Sewing Sunny Yellow and Walking at the Farm

My life has taken a turn for the mundane. Maybe it’s just the dog days of August, or maybe what seemed fresh and new in the spring and early summer is now wearing on me. By the time the seasons are about to change, I’m more than ready for a change too. Does that happen to you? And although Autumn should be making itself felt by this time next month, and it’s my favorite season, I always dread the long dark winter that follows. But no matter - for now there is lots of sunshiney yellow scrappy sewing coming out from under my sewing machine needle. And I have some more peaceful Wheeler Farm photos from our walk there this week. Shall we get started?

I decided this week was going to be dedicated to turning this pile of strings and strips into 6.5” string blocks. 

When the dust settled, there were a total of 45 blocks. The first thirty are pinned to the design board, shown in two batches of 15 blocks each, which is how I turn them over to our chapter of Quilts for Kids to use in kits.

The last 15 blocks were set aside to go with this chunk of cute farm fabric and some chambray that will make up a cute little farm-themed quilt. I’ll be sewing that top over the weekend. It could possibly be a finished quilt by next weekend, but at least by the end of the month.  As well, I’m hoping to baste, quilt and finish the two jungle happy block tops. 

I also sewed eight 6.5” Split Nine blocks in yellow. I’ll be linking up to Scrappy Saturday for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

I did get some more Sawtooth Stars sewn - these will be 8” finished. I’m way behind on the productivity rate I’d hoped to achieve on these, but I’m still hoping to get all the 8” stars done by month end. The only trouble is that in my quilt plan I switched out one row of smaller stars, which was going to be (20) 4” stars. Instead I’ll be doing 10 of the larger 8” stars. So that means I have to sew a total of 50 of those - and I only have 16 done presently.

Here are the eight I sewed this week:

And here they are with their eight friends from last week.

I need to pick up the pace!

On Wednesday, Cousin Kim came over and the three of us (Kim, me and Bruce) went walking at our favorite place - Wheeler Farm. We didn’t see the fox this time, darn!  But I snapped a few serene photos. 

Looking north toward the big milking barn and the milk house.

With the Ice House at the right, the north pond turns into a small creek

The same pond from the south looking north (different buildings, though).

For some reason, the ducks prefer the southern pond!

That’s it for this week. What have YOU been up to??

To my friends and family in Southern California, please stay safe. We’re all sending good thoughts to you!

Farm, Food, Family and Four Finishes

I guess today is brought to us by the Letter F.  Fabulous! 

Family:

My grandson Easton was in town in July on leave from the US Navy, and we had a small farewell dinner with him before he left. Poor guy - I think his last several days here were spent doing farewell dinners with all the extended family!  Here we are after a great meal at The Bohemian - a European-style restaurant and brewery.

L-R: My son Ryan, his wife Kim, Bruce, myself, Easton’s girlfriend Madalyn, and Easton

Food:

I hit the -60 pound mark at Weight Watchers on Tuesday morning. That evening, it was our monthly card game night  (Hand and Foot) with my WW friends. I brought this fruit tray that featured some of those giant blackberries from our garden.

Four Finishes:

The Red Ribbons quilt has been bound and is officially done. It will go into my personal To Be Gifted pile for an occasion down the road. I had depleted my pile last May when I went to my Cousins Reunion. 

Red Ribbons was quilted with a basic stipple in the center and an up-down motif (heck, I don’t know how to describe it, but you can see it) in the light border. It finished at 53x66”, and was actually a finish for the month of July. The backing and binding are the same red as the outer red border.

I was able to quilt three of the five little quilts I have basted for the Community Quilts program; these will eventually go to the Salt Lake Chapter of Quilts for Kids. First up is the Tigger Baby Quilt:

I added the blue cloud border to the top and bottom of this already-pieced quilt to bring it up to 39x48”. The backing is a bunch of light blue fabric scraps sewn together.

The second Community Quilt was this little boy’s Star Wars number:

It finished at 39x48” and was backed with this bright yellow yardage from my stash.

The final little quilt was this adorable embroidered Little Girls quilt. It finished at 39.5 x 44”

Oh, this was such a joy to quilt! So bright and happy. There are loops and hearts throughout.  The backing was provided to my by Jo Kramer, and there is another piece of it for a future quilt.

But wait, there’s more!

I did start in on my yellow scrap sewing for Yellow August in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. I’m linking up to Scrappy Saturday to join in the fun with my fellow Scrappettes, LOL. 

First up, six anemic-looking Little Bricks blocks. This completes all the blocks I need to make a couple quilts out of these blocks. I’ll begin on those later in the year.

I finished the last 10 Jungle Happy Blocks, framing them in yellow. Instead of showing you the blocks, I have one finished top and one ready-to-web top to show you. This first one is 20 blocks and the color stripes are horizontal. It will finish at approximately 40x50.

The second quilt, with blocks just pinned to the design board, will have vertical color columns. It uses the other 30 blocks and will finish in the neighborhood of 50x60”.

I’ll finish these later this month, because for the next week I’ll be concentrating on finishing the last two little Community Quilts and cutting out - and hopefully sewing - the next 40 star blocks for my son and daughter-in-law’s Christmas quilt.

Farm:

On Wednesday, Cousin Kim came over. She, Bruce and I walked at Wheeler Farm, the County historical working farm that is down a few doors and across a busy road. We have to actually drive there unless we want to take our lives in our hands crossing that four-lane road.

We saw a red fox as we were walking in the back woods area. I wasn’t quick enough to get a picture, darn! But I did snap a photo of this peacock near the Old Milk House.

The cute baby goats and sheep melted my heart!

I also have a soft spot for the old farmhouse. One of my favorite things when I worked at the farm many years ago was conducting tours through the farmhouse and imagining what life was like 100 years ago. This is a side entrance that led out to what was once a kitchen garden.

And here’s a closing shot of the front yard area of the farmhouse, looking over to the activity barn.  I love having this farm a stone’s throw away from us and will miss it when we sell our house (downsizing) next year. 

Thank you if you’ve read this far, and thank you also to the Letter F for sponsoring today’s post (wink).

Maybe Spring is Really Coming!

Our weather forecast (10-day) here in the Salt Lake Valley has no snow in it! As of Tuesday last week (an incredibly snowy day and our Weight Watchers meeting was cancelled), we broke the all-time snowpack record for the state. It would be an understatement to say I’ve got cabin fever. I’ve been using any excuse I can to get out of the house over the last two clear and sunny days.  We need more bananas? Hey, I’ll run to the store!  I should check to see if I have enough self-tanning lotion for the season. What - not enough? Ok, I’ll hit the drugstore. My underthings are sure getting baggy. Maybe I should head to the mall and shop for new ones! (Note: any other time besides this never-ending winter, shopping for underthings is akin to being waterboarded). 

On Thursday, I did walk to Wheeler Farm, a block away, so I could get some pictures of our snowy mountains and cloudless blue sky. 

There’s not that much snow here on the valley floor, but up in the mountains there is so much that in the Park City/Heber Valley areas, many people have snow up to the eaves of their houses - and no view except snow out their windows (how claustrophobic that would be!) And many structures and roofs have collapsed.

The Great Salt Lake has already risen 8 inches from its record-low levels just from direct precipitation into it. Reservoirs are filling up. And the spring melt and runoff hasn’t even started! We’re hoping it’s a gradual warming over three months, but we already have a couple days next week forecast in the high 60’s and Tuesday is supposed to get to 70! However, the rain showers return later in the week. 

I did spend some time in my studio this week, even though I was really good at finding excuses to not be there. My first and only accomplishment for Purple April for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge was to get my Four-in-Nine blocks sewn. 

Two with a dark gray constant … 

And four with a navy-colored constant …

And it took Miss-Ants-in-her-Pants (me) four sessions to quilt and bind the jewel-toned jelly roll race quilt. I opted for a sort of water-ish motif. Here’s a closeup of some of the (less than stellar) quilting. 

The finished quilt measures 54x62”. I’m going to keep this one.

And here is the back. 

In the next week I’ll work on lots of purple RSC blocks, assemble and pin baste the latest elephants quilt, and the three other quilts waiting patiently in line to be basted. But today - I’m going out into the yard to prune my roses and the blackberry bush. Sunday is Easter and I’ll be roasting a turkey breast for us and DS Shane and DGD London, who are joining us for dinner. It’s going to be a great weekend. I hope yours is too!

OMG - One Monthly Goal Finished for October

Yay! This is the tenth month in a row that I've finished my one monthly goal (OMG) as inspired by Patty at Elm Street Quilts and the monthly OMG gang. I am always so happy to participate. It's fun to cheer others on and get support back in return. Come see how many projects have been finished this month! Visit us HERE.

My goal for October was to finish my Rainbow Anvils quilt. All the blocks were sewn throughout the year as each month a new color was assigned by the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  But still, after working on other projects for most of the month, I had to buckle down last week and begin sewing the 72 blocks together, then to sandwich and quilt the quilt. And finally, to bind it. The binding was done by machine because this will be a donation quilt.

It was pretty windy today (I feel sorry for the trick-or-treaters tonight), but we managed to get these pictures on our front porch. I'm disappointed that the quilt looks wavy, because it actually lays very nicely flat. I should have pressed the edges and taken a quilt roll-up picture.

However, I will confess that many points were harmed in the making of this quilt. That is why it's a donation quilt. I really don't want to claim it.  :-)  Rainbow Anvils finished at 64x72". The backing is a wonderful print that was part of a duvet I bought last year at the thrift store. We used the other half of the duvet in Cousin Kim's Jelly Roll Race quilt back in January, which you can see HERE.

Rainbow Anvils was goal #2 on my 4th Quarter Finish-Along list, which you can find HERE. I'll link up to the quarter-end finishing post when that goes live at the end of the quarter. For now, I can begin putting together the next item on my list - the second quilt in the dark neutral scraps that I've been working on. Stay tuned.

In the meantime, since this is the last day of October, I thought I'd share with you several pictures from our weekly walks over to the local county-owned historic working farm, Wheeler Farm. I love this 75-acre farm, which is only a block away from our house. I worked there for 4 years after officially retiring. I was a Kids' Camp Counselor (arts and crafts) for one summer, then the farm bookkeeper for three and a half years after that. I quit when my Etsy shop got so busy (I sold Venice lace (plain and dyed), fancy fabrics, vintage linens and trims, and vintage sewing patterns. Anyway, I've stayed in touch with all my old friends and co-workers, so almost every visit is like a homecoming for me. And autumn on the farm is absolutely the best time of year!

This is the pumpkin patch where the families can go after they've been on the wagon rides, through the hay maze and other activities. I think they were smart to separate the pumpkin patch from the other activities. The families can go here with their tickets and pick out the pumpkins when they're ready to leave rather than carrying them around the whole time.

I showed this horse "skeleton" last year (there are actually 2 of them in there), but it always gives me a chuckle so I had to include it again.

Here's a row of "witches" that you have to walk down on the way over to the hay maze.  The best decorations on the farm - and there are plenty - are ones that I forgot to take pictures of!

But Mother Nature herself is the star of the show anyway at this time of year.

Above: over the bridge across Little Cottonwood Creek, which separates the front third of the farm (farmhouse, Activity barn, animals and their barns and paddocks, education centers, developed areas) from the back two thirds of the farm, which is all trails for walking, bicycling, wagon rides.

Below: a portion of the creek flows through the woods. The pointed shadow is my hoodie. Really, it's my hoodie, not my head. Honest.

In the background of the picture below, you can see the Ice House, where they used to store the ice cut off the two ponds (you can see one of those in the picture, too) that were diverted from the creek water. The Wheelers used to have a dairy here and sold milk, eggs, butter, cheese and ice. I think I've mentioned it here before, but one year they sold $2,000 worth of ice blocks. They charged 10 cents each. That's a lot of ice!!  The Ice House is where the kids summer camp is always headquartered.

Back in the wild area...

Another part of the creek.

Bruce and I live on a standard city lot in a nice suburban neighborhood. But when we want a sense of peace or a recharge that only the countryside can provide, we only have to walk about 4 houses down, cross a street, and we are in the midst of nature in minutes. I can't tell you how grateful we are to have Wheeler Farm in our "backyard".

Hot Fun in the Summertime!

So many fun things happened last week. Diane Knott, one of my favorite quilters and authors (Scrap Quilt Secrets and Strip Quilt Secrets) was in town for a Handi-Quilter seminar. She was there to learn lots of new things for several days. You might remember that Diane quilted my Lattice Birds quilt, and did a beautiful job. So anyway, we met up for some fun shopping and a photo op at Quilters Lodge in Draper, Utah.

Diane is so warm and friendly, and we just talked and laughed (and shopped) like we’d known each other for years. Truly, a nicer person you will not find! Quilters are such a wonderful group, aren’t they??  That was Saturday, and I was finally rested from two trips to Wheeler Farm earlier in the week.

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Wheeler Farm is a county-run historical working farm that is a block from our house. After I retired from my full-time job as a credit manager, I worked part-time at Wheeler Farm as a kids Camp “Cow”-nselor and then as a bookkeeper and docent for almost 4 years. Wheeler Farm is almost 78 acres of trails for walking and biking, plus lots of farm animals (and participatory cow milking), farmhouse tours, a machinery barn, wagon rides, summer camp, pony rides, teaching gardens (in cooperation with the county extension service) and so much more. I have a label (hashtag) on the sidebar for Wheeler Farm that includes all the posts I’ve written about it over the last 12 years of blogging.

So, on Wednesday, Cousin Kim and Bruce and I went walking around the farm just for exercise. And then on Thursday, the grandkids from Colorado visited with their mom Emily (Bruce’s daughter), and we had to show them all the new stuff. These pics combine both visits....

The restored Farmhouse, newly restored gardens.

Looking from the Farmhouse to the west

From the farmhouse you can look northeast to see pastures for cows and horses, old farm trucks and the machinery barn.

Beyond the farmhouse are the two duck ponds. That building below is the Ice House, where they used to store the ice cut from these ponds. It’s also the headquarters for Kids Camp. 

The two ponds above are formed by water diverted from Little Cottonwood Creek, which flows down from Little Cottonwood Canyon (ski resorts Brighton and Solitude). With the spring runoff, they are running at very high and dangerous levels.

Looks like some folks (picture below) are getting a tractor-pulled wagon ride. The little playhouse at the right is situated next to The Lightning Tree (a box elder), so named because it’s been hit twice by lightening. 

Here are some of the teaching vegetable gardens with the in-process Nature Center that’s being built in the background. It’s scheduled to open this fall, but the wet spring later means that it will be late fall instead of early fall.

And looking in the other direction, you can see more gardens.

We loved this little “skep” made of two-by-four chunks of wood. It’s in the center of the nature walk/teaching area for kids. 

Naturally, Cousin Kim and I had to sit in it on Wednesday.

On Thursday, Abbie, Gunner and Deacon rested in the skep and certainly look a lot cuter!

And here’s most of the gang walking along on Thursday. 

The County cleverly had wood carvers transform the stumps of dead trees into wood carved wonders along one of the main walkways of the farm.  Here daughter Emily poses with Abbie, Deacon and Gunner.

Abbie

Gunner

Deacon, Abbie, Gunner

Emily and Deacon

Not to be outdone, Alfie and Darla wanted me to show you their pictures too.

Alfie’s favorite “hang-out” is to sit on the back of the couch and look out the front window shutters to watch the neighborhood goings-on. He even naps like that sometime. 

Meanwhile, Darla sits on the ottoman and pretends she’s asleep. But we know her better; she knows exactly what is going on. 

And a final picture for the week, just because. My volunteer hollyhocks are huge. They were planted several years ago on the other side of that bed, but somehow these sprung up here for the first time last year (ish). They’re just getting started. This picture was taken last week too, and the apricots are almost ready. We’re thinking next week at the latest. If the propped up branches can hold on.....