low - 4WD - diff lock on)
...then pivot the feeder by hand so it was facing the other way
....attach feeder to bike and drive away.
Superwoman!

The next day the MOML got stuck good and proper. Here he's trying to
winch himself out by attaching the winch to a post.
Both our bikes have winches at the front - life savers!

This shows how wet it is under foot ..these calves are busy around the feeder.

And before you ask, it's just not economic to have lots of barns/sheds and feed pads here - usually our NZ all-grass system works well. Occasionally it comes unstuck - or perhaps I should say, stuck!
But it's a fresh week and we're still smiling - maybe the rain will stop one day :-)

Here's to Happy Places. Quilting and blogland fit that bill♥  

Happy stitches!

September Friday Night with Friends

On Friday night I joined in with like-minded cyber friends, thanks to Cheryll and Friday Night with Friends, and spent a happy evening stitching away on my current A Holly Cottage Christmas block.
I feel like I've been working on this for ages and really thought I was nearly done, with just a few more french knots to do —

— but then I realised the gingerbread man still needs some features!

So maybe another evening and I'll have this block done - I'm just loving this project :-)

I have really been enjoying my needleturn lately...here is a block I made for a new Friday mystery SAL at The Country Yard. It's an adaptation of a block I did a few years ago - and also one I did recently for my swap with Janet.
(Not the sharpest of photos sorry but you get the idea!)

On Saturday I pulled out some reds and made a few hearts... I used the tutorial from Cluck Cluck Sew (and not for the first time!) which I find to be a really good way of making a heart block.
 I must say I always enjoy a good rummage through my scraps!

Maybe - just maybe - this could be the start of something new?!

This is turning into a very brief post - for me, anyway - so I'll squeeze in a couple of photos I took this morning while out feeding calves.
While these guys were all drinking milk —

This chap was thinking he was a hunting dog —

Totally dwarfed by the big old Totara.
And while there probably is a possom up there, I'm fairly certain it is safe!

I have 108 calves to feed now so that takes a wee while. 80 of them though are out on the farm and on once-a-day feeding, which I do with that big feeder towed behind the bike.

There's some more stitching calling my name so I'll sign off... I'll be back a bit later to do the rounds and see what the other ladies got up to on Friday night... you can visit Cheryll's blog *here* to have a look yourself :-)

Happy Stitches,