Happy Spring Ya'll!

Achoo, scuse me.  Everything is blooming here now.  Pretty as it is, I'm thankful for the rain today.

Guess what I bought for my Birthday!  Tractor Supply had a sale.  

It has heavy duty aluminum framing and is the perfect size for me.  

The baby bunz spent 2 whole days in the tractor enjoying their first taste of spring grass.  Talk about excited!  They were eating so fast, I had to move the tractor 3 times in one day.

Tis the season for down-to-baseboards spring cleaning and the changing of the quilts.  

I'm having trouble deciding whether to go with blue and white or my Amish inspired ones.  

And even though many of these quilts have been around a long time, it's nice to have a choice. 

Until then, keep stitchin' . . .  

Signs of Spring abound.

Sadly, this is the only thing quilt-like I can share at the moment.

 As I've been doing this.

Yup, 10 truck loads of manure so far.  As you can see, I'll need another 10 before I can call the tiller guy.  Along with Carbon-19, I'll add 160 pounds of gypsum, each helps break up the dense clay.  After that comes a cover crop.  

New fruit trees and 2 pecan trees are ready to be planted.

The dog woods are blooming.  Achooo.

In December, I found a sale on tulip bulbs.  When planting I stirred in Epsom salts, as I did not have any bone meal.   Nothing says Spring like tulips, don't you agree?

And pansies of course.  Sadly, Samson had some for breakfast yesterday.  "Bad Bunny", does not have the same effect as "Bad Dog" you know. . . . but I said it anyway.  If nothing else, it entertains the neighbors. 

Until then, keep stitchin' . . . 

I've not been horsing around, honest!

Although, today's adventure did include a visit to the local riding stable down in Blairsville.  A beautiful day for a drive to pick up . . .

 Garden Gold!

 For the future orchard out front by the wire fence.

 As well as the future blueberry grove by the wooden fence.

I've been working on the 3-year plan for the south facing 1/4 section of my lot.  For 2 years I burned all the grass, which sweetens the soil.  And now, since work is so light this week, I've had time to coordinate the rest.  It's going to take at least 12 truck loads of manure to cover the clay/rock dirt.  On Monday, the tiller guy is coming to prepare the soil for a cover crop.  I got the seeds from a company in Lancaster, PA and will share that info later.   I'll also be ordering a product called Carbon-19 from a garden company in Ohio, which will also help break up the soil.  Every gardener knows you have to start with good soil to get good crops.

Thank goodness for horses and free manure.

The QOV quilt so many of you have been waiting to see is now done.

 It's for a very special veteran of WWII.

The fabric all came from my stash. Can you see the star pattern I quilted in the red strips?  That pattern is from one of Barbara Brackman's books.  I made a template, spaced it evenly, and stippled around each star.   The border also has randomly placed stars.

The light color is Bella parchment, which I truly love.  Really a great fabric to work with.  Whittles carries it.

The big star fabric on the borders is from the Jo Morton collection, purchased 5 years ago.  It may still be available.

And the star pattern is by Moda.  You can find it on their web site.

Good night for now, it's time to take 2 aspirin and call it a day.  I'll be doing a lot of shoveling this weekend.

Until then, keep stitchin' . . .

Dolly has a wee friend.

 Can you see him sitting on the inverted bucket?

Both are waiting for Spring to arrive no doubt.

Did you get snow yesterday too?  We had flurries all day with high winds and a low of 20 last night.  Brrrr.

However, I know warmer weather is coming, as this is what I found while on a picnic with friends last Saturday.  Aren't they lovely?

I've been busy with a few yard projects.  Nothing very exciting, just things that must get done.  There is a quilt I'll be showing you soon though, so stay tuned.

Until then, keep stitchin' . . .  

A word on pinning . . .

For newby quilters or others learning to machine quilt.

There are 2 ways to pin a quilt top, the right way and the wrong way.

Can you tell how closely my pins are spaced?  Yup that's right, very close.  Those squares are 1-1/2" and I try to pin around 2" apart to prevent shifting as well as bunching of the bottom fabric.  Never a fun discovery.

Can you see that the pins go in different directions?  If you pin in only one direction, the quilt will shift in that direction as you sew.  And you don't want that to happen.

I use dry cleaner pins and buy them by the 10 gross, or 1,444 pins, from a dry cleaner supply store.  If they get rusty, I throw them out.  Rusty pins leave marks.

Some folks use extra large pins which leave extra large holes.  Aaand you really don't want to do that.

There have been times, depending on the quilt, when the contraction rate was so great, I had to re-pin entire sections or borders half way through quilting the top.  But that's just part of the process.

Any questions?

This is Squigley.  He has friends . . . Wigley, Figley, and Bartholomew.  They all came for lunch today and, as you can see had quite a bit to say about menu choices.

 I mentioned they were nutty and the conversation went downhill from there.  Dolly went out and solved the matter.  Nobody messes with Dolly's porch.

Until then, keep stitchin' . . .