Whimsical Woodland catch up and the odd finish

As I put the last few stitches into Block four of Whimsical Woodland the other night, I realised that I hadn't shared about it on my blog for a while... not since I'd finished the first block actually...whoops!
Whimsical Woodland is the current mystery stitchery being run by The Country Yard (where I work). Each year we do a mystery stitchery project and this time I decided to take part as a customer not a staffer.
Here are the first four blocks —

Yesterday morning before breakfast (and work), instead of catching up on my blog reading, I had the urge to do some piecing. We were to put 2" squares around the outside of the first three.

And here's block 4 —

Aren't they looking lovely? Cant wait to see what else is in store for us :-)
(The fabric range is Edyta Sitar's Crystal Farm).

I also have two finishes to share - more projects that have been sitting on my camera waiting for attention.
A Holly Cottage Christmas, a design by Michelle Ridgeway.  I took part in a stitchalong for this one which was a great motivator. I  loved making this, the combination of the applique and the stitchery made it an enjoyable project.

For the quilting I did fill in the applique blocks and crosshatched the squares.

And feathered the borders, treating both borders as one. It's hard to tell in the photo but there are two red borders in the photo below.

It was also to be a shop sample so as soon as it was finished I needed to get it in there and hung for display. So I didn't get a chance to roam the farm for a photo shoot session!

Back in February two friends and I went on retreat. We started a little project by Lisa of fig 'n' berry creations.
Here is the finished pouch —

We decided to change the outer fabric supplied in the kit as we found some lovely Liberty fabric while on retreat....it was a good excuse to buy this fabric which we usually avoid because of the price!
OK gotta go... I  can hear the MOML has finished milking so I'd better get organised for breakfast and off to work I go :-)

Happy stitches,

 

November tally

One sleigh drop off...yes, I signed up for Chooky's Secret Santa Christmas Swap again this year so there's been a bit of sneaky sewing going on. The sleigh has left......

...and this is all I can show for now :-)

One slightly successful OMG (one monthly goal) result.... I linked up with Patty's OMG link up at the start of the month. I left the scope of my goal very broad...
For November I really want to pull out my Friday's Village quilt top and get some more quilting done on it.
Yes, I pulled it out quite early in the month, found the thread, found the ruler -
but it spent most of the month as an extra cosy spot for Timmie, who found it quite the perfect place to spend her days —

However over the last few days I've found a little quilting time and have quilted two more sets of circles. Of course because it had been put away for a wee while, I'd forgotten some of the spacings, etc, I'd used between my sets of circles so had to work it all out again! [Take Notes, Raewyn!]

This is a Westalee Ruler. I'm quite enjoying using it, now that I have
myself organised again.

Because I'm now on a roll I'm going to make it December's monthly goal as well. I might even be a bit more specific and try to get it finished...hmmm....
Thanks Patty for helping us set these goals and encouraging us to work towards them.

Two blocks completed  for the No Fuss SAL. I don't think I've mentioned this here before.  A no pressure stitch along where we go at our own pace to complete a quilt from Leanne Beasley's book, Living the Dream. Well, to date, my pace has been so laid back it's nearly been horizontal. It's been nice taking a break from my other hand projects for a few nights to stitch up these simple little stitcheries.

I'm using several threads, a solid colour for the outside of the tags and a
variegated one for the rest.

This is the book we are stitching from.

One more block completed for A Holly Cottage Christmas.

Here is the top row joined  up —

The first photo is an outdoors one and has truer colours!

One rescued chicken.
You may remember this wee chick from June.

Well her and her siblings are all grown up now. One of these girls had to be rescued from the (cowshed) effluent pond the other day...here she is looking very indignant and totally filthy. She was in it up to her neck  :-(. I'm so pleased that the MOML found her and rescued her for me.

I'm happy to report that after a hose down and a good night's sleep she was as good as gold again!

A bit of a slow month for me really but that's how it is sometimes, isn't it? I had a wonderful massage after work today so am feeling ready to take on the world :-)

'till next time, 

Happy stitches,

End of October tidy-up

I set myself a simple little goal for October's OMG in the hope that I would achieve it and also that it would kickstart some work on a neglected project.

All I wanted to do was add some pink to my Scrappy Sprouts blocks...pink being October's colour in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

I still managed to leave it to the very end of the month - but - yaay - I did it!! 

[In actual fact I cheated a little as the start of the top pink blocks were kindly donated by Sue of Mother Patchwork...although I did add the white/creams and add the bottom squares, etc :-)]

The scrappy sprout blocks always look a bit odd when they are at this
stage....

...but when they are joined up with a stem they look a bit more like scrappy sprouts! 

Scenic shot of the day. I thought the tree trunk would be big enough to fit the
blocks but not quite... it was too curvey!

We have everything in that photo above, the cows walking back to their paddock, the apple tree blossoming, sweet peas growing, the grapevine taking over PLUS the re-generating orchard paddock after Miss Piggy dug it all up. Spring has well and truely arrived!

Thank you Patty for hosting the One Monthly Goal party. Patty also has Bag It 2017 running at the moment - click *here* to find out all about it...there are some cool bags and tutorials featured.
[If I'm not too late, I'll be linking up to Angela's Rainbow Scrap Challenge too - thanks Angela :-)]

I've also managed some more work on my ' A Holly Cottage Christmas blocks' by Michelle Ridgeway (the SAL is *here*). October's block is this sweet bird delivering the Christmas post —

Here is this section all joined up —

While I was busy cutting squares, I re-made July's Stocking block; my original one wasn't in these fabrics. I love how this project is growing :-)

And now for the 'ahh how sweet' moment. Nothing better than having your two young granddaughters sitting at your kitchen counter to eat their breakfast (yes that's Marmite on their toast)(they're kiwi kids afterall)... this doesn't happen very often so it made my week ♥ They're back in Australia now..sadly they both caught yukky colds while they were here and the family didn't have the most restful holiday.

Aren't they adorable?

Our last cow calved yesterday and we have weaned the first 110 calves. Life is slowly starting to return to normal... My sewing room (The Palace) is calling out for a jolly good spring clean...maybe I'll fit that in one of these days. Festival of Quilts is on down in Auckland this weekend which will be fun and I guess that means the spring clean in The Palace will have to wait...shame...

'til next time,

Happy Stitches,

School Holidays - A Photo Story

Kids playing —

A continuation of last holiday's games

My night off!

Kids cooking —

Kids and Calves —

Many hands make light work

Kids and Lambs —

Young chickens laying —

Pick the young chicken's egg!

Stitching —

One more block done :-)

The holidays flew by,

peace and quiet again now!

Until next time, 

Happy Stitches ♥

Puppies, catching up, and pops of yellow

Karen of KaHolly recently put a call out for some Dog Gone Cute blocks as a way to help raise funds for Animal Shelters after Hurricane Harvey. I loved these blocks when Lorna of Sew Fresh Quilts had a QAL for them a few years ago so I was more than happy to jump in and offer to make a couple.
Here are the two I've made, pressed and ready to send away. I hope they don't look too much like I dived to the bottom of my scraps ~ hehe ~ I'm sure they will work well with other blocks sent in!

*Here* is the link for the wee dogs I sewed...Dog One...they are fun to sew up :-)

As well as this I've sewn a few more hearts —

I got a little distracted when cutting the fabric for the lower block below, so had to remake it.....!

I've also completed some applique (if not the whole block) for September's A Holly Cottage Christmas SAL—

And another bit of applique —

So I'm chipping away at my projects.However I want to chip away at some more so I'm going to be bold and join in with Patty's One Monthly Goal again this month. I haven't joined in for a wee while; a couple of goals I've had this year have obviously been too ambitious and resulted in no-shows! So this month I'll keep it straightforward. I'd like to add to my Scrappy Sprouts blocks! This has been my Rainbow Scrap Challenge project and the last time I joined in with this was June with the yellow blocks. This month is Pink, I should be able to find some of that!

The last time I added to these was in June..that was a few months ago...

 ~~~~

The end of September is when we start keeping an eye on the bush out the back for the annual flowering of the Kowhai trees. There are pops of more accessible yellow all over the countryside but I do enjoy the trek to visit 'our' trees. 

Spot the Yellow!

You can see from these photos how tall and old these trees are..reaching up for light above the other natives. We fenced off this area of bush a few years ago and are starting to see young trees growing which is very exciting.

I had hoped for better bird life photos this year as I have a new zoom lens but because the trees are so tall, the camera is pointing directly into the sun still making decent photography difficult.

There are two tui here..they spent the whole time I was down here chasing

each other. The one on the right was being very terratorial.

There was some lovely bird song from the Tui though plus the whoosh of flight as the Kukupa/Kereru (Wood Pigeon) flew from tree to tree.

Rather than get at the nectar, the Wood Pigeon eat the whole flower. This one
(upside down) was having a real feast!

Just beautiful

As you can tell, I had a thoroughly enjoyable time ♥

(Blogging friends that I've swapped with and sewn for over the years may recognise this flower. I try to use it as a touch of special kiwiana.)

Time for bed now, till next time,

Happy stitches,