Friday Night Stitching and animals again

With my latest block of Wings and Pretty Things complete, it is time for me to get back to The Santa, The Tree, The Turkey and Me. I have a little catching up to do as this is only block three and block four is waiting for attention as well.

Santa's wardrobe is taking shape —

I'm finding it best to prep just a few pieces at a time, to make sure they stay stuck on while I stitch. 

For Friday Night Sew In, hosted by the lovely Wendy over at Sugarlane designs, I prepped his stockings and a pom-pom —

And got the stockings sewn down —

I'll prep a few more pieces tonight and hopefully will make some more progress.

I'm surprised I got any stitching done at all last night. I'd had a very tense and worrying day as our wee dog spent the day at the vets 'getting his teeth done'. I'm not sure if that is the right expression - he had 10 pulled out and it was a very long operation. Just as well I didn't know that at the time - I would have been beside myself even more fretting about him. He is 14 years old and has a bit of a heart murmur so there was a risk. However he was in pain and we felt there was no alternative but to do the operation.

Even though he is on painkillers he's doing remarkably well and appears so much more like his old self. He even leapt up to intervene in a cat chase through the house between Nigel (the chaser) and Katems (the chased).

So I celebrated this morning with another scrappy Christmas block —

This particular design uses less fabric than the other blocks I am doing which is great. Some of these I am having trouble finding the right feature fabric for the centre. This one worked, but it took me a while to find and it certainly wasn't a scrap!

Before I could get to my sewing we went out the back to sort out our calves. We needed to draft them into three mobs according to breed and gender, getting the beefies ready for sale. So rewarding to see the calves I spent all those months rearing looking great, and it was also a bonus that they were all there; no stragglers hiding amongst trees etc!

No time for photos while we were working, and definitely not when I did a spectacular gymnastic movement while trying to stop a calf running in the drafting race (I'll be sore tomorrow) but I took this one when we'd finished of one of the mobs happily grazing.

This dam was dry at the beginning of last March, it looks like it will hold out this summer.

This afternoon I 'helped' move the milking herd to a fresh paddock. (Helping was just standing there directing them into the right gate!) In the weekends we use the paddocks across the road as there is little or no traffic.

It was a chance to take some more photos.

It's been another very hot day today. We're all melting and I'm sure half the population is at a beach or near some water somewhere! All the pets are stretched out on their sides in the coolest spots they can find.

(Oh and apparently dogs have 40 teeth so Oscar shouldn't miss those ones too much!)

Til' next time,

Happy stitches,