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Friday, June 24, 2016

June OMG Finish

I set out to learn how to do the Karen K Buckely's Perfect Circles 
and complete these 4 blocks for the 1857 Album quilt-a-long.


 These ones weren't too hard once I found the missing circle. 
For some strange reason it ended up in the middle of the Dear Jane 2 box. 
Good thing I pulled out the completed blocks to put up on to the empty design all. 



 These circles are small and smaller. 
Since there were only 4 of one and 3 of the other sizes,
I made 7 circles at a time using 7 needles and waiting for them to dry before stitching them down. 
Then I made more until I had enough. Then unstitched them and re positioned and re stitched.



 The circle looks more round now. The bird will need some feet.




Between little boy grand children visiting and babysitting little girls, driving tractors, breaking a tooth and having it pulled and catching a throat thing from one of those little girls, I did not get too much stitching done this month. AND, my publisher finally sent the proofs for my book Denine: One mother's journey with a profoundly handicapped child and now I am in the first revision round. I have no less than 5 areas to address, including a larger font and the dedication. AND, did I mention my daughter and her family are moving back to Ontario in September???? Those little boy grand children will be a mere 3 hour drive away instead of a 3 hour flight. Bring on the summer!!

Blessings,
Chris

Tuesday, June 14, 2016

Drum Roll Please . . . A Completed Quilt!

This is what I have been working on for the past few weeks. GORF 2
I could not post or boast about it . . . 


. . .  until it was gifted to our friends for their farm wedding


The bride and her posse showed up in grand style


The guys wore green


 The girls wore purple



  The bride's tractor is red and the groom's is green.



 I got to drive the team . . . Penny and Tammy were very cooperative for this first timer.



  My husband insisted that I could and should put the invitation photos on the quilt.
Steep learning curve but I got it now.



 He designed the layout.



I did an edge to edge on the longarm that I rented time on last month 
and had this whole thing quilted and bound 2 weeks in advance. 



Blessings,
Chris




Wednesday, June 8, 2016

View From My Green Tractor

Here on the Farm I do other things besides quilting. This is a real working dairy farm and even though I am retired, I still get to drive tractors once in a while. I was tedding hay last week and as I was driving round in circles and back and forth, I was flooded with memories and mentally wrote a couple of books as I reflected on my 45 years living and working on this farm. Now I was born and raised on a dairy farm and married a dairy farmer and officially milked cows full time for 18 years, but I had to retire from doing all that because of osteoarthritis and lower back issues. Driving tractor is something that I can still do.


View from my Green Tractor

 My Sweet Husband cutting hay with the other Green Tractor


The Other Green Tractor

 The darker green is the fresh cut hay. 
The lighter green is the hay cut the day before that I was tedding. 
What is tedding? Basically turning over and fluffing up the hay so it will dry faster.


One of the Hay Fields

 Getting instructions about speed and technique before I start.


My Sweetie

 He called the local John Deere dealership and told them 
that his wife broke 2 teeth.


Our Mechanics

 I got to quilt the rest of the day.


Our 1840's Farm House

Blessings,
Chris