Fall and Frosts

The soybeans got combined last week and the corn will be in another week or two. The grass got cut for possibly the final time of the season. The leaves on the trees look stunning. We have had a couple of light frosts and the other morning a hard frost which simply means, I had to have the house plants back in the house. 

Got most of them. I discovered that the Geraniums up against the house can handle some frost. But not the Banana or Bird of Paridise. I brought the Majestic Palm in last week. It has grown taller over the summer. I bought it on a whim back in June. Isn't that what we do when we go for groceries? Buy plants? I no longer buy fabric for quilting. So I tell myself. Don't hold me to it. But seriously. I do not need any fabric, thread, needles, cutters or chocolate. 

And didn't Ava bring home chocolate for me the other night from work. Yes our Ava is a part time working girl. Her dream job is to work in a bakery but they hired her on front cash. Close enough for now. She brings random goodies home when she closes. Rescuing them she says. She got her drivers licence last week. Now she needs a car. She says she can wait. 

I wrote up a preliminary list of 10 things to work on for the 2026 Chookshed Challenge. What I really want to do is start 10 new quilts. I have at least that many kits I bought or collected everything needed. Now here is an interesting thought. Several years ago there was a 6 and 6 challenge. Complete 6 and start 6. I will give it more thought. The most quilts I finished in a year was back in 2017 was five. I took them to Poland to give to my cousins. I had a purpose and a deadline. I guess deadlines can be good. Even though I do not like the pressure. 

I was reading back through some of  my old posts because I was bored and avoiding writing. Yes. Still doing that. I have been reading up on story writing. That and reading novels. I love Agatha Christie. 

These pictures were taken as the sun was setting.

In the meantime, I am packing my bag to go on the Hallmark Christmas Cruise next week. Now, I do not watch those movies nor much of any TV except bits of football or now the World Series since our Toronto Blue Jays are contenders. And there is a big noisy bluejay flitting around my SonRoom. I see him everytime I sit in the hot tub.  I plan to take some writing and might glue baste all the bits I cut for Lucy. Now that I have given myself permission to do this by machine zig zag I stand a chance of completing it.

After weeks of discomfort and waiting for appointments, I finally had an ultasound on my left breast, after a very painful mamogram no one booked for me but I just happend to be in the room with the thing. I have an abscess and now another drain. This is supposed to be removed before I leave on Wed. And no more hot tubbing for a few weeks so we might as well drain that too and get it cleaned up before winter. 

And yes, winter always comes. We have days and days of rain in the forecast which is okay since I am not supposed to be in the sun nor eat dairy since I am on antibiotics yet again. My OMG goal for Nov will be to get those Lucy hexies glue basted. 

Blessings, 

Chris

November 2022 OMG Goal

 I did not meet my October goal. Fact is, I hardly even tried. And why?

Besides a long weekend filled with family and people and food, I ended up with covid and lost a week of being productive. Well, that is not entirely true. The week we were sick, my Sweetie and I made not one, not two, but three big pots of soup and two crock pots of stew. Just because we could, and we had a lot of vegetables that needed processing. Like, someone dropped off a half bushel of brussel sprouts so they now live in the deep freezer. So, we now have lots and lots of meals in the freezer in case we get sick and do not want to cook. 

Also, I got a message from my daughter that 6-year-old David was missing me and was snuggling up in a sweater I gave his mom to sleep in because it reminded him of the good memories he had with Gramma. Not sure what was going on in his head, other than I had covid, and so did his dad and mom at the same time. He said the sweater smelled like the farm. How wonderful! So, I went over for a few days to snuggle the boys. 

Alas, I recovered from the covid. It was a mild case, and I was out of it for about 4-5 days, then the nasal congestion. I had to cancel the surgery that I have been waiting 5 months for. It will be sometime next month. Something about anesthetic and congestion not going together. I did get lots of handwork done on Lucy because the prep work and thinking part was done. Just got to sit and stitch my heart away.

I am struggling with using the fancy-dancy laptop that I just had to have. I bought it nearly 2 years ago and do very little writing on it. And why? Because I cannot see the letters on the silver keys. My fingers know where most of the letters are, but they miss often, and I have to continually go back and edit. Hence, I use the desktop which has a black keyboard with white letters. Easy to see. But I still make mistakes. Sheesh. 

I do use it most days in my quilt room, just not for writing. It has a touch screen. I love that. I can take it outside to use, as long as I remember to charge it. Nothing quite like it dying in the middle of a zoom meeting. And I discovered the link to write a new post. So that is why I am writing a new post on the laptop.

I rearranged the quilt room so I could have more table space to work more efficiently. I now have both the 8-foot folding tables set up in the middle of the room. I have my books spread out on one table facing north and the quilting on the other table facing south.

The table lamps are attached to the sides between the 2 tables, so I can easily turn them to whichever table I am working on. All this to say, I have one of the lamps hanging over the top of the laptop, and I can actually now see the keys. 

Since it is Tuesday, I have a To-Do-Tuesday list this week:

1. Write something profound.
2. Do not gloat or boast.
3. Complete one Lucy corner square.
4. Plant bulbs.
5. Ignore the Wedding Quilt.

My OMG for this month will be to complete 8 Churn Dash blocks. I did not get any done in October. I am planning to make 63 blocks and have 25 made so far.  

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Blessings,

Chris 

 

May 2022 OMG Goal

 I did not meet my April OMG goal so I will move that over to the May OMG. And what will that be? The Biblical Blocks Sampler I am completing for my son's wedding later this month.

And the wedding is where? Here at the Farm, where else. In our front yard. And the side yard and the back yard. It is going to be glorious! All I have to do is provide the outside flowers, and we planted them back in November and the apple blossoms will be out and the lilacs and the horse chestnuts will be blooming. It will be spectacular! And I am sure the bees will be buzzing in full concert as well. 

I got my dress last month. It took me a whole 10 minutes. Where do you find fancy dresses for overweight, crippled-up senior women these days? Well, I'm glad you asked. I went to a tiny dress shop in my town and walked out of there with a $400 purple dress for 70% off and a killer turquoise/purple/gold scarf. In just 10 minutes! Then I found some amazing Vionic fancy sandals in my size 11 wide in Shipshewana Indiana when I was at the quilt retreat last week. And I was not even looking for shoes! I bought myself 3 different pairs and a pair of running shoes for my Sweetie who is on a diet and does all the cooking here now. Life is good. I found a fancy turquoise shirt for him at a truck stop and I wasn't even looking for that either. 

I will be back at the end of the month with more pictures. 

Blessings,

Chris 

OMG March 2022 Completion

 My OMG goal for March was to hand-stitch together several 

Lucy Boston Patchwork of the Crosses crosses. 

 I have 4 complete so far. Only 52 more to go. Maybe. 

I went with the third option for the block above because I already had the turquoise cross in the center of the next one.

I have many hexies basted ready for the next bunch of center blocks.

I will be putting the whole thing aside for now, 

because

I have a wedding quilt to complete. 

I pulled out one of my ufos and put it up on the big design wall. 

It is yet another of Rosemary Makhan's Biblical Blocks.

It will be my goal for next month. 

The wedding is here at the Farm in May. 

I have exactly 54 days. No pressure. 

I also will be going to the Shipshewana Retreat at the end of April. 

I have my project box already packed. 

Blessings,

Chris

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November 2021 OMG Completion

 An old friend called up early in October to invite us to his wedding. The next day my Sweet Farmer announced he was going to sell all the cows. My 90 Day Writing Goal was to have a first draft of my newest book by Dec 1. The pressure was on. I decided to choose one of the ufos from the endless project boxes that was nearest completion and make it my November OMG. This is Biblical Blocks by Rosemary Makhan that I started in 2005. The book writing was put on hold and Nov 11 the cattle were sold.

I had taken a class years ago the first time I made this pattern but I loaned the book and all the instructions to a friend who has moved 2-3 times since. Good thing that the first thing we did was cut out and label all the borders and setting triangles. 

But I still had to figure out how to put them together.This was a bit of a challenge. But I had a picture of the finished quilt so had a reference point. I only had to redo one. 

My machine was a bit sluggish so I thought I should check inside. Good plan. I cannot believe how much lint had collected in here. 

As a rule, I sew with bare feet. I want to be able to feel what is going on and have better control. But, what are the chances of dropping the scissors inches from my foot? 

I took me 2 days to make up the 6 remaining blocks. I had fussy cut many of the others, but chose to do foundation piecing for these. Another 2 days to assemble all the blocks and borders.

I had been helping my Sweetie with preparations for the cow sale so he rewarded me with his time and removed the foundation papers. He has decided that quilting will not be his new retirement hobby.

 I mitered both the Rose of Sharon applique borders and the fancy dancy Jinny Beyer border print. This technique is not for the faint of heart. Matching up all those stripes and designs. I sent the thing out to be longarm quilted. She had it back in 2 days.

The last thing to do was trim and sew on the binding. I chose to use a mottled blue fabric from the collection because I had enough and it matched perfectly. This is where the pain in my right hand really started screaming for relief. It took me the whole day to do a 2 hour job. So in all, it took 7 days to finish this quilt. 

 

Our friend told me that when he was living with us, he often noticed me working on quilts and asked what it would take to get one of them. Get married I told him apparently. Well, he remembered and now he has his own quilt.

You'd of thought we knew the bedroom colours before choosing this quilt. But I chose one from the archives of ufos nearest to completion. 

Blessings,

Chris

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We are Selling the Cows

 Who would have thought my Sweetie would suddenly, one day, announce that he was going to sell all the cows. This is no small matter. He has milked cows since he could walk and the Guernsey cows have been in the family for 92 years. But selling we are. 

Hence, my not completing my October OMG. Nor did I do any work on my book since that day. And the wedding quilt that was my OMG is still on the design wall in many pieces. The phone has not stopped ringing and I am on facebook constantly monitoring the sensational buzz we have created in the cow world. And emails have to be dealt with.

The whole selling the cows went from a simple selling 10 cows to one farmer, then he bought 20 more and we got a call and visit from a cattle auctioneer in Quebec and suddenly we are having an online video sale of 6 select cows and 45 heifers and calves and the rest being bought also. They have been clipping and grooming calves for days and the photographer is out there now taking portrait picture of all the girls. 

I took the Elly and Devan for a sleepover at our daughters this weekend and after the boys went to bed (they always go earlier than the girls), I pulled out the Rose of Sharon applique borders and had the girls pulling out the freezer paper from with the machine applique flowers. We will do the leaves today and tomorrow. I anticipate having the top to flimsy stage by Friday (I am such a dreamer), but the wedding is 12 days away and the long arm is booked. 

The online auction is only 10 days away. And I am playing games. Does not make any sense to me either. I have a clear schedule for this whole week and should get back to work. 

I think my OMG goal for November has to be completing the Biblical Blocks Quilt. And then I really should take time away from the computer because my eyes are starting to bother me as in everything is a bit foggy. I cannot make an appointment with my eye doctor as they have quietly been on strike for the past 2 months. I am on the priority list for appointments when they get back to serving us seniors who have OHIP. And the pain in my right hand has escalated in the past few months to the point that I have to do something different. Cutting back on sugar is the first thing and stopping playing games which requires a lot of mousing. Buying a new mouse and keyboard will certainly help since I often have to click and swipe 2-3 times for every function as well as certain keys refusing to cooperate. 

I will be back at the end of the month to let you know how I did. 

Blessings,

Chris

Sept 2021 OMG Goal

My goodness! How can it be September already? I guess time flies when you are having fun. And fun we have had this summer. It was a time filled with family and rain and people and Covid. Our son tested positive last week and so did 7-year-old Jonathan. His parents were moving so he and David came to the farm for a few days. David was negative so he is isolated at the trailer with Mom. 

Dad is in the new house alone and Jonathan is asymptomatic (not sick) and is isolating here at the farm. He finally has 10 whole days where his little brother is not picking a fight and trying to beat him up all the time. He says he misses that. He has been busy helping Grampa around the farm. The rains finally stopped and we have had a whole week of sunshine so now we can bale dry hay.

Aug 7 was our 50th anniversary. We had a simple family BBQ. It was great. The weather was amazing until we cut the brownie cake that the grandchildren had made, and dished out the ice cream, then the skies opened and we got dumped with about 2 inches of rain. This would have been okay, except that all we adults were outside in the dining tent. The children all had the good sense to run into the house. 

Chooky has hosted several zoom parties this summer. Last night I joined some of the girls from Australia, the USA, New Zealand, and Germany for a few hours to stitch and catch up with what is going on in our parts of the world. 

This is what I worked on. I did so little quilting this summer. This is as far as I got on the Summer QAL from Quilting Gail. I had lots of the smaller units sewn up in July and put them all together last night. I still have to sew all 35 blocks together and add a few borders. It is a bit smaller than I want. I think a half-inch dark brown framing the center, then each of the 3 colours around that. 

Today is my 8th Anniversary of blogging. What a ride it has been! I have met quilters and farmers who quilt all over the world. I even went to Australia in 2015 and met some in person. I definitely want to go back. 

It is time to choose an OMG quilting goal for Sept. It has to be simple this time because  . . . 

drum roll please . . . 

 

I have 36 thousand yards of the most amazing colours of thread that I won for the May Aurifil Thread prize from OMG. I think there might have been an oops because there should have been a 3-pack. So, thank you Patty from Elm Street Quilts. 

My OMG for Sept will be to crack open a few of these threads and give them a try. I will use some for hand applique for slow-sunday-stitching on the 50th Anniversary aka Ella blocks 

and others for machine quilting on the Disappearing 9-Patch that I will be using as a sample for a new quilting class starting here at Quilting @ the Farm in 2 weeks. 

That should keep me out of trouble for this month. 

Blessings,

Chris 

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A Week in Mid January

 

For the life of me, I cannot remember what I did last Friday. There were no children here, so it was not hovering over schoolwork. I love having them here and they do know what to do, so it is no hardship for me, other than they use my computer. But, alas, they each came home with a brand new iPad from school so they will work on those now. 

Saturday I met with some friends on Facebook messenger and I did some back-basting prep work on 3 Ella blocks so I had some hand applique to pick up through the week.

Sunday was David's birthday, He is now 5 years old. All he asked for his birthday was a Kinder Egg. He got 6. And he shared with his brother and cousins. They came over and we had pizza and chocolate cake. Best birthday menu ever. 

But the iPads did not work. At least we could not figure out how to log in to their classrooms. So, back to my desktop and Daddy's laptop.  All was good until one of them accidentally unplugged the router while fiddling with the power bar under her table. Oops. Note to self. Move the table. And I was on the phone with the internet company twice for a hour each time and they turned off the internet to tweak it. Poor little girls trying to do their school work.

Now I recall Friday. I got up around 9:30 because I was up reading and writing my blog post until past 2. Then I had a massage and groceries. After that, a nap. Little girls filled the rest of the evening. Only the 2 small ones came home and it was delightful listening to them play and interact without the "help" of their now teenager sister. But now we desperately need her "help" with the iPad thing. 

I did some stitching every day. Some days for barely 15 minutes. Other days for 2-3 hours. And prep work counts for my 15 minutes. Okay. Monday I stitched on and off for about 5 hours. 

Eventually, we got one of the iPads linking up with the school, so Devan was able to move around to do her work. On the treadmill for gym. On a chair in the back kitchen for math. Then I found her here. I guess she wanted to be first in line to get ice cream for the afternoon nutrition break. 

The weather this week has been typical mid-January winter weather. Sort of cold but not too cold. Some sun. Some clouds. Can't complain. Well, until the freezing rain caught us off guard and everything iced over. And, we are now in a tighter lockdown. 

Then the power went out. About 11 Thursday morning. For a couple of hours. My Sweetie had a nap and I could not focus on anything. So I sorted through some patterns and enjoyed the quiet. However, nothing is simple on the farm. When the power came back on, the sand in the water from last week's broken water pipe flood, decided to shoot through the pipes and no less than 3 waterbowls decided to overflow causing more flooding and had to call in the electrician to fix the heated water bowl in the dry cow barn. Good thing. They found some compromised wires and now they are all good.  

Good thing the girls were at their mom's.

Blessings,

Chris

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A Day at the Farm

I have had a blast writing up blogs to post every day for December and beyond. But it is time to refocus my writing time on academics and authorship. Post-Christmas life here on the farm in wintery Canada is a bit different than other years at this time. We are in lockdown again, but this time the schools are closed for at least 3 weeks. This means the grandchildren are doing home learning. With the joint custody thing, I get the privilege of overseeing them 2-3 days a week on this. We got through this week. Sort of. I got a new internet provider that finally kicked in New Year's Eve at supper time, but the promised higher speed forgot the memo. So, Wed morning, while the 3 girls were all on with their teachers, I called and was on hold for most of an hour with them tweaking the connection and increasing the download speed, which means they turned off the signal not once, but twice, while the poor little girls were trying to do interactive, live schooling with their classes. Oops. But all is good now. The whole purpose of getting a new provider was to get faster internet for the schooling thing. 

One girl was on Daddy's laptop in the living room. One was in the quilt room on her cell phone and laptop, and one was on my desktop. So where was Grampa supposed to watch his Good Morning Foot Ball show? Not in the living room nor have his after-morning-chores nap on the living room couch. So, upstairs he had to go. Speaking of Grampa, we gave each of the grandchildren an Amaryllis bulb to plant and have been enjoying the flowers. Each bulb came up different. 

And where was Gramma supposed to do her stitching and reading and "other stuff"? At the kitchen table of course. Those wooden chairs are hard when you have to sit in them for up to 6 hours. 

But all is good. the girls have scheduled nutrition breaks (they no longer have lunch and recess) twice each day. They had smoothies with dad at 6:30 and a bit of tv but breakfast wasn't ready in time for them to log in at 9 so they had their bacon and eggs for the first nutrition break at 10:40. As it turns out, Gramma has to get out of bed before 9 am in order to have them ready. They had to wear real clothes, not pajamas. 

So I will be posting only once a week for now and try to get everything in. FNWF is happening right now (I think). It is 1:10 AM Friday, Jan 8 here in Canada. I did hand stitching for a couple of hours today as I was listening to lectures from my writing coach. Great insights into why I am struggling with my writing.  So, I get to log in with 15 Minutes to Stitch with a perfect score for this week, even though they report on Sundays. This brings me to Sunday Slow Stitching. I will continue working on these hand appliqued blocks for the 50th Anniversary Quilt aka Ella.  

Now, did I miss anything? 

Blessings,

Chris

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Rainy Saturday @ Farm

Saturday it was raining outside. At least we don't have to shovel rain. The kids were playing inside and actually being rather quiet this time. Who would have thought 5 children could play together all day without too much noise. Maybe I am going deaf. Wait! The new teenager is usually hidden away in her room. She was giving manicures in the morning. I passed this time. She was finished all her school work and bored, so she made me a smoothie. Then at midnight, she started baking a cake in a mug. It was delish!

We used the GO cutter and 2 1/2 inch strip die to cut out a gazillion strips out of construction paper for the kids to make paper chains. They haven't started yet because they were, you know, playing quietly. One wants to use tape. I said no. And I just bought 4 large new rolls. I suggested glue since I have a whole case of it. One suggested staples. Maybe. I just bought a new one so we have about 20,000 staples. Another wrote names on with glitter glue but had to wait for it to dry. And then, she wanted to sew but I encouraged the pirates game. 

I meet with a few friends on Facebook to sew on Saturday mornings. So we met and we sewed. 

I did a bit of hand stitching on an Ella block. Now it's time to do a few skinny stems. But how should I proceed? I could hunt up the bias makers or just do the back basting thing. 

The last skinny stems I did were on this 3030 Block. I cut thin strips on the bias and pinned them in place. Then, I stitched up one side and down the other. Fortunately, most of the stems will be covered up with the rest of the flowers. 

I finally finished hand appliqueing the yellow flower buds. I think the rest of the flowers will be pink. and there will be 4 green leaves. 

This can be my handwork for Slow Sunday Stitching. 

Blessings,

Chris

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