A pretty spot of normal and calm amongst the chaos

Hi All,

Well, the last few weeks have been positively insane.  What with bubs threatening to come early, then changing his mind on a near daily basis and suddenly finding out one of our kids has Type 1 Diabetes, life has been utter turmoil.  Most of a week full of having our boy in hospital, learning about diabetes and then managing dietitian and nurse appointments, along with working out dietary changes...  Utter insanity!

But then, over the past few days, Papa Sam and I managed to regroup and get back into some of what we love and haven't been able to do much of yet at this new house - gardening!

So a few weeks back, Papa Sam built three of the planned 4 raised beds in front of our house, but they sat empty until this past week, when we finally organised soil and plants.

3 sisters

The closest to the house has been filled with the 3 sisters (beans, corn and zucchini), as well as some errant parsley seeds that were in the envelope of bean seeds from our old house.  It looks a little sparse due to the fact that a lot of it is filled with seed, not just plants.

Brassicas and celery

Next to the garage is a mix of cauliflower, celery, broccoli, red cabbage and celeriac, with a fair amount of herb seeds scattered in between.

Onions, carrots, tomatoes, chard and capsicums

And the middle bed has onion seedlings (what a pain to plant!), interspersed with carrot seeds, and surrounded by tomato seedlings, basil seeds, capsicum and chard seedlings, and a few other herb seeds to boot.

The rhubarb patch

It's raining and getting darker at the moment, so I'm not going outside to take a picture of the gorgeous Dublin Bay rose climbing up the frame at the back of this garden bed, but I weeded and composted the rhubarb patch, and removed the flower heads from my poor starved rhubarb plant.  Eventually we'll remove the other plant from this bed and fill it with more rhubarb and garlic plants.

And finally, the garden our youngest will be the most excited to see.  Under his bedroom window, I've weeded, composted and planted out strawberry plants.  Soon I'll add more strawberries, a few raspberries along the back, and mulch the garden with straw, but it was already raining by the time I'd finished.

Absolutely loving the feeling of having been out working in the garden again.  As the blog title says, it's been my spot of calm and normal.  Now just to wait and see how long bubs is going to take to come, so I can be even more mobile and go back to planting trees and digging holes!

Love to all,
Mama Fern

Cushions and a quick baby quilt for a gift

Hi All,

I'm still hard at work quilting and crocheting, so this is an update of the past couple of days.

As mentioned previously, I was given two completed quilt blocks from the quilt that Papa Sam's aunts had made for us, which I was using as a pattern for my baby quilt, and reserving for something a bit more special.

These two quilt blocks are now gracing cushions on my bed, after having some black microfibre borders and backing added, from an old pair of pillowcases we never liked having on the bed

The first cushion, almost complete (just needs the domes added)

Looking gorgeous on the bed :)

 I also made a quick baby quilt (either for in a cot, or as a playmat on the floor) for my aunty, who is also expecting.  Although the cute baby fabric was my main intention as the front of the quilt, I tried to make it reversible, with some tartan I'd picked up a few years ago, always intending to make something interesting out of, as the backing fabric.  I learned a lot making this one - it's definitely interesting trying a different style of quilting, and now I desperately want a walking foor and a better way to measure my hems, etc.  I also learned that while the cutting, basting and quilting might only take you an hour or so, the hand stitching still takes FOREVER!

Front of the quick quilt

And the back of the same quilt

Anyway, that's today's update!  Taking a bit of a break from the machine today, but I've bought the last of the supplies for my cot quilt, so hopefully I'll post up progress reports soon!

Love to all,
Mama Fern

My first ever quilt completed!

Hi All,

I apologise for the length of this post - but please bear with me!

It's finally complete - my first ever quilting project!  I wanted to make a quilt for our cradle, that would match the beautiful one on our bed made by Papa Sam's very talented aunts.  Initially, that had meant planning to match the colours, using some basic squares or suchlike, but after going to the local quilting shop and feeling overwhelmed, I sent a message to the aforementioned aunts, begging for help.  Not only were they able to supply some amazing matching prints, but they also sent over a whole heap of pieces that were originally intended for our own quilt, but hadn't quite made the cut.

The beautiful array of fabrics that arrived

I spent a fair bit of time avoiding the fabric, scared stiff of wrecking it by even contemplating cutting it, but eventually took a deep breath, planned out what I wanted to do, and decided to make a small version of the quilt that they had made for us.  There were two quilt blocks from our quilt in amongst the hoard, so I used them as a pattern and made four of my own, based on the following design I knocked up in MS paint.

The first block went fairly well, and I learned a lot from it.  I also got a lot more proficient with my quick unpick than I've ever been in my life!  I will admit that I used the centres (the four squares in the middle) from the pile given to me by the aunts - they were huge sanity savers!

My first quilt block

The next four went a lot quicker, although after taking the following photograph, I went to bed exhausted, slept for the night, then spent the morning unpicking and re-stitching some of the messier parts.  This is the four blocks before and after stitching them together as the quilt top.

Once the four blocks were together, it was time to do a test and see just how much the quilt top looked like the original quilt - I promise you it's sitting on the bed there - it just takes a couple seconds to find it.

Then a test fit in the cradle

Once I'd sandwiched the pieces together with some leftover batting from the quillows my friend made for our other kids, and added a large square of an old white flannelette sheet as the backing, I started tying the pieces together, as per the original quilt.
 

Then made my first ever lot of continuous binding and machine stitched it on to the front of the quilt.

Hand-stitched a name tag and then hand-stitched the tag onto the back of the quilt, while hand-stitching on the back of the binding.

So, without further adieu, I present my completed, gorgeous, cradle quilt!

And that's how I spent the last four or five days...  Now on to the next project!  Thanks so much to those two lovely aunts for all your help and support!

Love to all,
Mama Fern

More baby blankets

Hi All,

Finally I've completed my planned crochet projects, and the most basic sewn items for our impending arrival (8 weeks to go!).  Which is a really good thing, as there's a beautiful box of quilting fabric now sitting on the table, begging for my attention.

Our little one will be sharing our room for the first little while, and I was keen to have bedding that matched the red, black and yellow of our own bed, at least just for the cot and cradle that will be taking up long-term residence in our room.  I have a tonne of other coloured bedding, but those will be used more for the moses basket, pram and porta-cots that we keep downstairs.

We also have a painting that looks like a melting red and black chessboard hanging in our room, which Papa Sam painted.  It inspired me to start making red and black crochet squares, eventually leading to me running out of wool and deciding that I really, really wanted to make a full red and black blanket chessboard, so would be REQUIRED to order more wool ;)  Having discovered and fallen in love with a particular wool (http://www.ashford.co.nz/newsite/yarns/2013-tekapo-8ply), the decision was easy, and I only had to wait a week or so...

Middle of the year Christmas time!!!!

Now suitably armed with plenty of wool, ribbon and sheets, it was time to start working!

First up were some old single sheets and a duvet cover, which I cut into cot sheets, then trimmed with a black and white gingham ribbon.  All 8 sheets I made will be kept as flat sheets.  I prefer to use fitted and flat as sets, but it was just easier to do it this way (sooner or later, I'm probably going to regret this decision, but ah well!)

Then, after the colossal job of stitching 64 identical red and black squares, I began the long job of stitching them all together.

Followed by edging the blanket

Then deciding it needed more edging, until I was happy with the finished result :)

And of course, the obligatory trial of  blanket and sheets together (I had to trial this in the cradle, as I still haven't got around to buying the cot mattress yet).  Really excited to see this once I have the cot set up properly.

Next up was my first ever go at a chevron blanket...  I started off with my chain stitches waaaaaaaaaaay too tight, ending up with a more skirt shaped blanket than a straight one, but I'm super happy with the result.

Halfway there

The completed blanket

All ready to go, just need to add baby!

Anyway, that's the last four weeks of my life, and looking forward to the events of the next 8 or so!

Love to all,
Mama Fern

Baby blankets and raised beds

Hi All,

Yet another productive weekend has passed, with most of the trees in the yard pruned (at least, up until my arms won't reach any higher), a 12 year old's birthday, a whole bunch of crochet completed and the start of our raised beds in the front yard.

I've managed to complete a blanket for our impending arrival, in a mix of blue and beige.  Looking forward to snuggling our little boy up in it in around 3 months time.

Now just to add the little bundle :)

I also managed to complete a second, slightly larger blanket, for a family member who's expecting a little one early next year.  The colour on here is awful thanks to the camera flash and the artificial lights, so it looks really pink, but is actually a two-tone crimson and red.  It does tend toward the pink in certain lights, though.

Next up was our 12 year old's cake.  Inspired by polka dot cakes on the internet, Papa Sam went to work and tried a variation of his own.  We're usually a food colouring free house, but we've made an exception for a few of the birthdays this year, so figured we'd do the same again.

The only picture I forgot to take was the inside of the cake, which had polka dots inside, but we managed to ice it up as a watermelon.  It was great fun

First colour sitting in cake tin

Pouring in the second colour

The lurid mess before baking

Our completed watermelon cake :)

Papa Sam took advantage of the sun, and built the start of our raised gardens in the front of the house, out of macrocarpa.  The wood smells so amazing at the moment, and I can't wait to fill them with soil.

Eventually, these gardens will be taller, and in the next couple of weeks, we'll get them filled with soil, then plant them out for summer.  We'll also be putting up some trellis, and completing another set of raised beds in front of these ones.  I can't wait!

 Anyway, that's all from me at the moment.  Take care!

Love to all,
Mama Fern

Room re-arrange and more new arrivals!

Hi All,

We've spent the last month or so with myself sick and various others in the household falling prey to colds every few days or so - not fun at all!

But we still managed to get around to doing a few jobs which have been needing to be done for a while and are feeling more at home now.  I suppose it had to happen eventually - we have been living here for over a year now!

I didn't manage to get the camera into my eldest's room before a teenage girl sized tornado could sweep through, but we pulled apart her loft bed, Papa Sam worked his magic making new supports, and separated it into the separate pieces, giving her a lot more usable space, including a desk, lower bed and wardrobe.  My step-brother popped by for a day and sanded out the inside of her old wardrobe cupboard for me as well, so that I could give it a fresh lick of paint and make it look a little tidier.

A lucky find at the local Salvation Army store gave me a 3 metre long curtain that, with a bit of cutting and a little time on the sewing machine, turned into two separate, bright curtains for her room.  The main thing left to do now is to buy a closed-top curtain track and raise the curtains up an inch or so, and the room will be done!

But in more exciting news...  We have new arrivals!  Three new brown shaver pullets, fresh from the local battery farm.  Surprisingly, they were actually really feisty and full of energy this time.  They're locked away in quarantine for a week or so, but happily chatting with the current occupants of our run, and already eating and scratching away.  Eventually they'll have names and leg rings, but we're still deciding.

Fresh out of the car and waiting to be put into their temporary new home

Who are these strangers?

Checking out the scenery

Already active

Anyway, that was our last week or so.  Have a wonderful time, everyone.

Love to all,

Mama Fern