Angels herding the cows

The water did come on last night so the plan was for me to haul some hay down & get a few chores done while the cows were in the pasture. While on the first load I noticed that the cows & their babies were spread out all over the pasture. I had gotten one load done & had started on my second when the heavens opened up & it started to pour. When I got to the top of the pasture there were all of the cows & their babies waiting for me to let them in. I quickly made a u-turn, shut all of the gates & let the cows back in. I seriously think that was the easiest I have ever had it. I wish that I could have seen the Angels bringing the cows up. What a sight! 

I did make a quick check of the pasture just to make sure there was no one left behind & there wasn't. Thank you Lord for my many blessings yesterday & today. 

More later on,

Vicky 

Just call me Grace + life with no water

This picture is a summary of my evening

The farm & my in-laws house is on city water, my families house is on well water. Around 3 today there was a major water line break & there is no city water. Well wouldn't you know husband wasn't home. By the time he got home (from helping an elderly farmer) it was dark. The plan to get water to the cows was to get them back into the pasture (there are 3 ponds back there). I did a quick check of the fence line & we were good to go. Just try to picture 3 humans herding a bunch of cows & calves in the dark. Oh my goodness what an experience. All went well, it took us a few tries but I believe we got all momma & their babies reunited in the pasture. The incident with my pant leg occurred while herding some calves back towards the gate & well with it being dark I did not see the huge mud pit. It'll be fine though I'll wash & so will the jeans. Dear husband & kiddo are headed into town to get water in these huge totes to water another set of calves that can't go back to the pasture. I'm hoping that the water will come back on soon & this incredible warm weather holds on until the water comes on. I really don't want to chop ice on the ponds. I'd better close this off & see what I can get done in the house. I hope y'all are having a great evening. More later on,

Vicky

It's Monday! What am I working on, a finish!!!!

Life has been busy but isn't that what I always say? We had a great Thanksgiving with our family & friends. I learned that you can't crowd an oven, the food will not cook quickly. My silly turkey took 6 hours to cook. The lessons I learned & the stories we can now tell😊.

I finished my latest quilt! Yeah! It's a big one. It measures 101.5" square, I hope. My tiny living room is to small to lay it out flat & it is too wet for an outside picture. This pic will have to do until I get it back & then maybe I can take apic outside

My original plan was for it to have a 4" border but with it being over 100" I decided that it was good border less. I'll put a solid dark binding on it & call it good. While putting it together I used some BOM blocks as my Leaders & Enders. I was able to get 3 blocks completed! 

Next on my plate is to bind 2 quilts, not my favorite thing to do. My guild is participating in the Kansas City quilt festival next June. We get to hang a certain number so in order to choose which quilts we will hang we need to bring our quilts this Thursday to guild meeting & we'll have viewers choice. My entry will be 

Sorry for the blurry picture me & technology are not getting along currently. This is my version of a red work quilt. The original pattern was for twilling embroidery but I did stem stitch with pearl cotton #5. It gives great texture & dimension plus it goes so much faster than twilling. 

I'd better cut this off, I need to finish supper. I hope hall are having a great day. It's been an unseasonably warm day here. It looks like we'll be in the upper 50's to almost 60's all week.  It's very hard for me to get in the Christmas spirit with it being that warm. I think getting my tree up might help. More later on,  

Vicky

It's Monday what am I working on? Cleaning & organizing the sewing room

I believe that I need to go through my sewing room & clean it/ organize it every so often. Well I had been putting that off & putting that off & well my sewing room had gotten out of control.  We are having company come in for Thanksgiving & my kiddo sleeps in the sewing room when company comes. I started working on it last night & was able to work on it for an hour.  This is what it started at 

This is what it looks like after an hour of work

Much better but there is more to be done. I've decided that I'm going to gift all of my minky fabric to my Mom. She makes cute & warm baby quilts minky & I know that she'll use it. So far I have one regular sized trash bag full & I believe that there is more. If for some reason I need minky I'll go & buy just what I need. I don't need my own stash of minky. Plus I'd rather have that room for cotton fabric that I can piece with. 

I did get the table runner that I mentioned in the last post done. It'll be going to my quilter tomorrow,

I do need to pull a backing for it & then it'll be ready to go. 

I had purchased new fabrics from the quilt shop to help promote them & well I did not calculate very well. I am a scrap quilter I don't figure yardage until after I'm done piecing. I just want to know how much fabric scraps I've used up. So the leftovers from this project will find their proper place into the stash. Here's a pic of my quilt hanging in the shop

I'm going to continue working on the sewing room & working on my version of 4 patch X. I'm getting closer but my goal is to have it done by Friday. I'm still trying to decide if I want to participate in Bonnie Hunters mystery. I hope y'all are staying warm. It's kind of a gray day here. Have a great day. More later on,

Vicky

I'm breaking all the rules these days

I never thought of myself as a rule breaker but here lately I sure am. Well only in my quilting world. My husbands rule of " Don't start one project until the current project is done" has not been followed here lately. I was feeling very blah on the string spiderweb quilt & I wanted to sew on my treadle so I started working on some batik 4 patches. That was going well until my stitches were not very sturdy 😢. I'm not sure what needs to be tweaked but now was not the time to figure it out. I took all of my 4 patches & moved back to the modern Pfaff machine. I had a momentary pause of should I stay on one machine with each project then I realized that was rubbish. As long as your 1/4" seams are consistent switch between as many machines as you want! So in the craziness of yesterday I managed to finish 4 blocks, woohoo!!!!!!

Now I just need to finish 140 more! My goal is to have the top finished by next Friday. (That's when Bonnie Hunter at quiltville.com is starting her yearly mystery. I'm still playing with the idea of participating.) I've given up on the thought of making smaller quilts for my family. We just love the bigger quilts & I believe that they use up more fabric. 

On Friday nights I get together & sew with some friends. Well last Friday Kathy gifted me 3 bags of fabric

More scraps! When it rains fabric here it pours! This will go in to the stack of fabric that I need to sort.

The thing is that I currently want to sew & not sort fabric so it's kinda backed up on me. We've got family coming in for Thanksgiving so there will be lots of sorting & organizing going on this weekend.

I was supposed to teach a string piecing class at one of the local quilt stores here this week. Well my student never showed up. That was ok though because it gave me a chance to talk with the owner about my patterns. She bought some of each of them & they will be hanging 3 of my quilts in the shop!

With the String Diamonds quilt there will be a table runner made up using the same technique as the quilt just using a different color way. 

They will also be hanging Christmas Stars

I am making a table runner, quickly, in a different color way so that they can show it along with this quilt. The third quilt. Is The Cross

They have the patterns for these quilts & my other patterns in store & maybe online as well. Check out 

MeadowsQuiltingandSewing.com   The quilts will be hanging until mid January.

 I hope y'all are having a good day. It's beautiful here & warmer than it has been in a while. I might open the windows later on. More later on,

Vicky

It's Monday morning. What am I working on? Ironing

This week I had finished up matching all of my 2 patches into 4 patches. They were layed by the treadle just begging to go under the needle. 

Finally Saturday I was able to sit & treadle & was able to get through quite a few of them. Yesterday I finished sewing them all up! Now they are just a pile under my treadle waiting to be cut apart & ironed. 

I have never gotten into the habit of ironing them while they are still attached to one another. I tried it once but never really cared for it. I think I need to put on a good movie & have a ironing party. I'm hoping that by the time the movie is over the ironing will be too. 

Today is going to be the last warm weather day for a while. Starting tonight & into tomorrow it will be my kind of weather. I tell my husband all the time that I think the dear Lord made me for the Artic Circle & him for the Equator. Thankfully we're in Kansas & that's in the middle of the two places so we're both happy. 

Just wanted to share a fun pic of some of the calves playing King of The Hay Bale this am. They are fun to watch. 

I hope y'all have a great day. Checkout patchworktimes.com to see what other quilters are up to today. More later on,  

Vicky

It's Monday & I'm working on My Civil War Spider Web quilt

I'm so glad it's Monday! I know that might sound weird but I look forward to Mondays like most people look forward to the weekends. The weekends here are generally jam packed. My husband wants to cram as much as he possibly can into his 1 1/2 days off. On Monday mornings after my husband goes to work & my son goes to school I feel like I can slow down a bit. 

I'm working on the Civil War Spider Web quilt. This is not a fast quilt to make but that's ok. It's using up fabric & I really like it. I'm using Civil War Repro fabrics (AKA dirt fabrics). I haven't been a huge fan of CW fabrics in the past but I'm learning to appreciate their beauty. This quilt is more to my husbands liking. 

I've got 2 rows done & kinda like it always does you can't really tell I've used any of my strings. You can find out more on this quilt by reading my previous post.

I've also had lots of opportunities to work on my embroidery project this week. 

This will definitely fits the bill of "it will take me a long time to complete it". My husband is challenging me to make more projects that take a long time to complete. He says I make too many quilts too fast. 

This embroidery project has at least 8 of these blocks with a possibility of making more. We'll see when we get there. This is just block 1 of 8. It looks like it will use over 2 skiens of floss per block. 

So in between laundry & cleaning the house I'm going to be sewing! I hope y'all have a great day. It's another beautiful but windy day here. If you'd like to see what other quilters are working on check out 

patchworktimes.com

Vicky

p.s. Sick calf update. The vet came & gave her a thorough exam & ended up giving her a couple of different meds. We are trying to be optimistic. She has shown more energy yesterday & today but only time will tell.

Sitting & waiting for the vet

As caretakers of cows you are on call everyday all day, including holidays, birthdays & anniversaries.  Sometimes it really stinks because these crazy creatures will wait until Christmas Eve to have a medical emergency. I'm currently sitting outside in some of my cold weather gear drinking coffee & waiting on the vet. We've got a sick calf & it's beyond my experience. I'm hoping it'll be an easy fix, I'm  trying to be optimistic. So while I wait i decided to write a blog post. Gotta love smart phones 😀

When I first started Quilting my husband gave me one rule " Don't start a project until you are completely done with your current project". Well for the most part I've been able to do pretty good with that until currently. I've got my Friday night quilt project ( I get together with some Quilty friends & sew on Friday nights), the new batik 4 patch project & there are piles of fabrics in my sewing room already grouped up for specific projects. 

I was really starting to feel overwhelmed by it all. So I'm going to focus on the Friday night project & get it done & then move on down the list. I guess my eagerness got in the way of reality.  Here's my Friday night project 

It's a Civil War Spider Web quilt. This was inspired by a stack of CW layer cakes I was gifted. I kid you not that the stack of layer cakes was 6". 

Isn't that crazy! The quilter didn't want them anymore & gifted them to me. I was extremely thankful & told her that I would put them up good use. I sorted them out & took just the CW pieces out to use. The rest is set aside for future projects. 

I'm using the template & foundation papers that I got from Missouri Star Quilt Co to make this quilt 

I cut 42 stars & then sliced up the rest for strings. It's going to be a heavy quilt with all of those pieces & thread. 

I hope that y'all have a great weekend. It's cold & beautiful here in the middle of the USA. More later on,

Vicky 

720, that's the number.

 I'm  a day late on getting my Monday "What am I working on" blog written. It seems here lately that as each new Monday comes I've gotten farther along on this batik quilt. That's a good thing though I do wish I could get more done in my days. Here's my box of 2 patches

I was curious just how many 4 patches I could make out of this box. I personally think, a lot! I started matching up pairs yesterday & I've gotten 230 4 patches matched up so far. 

(My kiddo has dumped out a 5 gallon container full of buttons looking for a specific one.)

According to the pattern I need 280 4 patches. I'm almost there & it looks like I've taken nothing out of the box

So since it apears that there are plenty of 4 patches let's make this quilt bigger! I did some math & it comes out that I'll need 144 blocks for a 12X12 setting. 144 blocks X five 4 patches per block = 720 4 patches. I think that I'll be able to get all that I need from this little box.😀

I hope y'all are having a great day. I've got the windows open & I'm loving this weather. More later on,

Vicky

p.s. check out patchworktimes.com to see what other quilters are working on

What am I working on today? A new quilt!

It's been a busy week here though I think I always  say that on Monday mornings. I've been doing my best to get things ready to go for my next guild presentation. I head out tomorrow for Rose Hill KS. I'm looking forward to. It should be great time. I'll be packing up the car later this afternoon after I've run some errands. 

I was able to get bindings on both the Orphan quilt & the Apple Core quilt. I'm especially excited about the Apple Core quilt being done. I had never done bias binding & to be honest I was intimidated by it. I Googled how to make bias binding & a great simple YouTube video came up & I was in business. I realized that the intimidation was all in my head & making/putting bias binding on a quilt isn't so bad. It does take longer than regular binding though. I raided my fat quarters & pulled out a few that had been in there way to long

Some of these go back to 2005. I only know that because of the date on the selvage. Here's a pic of part of the binding. I'm really glad that I kept the curves & did the bias binding. It really makes the quilt. 

I really learned a lot from this quilt. I'm no longer intimidated by curved piecing or bias binding. I think I'm ready to tackle a Double Wedding Ring!! Though that might have to wait for a bit. There are a few quilts ahead of a DWR. 

I think that it was last Monday when I showed a pic of the bags of batik scraps that I had cut up. 

Well I have taken the 2" bag & matched up all of the strips & now they are ready to sew together. 

I think I'm ready to put some fabric under the needle. I'm going to find the time to make that happen today! I'm hoping that some coffee will help keep the energy up. It's just a little after 9 & I'm yawning not good. I hope that y'all have a great day. It's simply gorgeous here in the middle of the USA. More later on,

Vicky

The Scrappy Farmer is on Facebook!

I'm so excited to announce that The Scrappy Farmer is on Facebook, finally! Please check the page out. It'll be a lot of fun connecting with with all of you on facebook. Just search for The Scrappy Farmer. If you have any trouble finding me let me know. More later on

Vicky

What I'm working on: Finishing up cutting the pile of possibilities

In the last week I've worked my way through the large pile of batik scraps. I've ironed them & cut them into the best sizes to maximize what I had & not to through very much away. I've got 4 bags/piles: 2.5", 2", 1.5" & strings! 

The 1.5" bag is by far the largest bag. I've got this small pile of scraps left to cut & then I'll be done & then I can sew!

I also sorted out some of the blues & purples for an additional project. 

I will add these to this stack of blue/purple batik yardage.I did buy yardage a long time ago & fellow quilters have given me yardage to get it out of their stash. 

I'd better wrap this up. I'm waiting on the feed man & trying to see how much I can get done before he gets here. I hope y'all are having a great day. The sun is shining here so maybe we'll start to dry out a bit from all of the rain. More later on,

Vicky

What I'm working on: A quilt finish, another string quilt & working on a pile of possibilities

Good morning y'all! 

It's been a fun jam packed weekend. I did find time to finish my orphan quilt, woo hoo!

I really like it! Though I think that I always say that. It's a fun history of my my quilting journey.  I do need to come up with a new name for it. I'm not a big fan of "Orphan quilt". If anyone has any suggestions I would love to hear them. I'm hoping to get it to my LAQ this week & pick up my Apple Core quilt. Drop one off , pick one up its kind of fun😄.

Check out my previous post about the pile of possibilities. I haven't had enough time to work on cutting the scraps down to get enough to start making my next quilts. Knowing this I was kind of in a lurch on Friday night. I get together with some quilty friends & sew on Friday nights & I needed a project. I went looking in the sewing room & found this string project. It will be done in Civil War reproduction scraps. I was able to get this block done on Friday night!

I don't have many quilts in progress at one time. That was a request that my husband made when I first started quilting. "Don't start another quilt until you've got the one you're working on done". For the most part I've been able to do that. 

I'd better keep this short as ther is lots to do today. I hope y'all have a great day! More later on,

Vicky

A pile of possibilities

I finished my orphan quilt yesterday. They are orphans no more! They are one large quilt! I would show a picture but my house is to small to lay it out flat & it's been raining so the front yard is not an option. I'll share one soon when things dry up. Once I was finished with the Orphan Quilt ( I've got to come up with a better name for it. I don't like Orphan for the name of a quilt) I started looking through my patterns looking for my next quilt to make. Actually I needed to find 2 quilts. I needed a Leeder/Ender quilt besides my main project.  So I think I found my patterns, my main project will be "Four Patch X" by Bonnie Hunter

My L/E project will be "Crabapples" by Bonnie Hunter

The next decision was color palette. I decided on bright  batiks, shocking right? 

I just love those bright colors. I've got 2 tubs full of batiks. One holds the yardage & the other holds my scraps. I dumped the scraps on my living room floor  & started sorting. This is all of the bright colors

I put all of the muted colors &  browns back into the tub. 

It'll be a lot harder for me to use these colors up. I'm not drawn to them at all. I will some day though. 

I take out a handful, iron them & then cut them into the best use of their size. I've got four piles going; 2.5", 2", 1.5" & strings. 

It'll take me a little bit of time but that's ok. At least this pile of scraps will be put into a useful purpose. 

A little farm news. Things are going to start getting busy again. The fall baby calves are starting to arrive & they are just too darn cute. Also it's time to pick pears. Where my house sits use to be an orchard. There were pears, peaches, apples & cherries. The tornado of '53 took them all out except one pear tree. 

It's a an unbelievable producing tree. We've picked 27 5 gallon buckets from it in one season & that doesn't count the buckets of bad pears that the cows got. 

We are expecting our first freeze tomorrow am so I need to pic the tree clean. This is one of the pears that we picked the other night

I'd better get my clothes changed & head outside. My mom & cousin Wanda are coming up later this afternoon. Wanda wants to see some quilts. I'll see what I can do to help with that. Have a great day y'all.  More later on,

Vicky 

What I'm working on: An orphan quilt, hand quilting & some embroidery

It's has been 11 years of me saying "I'm not a hand quilter, I'm just not patient enough". Which it is true I really do have to work hard on my patience. Last night I say down with my block that I had prepared & set to work hand quilting. I was disappointed with my work & I was venting my frustrations to a friend. Her encouraging words of "Vicky you've got to start somewhere" reminded me that I am a beginner.  Here's my progress so far

I think that I need to loosen the fabric in the hoop some. I'm so used to having my embroidery hoop taunt. That it's weird having it so flimsy. 

I am a huge Bonnie Hunter fan. I noticed on her blog & FB page that she was hand quilting an orphan block quilt. It got me to thinkin that I know that I've got lots of orphan blocks & leftover pieces from the last 10+ years. In just a few days I had what I thought was enough blocks but it turns out I was 2 short. That's not a problem. I can come up with 2 more blocks. This is the first layout

Husband did not like the swastikas on the left side. I didn't notice them! So I switched things around & came up with this 

It's going to be another biggie but that's ok. I just don't make small quilts. With a 4" border I believe it will be around 104" square. 

I've been making some progress on my newest embroidery project. 

This project will take a while because I need to make 8 of these blocks. They are going to be in a broken star quilt when they're all done. 

I hope y'all have a great day. It's looking like it will be another spectacular day here in the middle of America.  More later on,

Vicky

Me & hand quilting

Hand quilting & I go way back. I remember my mom was really into it when I was little. I just never understood why she would want to do something so slow. When I got into quilting I REALLY didn't understand why people would want to do something so slow when you had fast machine quilting. 

Something has changed in my perspective. I'm not sure why but it has. I had been intimidated by those small needles. I've got these huge man hands & thought I'd never be able to do quilt with those small needles. Well I was wasting time on YouTube the other day & I came across the Australian (Sarah Fielke) lady hand quilting using Pearl cotton embroidery floss & large embroidery needles to hand quilt. Well that got my attention. My curiosity was spiked & now I just had to try it. I was over anxious to start & thought that my first hand quilting project should be a queen sized quilt. My friend & LAQ said that I should do something small the first time just to make sure I liked it. So I came home & found this block

I need to put a border on it, find a backing & get started! I'm curious to see if I will like it. I'm kinda hoping that I will. I showed this block to my husband & explained my idea to him. His response was "what are you going to do with it?"

He's very much a everything has to have a function kind of guy. I told him that once I got it done I'd hang it in my sewing room. He replied "I see".

I hope that y'all are having a good day. It's another beautiful autum day here in the middle of America! More later on

Vicky

What in working on: A serious happy dance!

Oh I'm so stinkin happy. The Apple core quilt is done!!!! I'm excited, thrilled & relieved that it is done!

This has probably been one of the longest on going quilt projects that I have ever had. I've been working on & off with this quilt for over a year. I was determined that it was not going to go back on the shelf it was going to be completed ! Woohoo! Knock that one off the bucket list!

It's also been very busy on the scrappy front. I have been gifted oodles of scraps!

All of this came from 3 people. I'm looking forward to going through it & then putting it into quilts. More variety!

On the farm front my husband tricked me I thought we were done with hay but nope we're not. It looks like I'll be in the field tomorrow raking & baling hay. Woohoo! What a way to celebrate our Anniversary, but that is the life if a farmer. I hope y'all have a good day. It's beautiful here in the middle of America. More later on,

Vicky