Cut Short —

The MOML and I with our feet up, enjoying a change of scenery the other day. 

Each year we try to get away for a weekend between the end of calving and the start of mating....a very narrow window of time...and when our son-in-law offered to milk for us recently, we jumped at the chance!

We headed up north as we usually do; this time we went to Omapere, at the mouth of the Hokianga Harbour on the west coast.

Even though it was school holidays, it was very quiet (it usually is, but more so this time) as only Northlanders can access Northland at the moment.
The view from our unit —

Looking down into the Hokianga Harbour —

The huge sand dunes across the water really dominate the view —

Unfortunately Northland suddenly went into Level 3 lockdown on Saturday night after two Covid infected people forged their way through the border and spent 4 days out and about. One person went into hiding, and they were both very uncooperative about their movements.

That meant we had to go home early, after just one night away. We did have a very full 36 hour holiday though! We had a good couple of walks. This walk was a 4 hour one (one-way) but we just went 40 minutes to an accessible beach. It was beautiful. — 

Some trickier areas —

We had taken a small picnic and had a wee rest before heading back —

Barely a soul around! —

So back home again, earlier than intended, I decided I needed a Sunday-Sewday! The next best thing to having some time away.

I really wanted to catch up on my star blocks for The Great Scrappy Star Adventure. I'd done the instructions for Month 9 but had only sewn the star 'spike' units as part of the writing process. 

I needed to check that it actually worked!!

I got carried away, making a whole lot of units, and then working out which ones would go with what—

The resulting stars (just 9" ones this time) —

A closer look at some of the fabrics —

And not yet shown, the Month 8 stars —

And quickly before I go, I have done a little more on my Squirrel project, the 2021 Laundry Basket Quilts mystery quilt.

Last time I shared, I had done the centre of the quilt —

The next lot of blocks have moved more to the reds, rather than the deep reds —

And this is where it is now; I have done another two rounds. (It's not designed as a round quilt but that is how I am sewing it.) Sit back a bit and squint at it; it looks pretty cool, I reckon!

(It looks elongated because I have only joined horizontally. I can't join the rows together until I have worked my way out to the outside edge, which is another three rounds. Getting there!)

There's plenty more to talk about but that's it for now, as it's well past my bedtime, 

'til next time,

happy stitches,

Sewing pretty

I glanced up at my design wall the other day and realised that this week's sewing had been 'pretty' - projects using pretty fabrics.

First up was a mystery stitchery BOM I am doing through The Country Yard, as a participant rather than designer or sample maker. I fought very hard and tried to sit on my hands but in the end gave in. This stitchery uses motifs and stitchery designs from a variety of previous years' mystery projects; having been involved with the shop for as long as I have it really is like a walk down Memory Lane, which of course is what this BOM is called.

There were three different fabric ways we could choose from, and I have chosen to do mine in the Tilda fabric selection.

Here are the stitcheries from the first two months —

Here is month one sewn up —

And the month two blocks —

Month one and two combined —

This week I continued on with the Laundry Basket 2021 mystery QAL - the second set of 'pretties' up on the wall (and discussed *here*).
I finally got my head around where I was heading with this before I put it away for a bit. And I've decided to change tack with it, by sewing it up differently to how the instructions tell us.

Because it's no longer a mystery, I can see the end result and have decided to plan where my fabrics go a little more than if I had been keeping up a day and block at a time.

Plus, sewing 20 odd of the same block can be a little tiresome so it's nice to play as I go.
I've started at the centre with darker reds and am working out towards the outer edge, ending with the pinks/light reds.

So far my centre looks like this —

Below shows me having a bit of a play - I originally planned on the dark flying geese as on the bottom row, but changed my mind, and changed them to the red, as shown on the right.

So you can see it's going to take me twice as long to make it this way, and I'm going to end up with a few orphan blocks!!

A close up of the fabrics —

I've sewn the centre blocks together into rows, just to keep them together even though we were told not to do that until the end!

They all said it was a matter of 'when' and not 'if' and now, after nearly 18 months out of Level 4 lockdown, and a long time of relative freedom, New Zealand went back into L4 lockdown last week (11 days ago). Yes, Delta has arrived here. (Level 4 is the most restricted level in NZ and only essential services are allowed to operate.)

It seems that new cases are contained within Auckland and most of us were hoping for an ease in restrictions in yesterday's announcement. On Tuesday night most of the country goes into level 3 but Northland (where we live) unfortunately has been grouped together with Auckland and we must all stay in level 4 for longer.

Down on the farm, we've continued on as usual, when you have animals and are a primary industry, you can't just stop. So we've milked the cows and reared the calves and ventured out for click and collect farm supplies or groceries when necessary.

The big hassle for us though is that we were partway through a bathroom renovation when lockdown hit and the trades weren't allowed to come to work -  we were left with no shower!!

The MOML cleverly set us up an outdoor shower with a hose which goes through the window and onto the (hot) laundry taps. 

The things you can get away with in the country 😂 (not so good on a windy night!!).

Fortunately for us, getting a shower installed was finally considered essential enough to risk trades coming to our place. After three or four days of form signing and avoiding strangers in the hallway we no longer have to use the outdoor facilities! They only did the basics though so we still have more tradie-time to come, at some stage.

So the talk of lockdown leads me to another project to share with you. As a 'lockdown gift', The Country Yard has designed a free stitchery to help everyone keep out of mischief while staying at home.

Tonight I hope to trace it and start planning which threads I would like to use.

You can access the design *here* (Thank you Kerryn and Annalese!)

'til next time,

happy stitches,

A squirrel's visit

Back in May I had a squirrel come and visit. (Who said there are no squirrels in New Zealand?!) It whispered in my ear and told me that the Laundry Basket's 2021 mystery QAL would be a fun project to start.

I'd nearly succumbed to squirrel pressure in April and even bought the background fabric for Sandra's QAL, Follow Your Own Path. However life had got in the way and I didn't get much further.

This time though I was egged on by Joanne, who was also being attacked by a (the same?) squirrel, and together, we started.

Joanne kept up with the daily blocks but I got behind. Until recently. The other day I found and actually opened the box the project was stored in - glee!!

This was my fabric selection, they are mostly Laundry Basket fabrics with a few extras thrown in —

The blocks are all straight forward to make, so once you decide which fabrics you are using in the block, they go together fairly quickly.

Here's Block One —

And Block Two —

About that time my machine went off for its annual service and I slowed down a little. I used another machine but it doesn't have a ¼" foot.  I was able to make half square triangles as I could sew on the drawn lines so I skipped to Block Four —

I cut a few blocks and put them into bags. Which was just as well as here I am two months later trying to remember what my great ideas re fabric placement etc were!!!

Yesterday I got the Block 3s sewn up —

I think there are 11 block patterns so I'll just potter along with these as time permits.

I showed you the newly finished cardigan for Lily in my last post. I'm happy to report that she loves it and had to wear it to playcentre this morning. (ED was a bit concerned that it was a bit 'good' for playcentre but I'm happy for it to be worn) —

The family has recently been on holiday and here is the bag I made them in use at the airport, cool huh? —

For those of you who have previously received my blogposts via the feedburner service, which is being discontinued, I have now changed to using the follow.it service. You should receive an email inviting you to register with them. They were very helpful in helping me change over. There are several different formats in which you can receive mailings from them, all you need to do is tick various boxes.  

'til next time,

happy stitches,