Stitching Wishes for April

It is always fun to look ahead to a new month and think about what I would like to achieve.  Let’s have a look at April.

CHOOKSHED CHALLEGE

Deana has posted the project number for April and it is NUMBER 4.  

I’m not sure if this is really funny or sad, but to date I have swapped around every project number that has been selected.  Let’s see what Number 4 is:

Yep, you guessed it.  I’m swapping this one around as well.  At the start of the year I couldn’t find the fabric I had bought at Baradine last year to make this project and couldn’t find my pattern either.  

The fabric has been found, but the pattern is still playing hide and seek.  That is particularly annoying, as I have made this project twice before and have some hand written notes with the pattern to help me along the way.  I know it is here somewhere, as I did have a look at it after I bought the fabric.  Grrrr!

Anyway, in the mean time I am swapping it with my Number 5 which is the Granny Square Table Runner.  I do have the fabrics for this one and the photo I am using for inspiration. It even travelled to Scrub Stitchin’ with me last year, but wasn’t worked on.  The charm squares are left over from a Girls Day in the Country project from 2013, so I do think it is time to get this table runner made.  My goal said that it will be good to practise ruler work on Monique, so it may not be completed in April, but will at least be well on the way and should be finished by the end of the year.  As you can guess, this is now yet another project to pack to take to Baradine.

The funny thing is that when I chose my projects for the year I thought they would all be nice and easy to complete within a month.  This is mostly true, as long as you don’t get busy with other things.  Let’s hope I find more time later in the year, now that I have kept postponing those that need a little more thought.

RAINBOW SCRAP CHALLENGE

The colour this month is?  I haven't been able to ascertain the colour as yet.  Once again, I will keep it simple with my split nine patch blocks.  Hopefully, that is something I can prepare in the next couple of days.

EDITED: The colour for April is RED.  Now to pull some fabrics.

Other than that, I hope to have lots to show for my time at Scrub Stithin’.  I can’t wait.

What I do need to do is get some hand stitching prepped, as other than my Sashiko panel, which is half done, I don’t have anything on the go at the moment.  Oh, the possibilities…. and the decisions to be made.  Watch this space.

A Day Out With Rosie

For the first time in I don’t know how long, on Sunday Mick and I both had nothing planned for the day.  It seems that life has turned rather busy for both of us this year.  So, what would we do?

First up, it was a leisurely breakfast, using some of our home grown raspberries, which have finally started to bear fruit again.

Mick was thinking of taking Rosie, the Suzuki Sierra for a short run.  I suggested we could go for a drive in her for a pub lunch in a little village.  Win, win.

We had received 16mm of much needed rain the previous day and the weather was still rather grey, but that wasn’t going to stop us.  This would be the longest drive that Rosie had been on since Mick has owned her.  Previously, he had just been taking her out to a mate’s place about 20kms away to drive around his steep paddocks and motocross track.

She is rather cosy in the cab compared to our modern vehicles and she is also rather slow, but we don’t mind that, as we are used to travelling around in the vintage side car at a slow pace.  We planned to travel on some quiet country roads rather than highways and of course found some lovely little dirt roads.

Although it was Sunday, this farmer was still busy with his stock.  That shed would have been an army hut at Cowra back in WW2.  You see them dotted around the place.  The shed in our back yard when I was a kid was one as well.

Out this way there are ruins of a few stone buildings.   This was a nice photo opportunity for Rosie.

Our lunch time destination was the Neville Pub.  Neville is a village out the back of Blayney, next to the village of Barry.  I always wonder how they got their names.  Anyway, the pub was always a good one, but shut down for a few years.  A couple of years ago it went on the market and two young builders from Sydney who were working in the area decided on a whim to buy it, with no previous experience of running a pub.  They made some improvements and it has been open for about eighteen months and is doing well.  We had a delicious burger and had a nice chat to a fellow who turned up on his motorcycle and also owns a little Suzuki 4WD, so the boys had lots in common.

Obviously, I forgot to take a photo of the pub or lunch. Doh!

The other half hearted plan for the day was to see if we could pick some wild apples, as there are quite a few apple trees growing along the sides of these minor roads.  Most trees had already been picked, but there were a couple that looked to have quite a few on them.  It became apparent why, as upon closer inspection, the fruit was very diseased.  However, one did have a blackberry growing next to it with lovely plump berries.  We didn’t have a container to collect any, so just enjoyed a few while there.

We took a different route on the way home, travelling along the “Old Lachlan Road”.  

We have travelled this very minor road some years ago and thought it was about time to drive it again and it would be a good one to take Rosie down.  It was rather rough in places, but thanks to the previous day’s rain, wasn’t dusty.

You know you are on a minor road when there is grass growing up the centre.

We didn’t meet one single vehicle along its entire length, but did encounter a traffic jam of a different type.  We are guessing it was an organised trail ride, as they were all kitted out in a similar fashion.

We do enjoy seeing the local countryside.

Overall, we travelled about 130kms.  Rosie seems to be happy sitting on around 70 kph on the road, so a rather leisurely way to travel.  We have learnt that she is running quite rich, as she used quite a bit more fuel than she should, and was a bit smelly, so Mick has now adjusted the carby.  Initially, she was a also a bit how’s your uncle on the road, so we pulled over and he put some more air in the tyres, which made for a better ride on the bitumen, but a bit rougher on the rough roads.  It’s all about reaching that happy balance.  On the whole, she went well and we hope to have more little day trips like this with her in the future.