Long road ahead.....

Gorgeous big skies.....

Catch you later.....

Chookyblue.....

Lucy update.......

Friday night stitching...........OMG it was so good...........my buddy Kylie, champagne, stitching, slipping and sliding thru the paddocks to get home (early mark from work) because we got another 26mms of rain............I can see the green tinge growing today as the day has gone on.......perfect grass growing day........OMG exciting........still got a way to go but its the best rain for 12 months what we have had this month.........can't stop feeding yet but hopefully we can soon........

Champagne............English paper piecing........Kylie started cutting a new special project.............

I glued a few for her...........and glued a few Lucy's.........Even pieced one of her blocks...........and she nearly had one done before she had to go home..............

The sunset light was amazing..........so not captured in this photo but you can see the light glistening on some PUDDLES................OMG PUDDLES................

Today inbetween many other things I spent some time working out the nitty gritty for Lucy..................

laid her all out on the floor and worked out what needs what to finish blocks, fillers, make edge fillers, corners etc...........

Once this pile is glued and packed like the top right bag I will be done with Lucy gluing...........woohoo......the end is in sight.......esp if I have no more cutting.........unless she grows another row - still to be determined once the whole top is together........

ok must go........

dinners cooking.......chicken rolled roast and baked vegies........

Have a fabulous weekend..........

Catch you later......

Chookyblue.....

Lamby......

OMG it's so exciting............At the Chookshed party back in 2016 my "lovely neighbours" delivered a new born lamb who had lost it's mother..........

They didn't want to bother with the whole feeding thing..............

Lamby has grown into a young ewe and features in my blog here and there............anyway she is now a Mumma herself.........

So that must make me a granny hey...........

We have raised heaps on bottles but they usually grow and and go and be big  sheep in the rest of the mob (and ignore you).............

But Lamby and Goatie live around the house.........

So I took her a treat this evening when I found she had lambed..........

A little boy.........well actually not little.......I think he is pretty big with LONG legs............Listen to him on on the video.....so cute.........

Catch you later.......

Chookyblue.....

Belated Local quilt show............

This post is a few months over due............but I have a few of those to get to you still............they will happen...........

thanks for all the comments about the rain and the garden..........crossing fingers for more tomorrow and Friday..........I'm thinking more  likely Friday..........

Some pics from a small local quilt show that I went to........

lots of different colours and styles..........

this quilt is at least 30 plus years old an unfinished hexie quilt.............

one of my favourites..........

This one was made for a grand child.............

tried to show you this pic from the side to see the raised effects she created............

Not the best photo but she had come to pic it up from the display and opened it to show me...........

All the polar bears and penguins are raised...........

So cute and so soft........I am sure it will be well loved............

Another favourite...........

Catch you later......

Chookyblue......

drowned rat............

Found my first Jacaranda flower on the ground this weekend..............

You know what they.............

"when the bloom of the Jacaranda tree is here Christmas time is near"

Its a line out of this Christmas carol "Christmas Where the Gum Trees Grow"

(another wild video by me trying to video and feed sheep all at once)

Lets rewind one week...........the Sunday 8th Oct I was feeding sheep and became a drowned rat.............only got 1/2 the sheep fed and down it came for a few minutes............it showered all day..........

AMAZING and GORGEOUS rain.............

We had our biggest fall all year 29mms of rain..........

With a few more bits I think we ended up with 40mms over a few days................AND we have good rain forecast end of this week so fingers crossed it does happen..........there is a green tinge but we need follow up............then a quick heavy inch to run some water into the dams.............

Now I feel like an ad for a body transformation cream/diet..........lol but the garden was looking so dead........I've got a few before (above) and after (below) shoots to see what the rain did to the lawn............

Some of the plants are still having there spring shoot............but I am a little worried about some not actually coming back to life..............

already have a few bushes to pull out..........

Excuse the guinea fowl wandering thru the photo...........

nearly lost my big rose on the trellis.......

It's still got a way to go but OMG 7 days difference in these pics...........

AND now  I have some extra regular bore water for my garden.......

doing cartwheels about that with excitement...........

Amazing hey.........

My reward for walking yesterday afternoon..........

nature is AMAZING.........

one day after the rain there are little green shoots in the paddocks.........

how can that happen so fast..........

Catch you later.......

Chookyblue.........

Sscs 2017?......

If anyone would like to do the secret Santa Christmas swap this year please email me this weekend.  Swaps will be emailed out Sunday or Monday night.  

It's only going to be a small group so email me (link here) 

(chookybluesscs at gmail dot com)  

your name, address,  country,  blog address and email...... 

Remember only bloggers who actually post regularly......

See the previous year's posts for the details but a main present and ornament will be required.......

Catch you later..... 

Chookyblue.....
PS posting date is 24th November

EPPing..........

"Edwardsia"..............its official..............i've started my newest EPP..........because it needed  a name to start with since it will take some time I had to think of something............I'll explain the meaning at another time but it got me thinking..........have i ever showed you one of my EPP tins............what's the essentials in it..........what comes with a Lucy Block from Shiralee Stitches and what supplies you might need if you want to start English Paper Piecing (and yes you need to add the word English as foundation paper piecing is a whole different thing)

Here is one of my tins...........I love tins for EPP..........

Essentials 

- glue stick (missing) 

- glue refills  

- Bottomline thread 

- needles (always have a spare)

- thimble

- scizzors 

- optional thread cutter (on string/ribbon great when stitching in the car)

- nail file/emery board

- Hypafix (for my cracks if i get them in my thumbs)

- and of course prepared EPP project...........I use lots of snack size snap lock bags........keeps blocks or sections together until you join them together

I realised i had shown lots of packages and lots of blocks from Shiralee Stitches but not clearly what is in the package..........

I got one of the lastest Lucy Boston blocks........

So whats included..........

- your pieces of fabric

- paper pieces to make the block

- a photo of the whole block

- another photo usually one of the fussy cut "how to position" to get the same look........

&&&

then of course you need some basic supplies

this is my go to pile............

- 28mm rotary cutter 

- self healing board (to cut on)

- glue pen

- templates

- thimble

- good sharp scizzors

- Sue Daley Millener's Needle size 11(always have spares)

- Sewline pencil (to trace fussy parts)

- interchangeable leads white and dark grey for the pencil

- Bottomline thread

If you have been sitting on  the sideline admiring EPP on other blogs then give it ago............it's highly addictive.......extremely portable, prep big or small sections at once.............

So have i missed anything.......do you have an essential epp item..............

I'll show the mirrors and templates later..........

Happy stitchin..........

Catch you later......

Chookyblue.....

Feeding, desilting, shirting shopping......

Daylight savings means more work.....thats why I hate it you end up inside too late.............when I got home from my full day of town work I went and did some farm work with Mr Chooky.............

The cows heard the truck start at the house so some were already at the gate waiting for us...........the others were coming from way out in the middle of the paddock..........

See in the middle of this photo the dust goes way back..........

come on hurry up and feed us............

We had to get some more hay yesterday............

it's becoming harder to get and more expensive..........I organised this before the price went up...........others are finally getting dry like we have been for ages.........hello we've been trying to tell you it was dry.......

actually it's definitely drought now but the government in NSW doesn't want to use this word.....idiots is all I can say.........

Drought is drought.............

It an insult to not even acknowledge it...........

I was driving the truck...........this is very scary............I don't drive the truck......2nd time ever......its just got a new windscreen so I took some pics thru it since it was so clean............

this dam is very low for it..............it has a great catch so fills very easy...........mind you i'm thinking the cows have gone off drinking this water which happened once before when it was very dry.............

we might have to move them paddocks.......not that any others have much water either.............the windmill has been causing us grief..............we had to pull it up the other day..........replace some buckets and put it back down................but the wind has been so unreliable lately we barely have enough water to shower in at the house........let alone wash......this system will be changed hopefully in the next week or so...........its another big expense but a permanent fix  and moving from wind power to solar power..........we cannot keep animals without water............and most of the dams here are dry...........it's only that the house dam is huge and we pump that water around the paddocks on the farm........BUT it does not go everywhere............

Since there is talk of rain after feeding we went desilting..........

this dam fills easy from some road drains helping it...........

there is a big metal scoop in the middle of the photo on this side of the dam.........once we start it ends up in the dam......

I was in the little tractor way out on the left top of this photo..........

its stinky and horrible..........there's a remains of a dead cow near the dam and a few dead sheep.........they all still stink..........so not glamorous............

there is about 1 metre of sloppy mud in here that we can pull out and it will hold more water.............

this was my view for the afternoon/evening...........I did get to watch a gorgeous huge moon rise thru the trees.........it was my payment for work........I took a pic but it didn't turn out to well.......

Still got lots to do here............

My little video today was a little dark but I pull the scoop into the dam and Mr Chooky was on a tractor on the other side and pulls the scoop full of mud out and me back wards....the big chain and wire ropes connect everything.......it gets very dusty as you keep going back and forwards on the same area...........

you end up with sore back and neck as lots of twisting and looking back.........

No matter how dry it is here the old cedar trees are putting on a beautiful display............

Onto the good stuff...........Shiralee Stitches puts great stuff together.............

I needed some more shirtings for Lucy 2.........I sent a pic of what I had and she added these 3 pieces...........a free pattern Little Charmers...........

I loved this Lucy block and got it also........

other essentials bottomline threads and glue............

I got some more kits for these pincushions when there were on special

and the papers on the bottom are the next big EPP project...........yes yes I know what your saying stop right there girl and get the the others finished but I have been thinking about this one for a few months and Sandy had the papers that I needed so i got her to send them...........this weekend I want to get block one done..............

&&&

thanks for all your comments on Boy Wonder.......he's home and resting to let his leg heal.......always a worry until things are all fixed up...........keeping him slow enough for long enough will now be the challenge so it can heal..........

Catch you later.....

Chookyblue.......

Lucy by accident......

Killing time in hospital....... Boy Wonder and a pig...... Of the thousands of feral pigs he's caught I didn't think a domestic one would be what he is in hospital for......... Boys will be boys......

Lucky I grabbed the stitching tin......

Onto the next one now.......

Catch you later.....

Chookyblue......