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The middle of January snuck up on me. I had hoped to have my center block picked out and ready to go before the the first 2025 SAHRR kick off post went up. But that didn't happen. I've been contemplating center blocks since 4th quarter last year. I knew the color palette was going to be predominately green, but hadn't picked the fabrics.  Inspiration struck when Grad Girl and I found a beautiful blue and green Batik in the close out section of the local quilt section.

From that we found the bright blue and the darker ...

Here we are half way through the month - let's see how I'm doing on my Chookshed Challenge for January.  The number chosen was 6, Wheels on the Bus whole cloth quilt, a boy's donation quilt .  I'm making this from a rescued duvet cover I found in an Op Shop (thrift store).

Duvet Cover

The first thing I did was to stitch a red border around the edges, that was easily done.  Then find some backing and batting.  The backing I had planned to use was much too small, so I decided to use a single sized ...

 The year 2024 wasn't a bad year, plenty of stitching, quilting and knitting took place.  Social events, club meetings, lunches out, Sew Wot fortnightly get togethers, caravan rally weekends away, and a trip to the South Island to help my son Michael celebrate turning 60.  All this changed of course in late November when my beloved husband Robin passed away unexpectedly.  Such a shock, and I'm still reeling from it.

While clearing out the caravan to prepare it for sale I came across quite a few sets of place mats which I had made over the years.  The ...

Dreamworthy Quilts is sponsoring the Chookshed Challenge again this year. 

The challenge has you pick 10 quilting related goals for the year and then uses a random number generator to pick which project you work on for the month.  I like challenges that help me stay on top of my to do list for the year and the monthly accountability helps with that. But I don't work well with random, I'm just not wired that way.  So I'm going to pick my list of 10 goals to play along, but I'll decide which one to work ...

 It's the first day of the New Year 2025 and the call is out to organise our projects for the Chook Shed Challenge.  It's always a bit of a worry to me that I can list ten projects so easily, and there are plenty more waiting in  the wings.  Guess I just have too many UFOs.

So my list is as follows.  I have to admit that the first five were on my list for 2024.

1.  Elephants on Parade.  This top was completed last year, and I would now like to get it machine quilted.

2.  Pink ...

It's time for the final Chookshed Challenge Check In, to show  how we did the monthly challenges.  The idea was to list 10 items at the beginning of the year, UFOs or something new we wanted to start, and a number was drawn out each month.  Sadly, because of travel commitments, both September and October were a wipe out for me.  But I'm really pleased with what I had achieved during the other months.  So here is a quick run down of my progress.

August - Selvedge Bag.  All the pieces were sewn, it just needed assembly.

July - Unicorn ...

Number 1 was chosen for the Chookshed Challenge for July.   My number 1 was to make three unicorn cushions for donation.  

The last of the small unicorn panels

These small panels were left over from making the unicorn quilt which was gifted to my friend's great granddaughter a wee while ago.

Charlotte loves her unicorn quilt

First I had to buy some cushion inners, then I was all set to go.  A couple of afternoons spent cutting and stitching and they were all done.  That didn't take too long at all.

 The end of June has rolled around and it's time to report on my Chookshed Challenge number 10.  Here is how it all started.  I had a nice piece of fabric featuring Thomas and Friends with the idea to make into a cot quilt.  Also a small embroidered piece which was to be turned into a matching cushion.

This was my starting point.

The plan was to add borders to the fabric, and luckily I had some red  fabric in my stash for another project, but there was more than enough for me to cut off  several strips.  And ...

 There's a happy group of stitchers working on their Chookshed Challenge number each month.   We had to pick ten challenges, UFOs, or things we wanted to start,  and number them 1 - 10.   This is my number 10.   I purchased this fabric to make a simple cot quilt for a little boy.  Somewhere along the line I also embroidered a little engine, which would make a nice little cushion to  go with the quilt.

My challenge for June

This is rather like a panel quilt, as I'm using this train design, Thomas and friends, in one piece.  Two borders ...

 My stitchery kiwi blocks are finally finished, just in time for the Chookshed Challenge in May.  I purchased a kit from Millie Mac Studios comprising of printed panels and stranded cottons.  These were a bit small for what I had in mind, and I'd rather work in Perle number 5 rather than the embroidery threads.  So I got the patterns printed larger, and sent the original kit up to my daughter to stitch at her leisure.

The designs show Mr Kiwi sporting his Christmas cap enjoying a variety of Kiwi Christmas activities.  Cooking on a BBQ,  and over a ...

 Number 5 is the number chosen for the Chookshed Challenge for May.  But I had two problems with that.  I checked my list of 10 challenges to find that I hadn't anything listed for number 5.  My list went from 4 to 6, very strange.  Then I remembered that I had made kiwi blocks my number 5 challenge, to join in with some of the others who were making kiwis too.  However, mine are embroidered, not pieced.

After sorting that little problem out, I went hunting for the elusive kiwi blocks.  They weren't in my bag with all ...

 May has been a difficult month for stitching, what with catching Covid and two caravan trips away.  But I've persevered and almost finished May's Challenge, which is number 9.  On my list this was a whole bunch of house blocks I has stitched up quite some time ago, and left sitting, all lonely and waiting......  These were made from 2.5in strips, using what I had to hand.

Something I prepared much earlier - plenty of house blocks

By the middle of the month I had stitched three rows, so that was a good start.  And today, I have ...

 It's time to see how I've  been doing on the Chookshed Challenge for April.  The number chosen this month is number 9, which in my case is my House Blocks from some years ago.  I've looked back through earlier blogs and just can't find any mention of these, probably made back in the mists of time.  These were made from 2.5 inch strips with flip and sew roofs and are my own design.    There are heaps of them of all colours, just made from strips, and they have  been hiding in a basket all this ...

 My Chookshed Challenge for March, number four on the list, has been completed.  Some of the participants had chosen to work on a panel for their number four, and I was happy to do this as well, as I had a couple of panels waiting for me in a bag.  I chose to work on my wild horses panel, and mid way through the month  I had added borders simple borders.

The finished top

The next step was pinning the layers together, and luckily I found a piece of cream calico just the right size for the backing.  I safety ...

 It's mid March and time to write about my progress on Chookshed Challenge No 4.  For number 4 I decided to work on a panel, as are several others taking part in the challenge.  I had a couple of panels hiding in a bag, and decided to do something with my horse panel.  Which has been sitting there waiting for the horses to be liberated for quite some time.

Opening the panel up, I remembered that it had four large horse panels, plus two more strips showing multiple horses on each side.  These smaller strips were cut off and ...

 I've been working away on my Elephants, and number 2 for the Chookshed Challenge.  At the beginning of the year we had to list ten projects for this challenge, and a random number is chosen for each month.  This is my number 2, using the design Elephant Parade as inspiration.  I also wanted to use up a pile of grey and pink strips, which were cut for an earlier project some years ago and never used.

 I'm happy to be joining in with the Chookshed Challenge this year.  We had to list ten projects, UFOs or something on our wish list and each month a number is chosen at random.  This month, the number chosen was number two, which in my case is a  variation of Elephants on Parade.  I started off with this,  a pattern in a magazine, and some left over pink and grey strips I wanted to use up.

Because I had no idea what month  number two on the list would be called, I went to the quilt ...

 I'm notoriously slow at knitting, and even slower to stitch the items up.  Taking part in the Chookshed Challenge was the push I needed to get this completed - this was my number six on my list of ten for this challenge.  All in  all, my navy blue cardigan has taken me just over a year to complete, not bad going for me.  It was started when I wanted a knitting project to take down to the South Island early last year when we were embarking on a 10 week caravan trip.

Most of my knitting took place while we ...