My quilting thoughts and inspirations sprinkled with a glimpse of life down on the farm

Sunday, August 14, 2022

Time for a catch up!

After my spectacular blogpost a day (nearly) in July, I realise it's now ten thirteen fourteen days with no post!
Generally, the farm has been keeping us all busy, but I have made progress on several things.

I've added just 4 more churn dashes to my collection (these are 6" blocks) —
I took apart my disastrous 'stitched by candlelight' hexie rosette and remodelled it, forming two more. Out with the old —
In with the new —
(Different lighting, but that 'red' is the same fabric!)
Six is enough for what I want to do; they'll be appliqued onto larger squares for my 2022 quilt.
I had needed a little more fabric to complete my Raining Cats and Dogs block/row...so here it is in all its glory!
This is actually 12" x 60 so is a decent size (!). It will also be part of my 2022 quilt. Its width will dictate the size of that quilt.

And Memory Lane has seen some progress too. I made 5 more blocks, joined them together and sewed them on as the bottom border of this quilt. 
(Yes, if you notice it, I did change the order of the above blocks...I had muddled them when joining.)
And I've attached the top border too - here is how that is looking now.
I have a bit of thinking to get the two side borders done. They will look similar to these, but with different sized and shaped stitchery blocks to work with.

On the home front —
Miss Lily (and family) had a brief visit one day. She insisted 'we' do some more sewing while here. She wanted another dolls' quilt.
Her attention span was long enough to quickly sandwich two squares of fabric with an offcut of batting, two diagonal lines as quilting and a zigzag around the outside. I wasn't even allowed to trim it to tidy the rough edges! Here it is in her (birthday) dolls' house —
Just perfect I'd say!
Last weekend one of the local gardens opened their gates as a fundraiser, while their beautiful magnolias were in flower. ED, YD and I (and a couple of children) went along.
We were amazed at the size of the blooms on this tree!
The same weekend, the older twins had their first ever 'dance recital'. This was quite well done, and each little group spent only 5-10 minutes on stage - with one or two routines. Our two loved it. (They do mini-acro; a bit of gymnastics/acrobatics in it which seems quite fun!)
The other day when YD and Odie were out, we went out the back. He remembered exploring from another time and took us off for a bit of a bush walk. 
These three were entertained, watching Gandad in the paddock with the cows another day —

I am bursting at the seams with calves. I have approx 60 that I'm rearing right now. And we've sold a couple of dozen which I reared through to about a week old. 
They're starting to fill up the sheds 
Three mobs (of ten) in this shed now. The older ones now have access to the outdoors so they can start to learn how to eat grass.
It's always a good workout, carrying buckets of milk to the calves! 
We're still having to help the first-timers calve, as the bull we were sold is throwing big calves. They're all doing well. It is always amazing to see how resilient calves are. This guy was rejected by his mum, unlicked even. We got him to the shed, I managed to make him stand and got his first feed of colostrum into him. I left him for the night with an old horse-neck cover draped over him —
Next morning (10 hours later) he was unrecognisable from the other calves —
A nice scene one morning this week —

OK, must away, and (finally) get this posted!
'til next time,
happy stitches,


9 comments:

  1. Busy, busy, busy, indoors and out.

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  2. Lovely post Raewyn - lots happening on the quilting front as well as on the farm. Those magnolia blooms are amazing! xx

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  3. so busy on the farm and the grandkids besides that it is no wonder you take a blog break now and then. Love the cat chasing the dog scene for your quilt

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  4. gosh raewyn no wonder you have little sewing time...i am amazed you get as much done as you do with all that on your plate...love your posts...and seeing you on zoom!

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  5. Four--really pretty quilting projects that got worked on-lovely--
    and outings with the kiddo's on top--
    and that large pink bloom is so pretty--
    then all those calves--wow--when do you sleep????
    hugs, di

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  6. You do keep busy with the cattle, the children and your sewing. You must be getting eager for the warmer days ahead.

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  7. Beautiful blocks and growing quilt top Reawyn. Lovely to see the farm and family photos, love the ones of the children and dog watching the cows being brought in. You must be super busy with all those calves, good to hear the rejected one is doing well.

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  8. Lots of lovely sewing Raewyn and my goodness that flower is huge! Special times with the Grandies. You sure do have a lot of four legged babies there xx

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  9. Your stitching is going well and it’s good to hear that all your calves are thriving, although they are keeping you busy. I can’t believe you even had time for some fun family things.

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