December block tally and the New Year

In December I challenged myself to sew a block a day and blog about it. I'd had a very slow couple of sewing months due to life 'down on the farm' and I wanted to kickstart my quilting.

Unbelievably, I met my challenge...... not only did I sew a block a day, some days I managed two or more.
My tally for the month was 64 blocks!!

Initially I was wanting to sew a variety of blocks for a variety of projects but as time got tighter it was easier to fall back on those where I already had the fabrics and pattern out and just sew up one of those.

Five blocks became this —

Two blocks became these —

Foxley Village progressed —

My Scrappy Sprouts project progressed —

I started a new project —

And here are most of the other blocks —

This time last year I signed up to Prairie Moon's  350 block challenge (found *here*). We keep track of the number of blocks we make, which is motivating when the finishes aren't falling over themselves to be counted! My final total was 272 blocks - nowhere near the target but nothing to be sneezed at either.

Since 2021 has begun I've spent little time in The Palace. I met up with my sister at the mid-way point between our homes, and 'handed Mum over'. She had two weeks visiting and it was lovely to spend the time with her. We met at our nieces' new place - they've just bought an apartment together so we were able to inspect that.

And we've had two small children here for an overnighter so their parents could have some time out.

We took them out the back and they had a good run around while the MOML shifted some stock.

Wide open spaces —

Picking flowers and seedheads —

A sign that there were small children in the house. The bunnies had been put to bed —

After they had gone I had some quiet time to myself (much needed!) and sewed up another block for my Scrappy Christmas project —

I have a vague idea where this project is heading but haven't done any maths yet - I'm just enjoying the piecing at this stage.

2021 has got off to a busy start for us. In exchange for the child-minding, our son-in-law is going to milk for us for a couple of days so we are heading up north today. We're looking forward to relaxing a bit :-)

'til next time,

happy stitches,

Day 30 of Block a Day December

As I'm generally an early riser I was able to do some sewing before breakfast this morning. Our visitors arrived late last night so I knew that once the day started there would be no time for making my daily block.

And the day turned out quite different to how I thought it would.

Before I knew it, this was happening. My friend and I got busy —

This is how the garden looked in October - really lovely, but that rose had grown everywhere and needed getting under control —

There was also a massive hydrangea that was beautiful when it flowered but quickly turned brown as opposed to slowly fading like hydrangeas normally do.

After a few hours work the men stopped by to help clear the mess —

The final result —

This was the sewing this morning —

Two more temperature blocks to add to November; how boring is that second block - we had very steady temperature that 'week'.

And a wee pile that hopefully will be transformed into blocks tomorrow morning while everyone is sleeping.

Here is another wee gift I made this Christmas. The design is based on a Japanese Rice Bag but I don't imagine rice will be kept in this one. Sorry no link to this but googling Rice bags will bring up a few choices to use if you want to make one.

Turned out rather sweet I thought.

'til next time,

happy stitches,

Day 29 of Block a Day December

Suddenly I feel like my month is running out!!! 

I have three November Temperature blocks to do, and I really really want to sew a '2020' block for my Lockdown quilt plus the five temperature blocks for December!! Oh golly. Sewing time over the next two days will be minimal as we have visitors coming tonight. Never mind, I'll see what I can do!

We had a nice family day today and then all of a sudden it was evening. Luckily I'd started stitching this basket block last night and it didn't take long to complete —

I did spend far too long today hunting through my scraps finding the perfect fabrics for the above mentioned 2020 block. Oh well.

And I've realised that I haven't showed you something I made as a Christmas gift for a lovely co-worker. It's a wee spool holder, something to tuck into a bag for a bit of handsewing —

She likes Tilda fabrics and the colour purple so I hope I got it right!

The pattern is called  'Ready Threader' by Annie of the flowergarden blog and can be found *here*. I've wanted to make one of these for a while and this seemed the perfect time to make it.

'til next time,

happy stitches,

Day 28 of Block a Day December

I think I had too big a piece of Christmas Cake at lunch time today as my brain didn't engage and I seemed to do a lot of unpicking when I got to my sewing after lunch!

Units upside down or back to front!

However I persisted and finally made some satisfying progress.

First up, two temperature quilt blocks, the first two weeks of November —

Instead of sewing more of November, I decided to join some of the months previously sewn but not yet connected. August-September-October —

This was one of the times I did a major error, sewing August below September (instead of above it). Mum dared to suggest that no-one would know!! Excuse Me I said, I would know and the temperatures just wouldn't make sense! After I explained it all to her in a bit more detail she did see my point!

And then joined to the rest of the year - yaay, woohoo, looking good 😁

I joined the temperature scale to the top, above January, but part way through the seam realised I had intended doing a border before this went on.

Yes, definitely needs that border separating the 'year' from the 'scale'. It's unpicked already.

And the Scrappy Christmas quilt has taken over as the current leader-ender project (Omigosh! is going away for a bit) and with all the unpicking and re-sewing, I managed one more of those  —

(Excuse the crumple, carrying it upstairs to photograph it.)  And I started a second.
EDIT I have discovered where the pattern can be found. I am fairly certain it was a free tutorial for a time and is now available in in this book —

https://blog.fatquartershop.com/deck-ade-halls-vintage-ornaments/

I'm counting down the days,

'til next time,

happy stitches,

Day 27 of Block a Day December

I was back to making my scrappy Christmas blocks today since I still have my Christmas box of fabric out. I found a fabric that has cute elves for fussy cutting so decided to make one of these ornament blocks by Heather of The Sewing Loft —

And then I made one of my standard ones. This was a free pattern by The Fat Quarter Shop a few years ago but is no longer on their site. I have been asked if I can share the pattern but I am loathe to do that without their permission. I re-drew it from one of the samples I had made, making my blocks 6" finished size.

Here are today's two blocks together. I was so organised that I could get an outdoors photo today but the sun was a bit glary sorry - it's either night-time gloom or outside glare!!

Wow, just four more days to go and I will have done it!!

'til next time, 

happy stitches,

Day 26 of Block a Day December

It was definitely a change of pace for all today. Everyone is in holiday mode and as is 'tradition' at this time of the year, we're enjoying leftovers of yumminess for meals. It gives the kitchen staff a nice break :-) 

We still had several families come and visit with plenty of high jinks from young and old alike.

It was learn to fly a drone day. 

The men finally realised that reading the instruction manual was a good idea, and eventually got it under some sort of control.

Later in the day there was another drone session. It didn't end up in a paddock up the hill across the road this time, but it did need retrieving from a tree. 

In between times I had several hours to myself. My brain was on go-slow so I settled into The Palace and sewed up a storm.

Meeting the (self imposed) one block a day challenge has been tricky on some days lately, but today I made not one, nor two........but SIX blocks!!

Five more for the Temperature quilt. September completed now. Just November and December to do —

And one more leader-ender creation for the Omigosh! quilt.

One last photo - here are the two year olds 'helping' feed Miss Piggy. She gets a bucket of milk every day, a treat she really enjoys. 

'til next time,

happy stitches,

Day 25 of Block a Day December

It sneaks up on us so quickly and then is gone just as fast...!

Yes Christmas Day here in New Zealand is over.

We had a fabulous day. (Sadly, busy-ness meant I didn't take many photos.)

It was a great day of family. Small children learning about giving and sharing (hehe) —

And surprise sandpits; when they went to bed last night these kiddies thought this was a new garden —

We (the MOML and Mum and I) did something new to us this year. We had breakfast (bacon and eggs) at our son's (after the cows were milked) so that we could spend time with them before they went to our DIL's family for lunch. A great way to start the day.

Back home, and receiving visitors, my busy day of prep yesterday paid off. Apart from some last minute seafood cooking by our son-in-laws, there was no baking. I didn't even glaze the ham - even the meats were sliced yesterday. Salads just needed a little assembly and tipping into fancy bowls with a dressing added.

Oh and the cream needed whipping for the pav. 

It was lovely to see the younger ones spending time with their Great-Granny —

No matter how busy things get before Christmas, aside from the tree, I always like to have some decorating at the top of the first stairs - the main entrance into the house. I love the kiddies walking up the stairs and getting excited by what they see. 

The MOML went off to milk about 4pm, and by about 5pm the house was quiet again, apart from the whirr of the dishwasher.
This evening I was able to relax and do some stitching.

Today's block —

Another one for my lockdown quilt. I was only going to do about four of these but the pile of them is growing!

I hope your day was merry and bright,