There are worse ways to spend a Friday afternoon..............

 ...................... than sitting on the deck in the sunshine stitching down the binding on my Tis the Season quilt.  It's a gorgeous day, the first one that I've needed to get out the sun umbrella, and oops I see the nose of my helper in the bottom right there. lol

This is the part I never really enjoy, but on a lovely day like today, it's pretty relaxing, especially when there's lots of other work stuff I should be doing. lol
It will be finished TODAY(I promise it will!), but it will be dark by then, so I'll get some pics tomorrow.  I'm so pleased to be meeting the Stitch-Along deadline of the end of September, and there are some wonderful finishes coming in thick and fast over at the SAL blog.  See you there tomorrow!

The wonderful world of blogging .......................

Isn't it funny how reading one persons blog post leads you to another, then on to another, and then suddenly you just have to make something RIGHT NOW!  Last Friday I was reading about Josies day with her friends and what they were working on, which led me on to a new to me blog, Kristyne at Pretty by Hand and her wonderful Project Simplify challenge.  Kristyne made every quilt and cushion in Camille Roskelly's beautiful Simplify book.  Do have a look at her blog, I had a good giggle, she's a very funny girl, and thankyou Josie for sharing the link.

So I dug out my copy of Simplify and decided that right then I had to make one of the cushions in it.  I did choose the simplest one of course as I only had about 1 1/2 hours before I had to go meet the school bus.  So our youngest arrived home to a new cushion on her bed and she is pretty chuffed about it!  I used some of my Sherbet Pips charm square and finished it with some straight line quilting.  Now our eldest has picked out a cushion for me to make for her room, but that will have to wait until my Tis the Season is finished.  Which of course will(hopefully) be by this Fridays deadline. After a long drought this is also an OPAM finish for me for September.

Aren't those little puppies the cutest ..............

And the book for the inspiration ...............

This week I've also been thinking about what to make for my partner in Chookyblues 2011 Secret Santa Christmas Swap, and to be honest I'm really not sure yet what it's going to be.  But it's been fun doing some blog stalking to get an idea of what my partner might like. 

Thanks for all the comments about my hens - it's 'eggciting' times around here, as we check the nesting boxes every day to see how many eggs there are, we're up to two most days now!

Until next time, thanks for visiting ...................... happy stitching ............ Nicky

Happy Hens

Last week, I headed off to town to pick up some hens, to come and live in my lovely new henhouse.  I bought 6 young hens, about 20 weeks old, and was told they were just beginning to lay.  They've been shut in for about 5 days, so that they could learn where to lay, how to roost, and to settle into their new home.

Here are the girls in their new digs ............................................

Today I thought I'd let them out, as the sun has decided to come back after a very wet Monday.  And look what I found - my first egg - doesn't take much to get me excited does it?  I've left it there for the kids to find when they get home from school.  They've been running out to check the nesting boxes every day so today they'll get a surprise too!

Anyway, I opened their little door, and waited.........

....................and waited ................

...................and waited...........................................

............... and finally they ventured out. 

They're staying pretty close to the door just now, but I'm sure it won't be long and they'll be roaming around, probably getting into the vegetable garden and harassing the dog. 

TIme for some more Tis the Season progress, I've joined the blocks together, and have now chosen my border fabrics, might get them on tonight if time allows, so I'm still on target to finish it before the end of the month.

Thanks for visiting with me today ...................... till next time................happy stitching, Nicky

Tis the Season blocks

Here are the last four of my Tis the Season blocks finished up.  Now I need to join them all together and get it finished up before the end of September so as not to be the last to finish this quilt over at the Stitch-A-Long blog where we've been stitching this since March.  I am one of the few slackers slower stitchers who still haven't finished their A Gardener's Journal quilts from last year, so I don't want to be in the same boat this time around!  In the final photo I'm showing some rather wrinkly progress of the stitchery for my final AGJ block.  I've been trying to put a few stitches in here and there so I can get it finally finished.

It's been a fairly awful week of rain, hail and cold winds, not the ideal weather for lambing, but not quite as bad as last year ....... yet.  The sun is out today though, so it would be great if it hangs around for the next few weeks at least.  

Till next time ................................. happy stitching........... Nicky

Lambs everywhere

The lambs are coming thick and fast this week, we're well over a third of the way through now.  This little sweetie called Midnight belongs to 'Pinkie' who was a pet lamb of the girls several years ago.  Sadly Pinkie has no milk, so they are living together in the house paddock, where 'Midnight' gets bottle fed four times a day.  Here is mother and baby together.................... if she wasn't a pet sheep they would not be remaining together!

It's rare for us to get a set of quads, but here they are, we know they're quads because they were born with a number four on each of their backs........... only kidding.............. but once we spray mark them it does make it easier to put them all back together if one wanders off.

Imagine trying to keep track of four babies at once ...........................

For the townies out there don't be alarmed by the colour of these twins below, it is normal, the ewe will clean them up pretty quickly, in fact she's eating some afterbirth in this photo(sorry about that!)

One of these is not like the other ........ the bigger lamb in the centre has wandered off from his mum, and is trying to get amongst the action with this ewe and her new twins.  Mostly the ewe will bunt him away, but occasionally if you don't remove it quick enough she may take this lamb and leave her own behind. 

 So that's a quick farm tour for today ........................ if you're lambing or calving I hope it's going well for you - we've had a rough 24 hours of weather here, an inch and a half of rain in less than a day, and even some hail and snow early this morning.  It's improved a little today, but they are forecasting more snow for Thursday.  We had a lot of very cold newborn lambs and their mums in shelter last night, and almost all have made it through unscathed.

If you've seen any of the Rugby World Cup games - hasn't it been fantastic?!  I'm loving seeing the lower ranked teams giving the big name teams a good workout.  Go the AB's!

Catch you soon, where I can finally share some more Tis the Season progress..........getting there slowly.

Nicky

No more sleeps to go

Huge excitement at our house today ........................ mostly me though I'd have to say LOL.................... my other big interest outside of stitching would have to be sport ............. any kind, but my favourite of all is rugby .........and in rugby it doesn't come much bigger than Rugby World Cup 2011.  

RWC kicks off in Auckland tonight with the opening ceremony and the opening match, our All Blacks v Tonga.   It's been 24 long years since we won the inaugaural World Cup also hosted here in New Zealand.
24 long years of 4 yearly heartbreak as we miss out on the big prize.     Surely this will be our year??  The tournament runs for 6 weeks, with the final on October 23 at Eden Park in Auckland.

People all over the country are getting in to the excitement, decorating houses, shops, schools with flags and banners from their favourite country.  There's been a very successful campaign to 'adopt a second team' where everyone is encouraged to support one of the other teams along with our own All Blacks.  Down south most are supporting Scotland who are playing a couple of their games here.  But for me, my heart is black!!

I've been keeping a little secret for a couple of months - I'm going to Auckland for the semi-finals in mid-October ....... both of them!  My two brothers both live overseas and are coming home for the RWC, and they have four tickets for the semifinals so have invited our Dad and I to join them for the weekend.  So I am like a pig in mud at the moment ......... it's going to be so wonderful to have a family reunion of sorts for us all.  Now I just have to hope that we make it to the semis - surely we couldn't not make it again!   My prediction(This is where I may look silly in about 6 weeks lol) is for a New Zealand v Australia final.... sorry to the South Africans, French and English who are also possibilities, but you know me I have to open my big mouth and lay it all on the line.

The other positive to RWC is that with lots of evenings on the couch watching games, I might get caught up on some more stitching too............

Rugby World Cup NZ 2011 - BRING IT ON!

Go ALL BLACKS