JeanieG

QNS - No flooding here, and we are not in a flood zone. Most of the problems are in Northern CA. No more rain here until next weekend, and the rain here over last weekend was less than 1/2". Our lakes are filling up, thank goodness, as they were awfully low after all our drought.

dublb

Nice day here today too. Almost 90! I actually got hot at one point. It is cool in the house right now though. I haven't sewn a stitch all this last week. I just seem to tired by the time I have a chance to sew.

QuiltingNinaSue

I turned the car toward the hen shed last night and turned the car lights on, therefore, no problems seeing anything in the chicken yard! Yes, I had a flashlight, too. Gathered the eggs earlier, so I did not have to do it in the dark. Led the guineas in by flashlight into the shed. They cannot see in the dark, but will follow the flashlight into the shed.
dh is slowing getting better. Got good rest last night so ready for today, I think.

You all have a good one. Jeanie, I am glad you do not have to worry about the flooding. Dublb, the time will come again when you can sew.

sewbizgirl

I wish I had chickens! I miss the fresh eggs. We have so many varmints out here in the woods, you have to have a fortress to keep chickens safe at night. And then there are the egg swallowing snakes that get in! We gave up.

QNS, just curious... what do you do with guineas? Do you eat them? Keep as pets? Do they lay eggs you can eat?

I've been playing with a crazy quilt pattern. I got a book by Karla Alexander... Stack a New Deck, where she shows you how to stack up fabrics and then whack them freehanded, then shuffle the stacks and sew them back together. So much fun.

Hope you all have a great day. It's a warm one here, too. Everything is blooming and budding.

oksewglad

Just taking a cleaning break ...2 windows done, 1 to go then hit the laundry/mudroom....I have an 8 foot counter in there just off the kitchen. It's a horizontal surface so catches everything from clean clothes to canning jars to stuff emptied out of MrOK's dirty work clothes. I'm planning on using it as my pot luck buffet for Saturday....guests can go through on one end and come out into the kitchen and onto seating themselves...

Lots of chicken stories! Best one from here is when then 5 yo GD had a session on fire prevention at school. She came home and tried to get the chickens out of the coop in a fire drill...they didn't cooperate!

The Stack the Deck book sounds interesting...my first thought is to take scrap squares, 8-12", then cut in thirds both ways to get 9 uneven squares, shuffle and resew. Or cut in thirds for wonky rails or fourths for wonky 4P....oh thanks, Bonnie...I want to sew and can't until I get this house cleaned.

Back to work!

sewbizgirl

I'll show you the one I'm working on soon... It's a very wonky square-in-square, blocks of 4 of them sewn together and then sliced both ways and black and white strips inserted. It's called Hopscotch. Seriously cute!

OK, you wanna know what I do when I have to clean but want to sew? I SEW!

(So bad.... )

sewbizgirl

Here are some photos of my blocks. When you stack two each of 4 9" squares, slice them and mix them and sew them back together, you get these blocks:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]568862[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]568863[/ATTACH]

Then they are sliced again and the black stripes inserted, and you get this:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]568864[/ATTACH]

The quilt will have a deep blue print sashing between the blocks. This design is called Hopscotch. So much fun to make!

These are brights and kind of childish prints, but you could do a very elegant version with oriental fabrics, or batiks... lots of possibilities.

QuiltingNinaSue

Great job, SBG. We keep a few guineas because they eat ticks, etc., bugs. down to four now. May try to order and raise more this Spring. Jumbos, who have their wing bone clipped so they cannot fly. But I have to order 30 and that is too many. They are good alarm alerts when someone comes onto the property. Yes, you can eat their eggs. They have dark meat, and only the breast has enough meat on it to eat.

OK, you remind me of the old saying " Man's work is from sun rise to sun set, but a woman's work is never done!" Good luck on getting it all done.

I have dh happy with his cookies, noodle/chicken creamy soup, and a Jello fruit salad. And fresh baked bread. His treatment helped him so much, he can walk again on his own. No more
chick duty!

sewbizgirl

Glad your hubby is feeling better, NS.

givio

I recently watched a YouTube that showed stacking fabric, shuffling, and re-sewing. I gave it a try too! Is it a new craze or fad? I stacked some blues and yellows, 10" squares. I did a simple straight cut into 2" squares. It went ok with a stack of 6, but I think you have to be careful to use good contrast fabrics, because my shuffle of the 2-color palette left a little to be desired. Then I cut some strips, cut some 2" squares and made 4 more blocks. It's hard to tell which were the stacked blocks and which were not stacked, so that's why it's ok... but I think I'd go with only 3 squares to cut if I try that method again. I'll say, though, it's a great way to make up a set of blocks very quickly! Whoo hoo!