Month End.....

I have these finishes for OPAM this month....

32 Christmas Ornaments..... but I'm not showing you the front of them!!!  Thank you Peg and Kris for hosting OPAM ....

I have made progress on some UFO's but not yet finished, however as far as completing new blocks for Finishing Stitches these 4 for Dutch Treat have been done...  Thank you Joy for hosting Finishing Stitches....

This week we made 8 blocks towards our Anthology quilts and these are mine... one silly fiddly one with too many pieces and most of them reasonable ... that one with the little girl centre took about 5 minutes to do ... niiiiiicccceeee......

I do like the challenge of all the different blocks but it is fun getting a nice simple one to do every now and then.....

We had a scheduled power cut for 4 hours this week... a great escuse to open up the treadle and start a new project!!!  I am determined to get to sew on this machine and making something is the way to do it....

I sewed a bunch of strips together - it seemed such hard work treadling and the squeaks were annoying me even though I had given it a really good clean and oiling ...

Today I sprayed with WD-40 and it's made the squeaks go away and the treadling so much smoother and easier...

The strips need to be pressed and then cut into diamonds - then more sewing...

Handwork this week has been finishing off the Orchard for my Gardeners Journal - I only have a couple more blocks to stitch up now and then I will have to start thinking about putting it together... 

Righto, Gotto Go .....  those strips aren't going to press themselves and there is no ironing fairy round this way ....

It's a bit of a shock that it's December tomorrow....... 

This week's blocks......

I did finish off this Dutch Treat block which had been taking me ages - lots of little curves....

I'm struggling with motivation for this one at the moment - must keep going though

Some progress has been made with my cushions.... I have quilted the tops and backs ...

I like doing the envelope style back... two pieces that overlap

I need to get out my overlocker and join them together - then I will finish off with a binding in red...

Us Tuesday girls made up 6 of our blocks each this week... here is my group....

Christine gave me a wee little piece of hers with a tiny little cat for my house.....

(my house is quite wonky - it needed quite a bit of renovating (unpicking) since the door and the cat etc were put in upside down at first! - and just was never the same after that!)

On Friday Hubz and I treated (our joint Christmas gift to each other) to a day at the Gabba Stadium to watch Day 2 of the first Ashes game....

We had a good view and has fun watching both the game and the antics in the crowd....

... of course we had a taste of the local.....

... and more for Gardener's Journal... this is actually 3 blocks but I had them all together...

So a fair bit accomplished this week ...

Righto, Gotto Go - Sunday to enjoy.... and there is loads of Cricket on TV so hopefully I will get some hand stitching done!  I still have quite a few blocks of Gardeners Journal to finish - itching to start sewing Angel Story!

I'm a farmers daughter .... and mother.....

My Dad was a policeman but when I was 9 years old we went farming, to support my grandparents and Dad was retiring after 25 years of police service.

I loved the farm life (except for having to go to boarding school which I absolutely hated).  We grew fruit, and had our own dairy cows, chickens and a very good vegetable patch.

Chookyblue reminded that it is National Ag Day tomorrow and suggested an agricultural post ....

My eldest son is a farmer ...... he has worked for some years here in Australia but the family now live in the UK at his wife's family farm..... He looks after the cropping and of course I think he's an amazing farmer .....

I have pinched some of his pictures off social media ...

Baling the hay ....

Harvest time....

Collecting from the combine harvester....

Summer is crazy busy harvesting and then autumn is heaps of getting the land ready and planting the winter seed... it's quiet on the land for a little while over winter but that's when all the machines and sheds etc are cleaned and maintained... then crazy busy starts again in spring ...

That's farming life - every day looking at what the weather is going to do and making decisions based on it ... 

I love visiting the farm - love the big spaces and big machines, big skies and big hearts....

Big love to our farmers all over the world

This weekend I sewed (surprise surprise!!!)

I have had this panel for ages and been meaning to quilt it for a wallhanging....

I went around all the leaves on the tree and used the swirl print to guide the background quilting....

Mostly outlining the pictures ....

very sweet panel and I love the colours too....

The quilting is done and the hanging loop and binding on - I just want to hand sew it down sometime....

I also finished up this block for Gardeners Journal... these blocks go with me to any hand sewing groups... sometimes not much gets stitched!

... and a Dutch Treat block done.. this one was nice and easy with the straight lines... the next one is going to take a while!

Righto, Gotto Go.....  stuff to be done....

My week......

We have a Hoya plant which didn't like it where we had it after our move 2 years ago..... we finally set up a trellis and moved it against a wall outside our bedroom - it's not in a good place for viewing but it is happy there and covered with flowers - I have never seen it flower so prolifically...

This picture gives an idea of the flowers... and the buds coming up for more....

Hoya flowers fascinate me.... they are waxy and have those wonderful drops of sweetness coming off them...

I have two plants side by side - different colours... the darker one has much more flowers ...

My parents home had a huge Hoya growing at their veranda door - I think I love them as it gives me lovely memories

the last colour for my houses was the browns.....

I now have heaps of little houses... and a plan..... I just need to work out how to make it work.....

I've been quite busy with various quilting lately and enjoyed some stitching in the evenings using just one thread...

Very relaxing and hard to put down.....

These are Tags for the quilt in No Fuss Stitch-a-long

This is a sweet cot quilt I worked on.... the panel and border fabric is from The Quilters Angel and is so sweet...

The leafy border suits the woodland theme ... and I love doing those little ribbon swirls in small borders...

The quilting on the wider border doesn't show so much but it does on the back.... I need to draw a guideline to get the waves ...

I like to outline pictures to show them off and then I did stipple swirls in the background...

There is enough quilting to show off the pictures, but also still keep it soft enough to snuggle

I am enjoying looking at some of the fruits of Hubz work in the garden

the other evening our outside sensor light switched on so we went to check what set it off..... this pair of Tawny Frog Mouth's were having a rest....   (poor picture but you can make them out)

Righto, Gotto Go... today I am going to sort out my embroidery threads.. they seem to have got out of hand and I can't find what I need when I need it...

Have a lovely weekend....

Lucky me......

... to get to go to a retreat this weekend (well I managed 2 of the three days).  Marion from Quilters Angel hosts this for us and it's always such fun with a lovely group ....

First thing I did was put the sashing and corner stones on quite a few of my Anthology blocks as I had got behind.....

... and they are now fitting in with all the other blocks.....  over half way now

Then I added ribbons and went around the edges for my Christmas decorations this year....

(woohoo 32 OPAM finishes in one fell swoop!!!)  Most of the work for these had been done but I just needed a bit of sit down sewing time to finish them off.

Then I sewed up the block for this months Stitch-a-long....

and finally I worked on sewing up blocks to make these stitcheries into cushion covers....  I still need to quilt them and add backings etc etc..... but it's progress.....

... once I had done the sewing I brought I just generally made a nuisance of myself - as captured here by Kris.... (hmmmmm... so much for what happens at retreat stays at retreat!!!)

We stayed at a new to us venue... lovely big room and stunning views of the local bushland

The reason I left early is our little local family signed up for a charity colour run (for RSPCA)

even after 2 washes I still have pink streaks in my hair!!

Widget needed some motivation to get covered in pink.... I was very persuasive!

Lucky me received a lovely gift this week from a friend who is downsizing her home....

Since I started my quilting about 10 years ago I have fancied a treadle machine.... this one is beautiful on the outside....

... and the inside.....

I spent a bit of time on Thursday on the phone with a friend who knows these machines and with some oiling and cleaning and learning the treadle motion I got her working... and she stitches beautifully.

I'm thrilled......

Righto, Gotto Go... I need to recouperate from the last few days....