Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Sunday Mumblings

It was frosty this morning.  Only our second frost this winter (and the first was yesterday).

But frosty mornings usually mean sunny days and, sure enough, today was lovely.

Everyone was out enjoying the sunshine.  The boss of the world thought he might herd the ducks.  They were having none of it, and fair enough, they're about twice his size.

The chooks have started laying.  They were hatched on New Year's Day, so bang on six months old.

Floppy (for obvious reasons) is a North Holland Blue, which looks very similar to Barred Rocks.

This girl is unnamed as yet and she's a mix of Light Sussex and Golden Laced Wyandotte.

We put the cows on the lawn to mow the grass.  Grass converting itself to beef, yum, yum.

I tried to work on my swallow quilt but the kids kept annoying me and each other so I got them outside for some sketching.  It worked a treat to get them settled down.

Mine's in the middle, but I think I like my daughter's on the left best.  Although my son's, on the right, might make an interesting quilting pattern!

Hope you had a lovely Sunday too.

World Famous in Australia!

Down Under Quilts has to be one of Australia's foremost quilting magazines.  We get it in NZ at a lot of bookstores too and it's always interesting to see what our cousins across the ditch are up to.  Linda Robertus is the new editor, and I'm sure she's going to do a fab job.

Well, I'm hitting the big time folks!  Thanks to a heads up from Marls, I discovered my four lines of fame!  My blog is mentioned in the DUQ issue 158 blog roll.

So hi!  My name is Charlotte, otherwise known as Ms Lottie, and I'm addicted to quilting.  I'm in my 30's, married to a pretty nice guy (he doesn't read my blog!) and have two kidlets - a boy aged 8 and a girl aged 5 going on 15.

We live on a lifestyle block, which is a fancy name for a couple of paddocks out in the wop wops boonies a rural area.

I look after my chickens, my ducks, my cows, my sheep and my family and squeeze in some midwifery work too.

My vege garden is going to rack and ruin, I got six quinces, five plums, a handful of feijoas and a wee bowlful of chilean guavas off my orchard this year, and my cat thinks he's the boss of the world.

Mucking around with fabric is pretty good fun.  I dabble in a bit of surface design and I like putting rusty bits of metal on fabric to make pretty patterns.

I make more traditional (mainly pieced) quilts for fun, relaxation and to make quiet night shifts go faster.

I make art quilts for brain stimulation and 'cause one day I want to travel to Houston (Hubby says I'm not allowed to go unless one of my quilts is hanging).

So if you're visiting - say hi and I hope you stick around.  If you're not new here, say hi anyway - I'd love to learn a little more about you.

Lanyard Love

So who knew how addictive making lanyards would be?  I've made five now and have another one waiting for me to get some more D-rings.

These are my latest four.  The one with keys on it lives in my handbag and the other three are destined as gifts.

Do you think the blue/grey one is masculine enough for a guy?  Maybe I should make a shorter one for him so it's more of a fob rather than a lanyard?

I've found that 10 pieces of fabric 2 1/2 inches by 4 inches sews up to the perfect length.  Not so long that you have a huge handful of lanyard, but enough that you can sling it round your neck if you are wrestling kids or shopping bags.  (I gave a quick tutorial on how to sew these here.)

Two of the lanyards match a couple of bags I've made.  Cheesy, but I couldn't resist!

The bags are reversible so you can choose your fabric to match your mood.  The black/orange one is a bit bigger than the Little Red Riding hood one but they are both pretty roomy.  I have two of the larger size ones and they are the best for toting round a big quilt project.  I can fit a queen size quilt in it - seriously!

If either of my two sisters who are yet to have birthdays this year wanna get dibs on one of these bags - let me know!

Welcome Swallows on a cold day.

We've had a bit of a cold spell the last few days.  Southerly winds whistling up from the Antarctic.  Brrrr.  Wellington was hit very hard by stormy conditions and in the South Island there was lots of snow.  Up here at the top of the North Island, we don't get snow, thankfully, but we still had lots of rain and wind.  Today it's still cold but at least there was some sunshine.

When it was really cold I snapped these pictures of Welcome Swallows outside my studio window.  They perch on the firewood bin and in Spring they build their nest up in the rafters (and make a heck of a mess).

I don't know what was so interesting up above their heads, but periodically one would take off and dart around.  It's their flitting and swooping that has inspired the Swallow quilt I'm working on.

They were all puffed up with the cold.  I think Swallows migrate in Winter to warmer climates in other parts of the world, but not in NZ.  They self-introduced themselves from Australia in the 1950's and feed on flying insects.

Hopefully they've found somewhere warm to roost.  It's time for me to cuddle up next to the fire with my book.