Happiness

Gosh, it's already 2 weeks since my last post - I can't believe time has flown by so quickly!
There's a lot of happiness around here at the moment; the sort that fills your heart so much that you're sure it will burst ♥
Is it because I've bordered my Scottie dog and he's nearly ready to be made into a cushion?

Is it because I finished another wee cardie?

Is it because I whipped up a wheatbag for DIL's aching muscles?

Or maybe because ED wanted in on the wheatbag action and requested an extra long shoulder-to-shoulder one?

Maybe it's because quilting is progressing on Lily's quilt?

NO!!!

Maybe it's because our son and his family have finally moved back to New Zealand!!

The happy event took place less than a week ago and we are still getting used to seeing them most days. They've moved into the other house on the farm, just over the hill from us.

How cool is this - their first morning here - the girls still in their pyjamas coming out to 'help' me feed the calves.

Tail catching.
They've since got proper farm clothes!

And imagine this.... two small girls waving at Gandad as he gets the herd in!!

(Enlarge the photo to see the cows)

It's a wonder I'm getting anything else done at all, isn't it :-)
I thought I'd finish with this beautiful Giant Hyacinth which is opening out at the moment. A sign that Spring is well and truely on its way :-)

Happy stitches ♥

Online Quilters Meet and Greet

I am delighted to be taking part in Benita's 2018 Quilters Meet and Greet event.

Benita, of Victoriana Quilt Designs, has created this to encourage and inspire quilters from around the world via a wee bit of blog hopping.  She has put together a great list of quilting blogs for us all to visit over the month.
And even better, every blog you visit during the party gives you a chance to go into a draw to win an amazing grand prize!
How does it work? Visit the blogs on the list, enjoy meeting new bloggers and seeing what they get up to. Click on the link to enter for the prize. That's it!
We have until October 1st to do the visiting - I'm so relieved it doesn't have to be squeezed into a few days! AND the prize will be shipped to anywhere in the world so we all have a chance to win :-)

My role as one of the guest bloggers is to introduce myself and my quilting.
I'm Raewyn, I live in the northern part of New Zealand...in this part of the world that means we have a 'sub-tropical' climate. My husband and I are dairy farmers. At this time of the year that means plenty of this —

As I'm actively involved in all aspects of our calving and the chief calf rearer it means a busy time outdoors and little quilting time indoors.

When I get a chance though, I do enjoy my time in The Palace (as my husband calls it). Benita asked for a quilt picture to include in her promotion and I hurriedly sent her this one, my latest finish (isn't our latest finish often the latest favourite?) —

You can read more about my Eeyore quilt *here*

I think I'd be accurate to call myself a prolific starter of quilts but not a prolific completer. I do try though and do mean to finish all I start - at some stage!

I'm very lucky to work part-time at my local quilt shop, The Country Yard. This of course is the ideal place for someone like me :-) Last year we had a great time sewing the Moda Be My Neighbour quilt as a sewalong. What a relief it was to get this huge one finished earlier this year.

There's more about this quilt *here*.

A few years ago I was taking part in all sorts of free motion quilting challenges. These were great fun and gave me the confidence to design a free motion quilting BOM for The Country Yard.
Birdy Love was the result - I still love this quilt and am tickled pink that I was able to pull this programme off! 

More Birdy Love details are *here*.

I  have a love of mini sewing. I got a little silly one day and made this wee one —

Details *here*

You may pick from the above photo that I don't like to throw away leftover bits of fabric and therefore I have several scrap quilts on the go. This is a top I pieced but it still remains unquilted. A great combination; scraps and stars!

And this runner was made from bonus HSTs

Stitchery is another enjoyment. I've been stitching up some Whimsical Woodland blocks lately for a mystery I'm taking part in.

Also this year I've been doing some test sewing for Juliet of Tartankiwi. These birds are from her Birds on a Wire series. They're 6" finished so as well as enjoying some Foundation Paper Piecing I've been able to indulge my love of 'small sewing'.

It's been quite a blast from the past going through my blog looking for photos to share here!! It's also been rather daunting noting how many unfinished projects I have packed away within the posts of my blog - which means they're floating around The Palace somewhere too, waiting ever so quietly for me to get to them!
Thank you for your patience getting this far in the post!! I hope you take the time to visit the other bloggers taking part this month as well. I'm looking forward to meeting new bloggers and keeping the bloglove alive.
Don't forget to click on the image below to enter for the Grand Prize Benita has put together for this event.

Finally, thank you to Benita of Victoriana Quilt Designs for putting this together for our enjoyment.

Happy stitches,

George has a quilt!!

After what seems like forever, I have finally finished my Eeyore quilt. George gave it a little test ride yesterday and approved heartily ♥

This quilt started as a Foundation Paper Pieced Eeyore from Fandom Stitches. I enlarged the pattern to a little over 12"  —

— and had fun building it up to about 39" x 48" 

(Although the background colour is actually a light cream, not white, the photo shows the other colours off best.) 

I used Karen's tutorial (found *here*) to make the flanged binding. In this method, the flange is part of the binding.I'm not a huge fan of machine sewn binding but this turned out fairly well so maybe it's just a matter of practise!!

You may notice in the first photo above that George is wearing a new cardigan. ED realised she didn't have many small sized cardies for outings so requested a neutral coloured one which either baby could wear.

I hunted out an easy knit pattern and found this one called Carousel. It's knitted from the top down and all in one piece. It went together really quickly.

Modelled by Lily....

While I'm showing baby knitting you may remember the vests I made a few months back. When the babies visited yesterday they were wearing them :-) Nice to see them being used. And the buttons at the side made them easy to remove when the babies were sleeping and heating up!

And in other news —

Here are the last two blocks of the Zookeeper's Blanket - a Seal and a Red Panda. Yaay!!

Here's the tally —

And I've started a new stitchery; this will be a sample for work (The Country Yard) and is also a scary reminder that Christmas is on its way!!

As you can see, I'm gradually getting some more sewing and crafting time. Calving is slowing down and I'm hoping that it won't be too long until Lily has her quilt! Quilting it will be this month's OMG (linking with Patty of Elm St Quilts).
This is where I'm at with it so far —

Basted, that's all....

You can see that it is similar to the quilt I made for George. To save thinking time it might end up being quilted the same as his one too!

Thank you for visiting, I hope your weekend is going well and you've managed a bit of creative time,

Happy stitches,