Monday is the new Sunday

It's become a bit of a routine that Sunday is My Day - when I selfishly shut myself in The Palace and sew and craft with little regard for the rest of the world (hmmm, well sort of!). We even have a very regular and easy Sunday night dinner of toasted sandwiches so I don't need to spend the day thinking about what to dish up - all I have to do is make sure we have enough bacon, eggs and cheese on hand.
Lately though my Sundays have become fuller and fuller - and some weekends not even a stitch is sewn - horror!
This week I decided to put that right and decided that Monday would be a Sunday! Great idea.
So after a morning (yes!!) of stock work vaccinating the herd and getting a jolly good workout, I started.

I didn't think I was going to make any yellow scrappy sprouts for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge this month as I don't have a lot of yellow, but after seeing Kathy's sprouts over the weekend, I decided I really needed to try :-)

I managed to find a few yellows....
(Here I 've decided, gold counts as a yellow!)

And sewed them to my previous greens.

I'm pleased I made the effort - the splash of yellow will be a nice touch :-)

I then had a play with my Friday's Village blocks (aka Moda's Be My Neighbour). I was tossing up whether to use more of my backgrounds for sashing, or use another fabric... I've decided on this cute grey print —

— and sewed it on before I could change my mind! 

And here is what will probably be my only finish for the month! The wee Milo vest I was making in my last post is finished and washed and waiting for my next visit to town to mail away.

It will end up in a baby pack...these are for needy babies, put together by the Little Sprouts group.

And so ended my Sunday on Monday :-) And I am thinking Wednesday afternoon is the new Sunday (or Monday?!) evening - that is when I thought I'd have this blogpost written!

This coming weekend I am tutoring a class so I had best be off again and get some prep work done.

'til next time,

happy stitches,

Catching up...

I had this romantic notion that my winter this year would be filled with lots of sewing and crafting. With it being the 'off-season' on the farm and no cows to milk at the moment, I pictured myself in The Palace (sewing room) tackling piles of ufos and projects.
Instead I've been reduced to snatching moments when I can, However, snatching moments has resulted in a few ticks off on my list —
Stitchery in the evenings has been taken over by some knitting....

Can you guess what I'm making?!

But before I got stuck into the knitting I finished up this block from the Calendar Bears project —

Miss April at Easter time by Michelle Ridgeway Designs.
Yes, still running behind here in New Zealand!

The stitchery fabric we are using for this project is a shot cotton which was a little difficult to trace through. Instead I started using an iron-on transfer pen... I draw the design on the back of the pattern so it is reversed, then press it onto the fabric and hey presto it works!

Initially I thought the lines, being a little thick, would show up but the
excess ink seems to rub off as I handle it.

Another project I've been working on is this one. And this is all I'm showing for now. Some of you may be able to guess what it's all about... I will reveal it at some stage :-)

I had two monthly projects I was trying to keep up with this year; one, the Free Motion Cushion Challenge and the other, the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. Very sadly I've not been able to complete the cushion challenge for the last two months, but I am scrapping slowly along with my scraps. May's colour was Dark Green - I've completed the blocks for that —

The Sampler Stars, photo a little dark sorry.

Cat blocks, photo a little light sorry :-)

I spent the last two days sorting some cot sheets for my son and dil, they wanted some adjustments done which I was happy to do... apart from needing a little more velcro, they're all done and just about ready to put in my suitcase for my next trip over to see them. Counting down the weeks till those babies arrive!
And down on the farm, we had this view the other morning... yes, a ripper of a frost in Northland. We're happy they don't happen very often but I'm always in awe of all the white when it does frost up!

Chilled Mandarin for breakfast, anyone?!

And the winter daffs are flowering, they smell so sweet, but it does seem odd
 having them flower just now.

 In case you were wondering, the teenagers (Henny, Penny, Jenny, Wendy, Brenda, Milly, Molly and Mandy) are doing well and growing up really fast. They're doing a good job of looking after themselves, I've often seen them chasing the dogs or the cat, goose-style! Still waiting for the eggs to start flowing though...

Little miss flufflybums.

Speaking of the chooks and chickens, it's now time to go and feed them, get the firewood in (even in mild Northland we feel the cold!) and sort out some tea.
 Wishing you a creative week with plenty of happiness thrown in,

Warm for winter

The weather's taken a tumble the last week or so and let us know that winter really is on the way.
Just as well then that I have two cozy finishes to report!
Last night I put the final stitches in the binding of the baby quilt I've been working on recently....well, this is supposed to be a baby quilt! You can see from the photo, it's a little large for a baby.. 62" x 42"... that's what happens when you don't stop to read the final size of the pattern! Never mind, there are two babies on the way so I'm hoping they can share it!

 The pattern is Vintage Bears by Calico Farm Designs. (Although my version isn't so vintage-y!)

I quilted it fairly simply so would stay nice and soft ... firstly I stitched in the ditch and around all the applique. Then I used a ruler to do the continuous curves. The squares are 4" finished size and I didn't trust my eye alone to keep them even!

 My car crochet project lately has been this simple scarf —

I used Baby Alpaca which is gorgeous and soft but doesn't have as much
elasticity as normal wool.

 I started it one time when I desperately needed a new car project.. just grabbed some wool and used the same design I'd used on my baby blanket back in March. It may be a little narrow (those short rows were a pain!) but I didn't have very much yarn to start with.

I think it turned out OK but my model the other night wasn't
terribly impressed!

I've managed one block for this month's Rainbow Scrap Challenge, just didn't get the chance earlier on in the month to have a big scrap rummage and cutting session to make the rest but hopefully will catch up soon. This month's colour is dark green; once again with my Great Granny Square you can see that I'm using the colour as a guide only! (The photo is a little dark sorry.)

I'll finish up with these two photos I managed to snap showing the wee Silver-eye in action. And proving that just 10 days ago it was still Autumn with some lovely Autumn colour around! 

I let the Silver-eyes finish this Persimmon but picked the rest before they could
do any more damage!

Thanks for visiting and reading along, 

happy creating,