Slow and steady

Like the Tortoise, I am hoping that my slow and steady approach will mean that I will win the game in the long run!

I had hoped that the end of November was to be the time for triumphantly showing my finished Scrappy Christmas Ornament quilt, fulfilling my One Monthly Goal, meeting part of my WIPs be-gone goal, and having an OPAM finish for the month.

Sadly, I had a busy month and there was no finish to share.

The current status of my quilt is this —

Yes, still at the machine, partially quilted, which is actually progress but not a finish!

I have some star blocks to share. I love the sweet star I made for Month 9. It's called a Goshen Star; I'll definitely be making more of these —

And the last month/star for The Great Scrappy Star Adventure. I've called this one a Scrappy Star (why not?!) because I have no idea of the real name.

(A 12" block and a 9" block.)

I've been making only enough stars to test the patterns so will be continuing on making them next year as well.

Suzanne has gone through her scraps and added lots of more fabrics to the supplied ones, giving her's a 'Suzanne' feel! Her quilt is going to look great - check it out *here*.

Another Christmas project I had on the go recently was The Santa, The Tree, The Turkey and Me, a design by Anni Downs. It's now a top —

And you can see how well my oopsie fix from my last blogpost worked —

Finishing the stitching on TSTTTT (above)(!!) freed up some evening stitching time so I've now completed the lockdown stitchery designed by The Country Yard. I'm not sure how I will finish this but think I'll probably make it into a cushion. I stitched it on a Hanky Linen with this purpose in mind.

So I'm ready for a new evening project!

There has been a flurry of Tui around here lately. We hear them often but most recently they've been in the trees just off the deck. There were four here the other day but I only managed to get a photo of one. They haven't stayed still long enough for a decent shot!

And there's been a flurry of children around here lately too. Different combinations on different days, hanging out while parents work, etc etc.

I usually try to take them out on the farm for a bit of an adventure. Usually with no plan in mind. 
Odie could see cows in the distance —

Follow the leader —

Why not?! —

Anything of interest in the tree? —

Xavier is always prepared, with a lunchbox not too far away—

Quiet time for Odie after some adventuring —

Finally Blogger has allowed me to load my photos, so now it's time to be off! Hopefully it won't be as long before my next post!

'til next time,

happy stitches,

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,

Another catch-up!

It was all about stars in my last post, and I have made several more for the Scrappy Star Adventure since then.

Another one using the Month 3 pattern —

And then three of the (new) month 6 pattern. A six inch version —

And two nine inch stars —

I quite like how this star floats in the middle of the block, which you can then fill up with other designs! 

That's 24 stars made now - I'm not sure how many I need, but a whole lot more than that! 

And I finished Block six of The Santa, The Tree, The Turkey and Me —

(Rudolf does actually have eyes but I may have to re-do them so that he can actually see where he is going!)

I joined the first six blocks together so that they can be displayed in the shop —

The seventh block goes along the top; I have made a start on it but haven't got a photo of it to share yet. I'll be able to get back to this project now as I have finally finished Lily's cardigan, which I started in June when we were on holiday. I had a bit of a pause while waiting for some more wool to arrive, and then it seemed to take me forever to sew up. We don't have as much sit-down time in the evenings at the moment so I'm blaming it on that!

*This* is the pattern for it.

I gave up on the Lazy Daisies, which are supposed to be in all the plain Stocking Stitch areas. Lily always comments when I wear clothing with 'pretty flowers' on it, so I gave her a few. But only a few!

On the farming front, calving has got quite busy. We have well over a third of the herd in now and are sending milk to the factory - it always seems to happen so quickly!

Some days are quite peaceful —

Others are more manic. We had 14 new calves on Saturday! Pretty much a record for us. Don't forget it's just Ma and Pa Kettle here looking after all these animals!

Here's what one day's worth of calves looked like on Saturday —

My calf shed quickly got full —

So I've moved the older calves to another shed. These ones now have a room with a view; I'll open the gate for them to enjoy the outdoors when the paddock dries up a little more.

And then a few days later I moved a second mob down there —

In between times we've had a nearly-flood. As you can see the bridge was impassable for a wee bit and there's always plenty of debris left behind. That created a bit of (very) early morning stockwork. We were back in bed by 5.30am!!!!

Another day the hot water cylinder at the cowshed packed it in. The easiest way to get hot water for my calf milk that night was to heat it on the BBQ. A very slow process!

The two calves below amused me - both born exactly the same day but one was twice the size of the other! Just like human babies, calf babies come in all shapes and sizes.

This morning all was well with the world. Happy animals - and not too many new calvers to deal with.

'til next time,

happy stitches,