Do You Know Where I Put My Mojo?

I can't find my sewing mojo. Do you know where I put it? I've been in my sewing room for short spurts of time trying to organize it. I figure if I work for 10 minutes at a day, I should have that room the way I want in in 46 days!!! That's really a good idea and I should start keeping track of the time I spend and see how close I am. ;~) What I need to do is just get in there and get busy.

I've been doing outside things. The "little girls" are growing like crazy and the "big girls" have been giving us eggs and I say thank you to them every day for that. The "boys" have settled down and like to lay by the pen and guard their new friends. I think they are just waiting for the day one of them escape! We plan(ned) to leash up the dogs and let the hens out this afternoon--I'm not doing this by myself--and see how the dogs react. ( I just let the dogs out, a robin was in the yard and they both took off after it. I don't think our hens will be free ranging. I do think Hubby will be making a chicken run this weekend.)

The garden is all planted and I'm seeing signs of corn and beans already-we planted the seeds on Saturday. It's been sunny here all week and is supposed to stay sunny for another week. I think I should turn on the water this morning for a while. It's hard for me to buy produce when I have it in my garden--I know, kind of a dorky thought but that's the way I think! Why should I buy tomatoes when I have 20 plants in the garden! Doesn't matter that there is not one plant with a tomato on it! The potatoes in garbage cans are doing awesome. I am having to cover the new growth every other day. I should have fresh potatoes in no time--I need them too, I didn't buy any!

I need to bake some bread, pizza crusts and hamburger buns . These recipes make the best breads I have ever made. Thank you ladies for sharing with us. I have meat in the fridge that needs to be prepared for the freezer. I found pork loin on sale at Safeway so I bought 3 to make into roasts, steaks and sausage. I tried one sausage recipe yesterday and will try a different one today to see which one will be the keeper. I'll let you know. I froze yesterday's sausage after making patties so today I will cook part of it up so I have some ready to use in the freezer and for pizza topping tonight.

Gotta get moving........I have lots of things on my list today.

What's On My Design Wall-Monday

Judy L over at Patchwork Times is having a Monday post "What's On Your Design Wall". This is what's on mine.

When I saw a photo of this quilt called Pig In A Poke, on one of my Yahoo Quilting Groups, I knew I wanted one like it. Within a few days, Jean, the gal that posted the picture, posted her instructions. I had a drawer full of 2 1/2" squares and a bin full of half square triangles. So I started making blocks. Pretty soon, I was working on the border. All of the sudden, I was putting blocks into rows. I am now ready to press this top and measure for the last 2 1/2" off white border and it will be ready to quilt. I still have a drawer full of 2 1/2" squares.......wonder what I can find next!


While Hubby was cruising through Craigslist today, he found an ad for 3 Buff Orpingtons/something cross hens. I called and they were right up the hill from my house! How cool is that. So Crystal and I jumped in the car and went to adopt these girls. They are used to free ranging and no dogs. Surprise, we have a pen and 2 very curious dogs. They have settled down now and so have the dogs--I hope. Let's hope we have fresh eggs in a few days.

Munckins Meet The Chicks

Elliot was fascinated by by the baby chicks. These chicks are going have to be tough birds to live around here. I'm trying to handle each one several times a day so they will be friendly. See the water jug? That thing was too much money for what it is. I can't figure it out......something about adjusting that lid so the water flows to level itself. I say forget it, I'm going to get the simple water jars--something I can use!

Mae Mae didn't want to touch them at all! Get that thing a away from me now! She is the one that will make them strong birds. We put a big chunk of lumber down for her to stand on so she could see inside and that was as close as she wanted to be. She did discover how fun it is to pound on the screen and see the chicks run. Yip, they have to be tough birds to be here.


This picture is just too cute not to share. This girl was a total grub ball by the end of the day.

Does This Make Me A Chicken Farmer??

The boys are checking out the newest family members. DJ, on the left, wants to be the mom and Tony wants to play with the chicks. We brought home 10 chicks today. I wanted hens but they are hard to come by so I'll just be patient and spoil the chicks.

We got 2 Black Sex Links, 2 "Production" Rhode Island Reds, 3 Buff Orpingtons, and 3 Black Australorps. I believe what the gal told me so we'll see if we have "Great Egg Layers".

It will be an adventure, especially teaching the bird dogs that these birds are family. Oh and the water thingie I bought, not so great--could be the operator but I'll let them use it until I find something better. Wish me luck!

I May Be In Serious Trouble

This DSL thing may cause some serious trouble around this house! I am having a heck of a time pulling myself away from the computer. I can see so many things so much faster and one blog leads to 6 others and the pages don't time out and the next thing I know the dryer buzzer is going off and I need to fold a load of clothes. And then I get sucked back in to blogland and then............. I am just like a kid with a brand new toy.

So I am going to show you a picture of a little part of the quilt I finished quilting a few days ago for my friend Nadine. I played with some line dancing and some loops. I need to practice both but she is very happy with the quilt.

Now I am going to get my shoes on and go to town to pick up Hubby's medicine. It should have been mailed but it seems that I have a problem refilling on line. They say you have to put in all of the correct numbers! Imagine that!! So like the good wife I am, I will go get it so he has his medicine for today. I wish he would say something before he is totally out so I can check up on myself. I need a watch dog!

Playing

It's a big day for me!!! I finally have DSL. WoooHooo! So I'm seeing if blogger will let me upload 3 regular sized photos without resizing them. Oh yeah, I am being super brave. And it worked!!! I'm giddy with excitement. :~)

Let's see what we have here, first off is Clella and Elliot playing with the wagon and rocks. Elliot loves rocks and because he does, so does Clella. Next is our old house. This is the front side.

The lilac bloom is as exciting as the DSL for me. I bought 2 little lilac starts several years from the Hulda Klager Lilac Garden I have babied those bushed all this time. Last year I had one bloom. This year both bushes are full and beautiful.

For years I've said that I want my yard to be kind of like a park. Not all fancy schmancy, just full of bushes and flowers. Slowly this is happening. Someday it will be like I want it but for now, I'll just keep working on things and try to keep up.

OK, here we are, it's time to click on publish post.......hopefully it worked.

ttfn

The Chicken Condo

I am going to have some happy chickens. I just wanted a simple chicken tractor for a couple of hens but Hubby decided we needed a fancy house and eggs for your kids that want them. We spent the weekend working on it and now it's ready for occupants.

How sweet is Elliot bringing Poppy a bottle of cold water!! And of course, Tony must be right where the action is.

I was kind of wishy washy about getting chickens. As a teenager, I spent some quality time working at my Uncle's fryer farm. There were thousands of fryers in 2 barns. Then as a young wife, we had farm animals and raised chickens from Uncle's farm for meat--we never had any layers and I'm not too sure why. Now that we are trying desperately to simplify our lives, he decides we need a few hens. I'm thinking that is not simplifying...maybe it is.

So hens will be coming to the farm as soon as I can find some. I don't really want chicks but I may have to get them. I just hope he doesn't want to get a goat!!! No offense to the goats but...

I Should Be...

...Quilting.

Instead I've been making blocks. I did finish a charity quilt this morning but I haven't taken a picture of it yet. I made the 2 May blocks for my Stashbuster BOM. They are the top left and top center in the photo. I think I am really starting to like these blocks. And it is very exciting to be caught up.

I've been thinking today about how I want to sash them. I know I don't have enough of the cream background that I'm using so I may have to find a different cream. Whatever I decide, I want to do it soon so I have it when we are finished with the blocks. That is one thing I have learned with the Stashbuster group, use what you have, only buy what you need. (Don't tell anyone but I don't always follow the rules!)

Another Retreat Has Come and Gone

And what fun we had! I have sore cheek muscles--all cheeks--from laughing and sitting! My stomach hurts from laughing. Just a look or a sound or a simple word can send me into hysterics.

Show and tell was awesome and I was very happy to show my finished Orange Crush quilt. I wrote about finishing the top in my post for April 9th . It is now residing on my guest bed.

I spent most of the retreat working on another quilt as you go string quilt. I have one more row to add and then put the binding on and it will be ready to give to Nadine for a local charity. I even gave a demo on how I join the blocks-boy talk about pressure! On Saturday night, Berta gave a lesson on locker hooking. I now have another obsession. It is so fun to visit with everyone and the inspiration from everyone is almost overwhelming.

I love going to the retreat but Monday morning I'm not worth anything. I spent most of the day today trying to get a few things done around here but as my friend Karen so eloquently put it, I had a retreat hangover! It took until after 2 this afternoon before I finally felt like a normal person. It might have helped if I could have went back to sleep this morning but I had too many ideas in my head to settle down. It's early to bed for me tonight.

Hubby is watching his rasslin' and I am going to pull out the string quilt and see if I can make some progress on it. I have a full day of quilting tomorrow so I better sew tonight.

TTFN

Hooray, Hooray, The First Of May

Hooray, Hooray, the first of May is a naughty little song that I learned 20 some years ago when I was driving school bus. You can only sing it one day a year and I sing it all day long. :-) I didn't learn it from a child, I learned it from a woman who loves life. I can hear her laughter right now.......sing your heart out Bo.

I haven't been too busy in the sewing room this week. I do have my Orange Crush almost quilted but haven't touched it since Tuesday. I have been packing a bit for the retreat next Thursday. I have another string quilt as you go ready to work on. I have a couple other projects I am taking. Stashbuster sent out the new BOM so I will get that ready to go. I have a three tote bags to finish--maybe I'll get them done this weekend. It's supposed to be rainy for the next several days. I have a few things to work on outside today so will do that and enjoy the last day of sunshine for a while.

The photo was taken looking through kitchen window (yes, it needs washed!). I love looking out the window. A few days ago the flowering plum tree on the right was filled with butterflies. I have never seen so many at one time. Of course by the time I got the camera, they had flown away. The azalea bush right in front of the window was one my Gramma planted in the 60's. She recieved it at Grampa's funeral. So it's been pampered for 45 years. I also have a climbing rose and a peony. But with those 2, I've had to fight and scream to save them. They are finally in their permanent homes, never to be moved again. A couple years ago, they had a near death experience when Hubby got carried away with the Round Up. I'm happy to report that both the plants and the husband are doing fine.

But first, I get to go to town (3 days in a row-that is not me) and do some serious grocery shopping. The hall cupboard is almost empty and that makes me nervous. Not nervous really, just twitchy. I like looking at it packed full of goods. But I am so good at not going shopping that I let it get low.

Here I go, I'm going to get there before the hoards of people do. Get in, get what I want, get out, get home!!! I wonder if I can put this off for a few more days...hmmmmmmmmmmm

No More Flu At My House!

This has been an interesting week. We have both recovered from the flu bug and it is not welcome in the house again! Ever! I know hubby is a better nurse than I am but I am a better patient. I just want to be left alone. Don't tell me I need to eat or drink anything. Just let me be. He is a whiner. I'm sorry you don't feel good, I'm sorry nothing tastes good, I'm sorry you feel horrible! I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Now go back to sleep and leave me alone!

I finished my string quilt Thursday (while I was hiding from hubby) and will give it to a local charity. I have enough strings in the basket to make at least 2 more quilts and I have 5 bags of strips and strings that I bought last week at the bazaar that I haven't opened yet. One bag is crammed full of blue and cream fabric so I will save that one for a project by itself. Maybe, maybe not.

I need to start making a list for the retreat. It's going to be May 7th before I know it. I can't wait to spend time with my quilty friends. Spending time at a retreat is good for my soul. I'll still have to come home during the day to let the dogs romp outside for a while and I will probably come home to sleep. It is only a few miles and my bed is so nice.

Now I am going to go grind some wheat and bake some bread......

Stay Away From Us

We have the flu at our house! Hubby spent last weekend at a hunter's safelty class full of kidlets. Bless their little hearts, someone in the class shared the flu and he, being the sweetie that he is, shared with me. I don't want to share with you so please Stay Away! He is on his second day home from work and I hope he is well enough to go back tomorrow---you all know what I mean by that!

I had been laying down on the couch this morning, trying to get warm, got up for a bit, came back to the couch and Mr. Tony had made himself comfie in my spot. So I covered him up thinking he would jump down and he didn't budge. I had to take a picture. Ya can't miss a good blog photo.

I'm done in now, so I'm going to see if the couch is empty. If it isn't, I'll give in and go to bed.

Quiltathon Progress

Judy at Patchwork Times is hosting another Quiltahthon this weekend. I have been quiltathoning along and have made a little progress.

Saturday was the Clark County Quilter's Stash Builder's Bazaar. I met my friends early and we started to shop. Oh did I shop! It is a Stash Builder's Bazaar after all. I came home with 3 bags full (Bah, Bah, Black Sheep, have you any wool?) of great fabric, strings, strips, a book, 3 patterns and inspiration.

We had planned to all meet for lunch but I started feeling horrible so I came home and took a nap. Feeling better, I got busy on my string blocks. I finished them and then went outside for a while. It was a very nice spring day and me and the dogs needed the fresh air.

Hubby is taking the final training for his certificate to be a Hunter's Safety Educator. I am spending most of the weekend alone. Poor me! I think not! This morning, I gave myself until 10:00 to work in the sewing room and I got 3 rows put together with 3 ready to go. Bindings are cut and pressed so this gem will be complete in no time. I need to do a few things around the house and then I will go to Grandson Jonah's 5th birthday party. I embroidered a dirty 4 wheeler on a sweatshirt for him. I hope I get a picture of him with the shirt on. Reminder to me: Put camera in your bag! (I put the camera in my bag and left my bag with the camera in it locked in the car. He liked his shirt I think but he liked his new motorcycle more!)

Hope your day is filled with sunshine.

Friday's Design Wall

It's Friday and I have new things on my design wall. I've been spending time this week jumping around from project to project.

I decided yesterday to clear off my cutting table. There were little 3" blocks that I had left over from 2 Quiltville mysteries. I took those parts and with some other scraps, created the 6 blocks on the right side of the wall. These will go into the orphan box with some other blocks. Someday, they will become a quilt.

I love string quilts and on Wednesday, we started talking about them. So this morning, I found the link with a great tutorial and sent it to my freinds. Jan at Sew Many Quilts - Too Little Time, has written this tutorial for Quilt As You Go blocks. I think it's wonderful that she is has such a following with her tutorial and QSYG blocks and that she is doing such good for the victims of the bush fires. Take the time to read her blog. You will want to help, if not there then find a local charity that needs your help.

After sending the links to my friends, I started looking at my baskets of strings and scraps. I found a huge yellow cotton print curtain. I started to tear it apart, you know--snip, tear, snip, tear......and then I had a thought! There was enough fabric in that one curtain to use for the back and the binding of a string quilt. I have a box full of batting scraps from trimming quilts and so I got busy. Just this afternoon, I have made these 7 blocks.

Hubby is at a class this evening and I think I will work on this until he gets home tonight. I was going to go into town and get dinner but I think I'll heat up some soup and call that dinner.

What's On Your Design Wall?

My design wall is a flannel back vinyl tablecloth. I don't know how old it is but I do know that I bought it at JoAnn's several years ago and it was 70% off and cheap--maybe less than $2. I bought a new one yesterday and it was $2.06 with a cute Easter print. I'll put it away until this one dies.

This morning I finished my BOM from Stashbuster Yahoo Group. I am really liking the way the blocks turn out. And the fact that I am keeping up. So these blocks will be folded neatly in half and go back into the project bag with the fabric and wait patiently for May's blocks.

I am auditioning border and binding fabric for the wallhanging. I bought Deb Karasik and Janet Mednick's book, Quilt Mavens and decided to do a simple project with my batik and hand dyed scraps that I bought a while back.

As I was sitting here skimming through the book, I think I will investigate a pieced border for the wallhanging. They have such cool designs and now I don't really want a plain border.......Maybe that black/paisley batik can be the background with some bright spikes...........Oh, the wheels are spinning fast.

I had planned going to go to the kitchen and making a couple loaves of bread, baking Hubby some cookies so he'll stop whining but with my last brilliant thought, that may be put off until next week...........and the plan to later getting the quilt loaded that has been sitting here laughing at my lack of ambition has just been put on hold!

What's on your design wall???

Do You Know What Day This Is?

Yes, it is Good Friday. It is also the day for the next UFO # to be picked for our small online group. Why am I so exited??? Because I am on a mission to reduce the number of UFOs I have. I want FOs!!!

This is UFO #7. I started this in October 2007 at a quilt retreat. And you guessed it, it's another design from Bonnie of Quiltville fame called Diamond-In-A-Square Strings. I framed mine different from Bonnie by using a different 2" strip around each block.

I remember how intrigued some of the gals were with my sewing on old phone book pages so I did a quick lesson. I don't know if anyone else has made this project but I do know that I turned some of the ladies on to Quiltville's site.

This has been sitting in my to be quilted pile for far too long. I have some flannel that was given to me and I will use that for the back and then the quilt will be donated. Now I am excited to get it finished.

I have another pile of strings on phone book pages that I have been working on. I have the layout in my head. I hope I don't loose it in there. I will take these with me to the next retreat and work on them there. It's a great project for chatting and sewing.

Another Top For the To Be Quilted Pile

I finished the Orange Crush top! Yeah!! I'm not sure when I started this and I'm too lazy right now to go back and look. (I did look it up, we started it March 31, 2008 and the final clue was given June 7, 2008.) I'm still not sure how much I like it. I'll decide after the quilt is finished. If I don't like it, someone else will. But it is going to find a home on my bed for a while so don't get all excited Little Miss DeeDee!




It was close on the border fabric . After cutting the binding and inner boarder strips, I didn't measure how much fabric was left. This was a piece that was given to me a while back and I'm thinking it is from the late 70s, early 80s. Something had been cut out of it but it looked like it would be enough. Forget that saying measure twice....I just cut. Then I sewed on the side boarders and made the top and bottom. After measuring, I was about 8" too short. So I dug through the garbage can, found all the leftovers and pieced them to get enough to finish the top. After all that, I had 3" leftover. Oh I would have figured something out. I just didn't want to make a new border and really didn't want to take off the ones that were already on.

I just pulled out the flanned that I want to use on the back and I'm about a yard too short. There is none of this in the garbage can but there is lots of flannel in the tub that would love to live on the back of this quilt. But for now, it goes on the to be quilted pile.

Not Much To Post About But ...

Here is another picture from our road trip last Friday. Several years ago, we would take the diesel powered motor coach (our converted school bus) and park beside the river to go sturgeon fishing. I loved to sit out and watch the ship and barge traffic up and down the Columbia River. I miss those trips. I told Hubby it's time to take weekend trips again but with the garden season coming up and his work season hopefully going full speed ahead, it might not be as possible as I want it to be!

Today I'll take Mr. Tony to the vet for some very necessary but unmanly surgery. Poor Baby! Then I will do some shopping at Freddie Meyer's to pick up the sale items and browse around while I wait for it to be time to arrive at Marian's. I am going to finish stitching the binding down on Ian's bear paw quilt.

I worked on UFO #27 yesterday. It is Quiltville's Orange Crush Mystery. It only needed the borders and I don't know why it became a UFO. Probably something very exciting came along and I was going to get right back to it. I figure if it takes 3 borders, that's 12 pieces--the pieced border was already done and ready to put on--and I put on 6 pieces. Hopefully today I can get the other 6 on. The binding is made and the backing fabric is out and ready to make.

Now I need to get to gettin'.

I Found The Bears

I just finished quilting my Where Are The Bears quilt. Yeah!!! This is going to Grandson Ian. The pattern is now for sale at Sunshine Quilts. I hope Judy creates another quilt for a quilt along. This one was lots of fun. And there are some gorgeous quilts that you can find links for here.

It was very important to me to use all fabric from my stash and I knew I wanted a flannel back. I made all the kiddos flannel pillow cases for Christmas so I pieced some of my extra flannel using Mary's Off Center 4 Patch method--sort of. Looking back, I wish I would have made it a 6 patch by sewing the camping fabric to the other side, but it's too late now. I'm happy I found bears to make it offiially a bear paw! I knew they would be there somewhere. A bear paw quilt should have some bears and bear paws don't ya think?!?

Later today I will sew the binding on and stitch it down Wednesday at Marian's. Or if I get extra ambitious, I'll sew it down before then! But now I need to go grocery shopping. Yippee.

Thanks Judy, I hope we have another play date real soon.

Day Trip With My Boys

Meet DJ and Tony.

We very seldom take a day trip. When Hubby asked me last night if I wanted to take the dogs to the beach, I assumed it would be for the weekend. So I am getting all my stuff ready and ask him how long we would be gone. He asks "What do you mean?" I say "How many nights, 1, 2, 3, 6?" He says "Just for the day. I have things to do over the weekend!" "Cool" I say, "Let's hit it then!"

I packed up a bag with a bit of dog food, bottle of dog water and a dish, a couple of towels and a spill kit--Tony is only 5 months old. ;-)

Our first stop was the wildlife refuge to let the boys out for a potty break. This is Tony's first big road trip so we didn't want to push it. This is about an hour from our house. As we were leaving, I asked Hubby to stop so I could get a picture. He did and DJ spotted the geese. The dog woofs from his toes and I thought the geese would fly away but they didn't.

Then we drove towards the beach and took a side road where Hubby did a road building job. He knew the dogs could run around and not get into trouble. Tony didn't potty while on the leash so we were getting concerned. After potty break and running around, we continued on. Next stop was lunch. Hubby has some stinky clam chowder and then some fish and chips, I had a shrimp panni. Yummm..........Then we gave the dogs our leftovers and a big drink of water.

Lunch was very expensive! And all I could think of was how much fabric I could have bought with that money!!! Shame on me, it was a date and I should have kept that thought buried but that's how my mind works now.

In Washington State, you can drive on the beach so we headed down to find a nice spot to park where no other people were around. We put the leash on Tony and DJ stayed close. After a bit, we let Tony go. Oh my gosh, you should have seen him run and play. We laughed so hard. I was very concerned about him running off but he stayed right by us. We got back into the Super Bronco and headed for home. We had to make a potty stop for me and they slept most of the way home.

It was an awesome day and now that my boys are all napping. I am going to sew!