Mother's Day

 I know I'm a little late with this, but I spent Mother's Day weekend at my parents' house in Bethany.  I hadn't been there since January.  I rode up with cousins on Friday and then David came up on Sunday.

Mom and I made this cute ladybug table runner on Mother's Day.  The hubster said he couldn't believe that with all the complaining I do about ladybugs, we made some to put on the table!

On Friday, we stopped at the Amish auction in Jamesport and I bought geraniums............A LOT of geraniums!  I planted all of Mom's planters and still have several to plant here at home.  We also helped replace boards on the picnic table and painted it, David helped clean the flue, and replaced some shingles that had blown off the roof.  

We also went mushroom hunting.  Mom found these 2 morels.

And Dad found this one.  I looked it up.  It's called a Wood Ear mushroom and is edible IF you cook it long enough.  We didn't even try it.

We also went to their neighbors to see their cute puppies.  

They also had baby chicks, geese, and goats!  

I delivered a couple of quilts to Mom and she managed to refill my tub with at least 6 more things to quilt...........and I still have 2 big quilts of hers here.  I have been spending more time quilting and have been knocking out some of my things.  I need to spend a morning measuring and cutting batting for her stuff and I also NEED TO SHOP for thread.  

It was a fun Mother's Day weekend!

Christi

Just Kitten Around

WARNING:  This post of full of nothing but cats and kittens!

I finished the Just Kitten Around quilt.  I purchased it as a kit so got all the fabric for the top and binding and the pattern.  There was so much leftover fabric.  At Sew Sweet Quilt Shop, they always say to make some small things with the leftovers right away rather than dump it all into the scrap stash.  So, I made the above wall hanging with leftovers.  It's going to the home of a friend whose boys take piano lessons from me.  They have a new house and have nothing on the walls yet.  She's going to hang this over the piano in the fall.  It's to remind them of how Esme likes to walk down the steps during their piano lessons and walk onto the top of the piano and stare down at them while they are playing.

The full quilt is pictured below.  It was a lot of piecing, but it's so cute!

Several quilts have been quilted recently, so Esme has been at work holding them down while I do the hand binding.

You can see in the above photo that her hair was not looking the best.  She looks much better in the photo below........

Because she got a bath............

As did Cici!

The drying out process takes awhile.

Grandpa Bentley has 2 litters of kittens..........3 in each litter........

Litter #2..........

And litter #1..........

And, of course, one more photo of Esme to finish this post!

Hoping you have a PURRfect day!

Christi
 

Fabric

I had noticed several empty project boxes accumulating in the closet, so decided it was time to start some new things!  I only cut for one large project, and then about 6 smaller things.  I was trying to use up scraps leftover from other large projects before just dumping them all into the appropriate color scrap bins.  As the bin for scraps to be cut down into usable pieces started to overflow, Cici was on hand to compact them so that I could just keep cutting and not have to stop and work on the scrap bin.  So helpful, she is!

And, I was "gifted" some more scraps.  A nice lady asked if I would like to take some scraps because she really wasn't wanting to take any home............. well, of course, I HAD to at least look!  It was a bounteous haul.

This piece with the birds might be my favorite.  I really don't consider it a scrap as there were 2 yards in the piece.  

There were batik scraps.........

and more batik scraps..........

and then some flannels.......... about 2 yards of the holly, maybe a little less of the striped below.

And the one below has about 5 yards..........I'm thinking some flannel pants for Sarah.  That's what she wears for work as she still works mostly from home.  This flannel was cute and very soft.

About a yard of the butterfly flannel........no idea what to do with it.

and this nice rubbermade tub to carry it all home in.  Willow was on hand to help inspect each piece as it came out to be petted.........fabric and dogs, things to be petted!  And not in that order according to Willow!

I have been working on the binding for the Just Kitten Around quilt.  Yes, that is the actual name of the pattern, not just because of the cute kitten sleeping on it while I work.

Just precious, isn't she?

Of course, when you need to turn a corner, she lets you know about the disturbance it causes in her slumber!

 Again, can you see the Cruella hair?

I received the email today that it's my turn to get the update for my Quilt Path program.  The new version is supposed to be fabulous with even more cool things we can do while quilting.  Of course, I probably only utilize about 5% of the program as it is, so this will be a major adjustment.  I did successfully back up all my design files and am now updating my surface to Windows 11 so that I can download the new program.  I'm at 55%, and it has been downloading longer than I have been working on this post.  I probably have time to run the vacuum and more before it's finished.  

Woops!  It just bounced to 56%!  Better get to vacuuming!

Christi

Easter

We spent Easter weekend in St. Louis with Sarah.  Her church had a photo booth.  We opted for a simple photo without props and we avoided the 360 degrees photo booth.  It was a wonderful service, good music, fun, great sermon, and we sat with one of her friends from her core group.  We took another photo after the service.

 And those were the only photos I took the entire weekend.  We had a great time though.  Saturday morning we went to the farmer's market in Tower Grove park.  Fresh flowers, produce, jams and jellies, all kinds of meat, candles, jewelry, lots of booths with specialty products for dogs, lots of dogs..........I was busy petting a cute little golden retriever puppy and missed seeing the booth selling marijuana.  Oh well!  And amazing food vendors!  I had been telling Sarah she needed to visit this place and I think she will now that she has seen it.  She made the comment that she could just eat her way through the booths and have an entire meal.  And, if she invested in a yoga mat, she could do yoga in the park.  We saw a large group as we were leaving.  Oops, I did take a picture at the market..............fresh mushrooms!

She took us to the Foundry for lunch.  We have been watching the renovations on this place since she moved to St. Louis.  It's really close to where she lives.  It's an old warehouse that has been renovated to hold an interesting array of food vendors and shops.  The food was good, but a little pricey in my opinion.  She took us to a bar down by the stadium and arch called Pieces for supper.  They have walls of games for you to play while you eat.  We had to wait for a table, so went to the bar to order some food.  David had the Goblin Quesadilla because that's what the bar tender was eating when we sat down.  I had a taste of it (David's, not the bar tender's) and it was delicious.  We took a photo of the menu so we could remember what all was in it.

When we got our table, we finished our meals while we played a game.  They chose Jaws.  Sarah got to be the shark.  It was fun.  The time flew by and I didn't realize how long we had been there.  We didn't finish the game as we decided it was time to go and relinquish our table to someone else.  

I finished the hand work on the binding of this pumpkin wall hanging for my aunt while we were in St. Louis.  I had a fun time custom quilting this one.

Prior to going to St. Louis, I finished sewing together the blocks for the Woodbury Way low volume eye spy quilt.  This may be next up to quilt.  I have the backing and batting ready and have picked a binding, so it might get quilted yet this week.

Esme lent a paw in quilting the Just Kitten Around quilt on Monday. 

I tried covering the longarm with a large sheet of plastic to keep her off the machine before we left.  It didn't work.  Nothing could be more fun for a kitten than a large sheet of plastic.  I have since tried leaving sheets of tin foil on the quilt, and only one sheet was knocked off the first night.  And, we also got out the baby gate and put it across the top of the steps.  Cici was able to leap right over, but Esme hasn't quite figured that out yet.  It was pretty funny to see one of them on each side of the gate looking at each other.  I am hoping that Esme has figured out that her place is in the basket sleeping on a pile of batting scraps and soaking up the sunshine.

Just Kitten Around is off the longarm, but doesn't have the binding on yet.  That's on today's list... machine sew the binding so that I can have the hand work to do in the evenings.

And I added some rounds to my challenge project.  I added the second red border to get it to the size I wanted for the piano keys and square in a square blocks.  I still haven't done anything for the churn dash clue.

Also on today's agenda is laundry, 4 piano lessons, going to the dentist to get my teeth cleaned, making the binding for Woodbury Way, and I think I only have a couple of seams to make to finish the Bitcoin flimsy.  I really want to get that one done.  It's gonna be so ugly.  I may not be able to post any photos of this one.  And if I do, I'll post a warning at the top to put on your sunglasses to block the glare of ugliness.  I am actually looking forward to quilting it.  After all, I don't think I can make it look any worse.  I'm planning to use some of the bright mello yellow thread they gave me with the machine because I don't think you will actually be able to see it in the quilt.  

And I'm looking forward to the teeth cleaning..........not the actual cleaning, but clean teeth, and the chance to sit in the massaging dentist chair.  I had 12 piano lessons yesterday, so am feeling a little stiff this morning and a good massage might be just the ticket!

Christi

News from the Farm

It's looking like spring today even though we had snow yesterday.  The Hubster is ready to head to the field, but it's been too cold and wet so far.  He did finish spreading anhydrous and now has about a weeks worth of spreading manure............or, recycled Purina Chow for those of you with delicate sensibilities.  Soon it will be a real sh*t show around here!  He weighed the 1200 pigs in the research barn this week and they averaged 101 lbs.  

Fortunately, Sarah is home this weekend to help entertain him.  We are taking a meal to his parents tonight for a family dinner with his brother and wife.  It was all hands on deck in the kitchen this morning.  David sliced the brisket and made the cole slaw.  Sarah put together the cheesy potatoes, and I started the rolls and glazed carrots.  I made a striped jello yesterday, so everything is prepped and ready to just pop in the oven later this afternoon.

Now they are both outside trying to fly the drone we got him for Christmas.  I was watching from the window for a bit and he was flying it with Sarah standing right beside him with the directions in her hand.  Sarah just popped in to say, "Dad is walking way across the field to pick up his drone."  Apparently he flew it out of range.  She finally decided to get the Stampede out and drive out to pick him up.   

And in the sewing room, I did get a quilt quilted this past week.  I had a little talk with Esme about behavior and not using the longarm as a hammock and I "showed" her the spray bottle again.  Does she look properly chastised?

Yes, we mean YOU!

While Lucey the Longarm was working, I started sewing the ladders of Bitcoin together.  Making the ladders was really fun, but I have to say that sewing the ladders together is NOT.  You match a seam every inch, which means there are 79 matching seams in each ladder you sew together.  I finally told myself to just set a goal of sewing 12 together at a time.  Do this 3 times and it's done! 

I also have to say that while Bitcoin was a great scrap user, it's not a very pretty quilt.  It's what one of my friends would call "Scrap Vomit".  I'm hoping that once it's all done and quilted it will look better.  I did get 12 strips together so am a third of the way there.  My goal is to have it complete to show at our May guild meeting.

After Merry Mayhem was quilted - without Esme's assistance - both Cici and Esme took turns holding it down for the binding.  

Here it is all complete!  Even the throw pillow is done!

I've also been working on a pattern by Laura Piland called Zest.

I still have to topstitch around the seeds.  I will put these together as a table runner.

Then I decided to adapt the pattern a little to make a slice of watermelon. 

And, I have finished 140 Fish School Blocks!  Now to figure out how I want to set them together.  I had a plan, but have seen another idea that I might like better, so am giving it a little time to percolate.  

And I finished all the blocks for my Woodbury Way low volume quilt.  I was planning to make mine smaller than the pattern, 14x16 blocks, but then was putting them on the design wall and realized that I have 2 more than what the pattern originally called for, so I guess I'm doing it the large size that was in the pattern.  My counting skills were WAY off!  Oh well, I least I didn't need to make more!

Well, it appears the wind picked up a little............the drone flyers are inside.  I'd say it's windy inside as well judging by the ravages of blocks that were ON my design wall last night.  The "wind" appears to have blown them off in the night.

We are looking forward to a Skype visit with Yuliya this afternoon.  It looks to be a beautiful weekend!

Christi