My crocheted fabric selvage round rug!

This is the round rug that I made entirely of fabric selvage strips.  It was crocheted over several years.  A little at a time I would add to my large ball of selvage strips that I had saved from various quilts.  When I felt I had a sufficient amount to make several rounds I would crochet until I had used it all up.  Then I would begin a new ball of strips.  I decided it was large enough when It measured 65" across, which is perfect for my porch.  I only use it during the "nice" weather and then bring it in, wash it, and put it away till the next spring.  Most of the selvages were cut from quilt backs so that I could get 70" or more without any joins.  It makes a charming addition to the porch and lies right in front of my white rocking chair.

Check out so darn crafty and freemotion by the river for more projects!

Shawl and Socks

I got this shawl off the needles last week, but I decided that I will make at least one round of crochet across the top edge to strengthen it.  If I was a little more experienced, I would have done something different along that edge from the beginning.  Since this is my first attempt at a knit shawl I learned a few things.  A friend gave me this pattern.  I later saw her shawl that she had made with her homespun yarn and it was beautiful.  Some day I hope to remake this pattern with a different edge and with a yarn that I have spun and dyed myself!  Check out what others are working on at Judy's Patchwork Times. 



My socks are almost off the needle.  I just need to do the kitchener stitch to finish the toe.  I love making these socks.  They work up quickly on a size 3 or 4 needle.

Flock Block

Most of my posts are about quilts or knit/crochet projects.  I occasionally post something about my chickens.  This is about my chickens.  Those who are not interested in chicken related stuff will probably want to quit reading at this point.  

So a couple of days ago I gave them some yogurt.  They loved it and I thought all that white on their beaks made them look like little clowns.  I told the hubster about it when I came back inside and he said "It's nice that they can give you so much entertainment".  They really are amusing.  I think he thinks I am amusing.

The temperatures dropped to 10 degrees last night.  It never really got above the freezing mark here today.  I am always looking for something to take to the girls besides their scratch and layers feed.  Now that the winter is here it's not as easy.  Tonight I found this recipe.  Tomorrow I will make it for the girls.  It is supposed to keep them busy because they totally love pecking at something.  Maybe it will keep the boss-hen from being quite so cranky with the others.  We will see.

blocks of the month covering my design wall

My design wall is covered with these large triangular blocks.  The block of the month is being sponsored by The Gathering Place of Rupert Idaho.  We have done 18 and still have 6 more to go.  The fabrics are provided in a kit each month and are all by Kaffe Fassett.  The patterns come from a book by Jaybird Quilts called Toes in the Sand.  I love the ruler they designed that works so well with these patterns.  It's been fun doing these blocks because of the fabrics that I never would have chosen plus I'm not that much into triangular blocks!  I guess it's pushing me a little outside of my comfort zone.

There are a few other BOM's on the far side of the wall, but I have been more focused on trying to keep up with the triangles.  If you want to find out what others are working on be sure to stop by What a Hoot Quilts BOM's Away or Pretty Bobbins to check it out.

This is also on the wall.  The squares are 1" finished except for the yellow centers in the flowers which are 1/2" finished.  It is a 12 1/2" unfinished block.  Check out what others are working on at Judy's  Patchwork Times.

Crown Royal Quilt



My brother has a friend that likes Crown Royal!!!



So he sent me a LOT of these bags for me to make a quilt for him.

My first task was to remove the stitches on the top of the bags to open them up and remove the draw string and then I cut as close as possible to the edge of the golden thread serged edges of the front and back of the bag.  This left me with an equal amount of front, back, and side strip fabric to work with.

I put a blue strip of painters tape on my ruler so that I could position the writing in the same spot on each rectangle I cut.  This was much faster than measuring it out every time.  So far I am only working with the medium size bags since that is what I have the most of.  I cut my rectangles 8" X 4.5" and occasionally I had to remove the stitching off the bottom corner edges to reduce the bulk.  I was able to cut most of the strips at 2.25".  I tried to cut so that I got the largest piece that I could.

In this picture you can see some of the bottom corners look a tiny bit rounded.  That is where I removed a little bit of serged edge.

My strip sets were pieced with the 3 center strips cut at 2.25" wide.  The top and the bottom gold strips were cut 2".  My seams were sewn at just a little over a quarter inch.  It was around 3/8ths to make the strip sets come out 8".  I then cut the strip sets at 8" X 4.5" to match the solid rectangles.  I will probably use the back pieces (with no writing on them) to piece a border, but I haven't gotten that far yet.  I still have the black bags that I can use somewhere.  This has been kind of a figure-it-out-as-you-go kind of project.  My brother never looks at my blog, so I am safe to post all of this and it will still be a surprise to him.  

Hopefully I will have this top finished next week so that I won't be overwhelmed during the quickly approaching holidays!!!  I have linked this post to Freemotion by the River for linky Tuesday.  Check out what others are working on! 

Whats on the needles?

I'm almost finished with my version of Multnomah by Kate Flagg.  It is a shawl designed with a feather and fan pattern.  It is my 2nd attempt at a lace pattern, and I found it not too difficult as long as I have plenty of stitch markers!   I only have one more repeat and I will be done, so I will probably do another post with the completed shawl next week.  My friend Anita brought me this beautiful yarn from Debbie McComber's A Good Yarn shop in Washington.  It is a superwash sport yarn made by Cascade yarns.  The color is 0563-112 teals.  The next pictures will probably look a lot better.  I just realized I took a picture of the back.  OOPS!

I finally got my February Lady Sweater blocked and found some buttons I like. 
Check out Judy's blog to see what others are working on.

October and November Back to Square One

These are the blocks for my Back to Square One October clue. 

The top is now too large to fit on the wall, so I managed to get a pretty good shot of it before the sun went down!  It feels good to be caught up till the December post.  Check out Judy's blog to see other's progress!


Only the simple borders to add, but because I fell while taking laundry downstairs I can't walk on the right foot for a little while.  This happened on Wednesday and has totally messed up my plans for the Thanksgiving holiday.  I still have lots to be thankful for, but not for this injury!

Back to Square One

This is becoming a new favorite mystery quilt for me.  I have always loved mystery quilts and the surprise of seeing it all come together. 

These are the blocks that we made last month.  I hope we won't need to use the marbled tan fabric much more or I may run out and there is no way I would ever find more since it came from my stash and I don't even remember where I found it.  You should go to Judy's blog to see what others "Back to Square One" quilt tops are looking like!

Customer quilts

This is the table runner that Loreta made for Begonias custom built dining table.  It is 108" by 30"!  OOPS!  I MADE A MISTAKE ON THE SIZE.  IT IS 208"  x 30"!  I could barely fit it in the picture!

The fabrics are all beautiful Batiks.

It was quilted very simply with a meander stitch.



Another amazing quilt by Evelyn!

Lots of embroidery!



close-up of the center

This little miniature was made by Cynthia.  The center has wool applique and is surrounded with a border made from 1/2 inch squares!

Cynthia's mini quilt

Carol's quilt

Odette's star quilt

I couldn't get a good picture of the center quilting, but it has a circular design.

I love the way the appliqued leaf branches circle around the star.

Linda's jelly roll quilt



The back of Linda's jelly roll quilt with a free-motion swirl pattern.

Scraphappy Saturday (end of August post)

These are the blocks that I managed to finish,

I totally missed the yellow month on RSC13.  I had several blocks started, but they didn't get finished.  I managed to get some red done and so I thought I would squeeze in a last minute post for the red month.  Hopefully I will accomplish more in September so that I can be caught up on my goal of at least 28 of these little blocks each month.  You really should go to SoScrappy's blog to see what others have been working on.

Below you see the yellow blocks that I started but was unable to finish for this last minute post.

Medalion Mystery

I am finally caught up on my Back To Square One mystery quilt.  Check out the progress others are making at Judy's blog.  I have been having a tough time keeping up with things this summer, but I hope to be spending more time indoors this month. 

crafting from FREE wallpaper sample books

I have always been an avid crafter.  For the past few days I have been cleaning out a room that is attached to our carport.  This room used to be used as a canning kitchen.  It is now used as a place to "store" things.  In other words, if you don't want to throw it away, but you don't want it in the house you just stack it in this room.  This room had begun to look a lot like a show called Hoarders.  After I was done cleaning the room I had about a dozen wallpaper sample books and I found a shelf for them to live while I find more things to do with the beautiful papers and the book covers.  I found this blog post that talks about these wonderful books.  If you enjoy any form of paper crafting you need to go HERE to check it out!  I have used the papers for many things including wrapping small gifts.  I have also used them to mat a picture when I couldn't find just the right color. 

I once used the super-strong cover to cut out a rectangle that fit the bottom of a quilted bag I had made.  I slip-covered it with a matching fabric and it made a very durable bottom for the bag that I could remove and even wash the fabric cover if I needed to.  I have also used the outside cover of the book to make a padded lap desk.  I get together with a small group of ladies that love to make greeting cards.  I can't wait to take some of these books to see if anyone has any ideas for them!

Of course the best thing about these wonderful books is the part where I get them for free!  I went to one of the local stores that sells wallpaper and they put my name and number on a list.  Once the books are discontinued, the store calls for me to come get whichever ones that I want.  If nobody wants them they are usually just thrown away!  They are great for young children to craft with also.  I took some to the local head start where I used to volunteer.

Please leave me a comment if you have ever used a wallpaper sample book or have some ideas you might like to share!

The dog

When someone rings the doorbell, why does the dog always think it's for her?

"I think that's for me".

 

You just stay seated.  I'll get it.

 

False alarm... I think it's for the humans again.

The chickens have started laying Part 2

I decided to leave the link in the last post even though it did not help me a bit.  My sister-in-law was here for a reunion at the time I was preparing the eggs.  The first thing I can confirm is that the fresher the egg, the worse the results.  Most of the eggs came from the same dozen I had purchased from the store.  Some peeled perfectly and some did not want to let go of their shell AT ALL!!!  Now back to the part about my sister-in-law being here.  She walked up and peeled 3 of the 20-some eggs I was working on and says to me...  "see here, all you have to do is give them one little tap on the top of the egg and they will peel perfectly every time because there is a little air bubble where you can get inside the membrane".  I replied "ummmmm hmmmmmmmm"  as I continued peeling the rest of the eggs and I thought to myself  "what if the egg is turned upside down when you are boiling them?"

The chickens have started laying!

2 days ago I got my first eggs.  There was one egg in the morning and 2 more that evening.  Yesterday I found 3 more.  I just found 3 more.  They are not very big eggs.  Put 3 together and they would equal one jumbo size.  I have had company visiting from out of state for the last 3 days, so today I will make deviled eggs.  I decided to go on the internet and see if I could find a recipe for easy-to-peel eggs.  I am going to try this one.  I hope it works because I really hate it when it sticks to the shell.  I have 3 different colors of chickens and 3 different colors of eggs.  I don't know who is laying which, except that I was told my white chicken would lay a white egg.  I guess that makes sense.  I will post a picture after I try this method for cooking and peeling.  I will be cooking a dozen store bought extra large size eggs too since my chickens eggs would barely feed one person!

Easiest way to cook corn on the cob!

I found this youtube video and since it is getting close to that time of year where corn on the cob is plentiful I thought I would share the link.  Here it is!  Clean ears every time.  

Vertical Ridge Vest

My friend Lyn got her pattern published!!!  I am so excited for her.  If you go here you will understand why.  If you are a knitter you will probably want to put this on your to-do list!  Nice job Lyn!

Robin Nest

A couple of weeks ago I noticed that a bird was building a nest in my jackmanii clematis.  She chose a horrible place to put her nest (in my opinion).  It is located right where everyone has to walk when coming and going from the house and I figured she would abandon this idea when she realized how much traffic there is constantly passing within a couple of feet of her nest.  I checked about a week later and found there was 2 eggs.  The next day there was 3.  Today she has 4 eggs.

The nest is right in the center of the picture and surrounded with leaves.

When I stand on tiptoes I can see the eggs.

I'm glad it was a Robin that chose this spot for her nest.  Their eggs just happen to be my favorite color.  Her nest will soon be surrounded with beautiful flowers!

Ducks, hens and the new rooster

 Just before Easter

I bought

6 chicks and 2 ducklings.  Babies are so cute!  Here is a picture of them in the pool where they used to live when they first arrived at our house.

Fast forward  a few weeks and... oh my how they have grown!  When I brought them home, I left them in the car while I got the pool ready for them.  My husband went to get the 50 lb. bag of food and left the back door of the suzuki open while he brought the bag around to the hen house.  Our little min-pin must have heard some peeps and by the time I got there she had killed 3 birds.  Originally I had purchased 3 white and 3 black.  Now I was down to 2 black and 1 white and very sad about what had happened.

A few days later I went back to town to get 3 more chicks.  They no longer had white chicks, so I got 3 tiny little red chicks.  Even after just a few days my little birds had formed a tight bond and were not too friendly  to the new "peeps" I had added to their group.  Once again fast forward a little more and they are still growing like weeds!

 

You would think that a duck would want to get in the water when he has his very own pool, but not this one.  Here Riley tries to show him how much fun it is.  Maybe he's remembering that he actually grew up in this pool and thinks his home is now flooded.  This is the first day outside of the hen house and the temperature might be a little colder than he likes.  Both ducks like to play in the water now, but they prefer when I turn on the sprinkler. 

Now it has been 2 months and the ducks appear to be full grown.  The chickens may get a little bigger, but they seem to have all of their adult feathers.  It's funny how much personality a bird can have.  We love to watch the things they do and the way they interact with each other and the humans.  On memorial day my daughter found someone on facebook that was looking for a home for their rooster.  He was just learning how to crow and was making this pitiful screeching sound every morning.  It was only a matter of time before the neighbors started to complain.  Now this little guy was purchased at the same time from the same place as my birds.  I figured that he would fit right in.  I hoped that he didn't realize what that delicious smell filling the car actually was on the ride home.  You see, I had purchased our dinner on the trip to pick him up.  FRIED CHICKEN was on our dinner menu!  He seemed pretty calm in spite of it all.  When we got home I put the pet carrier with him inside of it into the chicken run.  He saw all those beautiful girls and desperately wanted out of the carrier.  I think he thought he was in chicken heaven and he (being the only guy) could rule the roost.  It would probably be chicken love at first sight.  So I opened the door.  I believe that being locked up together for most of their little lives, this group had developed a gang mentality.  They immediately ran for him and attacked!  Even the ducks charged him!!!  They chased him around and around the chicken yard!  I had to catch him, soothe him and seperate him from the others.  They must have come to some kind of a settlement after sleeping together in the hen house that night, because although he isn't being mistreated now, they aren't trying to beat him up all the time.  That's a good thing because I have quilting to do and don't have time to referee these little feathered friends.

This is a good example of how small this guy is compared to the ducks.

He pretty much keeps to himself.  I don't blame him!