For The Birds

Several months ago when I put my hand up for the For the Birds bloghop hosted by Joan of moosestashquilting, I had time stretching ahead of me and I thought it pretty much guaranteed that I would have May and June for sewing all sorts of things, and plenty of time to prepare for the bloghop.

Fast forward to last weekend when I was blowing the dust off my machine and rummaging around looking for the project box which held my intended project!!

This is a project I've long wanted to finish. It started when I test sewed some cute wee bird on a wire blocks for Juliet, of Tartankiwi designs several years ago. I had an inspiration for a layout but at the time I didn't get a chance to do any more.

I sewed these blocks back in 2018 so they've been waiting for attention for a long time!

Luckily I had sketched my idea down and luckily it was in the box with the blocks!

As these are 6" blocks, I started by re-sketching with a 6" grid. That got me off to a good start and I started merrily sewing away.

I had a wee brainwave at some stage and thought it would be fun to put some pieced blocks in the background. But tone-on-tone so you would see them up close, but they wouldn't overshadow the wee birds.

This Seminole strip didn't work where I thought it might, but I adapted it for the bottom.

Of course I had very little of the grey to finish the fence post but I hoped I might get away with using my grey scraps to crown the top of the post — 

Finally after a bit of fudging and unpicking here and there, I have my completed top!

(The rocks and grass along the bottom are the second strip of Seminole I did.)

It still needs a good press and tidyup. This is not a large item - approx 30 x 24 and now that I've got this far, I'm excited to get it properly finished! Watch this space :-)

I'm so pleased that, in spite of a bit of last minute panic a few days ago, I committed to the bloghop. Thank you so much Joan, of Moosestashquilting, for hosting this and encouraging me to take a deep look at this UFO!

This is Day Three of the bloghop. The other participants for today are —

June 19

Patchouli Moon Studio

A Quiltery

Ms P Designs USA

Stitching Farm Girl

Scrapdash

And there is a full list of ALL the participants on Joan's blog *here*.

Thank you so much for visiting and reading along.

'til next time,

happy stitches,

Raewyn

Crazy!!

Crazy that this is my first post for August!! I honestly did not think that was the case.

Crazy is also the name of the bloghop I signed up for a few months ago...

Hosted by Joan of Moosestashquilting it seemed an apt name for a bloghop that I really shouldn't be signing up for.

Crazy is how it's been on the farm lately.

Calves

Calves

Calves

And I knew it would be like that when I signed up. But a Crazy Bloghop sounded fun.

Crazy is how I felt after I offered to sew a quilt for work, after this sweet range of fabrics came in. I knew I shouldn't have!

Crazy Cocoa Pinks by Laundry Basket Quilts. Edyta always knows how to tug at my heartstrings.

And crazy is how I felt when the said fabric sat and waited for attention.  Crazy as in 'Oh Golly When Will I Get To This'.

So with time running out, I went into overdrive. First of all a test block - 

I've been able to grab snippets of time here and there, in between feeding calves and tending to cows - a couple of days that were otherwise booked became free, housework got left....and so on.

Serious sewing- 

First set of blocks sewn- 

Then more sewing and trimming-

Final blocks ready to assemble-

And finally, after a few more crazy hours,  a completed top- 

Lap quilt made from Cross and Crown blocks.

(The photos aren't in the best light, I'm afraid. I'll try to update them at some stage.)

To see who else succumbed to a bit of craziness, today's participants are —

Just Let Me Quilt

BeaQuilter

Stitching Farm Girl(that's me)

 Days Filled with Joy

And the full bloghop list is on Joan's blog.

I did wonder if I would get it quilted before the bloghop but that was just a crazy thought...

'til next time,

happy stitches,

When Pigs Fly

A wee while ago I thought it would be a fun idea to sign up with Joan's When Pigs Fly bloghop challenge. I say 'challenge' because it's always a challenge for me to sign up for something and see it through.

When it's months away we have heaps of time to prepare but of course we know, that like Pigs, Time sure does Fly (and I had some last minute sewing to do)!

Many will realise that a PIG, in the quilt world, stands for Project In Grocery Sack. Here in New Zealand we don't call them Grocery sacks. Project in Supermarket Bag (PISB) doesn't have much of a ring to it, and neither does Project in Cardboard Box (PICB) ...... and that is what my chosen UFO is; a project in a cardboard box.

As the box was getting quite battered, a result of being pulled out and put away numerous times, not to mention a perfect cat sleeping spot (which is why the lid is bent and no longer functional), it was a logical project to pull out, try to finish, and re-pack in a new container.

The project being Foxley Village by Natalie Bird, which was a 2016 BOM through the Australian Homespun magazine. I think I started mine in 2017 so it's bordering on a long-term UFO.

I thought it was going to be a quick finish and that I just had some columns to join, then decide on borders and it would be progressed to the needs quilting pile.

Oh yes, here's part of it-

But my memory had failed me - this block is definitely not a column!

And it doesn't fit - yet!

Some Flying Geese were made - 

Plus a 'Hovering Hawkks Variation block' - 

A little more sewing and this section is assembled - 

and finally I have complete columns which are joined -

Part of me wants to call it a day here. The pattern has an outer border that I'd rather not do. It's just not my favourite.

Jenny changed her border and I admire it every time I see it behind her when we're on zoom (Chookshed Chatterers).

(Most of the fabrics used are from various Tilda ranges.)

So while I decide what to do with my borders, this will be put back into a (new) box or bag. Thank you Joan of MooseStash Quilting for encouraging me to pull it out to work on.

Apologies for being slow to post today, I wasn't happy with my initial photos of the top so had to wait for daylight to take some more. Other bloggers who are also posting about their Flying Pigs today (and possibly have made more progress than I have!) are - 

Tuesday June 20

Quilted Delights

Ms P Designs USA

Selena Quilts

Just Because Quilts

Stitching Farm Girl (That's me)

Bumbleberry Stitches

There is a full list of the whole bloghop on Joan's blog.

'til next time,

happy stitches,

UFO Blog Hop

Oh dear, I'm late, I'm late....and I'm not finished!

When Joan of MooseStashQuilting put out the word that she was hosting a UFO Blog Hop this week, I thought it would be a brilliant chance to work on one of my UFOs.

It also coincided with me deciding to do "Block-a-day-July". A personal challenge to make at least one block every day and also do a blogpost every day.

I decided on Memory Lane, which was a BOM run through my lovely local quilt shop last year. It combined stitcheries and piecing. I had chosen to do the version that used Tilda fabrics.

The fun thing about this BOM was that it comprised some of the shop's favourite stitchery designs from projects that had been done over the years. So a real trip down Memory Lane.

I impressed myself by getting all the stitcheries done —

— but stalled rather spectacularly after that.

Oh I tell a lie, I did piece Block One approximately a year ago —

My thoughts were to gradually work on it throughout my Block-a-day-July challenge, and get to the 27th with a completed top.

And there the story twists. I decided it would be fun to go rogue and adapt the pattern so that I had a completely unique quilt.

There was a lot of trial and error. I used the blocks that were used in the original quilt, but made up my own arrangement.

Some of the blocks pieced over the month —

Here is a photo I took the other day —

Since then I have put a grey-spot border around this centre and I am up to piecing the final border, using leftover stitcheries and the rest of my fabric.

It was double fun to combine my Block-a-day-July with working on this UFO for the bloghop. Of course it may have been finished if I hadn't got distracted with a Churndash SAL.....

...isn't that often how UFOs come about....??!!

Here are the other participants for Day 3 of the blog hop—

stitchingfarmgirl (that's me, you're here!)

Bea Quilter

Selina Quilts

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs

Quilt Doodle Designs

Quilting Gail

Take a moment to visit them and see what they have got up to with their UFOs.

The complete list of participants is *here*.

'til next time,

happy stitches,