Working on Mom's birthday gift

Good evening everyone,

It has been a rainy, dreary week. We have had one day this week with sunshine. My dh said the long-ranger forecast has chances of rain each day for the next 10 days for us. I guess I will quit complaining since I might be begging for rain in a couple of months. (grin)

I am exactly half way done with the quilting on my niece's graduation quilt. I have 3 weeks to finish it. I hope I can get it done. I work on it in the evenings, but may have to bump it up a couple of notches. LOL This week I have been getting my mom's birthday gift ready to quilt. She wants a rooster quilt. I like to change things a little, so her background will be blues.

I wasn't sure how the paper pieced sun would look with the blues, but I couldn't make a blue sun. LOL So it is what it is.

Today I got all of the pieces for the rooster drawn and fused on. Here is a little closeup of the rooster. I have to take mom to the bank and grocery store in the morning, but I should be home by noon. I hope to get appliqued around each of the pieces, the quilting lines drawn on it, and get it sandwiched tomorrow afternoon. Mom's birthday is May 26th. Once I start quilting, I don't think it will take me long. I really want to have this done for mom's birthday. She has never really shown a great deal of interest in my quilting, but she loved my first rooster quilt. So I think she will really enjoy this one. Blue is also her favorite color. (grin)

Our chicks are feathering out nicely. I had hoped to get them moved out to the chicken house this weekend, but it is so cold, damp and rainy, that I think I will wait. I really don't want to stress them now. They have done really well in the house, so what's another week? LOL

Kevin got his new laptop yesterday. He loves it. Now he wants me to make him a case for it. I told him I would be glad to do it. He wants to use a thin foam instead of batting. I told him we would probably need to go to JoAnn's to get that. (grin) So looks like I might get to go to JoAnn's again this weekend. LOL Maybe I should take stock in their company. LOL

Well, I need to get back to quilting on Amy's quilt. Everyone have a good day and wonderful weekend. I probably won't be posting again till next week. Thank you for visiting and please come again.

Good rainy day!

Good afternoon,

We had such a rainy and stormy weekend. It has been raining since Saturday. Yesterday, we had some severe weather. In fact, we had a tornado sighted pretty close to us, but fortunately it did not come down. I do not like storms, so I was a basketcase. I was just glad it was Sunday and Kevin was home. It is still lightly raining. They are saying we have had 3-5 inches of rain, depending on where you are. So, the garden should be coming up. (grin) I noticed this morning that the Nodaway River is about out of its banks. I hope it doesn't flood. We are way too high for it to affect us, but I hate to see it hurt so many others.

I thought I would explain a little about our chicks. I was asked what sex-link meant. I thought I knew, but I looked it up to be sure. LOL The sex-link chicks are from mixed breeding where the females hatch out one color and the males another. Therefore, they are very easy to sex. They only are like this for one generation, though. The next generation could be any colors. The black sex-links are from a Barred Rock mother and a Rhode Island Red or New Hampshire Red rooster. Both hatch out black but all of the males have a white dot on top of their heads. The red sex-links also have a RIR or NHR father and can have several different breeds for mothers. (Not each chick, but the breeders use different breed hens to get these. Clear as mud. LOL) Males hatch out white and females hatch out buff to red color. There, now you have everything that I know about the sex-link chicks. I have had some before and they were very good layers.

I bought some fabric to make myself a purse over a year ago. One day last week, I decided to just do it. So here is my Gracie bag.

This is a Lazy Girl Design. These patterns are really easy to sew. I love them. Look at the inside. I have so much room. Makes it nice when I want to carry my camera or something extra.

I think I will make a matching wallet for it when I get time, which probably won't be till some time in June. LOL As you can see, Callie approves. (grin) JoAnn's had their Daffodil sales days this past week. I made 2 shopping trips to it, but really only one was planned. I wanted to get some more Guterman hand quilting thread, so I went last Sunday. I came home with this. I prefer the lighter quilting threads. I have used navy blue and black and hated working with them. Red, pink, and yellow aren't too bad to work with, but you are limited on what you use these on. These colors are pretty neutral and can be used on about any quilt. Here is a better picture of the fabric. I don't remember now how many yards I bought, but probably about 15 yards. It was all on sale. (grin) I was perfectly satisfied with my shopping trip and had no plans for any more any time soon. Well, my husband is an enabler! He has been saving and looking for a new laptop for a long time. He found a good deal on what he wanted this Saturday, so I encouraged him to order it. Afterwards, he said he felt guilty for spending so much on himself. Now I tried to convince him that this was silly. He works hard for our money and this was money he has been saving for over a year. He insisted that I take some money and go to JoAnn's. I told him I really didn't need anything, but I am weak where fabric is concerned. (sigh) So I went back to JoAnn's last day of the Daffodil sale. Everything I bought was 50%, so I did really well.
I got 3 quilt batts, a 5 pack of rotary blades, a quilting template, a tote bag pattern and about 10 yards of fabric. Like I said, all of this was 50% off. I love it when I can get stuff 50% off. I love this tote pattern. Isn't it cute? I can make it 3 different sizes. I used my 50% coupon for this. Sorry about the flash, but I think you can still see the pattern. Here is a better picture of the fabric I brought home. I had everything laid out on the bed to take pictures of. Then I ran to get the mail. This is what I came back to find. LOL

I guess Callie thought I brought this all home for her. LOL So as you can see, I am married to an enabler. I told him that I am now stocked up on everything I need for quilting for a long time, so he must not give me money and tell me to go to JoAnn's. I am just too weak to fight the fabric temptation. I love him for his generosity, but I really want to start saving instead of spending. You know what I mean? LOL

Everyone have a great day. Thank you for visiting and please come again.

Beautiful day in Missouri

Good morning everyone,

It is such a gorgeous day here. I did my laundry and hung it outside. I hung out the second load and brought the first load back to the house with me. Perfect drying weather, although the wind is blowing pretty hard. Doesn't seem so bad, though, when it is in the 80's. (grin) The sheets were kind of a pain to hang out, but I got them securely on the line (at least I hope they are secure LOL).

I got Milah's attention yesterday when I mentioned chickens. So I figured I'd better post some pictures of my new babies. I bought them at Orscheln's last Saturday. I bought 8 bantams, (I have no clue what breeds. The sign just said bantams.)2 red sex link pullets, and 2 black sex link pullets. I have had the sex links chickens before, so I know they are good layers. I made sure that I had 2 of each kind that I picked. I know it is crazy, but I wanted them to have a buddy. LOL Only 2 of the banties don't have feathers on their feet. You can see one of them above. It is the little brown chick with a stripe down's it back. These are so cute.

I took several pictures the day after I brought them home. I gave them a whole day to settle in before bothering them. Since the banties were bought straight run, I have no clue how many are girls and how many are boys. At least I hope I have some of each. (grin)

No matter how many pictures I took, I never could seem to get all 12 in the same shot. They are quick little guys. LOL I just have one more picture. I hope to move them out of the house next week some time if the warm weather holds. I grew up with banties always around us, but have never raised them myself. They seem to scratch and dig more that the regular sized chicks I have raised did. They have their water filthy all the time. I have to change it about 4 times a day, but they are a joy to watch. Milah, did you get your chicken fix? LOL I will have to take another picture of them. We have had them a week tomorrow and they have grown so much.

A few weeks ago, I won an Amazon gift card from Cheryl. Now I love books almost as much as fabric. LOL I had so much fun trying to decide what to get. I finally decided what I wanted and added some money with it. I got 3 great books. I have wanted this one for a while. I was pleasantly surprised to see how big it is. This will be a lot of reading, so much good info on eating.Then I got this one. I love Bob on the Biggest Loser, so I just had to have his book. I am about half way through it. It is another good book. Now this book, I love, love, love. I have Pint Size Traditions II, so I knew this would be a great book. I have looked through this so many times. I just want to make all of the projects. Now that it is getter hot, I want to have some little projects to work on in the evenings. This has plenty.
So Cheryl, as you can see, I did good! Thank you again, so much for the gift card. I think of you each time I look at my new books. (grin)

Remember last post when I showed you a picture of Callie laying in a box. Ohoh, look what I caught in Callie's box. Aeris looks pretty smug, doesn't she? LOL So I fixed the problem. I put another box on the bed. Now all is right with the world again. LOL Callie and Aeris each have their own box to lay in.
Well, that is it for me today. My dh has the computer set up to automatically run some sort of scan at noon every Friday. It slows everything way down while it is running. Since it is close to noon. I am getting off here. LOL I'll share my JoAnn's trip and the purse I made next time. Everyone have a good weekend. Thanks for visiting and please come again.

I'm Still Alive!

Good day to everyone,

It has been a week since I have posted on my blog. I have felt terrible this week. I am dealing with sinus and ear pain. I am better, but still have some popping and cracking in my ear. I cannot tell you how much I have hated this. Nothing like having half of your head clogged and not being able to hear out of one ear. I do think I am on the way to recovery. I'm just hoping the other ear doesn't start acting up.

My big news....the beagle quilt is done! I finished the binding last night. I am happy with how it turned out.

I think Aeris approves. LOL Here is a closeup of the center beagle. Finally, here is the back. I really like how the back looks. Don't you think Kevin will like it? His birthday is in 2 1/2 weeks, so I finished in plenty of time. Now I am working away on my niece, Amy's quilt. I am about 1/2 done with the center of it. I hope to have it done by mid-May. Mom's birthday is May 26th. I want to get a wall quilt done for her too. Think I can get all this done in time? After these are done, I hope to just be able to relax with my quilting and work on whatever takes my fancy. I know with spring here, I will be busy in the yard and garden. Speaking of garden, I finally got our hardy veggies planted. I planted one row each of Pontiac and Yukon Gold potates, 2 rows onions, 1 row snow peas, 1 row sugar snap peas, a long row hilled up of carrots and radishes, and a row of lettuce, kohlrabi, and spinach. Now I am waiting for it to come up. My tomatoes and peppers are ready to go outside, but it is still too early for them. Here is a picture I took of my tomato plants right after I transplanted them into bigger pots. I was just playing around, so it isn't a great picture, but shows you how big they are. They are even bigger now. LOL
Callie was getting a little upset that I always have pictures on here with Aeris in them, so I promised her I would share some of her. Here she is laying in the box that some books came in. She just loves this box.

Well, I have lots more to share.... like a trip to JoAnn's, new baby chicks, a new purse, books from Amazon, and a hair cut, but things are loading too slow right now. I will try to get back tomorrow. Everyone have a good day. Thank you for visiting and please come again.

More Easter Pictures

Good day everyone,

I never did get around to posting yesterday. I cooked instead. LOL Our fridge is now full of precooked food, so I have time today to play some more. I will just share a few more pictures of my babies, then move on. They all enjoyed dying the eggs.

Once again, Izzie was too young to participate, but she enjoyed looking at her daddy's iPhone.
Ava was having fun. Noah is anxiously waiting for Aunt Cathryn to get his dye ready. Ashton waiting for some eggs. I believe that is all I have to share about our Easter get together. I want to show you some goodies I got in the mail this morning. I ordered these from Create For Less last Saturday and got them today. I think that is pretty good service. The little blue boxes are Thread Heaven. I love this stuff. I run my quilting thread through it before I put it in the needle. This is a thread conditioner and it makes the thread stronger and tangle less. I use it on all of my handwork, even embroidery and for binding. The needles are Clover golden eye size 10. They work great. The ruler is an add a quarter. It has a little 1/4inch lip along one side. It can be used with templates or for paper piecing. That is actually what I bought it for. I really hated the first paper piecing that I did, but I paper pieced the border on the beagle quilt and it wasn't so bad. So I decided to try some more. After all, I love the paper pieced stars I see. See how the lip works? I hooked it over one of my quilting templates so you could see better. I think this will make things much easier. Also I bought a raised lip or deep recessed, however you look at it LOL, thimble. I have wanted one of these for a while now, but couldn't find any locally. Here is a closeup of it. I hope I like it. I happened to think about these books the other day. Carolyn gave them to me many years ago, but I was just never interested in paper piecing. I guess now I am going to give it a try. There are some awesome quilts pictured in these books, especially the '40 Bright and Bold Paper-Pieced Blocks' by Carol Doak. She does incredible work. So it looks like I will be learning a new form of quilting. I seem to constantly be learning new things in quilting. Since I plan to start doing some paper piecing, I would need to have many copies made of the blocks I want to do. I was going to take my book to Office Depot and have them make copies for me, but Kevin said we should just buy a scanner/printer/copier so that I would have it here to use. I haven't figured it all out yet, but Kevin printed me off some blocks to play around with. I was just waiting for my ruler to get here. I had intended to show a picture of it, but blogger isn't cooperating for some reason. So I am going to end here. Everyone have a nice day. Thank you for visiting and please come again.

Happy Birthday Carolyn!

Good afternoon all,

Thirty one years ago today, I gave birth to our 1st daughter, Carolyn Ann. She is happily married to Bob and is an RN. We are so proud of her. She cooked for all of us yesterday, so I am going to show mainly pictures pertaining to her today. Tomorrow I will show our Easter egg hunt and so on. LOL Here she is taking pictures of the kids during the Easter egg hunt. She has the cookbook out trying to find something good to cook for us all.
Everything is under control. She fixed a delicious meal for us. We had fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, broccoli casserole, deviled eggs, pasta salad, and rolls with pineapple upside down cake for dessert. Cathryn brought macaroni and cheese and Hazel brought brownies and cupcakes. We had quite a feast. After dinner it was time for some rough housing. Ashton and Ava roughed their aunt up just a little. LOL Yep, Ashton and Ava are winning. LOLThis is Carolyn after the little wrestling match. She is a good aunt!Here is one of Carolyn's 'babies'. Her name is Emma and she is an English Mastiff. She can just walk up and lay her head on the table. Big dog! They also have another Mastiff named Brody, but he doesn't care for noise, so stays in the bedroom when we all visit. LOL Oh, I mustn't forget Mayleen. She is a very plump Pug who is about 10 years old yet is the boss of the place. LOL I didn't get any pictures of Brody or any good ones of Mayleen, but here is Emma. You can kind of see Mayleen in the background.Here is a picture of Carolyn, Bob, (her husband), Ashton and Emma. Ashton could ride her. LOL Carolyn loves crocheting like I love quilting. She is a prolific crocheter. She even crocheted most of the curtains in her home, but I forgot to get pictures of them. Here is a picture of their guest room. She made the spread, dolls, and the pillow cover. She does a beautiful job! Isn't this beautiful? Carolyn, I know you had to work today, but I hope you have a wonderful evening. Thank you so much, to you and Bob, for opening up your home to our crew and cooking for all of us. It was delicious! You know your dad and I love you, honey. Tomorrow I will show pictures of the gandkids. Everyone have a great day. Thank you for visiting and please come again.