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........
"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..........
- 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..........
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..........
Yes more Lucy...............no time to sew at home but in the car travelling or waiting for appointments etc...........
the green is looking a little weird in the photo..........not sure why.......
The block below is the other option shown above...........but after a few texts to friends one husband replied finally and the block below was the chosen one............I liked both and could not decide.........
Here they all are together.......... the ones i've got done recently............. back to more gluing.......... It amazes me when you see them together what the feature is......... + or X cross.....
love my new mug........great size too.........
just perfect for me.............
&&&
have a good weekend.......it's going to be 38 and windy here on the weekend......what a shock to the body that will be...........
nothing much to say other then 10 hrs in a car as passenger you can get a fair bit of sewing done.......so once I had the cream on the other block in my last post I started sewing some new blocks............
I think it takes about 3 hours to sew this together..............anyone else timed how long this takes to sew together........just the sewing............have not included the cutting and gluing..............
some flowers along the way...........
this one looks prettier then in this photo........
these are all from Shiralee Stitches..........the ones I prepped last month........
these will be in Lucy2
this one now just needs it's next set of red pairs added on.............
Could have nearly got it finished but fingers were getting sore from stitching and after 4.5hrs with a 10 min break I had had enough.....
my tally for Lucy is over 50 blocks now............
Well these blocks are not really showing Lucy progress and stitching time for me at the moment....... It's just I finally got time to take a photo of the blocks......
One got finished in June and the other July........
Today is my first day at home in about 6 weeks and the house sure is showing that......
But I have found my way to the Chookshed and I vacuumed some bugs up...... Not sure how but they find there way in......
I had some cream strips in the house for backgrounds and brought them back out to the Chookshed and finally cut some..........I had run out of pieces to join in my sewing tin.... It needed a massive restock.......
I've been in and out all day catching up on heaps of washing...... Slowly putting things away......
Wished I could find a cleaner........ Just one every month or two would be great......
The boys ran away and avoided 'pettycoat government' aka house cleaning....... So I got slack with what I have achieved to.... Still in my pjs and about to go have a shower and change into clean pjs.....it's been nice to bum around all day......
I'll finish with the pile of Lucy blocks......
These two will probably go into Lucy 2 but for now they look good on the stack.......
I've lost count on blocks but maybe these bring the tally to 48?
WOOOPPPPPPPSSSSS
I then went looking for my other Lucy stash.........
4 hrs later I am finishing the post...........
So I have 6 of Sandy's blocks in here.............2 cut and 4 to cut............
so that makes the pieced total 42 I think instead............
AND there are another 7 cut in the tin too.......
I have said I have a problem..........My Friend Lucy is an addiction............
A few weeks ago I traded places with one of my brothers..........swapped cattle for cattle..........instead of being in the yards pregnancy testing and mustering I was on the road droving..........
long time readers of my blog would know I have spent many days on the road droving..........but this was just a one off day............
and whiling away the hours besides keeping the cows in line I did some stitching...........that is until you get too grotty..............Baby wipes are my friend......
Just some pics from the day playing with my camera.............
playing with my macro lens......
Swapped utes with my brother........he had a chair in so I got to sit out in the sun for awhile.........it was a glorious day..........pretty still...........i got a block finished but I can't find the photo of it and another block.........
long straight roads......plenty of these in my neck of the world..........
amazing skies.........
a couple of dogs........if only I could remember their names maybe they would have been useful.......
