The end of an era.

During harvest at our farm I don’t have much time for sewing. I do get on the computer and have a quick look at what others are posting about though. When I saw that Amanda, aka CrazyMomQuilts, had her own line of fabric out I did find the time to order a fat quarter bundle !

 ” Good Neighbors”, what a great name. Amanda so generously shares tips and ideas on her blog that I have no doubt that she is truly a good neighbour.

When my package arrived from Connecting Threads there was a pincushion bloghop party going on. Did you see it ? There’s a link to the round-up of the 30 pincushions made for the hop right here.

If you’ve been to my blog before you know that I have a moderate demented affliction for making potholders, so of course I made potholders. If Amanda ever does a blog hop for Good Neighbors potholders… I’m ready !

These are paper pieced and all but the binding and backing fabric ( which I didn’t think of taking a picture of ) is from the Good Neighbors collection.

In other news; on a wet and cool day in late October I officially said goodbye to our loyal and dependable soccer-mobile. The kids named it that. It’s been quite awhile since it has seen a soccer field but the name has endured 🙂

It was time for a new vehicle – we’ve had it for almost 14 years !

This is my new ride… I certainly hope it lasts as long. I’ve only had it for 2 days but I think my favourite feature is the heated steering wheel !!?!! It came standard – my, have cars changed in 14 years hahahaha – duh !

Happy Halloween everyone !

linking up with Amanda for Finish it up Friday.

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Christmas came early this year !

A few weeks ago I got an e-mail I wasn’t sure was completely legit… Carrie Nelson over at the Moda Cutting Table blog was telling me I had won a blog hop give away ! The blog hop was introducing Christa Watson’s new book:

Well, anyone that read this post knows that I need all the help with machine quilting I can get !

The giveaway also included these fabulous fabrics:

38 delicious fat quarters of Basic Mixologie by Studio M

It was hard for me to believe that I actually had won the giveaway because I never win stuff…. I mean, I’ve often thought of myself as “fortunate” but “lucky” ? Nope, that’s someone else… not me ! Anyhoo, I guess you have already figured out that the email actually was legit and I did win !!!

The package arrived at our post office on Monday and it was so much fun unpacking it  🙂

I was so looking forward to receiving Christa Watson’s book and that big bundle of Basic Mixologie but Carrie filled the box with so many additional surprises, it was like crazy wild happiness times 10 ! ! My family thought I was loosing my mind, non- quilters just don’t “get it”.

I received Christa’s book plus Heidi Staples book “Sew Organized” – I think Carrie must be psychic ’cause there’s lots of useful tips in here to help me along the way.

I also received all these cute little bundles of mini charms:

aaaand 

 2 bundles of fat eights ! The one on the left is some wonderful christmas fabric and the one on the right is a beautiful mix of cream and blues, some of which are batiks. Neither bundle had a collection card included so I can’t tell you anything other than I really like them and I have spent the last 24 hours considering what I am going to do with this windfall !! I’m so thankful to Carrie Nelson for her generosity and to Moda and to Mr. Random number generator for choosing my comment :))))) !

I’m not really sure if all the above excitement counts as  WIP post because I am linking up with Lee over at WIP Wednesday.

So I’ll just add that I have this quilt quilted and the binding made but in my excitement, forgot to take a picture. I’ll do a proper photo shoot as soon as I get’er stitched up.

Hope you are having a wonderful Wednesday !

Bringing in the Sheaves

Harvest on our farm is almost complete for 2015 !

We have a few more hundred acres of canola to combine and then we’re going to give a neighbour a hand to finish up as it is threatening to rain again. Then it will be on to fall field work which means cultivating and putting down fertilizer.

I haven’t had much time for sewing these last few weeks but there have been a few days of rain and I was able to go out to my studio and try a granny square block.

Actually, I made two…

I flipped one so you could see the back.

Lorna wrote up a terrific tutorial that I used.

Look at this perfect fabric that I found for the binding…

click the picture to make it bigger

It’s the words to the old gospel song “Bringing in the Sheaves” – just right for some harvest potholders !

I didn’t have allot of time for taking pictures while I was working in the field with my son and husband. Most days I didn’t even think about taking my camera with me because there are so many jobs to get done before we head out.

Here are a few pictures I did manage to take.

         

The above pictures were taken as we finished one field and moved on to the next. The piece of equipment hooked up to the back of the combine is called a straight cut header. It is 45 feet wide so it has to be detached from the front of the combine and put in transport mode or else we would never get it down the road.

We are dumping the grain from the combine into the grain cart in this picture.

After the grain is moved from the combine to the grain cart it gets augured into the truck and hauled to the bins at our yard.

The picture below was taken a few years ago  but it shows how we usually unload the grain from the combine to the cart. The combine is cutting and thrashing the grain at the same time the combines unloading auger is dumping into the cart that is keeping pace beside it. It takes some skillful operating to do this but it saves a lot of time if the combine doesn’t stop !

                                 I usually run the grain cart, my husband’s on the combine and my son is on the grain truck.

Some of the fields have to be swathed ( cut and laid in rows ). While my son does the swathing I will run the combine and my husband hauls the grain into the yard.

 I’ll leave you with a fall picture my daughter took of our dog.  Isn’t she pretty !  Have a great weekend  🙂

Linking up with Amanda for Finish it up Friday.