playing..........

just making a big mess really...............working on my SAL quilt...........

more applique..............

threads galore................

Fairy Girl working on some more ipod pouches..........I'll show some pics of them all soon..........

and just more mess............

Hope your having a great weekend................it's a long weekend here so even better............

17mls of rain last night.............cool today...........

Catch you later..............

Chookyblue

bibs.......

A few weeks ago when Janice can to visit she showed me how to make these bibs

very easy really...........but it's always great when a friend shows you something isn't it..............

Thanks for the help Janice..........

I had planned to give one to Little Chicken when she had a baby but after washing the baby clothes let me tell you there was no way I was giving her another bib...........she had a mountain of them............

So into a present draw they go...........
&&&
windy and blustery here today....the washing will be dry in no time..........quite hazy......33deg forecast............supposed to have some rain but we will see when it is in the gauge........it's forgotten how to rain here.........

Catch you later..............

Chookyblue

8/24.........

The progress on my SKofW quilt...........with 6 more here that means I have 8 done of the 24

another 7 in progress and the rest are sort of started...............

the blue wash out pen still needs to be washed out............

And as I never wear high heals I changed them to boots.............

i love my work boots and my good Baxter boots...........

love my jeans..............

and nothing quite like a cuppa tea..............

Hope the holidays are treating you well..........

the girls made some ipod pouches tonight so i'll try and snap a pic for you tomorrow................

Catch you later..............

Chookyblue

quick check in..........

I have some more blocks done for my SAL quilt.....

.......catching up on my emails....

........girlfriend and two kids arrived for a couple of nights......

.....the girls want to sew so you'll find us in the chook shed......

Cat a kiwi friend is having as Advent swap if you are interested..........

I love school holidays............

.........take care til next time.....Chookyblue.........

3 months.............

I don't want to scare you BUT it's 3 months til Christmas...............

hope your working away on your SSCS presents.............

.........take care til next time.....Chookyblue.........

stitching and marking.........

loving the holidays............full on so far but good............

got another block done for the SAL..........

some lamb marking.........they spin around on this cradle...........ear mark (so we know who owns it), vaccination needle, squirt of stuff so it doesn't get fly blown.......

it's always a big day..............

Bookworm can draft sheep..........saved me doing it.......

.....ewes straight ahead.....lambs this way...........

Catch you later..............

Chookyblue

more babies........

we had another baby hatch and 2 days later the white one hatched.......lucky we have another clucky chook who is keeping the remaining eggs warm sort of............who knows if any more will hatch..........

the little black one is so cute..........it has the black on it's back but most of it's front is white.............so who knows what it is going to look like.............I don't know who laid the eggs so it is going to be interesting to see what it looks like............"Bookworm" has already nicknamed it penguin............
&&&&

School holidays start here for 2 weeks..........I am so happy..............everyone home and no routine..........love it...........

Catch you later

Chookyblue

PS oh bugger I think the old interface has been removed for good now......   :((

Quilt Airing.........

Life is a blur but I am hoping to get to this.........
(copied from Kerry's Blog)

4th Annual Outdoor Quilt Airing

Take a drive to Nundle to visit the Cottage on the Hill for our 4th Annual Outdoor Quilt Airing - Saturday 29th September - 10 am to 4pm.

View over 100 quilts displayed over fences, hanging between trees and from buildings in the paddocks surrounding the shop. 

Gold coin donation (towards local charity), devonshire tea served all day,English paper piecing demonstrations, store open. 

Further details contact Kerry ph 6769 3297

.........take care til next time.....Chookyblue.........

a little progress.........

Here is a better pic of Mother Chook and the chicks..............she is sort of accepting and refusing them...........but I went over tonight and they were all tucked up underneath her.............

A glorious warm day here..............28degC (82F)

one major problem....

.....for the last 2 months we have had 2ml (8points) of rain...........

wandering around the garden today I snapped this pic of my white irises..........

once I mowed the lawn then I started watering...........I have a big garden so it take a bit to get it all watered............

On my way to the chook shed this morning I had my first heart starter for the season.............chatting on the phone I had to put the basket down to open a gate..........so standing there still chatting I pulled a weed out............then saw another so grabbed it too........next minute a black snake scooted out just beside the plants I had weeded..............OMG...........I screamed into the phone.........poor man on the other end of the phone was asking are you ok.......yep I was fine.........my heart was beating way too fast and I wasn't expecting to see a snake at 8.30am in the morning.......but it went in the opposite direction to me.....

Anyway after the heart slowed down I got some applique done on the SAL quilt...........only part of this block..........missing some thread colours so can't get those for a few weeks as sewing machine thread is not available in town...........but I have finished the machine applique on the house, bird, jeans and the modified block below.........I love the look of the stitches on the back....... 

I'm really getting the hang of the blanket stitch on the machine.........working out the pattern the needle makes to do the blanket stitch so i know when I can pivot for bends and curves etc.

Catch you later..............

Chookyblue

Chicks.........

Look closely............

Mumma chook hatched out one chicken so we went to some friends and got 8 more and stuck them under in the dark.........she mostly thinks it is a good idea......we've got thru 2 nights.....i'll try and get some better photos of the chickens..........she had one black one but now she has a collection............2 each of silkies, barnevelders, white rhode island reds and gold lace wyandottes

Catch you later..............

Chookyblue

the weekend that was.........

Wow I have just enjoyed a wonderful weekend sewing with friends...............

there was supposed to be 4 of us so Janice found this bottle for us to share "Four Sisters" but at the last minute Deb couldn't come..........don't worry Deb we drank your share..........

simple salad buns...........

The plan of attack for me for the weekend was my SKofW Stitch-a-long quilt 

My Favourite Things by Anni Downs...........from her Some Kind of Wonderful book

I had row one and some of row 2 traced onto the applique paper and fabrics cut for a couple of blocks.........

but by the end of the weekend I had all the blocks traced onto applique paper............changed 3 of the blocks to make it more "me".............cut all the background and weaveline for the back of the blocks........

picked out heaps of the fabrics and got things all organised into plastic sleeves and into rows...........yep feeling a bit too organised but hey there is always a first..............lol

some are more prepared then others..........

and finally I had one finish.............this is replacing the icecream block..............

sadly we had already drunk the pink bubbles so didn't have any for the photo.......

what do you think???

and I had the pleasure to see Janice put her quilt together.............she had rows and strips.............now she has a quilt top but I'm not going to ruin  her show and tell so here is a snippet...........i'm sure when she gets a chance she will get a post up..............but it was very exciting seeing it grow...........

my other friend "the finisher" and I tackled machine blanket stitch.........

hope you got to do something you enjoy on the weekend.........

we also had a fire and BBQ one night and a beautifully sunny weekend...........well if it can't rain at least it is lovely weather.............

Catch you later..............

Chookyblue

2nd class..........

Back to the second class with Chris Jurd at The Home Patch

This was the mess the night before class.............trimming back some blocks and sorting things out.........

stitched the last scallop on the inner section............

joining the outer and inner rings...............

the 2 inner sections are not joined together or joined to the other 2 sections yet...........

I had them pinned on to see what it all looked like.............

thinking this is going to be the background..............

another version of Mariners Madness............someone who was worrying about their "points"........OMG I couldn't see what was wrong with the ones I looked at.......

We're both pretty much at the same stage.............

Debating if we will go back for another class or can we work it out.......

The decision would be easy if it was just around the corner.........but it's a big trip......one of the many disadvantage of having no shops close by............

&&&
gotta run in a few hours I have a friend Janice coming to sew with me for the weekend and another coming tonight............sadly Deb got interrupted by life and can't come...........
hope you get some sewing in this weekend..............
Catch you later..............

Chookyblue
PS Peg and Dales adventures have continued............after returning to the eastern states of Australia they have packed up and gone on a road trip........I think you may find some regular posts here
It's amazing what you find if you google "Peg and Dale" there are lots of hits...........LOL.........and images..........

emailing partners out..........

Hi SSCS Swappers............ Just letting you know I have been emailing out some partners.......... only about 40 left to email.......... one of the girls I have emailed found her's in the spam box so maybe check your's hasn't gone there........ If I don't get them finished tomorrow they will have to wait til Sunday night........... .........take care til next time.....Chookyblue.........

a little win..........

The mail was really good last week.............and I did get these pics taken last week too but they just never made it into a post................

Recently Amanda @ Seabreeze Quilts had a giveaway

A full set of Blueberry Botanicals............a BOM she designed earlier this year or was it late last year............I have loved it all along..........so was stoked when Amanda emailed to say I had won her giveaway...........

look at the beautiful parcel all wrapped up............

and she included some threads to get started..............she must know I can't get anything locally.........except DMC which I am happy with but these are going to look great for the project............

And the perfect thread.........."Blue Wren".......I have those little wrens visiting the "chook shed"

I loved the stitcheries and appliqué in this quilt............
&&&
Also I am so very thankful the blogging world that I view is so kind and thoughful..........after seeing the news of other social media issues I would just like to say thankyou.............
my motto goes like this.........
"If you can't say something nice don't say anything at all"
I couldn't imagine sitting here all day thinking of what despicable things I could say to people online......

Catch you later..............

Chookyblue

Australia beats New Zealand......

Some of you may remember a bet between me and Farm Girl Stitching...........There was a netball game on between the Aussie Diamonds and the New Zealand Silver Ferns back in July last year..........

....there is fierce rivalry between the 2 countries.........

Nicky mentioned it in the bottom of this post...............I left a lovely comment and a few more emails back and forwards the bet was on.............I think Nicky felt pretty confident on a win when she suggested it..........

So I accepted the challenge..............

Sadly Nicky had to do this post...........and I had happily did this post......hehehehe........

So I told Nicky I was patient...........no rush...........I could wait for a little hand made parcel to arrive.............

Well wait I did and poor Nicky was pretty worried about a parcel and finally it returned to her in NZ..........She had the correct address etc but a few months after she posted it thank goodness it returned to her......if only the parcel could talk...........so she packed it off again and last week it arrived at my place safe and sound.............

I was hoping to get this post up late last week but the weekend was a little busy so here I am.........

Nicky very kindly included a little gift for Fairy Girl - who loves everything in the parcel.........she wore the hair band on the weekend..........

\

But now we're onto my parcel........OMG..........I was spoilt............I love this cross stitch Nicky stitched

I just love it.............perfect stitching........

love the colours too..............and Nicky included a bracelet and a charm pack of the "Tapestry" range

I love everything Nicky and thanks so much for the parcel............

Definitely not betting on the Rugby...............if I did i know I could start stitching now............

Take care till next time

Chookyblue.............