It's a Finish!

It's finished!  I promise you won't have to see it again.  lol  As Terry would say "it's not perfect, but it's done".  Of course I had to free motion some of the backing to the back of the quilt, so I had to rip--that's pretty normal for me.  :)  Thank you to Red Pepper Quilts for helping me remember how to splice the binding together.  I also used Pat Sloan's method for machine binding.  I usually do mine by hand, but I know this will be used alot and washed many times, so I wanted something sturdy.  I think I will use it again on those quilts that are for everyday use.  I'm terrible about labeling my quilts, but I did do this one with the baby's name, birthdate, and weight.  I had a tussle with my printer.  It didn't want to use the fabric sheet, but I finally convinced it.  Michelle will be home for the engagement party this week-end and she will take the quilt to the new baby.    On to the next project!

It rained 3.55 in the last couple days.  This is the wettest year we have ever had.  DH hasn't been able to cut silage, so he went with me yesterday to take Rocco to the veterinary.  This is the 3rd vet.  He took Rocco's stitches out and said to give it time.  His eye is looking better.  Hopefully with more time and healing there will be a positive outcome.  The doctor thought there was some response to light.  Nerves take the longest time to heal.

Rocco has been a good patient.

I am in "fast" mode today.  The Wilson family will be here tonight for supper and the week-end.  I know the 3 kids will have fun with the kittens.  They also like to ride the 4-wheeler.   We don't have a 4 wheeler anymore, so I'm sure there will be some Rhino rides in the  UTV.  I'm decluttering, cleaning and changing bedding. 

Thank you everyone for the nice comments and encouragement in the making of Safari Star.  It was also good free motion practice.  I better get off the computer and on the vacuum.  Have a great week-end!

Quilting Safari Star

DH is cutting silage at the cousins, so he will be gone during the day this week.  This means a whole day of uninterrupted time and no stopping for cooking lunch.   I have so much to do, but my number one project is to get Safari Star quilted and finished, so Michelle can give it to her friend. 

 The biggest clear space in my house is the kitchen/dining table.  I have an audio book,
 "The Three Weissmanns of Westport by Cathleen Schine, safety pins, Kwik Klip and Diet Mountain Dew--I'm ready to start the sandwich process. 

Ok, now what?

It was nice to have the table to hold the quilt.  It worked really well.  This is a nice size to deal with--not much pushing and pulling.  I stitched in the ditch first and then stitched across the squares.

On each fussy cut animal block I did free motion.  You will have to enlarge the photo to see.  It really made the animals pop out and emphasized the leafy jungle background.  I used gray thread and I like how they turned out.

I did a little curvy line in the small border.  I'm really proud of my corners--please enlarge and check that out.  :) 

I had to stop and waterproof the deck about 3:00 pm.  It was time for a quilting break anyway.  I wanted to get the deck done for winter season and it's suppose to rain on Wednesday.  The waterproofer is suppose to dry for 2 days.   I was worried about keeping the kittens off while I was working, but the smell repelled them and they went and took their naps.  Rocco and I took a walk down the road and picked up the mail.  The temperatures have been so nice that he and I have walked the last 2 days.  I also made Beef Stew for supper, so it could be eaten anytime.  It's hard to tell when DH would be home. 

All I have left on the quilt is the bigger outside borders to do today.  I was even dreaming about them last night.  I think I'm just going to stipple around the animals and not do so much close free motion.  I want the quilt to be soft for the baby and not so stiffly quilted.  I have read that the quilting needs to be uniform.  This quilt isn't uniformly quilted.  What do you think?  Is that going to be ok?  Usually I just straight line quilt, so I've never had to worry about uniformity of quilting. 

Peanut spent alot of time in the house yesterday.  She wanted to be close to me, so she slept on the kitchen floor.  The kittens are 10 weeks old and maybe she is starting the weaning process.  She eats constantly poor thing.  The kittens are eating kitten chow, but they still want their mama too.  

I better get to quilting, so I can do the binding next.  I am hand stitching my Raggedy blocks at night.  Jen and I are addicted to Scrabble on Facebook.  We play a game every night.  It helps me feel connected to her too.  We share that time together every day.

We have company coming this week-end, so the rest of the week will be cleaning and putting away the quilting stuff.  Have a good day!!

Fall is Here

Silage cutting always signals the start of fall here.  As you can see the hot dry conditions have taken a toll on the corn in some fields.  This is silage corn that was planted to have more stalks and leaves and not so much ears of corn.

In low places where the moisture stayed the corn is still green.  The tractor pulls the cutter, which chops the corn up into small pieces and shoots it back into the dump wagon.  The green and brown will mix together in the wagon.

When the wagon is full it is dumped into a dump truck.  The truck hauls the silage to the piling area that is located in the feed yard.

The truck dumps the chopped up corn and corn stalks at the end of the pile.  The tractor with the dozer will create a silage pile.    This is just the beginning stages of a huge pile to come.

DH drives the tractor with the dozer.  He pushes and packs the corn into a large pile that will be covered with plastic paper to preserve the feed until needed this winter.

DH and his cousins, Steve and David will work together at our place this week and then move everything 30 miles south to their place next week to cut their corn.  There have been alot of breakdowns this week with the cutter.  Hopefully they will be done today and I will show you the big pile that resulted.

We also raise a different type of corn that will grow more ears and will be combined by a combine for actual corn kernels.  This corn we will sell to the ethanol plant for making fuel. 

Michelle came home this morning.  Rocco was very pleased to see her.  He is more himself everyday.  Thanks so much for all your kind words and thoughts.  Peanut and her family have moved outside to the garden shed.  The kittens are having a great time playing lion in the grass and climbing trees. 

When DH gets moved down to the cousins for silaging, I hope to get back to the sewing machine.  I'll continue my work on Safari Star as the baby boy has been born and all is well.  I had flannel picked out for the backing, but found something I really liked in FL.  (the only fabric I bought on my trip, promise.)

I really couldn't resist this lovely "Jungle Babies" flannel.   I want to get this quilt done, so I can start the "farm baby quilt" for the baby boy due the end of October.  Have a good week-end.  Hugs...........................

Safari Star

I named my quilt "Safari Star".  It is based on Ethan's Star in the March/April '04 Quiltmaker magazine designed by Caroline Reardon.  I did some fussy cutting and added the yellow border.  I thought it needed the yellow border to set off the star from the multicolor border.  Of course, that made the whole quilt over 42", so now I need to piece the backing.  Next step--I need to go shopping in my stash for a flannel backing.  The flannel tub is in the closet, so this may take a bit of doing.  lol

                                                                                         

This was a quick and easy quilt to put together.  I had fun fussy cutting the animals.  Isn't this monkey cute?

Michelle will be home tomorrow and I'll see if she likes it.  If it meets approval, it may be a gift at the shower on Saturday.  Since we don't know if the baby is a boy or a girl this could be for either.  

The kittens haven't shown much interest in eating solid food.  I guess Peanut must be satisfying them yet.  Eating and sleeping are still their main activies.  DH always says he wants to come back as a cat--a spoiled cat.    All he would do is eat and sleep, but still be the boss of the house.  lol