Sewing away....

It looks like I've had my pedal to the metal when I go through these photos but I haven't really. Most of these projects are ones I have been working on for a while that are slowly coming together.
After our frosty week last week, the temperatures warmed up a lot but that was because we were having massive amounts of rain instead. A lot of the country suffered some pretty bad flooding - we had much more rain than we needed but didn't suffer the flooding that we thought we might.
 So why am I mentioning the weather yet again? Well it was the perfect excuse to spend some time sewing this weekend. I thought I was going to be partying up large with Chooky in her Chookshed Birthday Party but by the time I got my machine threaded, her party was nearly over. Nice that we had a long weekend (NZ 'celebrated' the Queen's Birthday on Monday) so I could carry on with my own little sewing party then :-)
I had a little handwork to do and finished the sheep block of the Barnyard quilt I've been making for The Country Yard this year —

And inserted it in the gap I had in the quilt top. It's got a nice mix of fiddly and simple blocks and has been a fun make.
The weather's too dodgy to get a decent photo - the colours are a little washed out/off in this but you get the general idea of it.

I also finished the last couple of EPP stars I needed to make for border 5 of Evandale.

It feels like I've been working on this one forever but once I settle and focus on it, it sews up relatively quickly.

There's one more border to do...it's a real scrap buster; it's the same as border two with the small EPP diamonds.

After getting these two tops under my belt, I switched to my latest baby quilt.
When my back was turned, Timmie managed to totally upset my tidy and carefully counted pile of cutting —

But I did manage to salvage the pieces and got a little sewing done on the next blocks.
When Piglet gets a mouth, I'll show the top properly :-)

In April I worked on my Omigosh! quilt as part of a 'List of 12' UFO-busting some friends and I are doing. The number drawn out in May saw me working on my Life is Beautiful project. Hardly UFO busting, but I managed two more blocks this month —

(Again please excuse the washed out photos).

There are 32 stitcheries altogether, I've done 19 so far.

Whew, like I say, it seems like a lot, but I have been working on all of these for a while!
It's cooling off so I'm away to fill up the wheelbarrow with some more firewood.

Happy stitches,

 

Another week....another month...

At the start of the year I made a quiet resolution to myself to blog more frequently. Blogging remains my favourite form of social media. I enjoy the more indepth 2-way conversations, the stories and the friendships forged.
And because I mostly only use my PC for 'internet stuff' it's the easiest thing for me to do too.
But I am failing in my bid to blog more often.... January was only 3 posts and here I am only just squeezing in a 4th for the month...maybe I can kid myself that because it's a short month I'm doing OK ...it's just the way the cookie crumbles I guess!

So what have I been up to?
With the warmer evenings, the MOML and I have been sitting up a bit later this month and I've chewed through more stitching than I usually do  —
I've finished the hand stitching on the Fig 'n' Berry project I started on retreat.

This will get sewn up into a wee pencil case which will be very handy...to pack pencils and markers for retreat I ended up using my rotary cutter case..... it was not easy to get the pencil sharpener or rubber out of the bottom!

I've finished up a few more blocks for Ruth's Quilt, a Leanne Beasley design, which we are doing here on the No Fuss Sewalong blog. These are lovely wee stitcheries which don't take too much brainpower and nice to do in moments where my fingers would otherwise be idle.

Here is a close up of one of the blocks. I think the petals are supposed to be done with backstitch but I decided I'd rather do (the very much quicker) lazy-daisy stitch!

And I've completed my first block for Woodland Wonderland mystery quilt. I couldn't resist signing up for this one; something I told myself I wasn't going to do...!

(Sorry the colours aren't showing very well today!)

Daytime sewing feels like it hasn't been nearly as productive but I do have a few photos to share so I guess I've done better than I thought!
I've completed the pig block for the Barnyard quilt I am remaking for work. I performed a bit of surgery to improve the snouts I'd initially done and am a lot happier with them now.

Eyes will come after it's quilted.

And lately I've tested some patterns for Juliet of Tartankiwi... I've done a fair bit of testing for her in the past but not for a while. Juliet designs foundation pieced patterns of all shapes and sizes; a lot, but but not all of them, are animals. I find her patterns well designed and written and I've enjoyed putting these wee birds together for her.

This is the NZ Rock Wren

This is the Red Backed Fairy Wren.

Another Red Backed Fairy Wren...I thought I'd try it with the different background.
The whiter more snowy looking one didn't seem to suit an Australian bird so well!

They form part of the On the Wire Pattern Club she is running this year.

One reason I want to blog more often is so my posts don't get so long.....oh well, thanks for seeing me through to the end,

Best be off,

Happy stitches,

Our New Year's Launch

About this time each year we get busy at The Country Yard, sprucing up the shop and announcing new programmes and classes. On Saturday we had our New Year's Launch; our day to introduce all that we've been working on lately.  We had spent Friday hanging new quilts, freshening up areas and reorganising the shop. 

At the front door, this is the sight that greets you.

Although it had poured all night and it was still raining on Saturday, we had lots of keen ladies visit to see what we'd been up to.

Every time we change the shop around we think it's the best it's been...but then next time we do it, we think the same!

Below is the work room. On these walls are some of the classes we'll be offering and works in progress.. we didn't get everything sewn up that we wanted to but we have made a good start on most of it.

You may remember some sneak peeks of cute applique from my previous post.  Here is a little more of what I was doing —

And below shows the 'block' (row, actually) in its entirety. It's forming part of a Row By Row quilt. I completed the applique using iron on Applique papers, a glue stick and invisible machine applique.

My row is just one of many in the quilt, and the only applique row.

There is a much loved and faded old quilt we used to hang at the front door of the shop. For years we have said we'd like to re-make it and finally we have made a start. I volunteered to make this one, I figure it's right up my street.

Here is the cow block... you can see part of the original quilt to the right.

I just love her 3-D ears...and had a lot of fun getting them right!

The pigs were next.

I think I'm going to change those snouts and make them a little more pointy
and pig like!

I'm looking forward to working some more on this quilt!

I mentioned the rain earlier on ... this February is surely going to be remembered as one that had plenty of heat, humidity and rain. There's been flooding in several regions but we are thankful nothing severe has happened here. (It's not often NZ dairy farmers say "we've had enough rain" in the middle of summer!)

At the start of the month we were spending time in the river; all of us cooling off.

Lately we've been able to see the same river from the house..which
is not normal.... here at least 5 metres above the usual level!

Cooling off now consists of paddling in the 'floodwaters'.
You can just see the wooden railings on the right leading to the bridge.
The bridge itself is completely covered by water! 

It's great fun being a dog when the river's up as there are all sorts of smells not normally found.

I wondered what was going on here —

Two dogs trying to climb the tree......

Ahhh... there's a wee possum just out of reach.
It wasn't there the next day -  it had found a safer hiding spot!

So there's plenty keeping us out of mischief at the moment. More rain is forecast for later in the week and I see more sewing on my horizon too!

Until next time,

happy stitches,