Juggle

I've become a big fan of fabric design by Bonnie Christine for Art Gallery Fabrics. So when "Winged" came out, I went for the Fat Quarter bundle. I wanted to make something simple. Something that showcased each of the beautiful pieces in the line.

I ended up choosing a Thimbleblossoms pattern (I know - another one!) called Juggle. The nice size hexagons seemed perfect for this fabric.

As always, I added a few stash fabrics, but not too many this time...

The quilting is done with Stitch #4 on my Bernina - the Serpentine. I did adjust the length and width a bit to get the look I wanted. I had forgotten how quickly this quilting design goes!

The backing is a pretty floral from "Winged" and the binding is Art Gallery Squared Elements, which I seem to be using again and again for binding.

It was time to switch out some rolled up quilts in my basket, so here is it's home for now - that is until someone needs a pretty quilt for a nap...

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Winterish.

While I try not to talk about the weather, here in the northeast, as well as a lot of the rest of the country, the weather is right in our faces.
Snow storm after snow storm, bitter cold, shoveling, paying for the plow man, feeding the birds, bundling up like you were headed to the Arctic just to go to the store, doing all the worrying and work that comes with WINTER.  There, I've said it.

We even shovel a path for Roy so he can do his thing without being in 2 ft of snow.

This week, my car is being fixed, from my unpleasant meeting with a tractor trailer.  It will be there all week.  My insurance would have paid a whopping $20 a day for a rental, but what would I get with that?  Something that would get through the snow without breaking into a cold sweat? 
I think not. 
So I am getting delivered to the studio in the morning, and picked up later, by DH.  It's not like I am up for any traveling other than that anyway.
I can do it for a week.

So alone at the studio, I looked around for what I would get into.

Today, I decided to go with "winter whites/gray skies".

 Besides I have a lot of this sock stuff lying around, and I wanted to get it woven and get the rugs put on the shelves.

I love these rugs, so reminiscent of birch bark.  They are heavy, and solid, and earthy.

 

See my old boots by the door.  I've been wearing them every winter for 14 years.   I like to get my money's worth.

 

These first two rugs off the loom, another finished and probably 3 more to go.

 

The rest of the afternoon calls for a hot cuppa tea, and my new book.

Yup, more winter.

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All the news that is news, and some that ain't.

The bad news is that winter is sticking around for longer than I want to think about.

Oh, and Bart attacked me every time I tried to collect eggs today.  And filling the waterer was almost impossible.
He definitely has my number.  He is totally making my chicken farmer routine very unpleasant.

Continuing to make the day interesting, I dumped almost a whole bag of pellets on the floor.
Which I had to pick up quick, as someone thought it might be a new kind of CAT LITTER.
Not saying any names.

I spent the afternoon tying on a new warp, for more mobius shawls.   Not a problem really, just tedious.

 The good news is that my friend's husband came and took Bart home with him late this afternoon.   Last year, all his chickens but one, were killed by a marauding group of raccoons.   I gifted him with four of my young hens, to give him five.  
He went into the coop today, grabbed Bart by the legs, and took him home.   Bart promptly jumped up on the roost with the new girls, in his new digs.  He probably crowed.  Fickle b******.

Bart doesn't know it yet, but his new owner is not going to put up with any crap from him.  So maybe it will work out.
I will miss him crowing.  And that's about it.
Anybody know of a rooster recording that you can program???
Maybe I need to invent that one, for all those "roosterless" hen houses.

I am so excited, now I can go into my hen house, without being assaulted.



 Speaking of excited, tomorrow I am going to pay this little lady a visit.
It doesn't get much better than that.

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An Irish Chainish Quilt?

I have a finished quilt to show today! This quilt came about after trying to organize my overflowing Anna Maria Horner stash. I thought it would reduce the volume - but somehow that never seems to happen! I guess when she continues to release these gorgeous, irresistible lines my efforts are futile!

I really love this quilt. It's kind of designed like a simple Single Irish Chain.

It's created with a simple 6" finished square and a simple 6" finished Nine Patch. The only tricky part is that you do have to lay everything out so that your Nine Patch squares match the corresponding print square. I also added a border around the edge that incorporates 2" squares to finish out the pattern.

The background is a light gray {even though it looks kind of beige in these pictures} - Moda Bella Fog. I did some diagonal straight line quilting through the small squares and a simple quilting motif in the 6" squares.

I'm sure there are future AMH fabric quilts in my future!!

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Another cold day

I have been using my blog to see what March has been like for the last couple of years.  Perusing 2012, 2013, and 2014, it appears that March can go either way.  It might be lovely, and it might be just plain NASTY.
So I guess I will just have to wait and see like everyone else. 
I guess I will just have to count down to April, a much safer destination.

I feel bad counting the days until spring, but I am.  I think it is the super frigid temps that really get to me.  I don't mind the snow so much.

On the subject of Bart, it's not good.
I can't get in the coop, or the run, without him trying to "get me".  And he is serious.
I have read all the literature about changing his ways, but no, I am not going to carry him around to prove I am boss, and I am not going to beat him.
I could fix the coop so I can lock him out when I go in.  But that doesn't seem right.

I may have to admit, reluctantly, that my friend Karen has been right all along.  The fact of the matter is that I love hearing him crow, but unfortunately, the good experience stops there.

I see that a rooster is helpful, if you free range your chickens, but I have no intention of doing that.
So Bart may have to go.
I hate it, but I really want to be able to enjoy my chickie girls, and I can't get near them with him trying to protect them every second.

I managed to finish a Fiesta runner today, 10.5 ft long.  But I think I need to give it a rest, getting a sharp pain in the bicep of my right arm.  Too much weaving???   Say it ain't so.

I gave up weaving for today, and  I came home and made some potato leek soup (recipe in the recipe link at the top of the page)
The last time I made it was for my mother, a few days before she died. 
Making it always makes me think of her, she loved it so much.

A big salad, a glass of wine, and soup.  Oh, and toasted English muffin bread.

I am going to look at February and March as an opportunity to get things done.
I have to keep from thinking about the weather.
And how much I don't like it, because it doesn't help to hate winter.
Not one bit.

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Little of this, little of that.

Cleaning the basement this past weekend, with the help of daughter #1, I finally unearthed this trunk, that has been residing behind the furnace for way too long.
It definitely has character, and I have a plan for it.

Of course, first off it has to be stripped.

But I think it will make a perfect coffee table.

And I can store my knitting inside.

 In a box, behind the paint stash, there were these dishes.  The newspaper they were wrapped in was dated 1991.

They aren't worth much  monetarily, but I like them.

On a business note, I told you that I sold the HTBS looper loom last summer, so I no longer have them.   But as circumstance would have it, I still have the LOOPERS.   I am taking a different approach to them though.  Lois and I are done with spending all our time handling them. So we aren't sorting them, mixing the colors up, NOPE, none of that.   I am sending them out to my "looper lady" to be cleaned of all the strings and such, and when they come back, we are packing them in 5 lb bags just the way they are, and selling them for $29.95.   As soon as I have 100 lbs, I am sending out a newsletter, to let all the looper lovers on my contact list know that I have them, and to let them know what colors are predominant in this batch.
And I will mention it briefly here.....as in I currently have 10 bags 5 lbs each, predominantly bright blue/turquoise.
And that's all I have to say about that.

There's nothing like a couple of warm loaves of English muffin bread on a cold wintry day.

Now for a message from Sydney.


"I don't like change.  At. All."

"I'm talking to you, Lois."

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It's a Twofer Today!

I have two fun things to share with you today!

First up is a mini I made after I won a Mini Charm Pack of Color Theory from Amanda at Westwood Acres. {If you don't follow her on Instagram - you should - she does lots of fun giveaways!}

I thought the fabric would be perfect for another mini Hexie quilt. I made one for a Christmas exchange and knew immediately that I'd have to make one for myself at some point.

The hexies are prepped just as if you were doing EPP. They're then glued on to the background and stitched down with the quilting stitches. So fun, quick and easy. You can find the complete tutorial at Modern Handcraft.

Fun thing #2 ~ I was asked to participate in Moda's Mix It Up Monday on Instagram. Well, this was right up my alley as I had to choose fabrics from several different Moda lines that would work well together.

I decided rather than start with a focus/multicolored fabric {which is a great way to start}, I'd choose a color scheme ~ navy, gray and aqua. 

And they just happened to be the colors I'm doing my kitchen in after we had it painted last month {SW Rainwashed}.

So I made this yesterday! Super Bowl and everything. I used three of these 12" blocks and sewed them in a row, flipping the center one. I decided I wanted it a bit wider, so I added 1" finished strips to each side. You could easily just add an inch to the pieces on each side of the block, and make 14" wide blocks instead.

Now some really fun news! How about a chance to win this bundle? You have to go to Instagram, find @modafabrics and follow the instructions. Quick - you only have until Tuesday at midnight! Good Luck!

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