Weekend report

There isn't a lot of crafting to report on from the weekend.... I'm not sure where the weekend has disappeared to!
However I did sit down on Friday evening to join Cheryll and friends for Friday Night With Friends. I worked on a needlecase, a wee kit which arrived in my Scrubstitching parcel last month.
It was a nice sew, not too much thinking required and I was surprised that with a bit of work on it on Friday night and then some time on Saturday, it was finished!

The inside page is a nice piece of woven wool —

Here it is with the pouch which was the other kit in our Scrubstitching package. Lovely to have them to do even though we didn't get to attend the retreat —

I did a bit of sorting and planning today so my only other sewing this weekend was a couple of scrappy blocks for my Omigosh quilt. I hadn't sewn any of these for a while and because there was a pile of sewn strips sitting next to my machine, I gave them some attention.

Don't forget that these each measure 4 ½" which makes them a fun challenge. I had started using the RSC monthly colour as a guide for sewing the shoofly blocks (this month is green so I'm way off!) but sometimes it's easier to just grab what's nearby.
I had thought I would have some walk photos to share in this post but it's been blustery and rainy all day so I didn't venture out. (Yaay for some rain!) I did a very quick power walk up and down the first hill by the chookyard this morning but that was all!

I hope your weekend's been happy and healthy,

'til next time,

happy stitches, 

A day for the birds, and a finish---

Another of my aims for this month was to finish the Scrubstitching quilt I shared about back *here*. Kiwikid Sue and I challenged each other to make a postcard quilt highlighting our fun and adventures when we went to Scrub Stitching retreat in NSW last April.
I had mine to wall hanging stage but I still needed to do some more stitching down, plus bind it.
That was today's task —

In case it helps to see a little more detail, here's the top half —

And the bottom —

After quilting all the background (cross hatching with my walking foot), I bordered each postcard block —

And then folded the edges over  —

So that I could top stitch them in place (stitched in the ditch where the border joins the stitchery part and then around the outside of the red) —

Simple free motion quilting to create 'roads' linking each postcard —

I enjoyed playing around drawing each block but I think this is my favourite motif of them all :-)

This wall hanging is even more special now, since we couldn't all attend this year. Let's hope next year we'll have an excuse to make another memorabilia scrubstitching quilt!

This morning's walk was another hill climb in the top back corner of the farm —

Along the bushline were these ferns - we have a few patches of them but these were looking very photogenic this morning —

Does anyone know what these are called? 

And then the birds started appearing. Not that I haven't seen them every other day, but I seemed to be able to get the photos today!

The Pukeko —

Goldfinches on a fence —

The swallows were enjoying the sun (and doing lots of grooming) —

And even our new family of quail let me photograph them —

So as well as the exercise, it was a pretty satisfying walk!

As our lockdown restrictions ease ever so slightly tomorrow, moving from Level Four to Level Three, I'm going to ease up on the blogging! It was on the spur of the moment that I decided to blog every day during this period. Not so spur of the moment to walk each day, that had been on the cards for a while, I just needed the push.
We have two weeks at this next level until it is decided what we will do next. Let's hope this curve is squashed totally...time will tell.
Thank you all for reading along and your encouragement :-) It's been good to have something to focus on during this time, and I have enjoyed connecting with you all.

'til next time, 

stay healthy and home, 

and happy stitches, 

Short and Sweet

A quick post tonight :-)
Today passed by pretty quickly.
I spent time watching some Monkeys in the (Monkey Puzzle) tree —

I completed the pouch I'd finished the handstitching on last night for Friday Night Sew In —

An Anni Downs design she made and kitted for us for our postponed Scrubstitching retreat.

A nice size for tucking a project into.

A late afternoon quick walk - 'just' up the hill across the road today as I was running out of day!

The Tui was singing for me on my return home. This photo shows his white throat feathers - very distinctive. Very high up in a Poplar tree.

Hope you're all keeping sane, safe and well,

'til next time,

Happy stitches,

Friday Night Sew In

Monday Night Sew In, Tuesday Night Sew In, Wednesday Night Sew In, Thursday Night......

Wendy of Sugarlane Designs kindly invited us to join her for FNSI tonight. An opportunity to stitch and sew in the company of others and then spend a little time over the weekend seeing what everyone got up to.

I had decided that this afternoon was going to be spent appliqueing some more of those tyres. I had them all prepped and ready to go —

But I spied my Anni Downs/Scrub Stitching project on the ironing board and got sidetracked by that!

I spent a bit of time stitching;

My birds have bodies now.

This evening I stitched the stitchery onto the spotty fabric (tomorrow I hope to make the pouch) —

And then continued on with the latest Foxley Village block —

I've early finished the applique on this block but it has some stitching on it too to bring it to life —

Thanks Wendy for gathering us all together. You can visit her blog *here* to see the other FNSI-ers.

The photo at the top of the blog showed that the day started off pretty nicely. Today's walk was a flat one after yesterday's epic hilly walk. I kept to the paddocks this time.

This part of the farm has some lovely trees on it.

Trusty companion Emma is showing us how big this old Totara is.

I ended up down at this part of the river, this is a lovely swimming hole area.

I managed to capture a Fantail. They always flit around me while I
walk but they don't stay still for long so I never get a photo.

Visited the Pou made for us by our old neighbour.

And Emma took a quick dip.

'til next time,

safe and happy stitches, 

A nearly finish

I wasn't going to blog about this wallhanging until it was properly finished but because we've had a funny ole day on the farm today I've got no sewing done and so had nothing to share with my walk photos!
Lately I've been hinting about some secret stitcheries I was doing —

I talked the other day about how I went to Scrub stitching retreat with Kiwikid Sue last year.
After it, we had a grand idea to make a memory quilt showcasing some of our adventures. We decided on a postcard format, as lots of people in blogland were stitching Romancing the Road Trip by Leanne Beasley at the time. We brainstormed a list of ideas as we were travelling along the dusty roads, and left it at that. We thought it would be really fun to reveal them at Scrub Stitching this year.
Well of course, that was postponed but we were able to reveal them when we had our Zoom Retreat call the other day.

Mine is not 100% finished. I want to secure the postcards down around their outer edges, bind it, and whatever else it needs doing to it.
Excuse me, I now get a little photo heavy —

Here we are, Sue coming to pick me up from the airport —

Travelling; lunch at picnic tables, geo-caching, the Submarine Park at Holbrook —

This day we were soooo close to running out of fuel. It was very scary! —

We may have taken a back way to get to Baradine —

Art Camp Cypress; plenty of time to sew —

Non-sewing activities; bling night and star gazing...ad the grim reality of the drought they were in —

Sue kindly copied a couple of photos onto fabric for me —

Visiting Chooky and her 'chookhouse' —

Car karaoke and cattle stops on the country roads —

And last but not least, going home —

Whew, it's been great re-living all the memories!

The photo below shows how I constructed it. I quilted the main piece of fabric and then sewed the postcards down on top. The brown stitching is supposed to represent the road and also acts as a guide for the order of the postcards.

I'm hoping it won't take me too long to do the finishing touches as it would be nice to have it hanging here in The Palace.
Sue's wallhanging is lovely and you can see hers *here*. Thanks Sue for pushing me to get mine done - there's nothing like a bit of peer pressure to help with motivation!

With one thing and another going on today I didn't get out to walk until early evening. So it was a 'quick walk' up the hill across the road.

Because it was after 5pm I hoped I might get some sunset photos. There was too much cloud and nothing spectacular happened in the sky —

From when I was up the hill

And walking along the road back home

I had to stop and inspect the old tractor parked up on the side of the road. As you can see a wheel is missing. It actually came off the other day when the MOML was driving along the road with a load of silage bales. It went rolling along the road in front of him...a bit like you see in the movies apparently. Quite comedic I suppose - so lucky it didn't happen in the hill paddock he was heading for...

'til next time,

Take care and stay well, 

and happy stitches,