Waiting for Charlevoix

I am waiting patiently for this fabric to come out in yardage.  I bought a charm pack of it and loved it so much I couldn’t wait to make something from it so I got out a pattern I have had for a while by Heather Mulder Peterson called Little Charmers III.  It went together so quickly and I even had an extra block, which explains why I ran out of  charm squares for the border.  I used some pin dot fat quarters I had for the borders, but now I need more fabric for the back so I can finish this up.  It will be hard to choose which of these fabrics I want to buy in full yards…I really like all of it. 

I made a hot pad with my extra block and I think it is my favorite hot pad I  have made so far!  So simple and sweet, I’m sure it will get a lot of use with all the bread baking I have been doing.  My kids are coming tomorrow so I am spending my Christmas Day baking Pumpkin Cinnamon rolls, that should get the house smelling quite homey!

Looking forward to all the New Year has to offer!  New grandchild to sew for and enjoy, a new orchard to be planted and tended to, new recipes to try and a new garden to plant and harvest! 

Happy New Year to all my friends and

family everywhere!

Ferne

Finished in the Nic of Time

I finally finished my Christmas project and just in the nic of time!  I got the idea from a post at Moda Bakeshop.  It was designed by Cara Wilson and was fairly quick to put together.  I made mine all from scraps.  I had fun pulling out all my red and green scraps and going through them for just the right shades.  I embellished my tree with some cute buttons, I even found some little gingerbread boy buttons and candy canes.  Then my cat came and stepped on the top left corner with his dirty little paw so it even has the cat seal of approval, I couldn’t bear to wash it off just yet.  It was a fun project and the best part is I finished it in time to display this year!

One of my favorite decorating ideas I had this year was to decorated my plate holder and It came out looking like a Christmas heart.  I love it!

 

Happy Holidays!

Ferne

A Little Mug Rug Creation

There are a lot of people in the quilting and blogging about it community that are creating these fun little mug rugs so I just had to give it a try.  I have been working on some bigger quilts and need a break to work on something small and simple.  I had a lot of fun with this little guy that I paper pieced from a pattern that I got a few years ago from Artisiana’s blog.  I also used the idea of putting on a pocket to hold a spoon, maybe a napkin or a tea bag.  I can’t stop thinking of ideas for these and have several in my mind now.  So many blocks could be adapted to this fun idea.  I am thinking Christmas gifts with a mug and the mug could be a receptacle for lots of different things depending on who the gift is for.  There are so many fun ideas from creative people on blogs and it nice that we can share.  Now I just wish the hackers would quit leaving comments on my blog.  My blog got removed a while back because of their comments and I had to put a comment moderator on which I hate that I have to do, but since more than half of the comments I receive are some sort of spam it is necessary. 

My question to anyone reading this post would be, is there a certain size that is standard for a mug rug?   Mine are measuring about 8” x 10”, which seems to be a good size for a mug and a small dessert plate.

I am having a lot of fun seeing all the wonderful Christmas ideas coming out and can’t wait to work on a few of my own.  Hopefully I will get a lot done this year.  Looks like we will have some snow this weekend and that always gives me sewing time!

Enjoy this creative season, thinking and doing for friends and family is always time well spent!

Ferne

Winner of Gigi’s Thimbles Prize

Oh boy the mail person was nice to me today!  I had won a little prize from Amber Johnson of A Little Bit Biased who is starting her new pattern company called Gigi’s Thimbles and today it arrived.  It was more than I thought.  She sent not one but, 4 patterns and a Bliss Layer cake!  I am so excited and can’t wait to break into them all, but first I must eat then take a shower…then the evening is mine to explore my treasures.  I love all this patterns but I think the bird house is probably my favorite at the moment and would look great done in Bliss!

I also ordered the cutest pattern from Cath’s Pennies Design.  It is a Christmas cookie pattern and hers looked so great that I ordered the whole kit.  It’ll be fun to start on something for the holidays.  These are all made from felt.  I haven’t done much with felt before so it will be fun to try something new.  Too bad I have to work the next few days at my paying job or I would just be sewing away the hours.

You must go to Cath’s blog post about this pattern to really get the true effect.  She has a plate of cookies on the mat that look so much like the real thing but are actually ornaments.  I am thinking they will be fun to put on packages.

Sew many new projects to work on…I’m a happy girl!

Ferne

Harriet Hargrave Class

Last week I took a class at my local quilt shop with Harriet Hargrave as the teacher.  Harriet has teamed up with her daughter Carrie and written a few books with more on the way.  The books are written to be use in order to teach you everything you need to know to quilt like a pro.  She starts with the very basics and teaches you to expect perfection from yourself.  Harriet believes that your seam ripper is your friend and she is right.  She had us all ripping our fabric to find the straight of grain and ironing it with lots of Faultless Spray Starch till that fabric felt almost like paper, but this lets you cut perfectly straight pieces. 

Harriet had lots of products that she highly recommends such as Faultless Spray starch (she converted a lot of us who loved Best Press), Presencia Thread - a thinner, but stronger thread than most on the market, and Perkins Dry Goods Perfect Piecing Seam Guide – to find your perfect 1/4 inch then mark it on your machine.  She also had her favorite rulers and irons to recommend and they were all available for us to use.  I can see why she recommends the products she does because they work and I will be changing over to some of them as I need to replace things I already have. 

This class was tough and maybe not as much fun as some classes, but I did get my money’s worth in knowledge.  I own 2 of Harriet and Carrie’s Quilters Academy books and Harriet’s Heirloom Quilting book and look forward to the release of her future books.  Thanks to JJ’s Log Cabin for making this class available – it seems that JJ and Harriet are personal friends.  JJ’s new partner got together with her neighbor and provided the most amazing lunches and snacks for us all complete with tabl es covered with table clothes and even recipes of our favorite snacks!  It was a great 2 day class!  Here is the resulting small quilt that I am finishing piecing.  

One thing I learned about myself taking this class is that I am a slower quilter than most in the class, but I do enjoy the process of piecing and probably do better at home without all the commotion of a classroom and waiting for irons and rulers.  I also learned that just when you thought you knew a lot you find you know not so much, but quilters love to share their tips and techniques, all you have to do is ask.

Keep learning and sharing your knowledge in all that you do!

Ferne

Dancing Dragonflies

  I have been studying the dragonfly blocks in the the book Dancing Dragonflies by Sue Beevers.  In this book Sue uses one block in many ways and gives you lots of ideas of just how many different ways you can put together this block to get different effects.  Sue talks about how this block could be put together using paper piecing or templates.  She does not give you the exact measurements or directions on exactly how to put the blocks together so I spent a lot of time with graph paper and thinking through ways to simplify the piecing using half square triangles and strip piecing and came up with a few ideas of my own which is what I think her book is for, to get you thinking and creating your own dragonfly block methods. 

The blocks I came up with measured 6 1/2 inches on my first one and 12 inches on my second one.  After doing the first one I knew I would need it to be bigger and simpler  if I were going to make more.   Sewing together 1” squares is a little difficult, but sure looks great.  I was able to get a lot more blending going on with the colors though to create a very pretty dragonfly.  It also kind of looks like a flower.  This block is made up of 3 different blocks and the wing is repeated for the 4th block.  There is the head, wing and body.  As I studied the wing block I could see that a wing is actually similar to the head but cut in half and then a half square triangle is added in the background fabric.  When I tried to make the block this way though it didn’t work.  Looks simple, but it took a lot of thinking and math to make it all work.  So it was a fun challenge and looking through my notes I am not sure I could tell anyone how I did it or even come with it again.

The 12 inch block was much simpler and I used a lot of strip piecing.  If I were going to make several blocks I would do it this way.  I have to go through my notes though and fine tune them and make some adjustments in measurements so I can do it all again.  I also think that I have the body too thick.  I used a 1 1/2 in wide strip and I think I would stick to a 1 inch strip, dragonflies do have skinny bodies. 

Maybe I can work this in with some butterfly blocks and make a fun throw or pillow tops.

 

Challenge yourself, it’s good brain exercise!

~Ferne

My Machine is Smokin’

  It was 110 degrees today outside and  just as hot inside.  No really, the air conditioner was on and it was very comfortable so I was cutting and piecing a very special project for my Son and his future wife and my machine was on fire.

I have been collecting fabrics for months in fall colors since the wedding is on Halloween I even have some fun Halloween prints.  I have played with so many possibilities on EQ6 that my head was spinning, but last week I went on a trip to spend some time with my sister and her baby boys and we took a trip to a quilt store that was making a change in ownership so they were clearing out a lot of merchandise.  One of their sales was 50% off all books, so I loaded up!  What fun I had!  The boys were very patient with me and well behaved and we all had a great time.  They are precious and my sister is an amazing Mom.  I only wish we could have had our babies together because I could have learned a lot from her.  I don’t know if you can read the tee shirt on Brody, the top picture, but it says “SAVE Energy Take a Nap”, words to live by for sure!

I love when you are working on a project and all the pieces just come together beautifully and fit so perfectly like it was meant to be.  Well, that is how this project is going so far.  Once I decided on a pattern I found in one of the books I bought and it all made sense.  I have been seeing this on a lot of  blogs lately also.  It is a double hour glass, and I was able to use the fabrics I had been collecting in such fun and interesting combinations and I think it will all look great with a 2 inch black border.  Next to decide on the outer border and the backing, but for now I am really liking my progress.

When it gets hot, get quilting!

Ferne

Charming Butterfly Blocks

I have been seeing a lot of butterfly blocks popping up on the internet.  They are simple to make and don’t require much accuracy to get great results.  I kept thinking though that they would be a great way to use some charm packs.  Charm packs are 5 inch square samples of fabrics.  I had to refigure the measurements though to make it work and this is what I came up with:

Wings:  Cut the charm square in half

Background:  Cut 1 1/2” Strips from a charm square or 1 1/2” X 5” from a background fabric

Body:  Cut 1” X 5” strips I used a brown fabric all the same for each butterfly.

• Mark the wings at 3/4” from the top for the section near the body and 1/4” from the top.  This is where you will put the background strip to sew.  Lay the background strip on the wing and sew 1/4” from edge.  Be sure you have extra fabric hanging over each end for full coverage.
• Fold background fabric back and iron in place.
• Square up the wings to 2 1/2” X 5” .  I turned the piece upside down to square it up and I didn’t cut the extra backing off because it was so small and it helped with the squaring up.
• 
• Sew wings to body and iron towards the body. 

Voila!  a 5” Butterfly block ~ Charming!   I sewed 4 together and it made a 9 1/2” block.  Not sure what I will do with this but, I have lots more charm squares to play with and see what happens…

Be sure to check out what some other bloggers are saying about this fun block:

Pam Kitty Morning  - She made it even smaller than mine

Mrs. Schmenkman Quilts – She posted a tutorial on this that might be easier to understand than what I just did.

Choccybangles  - summer project

and I’m sure there are some I missed and more to come!

Let’s see some more beautiful butterflies flitting around out there in blogland of all sizes.

Ferne

Janome, I love you!

I did it!  I went to test drive the Janome 6600 yesterday and of course it had to come home with me.  I even got a deal on the table special made to fit it.  The table is really nicely made and solid.  There is no vibration when it is sewing at all and the height is very comfortable to work at.  I played on this machine for about an hour and already felt comfortable enough to start a project.  I read that the manual was terribly written, but I found it easy to understand and I went through it for each step of setting up and changing feet to changing settings and had no problems at all.  My Mom would be so proud of me using the manual, she always says “Did you read the manual?” and usually I don’t I just figure that I will figure it out sooner or later.  Well, the manual was read and reread and I followed the directions and I figured it out faster.  So it pays to follow Mom’s advice once in a while.

I’m trying to decide what is my favorite feature so far…I thought it would  be the Accufeed foot, but it is not yet, maybe after I quilt something it will be.  It will be nice not to have to put on the bulky walking foot.  You just put on your quilting foot, pull down the feed foot holder and that is it.  It is not noisy, that is the best part.  The store owner gave me an Accufeed 1/4 inch foot, but I found that I had to move my needle so far over for it to be a true 1/4 inch, the regular 1/4 inch foot that comes standard with the machine is so much more accurate.  You don’t really need the Accufeed to piece, but it will be good for putting on binding.  So my favorite feature is a tie between two little buttons, the thread cutter and the Start/Stop button. 

I sounds like the thread cutter is causing some people problems, but it was explained to me that you have to cut the thread before you lift the foot and there will not be bobbin thread coming out which bothers some people because they are use to holding the top and bottom threads before they start sewing.  The thread cutter is holding the bottom thread and it will come out when you start sewing.  No more lifting projects to cut threads from the bottom, very handy for me! 

The Start/Stop button lets you sew without using a foot petal.  I keep forgetting this and wanting to step on the gas.  You do have the option to use the foot petal if you want and it is a really nice petal, but I am really liking this button a lot and finding it easy to get use to.

We had our first real harvest from the garden yesterday.  We have gotten a few zucchini and few strawberries here and there, but last night I filled my basket to overflowing.  I have a feeling this is just the beginning.  I may be making some strawberry jam soon!

Eat healthy and use your time wisely!

Ferne

 

Something About Summer

  There is just something about summer that draws me away from sewing and blogging for long periods of time.  I am still reading other people’s blogs, but posting to mine…not so much.  It is so hot where I am working – 112 the other day and over 105 most days, so when I get home I am just exhausted. 

On my days off I have been working in my garden most of the time, but last week I actually spent one day fishing on Lake Shasta with my sons and Michael.  It was my older son’s 26th birthday and this was something he really enjoyed.  Just look at that smile on his face!  We had a great   time, saw some great sites and even caught quite a few fish.

Things are growing in my garden with all this heat and we have been harvesting strawberries, but the tomatoes are just getting big and not coloring up yet.  They will probably be ready all at once in a few weeks or less.  The zucchini’s on the other hand are all ready and hard to use up.  We grew Magda, White Lebonese and an eight ball squash.  They are delicious, but I am running out of ideas to do with them.  I’ve made several stir frys and a Zucchini Pie (this recipe was from a Pillsbury Bake off winner, follow the link~it’s great!).   I have lots of basil ready and waiting for the tomatoes to be ready…can’t wait for that!

The only sewing I have been working on is to make some cushions for some out door chairs and now I am piecing a simple table cloth to match them. I am going to a  near by Sewing Center to test drive the Janome 6600P today.  It has an Accufeed foot that would be great for quilting and it has lots more stitches than my machine and an automatic thread cutter .  If I get it I will probably keep my Janome DC3050 for taking to classes since it is a nice lightweight size for that.  I have been reading all kinds of things about the 6600 and it sounds like it might have a few problems, but I think the pros out weigh the cons.  I’ll decide after a test drive.  Anyone reading this that has input on this machine please share, I would love to hear reports!

Summer ~ Gotta love it!

Ferne

My Secret Ingredients Shared

Yesterday I got a package sent with FREE shipping from King Arthur Flour.  In it were some secret ingredients I used in this delicious cake made with their recipe for Lemon Custard Cake which I of course tweaked a bit with great results.  To be fair though I should make it again following their directions to a tee then compare, but I am completely satisfied with my results.  I used the new Mary Ann cake pan that came in this order and the Queen Guinevere Cake Flour and Cake Enhancer.  My secret ingredient though that they didn’t use in the cake was the fiori di sicilia which is an orange/vanilla flavoring that smells divine.   I could wear this as a perfume.  I also added some grated lemon rind and used a lemon pudding mix with some cream cheese added instead of the pastry cream they called for.  We had some fresh blueberries and raspberries on hand to add to the very top, the only thing missing was whipped cream which I some how forgot on my trip to the grocery store.  This was worth turning on the air conditioning so we could turn on the oven for a while…very much worth it!

Check out King Arthurs recipes for some really great ideas then find your secret ingredient that makes it yours!

Shhh!!!  It’s a secret after all…

Ferne

What’s Growing in our Garden

I have another blog where I usually blog about garden related stuff, but Candace at Squash House has started doing garden updates weekly on her blog and I thought it might be fun to play along.  So…this week in my garden after a very long and cold spring things are finally starting to show signs of future harvests.

This little squash is an heirloom ‘White Lebanese’ that should be ready to harvest any day now.  It looks a bit like one of my favorites called ‘Magda’.  This is the first time I have grown this so I will have to update you all later to let you know if you should search it out next year.  The plant itself only gets about 3 feet around instead of taking over the garden like some zucchinis.   My herb garden is finally taking off too and I harvest a bunch of Italian Parsley that I dried in the food dehydrator and bottled.  I like dehydrating my herbs because they come out so colorful and fresh looking and that way I know they are not dusty.  We got a big dehydrator called an ‘Excalibor’  and hope to put it to good use this summer.  They parsley took about 24 hours to dry.  There is a temperature control which is nice since herbs need less heat than drying tomatoes or other fruit so this is a handy feature.  It also has a lot of removable drying shelves so depending on what you are drying you can add or remove shelves.  The motor is really quite also not at all annoying.  I think I will be making lots of Basil mixes later.  I am growing about 5  different types of basil and love to mix them together.  I have a little leaved one called ‘Pistou’ and a bigger leaved one called ‘Marseille’ and of course there is ‘Genovese’ and ‘Opal’ and my favorite ‘Cinnamon’.  Can’t wait for those tomatoes to serve up with basil and balsamic vinegar…oh, and don’t forget the mozzerella!

Looking forward to many harvests!

Besides the vegetables I have a lot of flowers in bloom.  I have tried for years to grow lupines and this year I had great success.  These are Russel hybrids and they stand about 2 feet high.  I love them!  There is also some scabiosa growing there next to them.  I planted them a little close together because they are in a 1 foot by 3 foot gopher cage.  I took a lot of precautions here and love the results! 

Another plant I have not had much success growing until now is hosta.  I have put out the snail bait, but not seen one snail here.  I’m hoping that they don’t like the cold winters.  I think I planted  about 6 different ones in this bed and they all came up and are just about ready to bloom.  I love this place where I can grow almost anything, let’s hope the gophers and deer don’t discover my treasures.  We have lots of deer fencing and gopher cages in place and our fingers are crossed.

In this bed are some Russian Mammoth Sunflowers and they are budding up, can’t wait to see these huge sunflowers and feed them to the birds. 

I’ll close with a picture of my favorite rose ‘Country Dancer’,  I wish I could share its sweet fragrance with you all, but you will have to trust me on this one, it smells like a sweet apple.

Let the growing and harvesting begin!

Ferne

Catching the Wave

I saw this on Oh, Fransson’s! blog and Monica at Happy Zombie did it here, so I  had to give it a try.  I printed out the tutorial and studied it for a few days then she came up with a new idea using my dresden ruler so I was on board.  I started just playing and when I laid it out on my table and it fit for an idea I had a while back.  I had thought of running 2 table runners across the table to double as 4 placemats and protection for the center of the table.  Funny thing is the fabric I chose also went perfect with some dishes I have.  Now I need to make another one and get them both quilted.  She squared hers up, but I am thinking I will leave them wavy on the sides and bind with the white fabric.

I also completed a little wall hanging for my laundry room.  These little washday bunnies were inspired from a Tilda book called Crafting Springtime Gifts.  I changed their dresses and had some fun with the quilting.  I don’t know if it shows, but I quilted a shirt, pants, sock and a towel on the clothesline and grass and flowers on the ground.  I guess if I were braver I would have used colored thread.  This was a really fun project now I have to finish some things in the laundry room so that I can hang it up.

Guess all this rain is good for giving me some sewing time!

Ferne

Growing Going on

I don’t have much sewing, but a lot of growing going on here at the moment.  My sons and Michael just removed some juniper bushes for me creating a very large space that I get to garden in.  I used to call it the ‘Secret Garden’ because it was completely encircled with huge junipers.  Now it has gone public so it will need a new name and a lot of new plants.  The area is much larger than it looks in the picture measuring in at 37’ X 40’ and there are a lot of iris that I plan to move to other locations.  It is very sunny there with a little afternoon shade, but not much.  I am dreaming of all sorts of colorful perennials like salvias, rudbeckia, arctotis, and much much more.   So I guess I am making a flower quilt in my mind right now, but not for long.  I have a wedding quilt to start working on soon and the fabric that I ordered for it just arrived last week.  It is for my son and his soon to be wife.  I asked for color ideas and she picked beautiful dark jewel tones and lots of black.  I have been playing with some ideas in EQ6 and have come up with several great ideas.  Now if I could just plan my garden plot in EQ6…hmmm…now that’s a thought!

After a very long cold winter we finally planted our vegetable garden.   I had a lot of fun designing the layout for that.  It is sort of formal looking and quite different.  We used the old satelite dish in the center as a gopher cage.  It is 10’ across and is now my herb garden.  Then we made 8 boxes lined with gopher wire and dug them in to border the herb garden.  We have 31 tomatoes planted in them and some peppers and basil.  There are 2 more beds to plant and the seeds are growing in the green house for much more.

Keep the growin’ goin’  on!

ferne

Piece Therapy

Sometimes there are times in your life when you have to try to figure out how best to put the pieces together to make something orderly of it.  I am working on a part of my life right now where I am trying to make an important decision. I have looked at all the angles and  tried to put them together just right so that all the points and corners meet up (or at least come close).  I am finding that working on a quilt block helps.  Oh, I don’t know what that block may become or if it will join others in a basket in the closet of misc. blocks with no particular purpose, but for today it served a purpose in my life.  It makes me wonder how many other people find that kind of therapy in crafting or gardening or baking or other hobbies that require concentration and mindfulness.  I think that is what hobbies are all about, sort of a therapy or a focus exercise.  I spent a few hours yesterday baking 2 loaves of bread and thinking about how mixing ingredients and watching yeast work to create something that is tasty and good for my body is also good for my mind, and I shared that with someone special to me which also made me feel good.  These were both great things to do on a rainy day deep in thought.  The only decision that I have made about the situation I am thinking about is that it won’t hurt to try and decisions can be changed and adjustments made, in the end I must take care of myself and be content with the life I create for myself.

  My block that I created comes from a new book out by Eleanor Burns that I preordered called “Quilt Blocks on American Barns”.  I got a signed copy and I love it.  It reminds me so much of my Grandmother and summers spent in Iowa.  The block I chose is called Quatrefoil and it represents a 4 leaf clover.  She says that a common saying is “to be in clover” which means to be living a carefree life of ease, comfort or prosperity.  I’m not sure that I am living that life yet, but I am getting closer and maybe a few more blocks put together will help to get me there!

Enjoy your craft therapy whatever it may be!

Ferne

Some Quilting Getting Done

Due to the bad weather I have actually been able to have some unexpected sewing time and have finished a few projects and started some new ones.  One that was so exciting to have finished was the runner that Karen from Sew Many Ways so generously shared with me last year.  It took me a year to get the nerve to quilt this beautifully pieced quilt.  I took a free motion class last month and practiced on a few  pieces before I gave this one a try.  I am pretty happy with  the results.  I do need some tips though on how to get the ceramic pencil marks from my Sew Line pencil out.  I think they will come out after a few washings, but does anyone have any tips to share on this?

After quilting this my confidence level was up so I quilted my Schnibbles Picnic quilt.  I had seen this quilt popping up all over on other quilters blogs and just had to have one for myself.  I posted on the progress earlier and now I am proud to say it is finished and hanging on my wall.  I hung it with a quilt hanging frame that was handmade by a local craftsman and sold at my favorite quilt shop, JJ’s Log Cabin.  JJ supports local crafters by displaying and selling their products in her shop on consignment and she does have quite a crafty group that supplies her with their handiwork.

We have been enjoying visiting the thrift shops and antique stores in our area and finding lots of treasures.  Recently we found this cute little dresser that only needed to have it’s mirror replaced.  We didn’t get a beveled mirror, just left it plain, but it looks cute and is functional in our guest room.  So far after 2 weeks in place the drawers are still empty, but I’m sure it will get put to good use in the very near future.  Empty drawers are hidden treasures for me!  I pieced a runner that just happened to fit and look great with this dresser so now I have to get it quilted…always a project in progress (or two or more:). 

Next I am going to attempt to make myself a summer dress and skirt before the weather finally warms up.  I have everything I need except the time, so I will just have to squeeze it in.  I got the Juliet tunic by Serendipity Studio and I am planning to making it in dress version, more on that as I make some progress.

Sewing in the rain!

Ferne

Pieces of My Life

I have not been able to do much sewing with fabric in the past few weeks, but I am working on different pieces of my life.  I have a long list of blogs on the left side of this blog that I love to keep up with.  These are all blogs that have inspired me once, twice or more and keep inspiring in one way or another almost daily.  I admire people that find the time and material to blog about almost daily.  My life keeps me away from the computer sometimes for long blocks of time so I will probably not ever be able to be that inspiring, but I still have tidbits to share from time to time.  And it looks like I will probably be going back to work in a few weeks full time so that will also be cutting into my sewing and blogging time, but I will still be dropping by from time to time to share the pieces of my life.

When the weather is nice you can most always find me out gardening or fishing with my best friend.  Recently I have even been spotted driving a tractor and plowing the field beside our house, yes that is me in this picture and that was a lot of fun!  But, if it is rainy like today you would probably find me inside sewing or baking sometimes with my best friend.  Today we had thunder, lightening and lots of hail so we baked bread together…yum… and watched the rain come down.  We did manage to take a walk in the garden and pick a few really fancy daffodils.  They are a double variety with no fragrance, but very pretty.  They remind me that Spring is on its way even though it is still acting like Winter.

One reason that I have not done much sewing this week is that I spent a few days visiting my baby sister who just gave birth to 2 of the sweetest little boys, well running a close race with my 2 boys who are now in their 20’s.  Today is her birthday and I think she probably received the best gift of her life last week as an early birthday present.  Her husband has his birthday on Sunday, so from now on March is the Abbott family birthday month!  What a blessed little family!  I enjoyed spending a few days just watching these little bundles sleep and eat and I even changed a few diapers.  I am looking forward to many more visits with all of them.

Keep piecing with all the materials of Life ~

Ferne