Weekend bits and pieces

I've been doing quite a lot of knitting lately but for Friday Night Sew In I decided to pull out my current Foxley Village block... I say current because it's the one I'm working on, but it hasn't been worked on at all for well over a month, I think!
I was getting hassled by all the small satin stitched leaves which seemed to be taking me forever. I was tempted to change the stitch for the second tree, but in the end carried on with the satin stitch.
After a false start —

Hehe cuteness galore
We're looking after this grand-baby this weekend.

— and a bit more stitching on Saturday night, I've got this far —

There are also some berries to be stitched amongst the leaves! Sigh!

I finished off these wee slippers during the week. They have sheepskin soles so I'm hoping they will be 'just right' for the three walking babies in our lives at the moment.

I've cast on for another pair which I hope to make some progress on this afternoon in the car. The big grandie-girls came back here after netball yesterday and we'll be taking them home later.

As always, they've had a nice visit, and there's a batch of muffins being made, as I write :-)

They might even be ready now, so I'd best get upstairs and see how they are....
Thank you Wendy for hosting Friday Night Sew In. Head over to her blog if you want to check out what others got up to.

'til next time,

Happy stitches,

Time to catch up again!

Since my last post I've fitted a little sewing in but I'm determined to do a photo catch up before getting back into my quilty crafty posts.
So if you're here for the fabrics and threads, you're out of luck, come back next time...today's post is all about family and farm.

Easter of course is long been and gone - my sister and her family came to visit. We worked out that it was 10 years since they'd been out to the farm; they live a ways away and in their previous visits up north they've been to wedding venues and then back home again. SO it really was great to have them visit.

My sister and I ♥

Easter time was all about family. It was great to have everyone together. YD and I organised an egg hunt for the younger ones which they totally enjoyed .....my nephew spun a great yarn about seeing something fluffy out in the garden the previous night and led the younger ones off Pied Piper style.

The cousins had a fun time playing together. Nice to see the older girls sharing one of their favourite farm games with the younger.

And some just posed gorgeously —

The older girls are living up north full time now so we are enjoying seeing a lot more of them. They now have the opportunity to take part in school sports and are both playing Saturday netball. While the MOML spends his Saturdays following our son and the two son-in-laws and their rugby games, I'm now a Netball Ganma and spend Saturday mornings at the netball courts! I was a netbal girl myself so am enjoying it a lot!

J on left in black.

One time the girls came home with me after netball to stay the night. They're keen cooks so there was no meal making for me while they were here. We ate well :-) 

Wednesday has become another Ganma day. I drop these two off at kindy —

— then carry on to ED's to look after these two while she works.

Aren't I lucky? ♥♥♥

OK, enough of the family. Now for the farm pics.

I took this one back in April while I was shifting the cows one afternoon. We have a few paddocks over the road which we graze in the weekends when there is little traffic (and definitely no logging trucks!) (If you click on the photos they should enlarge for a better look).

 

Here is me shifting the cows again. We've really greened up since a bit of rain.

Because we don't get very cold here, and there is a lot of evergreen native bush,  we don't get a huge amount of autumn colour. This year I missed getting out wit the camera but I got this one from the deck. Liquid Ambers never disappoint.

Random shot, peeking through some trees.

The cows are looking a little woolier than usual.

The sheep always looking wooly :-)

We had some beautiful sunsets a few weeks ago. Dinner was late some nights while I was out looking at them. I really liked this photo —

Yahoo - caught up again!! Here's hoping I can stay caught up and next post will have some stitching goodness :-)

If you got to the end, thanks for persisting!!

'til next time,

happy stitches, 

Gifts and giving

I keep on discovering more to talk about after my trip over to Baradine for the Scrubstitching retreat.
We all took a gift along for a swap....the rule was 'make it or fake it' (great rule!).
I received a lovely gift from Sandy -

I pulled out my design mirror gadget the other day to have a bit of a play; it will be interesting to see what I end up doing with these.

Thank you Sandy, and also thank you Sandie for the mirror :-)

I was able to squeeze in a day in The Palace before leaving and  managed a gift of the Make It kind. As soon as I saw this sewing organiser I knew I wanted to make it as it's the sort of thing I've wanted for myself. It was a fun make and I was really happy with how it turned out. Lynda received my gift and she said she was delighted, so I was pleased about that :-)

My photos don't show it well enough, it a wee pouch thing to stow your sewing bits in when you travel. You can zip it up for safe travels —

and then fold it down to use. Tho photo below shows the top folded down and another zip pocket on the outside.

I found the instructions really clear to follow and will definitely be making this again. 

Sandy, Sonia and Carol all had pop-up shops there at retreat so I may have also gifted myself with a couple of goodies—

I said in a previous post that I spent a day piecing some healing hearts for the Christchurch quilt drive. I took the blocks over that I had made, and added to them blocks made by fellow scrubstitchers. I had enough to piece two quilts!
I wish I'd taken a photo of the piles of blocks that I had but was too busy sewing up a storm to think of that.

Making a start

One completed quilt top. Sue and I explored the grounds to find some interesting photography spots.

Once I got home I pieced the second top. I decided to vary my design a little bit and used a less subtle green in it, which gives a totally different look.

I used both pieced and appliqued hearts in both quilts - combining
them worked better than I thought they may.

I wrote in a previous post about the terrible drought that is ongoing in Baradine and (other parts of Australia). The local Country Women's group has set up a Drought Pantry to help feed the community. A lot of our group donated goods for the pantry and we went along one morning to sort them. It was sobering to drive through the drought hit countryside, more sobering to listen to the talk about the effects of the drought by the Vice President of the CWA, and even more sobering to visit the Drought Pantry in person. Amazing the support and goods that have been given. 

I think this is my last photo to share about retreat - look at the tribe! A fabulous group of women ♥

'til next time, 

happy stitches,