My First Border and Pretty Vase

Hello everyone!  I've been absent, but I promise I've been busy!

I'm still plugging along on my 

Friends of Baltimore quilt  AND A Bountiful Life/Civil War Bride quilt.  

I like working on them simultaneously.  Friends of Baltimore has teeny tiny pieces and more tedious while the Bountiful Life has larger pieces and gives me a break from the tedious so I can still keep busy.

I'm excited to show you my progress on the first border and vase from Friends of Baltimore.  I put off starting a border thinking it would be daunting, I was a scaredy cat…BUT HEY…it wasn't so bad.

I. LIKE.

As you can see, it is quite long.

There will be a vase sewn to each end to make a corner on this bottom border, which makes it even LONGER!  I'm still jurying fabrics for the vase on the other end.  Only 3 more borders to go!

The scary part will be when it comes time to trim this down!!

Must show you more proof I've been busy.

 Remember her?  My bride on the Bountiful Life quilt.

She now has a groom!  Isn't he handsome?

 They also have a hospitality table.  I think it's cute!

I think I had just started on this one in a previous post.

Working on both of these quilts at the same time has yielded me enough blocks for a WHOLE quilt!!
….Sigh...
I just don't think they would mix well together….too bad!

Sorry I've been so long with an update and I want to thank everyone who has inquired about me.  I desperately need a new camera.  The photos I take on my iPhone seem to be lacking in quality (I think it's the operator),  but I promise to blog with more quilty goodness!

Cotton harvest is in full swing here and so sad, for this will be our last crop.

Hubby is retiring.

17 Months Today

Woo Hoo......I'm still on my fabric buying rebellion and it has now been 17 whole months since I have bought a single piece of fabric!!! Funny though, I don't even look at it online. You can read my other post and thoughts on the matter HERE.

Good news on the fabric front though, cotton prices are now around 67 cents a pound. Looks like we can see lower fabric prices in the near future if these prices hold for this years crop.

Mr. Brown Dirt will finish getting all the cotton planted sometime today.....yippee!! The wheat we planted earlier in the year is ready and bountiful and they are harvesting that as well. All the big sprinklers in the fields are running, watering up the maize seeds that were planted last week. A very busy time here on the farm.

Do you know anyone who raises crops or farms???

Fat Quarters R Us

Look at these sweet little fat quarters in the making!! So white, soft and fluffy......waiting to be plucked and swept away. Wonderful colors and dyes await you my cuties!!

This is behind and to the south of my house. LOOKS LIKE SNOW doesn't it?? This is called 'dry land' cotton because it has not been watered except for what little dab of rain we have had. It was planted and then left on it's own. Most of our acreage is all irrigated except for this little area at the house. This is considered pretty good dry land cotton!! WAY TO GO MR. BROWN DIRT!!!

Here is where I walk everyday. It's a wonderful place to walk....seeing and appreciating Mr. Brown Dirt's hard work...feeling the cool nip in the air and enjoying the quiet!

NOTE : if you want to see how this is harvested go to my previous post HERE.

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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Down On The Farm.....

Fall is rapidly approaching......our crops are "doing their thang". Here is a quick show and tell about our cotton. The first day it blooms the flower is this creamy white.

And believe it or not that same white flower turns pink. After it turns pink it then shrivels up and falls off.

After a short time, where the flower fell off this round green bulb starts growing. Soon we will see this bulb start spliting and opening up. That may be a little while yet. The earliest we have ever harvest cotton has been in October. This ladies is the beginnings of where all that beautiful fabric we buy for our quilts comes from!!! Who knows, some of you may have quilts made from some of "OUR" cotton.

Here is a whole field of those flowers and bulbs. You can see pink and white flowers mixed. The green bulbs come on in stages. Here is a field of our cotton right here on the North side of our place. Where I live...this scene is about all you see right now in all 4 directions. I hope you enjoyed seeing the process. I will show the next stages as they come about. Right now I am busy making my pear preserves, it is a 2 day process for one batch. I'll show you my results as soon as I get the sticky wiped off the jars.

I think my "mr. farmer man" will be very excited that I have posted about his cotton!!