It's Been Too Long!

It has been too long since my last post.  I have tons of excuses, but I would bore you to death with all of them.  We'll just say what little time I did have to post, I did some things for myself.  Walked the dogs, planted perennials, decorated the porch, went on vacation and still managed to fit in a couple weekend retreats.  So, now I must get back to a disciplined schedule. 

I'll start by giving you a brief update on what's been going on. 




We had a grandson back in the spring.  His name is Logan Meyers and he is Delaney's little brother.  She's a wonderful big sister and loves him so much.  He is a little over 3 months in this picture.  He is now almost 8 months and very mobile.  It's amazing how much he looks like my husband as a baby.  So adorable.

Then in April we ordered Chickens.  Now when you order Chickens you can order the kind you want and they are sexed, but the percentage of accuracy is about 75%.  So, we ordered 5 Gold Laced Wyandotte hens, 5 Easter Egger hens (some call these Auracanas) and 1 Partridge Rock rooster.  They arrived on May 17th while I was at Quilt Market in Kansas City.  We ended up with 10 instead of 11 due to one of them dying on arrival.  By the middle of June I was on the road to pick up 3 Silky Bantams, 1 is buff, 1 white, and 1 black.  The buff colored one turned out to be a rooster.  He is the one in front on the left.  They are all so much fun to watch.                                                                                                                                       

 They are now 5 1/2 months old and are now laying eggs.  The blue/green ones are from the easter egger hens.  We average 3-4 a day.






This is one weeks worth of eggs.  They are still on the small side.  As the chickens get full grown, they're eggs will get bigger. 

This is a picture that I took a week and a half ago.  Our first double yolker and also the first large egg which is pictured above on the top right.  The one on the bottom right, we believe might be from one of our silkie chickens. 

Even Delaney enjoys the chickens.  She never seems to be afraid to go in by them and to feed them.  Their pecks at the food are not always gentle, so I'm always a little hesitant to have her do this. 

Then Delaney turned 2 at the beginning of August.  She had so much fun at her party and her favorite present from my son, Ian was her big stuffed animal, Brobie.  She loves him and has to have him sleep with her every night. 

Here is one of my outdoor projects that I worked on this summer.  I had my husband bring it up to the house from out in back of the property.  We painted it Chevy Orange, then planted a ton of plants in it.  This picture was taken at the beginning of the summer, so by the end of the summer the plants really kind of took over the whole thing.  It's one of my favorite planters. 

So much for getting any quilting done over that time.  Well, I did get some done, but not nearly as much as I hoped for.  I think most of you know what that's like.  It's kind of like taking 5 to 6 projects on a weekend retreat and only working on 2 of them.  We all have very high expectations. 

My next post I will show you the 9 new designs we took to Expo in September.  And a couple of things that I'm in the middle of making. 

Till next time!  PJR

Another great Lori Smith Design

I just finished this top last Friday and I have to say, it makes me happy!
The center is wool applique' on cotton. The rest of the quilt is also cotton.
I left for Kansas City yesterday for Market, so I brought this quilt with to show my friend Randy. I going to teach her how to use wool on cotton.
I'll post later with lots more updates. We're going to be cruising around KC to all the quilt shops in thy e area. That will be about 10 - 12 shops. Should be a fun filled day.
Till later. pjr

Where Did The Time Go?

Hi All,

I missed posting anything in January and here it is the last day of February and I'm finally getting around to it.  I was a little/a lot under the weather in January with a flu bug then just when I started feeling better, I came down with this sinus crap going around.  Hmmm, not sure who's out to get me!  You find out real fast that life doesn't stop just because you do.  Work just kept piling up and it took me a good amount of time to trudge through it. 

Anyways, I did manage to fit in a couple retreats.  The first one was the third weekend in January (where I came down with the flu), but managed to stay the entire weekend and still managed to have fun. 

These are just some of the photo's I took from that weekend.  The staff at Covenant Harbor was so welcoming.  They even put up a sign for us. 

 
We had a couple of projects planned for the weekend.  One of them was making mittens from wool sweaters.  This was just one of the pairs.  They were so much fun!  And thanks to Micki, she provided a basketful of felted sweaters. 

Here is the group that worked on the mitten project.  They were so proud of themselves!  Each and every pair turned out so cute.

Next we had a bit of a race doing that "Super Fast Jelly Roll" quilt.  Here's Bonnie's made from Homespun fabrics.  You ask, where do you find homespuns cut into Jelly Rolls?  Well, we cut them at the shop.  They are great.  She choose to join her strips on the bias.   Isn't it wonderful!

This is Martha's JR quilt.  Well, I'm bad, I can't remember what line this is from, but I believe it's a 3 Sister's line.  Way to go Martha!  Gotta love it.

Here is Sandy's JR quilt made from Kansas Troubles fabrics.  How great is that.  All of them turned out splendid and everyone seem to really enjoy doing the project. 










 


I just have to throw this in there.  We've been on a little bit of a kick for the last few years or so.  You take an antique Shawnee planter and either put a felted ball in it or fill a pouch with sand, place it in the planter, then cover it with wool and glue in place.  Voila!  You have a vintage pincushion.  One of these is not a Shawnee, but antique.  Cute!

Here are some of quilts that the ladies worked on over the weekend.

This is Marge with her "Stone Soup" quilt.  She made is a bit bigger than the actual pattern.

This is Debbie's "Pennies From Heaven".  It's almost done here.  The picture doesn't do it justice.  The wool and embellishing is to die for.

And DarLynn worked on a Schnibbles pattern.  Actually, it's a revision that Carrie Nelson put on her blog, called "Tiny Town".  Oh Fun!

This is Randy's quilt that she made with toile fabric from Paris.  We all drooled over this quilt.  And the quilting was done by Marge and is absolutely wonderful.

This is "Dipped in Chocolate" and I believe it's Cathy's quilt.  I made the same one, but my border is darker, so I know it's not mine.  We did a block exchange to make this quilt.  They are little four-patches that finish at 1 1/2" each.  Oh fun!

I'm not sure who made this quilt, but I just loved it.  Very scrappy!  Whoever the owner is, please let me know.  I need to give credit, where it's due.











 

Here's Rose's Farmer's Wife Quilt.  She just finished it and I know she was thrilled with how it turned out.  We started this 2 years ago.  Way to go Rose!

This is my "Heirloom Stitches" quilt.  We did this last year as a Block of the Month.  It's made with cotton fabrics, but the applique is wool.  DarLynn helped me with this immensely.  I owe her big time.  

Lastly, this is Delaney after I got home from the retreat.  She thinks that my Tutto Tote is not for my machine, but for grandpa to pull her around in.  She actually sits in it while he pulls her.  Delaney's awaiting a little brother or sister in less than a month now.  We are all getting very excited. 



I'll post pictures from the retreat I went on last weekend soon, but my husband and I are off to Texas tomorrow to see our son.

Till Later, PJR