End of month tally up

Even with an extra day in the month, I haven't done nearly as much sewing in February as I had hoped. However I am happy with what I have squeezed in.
Getting the negatives out of the way first, I failed to meet my One Monthly Goal which I signed up to at the start of the month. I did want to get my latest baby quilt finished. There're more baby quilts waiting to be started so I need to get moving on this.

I did get it basted and spent an hour or so quilting some straight lines. But that's it so far and this will get put down as next month's OMG - better luck next time!
(Patty's One Monthly Goal can be found on her blog *here*.)

Instead of quilting the baby quilt above I had started the month finishing the quilting on my blue mystery stitchery quilt. This was my first PHD completion of the year.

See more *here*.

Very good to get that out of the way. Just 11 PHDs to go! (Gulp.) Another on my PHD list is my Scrappy Sprouts quilt. It's been pulled out, I made four more blocks, and I'm going to leave it on my wall until I've done some more serious work on it!

For my WOOFA challenge (working on or finishing challenge) I have worked on three of my projects.
I've completed another 18 (!!) blocks of my Omigosh quilt. The amazing thing that these have been made in a quiet half hour at the start of each day - once the half hour is up I put them away.

Sometimes I have only 15 minutes, but I don't do any more than a half hour. And for the last week I haven't done any at all. Also, I had a lot of partially completed blocks so don't go thinking I am Wonder-woman, I didn't sew them all from scratch this month.

Another WOOFA project was a little work on Foxley Village; another two applique blocks —

The geese block was particularly cute.

And 28 blocks for Flashcat. No I still haven't had a chance to blog about this so I will soon. The latest blocks are for the first border, seen below. This is another Tartankiwi design I am pattern testing for Juliet. (It's a fabulous project so deserves its own post!)

Well that was a bit of a tease, here's another one —

And not on any lists is my newly started 2020 temperature quilt. I have pieced one week to see how it would look and am really pleased with how it shapes up.

First week of February temperatures
And don't you just love my special sign!

My actual finishes for the month are very low which is why I am enjoying taking part in the 350 block project, run by Prairie Moon quilts.
The 350 block project celebrates the blocks made, even if a quilt isn't finished and is the reason I'm being so careful to count and state the number of blocks I've made for each project. This month's grand total is 53. That's pretty positive, I reckon :-)

We are very lucky that we get to spend a lot of time with the wee people in our family. We had two smallies visit today. I sometimes feel I have really made it as a quilting Ganma when a small child insists on nestling into a (patchwork) cushion and covers himself with a quilt (in the middle of summer) so that he can concentrate on a puzzle  ♥

'til next time,

happy stitches,

I'm late, I'm late...

The end of the weekend is here already and I'm only just getting to writing my report for Friday Night Sew In. Thank you to Wendy for inviting us along to craft with her :-)
Silly ole me forgot when I signed up that my main evening stitching project at the moment is a secret one.
It's a challenge that Sue and I have given each other. And that's all I can say for now.
Anyway here's a wee hint —

And maybe this too —

I shall be able to reveal all sometime in April I think - here's hoping I get it done by then!
Thank you Wendy for hosting us all on Friday night.

Please don't tell anyone but I've started a new project. For the past few years I've been wanting to make a temperature quilt. I first saw them on Mary, Needled Mom blog... and I said I was going to join in and make my own, but didn't. Then the next year, she started another one, and I was inspired again; I gathered my fabrics, made a few flying geese, didn't really love the fabrics and nothing else happened. Her's are *here* on her blog - they're pretty stunning!)
Enter Joanne of Canuck Quilter. She is making one this year and developed a simple but effective design for one. I promptly downloaded it!! See it *here*.
A fresh pile of fabrics - and I'm away. Joanne used Grunge and that's what I've gone with too.

Each daily high and low temperature is represented by a square. Varying lengths of background fabric are added top and bottom to form the pattern.
I've got a basket of 2" squares cut, have joined a few, and am excited about carrying on with this throughout the year.

It has gaps already - I need to do some more cutting.
The deep red will be the hottest days and either the uncut grey or dark blue
will be the coldest days.

Essential data added for when I start sorting and joining on the white strips.

A few of the combinations. So pleased Joanne (Canuck Quilter) inspired
me to go with these fabrics!

One of the aims of the PHD project I've signed up for is to finish everything new that we start during this year. Strictly speaking I won't be able to do that with this but, all going according to plan, I do think I should be able to have a completed flimsy on January 1st 2021!

'til next time,

Happy stitches,

A touch of Orange

Last weekend, I decided my sewing time would be scrappy time.
Orange is the colour for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge with Angela for February. I'd put away my January greens and went looking for Orange.
I really didn't think I would find many and wondered if I'd have enough to do any scrap sewing. It's not that I mind orange, it's brilliant for a pop of colour and contrast here and there but I don't think I've ever made anything that's had much orange in it.
Surprisingly though, I found this much orange! So many shades.....

When put next to each other, some looked more gold than orange, or more burnt than orange, etc, but then individually, they all (to me) passed the Orange test.

First of all I cut a few squares to use as the main colour in my Omigosh churndash blocks.

Then I pulled out my scrappy sprouts for the first time in a very long time. I'd really like to get this finished this year.

I made four more blocks.

And after some time trying to remember the 'clever way' I was doing the black stems, I joined them to a length of reds I'd made previously.

I squeezed all that I've done into an empty area on my design wall. There is the odd square I'm not so happy with (for example a cream that's too close to the yellows and the top pink block doesn't work terribly well for me.) 

However I still think it's going to be pretty cool and hopefully, now that it's out, I'll continue to work on it.

[As a side note; I was looking at it the other day, thinking, I don't ever remember using that fabric, or this one over here, etc, when I remembered that some of the red, and green blocks were sent to me by Sue of Mother Patchwork. Haa, no wonder I didn't recognise them but it was a nice way to start my quilt.]

This year I decided to continue on with my 365 day blog, where I post a picture a day for the year. Yesterday I hit Day 50 so I'm pretty pleased about that. I enjoy having the excuse to take my camera out and about with me and noticing some of those things that I'm sometimes too busy to notice. 

Northland (and other parts of the North Island) are suffering 'extreme dry' conditions at the moment and our farm is no exception. 

I've taken both of these photos recently, that show how dry it's become, even since the last time I shared a farm photo at the end of January. 

We're having to feed out to all the stock to keep them happy and healthy.

'til next time,

happy stitches,

Finished twice!

A project I considered Half Done and one I wanted to complete properly this year was my 2010 Mystery Stitchery, completed through The Country Yard way back then.
I re-discovered it recently when the elder twins were building a hut —

I realised how little quilting it had on it and decided if it was going to live for more huts and general wear and tear, it would be best if I added some more to it.

It was quilted around the sashing of the stitchery blocks and and in about 6 other ditches. A bit baggy in places :-(

I decided I wasn't going to quilt it to death, but I do like my stitcheries to have at last a little quilting in them —

I had a bit of a play adding in some steam or ribbons, etc.

I should include a photo of how these blocks were before —

There are a couple more photos of these on my previous post. When I wrote that post I was asked where the proverb designs came from. After a bit of hunting and remembering, I found them *here*. The site is slightly updated from years ago when we accessed them for The Country Yard but you should be able to get them ok.

I stitched in a lot more ditches. The flying geese got a wee touch of free play —

I did some very simple border feathers —

I had a flashback to 2012 and the Diane Gaudynski feathers I learnt then.

Finished with a label (nothing flash!) —

Funny that this quilt never got a name - it was always just The Mystery Stitchery!

A quick photo shoot of the new and improved twice finished quilt!

Ta-Da! My first PHD finish for the year.

Read more about the PHD project *here*.
EDIT - I'm linking up to Gail's PHD progress report *here*.

I mentioned in my last post that we had the elder girls here. They stayed for a couple of nights while their Dad and YD were otherwise occupied......

The Grand Result? One big little baby boy ♥

Unfortunately for you, you're seeing more of me than he in the photo below but rest assured that he is a beautiful bonny fellow. The spitting image of his father.

One happy Ganma and newborn Odie ♥

As can be expected we're all as pleased and proud as punch!

'til next time,

happy stitches,

A little handwork

Friday Night With Friends came around very quickly for me and passed again just as quickly! By the time I got home and we'd settled after dinner, there wasn't much time for much handwork.
One of my PHD goals for the year is to put some more quilting on a quilt I finished years (10 in fact) ago.
I'd done some quilting on it on Thursday and spent Friday evening knotting and burying the threads

There weren't many to bury (I haven't finished with the new quilting yet) so I then pulled out these two blocks and added a bit of stitchery to them.
The geese needed their eyes —

And the wagon wheels needed completing —

These are blocks six and seven from my Foxley village BOM (Homespun magazine). They were nice and quick to do but I see block eight will be a bit more involved. Foxley Village didn't make it to any of my official lists this year but I'm going to quietly add it to my WOOFA list - I've realised nothing on either of my lists has hand stitching for the evenings which is quite a gap - some days that's all the stitching and sewing I get to do.

Thank you Cheryll for inviting us along for Friday Night with Friends. You can visit her blog *here.*

It's been a busy weekend. We have the two older girls and their two dogs staying so there's not been many chances to escape to The Palace. (The girls are doing homework at the moment so I've sneaked away!)

Two photos from the weekend; cooling off in the stream in the bush down the farm :-) One of my favourite spots at this time of the year.

'til next time,

happy stitches,

Sewing in the heat

I spent time in the weekend doing some 'odds and sods' sewing —

A zip installed in a cushion for YD so she can wash it, and a new head rest
for a carseat after the original had an unfortunate accident.

As well as the above there was a bit of mending and altering a new pair of farm overalls for the MOML. Not terribly enthralling but it felt good to get those chores out of the way :-)

When Monday came, I was more than happy to focus on some of the other sewing goals I have. It was easy to decide what to do for this month's One Monthly Goal with Patty Of Elm Street Quilts.

Yes, quilt and finish the baby quilt I assembled for last month's goal.

To see what others are working on, or to sign up yourself, visit Patty's blog *here*.

Getting that thinking out of the way, I then moved on with The Sopwell Ladies Basket Society Quilt.

I have been slowly chipping away at this. My design wall has been gradually filling up with the small blocks and the planning of what fabrics to use where —

Completed block 5 and planning of block 6!

To the sewing machine with invisible thread and zigzag —

Units assembled and ready to join —

(For the purposes of my 350 block project I'll be counting this as 5 blocks,
even though the pattern calls it One Block!)

Block 6 complete —

Yaay - great to be making progress on this - even though it's not on any of my official lists for this year, hehe!
(As for my blog title, all my sewing is being done under a fan at the moment - it's been Very Hot!)

EDIT - I'm just popping back to link up to Dione at Clever Chameleon Quilting. She does a weekly link up for us to show the progress we're making on our projects. Her latest post is a fun wee commentary on what she's been up to. Visit her *here*.

'til next time,

happy stitches,