Thursday, November 27, 2008

Thanksgiving on the Farm

Thankful for another bountiful harvest!

Beautiful........Fluffy.............White............on it's way to becoming a fat quarter.


Steaks and shrimp cooked out with fellow farmer friends who just came to help.




The green harvest beast!




The green harvest beast is full, must dump out into smaller mo-bile red harvest beast.





Red mo-bile harvest beast on the move.






Red m0-bile harvest beast feeding the gold cotton packer...( techo term "module builder" ).







Gold cotton packer gets fed about 6 times. Cotton gets mashed and compressed between dumps.








Gold cotton packer is full....opens it's mouth and "belches" out a "cotton module".









Cotton modules usually hold about 12 bales of cotton.....a bale is approx. 480 lbs. of cotton.










Cute Victoria standing next to cotton module...these modules are compressed..hard to the touch.










Our "rowdy" farmers...Mr. Brown Dirt there in the middle..right- Willie...our ace no.1 farm hand.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~YES.....WE ARE THANKFUL~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~











Sunday, November 23, 2008

Quilting Progress...


I thought I would let you see some of my progress with my hand quilting that has been going on daily...all day long these last few weeks. Pictured is the back of the baby quilt I have been trying to get finished and the one I'm sure everyone is tired of hearing about. ( You can click on the pictures for a close-up view ) I am just in love with the harlequin diamond shapes.


This is truly my first try at hand quilting for real, and I'm loving it. Above you can see some little hearts with waves next to them. All that's left to finish is doing the borders. I have chosen to use three rows of fans as you can see on the bottom right for the borders. Anyone who hasn't seen the front of this quilt can check it out on my September 18 post.


I also finished quilting my "over 20 yr. old first time I ever pieced a quilt and didn't finish it way back when"!! This quilt was a nightmare on all counts. Some of the fabric is questionable and my needle had a hard time going through some of it......AUGH! I'm just glad it's finished!!


I also received a little package from Nanette at Freda's Hive !! Aren't my little goodies WONDERFUL?? You really shouldn't have Nanette, but I'm glad you did. See how she put a binding around the kitchen towel like a quilt. I love this!! I also love the little sachet she included that smells of lavender and the cute "fairy" tag I'm going to hang on one of my Christmas trees. Thanks Nanette!!!

Are you all going over grocery lists and recipes in your heads in preparation for Thanksgiving? We may have our dinner on the tailgate of my pickup out in the middle of the cotton patch........this might be interesting. We are usually through with harvest by Thanksgiving so I'm not sure what I need to be preparing for....another young farmer friend of ours wants to bring his cooker and cook out in the field.....he loves doing this.......so........I may just let him!!!! We'll see how the week goes!
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Thursday, November 6, 2008

SOLIDS


I've never really considered the value of solids. Usually when I shop in the fabric store or online I'm drawn to the prints. Prints of all kinds...plaids, florals, etc.. I've always loved fabrics, lots and lots of fabrics. Even in my home....I have always loved long window treatments with yards and yards of fabric. But you know, I've NEVER EVER had or used ANY solid colors. It was not even considered on my part. But...you know....things can change, right? I'm thinking about some right now!! I was thinking about this today and I thought...I'll go and see how many solids I have. The ones above were really only bought to use in borders. As you can see, I don't have very many. I don't know why this came to me today, but I intend to be more aware of the solids in the future. As I continue to try and finish hand quilting the baby quilt that seems to NEVER get finished, I'm considering other projects in my mind. I think some solids are in the near future....after all, there IS the ROUND Thang to finish!!

Above is a bird DH cut out and I painted years and years ago for my grandmother. I was so glad to see that she had kept it all these years.....so, I inherited it back. My grandmother was a BIG bird watcher as well. I guess I have come by it through her!!
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Wednesday, November 5, 2008

It's a Bird Thing

Yes...I must say I am really into birds. Look what I found yesterday. I'm not usually one to buy panels, BUT when I saw this I just about fainted. The colors are so vibrant and the effect makes these birds look so real. I have absolutely NO idea what I will decide to do with this, but I sure wasn't going to leave it behind. This is a nice sized panel and could be used as a fall wall hanging or a table centerpiece. The fabric is really nice quality which surprises me a little because believe it or not I got it at Walmart. I am usually careful when I purchase fabric from there, BUT this is good quality and weight. I'm loving this!!!! Speaking of birds, Sarah over at House of Krom has just finished the CUTEST bird swap. I have a similar pattern to hers but have not tried it yet...I aim to though. She just does the most wonderful projects. Her flair for color and design inspire me to only hope to measure up. I love her blog....you will too!!!


I also purchased a couple yards of the coordinating fabric to the bird panel. I will probable make myself a couple of pillowcases from this. One for my bird watching chair here at the house and then one for my bird watching chair at our lake house.


I think this here cottage is REALLY cute. Thanks in part to Eileen over at Eileens Attic. We did a little behind the scenes swap on some roof fabric. I told her how much I loved the vintage fabric she had used for one of her cottage roofs so she sent me some so I could also have a cute vintage roof like hers. I saved it for last, auditioning various other fabrics to go with it and this is what I came up with. Don't you just love the vintage look "Miss Hostess" lady Christmas fabric I purchased at Jane's Fabrics!!! You must go see what fabrics Jane just got in!! These Christmas cottages have been so much fun for me. Thanks Nanette from Freda's Hive.
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Tuesday, November 4, 2008

ANOTHER "TELL ME" TUESDAY

Can the picture above serve as proof I really have been busy???? I have lots of errands to run today so I better get right to our "Tell Me" or "Tell All" Tuesday question. Here goes.....Of the following four things.....which ones do you dislike doing the most......Making Tea.....Filling Ice Trays....Making Salad or Making Cornbread????? I'll go first....I dislike All four. I can't give you a reason and I've disliked doing these four things for as long as I have been old enough to help in the kitchen. I don't know why, but there it is! ( I don't have to fill ice trays except at our lake place, but I still don't like to )!!

I've still managed to eek out another cute little Christmas cottage. I have all of them layed out on the floor contemplating the finished project.

I must run and get started on all the errands I have to do......I had already typed out a post and it never did post and I don't know where it went so I had to do it over. You're getting a shorter version on this one....I've run out of time...sorry! First place I'm headed is TO VOTE.............PLEASE GO VOTE.........I guess you know you don't have the right to gripe and complain if you don't vote!!!!
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