Things on the Farm

 Well, things are dry on the farm.  It's not going to be a good crop year at all.  We've had so little rain.  My garden did produce some peas and I put a few in the freezer.  Also, I picked several black raspberries and put them in the freezer.  I wasn't feeling well at the time, so put off making any jelly.  David picked cherries twice at some friends' place.  We got close to 5 gallon.  I made one batch of preserves and put 6 pies in the freezer and then several more boxes of cherries for pie.  On my Mother's Day trip in May, I stopped at the Amish Markets in Clark and bought 12 quarts of strawberries.  David ended up with 2 pies, and I made 2 batches of preserves (nephew Jackson got 1 batch), and put the rest in the freezer.  A friend gave me a few apricots.

They made some beautiful and tasty preserves.  And this past Monday, I made applesauce from the Lodi apples.  We didn't have very many and they were really small.  It yielded 15 pints.  They didn't have very much juice, so David had to run them through the press as the sauce was so thick.............think Dairy Queen blizzard when they hand you the cup upside down!  You can eat this sauce with a fork!  And you've seen the sweet corn patch.  We are up to 10 coons now.

The animals are doing fairly well.  I'm working on the Elizabeth Hartman Fab Farm quilt as a block of the month.  Two of these horses underwent surgery to correct some "mane" issues, but all are fine now.

These 2 cows had some nose issues and also had surgery.  It was "snot" for the faint of heart!

The red cows managed to avoid any "surgery".

All four of the pigs experienced some surgery to correct a chin deformity.  And obviously 2 of them were shy and didn't pose for photos.

So far, the chickens haven't shown any signs of malformation, so no needed surgeries for these!

We are expecting the arrival of goats, sheep, bees, and some sunflowers for this quilt.

And this beast had a urinary infection that required of week of twice a day liquid medication down her throat............it did take 4 hands to accomplish this.  

She seems better now, if not as trusting when she's picked up.  So that's the farm update.  The next update should come from the sewing/quilting room, although not much happened there due to illness in June.

Christi

Duck, Duck, Goose or Coon, Coon, Possum!

 Here is the beautiful sweet corn patch............hopefully we'll be chomping down on some corn by the end of the week...............if.................

we can protect if from these guys............

This one was on the scruffy side and the one below seemed pretty relaxed.

This one was so big he couldn't stand upright in the trap and the one below was trying to dig his way out.

The one above was scared and the one below very angry.......

I like the face on this one!

And finally, our 4th of July catch..............

Now, I'm going to be honest, we are not a Catch and Release household.  Once the sweet corn is done, we will stop trapping them unless they start getting in the shed and tearing things up again.  And we have done other things like spreading human and dog (ok, Willow thinks she's human) hair all throughout the patch.  So they've been given fair warning.

Hopefully we'll be enjoying some sweet corn soon.

Christi

Mother's Day, Graduations, Piano Recitals, and Birthdays, OH MY!

First of all, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY COUSIN BRENDA!  

I know this photo is from Mackenzie's graduation back in May, but Happy Birthday to you and Congrats on raising 2 beautiful girls who will both be in college now!

 

We went to Omaha in May to celebrate graduation with the Thackers.  We helped set up the day before, and got to play cards in the evening.  Girls ruled!!!!

Mackenzie celebrated with a brunch open house the next day.  Pancakes, waffles, and a DONUT BOARD!  Yes, those are square donuts.

My Aunt Judy, grandma to the grad, made a t-shirt quilt for her graduation gift.  She was a competitive swimmer and lots of fun shirts.

She even used a shirt design to make the label on the back.  I love the phrase, "Smart Fish Swim in Schools."

And it was great to see Uncle Al and Aunt Judy.

 

Then, the first Sunday in June, we traveled to Iowa City for Zach's graduation party.  It was postponed from the previous day as his soccer team was playing in the state championships and won!  We had fun seeing cousins and family we hadn't seen in quite awhile.

Here is the Nielson group..........

Five first cousins there....  I don't know if Jeff is the rose or the thorn????

I spent Mother's Day weekend in St. Louis with Sarah.  She took me to a movie, the Tower Grove Farmer's Market, and to lunch at the Lewis & Clark in St. Charles.  We had lunch with Aaron's step mom and step sister.  Lots of good conversation!

And May started off with a very successful piano recital.  Don't let the fact that we can't get a good group shot fool you.............they all did very well.  Even the guy who came directly from a baseball game and still had his uniform and eye black on.

Yes, the 2 in the matching blue shirts are twins and that is their best friend standing between them.  I ran into the little guy at the movies Sunday afternoon and was amazed to see how much he has grown this summer.  Fall will be here before we know it!

Christi

Happy Independence Day!

 We saw fireworks last night..............

It was quite the show!  We went to some friends from church who have an annual Third of July gathering.........lots of people, lots of great food, and awesome fireworks.  They had all sorts of activities for the kids and even showed an outdoor movie on a big screen.  FUN!

Now I realize it's been TWO WHOLE MONTHS since I have blogged so it's gonna take awhile to catch up.  I apologize for the wait, but have to admit that I spent most of June sick.  I started an ear infection, and then have had some pretty severe allergy issues that resulted in totally losing my voice (yes, pen and paper notes were left for the hubby) and several trips to the doctor.  I have basically been told not to go outside for the rest of the summer...............FROST can't come soon enough for me.  

Speaking of Independence Day, I want to take a minute to send some greetings to Yuliya, our exchange student from Ukraine.  I think she has been having an equally trying summer.  

This is a quilt top I pieced for her using the colors of the Ukranian flag............blue for the skies and golden yellow for the fields of wheat.  It's not quilted yet, but hopefully soon.  It was a free pattern from Laura Piland at Slice of Pi quilts.

And Cici and Esme wanted to show their patriotic spirit by posing with the quilted patriotic decor.  

or sleeping on it as the case may be.

Sarah is here for the week, so we are planning on cooking.  She wants to make fajitas for lunch and we're trying a new recipe for Mexican rice and some white queso dip.  We'll see how it goes.

Happy Independence Day everyone!

Christi

Oopsie! Forgot to blog yesterday!

 I just realized that I never even thought about blogging yesterday.  There is a piano recital this weekend, and with lessons at the church most of the day yesterday and finishing up and delivering a t-shirt quilt to someone, I just never thought about it.  Sorry.

So let's catch up on some quilting, ok?  As of last night, this one is COMPLETE!  Check another UFO off the list!

This pattern is called Beach Cottage and was from a book called Scrap Basket Surprises by Kim Brackett.  It uses 2.5" strips.  I had 2 jelly rolls called Urban Farmhouse Gatherings that I had purchased for a graduation quilt for someone a couple of years ago and then went in a different direction, so decided last summer to use them for this pattern.  The cutting was fun, but the piecing got boring, the same thing over and over in all these muted fabrics.  However when I finally put it together, I loved it.  And then, quilted it was gorgeous.  It was a new quilt design that I hadn't tried before.  

This is the backing fabric.  I did purchase a wide back so there was no piecing in the back.  David really likes this one.

That's the only completely finished quilt, but I do have some progress photos to share...........

This is Criss Cross Kisses made with a fabric line called Happiness Blooms.  I picked up the pattern on our trip to Nebraska in February.  It's currently hanging in the TBQ closet, backing, batting, and binding ready.

I just finished this cute baby quilt top last night.  Sarah needs a baby gift for someone who has a Corgi dog, so this was my interpretation of her ideas for a baby quilt.  The ears gave me a little trouble and all 4 puppies had to undergo ear surgery.  It's next up to be quilted and the backing and binding are ready!

I'm in a small group of quilters from my guild who are working on a Quilt of Valor to present in November.  This is our quilt.  It still needs a navy blue outer border, then it can be quilted.  

And I am still trying to use up panels.  I had this one called Reeling It In.  Last year, I was attracted to churn dash blocks, so made the panel blocks into churn dashes.  Since the original panel blocks weren't square, the churn dashes aren't square either.  I put it away because I had no idea how to set them together.  Since this on the UFO list this year, I have been trying to figure out how to finish it.  I'm thinking the big bobber will be the center and there may be some flying geese on either side with the churn dashes as a border............

And just when you thought you might get a blog post without any 4-legged helpers, Esme puts her thoughts into the design..........

So, now you know what's been happening in the sewing room the last month or so.  

Christi

Easter Memories & The Zoo

 I know.  This is what happens when you don't blog for a month............you go all the way back to Easter!

We spend Easter weekend in St. Louis with Sarah.  Her church had one massive Sunday morning service that combined 3 congregations.  It was in a big theatre downtown.  Amazing to hear that many voices singing together!  Her boyfriend, Aaron attended with us.

We also spent time Saturday at the zoo.  It was a beautiful day.  

You wanted to see photos of the animals, right?

Above is a creature known as ESME!  And below is a rare photo of CICI!  She's looking a little grumpy today.

Often times you find the animals asleep during your trip to the zoo...........

But sometimes you catch them playing.......

And sometimes the younger ones try to sneak up on the older ones..........

Actually, Sarah and her cat Lara, spent a week with us in April, working from home, while her car was being repaired.

And some of the animals got trimmed up during the month of April.............

What is this nonsense about us being a zoo?  

Sorry, I didn't really have any zoo pictures of animals to share.  It was such a beautiful day that we just enjoyed watching and didn't snap the photos.  So, I shared pics of some of the local species here.

Have a great day!

Christi