Critters - Ya Gotta Love 'Em

I feel lucky to have a 16 mile drive to/from work - no traffic lights! I pass a couple of small working farms that have critters and I get to watch them live their lives. Recently, a colt was born. His first couple of days were rather shaky on those skinny, wobbly legs, but once he was steady and his confidence increased, I started seeing him go at a full-tilt run around his pen area, kicking those skinny back legs straight up in the air. His mother gives him an exasperated "Kids!!!" look. I'll swear, if horses can roll their eyes, she did! hahaha


A pasture I pass everyday usually has a small-ish herd of cows grazing - I'd say there are ~50 cows in the herd. And a rooster. Yes, a rooster. I hope you can see him in the very center of this photo. He's been part of that herd for 3 years now. I don't know if he knows that he's a rooster hanging with a bunch of cows, or if he thinks he's a cow. But wherever the cows are, so goeth the rooster-cow. If they're taking a siesta, well, so is he. Last year there was one sheep with the herd as well, but I haven't seen the sheep yet this year. And lately they've added a lot of calves to the mix - they are so cute when they run and play with each other.

Last autumn another small farm I pass daily had a lot of baby goats - kids. Adorable! Right now that same small farm has a lot of baby sheep. To me, that farm is "the nursery".

I also pass a house everyday that has two labradors retrievers standing guard - one chocolate, one yellow. At the end of the day they await their respective masters. The chocolate lab sits on the west side of the property, looking eastward. The yellow lab sits on the east side of the property, looking westward. Maybe one belongs to the mr. of the house and the other belongs to the mrs.


And when I arrive at my burrow my Sweet Charleston's little face is looking out the window, like a ghostly apparition. I smile everytime I see it. I love his name, "Charleston", however "Casper" would have also been a good name for him. So would "Squirt" for some not-so-pleasant reasons. My cat probably thinks the name, "Skeeter" would be very appropriate for Charleston since he pesters the cat like a mosquito.

Design Wall Monday 4-4-11

The Origami Quilt - finally have settled down to work on it and am making progress. All that's left to do is sew beads onto 38 more flowers, and add the label. This pattern is from the book Fantastic Fabric Folding by Rebecca Wat. I first talked about it in my Design Wall Monday post from 11/2/10.

It has been a frustrating piece because I absolutely could not get the folded fabric flowers to be square. So I had to really work with them to get the 9-patches pieced together. So the 9-patches aren't square. And so on and so on. With the whole piece not being square, the outside border is ruffly. This is something I would never put in a show, but I'll enjoy it on my wall. I hope to finish it up this week then get it on the wall so I can move on to something else.

My hands started hurting so badly that I've had to put the sock knitting down for a few weeks - give my hands a chance to rest (arthiritis maybe?). But I did finish a couple more pairs of socks before I had to call it quits for a while.

I'll miss the next Design Wall Monday - we'll be on vacation.

Jump over to Patchwork Times to check out Judy's blog.

Spring!

To me, this is the face of spring!

Happy Spring everyone.

The Bargello Quilt

The pattern is Long and Winding Road from the January 2004 The Quilter magazine. The pattern is by Patti Carey for Northcott/Monarch. The instructions were excellent; easy to follow. Were I to do it over again I would buy a tad bit more fabric because the pattern calls for 45" wide fabric and the fabric I used was 40-41" and that made a big difference.

Design Wall Monday 3-21-11

Happy Spring! Yay!

And double Yay! for the finished bargello quilt top. I went to my cousin's house in Georgia on 3-16 and we made this entire quilt top 3-17 and 3-18 - finished at 9:30 p.m on the 18th. We had about 6 inches of the outside border fabric left and about 15 inches of the white fabric. That's cutting it very close. We have named this quilt ShoreSeaker - it's for my sister and she has named her cottage ShellSeaker, so it fits with her overall beach-y theme.

"Spring" over to Patchwork Times today for Design Wall Monday.

Design Wall Monday 3-14-11

I have my sewing stuff packed up for my trip to Georgia to sew together the bargello quilt with my cousin. So I've been working on more pillowcases and knitting sox - both are addicting. Hopefully for Design Wall Monday 3-21-11 I'll be able to show the completed or almost completed bargello quilt top. Don't forget to check out Patchwork Times today.

Design Wall Monday 3-7-11

Here are pieces for the next quilt my cousin and I will make together 3/16-3/20 - a beautiful bargello wave quilt for my sister. At that point Patricia and I will have made a bed-size quilt for each of our siblings - she's in GA and I'm in NC so it's been a bit of a challenge. For the other 3 quilts we made together we figured out how to do it via US Mail or UPS. But the bargello quilt ... I just can't come up with a good way to do it without actually being together. So, I get to take a fun road trip to her hood and we'll sew for 2.5 days - I think we'll be able to get the quilt top finished and ready to take to Lilly Lucier in Vanceboro, NC for machine quilting. I love going to Patricia's place - they have 400+ acres in the middle of GA - it's a beautiful area and should be especially pretty with spring popping out right now.


Check out Patchwork Times today for Design Wall Monday.



Other quilting news, sort of, is my "new" sewing & crafting studio. Actually, it was my son's "man cave" and I'll not show any "before" photos because it was a hideous mess that only a male teenager can make! Once I got all of my crafting and sewing stuff up here, I wondered how in the world I managed to work in my previous 12 x 12 room. This new space is 450 sq. ft.! I was a bit worried that he might resent my taking over his space, but we talked about it and he agreed that he's no longer living at the burrow, so it only makes sense that I utilize the space the best way possible.


And a final fun report ... a group called The Artrageous Quilters in eastern NC meets once a month to inspire and share their respective talents. In March 2010 they were given a challenge quilt to make and this past weekend the pieces were unveiled. The challenge was a take on the kids game of telling a secret to the first person and going around in a circle telling the same secret and then seeing what the last person heard the secret to be. Oh my! What a fun challenge it was - to see the results please visit my friend Lori's blog at Talk Is Cheap Quilts. The challenge for 2011 is "Walk Thru My Garden" and is due March 2012 - I'm going to participate in this challenge.