Weekend report

There isn't a lot of crafting to report on from the weekend.... I'm not sure where the weekend has disappeared to!
However I did sit down on Friday evening to join Cheryll and friends for Friday Night With Friends. I worked on a needlecase, a wee kit which arrived in my Scrubstitching parcel last month.
It was a nice sew, not too much thinking required and I was surprised that with a bit of work on it on Friday night and then some time on Saturday, it was finished!

The inside page is a nice piece of woven wool —

Here it is with the pouch which was the other kit in our Scrubstitching package. Lovely to have them to do even though we didn't get to attend the retreat —

I did a bit of sorting and planning today so my only other sewing this weekend was a couple of scrappy blocks for my Omigosh quilt. I hadn't sewn any of these for a while and because there was a pile of sewn strips sitting next to my machine, I gave them some attention.

Don't forget that these each measure 4 ½" which makes them a fun challenge. I had started using the RSC monthly colour as a guide for sewing the shoofly blocks (this month is green so I'm way off!) but sometimes it's easier to just grab what's nearby.
I had thought I would have some walk photos to share in this post but it's been blustery and rainy all day so I didn't venture out. (Yaay for some rain!) I did a very quick power walk up and down the first hill by the chookyard this morning but that was all!

I hope your weekend's been happy and healthy,

'til next time,

happy stitches, 

April tally-up —

Mixed results from my month of sewing...even with the lock down I didn't get as much done as I thought I would - always plenty of distractions down on the farm (etc!). I did set myself plenty of goals though and on the whole kept reasonably focused. I fought the urge to start new large projects but did get sidetracked occasionally with smaller ones :-)
My PHD goal, hosted by Quilting Gail, was to finish my Hannah and Harrington quilt. It was all basted, ready to go.... I stitched in the ditch of the big blocks, and also quilted in the small squares.
Rather than cross hatching, I did a simple vine design across the diagonal of each square —

A lot easier to see on the back —

So at this stage it looks like this —

It has a lot less pins in it!

Some may remember me saying I have a Glide foot to attach to my machine to quilt around the felt appliques (preventing any snagging). Attaching that involves doing a foot conversion first - the warning on the pack says to take care, incorrect installation may 'cause damage to your machine'. I gulped a bit at that and decided to wait till after lock down to do that IN CASE things do go haywire. I wouldn't like to not be able to get it looked at by my machine person for weeks.....

So because of me chickening out, the work on this goal sort of stalled a bit.

My One Monthly Goal, signed up for over at Elm Street Quilts was to get my Truck and Tractor quilt finished...hmmmm....I got the top finished - yaay - but didn't get it quilted. I had a rummage around and didn't have enough of anything to use for a backing so that was another wait because of lock down job. However, I was happy enough with where I got to as there was still a lot of work to be done on it at the start of the month.
I've just linked up for the end of the month report - click *here* to see how everyone else got on.

My WOOFA goal was to get some more work done on Foxley Village. In particular, some pieced blocks to go with the appliqued ones I've already done.

I wrote about this the other day. Pleased with the progress here.

My 350 blocks project is another one I'm tallying up tonight. Shelly over at Prairie Moon Quilts has challenged us to make 30 this month. 

Including the 15 for the Tractor/Truck quilt, some for Foxley Village, 10 for my postcard quilt, and a few extra randoms, my tally came to 34. Not bad, I feel!!

I haven't quite updated my OPAM page yet but I think I have 11 for the month! I'm so glad I've blogged about them all as I'd forgotten about the bunnies —

the bunny bags —

there was also the Scrub Stitching pouch —

and a Tilda pincushion —

I counted overlocking four nighties as two finishes and there was a cot sheet, plus my postcard quilt. Whew, plenty keeping me out of mischief, and it doesn't make my underachieving of my goals look quite so bad. The goals help me to keep focused on the bigger picture but I do like to potter and play with other little things as well!

'til next time,

happy and healthy stitches,

 

A day for the birds, and a finish---

Another of my aims for this month was to finish the Scrubstitching quilt I shared about back *here*. Kiwikid Sue and I challenged each other to make a postcard quilt highlighting our fun and adventures when we went to Scrub Stitching retreat in NSW last April.
I had mine to wall hanging stage but I still needed to do some more stitching down, plus bind it.
That was today's task —

In case it helps to see a little more detail, here's the top half —

And the bottom —

After quilting all the background (cross hatching with my walking foot), I bordered each postcard block —

And then folded the edges over  —

So that I could top stitch them in place (stitched in the ditch where the border joins the stitchery part and then around the outside of the red) —

Simple free motion quilting to create 'roads' linking each postcard —

I enjoyed playing around drawing each block but I think this is my favourite motif of them all :-)

This wall hanging is even more special now, since we couldn't all attend this year. Let's hope next year we'll have an excuse to make another memorabilia scrubstitching quilt!

This morning's walk was another hill climb in the top back corner of the farm —

Along the bushline were these ferns - we have a few patches of them but these were looking very photogenic this morning —

Does anyone know what these are called? 

And then the birds started appearing. Not that I haven't seen them every other day, but I seemed to be able to get the photos today!

The Pukeko —

Goldfinches on a fence —

The swallows were enjoying the sun (and doing lots of grooming) —

And even our new family of quail let me photograph them —

So as well as the exercise, it was a pretty satisfying walk!

As our lockdown restrictions ease ever so slightly tomorrow, moving from Level Four to Level Three, I'm going to ease up on the blogging! It was on the spur of the moment that I decided to blog every day during this period. Not so spur of the moment to walk each day, that had been on the cards for a while, I just needed the push.
We have two weeks at this next level until it is decided what we will do next. Let's hope this curve is squashed totally...time will tell.
Thank you all for reading along and your encouragement :-) It's been good to have something to focus on during this time, and I have enjoyed connecting with you all.

'til next time, 

stay healthy and home, 

and happy stitches,