A bit of this, a bit of that —

Well it seems that when I told myself that I would try to blog at least weekly, the message didn't get through!! So here I am a good two three weeks since my last post. 

However it feels like I don't have a huge amount of creating to share. I'll get writing and see what I find to talk about!

A wee look through my photos reminds me that I blinked and the Oak tree was in leaf - all of a sudden it was spring!

Spring and September for us here can be wet, but in between showers there are a few beauties.

I grew Crocus for the first time —

Another first, I planted some Rununculus bulbs and they are flowering too! It was a gorgeous day when I took these photos —

When I planted the bulbs, I also sowed a packet of wildflower seeds in the same barrel so it will be interesting to watch the changes as the year progresses.

On the farm it's easy for the MOML and I to only notice the muddy gateways and and soggy pastures. However our daughter in law sent this fun photo through of the kids (and pets) rolling down the hill - doesn't the farm look great from there?!

Ha! the next photo she sent though brought us back down to earth with a thump - yep, the kids' favourite puddle, apparently!!

September is the month when the kowhai flower and I always look out for the first yellow blooms. I took this photo when feeding calves this morning. These trees in the bush are on the other side of a swamp so this is as close as I got today. 

This is a photo I took another time, such lovely flowers.

Calving has slowed right down and the end is nearly in sight, with approx 20 cows left to calve. The last ones always drag on for ages....70-80% of the cows get in calf on their first mating so we have an almighty rush of calves in the first 4 weeks. Some cows need a second mating, or a third or.... you get the picture. We've sold a bunch of calves, I currently have 103 that I'm feeding. Lots of delicious brown Angus cross in the photo below —

I always love seeing all the different shades of brown —

After being housed in various sheds and so on, most of the older ones are out on grass and getting milk-fed once a day, so that has eased my workload a lot.

Which gives me time to get back to my normal pursuits. 

A little childminding (Odie loves his Gandad's farming magazines!) —

And a little sewing —

I've had a bit of brain fog lately that's upset my apple cart so I've avoided anything that requires too much thinking and decision making.

Evenings has been basket making, with a straightforward design. Just the background fabric and one other —

The pattern was kindly provided by Michelle - she has now finished her Basket-case quilt, it looks lovely.

I didn't realise that I'd amassed such a pile of these - so it's motivating to keep going with them and aim for a decent sized quilt.

I've done a little sewing during the day, enough to keep my hand in!

I have made another one of the Reindeer blocks for Juliet of Tartankiwi's Sleighride sewalong. Details *here*. Again, once I'd decided on the fabrics for this deer, there weren't too many decisions to make, just the foundation piecing process, which I have down pat, to follow. 

(I showed my first blocks *here*)

I think the fog is starting to clear now so I'm hoping for a bit more creativity in the future :-)

And, just right now, there's new calvers to get to the shed and calves to be fed!

'til next time,

happy stitches,

Sewing pretty

I glanced up at my design wall the other day and realised that this week's sewing had been 'pretty' - projects using pretty fabrics.

First up was a mystery stitchery BOM I am doing through The Country Yard, as a participant rather than designer or sample maker. I fought very hard and tried to sit on my hands but in the end gave in. This stitchery uses motifs and stitchery designs from a variety of previous years' mystery projects; having been involved with the shop for as long as I have it really is like a walk down Memory Lane, which of course is what this BOM is called.

There were three different fabric ways we could choose from, and I have chosen to do mine in the Tilda fabric selection.

Here are the stitcheries from the first two months —

Here is month one sewn up —

And the month two blocks —

Month one and two combined —

This week I continued on with the Laundry Basket 2021 mystery QAL - the second set of 'pretties' up on the wall (and discussed *here*).
I finally got my head around where I was heading with this before I put it away for a bit. And I've decided to change tack with it, by sewing it up differently to how the instructions tell us.

Because it's no longer a mystery, I can see the end result and have decided to plan where my fabrics go a little more than if I had been keeping up a day and block at a time.

Plus, sewing 20 odd of the same block can be a little tiresome so it's nice to play as I go.
I've started at the centre with darker reds and am working out towards the outer edge, ending with the pinks/light reds.

So far my centre looks like this —

Below shows me having a bit of a play - I originally planned on the dark flying geese as on the bottom row, but changed my mind, and changed them to the red, as shown on the right.

So you can see it's going to take me twice as long to make it this way, and I'm going to end up with a few orphan blocks!!

A close up of the fabrics —

I've sewn the centre blocks together into rows, just to keep them together even though we were told not to do that until the end!

They all said it was a matter of 'when' and not 'if' and now, after nearly 18 months out of Level 4 lockdown, and a long time of relative freedom, New Zealand went back into L4 lockdown last week (11 days ago). Yes, Delta has arrived here. (Level 4 is the most restricted level in NZ and only essential services are allowed to operate.)

It seems that new cases are contained within Auckland and most of us were hoping for an ease in restrictions in yesterday's announcement. On Tuesday night most of the country goes into level 3 but Northland (where we live) unfortunately has been grouped together with Auckland and we must all stay in level 4 for longer.

Down on the farm, we've continued on as usual, when you have animals and are a primary industry, you can't just stop. So we've milked the cows and reared the calves and ventured out for click and collect farm supplies or groceries when necessary.

The big hassle for us though is that we were partway through a bathroom renovation when lockdown hit and the trades weren't allowed to come to work -  we were left with no shower!!

The MOML cleverly set us up an outdoor shower with a hose which goes through the window and onto the (hot) laundry taps. 

The things you can get away with in the country 😂 (not so good on a windy night!!).

Fortunately for us, getting a shower installed was finally considered essential enough to risk trades coming to our place. After three or four days of form signing and avoiding strangers in the hallway we no longer have to use the outdoor facilities! They only did the basics though so we still have more tradie-time to come, at some stage.

So the talk of lockdown leads me to another project to share with you. As a 'lockdown gift', The Country Yard has designed a free stitchery to help everyone keep out of mischief while staying at home.

Tonight I hope to trace it and start planning which threads I would like to use.

You can access the design *here* (Thank you Kerryn and Annalese!)

'til next time,

happy stitches,

Great excitement!

There is a new sewalong starting and I'm very excited about it!

Regular readers may remember that I love to test Juliet Tartankiwi's FPP patterns for her. When she sends a plea out to her group of regular testers, I very seldom say no, and manage to squeeze in the sewing, somehow. I think I enjoy the combination of making something I had no idea I wanted to make and the technical side of analysing a pattern, feeding back to her and so on.

And something I tested/sewed last month, is now in print and about to be launched as a new Sew-Along.
...........Introducing the Sleigh Ride Sew-Along!

Here are the two blocks I sewed up as a tester —

The reindeer —

And the sleigh —

Once I started sewing I wasn't sure about the background 'night sky' fabric I chose but it has grown on me and definitely gives a unique look!

The sewalong is focussing on making a table runner but, knowing me, I'll make mine a little bigger - and I'm hoping that by joining in with the sewalong I'll make some good progress!

(Oh and this pattern is definitely easier to sew than some of Juliet's patterns. They are all well designed and written but these particular ones are suitable for 'adventurous beginners' {to quote Juliet!})

Head over *here* to check out the details of the sewalong.

Which now gives me three Christmas projects I'd like to complete this year.

My Scrappy Christmas ornaments —

And The Santa, The Tree, The Turkey and Me —

But who's counting........😂

In other exciting news, I made another star block for The Great Scrappy Star Adventure —

And my 'baby chickens' (hereinafter called The Pullets) have started laying - spot the (tiny) pullet egg in the photo above! They are now enjoying life as big chooks, with the same freedoms, and I am hoping for nests full of full-sized eggs pretty soon. At the moment they scatter all the nesting box hay around and generally create havoc but I continue to live in hope!

Great excitement but not of the positive type over the weekend. Recently, the MOML has been getting to the cowshed at 5am to discover lights not working or the pump running. We figured there were rats in the ceiling chewing wires so have been working to get rid of the rats, seal up all the little entrances that creatures find and to pin down our electrician  to come out to fix the wiring.

Saturday was the last straw, when the radio wouldn't work! Up came the roof to see what on earth was going on. Amidst a tangle of chewed wires was a big old possum. Obviously he'd been having a grand old party living in the roof and living off wiring - how he didn't cause a fire, we don't know, so we feel very lucky. It took seven calls to get an afterhours electrician, but we were up and running by afternoon milking time again!

Roofing iron off

Look how chewed the wires were - so lucky we didn't have a fire!

The area is well sealed now, I think that even a slug would have trouble getting in!

Anyway, cows and calves are calling!

'til next time,

happy stitches,