Mystery quilt

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This was supposed to be a mystery quilt that I was designing for the guild.  It begins with a nine patch and then you cut it in half and then into triangles and and add a focus fabric.  It was fun to do even though we decided to make table runners instead.  I end up with a lot of extra quilts just figuring out what to do for programs.  But right now I need a lot to practice on with my Tin Lizzie. 

Eggs and Entertainment

 

These are our five Cayuga ducks.  We got a pair last year just by a fluke and then we incubated some of their eggs and lo and behold we had duckings.  The original pair are both gone, probably to a bobcat or raccoon but so far these guys are staying safe.  We put them in at night and the dogs protect them during the day.  We get an average of 3 eggs a day but not always in their pen.  Lots of days it's an Easter egg hunt.  They dump them everywhere, including in their water dish, the pond, the irrigation ditch and the driveway.  I think the pond must be full of them.  It looks they are all females but Mark is sure one or two are males.  They all look identical so unless the males develop a lot later these are girls.  They stay busy all day long, waddling around looking for bugs, swimming or napping and are pure entertainment to watch.

Route 66quilt in process

 

This is a work in progress that I'm making for my son in law.  He brews beer and wants to call a future business Mother Road Brewing.  The letters will be outlined so they'll show.  Hopefully I'll finish this by his birthday and it will garner me some beer.

Journal Quilt

This month and for a year I will be making journal quilts. My theme will be about time, something of which I always run out and am anxious to get more of. Each month there will be some sort of concept or idea or something to try. This month it was recycling. so everything I used in this little quilt, only 12" square, was recycled. The background was a Liz Claiborn shirt, sorry Liz, the binding is from a really crummy bunch of lone star pieces I bought in Santa Fe, there is a fork I found at a dump site, and can lids ditto, buttons from an old mattress, needles from a yard sale, an old linen calendar, pottery shards, and my grandmothers rick rack. I'm calling it "You can't recycle time". I like the way it turned out and am excited to do more of them. I have a box I'm putting future scraps in that relate and I'd like to use. I have a shirt label that says AM/PM, so a future journal quilt will be about that. I also am writing about each piece in a paper journal. So far I've gathered all sorts of quotes about time as well as all those thing we say like, I'm running out of time, time out, time waits for no man etc. There are a lot of them. This should be fun!

This was the scene at the cabin in Marble. The river is icing over and creating pools. In front of the house it was 4 feet down when we arrived and then after two 13 degree days it rose to 1 foot down. That makes it a lot easier to get water since we have to get it from the river when we go up in winter. As usual we snow shoed in dragging a toboggan full of food etc. Mostly we sat around the wood stove but I did cook a goose which smelled wonderful but had very little meat on it. It was very peaceful to do nothing but gaze at the snow for a few days. Any longer and I'd go stir crazy.

Coyote

I've been working on this Coyote. As per usual some of my kids have cruised through my sewing room and added or deleted parts of him so he is not 100% my creation. The pieces have just been cut out and then laid on a piece of background fabric. I'm not sure how I'm going to finally sew him. so far I've put a little glue under most pieces so I can move the piece. I'm wondering if he could be sewn down on the Lizzie so that the quilting and sewing are done at the same time.

The Fabulous Tin Lizzie

Okay so I admit that being gone over 6 months is just too long for a lame excuse, but I have one anyway. for some unknown reason I couldn't get on m site to change it. Why? what is it about these computers that make me feel so stupid and unable. Really we need machines that build our self esteem not make feel so out of it. But while I was away some exciting events have occurred. I got a Tin Lizzie mid arm quilting machine! I am in the process of learning to quilt on it. It's harder than I ever figured. There must be tricks that I don't know about. There is something about learning a new skill that is very stimulating. I don't think it applies to computers with me but to actually start finishing some of my many UFO's is beyond wonderful.