Friday night fun

I joined with lots of others  on Friday night for Friday Night Sew In, which is being temporarily hosted by Wendy at Sugarlane Quilts.  Thanks for hosting us Wendy!

Some of my sewing was of the secret variety, but I did start to join my 1 inch hexagons together for the front of a bag, which will be my SAL project for July. I love these Double Chocolat fabrics designed by 3 Sisters, I got a charm pack and some yardage from The Art of Craft in Gore.

And for the cross-stitchers among you who thought I had crossed over to the dark side quilting side, some stitches were even added to my Christmas Garden piece.  I've been working on this a little lately, the bottom pic is where it was at way back in December.

It's a stunning winter's day here in the Deep South, a day to throw all the windows and doors open and enjoy some beautiful sunshine....prune some more roses, and maybe get some time in the sewing room later too. Thanks for stopping by today....... Nicky x

Friday Night Sew-In

Last night I joined in with lots of girls all around the globe for Friday Night Sew-In.  I made up Blocks 2 and 3 of the FQS Designer Mystery Quilt last night, and finished up Block 4 this morning.  It feels great to be up to date on this, as you know me, it doesn't take much for me to get behind and then never get these things finished!

Block 2 - Mint Julep - Designed by Lisa Bongean

Block 3 - Weather Vane - Designed by Barbara Groves and Mary Jacobson

Block 4 - Breezy Afternoon - Designed by Aneela Hoey

Thanks for all the kind comments on the canvas I made for Miss 10's recent birthday.  A big thankyou too for all the visits to my Miss 12's little blog.  She has really appreciated your visits and encouraging comments.  I am not letting her email people directly at this stage, so please accept hers and my thanks!  

Right then, I'm off to mow the lawn, and make the most of a beautiful Saturday afternoon........  and maybe get some stitching tonight after the lambs are all fed.......... have a great weekend......... Nicky

FNSI - The Friday afternoon version

As I hoped, I did get a few stitches in on Friday afternoon for Friday Night Sew In...... on my Christmas Garden project.  I haven't worked on this in several months, so there isn't much change to see, but surely a few stitches is better than none!

If you joined in FNSI, I hope you had a lovely evening stitching too.................

Till next time ...........Nicky

(Semi)Normal transmission resumes

Oh boy, it's been so long since I did this that the whole blogger thing seems unfamiliar to me.......

It feels great to be back though, and I know I've missed reading everyone's news and happenings!

Things are good here, my Dad is recovering from surgery and looking forward to a smooth journey ahead now.      These kinds of bumps in the road are what makes me appreciate my family and also our wonderful friends even more, we simply couldn't get there without them.  I have had lots of 'checking in on you' emails and messages, so thanks for thinking of us!!

You'd think that in a 2 and a half month break from blogging I'd have lots of stitching to share but sorry that is not the case at all.  Very little stitching happened here, it's not through a lack of wanting to, but it just hasn't happened.    We did have a week in April in beautiful Noosa in Queensland, Australia, and what a fantastic place.  Noosa can be as busy or relaxing as you want it to be........ we fitted in some horse riding, kayaking, shopping, lots of swimming, and a whole lot of reading and relaxing!  I also managed to squeeze in a trip to The Patchwork Angel in Forest Glen, what a wonderful shop, I had a good old discussion with my credit card there, but of course I won in the end... lol ..... and some lovely goodies came home with me.

I believe it is Friday Night Sew In tonight, sadly for my sewing, we won't be home tonight, but I might try and sneak in a couple of hours stitching this afternoon instead.  I have a sick girl home from school today with a nasty head cold, so the perfect reason for a day indoors for me too!

If you're joining FNSI this month I hope you have an enjoyable evening stitching tonight, and I will catch up with you all again soon.

Take care ............. Nicky

PS: I've just had a look back to February on my blog and realise I didn't share a pic of Janis' finished Stitching Round the Block piece, so here it is...... Janis stitched Round 1, Raewyn stitched Round 2, Janis stitched Round 3(she and Leanne each did their own round threes) and I stitched Round 4 for Janis ...finally!!!  Thanks to Helen of Hugs and Kisses for a great round robin pattern and to Janis, Raewyn and Leanne for putting up with me!

One of these is not like the other .......

.......... can you work it out?  You can't?  Well the difference is that one of them is mine and the other one might be coming your way soon!  When I began to make the first one back at the start of January, all the measurements were for half width strips, and as I was working with full width cuts of fabric it was just as easy to cut enough for two. This is also where I confess that I was too lazy to hand quilt the strips in the second one and machined them instead  So if you've commented on my blog this year already, each comment will  be one chance in the draw.  If you don't usually comment, feel free to go for it, leave a comment on this post to throw your name in the hat, I'm happy to post anywhere(if you don't want to be entered from any previous comments I guess you should say so here on this post too!!)  I'd appreciate if you didn't advertise this too far and wide, I'd love it to go to someone who visited 'just because' not someone who came only because they heard there was a giveaway.  I'll draw a winner this Sunday night the 26th NZ time.

I also have a couple of parcels of IOU stitching from last year ready to send off to their patient recipients, and it feels so good to have that done.  I am a hopeless slacker with the attention span of a gnat, and I must apologise to those people who have been waiting a very long time for me to get my act together.  You know who you are - and I will share some pics here when the parcels are received!

I did sign up for Friday Night Sew In last week and managed to get a little done on Christmas Garden, as well as the final stitches in one of the above-mentioned IOU projects.  I just didn't get back here on Saturday to share as I was supposed to.....   :-(

Well I hope your week is off to a great start....... till next time........Nicky

Mondays Friday Night Sew In Results

I know, I know, I'm running a bit late for a FNSI update, but better late than never right!  It's been a terrible weekend of sleet and snow and hail, and so today the sun has finally come out in between snow showers for me to get some quick pics.  I should be at work today but we're stranded here with the snow and I've heard the roads right around the region are treacherous today, so I'm staying put.  Firstly what I finished up on Friday during FNSI, were my June blocks for the Tis the Season Stitchalong.  These blocks are fun to stitch, and I'm about two-thirds the way there now.

Also finished in the last few weeks were another couple of Butterfly Garden blocks.  I couldn't believe that this little 4" section of stitchery could take so long, boy was it slow going!  

I've also finished up the little quilt top in Pom Pom de Paris, not sure if the lattice look to it is quite as effective as I thought it would be, but overall I'm happy with it.  Now to decide how to quilt it??

I've also broken my pledge to myself not to start anything new, and have a little cross-stitch well underway, but I'll share that when it's done.

Well that's it from me today, I'm off to make some pumpkin soup for a late lunch, the girls are just heading out to play in the snow .................... so I'm sure they'll come in ready for something hot soon.

Have a great day ....................happy stitching .................. Nicky

Friday Night Sew-In ................

Tonight is Friday Night Sew-In hosted by Heidi, you can click on the link to head on over and sign up.

It's been a very non-stitching week for me so far, so I intend to put that right tonight with some hand stitching while watching the rugby, All Blacks v Fiji.  When that's over, I might reacquaint myself with my sewing machine and get some borders on my June Tis the Season blocks.  If you're joining in with FNSI, have a wonderful evening stitching and I'll look forward to seeing your progress over the weekend!

Cheers .......... Nicky

Friday Night Sew-In Progress

I didn't achieve a lot on Friday night for FNSI - but anything is better that nothing I suppose. This is April's Birdie Stitches block, featuring for now, half a tree and half a birdie.  You can find the designs released so far over at Little Miss Shabby's blog, along with lots of other beautiful quilts and cushions.

If all goes well I'll get this one finished up tonight, then I have plans for a little cross stitching.  Watch this space!  I failed in my OPAM goal for March, so I really don't want a repeat in April. LOL

Have a wonderful weekend for what's left of it, thanks for visiting me today.......Nicky

April???

I don't know where the first few, 10, 14 days of April have disappeared to.  I've had several attempts now at an update and am finally there now.  Life has been hectic round here, lambs and cattle off to the works, new weaner calves arriving from sales, and ewes being drenched and dipped in preparation for the mating season. We are tired of working in the woolshed and sheepyards, that is for sure!  My off-farm job has been busy too, with the end of the financial year meaning extra days at work lately too.

These are some of the steers ready to go to the paddock in the sky soon!  It pays not to get too attached to animals around here.  These boys are so quiet and friendly, but have been a bit naughty lately trying to get out of their paddocks, and lifting gates off hinges when they get the chance.

This is Miss 10 helping round up stock on her wee motorbike.  She's been a great help lately on the farm, and is desperate to get a pony.  The jury is still out on that one for now!

Anyway enough of all that, this is a stitchy kind of blog after all - not that there has been much of that happening either.  What a response to my last post on stitching tips and hints.  Thank you so much for adding lots of ideas and comments about the way you stitch too.  I learnt a lot, and realised there were lots of things I didn't mention too.  The main one is which method you use - the 'stab' method* or the 'running stitch' way of stitching.  I usually use the 'stab' method, it may be slower, but I find it difficult to get the stitch sitting right using the running stitch way and it is physically hard to do with the small hoop I use.

* By 'stab' method, I mean the needle going through to the back in one motion, then reaching behind and pushing through to the front in another movement, as opposed to going from front to back, and returning to the front all in one motion.  

Ultimately, everyone has their own way of doing things and if it works for you - go with it!

These are my April blocks from the Tis the Season Stitch-Along.  Why not head on over and check out the gorgeous blocks at the SAL blog.  Who could believe that one design could look so many different ways?!

Last night I traced off this months Little Birdie Stitches block and I'm planning a nice stitchy Friday evening tomorrow for FNSI.  You can sign up here if you'd like to join the fun. 

I'll try not to leave it so long next time, but till then, happy stitching .....................Nicky

Friday Night Sew In

I managed to get this runner pieced last night for Friday Night Sew-In.  This was cut out during a FNSI last year and it never made it any further than that, another project on my Sew It's Finished WIP list.  It is the Skinny Verna Pattern by Vicki E at Moda Bake Shop, using Martinique fabrics, which I absolutely love.  I recently ordered a walking foot for my machine, so I will wait for it to arrive before I quilt this wee runner.  The one I made last year showed me that I could really do with one,  I could see how much my top layer was being dragged with all the close machine quilting on this one.  Any advice on quilting generally would be much appreciated, as my experience is very limited!! 

 

  

 

Last weekend I made up the shoo fly blocks for Block One of Vignette mystery quilt and got the block together and traced.  I've only managed a little stitching during the week, but I can honestly say I love working with the Cosmo threads.  I wasn't expecting them to be any different to DMC, but they are just so smooth and silky to work with.

 

I traced parts with blue washout pen and some with pigma pen.  What do you normally use for tracing??  I like the clear crisp lines of the pigma, but the lightest green thread doesn't cover it very well.  On the other hand, the blue is forgiving if you make a mistake in the tracing, but I find it fades quickly with handling.  Would love to hear your thoughts.

No stitching here today, we're off to a wedding later on, so looking forward to that.  We haven't been to a wedding in ages and now we have two within 6 weeks.  Feast or famine! 

As always, thanks for stopping by..................................Nicky

Shearing .............

Back at my last sheepie post, I said I'd try and get some pics of lamb shearing ................. so here goes...... 

  It's all pretty self-explanatory really - lambs get pulled out of pens behind each blue door, shorn and sent down the shutes behind the shearers.  Apologies if this is not new to you - I'm guessing most country folk will be familiar with all of this!  

  Our woolshed is a four stand shed, so there are four shearers, three rousies and a presser who pens up the sheep out the back as well.   The rousies sweep the board of wool and sort the fleece into the right bales.

 These are lambs being shorn, so they have relatively short wool, when we are shearing ewes with 12 months of wool on, the girls use a wool table, where they throw the fleece and skirt(take out the short/gnarly bits around the outside) the edges before rolling the fleece up and putting it into the wool press.

Shearing gangs work so hard, and they are always cheerful and seem to have a lot of fun on the job too. 

 And here is the finished work, shorn sheep always look a bit strange straight off the shears, a bit nude and bony looking, within a week they'll be looking a bit more normal again.  It's always nice to get some good weather after shearing, the last thing you want is a cold snap on freshly shorn sheep.  Thankfully we have a good forecast for the next few days, and we are hoping to get our silage(winter feed) made tomorrow too.   

Thanks for stopping by today, I'll be back in a day or two with a stitching update, don't forget it's Friday Night Sew In this Friday, if you're keen to join in, head on over here and sign up.......happy stitching ........ .............. Nicky

Fabulous Friday ..........

It feels like I haven't been here much lately......... so heres a bit of a catchup on the last couple of weeks.  My SSCS gift arrived with Cardygirl/Alison earlier in the month.  Here is a pic of the ornie I finished up for her. 

In breaking news my own SSCS gift from Maricarmen arrived in this mornings mail all the way from Argentina.  Excitement plus in my house right now!  However my camera battery is dead, so I will take some pics tonight when I get home from work.  My ornament is so cute and is on the tree already.  Thank you Maricarmen, I can't wait till Christmas Day now!  Thanks again Chookyblue for organising this brilliant swap!

And I also forgot to show a pic of my 6 Things swap which was sent off to the land of Oz.  This was the swap organised by Maree.

And then there was Queenstown.  We had a wonderful weekend with good friends who also have two girls the same age as ours.  Lots of boating and swimming, too much eating, but most of all lots of relaxing.  This is the view from the beautiful house we stayed in looking towards the town.

Down at the lake shore - yes, it was as cold as it looks in that water!

Hubbie about to take off on the "Mojo" behind the boat..... 

.........and still on after several circuits.  The general consensus was that the water was far too cold for skiing.

(Thanks A & S for a wonderful weekend)

Tonight is Friday Night Sew-In, and I've missed the last couple, so I'm really looking forward to this one.  I think I will get some more done on my Stiching Round the Block for Leanne and Raewyn.  Leannes is almost done, and Raewyns piece has arrived from Leanne late last week.  Why not head on over to Heidi's and sign up for some sewing time tonight??

I hope you've had a great week and that your Christmas plans are coming together for you. Thanks so much for stopping by today - I'll be back tomorrow with some FNSI progress and some pics of my SSCS parcel and ornie.

                                         Have a great day............Nicky

A productive Friday night ........

Kia Ora friends, as planned there was some stitching finished here last night for Friday Night Sew-In. Yay!  My Danybrod pincushion is made up...................... I'm pretty happy with the final result. 

Floral Pin Cushion by Danybrod

Stitched on 32ct linen with DMC threads

The fabric I used for the back of the pincushion

I also finished up this little Christmas ornament, stitched back in February this year.

Winter's Eve - Country Cottage Needleworks

from JCS 2006 Christmas Ornament Issue

Stitched on Driftwood Belfast 32ct Linen with DMC, WDW and CC threads

The finishing up of these didn't take long, so I spent the rest of the evening working on my SSCS stitching, but I can't show any pics of that top secret project at the minute!!

Thanks to Heidi for once again hosting Friday Night Sew-In, I love it, and look forward to it each month,  why not head over to Heidi's blog and join in next time. 

Hope you're having a lovely weekend however you're spending it.......thanks for stopping by........Nicky

Back for Friday Night Sew-In

After a few weeks break from blogging, I am starting to catch up on blog reading, and am in a better frame of mind for stitching.  It occurred to me today that Friday Night Sew-in must be coming up soon and - yippee- it's tonight, so never one to be put off by a lack of preparation, I've signed up.  I've been bitten by the cross-stitching bug, after a bit of a break from it, and over the last couple of weeks,  I have stitched up this little pincushion design by Danybrod, one of my favourite French cross stitch designers.  I loved stitching it, it seemed to grow pretty quick, so much sport to watch at the Commonwealth Games at night lately helped the stitching time, so this is one of the things I want to get 'finished' tonight. 

I have started on my SSCS stitching, but won't reveal too much here, only that it is red!!  I'm enjoying working on this project and also on my 6 Items Xmas swap, which I have been giving some thought too over the last few weeks.  It's been fun trying to learn a bit about my swap partners, their style, likes and dislikes, though it's a bit daunting to be stitching/selecting something for people you have never actually met. 

Amongst that there has also been some GJ stitching, and in my usual chopping and changing fashion, I have now stitched most of the Vege Patch and a couple of other blocks too - just no blocks complete to be sewn together yet, but progress has been made. 

Also planned for this weekend is some gardening, and catching up on paperwork for both the farm and my off-farm job, should keep me out of trouble for a day or two!  We will be tailing our lambs early next week, so that will take care of a couple of days too.

I'll be back over the weekend to share tonight's results!

If you've made it this far - Congratulations! Thanks for stopping here today, wishing you a wonderful weekend ........... Nicky

It's Spring, apparently........

......but this is what we woke to this morning...................

....and about 4 hours later, it had changed to this.............

Large coffee cup added for perspective!

It's definitely not a great day to be a newborn lamb, we are just hoping that the ewes have headed for shelter, it is snowing so heavily now, that we would do more damage than good by going out into the paddocks, and would end up chasing ewes out of shelter and mismothering lambs.  Not even sure if the motorbike would get very far in this at the moment anyway.

Up until now lambing had been going great, weather had been not too bad, and the ewes were lambing with very little trouble.  Guess we are now paying for the great winter we had!  We are only bottle feeding about 12 pet/orphan lambs just now, but that will probably change once this storm passes.  I think most of New Zealand is experiencing terrible weather this weekend, heavy rain, huge winds and sea swells in the North Island and snow and rain in the South Island.  They have forecast it for nearly a week, but after seeing on the news some of the snow that Tasmania in Australia got, we were just hoping it would not get that bad.

My plans for Friday Night Sew-In didn't quite come off as I'd hoped, I did get the cutting out of my quilt runner done, before it just got too cold in my sewing room and I settled for some cross stitching by the fire instead.   Here's a peek at what I was working on.  Hopefully I will have something to show for my efforts by the end of the weekend! 

If you were participating in FNSI, I hope you had much better results!

Thanks for stopping by today, have a wonderful weekend.................Nicky