The chicken house...or chook shed

Finally, pics of the make do chicken shed. We have several outbuildings on our property, most of them junky.  It's treasure to me...like finding "that" utility quilt in the bottom of a box of rags from the lastest yard sale. We re-purposed a stall into the chook shed. The little dickens even inherited the top of the dogs' igloo for their condo! I found some lovely branches out by the roadside and threw them in the truck...much to my dh amusement. But, he put them up for me!

I took my bff's dog, I am babysittting since mid November lol, out to the chicken yard with me. I figured since they are similar in size she wouldn't chase them. She did try and I chewed her out...you know, the verbal dress down. So she stopped. Then "it" happened. She started screaming, "mawmaw...they are looking at me", after a few minutes I noticed the chicks were gonna jump her....oh my, how funny! They checked her out and then left. She was shook I tell ya, I was laughing! Sorry I can't reconfigure the pics...we had to buy the new machine and now I don't know how to re-size, crop, etc.  I have to go water my herbs and get more goodies together for a yard sale. I hate being a hoarder collecter multi crafter and having a gazillion things clogging my life. How do you decide which items go and which stay? I am curious to know. Wish me luck, Elaine

Real mail surprises and chook shed update

The postal person was good to me today...2 lovely packages from super nice people. The first was from Michele from "down the road a piece",  Michele sent me a huge envelope with a quilt card and then overdid herself in a complete 9 month set of patterns for a gorgeous quilt with piecing and applique! She also sent a Godiva chocolate bar....omg, have you ever had Godiva chocolate? Well, butter my butt and call me a biscuit...you have got to push everyone out of the way and go to good chocolate store and buy one now! Dh remarked that I don't eat chocolate...but this is heaven! Yep, ate the whole thing. Michele...if you ever need your house washed down...call me, I owe you girl! I digress about the chocolate, sorry. Go to Micheles blog and check out her applique. She is quite gifted and has a fun blog. She gifted me because I was willing to help her on building her blog. Thank you Michele and if you don't mind I want to pass the patterns on when I finish them...hopefully before the year ends!

                                                                                 

The second envelope came from Jeannette with a gift  of  embroidery. You might remember a few months ago Jeannette was working on The Red Beastie, her words, lol, and was running low on red fabrics. I suggested she make an all call out for some red scraps and she received them. How cool is that to have a quilt, made in New Zealand, that has fabric scraps from around the world in it? She was pleased to receive some scraps from me and sent me some hand embroidery...a pretty little linen hand towel with impecable hand stitching. Wow Jeannette, you do some gorgeous work! Have you guys seen this quilt? You have to check her page out and look at this quilt. Blows my mind.

                                                                                         

I have been working non-stop with the dh on the chook shed...it's done, too tired for pics of it. I will try to get some tomorrow. The latest update...still 23 of the fluffy little dickens!

Good night and remember to check these ladies blogs...very gifted ladies. Go quilt something, Elaine

Next time I'll listen to the routine tornado watch warning!

We went on a "routine" tornado watch Friday until 0200. At 0210, we both woke up to the most terrifying noises imaginable, the worst storm in our lives....I grabbed both chihauhau's and headed for the hallway and told the spousal unit I was waiting out the tornado with my babies. We didn't really think one hit our area but the wind was unreal, trees broken all over the place and our power went down until this morning at 0805. My poor chickens actually did very well until tonight. Something got into their trailer house and  2 of them are not there. What the heck? No feathers anywhere, just 2 lovely chooks missing! See the water dispenser on the right....I had filled it @1 hour prior to checking on them again and it was empty...hmm.

Also, the greater percentage of the kids were on top of the chicken wire trying to get back in....I personally think one of our dogs....the geriatric morbidly obese shephard ate them. It gives me motive to get them to the chook house tomorrow! I have a couple things to do to it and it's done.

Oh..our computer fried too.  You gotta love the storms. Our power company is a co-op, and they try really hard to keep things working for us. I don't know if the co-ops are a stateside thing or not.

The coyotes are howling now...hmm, wonder if they like chicken? Little brats.


Oh, the half a beef in the freezer...among other things...I told the spousal unit to LEAVE THE DOOR SHUT AND HIT THE RESET BUTTON. He actually took some steaks out for dinner with the kids and there really wasn't a problem, most of the stuff was still really froze. Thank you God.

We ate out yesterday at a fast food and had an opportunity to see some of the damage. It made me realize how petty our problems were. I was hoping a small humbling experience would ensue, but nope, I had a full blown attack of the guilts. We  were without power for a day and a half....but it came back on. We had semi-frozen food...but we had food. Since I am a quilter...we had blankets.

No more whining for me, I'll just appreciate my new computer, my 23 feathery new friends and I better keep a better eye on my shephard! Now, I am going to do some handwork and watch Avatar...a little something I was surprised with a few minutes ago...I can't wait...thank you God for my beautiful day rocking the earthbaby...Elaine                                                            

                                                                                 

Season for chooks

My neighbor down the road decided to try her hand at incubating eggs. She did good...I bought 25 of the little dickens! Pic to follow tomorrow, gotta go tuck them in for the night, cheep, cheep....Elaine

What are you working on this month?

Just finished my marathon quilt. I will need to put photo taking/posting at the top of my list, lol. I wish you could have seen the stitching more clearly on the wedding quilt. I used Valdani threads exclusively, the overdyed threads. If you get the chance to use them, go for it.

I need to go work in my garden a little bit, ok fine, alot! It is totally overgrown. In the meantime, here is my raspberry bed!

                                                      

The finish line

The wedding was this afternoon, at 1700.
The binding was finished at 1553, the quilt went in the washer,  and then the  dryer at 1645!

It's a finish, wahoo! And just in case ya'll are wondering...my baboo, the sweet little janome of mine...was not functioning in quilting mode. So after several hours of bad language, I improvised and used the feather stitch feature.. The quilt is 98" square, batiks and Quilters request batting.

                                                          

This is rich...!

So I told Mr.Honey, "honey, you are going to have to fix dinner for the next few days"......he said, "how do you turn the oven on?"

You know, I am going to drag this crap out as long as I can and take my sweet time....muhhhaaa  hhaaaaaa  hhhaaaa!

And thanks ladies, Allie, Lizzie, Michelle (welcome to my little world of weirdness), Jeannette and Vicki, for all the sweet words. Oh, I will be back. Honey had to leave for a few minutes tonight, his dishes are waiting for him! Have a great evening...Elaine

They never learn!

Men, that is. Last night, our neighbor popped over with an impromptu invitation to her wedding....this coming Saturday! My husband asked, right before bed, "what are we going to give them for a gift?"

Like he has to ask? He said I cannot finish it time......any other takers?

                                                          

I miss her...

Amanda Jean...or Crazymomquilts...I am finding myself drawn to your quilts more each day. I want to be just like you when I grow up. (Check here for unlimited inspiration. And if you're fairly new in blogland, you need to go back on her blog and check it out...that girl could put 'em out)

                                                                                                                                                                                                               

The ugly quilt....or maybe not?!?

I finished the borders on MY Christmas quilt. I put a 1 1/2" chocolate inner border and 6" outer border on the top and bottom. I wanted it a little wider, not longer, so I put a 10" outer border at the sides. Looking straight on, the side borders are at the top and bottom of this pic. Fits nicely on my queen bed with the outer border flowing down the sides.

Even my clothesline sticks weren't long enough to get it off the ground, lol. I have the perfect backing and will use a thin cotton batt. For the quilting, I want to do a long stitch with Christmasy threads. Maybe a chocolate polka dot binding? I think I'm going to have fun with the whole process.

Have you ever planned a quilt in your head, like forever, and found "the" pattern? It just didn't work, darnit! I collected fabric with roses,  forever,  and used this awesome Moda Bella Dill. The pattern is from Quilts and More, Fall 2008, called High Light. Mary Pepper made the original with the Taxi collection from Timeless Treasures. The original quilt is awesome with blacks and whites and an electric yellow...it really is, 65 1/2" x 84 1/2".

I have already made a black, white and yellow, so another was out of the question!  So, what do you think....does it need borders? What would you do?

I should introduce my biggest fans, Dakota the Paint and Jennifer the Burro. They are very cool.

                                                              

One top nearly done

Quite a while back, I won a fantabulous giveaway from Meredith. I won a Glace layer cake and some groovy yardage, again, yummy glace! I looked at it for a good while, petted it, stroked it and fell in love with it. I finally decided it wasn't going anywhere...except my bed. Meet my new Christmas quilt, just for me! I haven't measured it, but it just fits on my queen mattress top, as is.

If you use a layer cake for the disappearing 9 patch, you need to add 12 extra squares for a bigger top. Mine is 2 squares wide and 3 squares down. I had to fold them in half to cut them, lol, big suckers! Then my friends, the Quilter Sisters, recommended I put a "stop" point on before the border. Great idea! Thanks Sisters!  I had another top in mind for quite a while. It didn't turn out at all what I had hoped for. Fine, it's really ugly! I'm going to have to think about it before I can post a pic of it....like I said, it's really ugly!!                               

I HATE SNOW!!!

It is 2:04 pm, Sunday, and it is still coming down, uuugggghhhh!!! If you look closely, you will see the first of the season blooms, covered in snow, of our Tulip trees. The white spots in the pics are huge snowflakes....

My poor Century plants are dying here! I have to finish my quilt tops, yes I said tops, as in 2 at once!