Chrissy pudding and baskets

I am making a little headway with The Santa, The Tree, The Turkey and Me, a block of the month by Anni Downs.

I recently got block five finished —

and have sewn it to the previous block —

On Friday evening during Friday Night Sew In I continued on with block six. This is a small piece that will be appliqued to the rest of the block.

I finished all that I had prepped —

The photo below shows the final berries that needed sewing down; I've since done that so I can now start on the main part of the block.

But for the rest of the evening (and again on Saturday night) I pulled out a basket block to stitch.

Michelle shared this pattern with us during lockdown last year. Something to do to help prevent us all becoming basket cases (!). I was initially going to add a round of them to my lockdown quilt but I think I may be tempted to keep making them and create a whole quilt of them. They're a nice little block to do when you haven't got anything else close by, and a great use of scraps!

I'm not sure what's going to happen with my lockdown quilt....I may end up pulling it apart and doing other things with the blocks. That's something to think about on another day!

A big thank you to Wendy for hosting Friday Night Sew In again this month. And I'm sending hugs and Birthday wishes your way, Wendy, I hope your day was special.

'til next time,
happy stitches,

Circles and calves

Spring has sprung!

We've had some lovely days lately; it's so nice to work in the sunshine and the dry :-)

I've been working on my Wings and Pretty Things project again. I didn't have much left to do on the centre block but I'd needed to put it away for a bit.

This weekend I opened the box, and out came the circles —

Circles prepped

And basted

Stitched

Centre block completed :-)

Gosh the colour is different in every photo!! The background fabric is probably most like that in the second photo, sort of creamy.
I've made a bit of a faux pas, thinking I'd signed up with Cheryll and the gals for FNwF the other night. When I went over just now to link her blog to my post, I realised it hadn't connected properly and I wasn't on the linky list!! 

Thank you Cheryll for having us all over on Friday night, it was lovely to stitch with everyone, even if you didn't all know I was stitching with you 😕

(Scroll on down if you're not interested in seeing my beautiful calves!)

Some of you may remember during our Level Four lockdown I tried to climb a hill every day. One of my favourite climbs was to the peak across the river. I've never put calves up there before but, because it is nice and dry, and I can get the bike and feeder up there, I've challenged myself to use those paddocks.

(When it's been raining, it's too greasy to tow the feeder up the tracks and not so safe on these hills.)

It's been great fun - a buzz to get up there and then lovely to have the view. One of my bestest things at this time of the year is to take photos of my calves with a nice backdrop. 

Day One, the first hill paddock.

Day Two, next paddock over. Feeding at the peak I used to
climb to. Hmm not a good place to feed as the ground wasn't
level enough for a feeder (uneven milk flow) but we got there!!

A good run down the hill

Hehe I could have fed them down here but it was more fun up the top!

Day Three, next paddock over, on the other side of the peak.

So happy with how well they've grown.

Then a bit of a stroll down the hill for a graze.

The kiddies helped me feed the younger mob this morning (in a paddock at river level).

Three Goofy Grass Angels!

'til next time,

happy stitches,

 

Friday Night With Friends

I was pleased to be able to take part in Friday's virtual sew along. The last few times there has been a Friday night event I've had other things on and I look forward to seeing who else sewed along with me this time.

I had an exciting time this week, starting a new project. It's one I've had in the pipeline for a wee while but  I wouldn't let myself start it until I'd finished the applique for Foxley Village.

Wings and Pretty Things is one of Michelle Ridgeway's designs. It's not an official pattern but she has kindly shared her notes with me. Both her top and Fiona's top are at the quilting stage so I am far behind!

I've collected up a few scraps from earlier projects and hope that there will be enough of them to complete the quilt!

On Friday night I continued on with the centre block. There are flowers in the corners —

After Saturday evening as well, I'd completed the first corner —
Earlier in the week I had made the Dresden centre. I machine sewed the blades then handstitched them to the background fabric. I still have to make a decision on what colour circle I'll put in the centre of the Dresden plate.

Progress so far —

I had a few evenings where I didn't have anything prepped to stitch so pulled out my 'Life is Beautiful' stitching. I pull this out at times like this, between projects, etc. After more years than I can remember, I'm about halfway through the stitcheries. It's very slow progress!

Thank you to Cheryll for hosting us for Friday Night with Friends. To visit her Gone Stitchin' blog and see who else sewed along, click *here*.

'til next time,

happy stitches,

Weekend sewing

As always, my post for Friday Night Sew In has morphed into a Weekend Sew In post!

My evening stitching lately has been Part 5 of Foxley Village. (A Natalie Bird BOM in the Homespum magazine a couple of years ago.)

 I'd worked through the needleturn elements and by Friday Night Sew In I was ready to start the stitchery.

The rake and shovel were completed on Friday night.

I didn't get much further on Saturday evening. A bit of chain stitch and some
satin stitch.

And here's how it is looking so far —

I'm loving this block :-)

I was looking at my photos and saw this one I took when I was doing some basting the other day.... and realised that I hadn't talked about the lovely pouch Fiona of bugzrugz gave me. You can just see it sneaking into the top of the photo —

Fiona gave it to me when she returned a quilting ruler I'd lent her. What a lovely surprise!

I'd seen her making them on her blog but didn't know one was coming my way! It's a great size, lovely to look at of course, and I'm enjoying using it a lot - Thank you Fiona ♥

This morning I made another one of my fabulous chicken feed bags. The first two I made (*here*) are working well, swapping them back and forth around the family as I intended.

There's still some sewing time left today and I think I might spend it playing with my International Sisters blocks. I've decided to make more than I originally intended as I keep finding fabric I want to use!!

Thank you Wendy for hosting Friday Night Sew In. It's always nice to spend the time stitching along with others :-)

'til next time,

happy stitches,

Jumping right in...

It's hard to know where to start after such a long absence here in blogland. An unexpected break brought on by too many calving cows.
There hasn't been a lot of time in my sewing room but I have kept up with my hand stitching in the evenings.

In my last blogpost I showed the start I'd made on block four of Foxley Village.
A week ago I took these progress shots for a blogpost that didn't happen —

At that stage, here were the first four applique blocks. (There's still piecing to do which goes between and around these blocks.)

And last night I put the final hand stitches in it -

Now I just need to sew some more squares to the bottom plus a row of hourglass blocks below that and this block will be totally complete.

Don't look too closely, there's still a bit of the wash away stabiliser under the
Foxley Village stitching - it's what I traced on to so I could get the design
on the front. (Too many layers to see through for tracing.)

In spite of the unpredictable weather I've got a few mobs of calves out on the grass for a bit of exercise and a nibble. They still have access to the sheds but spend most of the day and some nights out in the paddock. I love seeing them out there - growing and happy!

A bit of excitement down on the farm was the 'Reserve People' and a helicopter using one of our paddocks to lift bags of trees into the reserve next door for spring planting. The area is still recovering after *this* event. The kiddies and I got a ringside seat.

Attaching the bags of trees to the rope

Up, up and away

The kids had a quick visit to the calf shed - 

And got slobbered all over :-)

I can't believe another weekend is upon us - I have plans for some quiet time and a date with my machine. And hopefully a catch up in blogland, which I am missing dreadfully!!

'til next time,

happy stitches,