A flimsy!!

It's well over a week since my last post - where has the time gone and what have I been up to?

(A week ago) We had two small children for the weekend (two whole nights!) so their parents could attend a wedding down country. 

While the kiddies were staying, we had their cousin's first birthday to attend.

YD made him a fun lawnmower cake - it's his favourite thing at the moment!!

After the busy weekend, I spent a quiet Monday recovering (!) with a bit of sewing added in.

I finally got my 2020 Temperature quilt together —

I'm pleased with how the temperature scale came out in the borders —

But it is a very white quilt so photographing it with a coloured background was tricky. I had to be very careful to keep it clean! —  

Some photos from that weekend. The birthday boy, Odie, and some balls (and cousins) —

Lily feeding the chickens. George ends up dumping his bucket of feed on the ground. She likes to sit and dish out each grain one by one (almost!) —

Taking the 'family' for a farm ride —

Two small children running and dancing —

And finding a very dry 'thing'. "What's dat?"..... "A cowpat".....they didn't realise a cowpat is another word for cow muck and had a grand old time stomping on it. Luckily it was so dried they didn't break the surface and create a splatter!

And somewhere along the line I made another bib for Odie —

From Tuesday onwards I was on jury duty, yes, I got randomly selected to be on the jury...the trial is still going. Today (Monday) we had off but we'll be back to it tomorrow for the next few days. Interesting.

'til next time,

happy stitches,

Temperatures high and low....

I can't believe how quickly this week is flying by, here it is Friday already! It's going to be another one of those weeks...!

On Wednesday, after a little stock work, I managed a WHOLE day in The Palace to do as I wished ♥ 

I fought the urge to continue on with my Christmas Ornament blocks and tried to focus on some of the other things on my list.....

It was temperature quilt time - I just had December's blocks to do —

I thought I'd work on it in the morning and then pull out something else after lunch. Here was where I'd got to before lunch. The five blocks for December done, some hot days in there.

I decided to carry on with it after lunch. December's blocks sewn together —

By afternoon tea time I'd got this far. December joined onto the rest, and the temperature scale blocks for the outer borders pieced —

I have totally run out of one fabric. I need 3 x 2" squares out of the 'bright green' —

Hopefully there's some more floating around the shop. If I get really desperate I have big enough scraps to piece ONE 2" square!!!

By dinner time I had got it to this stage. I have put the first border on (white strips). Sorry it's not a very good photo - it was taken inside in the early evening light - that is the same white fabric used throughout! —

I mentioned a little farm work before I got sewing. Before breakfast we'd got a mob of beefies  (Angus cross) in as they were off to their new home.

Earlier in the week the elder twins had their very first ever sleepover. They came to ours for the night.

They enjoyed home made pizza for tea —

(After declaring she needed to use nearly all of the tomatoes, 

Saydee decided she really didn't like them on her pizza!)

Had breakfast while drawing in a 'chair hut' —

And we went out on the farm to climb hills and trees —

And Thursday, the younger twins were here for a few hours. Very excited to travel in 'ganma's car' when I picked them up. Here they are resting after intense tunnel building for cars, cows and trains. They always like to use the 'baby cups' at Ganma's. 

(You may have noticed a few more family and farm photos on my blog these days. Since I'm not doing the 365 photo a day challenge this year,  I'm finding I want to put them somewhere!)

Today is a work day for me so I had better get myself organised. I am hoping we have some of that bright green grunge left!!

'til next time,

happy stitches,

Day 31 of Block a Day December

Another early morning sewing session this morning saw a few more blocks to add to my tally for the month.

Two more of these ornament blocks which I seem to be hooked on —

The last November block for my Temperature quilt —

And November now all joined  —

And added to the rest of the top —

I won't be getting December's blocks done by the end of the year but hope to have it completed in a week or so!

The last two gifts I made this Christmas were from the two blocks I made at the start of December. I sewed them up into mugrugs.....they do seem a bit big but will also fit a nice little plate of goodies as well as a hot drink.

I backed them with Kiwiana fabric —

And I also received a couple of lovely decorations to hang on the tree.

This one from Lou. She made one a month this year, I'm so lucky to have received one —

And the lovely Di made this —

Thank you so much both of you lovely ladies ♥

We had a town visit today and a quiet afternoon with no more gardening. (That's when I got a little sewing done.) We all spent this evening at ED's for a nice BBQ tea and a good gathering of both sides of the family. Lots of very excited children who would have all taken a while to wind down for bed tonight! Unless this blog post takes me another hour 40 minutes to write, I don't think ANY of us will be seeing in the new year. 
Mum with some of her Great-grandies —

AND I MADE IT - A Block A Day this December - lots of fun - I did actually enjoy the challenge and am thrilled that I have a new pile of blocks to progress my projects - and I even have a new one started -ahem, that wasn't supposed to happen!

Thank you all for following along and your encouraging comments. I really do apologise that I haven't replied to you all and also I really want to catch up on reading and commenting on your blogs too.

Happy New Year to you all.

Let's all hope that that spark of hope and positivity that we feel as we put the 2020 calendars away and bring out the 2021 ones lasts and better things really do happen. That health and happiness return to the world.

Hugs ♥

Day 30 of Block a Day December

As I'm generally an early riser I was able to do some sewing before breakfast this morning. Our visitors arrived late last night so I knew that once the day started there would be no time for making my daily block.

And the day turned out quite different to how I thought it would.

Before I knew it, this was happening. My friend and I got busy —

This is how the garden looked in October - really lovely, but that rose had grown everywhere and needed getting under control —

There was also a massive hydrangea that was beautiful when it flowered but quickly turned brown as opposed to slowly fading like hydrangeas normally do.

After a few hours work the men stopped by to help clear the mess —

The final result —

This was the sewing this morning —

Two more temperature blocks to add to November; how boring is that second block - we had very steady temperature that 'week'.

And a wee pile that hopefully will be transformed into blocks tomorrow morning while everyone is sleeping.

Here is another wee gift I made this Christmas. The design is based on a Japanese Rice Bag but I don't imagine rice will be kept in this one. Sorry no link to this but googling Rice bags will bring up a few choices to use if you want to make one.

Turned out rather sweet I thought.

'til next time,

happy stitches,

Day 28 of Block a Day December

I think I had too big a piece of Christmas Cake at lunch time today as my brain didn't engage and I seemed to do a lot of unpicking when I got to my sewing after lunch!

Units upside down or back to front!

However I persisted and finally made some satisfying progress.

First up, two temperature quilt blocks, the first two weeks of November —

Instead of sewing more of November, I decided to join some of the months previously sewn but not yet connected. August-September-October —

This was one of the times I did a major error, sewing August below September (instead of above it). Mum dared to suggest that no-one would know!! Excuse Me I said, I would know and the temperatures just wouldn't make sense! After I explained it all to her in a bit more detail she did see my point!

And then joined to the rest of the year - yaay, woohoo, looking good 😁

I joined the temperature scale to the top, above January, but part way through the seam realised I had intended doing a border before this went on.

Yes, definitely needs that border separating the 'year' from the 'scale'. It's unpicked already.

And the Scrappy Christmas quilt has taken over as the current leader-ender project (Omigosh! is going away for a bit) and with all the unpicking and re-sewing, I managed one more of those  —

(Excuse the crumple, carrying it upstairs to photograph it.)  And I started a second.
EDIT I have discovered where the pattern can be found. I am fairly certain it was a free tutorial for a time and is now available in in this book —

https://blog.fatquartershop.com/deck-ade-halls-vintage-ornaments/

I'm counting down the days,

'til next time,

happy stitches,