Saturday Evening Ride

Here are a few of the sights John and I had on our 4-wheeler ride last evening. We decided to ride down to our two close pastures that are only a few miles from our place to check the cows and calves and to check the fence. We have some temporary fence up in both pastures and the deer are always running through it. More than once John has had to drive down and get one or two cows and calves back in and fix the fence.

We live close to where the Oregon Trail went through Nebraska and this marker is only a couple of miles south of our place. In fact there are places in a couple of pastures between this marker and the river that you can still see the ruts that the wagons made those many years ago as they traveled west.

The marker is set at the edge of the ditch next to a field of wheat. It sure was pretty waving in the breeze last evening. In a few weeks it will be turning golden and getting ripe. Looks like the same stuff in front of the marker but that is just brome grass that is about to pollinate - great for itchy skin and watery eyes!

This is a photo of the Little Blue River we have to cross to get to one of the pastures. The road just got opened up again this spring after it was closed for over a year while they put in a new larger bridge. It sure makes traveling to this pasture much shorter since it opened. The Little Blue is not a big river but it is pretty and meanders on it's way east to eventually join the Missouri River. Notice the swallow in the upper right of the sky. They build nests under the bridge so you always see them in this area.

A photo of one of the pastures.

I just wasn't brave enough to follow John down into this ravine and up again to check that temporary fence. You can see how steep it is when he is on his way back. I am a big chicken when it comes to things like this.

The owner of the neighboring pasture put in a new dam to catch rainwater and to help keep the gullies from washing so bad and the old fence got taken out where the dam was made so for right now until the fence making guy gets to it they have put in a temporary fence that obviously the deer love to run through.

Have not had a chance to sit down and do any sewing this afternoon yet. I worked outside in my flower beds getting the new soaker hoses I purchased laid out where I wanted them. I should have done this a while ago before the plants got so big but guess it is never too late.

Lynn

From Ideas to Fabric

After finally deciding what fabrics to use, I got started framing this basket block today. The first two borders are appliqued with the invisible stitch and the swags are fused and then buttonhole stitched with dark purple thread. I do like the look of the swags and plan to use them in one more border on this quilt yet but don't know where. The quilt just evolves as I finish one section at a time.

The tiny red border is about 1/8" wide and the print is about 3/8" wide. Scale is so hard to tell without any reference. Will have to use a ruler in some photos as I continue.

I do want to put flowers in the corners like I did the other two quilts so will probably be working on them next. It takes quite a while to fuse and cut all the pieces needed so it may be a few days before I have any more progress to show you.

John and I took a drive down to two of our pastures this evening to check the cows and to enjoy the fresh air. We each drove a 4-wheeler (some people call them quads)and listening to the birds as we drove along was so nice. Didn't see any deer or wild turkeys this evening which is unusual - we usually see quite a few down by the river where the one pasture is located.

The cattle in one pasture didn't like the 4-wheelers tonight and ran away from us but the cows in the other pasture just watched us for a little while then went back to munching grass. It was getting almost dark by the time we got home but we had a great time.

Until Later,
Lynn

Working On My Design

The last few days I have been thinking about how I want to set the appliqued basket block I did for myself. Yesterday I sat down at the computer and played with several ideas on EQ6. Nothing came together or felt right until I got the idea to put appliqued swags around the oval border.

Since the original block was a circle and I just elongated it in EQ6 ,it changed the dimension so that the divisions on the original circle are not all the same size now. I had thought I could divide up the points and make my swags to fit and they would be equal in size - wrong! I don't know enough math to know if there is some way to do this so had to put my thinking cap on.

I looked up how to find the circumference of oval or ellipse on Google and did find some sort of calculator that you put your information into but it didn't come up with anything close to the size. The problem is that an oval can be wider or taller and it affects the circumference.

To solve my problem I finally took a flexible ruler and laid the edge on the curve on my print out and slowly measured 1/4 of the oval then used my calculator to figure what the dimensions would be if I put 3 swags in each quarter - think it will work as I have printed out swags the size I need and fitted them up to my paper oval.

This afternoon I am hoping I can figure out what fabrics I want to use for the different borders and get the oval done so I can start on the swags.

This morning I only worked on the quilt design until 9:00 am then started mowing the lawn and the rest of the yard. It takes me about 4 hours to get it all done with the riding mower. When you live on a farm you end up mowing a lot of area to keep everything looking neat so it just takes a while. If I only had the lawn to do that would be a snap. Am always glad when I am done as everything looks so good for a week then I have to do it all over again.

Until later,
Lynn

Memorial Day

No other words needed.

Lynn