Quilting Complete

 The longarm quilting on my friend's quilt is complete.

I quilted it using my Circle Lord giant template board called Loopys.  She gave me a blanket to use as batting and a gently-used sheet for the backing.  Here's a close-up shot of the quilting.

School is officially out for summer!  Let the summer fun begin.

Monday Making -- on a Tuesday

Oops!  I forgot to hit the "Publish" button yesterday.  I loaded my friend's quilt for longarm quilting on the frame.

I am quilting it using my Circle Lord giant template board called Loopys.  This time she gave me a polyester blanket for the batting and a gently used flannel sheet for the one-piece backing.

I'm linking up at Love Laugh Quilt for Monday Making.

Baseball Season Has Begun

 It was a beautiful day for opening day for our Challenger Baseball League, 2022.

Ball-in-the air action photo.

Running for home.

Photobomb by Coach Bill.

Hot, tired, and thirsty after running all the bases for his home run.

Aunt Jo -- His biggest fan -- EVER!

Patiently waiting in the truck for the opening day festivities to start.

Pre-game selfie in the truck.

Team photo day a couple days earlier.  

RSC22 -- Green

This week I made the Ohio star blocks for my RSC project that is called Random Ohio Stars.  This is a pattern designed by Bonnie Hunter and is available on her free patterns page here.   I started this project in January of 2022 and it is coming along nicely each month.  Here's my green Ohio stars:

I'm linking up at Angela's blog, SoScrappy, for the RSC22.  It's a sunny day here in Ohio.  Today is our opening day for our son's baseball league.  Perfect day for it.  Here's most of the A's this week during their photo session in their GREEN uniforms.

Another funny photo in green this week happened when I told our son that it was so nice out to go play outside...  I guess this is the 2022 version of "playing outside"--Chromebook on his belly, listening to music.  Oh dear, we need to be way more active (both of us).

The next two hours were spent playing his drums outside -- ok... this is somewhat more productive... 

I'm linking up at the RSC22 at SoScrappy here.

Yesterday we enjoyed watching him participate in the Exceptional Olympics.  It's an event where special needs students from twenty different schools in our county meet and play simple games.  Schools bring a bus or two of students and staff and it's a fun day.  Our son is the ONLY student from his school district that participates.  Almost 600 students participated.  He loves to represent!  He's easy to spot as he is the only blue shirt in a field of other colors.

He met up with one of his best friends from another district that we have known since he was a month old.

Everybody should be as luck as us to have that ONE CRAZY AUNT that loves you more than anything.  Here's a pic of him and his Aunt Jo.

Nine more official days of school.

Moving the Plants Project

 On Tuesday this week I reported photos of plants/trees that were being moved.  You can read all about it and why on my blog post here.  More progress and photos are to follow.  Here are some new photos:

All of the orchard trees and one French Lilac bush were moved to the west field.  They are all trimmed.  Spray has been purchased.  Hopefully they will be sprayed next week.

Here's the view from the other end of the orchard.

Around the base of this plum tree are tall, skinny, mini iris.  They are a beauitul deep blue/purple color.  I had a little less than this when I first moved them home.  They populate nicely.  I have moved tons and tons of them by separating them over the past few years.  They are now all over the property here and there.  When they bloom there is gorgeous color where we least expect it along woods, in fields, in the chicken yard, under trees and in flower beds.  These were moved in the clump of dirt that when with the tree when it was moved by the backhoe.  I can't wait until the others bloom everywhere in the next few weeks!  A nice, green ground cover remains the remainder of the year.

You can see many of the above tall, mini iris plants in the bed by the pole barn.  Oh this bed!  Things in there populate quickly (especially the weeds and poison ivy.) Time to clean this one out and trim those bushes.  In the past it has been one of my "test areas" to see what would grow when the deer aren't eating things.  Now that I know, I need to thin a lot of plants out of there.  At least my husband didn't pile a bunch of pallets of his stuff in front of it this year and I can get to it!  I do like the rocks.

On the back of this pole barn are hydranga.  My husband plans to build a lean-to type storage there.  I will need to move them by this weekend.

I've been driving around on the four wheeler these past few weeks looking for spots where sunlight hits by the trees.  This looked like a nice spot close to the end of the driveway but far enough from the road for some pops of color.  Can't wait until these lilies bloom.  Hopefully the daffodils will like it here and bloom next spring.

Here's another spot where the sun was poking through the woods by the creek.  The soil is quite sandy here, but the tiger lilies nearby are abundant.  It looked like a good place for some other lilies, and more daffodils.  We shall see if the deer like this type of lily.  If so, the buffet is open.  Ha Ha.

The dog kennel was moved so that the opening was at the right place near the red coop.  I need to secure the chicken wire fence so that it will contain chicks.  Plants such as small, tender hosts, a peony, short iris, bears britches, other iris, and ornamental grass have been moved into the protected area.  Little chicks don't usually do a lot of damage to these plants.  When they are large enough to be with the other chickens, they will easily move to the neighboring coop.

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You can see old (about 7) Wiggles, the rooster, and his hens dining on strawberry tops, red beets and pickled eggs (cleaned out from the fridge) and some cucumber ends.  More plants to be moved along this little piece of fence in the sunny spot soon.  Looks like I have a lot of pieces of wood to pick up as well.  Some of the large pieces are good to leave there.  I flip them over in the summer to find worm treats.

The edge of this tree line gets spots of sun.  I threw clumps of ornamental grass, lilies, and the tall iris all along here.  It fits the rules criteria of my planting -- safe from the mowing and spraying areas.  It will be fun to see pops of color and texture through here as well.

Under the pine trees wasn't a good fit for the yucca because the deer pulled them out and ate them.  I experimented with a few lilies, and daffodils.  I know that the hosta should be happy here as well.

This is a sunny spot I noticed when I looked out the kitchen window when I do dishes.  I moved some tulips, lilies, and daffodils to this spot.  I'm having trouble knowing which lily is which.  Tiger lilies, day lilies?  Who knows?  Time will tell.

That ends our tour for today.  Stay tuned as the hydraga, sedum, bearded iris, and more lilies get moved.

WIP Wednesday 5.11.22

One more item came off my WIP list this week!  Good Fortune (a Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt) is now complete.  You can read all about it here.   I'm so happy that it is now complete.

I finished putting together these blocks for the Ice Lollies quilt (designed by Latifah Saafir).  I will try to work a little each Sunday on this quilt until it is complete.  This dedication Sunday project plan seems to be working for me to get projects done.  This will be a little crib quilt.

I continue to make progress on my 3.5" rail fence blocks.  I think I need more purple and then I'll have the 900 or so blocks to make a large quilt.  Here's some orange scraps that I cleaned out of the scrap basket put to good use.

I also finished up playing with the prink scraps by making rail fence blocks.  Here's over fifty of them.

I did put the pink away and get out a bin of green scraps.  I made a few 3.5" HST blocks for my HST quilt.  Today I will get out my bin for this project and count on my colored sheet how many more HST I need and will play with forest green scraps.  I know I have plenty of forest green scraps.

Our son had an exciting event and went to a fancy dance.  He will be finishing up remote learning (and 8th grade).  His last day this school year is May 26.  He has been a remote learner since March of 2020 and has come so far!  He continues to amaze us each day.  Next year he will be returning to in-person school.  I'm nervous and excited for him.  Either way, God's got this all planned out.  Here he is with his friend, Star.  They have been friends since about 18 months old.

I am taking full advantage of the beautiful weather this week and moving a lot of perrinials.  You can read the full post here.  This morning before getting out of bed I had a great idea of moving plants around to the outside of the chicken coops.  Hoping for a productive day today.  I'll be working on moving the plants to the right of the orange line in the phto below.

I'm linking up at Quilt Fabrication for Midweek Makers 331.

42 Items remain on the WIP list.

Pieces Need to be Cut & Sewn

 1.  Cheddar Jack cat pattern

 2.  Digging up Bones (Owen's dinosaur quilt)

 3.  Rock Island Campfire Quilt

 4.  Picadilly Circle

 5.  ...And Sew On BOM at Quiet Play (one block to go)

 6.  RSC16 Folk Art Birds

 7.  Random Ohio Stars -- started January, 2022

 8.  Leah Day Building Blocks QA

 9.  Dresser Scarf (My Grandma's WIP from the 1970's found 1/1/20

10.  Classic Meets Modern BOM

11.  Gypsy Wife QA started in August 2017

12.  Mod Mod QA (from Block Lotto, circles w/lines)

13.  Unity Quilt Along with Bonnie Hunter (started 4/1/2020)

14.  Rail Fence Blocks (started January 2021 as my leader/enders)

15.  Maroon Sampler Quilt--I found this on 2.6.21

16.  Kite Girl (RSC14)

17.  Amish Country BOM (from Lynn, Johnna's mom)

18.  Kathleen Tracy's 2019 Mystery Quilt Facebook QA started in March, 2019  

19.  2.5" Scraps from Dani -- making "cracker" blocks

20.  Waffle Blocks (August 2019 -- RSC19)

21.  Little Houses (2.5" blocks)

Blocks Still Need to be Made

 1.  Bluepatch Mystery Quilt

 2.  Finding Nemo Scrappy Trip quilt 

 3.  We Can Do It Skill Builder Sampler

 4.  Drunkard's Path Variation quilt

Blocks Are Made But Need to be Sewn Together (and/or Some Sashing)

 1.  Tula Pink's City Sampler 100 Modern Quilt Blocks 5/17/17 QA

 2.  Cruise blocks won from Libby

 3.  Cathy's CRAZY BY DESIGN Dot Dot Dash Bag, Won April, 2018

 4.  Split Stars (blocks won from the Block Lotto, October, 2012)

 5.  African Violet baby quilt (Block Lotto inspired)

 6.  Tall Fly (blocks won from Block Lotto)

 7.  Pre-printed cross stitch pillow sham (May 2018)

 8. Flower Baskets (blue and white with some applique) Block Lotto win 10/1/18

Quilt Back Needs to be Made (Tops are Done)

1.  Card Trick (pink and blue)

2.  Hunter Green Star Quilt

3.  Ice Follies pattern by Latifah Saafir, started 2/26/22

Ready to Longarm

1.  Bubble Gum Pink & Navy Quilt

2.  Plus Quilt (Be Positive) started in 2016; quilt top completed 1.1.22

3.  Rescue Quilt from my SIL (patchwork squares)

4.  Red White & Blue Squares (longarming for a friend( (CM)

5.  Pumpkins & the Beanstalk (a 2nd quilt)

6.  GO! ABC Quilt started during the pink month of RSC21, January 2021

2022 Gardening Progress

 It's been an interesting year when it comes to my gardening and plants.  I have been moving plants and testing them out in the old chicken yard to see which the chickens would eat and which they would let alone.  This has been about a three year process.  This is what it looked like last year in May in the chicken yard.  The experiment went well and I knew that the chickens would not eat these plants.

The plants that I wasn't sure if the chickens would eat or not I kept in this old dog kennel area.  I use this area if I have to quarantine a chicken or bring home new chicks.  My son and I made this building when he was 8 years old from free materials that we got on Craigslist.  It was a fun project that looks like a mom and an 8-year old made.  LOL. My pretty new hostess, cannas, ferns, different colored lily of the valley, some different varieties of sedum, and the catnip is in this protected area.

Unfortunately, my husband decided to move this area while I took our son to an event over an hour away.  It has been leveled!  The dirt was graded down and all the plants have been moved with what he called the "good dirt" to the garden area.  I'm not mad at him, it had to be moved.  I'm bummed I have to wait to see if it comes up somewhere in the garden.  There's a good chance several of the plants will come back.  We shall see.  I have a feeling that packing down the garden by driving the extra large excavator over it pushed them down in the ground too far.  That area will then be plowed and tilled and I'll have to re-start the garden area.

All of these moves are because the property next to us was sold.  When the land was surveyed, we realized that all the fruit trees, my chicken area, some of the garden, and the ocean container that I use for a shed are all on the neighbor's property.  I planted the fruit trees in the late 90's.  I mowed and maintained the area all these years.  I had no idea it was not on our property.  There is a power line right -away there.  At least nobody can build in the big field, but they plan to make hay there.

The area in the photo below where everything is smooth is where the protected dog kennel plants were.  Grrr.  This week I am working on moving everything that is on the right side of the line.  The orange line is pretty much were the property line is.  It doesn't look like a lot in this photo, but you gotta add that the property line goes about another 700 feet west of this.  My husband moved all of the fruit trees with his equipment.  Everything left to move requires a shovel (and a good place to put them.)

The dog kennel needs turned around so that I can "button it up" to the red coop so that little chicks and quarantined chickens can go in there.  (It also needs the chicken wire reattached to the bottom so that it keeps them in there.)

One of the moves that needed done was to move this old berry barn.  All the yuccas have been moved.  Some of the yuccas were ripped out of their new locations by the local deer.  Luckily I had plenty of yuccas to divide and put them on different "test" areas of the property.

The berry barn was temperarily relocated off to the side of the woods for now.  It has seen better days.

Chicken coops are in place, berry barn is removed, big pine trees removed, fruit trees removed, and most of the fence is removed.  Unless we start having predator attacks, I most likely will not be replacing the fence.  Chickens free-range nicely now that the fox families have moved from our property in 2020 when we did quite a bit of earthwork.   The ducks below are in the garden area.

The ocean (shipping) container has been set on the wheels.  Time to move it to the new location.

All of the below fruit trees in the photo below (plus several more) were relocated last fall.  I'll have to get a photo of the new area where they are.  They survived the move and are doing fantastic in the new orchard.  They even have more sunlight. 

Here's where the garden is now.  I will still be able to use most of the area where the garden was last year.  Hopefully I'll have a few surprises of some of the moved perrinials that pop up here and there so that I can save them.  The wood needs to be sawed and processed from all the pine trees that were removed.  I LOVE TO USE THE LOG SPLITTER!  You can see several of the taller flowering bushes like lilac and forsithia and wisteria on the property line way in the back.  Three of our tall blue spruce trees in the background should be removed because they are not on our property.  We are going to leave them there for now.  It's pretty wet in that area and I doubt if they will be making hay there due to the natural springs.  Electric needs to be connected to the ocean container.  Garden needs plowed, disked, and smoothed with the bed springs.  Unfortunately there are big chunks of roots and rocks that got moved along to the garden that will need to be picked up out of there.  More "free" exercise workouts.  But it's good to keep moving.

Photo of the best work crew EVER:

Here's the view of all of the moves thus far.  I am sooooooo blessed to have such an awesome husband that can help me move all this stuff with his equipment.  

It's getting so nice out.  I'm starting to get "chick" fever -- that time of year when I think I need more chickens.  LOL.  If I get protected dog kennel area fixed so that little chicks are safe and contained, I will probably get a few (6 or 8) new chicks.  It would be awesome if one of my hens would become broody and hatch some of our own eggs for FREE.