Keep Sheep

This past weekend Dave and I went to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. It was so much fun! Friday morning we took a basic shepherding class. I feared we'd be the oldest people there but that wasn't the case. I'd guess the class included people from 20-60 years of age. The class was very interesting. We learned a lot and are very excited about one day having a small flock.

 I'm starting to learn the different sheep breeds. I'm pretty sure this black faced ewe is a Suffolk.

We went back Saturday when the place opened up to the public. Admission was free. We watched the sheep dogs work, visited vendors and hung out with the sheep. The later being our favorite activity. We talked to some of the shepherds and they were very helpful with information about getting started and telling us about their sheep's breed.

 This is the wool on a Border Leicester.

I had to get a quilt in here! This was the Kiparoo Farm booth. They had a luxurious cotton yarn I was tempted to purchase.  I haven't knitted in years and now I'm itching to. I'd also love to learn to spin yarn. It looks so relaxing.

Here is a lonely sheep. She was in the pen by herself and just bleating away. Her penmate was probably being sheared.

It was really crowded. Apparently, this is the biggest sheep and wool festival in the country. Dave said you could put most of the people in to three different groups - women buying yarn and roving, hippies and farmers. I'd have to agree.

Our teacher recommended this book even though it is an old one. I bought some roving for pincushions.

 Monday evening a package arrived from libbyQ. Love the bee fabric!

This books was inside. The funny thing is I had just checked this book out of the library earlier that day! libbyQ was spot on with this gift. Thanks, girl! I learned even more from the chapter on sheep. This is going to be a great reference guide.

And thank you all for putting up with my farm ramblings. I''m very close to finishing two quilts and promise I won't post again until they are done.

Wall of Little Quilts

I finally have a wall of little quilts. I was helping a friend paint an old vanity last week and was a bit humbled by how neat and tidy her house is. I came home and did some clean up in my sewing room. These were all piled on the futon so I got a hammer and some small applique pins and started putting them up from left to right. I had no plan - just picked up the flower applique first and went from there. I don't think I ever publicly thanked Beatrice for the quilt that is right of center with the black border. It was so sweet of her to send me a quilt and it is even hand quilted.

Yesterday, Dave came home from work with this vintage sewing machine. Some people in the neighborhood are moving and he saw them put this is a pile of trash on the curb. It's missing some important parts - a foot peddle and bobbin case to name a couple, but it is a pretty green color. He's given me a hard time about pulling things out of other people's trash so I was a little surprised that he did this. I think he enjoyed getting my mom's old machine working so I think he sees it as a challenge. I'll get a better photo if/when we ever get her running.

I also got motivated to start painting my china cabinet and a small book case. I got tired of looking at these dark pieces of furniture with my newly painted table and chairs. I'm not sure why I always have to plan things to death instead of just jumping in. Same goes with this 9-patch quilt. It's just getting some straight line quilting. Hope to have both these projects done by the end of next week.

I'm always surprised to see this little primrose blooming in our back yard. It is very close to the house which is how it escapes Duke's big paws.

We are having some beautiful spring weather here. We planted some flower and vegetable seeds over the weekend and then had two days of light rain. Keeping our fingers crossed that we see some little sprouts soon. Oh, and we had some freshly picked lettuce and spinach with our dinner the other night. So far, we are having some luck in the garden!

Happy stitching!

What I've been doing...

Spring is always so busy with the addition of outside work. It's been a while since I posted. Dave and I took a 5 day trip down to South Carolina to see his parents. I'm now looking at a stretch of 6 days with nothing on the calendar. Love that! I have a lot of catching up to do with house cleaning and quilting. I still haven't started machine quilting those quilts I mentioned in my last post. I did get the backing stitched for the crumb quilt but I'm not sure how I want to quilt it. So now I want to get started on the 9-patch.

I managed to stitch 3 hexagon flowers on the South Carolina trip. I thought I'd get more done but was getting a little car sick as I stitched. I have 34 completed and not sure how many more I will do - probably at least 16 more. Here they are on my dining room table I painted back in January. My dining room set was my grandmothers and it was looking very worn out. I was ready for something refreshed and brighter. I'm really happy with how it turned out and will reveal all when I finish the other two pieces of furniture in my dining room. Here is a peek at the chairs I just finished up last week.

Here is a little look around our yard-

 grape hyacinths under the maple tree

 silverberry tree in bloom

spinach and lettuce

It's been a while since we planted vegetables. I was feeling a bit guilty about my husband doing all the clearing and planting and then I remember I'll probably be the one weeding when the weather turns hot and humid.

I made this little cushion for my computer chair today. It took less than an hour and I love how it turned out. Why did I wait so long to make this? I painted the chair back in the fall. It annoys me when I keep putting something off that doesn't take long to do.

I'm still putting in a few hand quilting stitches on most evenings. This shoofly is getting more quilting than the last.

This past Monday was our tour of Polyface Farms. We took back roads instead of taking the major highways.

It was another overcast day. This time rain instead of snow. The redbud trees put on a show for us. They were all along highway 340.

Here we are at the farm-

 Farmer, Joel Salatin, gave the tour.

 These hens were quite noisy.

Entering the "eggmobile".

As Joel talked, the cows munched on grass. They moved around a lot. Dave said that must be where the phrase "the grass is always greener on the other side" originated.

 the pigerator

 I can't remember if he called these pullets or poults - they're just chicks to me.

This is the first time I've tried to add a video to a post. Was easy to do - hope I did it right.

 Downtown Staunton Virginia. We had a nice lunch at Cranberry's Grocery and Eatery.

I hope to be back soon with progress on my 9-patch. Hope the weather is good where you are. It's lovely here today.

Progress

Pink Lemonade is finished. I have to recant what I said about Mountain Mist Cream Rose batting a couple of posts back. I was having trouble not because of the batting but because glue from the tape I was using as a guide was gumming up the needle. Duh. Now that this little quilt is finished and washed - look how nicely it puckered up - I do like the Cream Rose batting. Best be careful using this batting for a quilt needing to be a specific size. I didn't measure before and after but I expect with so much puckering it shrank some.

I've moved on to hand quilting another little shoofly quilt.

This years challenge for my guild is to finish up as many UFOs as you can by May 28th, our end of year potluck meeting. So far, I've finished up five. I think I can do nine. It won't win for most UFOs completed but that's okay. I'm happy to finish things up.

This is a 'Lil Twister quilt I was working a few months ago. It was my trial run using the 'Lil Twister ruler before making the baby quilt for Ella. It also used up a couple of charm packs that had been sitting around for far too long. I had also machine quilted it as a warm up to doing Ella's quilt and then put it aside before binding it. I usually don't do that. Once the quilting is done, I move right on to the binding. I wasn't so excited about this quilt and wanted to get Ella's quilt to her before the weather warmed up. The binding is finally on and I can call this one complete, too, so now I'm up to six completed UFOs.

These two are ready for some machine quilting so I think they and the little shoofly I'm hand quilting will bring me up to nine UFOs completed for the year. That's my plan.

Last Saturday afternoon, Dave and I went out to Frying Pan Park, a working farm in our very suburban county. Doesn't she look like a happy goat? I hear goats are quite mischievous.

Look what came in the mail yesterday. It was a surprise to get this bookmark and a letter from my quilting cousin, Mary, in San Diego. She made this on her Bernina Artista 630. 

Thanks again, Mary!

Despite having a bit of snow here earlier this week, signs of spring are all around. The daffodils and periwinkle are blooming and there are shoots of green grass in the yard. The wind chimes on my front porch have continually made their music this month. I'm looking forward to a warmer April.

Happy Easter!