seriously.......

seriously sometimes you wonder why........ In the first few hours I ran out of bobbin 1/4 of the way down a long seam..... Sewed the border on the wrong side - in reverse stitching that I started reversing the wrong seam also..... Ran out of bobbin again.......Put a nick in the quilt cutting a thread....... OMG there way more...... The sewing gods were not on my side.....

Finally I got the white border and outer border on this quilt .... The centre is Fairy Girls project from a few years ago at Scrub Stitchin'............. Thanks to the chat on zoom that got me to finding the range and Susan @ Susan's Sewing Space for finding the border fabric........

Found a great backing at Quilt Craft.......

Onto the churn dash blocks then......

They were partly in progress.....

I'm a slow sewer but here's progress last night

Delicious lunch out....... Gorgeous gift shop....... Isn't this Christmas tree so pretty......

Seems I'm not the only one who buys alcohol by name or picture...... No I didn't have to search for the chooks they were the first bottle I saw in the fridge..... No idea what it is but I had to have it...... Maybe rosee.......

My friend Miss Jules' project......a crazy quilt she started at Scrub Stitchin' this year.......

A little prezzy from Sandi @ My Forevermoore......

Churn dash show and tell..... More on that later........

Coffees hot so I best get moving and go sewing.......

Catch you later......

Chookyblue......

PS going to bed Qld time and waking my NSW time is not good.......

a find.....

Last zoom I was trying to work out the range Fairy Girl used in a quilt........

After some discussion I ended up using Google lens.....Who even knew what it was but it helped me find some similar fabric and that lead me to the range in the end....... But it's older than I thought so a quick Google didn't find any yardage for a border.....Kate Spain "Horizon"........ Susan @ Susan's Sewing Space then offers her services of a group she is part of or something like that anyway long story short a lady in Sydney had a piece the size I needed...... Quite frankly I would have nearly taken any of the fabrics but she happened to have some of the green.........Now to find the correct "white" I used to make a border then add this one.........

other then washing and office work I've been whipper snipping the weeds to tame them...... Having been sick and all the rain they got away.......I few times I went to poison then it's been too windy..... Anyway it's looking much tidier........Everything is better when the lawn is neat...........and even better when the weeds are tamed..........

So I still have some to go as my battery ran out...... OMG I love my battery whipper snipper......I could never start the old one with the pull cord....... Push two buttons and she is humming away....... And goes for a good length of time......I just have too much to do at present.......but normally the battery would last the whole time.......Once it's flat i've had enough too......

Once the battery died I moved onto mowing........ The house yard part done I moved onto the outer yard...... It's more like a small paddock...... Mr Chooky took over and finished that then finished inside....... Next I'll do the areas outside the garden fence but that will be tomorrow....... Or Tues early...... Before it rains again anyway........ I'll mow inside before the rain again as we fertalised and with the nice days it's going gang busters........

And exciting news of the weekend...... Chris (Canada) and Kylie a friend are also coming to Scrub Stitchin'....... OMG it's going to be so much fun......

It's going to be a full house but so much fun........

 Only 199 sleeps......

Catch you later.....

Chookyblue.....

little red tractor.......

After a check in with the Dr I'm having the rest of the week off......I have plenty of leave so i'll rest some more and slowly keep increasing my activity......As it takes not a lot of effort I am trying to catch up on some quilt posts........some will be very boring no fun photo shoots.....but I have a few that I could easily get a photo of from the deck..........

Today its about Fairy Girl......Fairy Girl made a quilt this winter.............

it needed to have a tractor on it and it had to be red...........

Out came the grid paper and I helped Fairy Girl to grid up the tractor and work out block sizes etc.........

This is what I was binding as I got sick with covid........it kept me nice and warm.......it was hard work stitching being so thick.........

The quilt was made with my left over flannel fabrics from one of the first quilts I made way back when............its typical of Fairy Girl with bits joined here and there to make things fit......

the rounds just kept growing.........its got soft beautiful pale blue minky on the back......its a big heavy quilt........just what she wanted..........you can see the quilting so well in this photo.........

Quilt Details

Designed by Fairy Girl

Made by Fairy Girl

Fabrics various flannel scraps/leftovers

Quilted by House of Jackson - Jackson Cook

Started and finished winter 2022

Size 83x91in

just a reminder life is precious...... This birdy didn't make the distance.....

Appreciate what you have.....

Catch you later........

Chookyblue.........

2021 calendar......

Fairy girls created a calendar once again this year........a new style to last year's calendar......

I haven't made one for a few years as she's made some up...

She's got some for sale if anyone is interested....... 

$35 each which includes postage in Australia.......

they are A3 size.....we had a bit of fun doing this photo shoot..... 

Even had to rescue her from a snake...... 

flick me a comment or go to naturalasg.com/shop

Catch you later......

Chookyblue.......

Fairy Girl's scraps..

not a quilt finished by me but Fairy Girl has her scrappy quilt finished...........

Last stitch in the binding........all done...........

We'll call it "modern"...........

she started out a few years ago just wanted to sew fabric...joining piece of scraps together........learning how to make things fit.........

it grew and grew and grew......she used a few random blocks........scraps my girlfriends visiting over time also gave her.........

Sadly this quilt is double bed size and she didn't put a dint in the scraps....lol..

but she had such fun just joining pieces together.....making things fit together...........I think I straightened up one edge when it was very small and it is pretty square........

It is backed with a light green with white spot polar fleece so very snuggly......

quilted by Betty Field........

I had told her I was not getting it quilted and she would have to do it but I surprised her not long ago and she was so excited........she had to finish the binding off........

I wished I could just "play free"  like this..........but ideas, colours, styles of fabric have "rules" in my head......

Catch you later.....

Chookyblue.....

Keeping the love of blogging alive

Fairy Girls sewing...........

More sewing from Fairy Girl......she's got more things finished then me lately............

My mothers day present a coffee holder so i don't burn my fingers on takeaway coffees.........she had actually made 2 of these..........

this very funky zipper case..............

Catch you later.......

Chookyblue.........

Fairy Girls creations.....

In the Christmas holidays Fairy Girl just wanted to play in the scraps..........she just wanted to sew bits of fabric together.............the pile of scraps is a fairly varied.......plus some scraps from a few other fiends it is pretty eclectic.......

She kept sewing.............and sewing and sewing...........little bits making bigger bits........

scraps from so many projects..........even some of Jindi's scraps from her SKofW SAL quilt........a piece of green fabric that Jenny @ Bird on the Border brought with her last week as she knows she loves green......some of the backing that she had on her very first quilt............playing with a mini twister...........

This holidays she finally got the top finished............

It's about 70 x 80inchs........

she used lots of scraps but OMG I see no difference with the scrap box.............

now what to do about the quilting................

one of her friends had a birthday recently..............she wanted a tree..............

Fairy Girl started this one Sunday afternoon and had it finished Monday morning..........

She has raw edge appliqued the pieces down...........

wished I could work so free of thoughts.........she just cut the pieces out with scissors and put them on...........I only helped with the binding lesson.....we actually used a full piece of fabric on the back and folded back onto the front and stitched down..........I had to show her how to stitch it down...........

another recent finish is this cushion.............love the hedgehog.............

shes been busy busy.........learning and creating different things all the time..........

bound by no rules or expectation...........

and a pic of the keets yesterday..........still super cute......

Chookyblue

More Fairy Girl.....

Fairy Girl has made some note board frames......inspired by mine hers are in 8x10in frames.....

took awhile to pick the backgrounds but they look great and I think her friends are going to love them.............

nice presents.........

And while I ordered something she wanted online she cooked dinner...........the scrambled eggs took step by step instructions but she got there................

WAY too much sauce but who can complain when it has a heart and thanks with 

smiley face and XX.............she sure does bring smiles to my face........even when she talked non stop for about 2 hours yesterday about NOTHING...............

Catch you later

Chookyblue

Lunch is served.....

Fairy girl just delivered lunch.......it has to be from her as everything is green....... The green wine glass only has water in it so I can still sew........ 

She found some frozen spaghetti bol mix so made that into pies......yummo..... 

Have a great Saturday...... Chookyblue.......

christmas and other bits..........

Christmas has come and gone........and yes I have a few posts going up today as I want them in before then end of the year and OMG thats today...........

Here's the Christmas tree........we had friends come and stay from Christmas Eve until Boxing Day........and another couple joined us for lunch..........no extended family here for Christmas...first time ever.........everyone off in different directions...........

the most exciting thing about Christmas was my Mum actually sewed me a present............

my Mum doesn't sew or craft........the only time I remember her sewing was when my siblings were babies and one was walking and sticking their fingers in the needle and the other one was crawling under the table pushing the foot control.........she packed it all up and I don't ever remember her getting it out again......so this is a major effort.............she was so proud of herself.........she made me sit down to open it incase i died of shock...........lol.......

She even has a chook on it........just for me.........

this i am sure is the first and last hand made present from my Mum so I will hang it up somewhere special........she even put a hanger on the back............

the table for Christmas day...............

I spray painted some sticks silver and put them into the bottles..........

I had some candles in the glass jars.....

breaky we always have some neighbors visit and sit out on the front verendah...........

(actually the Bird on the Border flew by this week and we sat out here too.............)

the weather for the Christmas period has been beautiful..............the house all open.........nice breezes.........no air con needed........nice sleeping weather....amazing for our part of the world........

higher in the 30's for the next few days...............

This is a bag Fairy Girl made at school..................

no yabby salad on the christmas dinner list this year..............with the dams be so low or empty for so long there aren't many in the dams.............this one we caught we put back..........

such interesting creatures..............

a boring job the other day......escorting a tractor and sowing thing Mr Chooky was moving...........top speed 30kms/hour...........traveled like this for hours..........only passed about 12 vehicles............

was enjoying seeing things green while driving along........the rain before christmas made everything nice and green for Christmas and we sure are starting the New Year much better then this time last year................

I won't be disappointed 2014 is over.....the start of it was the most difficult period of my life.......

drought is soul destroying........makes dealing with anything else so difficult...........

our back packers spent nearly 4 months living with us...........I think it was the only thing that kept me going there for a bit..........sadly they left but we still keep in touch........they are like my foreign children......one day I will see them again.............

Boy Wonder started doing school at home........not a choice for everyone but it is the best decision I have made for him.........wished I did it earlier...........he got 4 awards at the end of year presentation..........he's only 6ft4in now........and works like a man even thought he is far from that age.......not many kids do what he does at his age.........

Fairy Girl is growing and maturing.........doing well at school.....I am now the shortest person in the family........I say we need short people to make the tall people feel tall..............

so proud of both of them..........

Anyway

onto bigger and better things in 2015..........green grass sure is a good start...........

First up is the new SAL..........

no new year resolutions...........they only get broken just live life as I believe...........

live today like it's the last............

if you can't say something nice don't say it at all...........

I don't understand how people can be nasty.........I just cant do it.........

friendship is precious and treat it that way..........

I love blogging and will be here for quite some time yet...........the friendships formed thru blogging are so special............pictures only say so much........its the words and interaction that go with it thats special...............thanks to my blogging friends.........keep blogging.............its how we connect...........

Catch you later

Chookyblue

Fairy Girls bag............

Fairy Girl had been busy during the holidays..............

Finished this bag off...........

Lou Lou by Natalie Ross..........

we changed the handles as we didn't have any rings.........and pieced the outside differently due to the fabric pieces we had............

Made a pencil case for school..........she survived the zipper lessons and did very well........

She loves the Prints Charming fabrics........she still has a bit more to play with...............

Catch you later

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

Fairy Girls sewing look out.........

Fairy Girl started holidays early since she hadn't been well.............yesterday she came out sewing with me...............we had all the ends joined at Christmas but never got to joining the rows for this jelly roll race quilt...........

We forgot to cut off the 18 inchs at the start so a lot of the joins are close but anyway thats ok................

doing the first join bored her to death but then it all came together quicker and quicker and quicker................a happy girl............

Thanks so much Jean for giving this to Fairy Girl.............she LOVES the brights..............I think this is Swanky by Chez Moi..........

reinvogorated to sew she was inspired by my EPP project and found these 1/2 inch hexies she wanted to try..........who knows what this will develop into but i'm quite sure it won't be the master piece Linda has created..........massive congrats to Linda for still remaining sane after joining what looks like one bazzillions 1/4 inch hexies yes you read that right 1/4 inch hexies..........but even more so she has taken out Traditional Quilt - Professional Class and Best of Show at the Melbourne Show...........check out "Elenor Jean" next year she will travel around Australia with the winners from each State to decide Best of Australia................

Catch you later

Chookyblue

sheep, cattle and kids............

Last week I sold the last of my weaners....mentioned in this post.......I would normally keep the heifers as replacements from these.........and sell the remainder Sept/October next year........pretty sad..........I climbed up the top of the loading race to get a last snap of some of them.............

after we had the little sprinkle of rain I thought we may have the day dust free.........I was SOOOOOOOO wrong..............with in a few hours of the rain finishing the dust started.......the wind blew and blew all day.................

this was one of the paddocks on the way to town........the dust was blowing off a cropping paddock over the other side of the trees.............................

On the weekend Fairy Girl had the girls in her class out for a sleep over..............

they played went for a swim, did blind makeovers - something you never want to do, ran around lots, played spotlight in the back paddock after dark.........

some of them wanted to do some sewing..........they got into some buttons........

felt everywhere.....

But they did make some christmas decorations...........

and now they all know how to thread needles, start and finish on their own..........

there are a few more but I missed the pics..........

I went with Mr Chooky to feed the sheep last week too.........

It looks like there is more there in some patches but there is nothing...........the little grass butts you can see in this pic are the equivalent of eating cardboard I reckon........most of the ground is dead as you can see.............

heading out into the paddock with the feeder on the ute.......

a few sheep start running/walking in...............

gradually a whole pile end up behind you..........and they start circling the vehicle...........

looking threw the side view mirrow.......all trying to get on the feed line...........

Catch you later

Chookyblue
PS it's a stinking hot day here today.................