Daughter's stitchery and linseed crop.

Don't fall off your chair! 3 Posts in 3 days, I must actually be home.

I have a very serious reason tonight....I want to know what's responsible!!
I just watched the world news and New Orleans has snow....I should be out swimming in the pool this time of year and it has rained non stop for almost 12 hours and isn't looking like letting up...yet we had half today's rainfall ALL Spring! I am slightly fearful of Chookyblue's scenario, the first inch is rejoicing, the 2nd involves a little shaking of the head and a 4th and hail would really cap off an interesting cropping year!! hopefully that wont be the case.
So, is it me leaving the lights on and driving the car too much...or have the season's just gone mad, how is the weather there? Normal???
A couple of pics for you....
My girl won the sewing at the local show last weekend, she commented that there weren't heaps in it...I said that was because not many 10 year olds can hand stitch! She is really going well at backstitch and if you can find the right thing for her ...like cats...she works on it quite often.
We have added a turtle to our visiting lizard enclosure, he was found out the front of our house and I think was especially sent to make up for a past turtle disaster that we don't talk of here. This one is big enough to live on land, so means I have no need to ever see a glass aquarium in my home...(and if you don't know that story go back to the first week of June). And have no fear, I have licences for all these critters
.
Here he is watching TV with my boy.

This crop will be benefitting from the drink. Sown late in the season it usually struggles for the water to keep it flowering, but at over $1000 per tonne we usually take the risk!
It's linseed, that food of champions, especially for us women. The blue is a bit of a change from my favourite yellow canola and I thought you may like to see where your little black seeds some from.
Have a great day, Tracey

Quilt gift-and blogiversary!

I have that happy, but completely exhausted, feeling that you get when you know what you did was worthwhile....like giving birth but mercifully without the stitches!

We are shearing here and I am feeding the whole shearing team hot morning tea, roast lunch, dessert and afternoon tea. Around that and the kids I also had to work on my friend's 70th quilt-that was still a lot of blocks short by Wednesday's mail! I had to present it as a top and I will add the missing blocks and quilt it as a work in progress. Thanks for everyone's input, I was a little strapped for time so didn't go too elaborate, I kind of split the difference and went for a 2 1/2 inch finished sash.

By staying up a considerable amount of Thursday night and enlisting the kids on their day off as kitchen apprentices I managed to get it into a satisfactory quilt top by the time I had to serve dinner then race to town to the handover lunch.

Here she is.. and do you think she minds that it is still only a top??? I don't think she would have minded if it were just the squares! She couldn't believe who I had tracked down to contribute a square.

She just kept crying, even an hour later we were having a quiet coffee together and tears were running down her face. I sent her off up the street to get tissues clutching her quilt box tightly before she headed away with the family to her daughter's. I spoke to her daughter last night and she said the crying had stopped but she was still clutching the quilt!

I love giving a quilt to someone who appreciates it, that is really why we do this crazy cutting up of fabric! Makes it all very worthwhile.

My batteries went flat, I'll get you good pictures when it is done. This is Valda's DIL and grandson at the left, and Valda and I on the right.

DH finished his day in the woolshed and went to bed with the flu so i spent a fairly sleepless night on the couch which did nothing to help the tiredness!

I had to stop and let this echidna past on the road on the way to town.

The dress making bug has quieted for a few days, here are the girls in their dresses...and baby Born's to match.

We have taken some Canola photos, if you saw how many it took to get these! The models were far more interested in chasing each other through the crop than cooperating, but that's all fun as well.

Just realised it is my 2 year blogiversary. I think we better have a giveaway, don't you? I haven't got any elaborate idea organized so I think we will stick to the tried and true...leave a comment about something you liked in this post or in the 2 years worth to go in the draw...and I guarantee the prizes (s) will be something worthwhile. I'll cut it off and announce the winner by wed nesday, 22/10-hopefully shearing will be over by then!

Have a great day, I am off to draft up sheep with a DH with the 'flu...oh what unbridled joy!!! Tracey

The best laid plans....

Now Tracey...what should rule #1 be? You should know by now....never make plans!!

Guess where I was going today? I was taking my girl to the city on a bus trip to see 'Wicked', the musical-it was a big treat to make up for another dicey year with her, she really cannot take a trick!-(between fish tank accidents and gastro and her semi-recurrent tummy pains.) And am I just getting home, exhausted? Well the exhausted may be right but that is only from trying to get her temperature down from 42 degrees!! She got the awful f'lu on Friday and has been miserable ever since-so Wicked tickets were the least of our worries.

I think she may be slightly improving, didn't seem quite so hot today but the best she could still do was lie on the couch and watch new DVD seasons of The Brady Bunch and Mork and Mindy (there are worse fates!)

Meanwhile this did mean that I got to dash over to my neighbors this afternoon for cake for my Godson's 5th birthday. I voided out the cake by riding my bike the couple of kilometres each way.

Do you remember Joshua? Last year he was the worthy recipient of this;

His much loved quilt.
Today when i arrived and he saw fabric in my bag he said, "more quilt!!!
Well, not quite, just a treasure bag filled with treasure.
He is just as cute as last year!Here he is showing you his bag.

I have also finished and mailed off my bag swap bag, hopefully it will be liked, it is such a tricky thing making craft for someone you don't know. I have taken pics but can only show when it arrives, it is a little too personalised to be general.
Better get off to bed in case I am up again in an hour! Have a great day, Tracey

A birthday

My baby is turning 8.

We could do a multitude of things for his birthday, so how did we end up with this?
He goes to a town school where farmers are in the minority, so we transported his class out to our place on the shortened last day of term for a bonfire, pet lambs at their feet, marshmallows, kicks of the football...and rides from my boy's good dad at nice low speed around the paddock. The kids were beside themselves with joy and all wanted to stay longer...and me, i was just that thankful it didn't rain!!
And what about the cake....In March it was Hannah Montana concert stage, last year a spooky castle, what was this creation?
Well, that would be a Pavlova...with broken up peppermint crisps on top.I had to suck up the fact that he's getting bigger and go with what he wanted...a pav!!
Here he is cutting it, his sister has moved in next to him in the hope he will touch the bottom of the plate and have to kiss the nearest girl!

The sister has had some of her dressings off, this is how one cut looks, I wont give you the close up! She still doesn't like to look at it but is improving.

Took these when going around the sheep the other night, can't quite decide which i like best.-i think the first probably, but the second interests me as well.

That is part of my gratitudes today; a farm that I love, along with smiling happy children who like each other.... and are healthy (today!!) and a workaholic husband who took time out to help me with the party. Life is good.
Hope yours is too.
Tracey

Tracey's top 10 for not getting your quilt finished in time

10. Design and implementation alterations. (read: Stuffed up!)

9. Creative clashes. (read:don't like the colours someone else chose)

8. Critical analysis (read: someone dared say it looked bad!)
7 , 6 & 5. Digitally challenged (Read: ran out of time, ran out of camera memory/battery to take the blog photo or cut a finger off with the rotary cutter!)
4. Important business partner dinner. (read: husband has the audacity to expect me to sit down to eat!)
3. Junior staff co-ordinators role. (read trying to get kids to go to bed!)
2. Contract cleaners performance not up to scratch. (read: what cleaning!!!!)
But finally, if I was looking for the #1 reason my niece's, or anyone else's quilt would not be done by tomorrow it would be this.........
EVENT #1
A lovely 10 year old daughter who went to bed early and safely(?) home from camp.....
An elevated, bunk high bed.....
a fish tank that seemed far enough away from the bed.

Well, it seemed far enough away from the bed in normal circumstances but when your daughter does some kind of airborne Highland fling in her dreams you end up hearing a bang as you are shutting off the lights for bed and by the time you get to her room you are pulling her from the space between her bed and the tank table.

and feeling for a broken necks and bleeding.

Then the fish tank water she is laying in starts to look like the water around a Jaws victim. Thought I had it sorted, still more red water and there was another big laceration on her upper arm to join the one on her lower.An absolutely horrific feeling to be checking all over your babies body for something that may kill her...when she should be asleep!
So we spent the night mostly in emergency, we've been back to the surgeon today and she is resting comfortably with two 3-4 inch wounds and a lot of huge bruises and grazes.
At about one am in Emergency I whispered to my husband that we were so lucky it wasn't her neck.(head, spinal cord, major artery..!!!..) She heard and replied, "Yes, God can't stop the accidents but he can help!"
That was just about the end of me!
Hope your day was great! Tracey

..... we have the technology!!

I am very excited, finally found out how to get a "Title" section for my posts so you can click directly on me in Bloglines without opening a new tab....for those other people who I see having the same trouble it is in the formatting section, you just tick 'yes' instead of 'no' for the title section question. I know, not like solving world famine but was annoying me anyway!

We have been having a few little family sewing sessions to try out the $69 Aldi sewing machine that I bought for my girl to learn on. It goes quite well, just have to remember to pull more thread out the back because it unthreads itself if I just leave a Janome amount.

Here is my boy working on his log cabin chook....a disclaimer here, the kids chose their fabrics and would not be influenced and as I just wanted them to sew I closed my mouth re light and dark!

Isn't some lucky woman going to love me!!! (While his sister watches TV in between sewing turns!) Look, he irons!!

And very intently as well!

It grew very impressively....

....into the brownish one here. The blue is his sisters and they are very proud!

If you haven't seen these before they are in my tutorial links in the sidebar.

And just to show you that my boy's life is suitably rounded, here is where he spent the rest of his holidays!

watching this fun......

and standing waiting longingly with the bike for the time when the flames were receding enough for him to safely join in!! (His mother went through about 4 years of very little sleep with that child-she would prefer he safely reached adulthood!!)

And finally, my sister had this at her house...should it be the quilter's motto?

Have a great day, I am off to the Church Picnic in the morning! Tracey

Oh what a beautiful morning........

Hear that? Well maybe you can't, but it is the sound of John Denver singing to me on the CD player-not Hannah Montana, who I love and encourage , but have nevertheless heard enough of in the last 6 months my girl has predominantly been at home.

It is an hour and a half since the kids headed off for day 3 of a new year and it has been a long time since I got 3 straight child free days-I have walked, fed everything that requires it, put a load of washing on and taken some photo. I am now just recruiting my strength before attacking the house...and after 2 children nesting in it all Summer am little concerned some parts could attack back!

I have to apologise, I have had all these emails about the cards as I didn't say the negotiable price. The proper cards are $2, 50 cents for postcards and 20 cents for the gift cards. A local shop wants to stock some as well-very exciting! Negotiations that have worked for payment are fabric, paypal or FQS gift vouchers from overseas, cheques are fine in Australia...and swaps are fun as well. And yes, you can have a calendar if you really want one!

First Day pics. Yes, they do wear uniforms, 99% of Australian Schools have uniforms. Australia likes their people uniform...well at least on a general level playing field. Mine are at a little private Church School, hence the tie. Most Private Schools are ties. Nearly all Schools have a 'No hat no play' policy, so the hats just go on automatically. These are great hats, equally good in winter.

Wasn't sure how the little native boy would go getting in his uniform, I can't show you the photos, but the day before he was naked swimming in a ditch with the hose and layering himself with mud. He didn't know I was watching and I have some great photos of him then attempting to wash himself and his clothes off with the hose!

Here he is showing me where a mouse got caught as he and his Dad baled me some barley straw for the calves I will rear this year. Harvest almost over, late barley and linseed to go...I am in charge of getting rid of all the pea straw to the local nurseries and gardeners who want it as mulch. I can double my money if I cart and deliver it myself...but there are still 700 bales on the 66 acres to go...not sure whether I am that enthusiastic!

And finally, look at my great mail!!! My winter Four Seasons Quilt Swap came from Wendy in Connecticut. Have emailed her to see if she has a blog for you to visit.

Isn't it gorgeous! Beautifully made and quilted with a binding that I am green with envy over. My binding are ok until the end join, I always struggle with getting that perfect.

Mine was finsihed in time, all mailed, I will do the big reveal when I know my person has it.

Have a great day...'cos I know I will! Tracey

Mothering issues: The good, the bad...and the just plain gross.

There are a lot of similarities about motherhood in the animal kingdom and motherhood in our more human realm. One major one is that not everyone is good at it, or perhaps, it is not always second nature.

Now in humans, this probably leads to visits from child protection in a major scenario while in nature the result of bad mothering is usually grim.

Fortunately for Sigmund's new best bud, we wondered past soon enough that he was found, hollow and weak, but still with enough energy to suck the teat, and now, two feeds later he is starting to put his head up.

Is he not cute!

His mother is not young and has no excuse to have left him days ago and be socialising at the trough, so her number has been taken and she will face the full brunt of our farm law-which means she will be looking for a new place to live next time a stock truck is visiting.

Now do you think Sigmund is happy?

Going for the ear like that is close to a cow kiss.

I am thinking Heinrich for a name. A Sigmund would have a brother, Heinrich, surely! I also think my kids had a great grandpa called that, known as Harry (perhaps fortunately!) which is the name my hypothetical next boy would be...but I think a calf is about the closest that name is going to get to an airing!

And then you get a naturally wonderful mother, and here she is...........

The kittens begin to go Christmas Eve, two children who spend their days carting them around in the doll pram and calling each other Mum and Dad are going to feel it deeply. I think Isabelle the cat will as well. I am hoping santa will lull the pain.

And they are going, so indulge me with gratuitous kitten picture #2.

Now that is a relaxed Mum.

She is obviously relaxed as her babies don't get vomiting bugs.....4-5 times in the night....just spaced out enough so that his mother could fully return to sleep.... and not once in the bucket and more than once on the carpet!

And then tonight, all better, he gave away the fact that he has peeped at a present under the tree....(because neither of them has any ability to lie) and he has cried and begged for forgiveness and spent an hour walking around the house shaking his head saying, "I am just so ashamed of myself." He was just as cute as those little kittens but I couldn't really tell him that, but I did tell him not to be so hard on himself because even mothers are very tempted to do that...my fingers itch to just open the edge of Gudrun's SSCs gift....but no, I am remaining strong!

I had another good mothering moment tonight as well, after trying to get them to appreciate "The Velveteen Rabbit" for a few years I have finally hit the year when they both snuggled up...and actually got it. DD picked up straight away that her baby born with it's pink and half dislodges eyes is real to her and DS lamented that he has never cared about anything quite like that...it was only after he went to bed that I realised that his security type toy is me....which is nice until everytime he has to go to School, or I go to do the groceries, or he would like to play at someones house....and unfortunately Mum doesn't fit in his back pocket. He will grow out of it, just like his sister will grow out of Baby born....and I am not sure that is a gratitude.......

have a great day, Tracey

ps...hopefully Dad's are understanding as well, because the way I am going here, mine will get a sketch of his quilt for Christmas!

Why is this so hard?

Thank you for all the comments about the kids health, specifically my girl, she is still going well and has done 4 days of school this week. A 3-4 month record I would think.

I have made 3 quilt tops and assorted other things in the last month and you would think a simple Four seasons quilt shouldn't be just too hard then? You would be wrong! I battled to pick the colours, now I am unsure about the top. It is trickier than you think making something for someone you don't know. I can tell she is very nice...(like all quilting bloggers!)....but there is still the pressure of trying to get it perfect and not disappoint her..sigh. Anyway, maybe you can give me some assistance as here is how I am going so far.

Used the Sonnet range, which is a big enough print that doesn't need to be over pieced. I want it in a pattern that lends itself to table centre, seeing it is only to be 12-16 inches in size.

So here is idea 1-

Idea 2-

Idea 3-

I wont tell you my preference, I want untainted views!

I am also open to putting each block end to end for a table runner, didn't take that photo but looks quite nice.

Also made a bag today, I have to work out how to make a specific order so this is my practice piece, it has to have a zip-"Bah humbug"!! So hence the practice. (Therefore it is not officially something that was off the "Have to" list!!!)

And I finished off Milly's name banner to give to her grandma at Quilter's tonight.

Yay...my favourite night of the month! Should I take my camera for you, in case there is progress since retreat?

Two funny stories today, well, kind of funny eventually! DS is ok but not at school, still grumpy and cuddly (calling me the "cuddle machine!"-pleased I am useful for something!)

Today he felt like an icypole and as we were out he headed over to see how his Grandma was...Ha!- back very quickly to tell me Grandma was sitting in her chair, not breathing , talking or moving...dead!! No, I did not wimp out and call my husband to come back from the paddock, I went over and hesitantly opened the door after which she jumped in surprise and I jumped even higher!! Needless to say, not dead.

I went back and told my boy who said ok, he's go back for the icecream (how pleased I am that he had not grabbed one before coming to tell me she was dead, I like to think they are raised with some semblance of sensibility).....any way, he was gone for a while, I was happily sewing then decided a good mother would check his location, thought for a further peaceful minute or two about which type of mother I was today, then checked.

No boy at Grandma's, no boy answering increasingly indignant/panicky screams of his name, one Archie dog who is usually with him and just as this time I AM about to call his father to commence the search party, I thought I would check the house. Yep, you have guessed it, sound asleep in his bed! Now I haven't seen the human dynamo have an afternoon sleep since 2003, so I still can't work out what made me look.

Blissfully, he is still there now.

Now, a good mother may wake him soon, so that he goes to sleep at a reasonable hour tonight, but, heck, I'll be gone to quilters and you can't be a good mother all the time!!

So not a factory farm....

Late Sunday night and I think I should be sleeping while the sleeping is good, but I shall take a risk and fit in a post instead.

DS seems to have the flu, very high temps meant he ended up in bed with us last night, I gave up and went into his bed and found out this morning that DH spent most of the night up with him watching DVD's!!!

That was a great way to start my husband's Father's day, but quite fitting really as he is a very hands on Dad and always used to divide the night with me when they were younger and more prone to night-time illness. I really appreciated that, if Tazzie is reading this, it is a bit like the book she mentioned, with a title I wont write for fear of who will google me, but basically relating to what really makes a woman fall for a man, and it isn't actually what a man thinks it would be. More housework than big muscles!

I have to share the Father's Day card my girl made him....because it's my blog....and she is only 9....

Dear Dad,

You don't like the sand,

but you like the Lee Kernaghan band.

You never get mad,

for that I am very glad.

When you play hide and seek,

I think it's neat.

While Mum is feeding the chooks,

what you are doing is harder than it looks.

Thanks for bringing home lambs,

and pushing me in prams.

Thank you for your love,

you came from above.

You have a truck,

and you love when the bulls at the rodeo buck.

You married Mum,

you cuddled me when I had a sore tum.

Needless to say I had to steal the card from beside his bed.....

Catered afternoon tea for a wedding yesterday and thought the bridesmaids flowers may interest you. They were made from a whole heap of satiny fabric circles, and just pinned to a styrofoam ball, then with a short piece of dowel stuck into them to hold onto. They actually looked good, especially from a distance, even if I am a sucker for real flowers.

In answer to a million questions from my last post.

The emails have been running hot regarding my battery hens. I have stopped trying to sensibly explain them and will do so as clearly as possible here.

Battery hens are the general term for chooks/chickens that are factory farmed. That is, as many as possible of them are kept in order to maximise return on investment and space. As the world continues to grow we have to accept that this is increasingly how our food needs to be grown....but we don't necessarily have to like it. The chooks that I bought have been specifically bred to lay, the desire to go clucky has been bred out of them. At the end of the first year they will probably moult, which involves them losing their old feathers and stopping laying for a short period. In their second year of laying their production falls off. Fot this reason I could purchase them cheaply in the bargain bin. Even if they drop to 4-5 eggs a week, they will still be supplying me with more eggs than some of my old darlings who have produced eggs for 5-6 years, given me enjoyment and are allowed to live in a happy, semi-retired state until time catches up with them. If I cross these new layers with my lovely bush roosters I will get the variety of colours I like, with improved egg laying ability in the new generation. But I will have to get some of my old faithfuls to do the sitting as they battery hens will not.

Factory farming is not the way we choose to farm here.

Factory farmers would not have cute poultry like these, admiring my chenille quilt that I finally added flanelette backing to, running loose. They would artificially inseminate, so have no need for the cute rooster who is presently standing on my quilt!

Factory farmers wouldn't have pet lambs either. Especially ones like Spring who enjoy

escaping from the paddock, playing withthe kids, eating the chook food and shaking hands.

And they definitely wouldn't have rude little lambs, that after unsuccessfully attempting to follow their foster mother in the back door,

... quickly run around the front and bang on the door until one of the kids opens to see who is there.....

....so we put a quilt on her back and called her a Jim Shore figurine! (Isn't she getting big, will be shorn in a month!!!)

Finally, seeing I missed Blog day, a great blog to call at is Carol's. Carol does fabulous digi scrapping layouts and her "things that never really happened" shots are a hoot!

Colic

Colic is mercifully becoming a hazy memory to me, but it isn't yet hazy enough that the desire to help anybody with a crying baby does not grip me in all venues at all times. So when dawn suggested a few bloggers should discuss it and how they got on I thought I would share.

Here are the two little darlings, the bigger one was a beautifully easy baby, I thought I was so good at this mothering thing. She slept all the time and was just happy. Then her brother came along and I realised that it's not always the mothering. I did everything the same but I knew I had a completely different baby in hospital already. He just didn't settle and wasn't happy. I dropped things from my diet, (neither of my children have ever let me eat onion b/feeding, it made them both scream) I watched how long he fed for, how he fed, it made no difference, that was colic and that was life.

Coping strategies; I was fortunate as the real constant screaming happened b/t 5pm and 11 pm and my darling wonderful husband would finish off the tea that i had started and then take over DS after. He proved very talented at this and saved my sanity. Other good strategies were putting him in the carrier strapped tight to my chest so at least I could do something, putting him in the pram and taking him back and forth, preferably over a bump like in the doorway where the carpet meets the tiles, and holding him in the best windy baby hold ever~laying him along your arm tummy downwards and resting on your arm, with your hand gripping the babies bottom and baby's head resting down around your elbow.

I taught that to a new dad at a footy evening once and he and his wife stood there amazed in the change, last week at Church I noticed him carrying baby number 4 up to Communion that way and I smiled!

The best thing about it is that it goes away and they grow into beautiful cuddly little boys like this so don't throw in the towel!