I Won!

I just got an email telling me I won a copy of Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks!  Yay, Yippee, WooHoo!!!  Don't think I have ever won anything through the internet before so this is so exciting.  If I did this correctly you should be able to click on the yellow button above to take you the the Quiltmaker's website.  If I didn't get that done correctly just click on this link to read all about the prizes you might win if you enter too.

Lynn

Finally...I'm Quilting

The quilt is pin basted and I am now quilting it....FINALLY! For a little quilt I am sure taking a long time getting it finished.

I have chosen to use YLI silk thread for the top and change the thread colors on different areas and I am using Bottom Line thread by Superior Threads of a green color for the bottom of the quilt.

I have decided to make a practice quilt sandwich to start quilting each session to get back into the groove and to also check my stitches to hopefully avoid some errors. Will see if that helps.

Stitched around each of the basket of flowers, added texture on the basket and echo quilted around the motif in the center oval. A little wobbly on my echo quilting but am going to leave it. Quilting parallel lines is really not as easy as one might think. Of course working on a small scale makes it a little more difficult too. My lines are only 1/8" apart.


OK, do you remember in the last post what I decided to quilt in those 1/2" borders? Well, when I started stitching I quilted a little different design. It wasn't that I changed my mind, but when I started quilting I went the wrong way on the first few circles and didn't even realize it. When I did realize it I paused....looked it over and decided it would be the design for those borders as I was not going to rip it out. Think it works just as good as the original plan so don't know why I worried about what I was going to put in those borders as it turned out different than the plan anyway.

Until Later,
Lynn

Marking Borders

I had the whole miniature basket quilt marked several days ago with the exception of those two 1/2" borders. I just didn't have any ideas so went to the internet and typed in border quilt designs in Google then looked at photo after photo of quilted borders. Every time I saw something interesting I tried to sketch out a variation that might work on my tiny borders. Of course when I am thinking of a 1/2" border I know the design will have to be pretty simple. After all how much stitching can I do in only 1/2"?

I have this June Tailor grid ruler and used it as a quick way to mark 1/2" lines on my paper to sketch my border ideas. So far I have not used it to mark a quilt but now I can say I have used it at least once. Someday I will mark a quilting grid on a quilt with it hopefully or I can just use it to mark parallel lines quickly!

Filled the paper with practice borders then sat back and decided what I wanted to use. I liked the one that looks like  Ls or loops back and forth across the width.  It looked easy to stitch and not too complicated.

I marked the oval border in equal divisions and made sure that my loops would connect up correctly where they meet. I did draw each of the small circles  and a few of the other connecting lines to give me something to aim for and to help keep the designs the same size.

The straight borders were also sectioned off and I figured out how I was going to make the transition around the corner so now am all set to finish layering the quilt and begin stitching.

Happy Quilting,
Lynn

Watching the Cows Go By

The saying is "watching the world go by" but this morning here on the farm it was "watching the cows go by." The corn field to the west of our house is farmed by a friend and he asked if we could pasture our cows on his stalks to clean up any of the ears of corn that dropped off before it was harvested. If the corn lays there until next spring/summer some will sprout and make a mess in the field as it mixes with the hybrid corn or if he plants soybeans it competes with that crop and would have to be sprayed so it is a good deal for both of us to have our cattle graze the field.

John put a single wire electric fence around the field and connected it to our field that goes east and south of our house. The cows were turned out into the "addition" a day ago so they are in the new area quite a bit.

The day John turned them out they first all walked the perimeter of the field. They never touch the fence but check it all out...sometimes I think they are looking for a way out. Cows know what an electric fence is as they learned as calves that it will give them a little shock if they touch it so they just don't.

It is nice to be able to put up this kind of fence since it goes up and down fairly easily. John puts in small posts, rolls out the one wire and hooks it to the fence then hooks it to the battery or electrical fencer that is plugged into an outlet. It is so much nicer to be able to take all the fencing down when the cattle are no longer in that particular field. With the big machinery and tractors it is really hard for the farmer to farm around and next to a fence so the permanent fences around farm fields have all been removed years ago. Pastures are still fenced permanently though.

This morning I was in my sewing room and looked out my window and this is what I saw. The cows, calves and bulls were grazing close to our back yard (on the other side of the fence of course.) They were moving down the corn rows picking up corn as they found it.

Several cows congregated in the corner of the field and I had to laugh at one of the cows. She stood and stared at the lawn. She stood there looking for quite some time and then she would look down the line at the fence. I could just imagine her thinking "if I could only get over that fence I could get inside the yard and eat that yummy green grass." I could just hear her sigh as she eventually wandered off with the rest of her friends.



The permanent fence you see is around our yard on the outside of the windbreak is to keep any livestock from tromping through the yard ...you can't see the electric fence.  The problem is there is no gate on the end and several cattle and a horse have gotten in when they escaped their pens. Must get that remedied sometime as they make deep tracks!

The cattle wandered back to the same area around 4 this afternoon but my curious cow didn't stop and lust after my lawn this time.

I am working on coming up with an idea for some of the quilting I need to do on the miniature so I have  not made any progress from the photos I showed you last week.  Today I spent a lot of time looking on the internet and think I found a couple of ideas that might work on the 1/2" borders, my problem section.  Will hopefully have some progress to show soon.

Until Later,
Lynn
Have to clarify - the permanent fence is the one that doesn't have a gate and the electric fence is all enclosed....my language was a little unclear above, sorry.