Reindeer, a pug, and more...

Hello Peeps, 

A couple of months ago, I gave you a sneak peek of Miss H's Christmas quilt. It has been a long weekend here in NZ so Miss H has settled down and finished the quilt blocks. I gave you a hint about what the theme would be this year for Christmas, and if you guessed reindeer - you were RIGHT! YIPPEE!

Miss H did her first ever QAYG (Quilt As You Go) quilt. So all the top stitching of the applique pieces are actually the quilting of the quilt. How coolio!

This is one of my favourite reindeers - he's so funky with those glasses!

Look at those hooves! Miss H used glitter fabric! Oh sooo sparkly!

And sparkly noses too! 

Except, Rudolph of course! He has his trademark red nose.

Miss H doesn't want me to show you the whole quilt yet because its for Christmas! Sigh! I wish it was Christmas already!

Now all Miss H has to do is put the quilt blocks together. And do the binding (yawn...)

Miss H has been busy stitching, stitching, stitching away. 

In fact, she has also been trying some new things in her hand-stitching. 

The first is stitching a pug's face. 

Isn't he looking coolio?  Even if he is a little scowley! I think its just because his face stitches are so tight. 

The other thing Miss H has been trying is hand quilting with her thread. 

There were little squares from the off-cuts of some little bags Miss H and the Mother were making. 

So Miss H trimmed and sewed them together before adding batting and backing fabric. Then she got out her thick thread and quilted it by hand. This is something that Miss H has only done once before on a quilt several years ago and she hated it so much, the Mother finished it. 

But this time she actually enjoyed it and found it quite fun deciding where to put the top stitching. In fact she was inspired by someone she follows on Instagram.  

Then she made this one for her friend as a mug rug. 

She added the cute little cat stamp as her friend loves cats - in fact is called Kat! And not only that but fosters cats (even the ones that are practically feral that no one else will foster) until they are ready to go to forever homes. 

This next little mug rug was inspired by Japanese Sashiko - and she found a free pattern online that she traced out. 

Doesn't all the top stitching look sooooo pretty?! 

Oh and look at this cute, cute, cute stitchery that Miss H just finished. I wonder what it will become...

Very soon it will be November, and then before we know it it will be the Mother's birthday. Next year the Mother turns the big six zero! So starting from this November she will be in her 60th year. And for her birthday present she has requested Miss H to do hand stitcheries for her. Miss H thought this was a great idea, and why not spend the year doing 60 stitcheries for the Mother's 60 year. Woohoo!

Now this might sound like a LOT! But Miss H has done that many in a year before, in fact last year she recorded how many she did.

And the end result was 83 stitcheries. and this year she has already done 59 stitcheries so doing 60 shouldn't be too hard - hopefully...

Love From

Baa. xxx

Creative World

Hello Peeps,

First, a Snowy update. He is all healed up now. The steroid meds the vet put him on worked very well and he didn't have to go back to the vets, or wear another cone of shame. Unfortunately, the vet wrote the wrong instructions on the steroids meds and so Miss H had to go ask the vet and get more meds, which means even weeks after his foot has healed he still has 5 days more of steroids as he has to finish the course. Grrrr. Thankfully, they don't upset his tummy, AND he is getting more cheese than usual so he can't complain too much! 

Miss H has seen a lot of creativity over the last couple of weekends and she wanted me to share them with you. I wasn't invited to go and join in the fun, but she gave me chocolate to eat to drown my sorrows of not going on the adventures. 

One of the teachers at Miss H's centre was getting married and Miss H and the Mother were invited (the whole family knows the wonderful teacher). It was a backyard wedding and Grandma had grown beautiful flowers in pots to add to the already amazing garden. The cutest thing was the teacher's nephew (who goes to Miss H's centre) rode his plastic ride on motorbike around the pool to give the rings. It truly was a lovely wedding.

The wedding favours were amazingly adorable. The teacher had crocheted a little bear for every person. These are the Mother's and Miss H's bears. 

The Mother's brown bear is called Cocoa, and Miss H's is called Oscar. Aren't they sooooo coolio? They have joined our collection. 

Then over this weekend, Miss H, the Mother and the Boss went to Drury School's Calf Club Day where Miss H's head teacher's child goes. She had told Miss H that they did their Calf Club Days really well and the children work on their art for two terms.

Now I don't know if they do Calf Club Days overseas but here in New Zealand it is something that country schools do. Sometimes they are called Ag (Agricultural) Day. When Miss H was primary school aged she went to a country school that did Calf Clubs and she always found them such fun. However, as they did not live in rural area, she wasn't allowed a calf, or goat, or sheep. One year her brother, the Geek, had chickens that he raised. The idea behind Calf Club is to raise a baby animal, and then you show it off and compete for who has the best one, the one who listens, the condition of the animal, etc. But the children also work on art and display it to be judged by class/year, as well as baking.

I hope all that makes sense. Anyway, Miss H loved it as the art work was so stunning and she took LOTS of photos. WARNING: Photo overload below.

I will start with the most exciting art that the children did. This was the 9-10 year old class and they did long stitch tapestry.  

This is the one done by the Head Teacher's daughter. It won first place. Woohoo! 

In Ohakune in New Zealand there is a massive carrot statue and this child did it in tapestry - how coolio is that!!!

 

These are some of the other AMAZING tapestry pieces. 

One of the 11-12 year olds did this macarame. Doesn't it look great?

The young children made cute rock pet gardens. I think they are so coolio!

These are an overview of different art from the different age groups. Everyone did such a good job - it was soooo nice to see their creativity. 

Each child also did some type of floral decoration. 

The little ones did a grass head. It wouldn't be Calf Club without a grass head!

One class made coolio kites. I have to say that Dumbo is my favourite, but the blue bird won first place. 

Miss H LURVED this Cathedral Cove painting. It was definitely one of her favourite pictures of the whole competition. 

These were also done by the 9-10 year olds who had done the tapestry. The last picture is the one done by the daughter of the head teacher. 

She also got second place for her baking. They were all given the same recipe and then judged on it. 

In addition, she had a goat.  Her goat was naughty!!! Boy, oh boy was she busy!

Lastly, is these amazing cat and dog faces. They were stunning in real life!

Miss H is now on preschool holidays for the next two weeks. She is trying something new in her handstitching which I can't wait to share with you. But she doesn't want it shown until she is finished. 

The Mother Update: She is really good, just feedup with being home all the time. But now that both Miss H and the Boss have holidays they will take her for lots of different adventures. One of which is a trip to a quilt shop down country. Woohoo!

Love from,

Baa. xxx