Meet Rudy........

I know I said I would be sewing, but I had to run out in the terrible weather to get dog food, VERY poor planning on my part!  After I got home, I unloaded the few groceries I picked up while I was out so I wouldn't have to go out tomorrow.....I tidied up the house while trying to get the ambition to sew, then the mail came and the new Jennifer Chiaverini book arrived...........

So I may start reading this instead of sewing???

Then I cleaned the ashes from the wood stove, checked on the escapee (more on that to follow) then  I  decided I would check e-mail and visit a few of my blog friends.  Well, since the escapee returned I warmed my coffee and decided to tell you his story.

I should preface all of this by saying that we went to a family birthday party and didn't get home until after midnight, that is why I didn't know about the "addition" until the phone call.  I received a phone call on Sunday morning from one of my sons.......he told me he was calling to to give me a "heads up" for when I went out and fed the girls, of course I asked  "what happened to my girls".......oh nothing he said, he just didn't want me to be shocked when I saw a new bird in the coop!  Then he proceeded to mention the word "he" when referring to the new addition, even though I hadn't had any coffee yet I knew that "he" meant a ROOSTER!  I won't get into many details other than saying that he was saved from the "stew pot" and as long as he behaves he will be safe, but the first sign of trouble and one of my future posts will be "Rudy Stew", LOL.  Before I continue the story here is the "man" of the coop.......

Now you are probably wondering why this photo was taken in this setting......When I feed the chickens I usually sprinkle some goodies onto the ground and open the little coop door for them to come out and they eat while I am checking for eggs and getting their water container which is hanging on the inside of the coop ......this requires lifting the roof to the coop, well Rudy didn't come out with the girls to eat the goodies and as soon as I opened the roof he got all bothered and flew up into the trees!  I know that the chickens can fly, but they have never flown that high, mind you all of this took place yesterday morning before 8:30am! 

Rudy stayed in the trees, just above the coop, all day and all night (I did leave some water and feed on the roof overnight).  This morning I went about the usual feeding and covered the pen area, like I do every morning, Rudy was still in the trees.  When I returned this morning from errands I went out to see if he was still in the same tree, I didn't see him, then I looked around the coop area and there he was, somehow he managed to get into the pen area and was with the girls.  I wasn't able to get a photo because he went into the coop and I figured I would leave him alone, knowing I will have to deal with him possibly flying off again tonight, I am brainstorming a possible solution but if he flies back out that will be his problem!

Yesterday morning Hunter decided to sniff around the chicken area, not paying attention and climbed up the snow pile and found himself inside the "perimeter" fencing, when I called his name he just sat and looked pathetic, LOL. 

FYI, no I didn't want a rooster, but I will give him a chance I guess I'm just an old softee, I bet that is why he "found his way to my house"??!!

Winter Weather Again.....

I will be inside sewing, while outside it's a wintery mix!  Later I hope to share what I did in my sewing room .........For now here is a photo from last summer, enjoy!

Enjoy your day.

Hodgepodge

Thought I would share a hodgepodge of photos today..........

The fur kids

Midnight thinking of the nice BIG  puddle he is going to make on mom's floor!

Hunter in the background guarding our snow.

The goings on in the sewing room........

I've been plugging along on the applique for the Feb. Fat Quarter quilt.  Tomorrow is our monthly meeting and I need to decide which one I will do for March.

The Civil War Chronicles, these are January and February blocks, the four corners will be March's blocks. 

This is the fabric for March, some is new and some is leftover from January.

I also finished the curtains that I was making to match a quilt I made for a sweet little girl......

Here is one of the two valances.   I also made a pair of bottom tiers to go with them, they were made with the pale pink fabric that is in the valance.  Sorry that the photo is not the best.



I have also been working on the Garden Basket quilt, I have one done (shared in a previous post) and have two more that I haven't started and will get two more at the beginning of March.  There is no rush for this project, but I would like to get "caught up" if I can.  

Here are the last two blocks that are pieced for Green Piece, now I have to piece the border and finish the wool applique then put it all together, sounds so quick when you type it out, LOL!

Today"s snowy weather should help me to continue plugging along on these UFOs, my hope is that I will get caught up on all the BOM's that are behind......but you know me I'm always looking at the next thing I want to do, LOL. 

Have a great day!

Waiting for Spring

I have been waiting for Spring, each day we are another day closer to warmer weather!  The weather here has been cold but sunny the past few days,  we are expecting some snow/rain mix tomorrow and some more "weather" Sunday and Monday.   

While waiting for Spring I have continued to work on the UFOs in my sewing room and keeping the new ones up to date.  I have also been doing a little reading, as I have mentioned before I always have a stack or two or three of books that I want to read, after all one never knows what you might be in the mood to read, LOL.  I have cut back on the time I spend blogging, as most of you know time tends to disappear while blogging.   I am sure that the fact that I haven't been posting much will not help with adding followers BUT that is NOT why I blog......I just thought it would be fun to share what is going on in my little world and hope that I might help someone try something they thought they couldn't do! 

The "girls" are doing well, I am thrilled that they made it through the toughest part of winter.  They have been fairly productive as I have not bought any eggs since Christmas baking and I after I finished my baking I realized that I didn't need to buy any!  One of the girls did molt starting in early January but over the weekend I went to the coop and found not one but THREE eggs so the molt is over!    Not only did the girls make it throught the winter, but I managed to get them fed and watered twice a day as well as keeping the coop fresh.  Oh and I had to shovel the coop roof many times so I could open the top and of course I had to shovel some of their yard so they could spend time outside.....This winter was a learning experience and I will be making a few changes this summer to make next winter easier.

Last but certainly not least, I must thank God for keeping us safe and healthy this winter, that is probably one of the biggest blessings!  Thank you Lord for keeping us safe and healthy. 

Well enough chatter from me for today, I will update on how I did this month with keeping my paperwork organized soon. 

Just Quilting

WARNING.....This post contains more about my Civil War Quilts, so if you are sick of hearing about them than you should skip ahead to the middle of this post, LOL!

 So here's what I've been working on......I finished the last three blocks to complete the Civil War Chronicles February BOM.  Here they are next to the January block, these blocks are 16 1/2" .

On Friday night I attended the February PMS gathering, that's Potluck, Munchies, & Sewing, and I worked on the Garden Baskets quilt, I have four blocks to finish IF I want to be caught up for March. I'm going to give it the "old college try" to see if I can get them finished.

Here are the blocks for the past two months (I get 2 per month for 6 months), I decided to "distress" the 5 x 5 squares of fabric before working with them, I really like the look!  I have done the prep work for the other three blocks so it should be an easy project to work on a little in the evening.  Click here if you want to see a photo of the completed project 

Now onto the Civil War Tribute quilt that I started last year, this is the fabric for months 7 & 8.  I read the directions for each month and decided that month 8 would be quicker and easier to finish, since it was only four 12 inch blocks.......month 7 is EIGHT 12 inch blocks with lots of HSTs! 

Pieces ready to be put together.

Bit by bit, piece by piece........

One of the four nine patch center squares.

Starting to take shape.

The top row.

All together and ready to be "squared up".  I finished one tonight, and will work on the other three the rest of this month. 

I have months 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, & 12 left of this one to finish......I started month 9 quite some time ago and it is almost complete but I need to get help with the rest of the assembly, month 10 has the same tricky seam so I will be bring that one to a friend as well!  And of course I should have month 8 finished in the next week, I hope.

I think I have set myself up to get some of these older projects out of my UFO pile, and probably just in time as there is something fun coming in April.  You will have to wait until then to see it, one little hint..... it's NOT  made with reproduction fabric, as a matter of fact it's very different from what I usually choose for fabric. 

Nothing Much Going On

Life here has been uneventful (thankfully), I have been working in my sewing room on some of my ongoing projects.  I'm trying to finish the last 3 blocks for this month's Civil War BOM,  the Garden Basket wool applique, just trying to get those "current" before the new month.  I will try to post photos soon, just haven't really been into typing a post. 

Have a great weekend!

The Making of a Block

I started piecing the February Civil War Chronicles BOM, this month consists of four identical 16 inch blocks.  I decided that I would show you how I go about putting it all together......I'm hoping that some of you might realize that most blocks are not that difficult.  When I see a quilt that I really like and might want to make I  break it down to each individual block and the components that make up the block, then I can decide how difficult it will be for me to make. 

This is a photo of the entire quilt........

Civil War Chronicles by Homestead Hearth
Fabric by Marcus Brothers

The center block was the BOM for January, this month's blocks are the four around the center block.  Here's how I did it........


As I cut the pieces I place them on a paper plate and mark each plate with the "piece number". The plates can be stacked and set aside when I'm not working from them, and of course you can reuse them!




Marking the backs to get ready to make my half square triangles (HST), I had to make a total of 128 of them, 64 in one color combination and 64 in another combination.

  

Chain piecing the HSTs.

  

After sewing on each side of the line that I drew on the back, I cut it in half on the line and now I have two HSTs.

Then it's over to the ironing board to press them open. 

Next they go to the table to have the "ears" cut off and check to be sure they are the correct size. Then they are placed on a plate until they are ready to be put into the block.



Now I check the directions to see where all the pieces fit.

Here are the pieces laid out, now I just need to sew them all together.






This is one of 16 that I will make, of course I check to be sure it is the correct size,  I try to remember  to check the size of each pieced section to save myself frustration later,  especially when there is a lot of piecing.  Each of the 16" blocks is made up of 4 of these blocks turned in different directions 


 

One block done, three to go!


Hope I inspired you to challenge yourself to try something new! 

P.S.  Sorry about the spacing of the photos and words, I was having a terrible time laying this out for some reason!

Fun In the Snow........

We weathered another snow storm, went out several times to clean the front ramp.  I also snowblowed a path to the chickens, it was "refreshing" to be outside in the blowing snow, LOL.  Here are some photos of the view from my sewing room........

This one is the snow from the roof (we have a metal one) it is slowly sliding down and curling towards the window.  It will probably completely slide off when we get some warmer weather, it won't be long now, I hope. 

Enjoying the weather.....

 Midnight usually leaves "puddles" when he comes in on days like this.

Hunter, thankfully the snow doesn't cling to him as much! 

I have to say that I was a bit "lazy" today, other than the above mentioned work I only cut the fabric for the Civil War BOM.....maybe tomorrow I will get to sewing.

Reporting from Snowy Maine

Today we are getting the first of two storms this week.....this one is "only" bringing 3-6 inches, just enough to coat the roads and make them slippery.  Tomorrow we are expected to get 12-20 inches depending on which weather report you follow.  I went out this morning to gather a few groceries and stopped at Kathie's to pick up the February Garden Basket blocks (we are doing 2 per month for 6 mos.) and check out the Christmas fabric that is 50% off.  The Garden Basket BOM finishes 23x28 and is wool applique, it is a Primitive Gatherings Original Design, I will share photos when I get some done.  

I also got this in the mail over the weekend.........

It's the fabric for the month of February Civil War Chronicles BOM, this month I will be making four identical 16" blocks.  I behaved and worked on a few other projects instead of starting these.....I wanted to get the "Java" quilt closer to being finished and also worked on the FQQ runner that I'm making for my sister, here is the progress that I made on these two.



The Java quilt is hanging with the backing ready for me to make the quilt sandwich and fire up the sewing machine and quilt it OR I could "tie" it, what do you think?   If I tied it I would use dark brown floss.

This is the runner for my sister it is all together and more than half quilted, I'm practicing my hand quilting on this one.  The binding is already sewn on I just need to hand stitch it, I jumped the gun on this one because I wanted to show one of the moms, from the quilting class that I attend with my niece, how I bind my quilts, it worked out great to have a smaller piece to bring. 

That's about all the excitement going on around here, just the way I like it :0)