A Walk Around The Farm Yard On A Hot Summer Day

That title pretty much sums the weather the last few weeks.  We have had extreme heat and high humidity for weeks.  I spend the majority of my time inside our house where it is air conditioned but I do get out to mow the yard and water my flowers and garden but don’t go out just for the fun of it as I don’t tolerate heat too well.  Being a former red head I burn rather easily you see.

The other day I did have to make a trip out to turn some water off so grabbed my camera and walked around and snapped some photos of some of the things I saw around our farmyard.  First I walked through the Quonset with the shop in one end and storage on the other and noticed the row of old saddles.  There they were lined up over a pipe, collecting dust.  These were well used and worn saddles but for many reasons are not used anymore.  Some are intact but others have had parts robbed from them to repair other saddles.  Looking through the dust you can see the beautiful tooling.


On the way to the barn I crossed a moon landscape….maybe not a real moon landscape.  OK, not the moon but a dried up puddle.  The cracked former mud sure has a great texture though.

Bart (left) and Jesse (right) greeted me as they thought I might have something for them to eat so they came running when they saw me walking toward them.  You might ask why they are in different pens?  Bart is a pain in the patootie and quite ornery but he can eat pasture grass, where as Jesse is well trained but gets overly fat when she is out in the pasture that is close to the barn so she has to eat hay in the lot by the barn instead of being in the pasture all the time.  A fat horse has too much trouble running, breathing and other problems caused by carrying the excess weight.  (Hmmm…it is the same with people too isn’t it?)  A lot of times the two horses are standing beside each other across the fence just hanging out.  Bart doesn’t like being separated from the other horses but when they are together he is not nice to any of them either.  You would think he would learn to be a good boy.  Right now it is just the twohorses here on the farm as our two geriatric (old) horses are at one of the pastures with the cows for the summer so I think Bart is trying hard to be nice to Jesse.  Jesse is rather dusty in this photo as she had just been rolling around in the dirt to try to help keep the flies off of her.  The dust helps protect her skin from the biting flies.

As I was heading back to the house to cool off who should drive in but my hubby.  He had to go to a town about 35 miles away to get repairs and was just getting back.  He is smiling as he is also in an air conditioned pickup but soon would be back in the heat getting that piece of equipment fixed while I will be cooling off in the house. 

So much for my short walk, now it is time for a cold glass of lemonade.

Lynn

Sweet Corn

Our sweet corn was ready to harvest during the weekend I was attending QuiltNebraska so guess what I had to do on Monday morning?  Well, I didn’t “have to” but I love my own frozen corn so much better than any I can buy I “want to” preserve it this way for eating the rest of the year.  I wrote a blog about the procedure I use in a blog post long ago on August 22, 2008.  Still do it the same way each year so why repeat what I have talked about before.  So far I have not dehydrated any this year but re-reading this post reminded me that this would be something else I might want to do yet.  It isn’t quite as important to get the ears picked at just the right time since the kernels from older ears dry just fine and grind up great for cornmeal.   That might make good gifts if I get it done and have extra.

I was really tired of standing by the time I got it done but the feeling of satisfaction of having enough corn in the freezer for the coming year makes it worth it.  I had 7 pkgs. left from last year so put a little more in the freezer this year as that was cutting it pretty close.  I always serve corn from my freezer to company, especially if they do not put up corn themselves.  They are always amazed at how good it is, more tender and sweet than what they can buy.

Until later,
Lynn

QuiltNebraska 2011

Last weekend was the annual quilt convention for the Nebraska State Quilt Guild that is named QuiltNebraska.  There are classes by national and regional teachers, banquets, quilt displays, merchants booths, raffle quilts, etc.  It was a fun filled busy weekend that always passes so quickly.  I room with the same 3 gals and we took our annual photo right before the Saturday night banquet.  Sometime I should go back and look at past years and compare…or maybe not.  Who wants to see yourself age year by year?
I took three machine work classes over the weekend so packed up my Bernina 730 to use.  I needed a zig zag machine so my Singer Featherweight stayed at home this year.  Lugging my machine to the second floor of the motel to our room the first night then down on Friday morning for my first class was a challenge but I solved that problem by putting it in my car between the other classes.

Friday morning I took “Bobbin Drawing, Thread Painting, and Free Motion Machine Embroidery” by Marjan Kluepfel.  Was a fun class learning how to set up your machine for the different techniques and playing with different threads.  Some threads worked real well and others I found out were not good choices.  Am anxious to try bobbin drawing on a quilt top soon.  Marjan is very talented and her work is full of detail and very pretty.

I had a machine embroidery class on Friday afternoon, “Animate Your Applique” by Mickey Depre.  She uses a product called Pellon Décor Bond as her stabilizer of choice.  The product worked well and want to get more to try.  Mickey was fun and making the sampler of different stitches will be a nice reference.  Her quilts are so whimsical, very lovely and hang so well with the extra stabilizer.

Saturday I took an all day class with Sarah Smith called “Hawaiian Applique by Machine”.  I really enjoyed the class and have worked on my block at home this week.  I am not that proficient at satin stitching so it is a little wonky but with a little practice I am sure I can do a better job.  The room was really tight with tables and students but we managed to find room for what we needed to do.  Tried another stabilizer in Sarah’s class and liked the way it behaved.  It was C&T's Wash-Away Applique sheets that can be fused too.  Loved looking closely at Sarah’s work as it is just beautiful.

Each year a new raffle quilt is revealed at the Saturday night banquet.  The quilts are always beautiful and this year is no exception.  The quilt was entered into the Machine Quilters Showcase in Overland Park, Kansas this last May and did well.  It is named “Magic of the Rose” and was pieced and appliqued by a group of women from the Columbus, Nebraska area and machine quilted by Kristin Vierra of Lincoln.  It won the viewers choice award plus and honorable mention award.  My photo was taken from the side so is not the best angle but you get the idea of what it looks like and the detail shots show the wonderful machine quilting.

Magic of the Rose VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

The theme and national teachers were revealed for 2012 in a video slide presentation.  The chairman is very enthusiastic and has a lot of things in place already.  QuiltNebraska moves around to different locations and 2012 will be held in LaVista, Nebraska then end of July.  The web page here shows the teachers booked so far and some of the other plans that have been made so far.  They will be updating it with new information as it becomes available.  The convention will play on the Harry Potter idea – different than we have had but sounds like fun.  This is not limited to just Nebraska residents so if you are interested in attending next year just check out the website for more information in the coming months.  Registration forms won’t probably be posted until Feb. or March though.

Still thinking back to a great time spent with quilters and quilts – a great summer get away.

Lynn
PS-Follow this link to see a better photo taken of the quilt.

More Potholders

I can finally show you the other three potholders/hot pads I made from old jean fabric.  These were made as gifts for friends and I didn’t present them until this last weekend. 

I tried to coordinate them with the tea pots that were also part of their gift.  They might be a little large for the pots but will protect the table from the heat of a pot full of hot water and they can be used as potholders too.

The next photo was sent to me from a reader of my blog following the tutorial I posted on this blog entry.

  She helped her granddaughter make these potholders when they had a sewing day together recently.  Aren’t they cute? She did such a good job too for a young girl.  Her grandmother said if she were making them again she might cut the batting a little smaller so it wouldn’t have a chance to peak out.  I think that would be a good idea – the 1/2” smaller size worked for me but a child would have more trouble keeping the batting hidden under the cotton print and cutting it smaller would solve that problem.  Thanks Carol for sending the photo!.

Lynn