Tuesday 16 April 2024

Thursday @ Scrub Stitchin'

 We could safely say my sewing pace is snails pace at Scrub Stitchin'...........
Haven't decided what I will call this quilt yet...........was thinking the zigzag quilt but then it looks a little like giant ric rac when I had it sideways on the wall yesterday................more on this later........
Temptation is ever present with the shop set up on the corner............

thankyou so much Deb @ The Crafters Cottage for bringing the shop to us.........Deb brings a wonderful mix of tempting goodies............with people coming out from Coona most days we have a little courier service so just make a call and out it comes...........If you are passing through Coonabarabran stop in to her shop..............it's right near the clock tower..............

Such a luxury for me when I don't have a shop nearby............

Mum even made some gluten free scones and the girls loved them.............
Scones, jam and cream are essential a couple of days in the retreat..........
Miss Jules...........one down 99 to go???
Tina having a red for Brenda.............
Nibbles.........yes there is a lot of time spent at the table eating chatting and fixing all..............
a daily essential............
everyone moves around and sits with different people each time they sit at the table..........perfect.......
in between meals at times the tables get moved to lay out quilts.........
more to come.........
Catch you later..........
Chookyblue..........

Thursday 11 April 2024

Let the Scrub Stitchin' fun begin......

 When I got to Baradine beautiful Brenda came to help me start setting up....... She had been out to the car to get the ironing board...... Went back out to get the iron and she tripped on something and fell face first into the ground........ Her nose forehead took the brunt of the fall..... She got herself up........ I took one look at her when I saw her face I said we needed to go to hospital....... Being older things damage easier...... But she's a mess........Still waiting on x-rays and scans to see the extent of damage but she's had a couple nights in hospital and missing the fun.......Some of us have been down to the hospital to visit her.......She's so sad......hoping she gets here by Saturday...........

Thanks Mick for adding the stars to the bags......

Janice and Mick were arriving just as I was taking Brenda to hospital........ Brenda's daughter arrived pretty quickly - Baradine is very small - but once we knew what was happening I left them and went back to do some more set up.......

After a short break for bingo and dinner Janice and I went back and finished the bags......... The photo above was just before we left for the night.......

Up bright and early we put the finishing touches on...... Annette arrived and helped with these last bits also.........


Only thing missing were the flowers for the table...... You can see them below but they were being picked up in a bigger town...........
Got another mix of quilts hanging around......... Some of Brenda's, Janice and my own........ We even found a new spot to hang another quilt..... bonus......
It's a lovely light room...... 
The weather was pretty chilly overnight...... Autumn is definitely in the air now.....

Few of us sitting around eating lunch...... We grabbed some burgers from the middle pub......

Annette had a birthday today........ Betty is tomorrow (Thursday)....... Mum made a chocolate cake - Annette's favourite and everyone else too....... Not sure what was happening here but both girls were laughing madly....
The end the day we went to the pub for dinner.......One end of the table......
After dinner most went back sewing......a few went to bed....... Couple of girls to arrive tomorrow........One Friday morning...     
Dinner at the corner pub....... The other end of the table...... They did open especially for us for dinner.......
The end the day we went to the pub for dinner.......
Raewyn having a red wine for our dear Brenda.......

Wednesday 3 April 2024

Baby Quilts..........

Been working on some quilts............pretty quick ones.............this one just needed borders.............
I added more blue animal print like in the corner to this one...........I love this stripe it's so cool......
I'll use it for the binding also............

Sunrise yesterday morning...............finally it wasn't cloudy.........
the colours change on the dirt all the time depending on the sun...........


There's a video of this one also.........its got the grasses swaying in the foreground.........
Link is here............

more cute fabric................
One week til Scrub Stitchin retreat........
Catch you later............
Chookyblue..........

Monday 1 April 2024

Chookshed Challenge barely progress.............

 March roundup..........
My project for the Chookshed Challenge no 4 was Chapel Street

Not a lot of progress but I cut blocks from these fabrics.....sorry didn't take a photo of the pile and can't do that at present............the most I cut is 3-4 out of the same fabric......so 30-40 blocks cut.........
so I say any progress is good.......this is such a good leader/ender project................
I cut them in a short zoom session early in the month........

The keets moved to a bigger cage til they grow more........they should be a lot bigger before I let them out to be big kids oops I mean keets..........I gave 4 to my neighbours........
I kept 3 lights and 3 darks............
No other sewing to report for February except the new ruler but I shared that in a post...........

I'll wait and see what Deana draws out for April but given I have the Scrub Stitchin' Retreat in 9 sleeps I will get something done and I am currently making a quilt for my new grandy..........
OMG I cannot wait to get to retreat.......
Once again an amazing mix of like minded girls coming together..........
Catch you later........
Chookyblue......



Saturday 30 March 2024

Australia.........

 

Australia is an amazing country..............
landscape constantly changing............
surprise late night treats with reflective signs................
stunning sunrises............
wide open plains.............
interesting buildings.............unusual verandah roof there...........
not the normal bullnose as of old buildings.............and interesting timber work............
one train and given lots of road closures barely any traffic............
2600km and lucky to see 150-200 vehicles in the whole trip on the road............
Lots of water in the NT................
Great season for most of the trip...........
Will I want to go home??????....we so need rain..........
stunning photo opportunities..............
lots of water............
maybe 15kms in this stretch.............
this flock of birds kept taking off and landing in front of the car..............
Link to a little video I took........link here watch til the end and you can see fish swimming across the road.............
Not sure if this highway will be open when I head home.........where I took the video is under escort so you drive in the right spots but it is breaking up really bad and is like a slalom course winding around them............
OK best go............
take care.........
Catch you later..........
Chookyblue...........
 

Saturday 23 March 2024

me time.........

 We all have busy patches we go through in out life........ It's a balancing act we all play.......  

So it's been important to take me time........

Mr Chooky ended up being away so it was even easy to play in the Chookshed all day.......

I got a new ruler last month so I wanted to give it a go........ Dug out a jelly roll from the stash......... Found some yardage.......

Love the look with this..... I'm losing a bit of the Zig zag effect for a patch but I'm sticking with this..........I wanted a colour wash effect.........
I've just ordered 20 of these rulers........ Most are for the Scrub Stitchin' girls.......

We had a great big day.........
I think 35 people thru the screen on the day.......
I had a few stats......
From April last year till now I've hosted 24 zooms........
Lou had attended the most although not all of them.......
AVG number attending 11
Highest 35
Lowest 7
So no matter how long or short the session
No matter what time of the day you would be surprised what time some have jumped in....... Even if it's the middle of the night......
So I'll just keep doing what I'm doing...... It seems to be working well.......
Catch you later.......
Chookyblue......
PS I'll check who had the best guess in number of zooms and find something to send out to them........


Wednesday 13 March 2024

Chookshed Stitchers zoom quilting day.........

I don't care if it is International or National and if it's national which nation..... I'm thinking USA but I am celebrating Quilting Day this Saturday 16th March...........
I'll probably start at 6am my time AEDT Saturday morning......
Friday afternoon or evening for those in the northern hemisphere...... 
The Chookshed Stitchers will be meeting online...............
So if you have not been on for awhile set some time aside....... If you're new be brave and join us....... We aren't exclusive....... 

Clearly no sewing has being happening.........

But I do have a few pics here to share......

For now you just get to enjoy some of my scenery..............completely not quilt related but its still a patchwork of colour in my life........
Working with the brown/blue pallet....... The waters been a bit missing to change it to green/ blue colours.........
Few more pretty hot days 38C then hopefully the temps should drop a bit to the low 30's...... Gosh Sat might even be in the 20's which will be lovely......... Now that might actually feel like autumn........

Hopefully see you Saturday........
Could be a long day at this stage....... 
Leave a comment below OR use the contact me box on the side of your having issues commenting.......

Catch you later..........
Chookyblue..........
PS on Saturday give us a sewing tip..... A tip that helps you when sewing...... Could be super simple.......
Like the mark on your sewing foot that we learnt about recently................
I never knew about it...... Lol

Sunday 25 February 2024

spikes and chirps.........

 I heard a funny noise outside the Chookshed the other morning...........I had an echidna visiting.........

The first 8 keets are doing great.............so great I decided to raid a nest that I had in the garden............
Well that was interesting.........there are varying ages of egg development in that guinea fowl nest.................
So I candled them and have 2 incubators going with different stages of eggs in each one.............
ANYWAY............

the raided eggs have started to hatch.......over several days now here's the progress so far.......
1st keet was doing great but I think a little premmy and didn't get the gist of eating and died...........
They can live for 24 hrs at least without food etc........the left over yolk sustains them........
2nd one is doing great........
3rd one didn't hatch out and died thinking premmy also.........
4th one is doing great ..........
5th one is starting to hatch so see what happens...........there are more eggs to go..........
in the pic above you can see the big ones are about 12 days old...........the little one towards the back of the bowl is 2 days old now........
and the baby at the front is the newest and I popped him in the box at lunch time........
no sewing to busy playing with these babies...........
Catch you later.............
Chookyblue...........
PS maybe I need to change that to guinea blue.............LOL