Some Finishes and a Rainbow Flimsy

Winter has definitely arrived here in the Salt Lake Valley. It’s been cold and we’ve had rain. About three days ago we even woke up to a dusting of snow. I say Bring it On! Let’s get plenty of snow over the next 2-3 months; good for the water supply, good for tourism, good for the winter holiday spirit. And then come March 1, it can just go away! ... um ... Do you think Mother Nature is listening? I’m not holding my breath. 

So this past week, the stars aligned to allow me to get several projects finished. I love when that happens! The first finish was this four-patch posy quilt for Quilts for Kids. I tell you, it was pure bliss working on this project. I love the fabric and colors. It’s just so cheery!

In the 20 main 4-patch blocks, I quilted a swirly flower. It’s one of my go-to designs. You can see it better from the back.  I also did a vine along the outer floral border and a loopy design in the sashing. 

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After laundering, the quilt measured 50x60”. 

Last Sunday, Cousin Kim and I basted this large quilt, which I’m calling Bear Tracks because of the masculine Dan Morris prints of deer, bears and owls. Anyway, this will go to my daughter-in-law’s father, Bill. It’s the third of four Christmas quilts I want to get done before Christmas. 

Bear Tracks measures 78x88” and was straight-line quilted at four-inch intervals. The outer blue narrow border was given a curled hook pattern. Simple, but echoed some of the same motifs in the fabric. Here’s the backing.  You can click on these pictures to enlarge them and see the beautiful fabric.

And then I remembered that before I could mail off my brother Steve's Christmas quilt (the panel quilt of the snowy truck), I had to finish the zip pouch I was planning for him. This was the last of the fat quarter of marijuana-themed fabric that I’d ordered earlier in the year. Previously I’d made Steve a mask out of the fabric, plus I cut two zipper blocks (one for Kim, one for me) out of it. And now, the pouch. Seriously, I think I eked out every last leaf out of that print!  The pouch is 7x10”, quilted with a small stipple and sports a green zipper. Green is Steve’s favorite color.

And speaking of Cousin Kim and the zipper blocks, let me show you HER zipper quilt finish. Mine will be pretty much the same (at least 80% of our blocks are the same) once I get it sewn together. Isn’t it awesome? It looks like it’s just glowing!! Kim is giving it to her son Nick for Christmas. 

 

So, those are the finishes. Next, I played with strings and made another couple dozen multi-colored string blocks. But you don’t need to see a picture of those, because after you’ve seen a few dozen (like last week), you’ve seen them all. I’ll just keep working on them until my string bin looks depleted. Hahaha - as if.

I also took a few moments - and it was literally just a few moments - to sew together this Scraptastic Star flimsy.  With the 12 sixteen-inch blocks, it measures 48x60” and will be a great quilt for Quilts for Kids. I made these blocks all year as one of my Rainbow Scrap Challenge projects. It’s high time I begin sewing some of the blocks together into tops, eh? 

My plan is to get Scraptastic Stars, along with the gray and orange scrappy column quilt (seen in progress  here) basted and quilted. I just realized that I’ve never shown that finished gray and orange top. Well, no matter. Hopefully I’ll have the finished quilt for you next week.

I received a surprise package from Sally this week. How sweet of her (I bet she hates me saying that) to gift me with a yard of this delightful Gumby and Pokey fabric. I was so excited that I wasted no time in pulling some potential matching strips from the QFK scraps for it. I’ll probably do something quick and easy with it like the third quilt on this page. 

And then not to be outdone, Molly Kitten (Sally’s supervisor), sent three bright and happy cat fabrics to Darla. I have no idea what those two felines are cooking up, but you can bet you’ll hear about it here.

Finally, I’m about to start the fourth of the four Christmas quilts to sew this year. This final one is for my son, Ryan.  I saw this line of fabrics at Connecting Threads and it just hit me how perfect it was. I bought a 10” square pack and lots of yardage. That’s not something that I often do, but it was during the time I was reading a draft of Ryan’s book manuscript, and the colors and prints just leaped out at me and said “Arahorn!”. Maybe someday I’ll explain that more. Anyway, the fabric must’ve been popular because it was GONE within a week or two. Now all the decisions have been made and the pieces are cut. Let the sewing begin!!

We had a wonderful, quiet Thanksgiving here at home this year. Except for last year, that’s what we usually have done over the last 10-12 years anyway. We  did talk or text with most of the family during the day. Then for a mid-afternoon dinner I made a wonderful turkey and dressing casserole, using Melody’s recipe, here. I didn’t get a picture, but if you check out the link, you can see it. Seriously, if you’re wondering what to do with your leftovers, or would rather just cook an easy turkey dinner next time, I heartily recommend this “turkey lasagna” without reservation. We added a bit of mild Italian sausage (and celery and onions) to the cornbread stuffing mix. It made enough for three dinners and a lunch. Anyway, we also had green beans from the garden and pumpkin pie for dessert. A simple, perfect day. 

October Roundup

All in all, October has been a very good month. Out in the big wide world, Covid is still raging wildly. But here at home, things are great, if quiet. It was a pleasant fall week, with crisp blue skies by day and chilly temperatures in the evenings. We had our first hard frost, and things are looking brown and crispy. The fall colors aren’t intense this year, as happens when there is a lack of rain throughout the year. We’ve got our fingers crossed that the Farmer’s Almanac will be correct in its prediction of a wetter-than-usual winter for us. We need the moisture. But not in our lungs, thank you very much, just on the ground. We’re planning our last foray out in the yard today to put the patio cushions, decorations and furniture away. We’ve got a lot of leaves in the breezeway and patio, but no sense sweeping them now because the trees have more coming.

I’m linking up to Angela’s So Scrappy blog for Scrappy Saturday. We participants are sharing all of our yellow scrappy sewing for the month. This month concludes the color rotation for this year, although November and December are reserved for dark neutrals (black, gray, brown) and light neutrals (white, cream), if desired. Most of us will take the time over the next couple months to begin assembly of our rainbow blocks into quilts. If my calculations are correct, I have five rainbow quilts to assemble; Beachcomber, strings, selvage hexies, Windmills (Twin Sisters), and Scraptastic Stars. The Split Nines and International Sisters will carry over into 2021. 

I finished quilting and binding my quilt from yellow scraps and orphan blocks. Meet Creature from Bumblebee Acres! Thanks to Joy for the great name idea! This happy little creature quilt finished at 42x48.5”. It will go to Quilts for Kids. 

And speaking of Quilts for Kids, my friend Sandy who runs our local chapter says she’s overflowing with scraps. She’s sorting through them and texted me to come over in a few day to pick some up. I can hardly wait! All my little scrappy quilts go to QFK anyway, so it’s a win-win! Last Saturday we had a QFK scrappy workshop, but I didn’t feel comfortable enough (because of the pandemic) to stay and sew. However, I dropped off 10 quilts (three made and quilted by me and seven made by others and quilted/bound by me). I did stay long enough to learn the scrappy technique being taught, plus to pick up two kits to make a couple of those. And four quilts to be quilted.

Anyway, this new technique is something I want to share with you. Apparently, you begin with a nice repeating print, be it floral, or whatever. Then you cut 4.5” squares or whatever size you choose, depending on the size of the repeat (or portion thereof). Let me show you.

See the four sections of the four-patch above? They were cut from almost the same exact portion of the repeat, just at subsequent portions of the fabric. In the case of this print, there were several ways to lay it out, but the idea is to make it look kaleidoscope-ish. Or turn it into an interesting repeated pattern.

There is no right or wrong here - you just play with them until you get an effect you like. In the above block, I chose to put the main (visually-weighty) flowers out in the squares and bring a lesser grouping together at the center. I love those green swirls too. 

The blue flowers above all wanted to play together at the center. 

Once all the groups of four patches are sewn together, you add sashing and cornerstones, which we are asked by QFK to provide from our stashes. I also added an outer border because there was extra main fabric given to us for that purpose. I’ll admit that this squirrel bit me hard, and I couldn’t stop sewing until it was a flimsy! It measures 51x61”. 

If you click on the picture, you can enlarge it to see all the fun variations that this print provided.  I’ll probably set this one aside now for a few weeks before quilting it up, although I do plan to piece a backing for it this weekend.

Here is my usual collage of yellow RSC blocks made for October. There were 84 of them. (Not all are pictured).

I also finished up (quilting, binding), the second of four quilts that I’m making as Christmas gifts. This quilt was made from a panel and will be for my brother who is still crazy after all these years for old cars and trucks. 

As usual, my design board isn’t large enough, so the top part is pinned on and the bottom portion is hanging, which makes it look wonky. It isn’t. 

Mostly I quilted it in a simple stipple with black thread, but in the snowy parts I switched to white thread and just quilted lines or whatever I felt would work on the snow. This quilt finished at 56x65” before laundering. The backing is a tossed truck print with red, green and blue trucks that I’ve had for awhile and knew would be the perfect backing for a Christmas quilt for Steve. 

Now I’ve moved on to the third Christmas quilt. This next one will be for Bill, who is the husband of Paula (Tyrol quilt) and is my DIL’s dad. Bill likes to hunt, and they have a cabin up in the canyon not too far from Snowbird. When my DIL Kim saw these fabrics I’d pulled from my stash as a possibility, she said they were perfect for him. She also chose a simple rail pattern for the quilt.

This is how they’re looking together so far. I have sewn all 56 blocks, so the inner portion of the quilt will be set 7x8.  Then there will be a thin blue border (that solid blue) followed by an outer wide border of that navy medallion print. 

It should finish somewhere in the neighborhood of 78x88”. Since Bill is 6’4”, that’s a good size for a lap quilt.

But wait, there’s more! That’s all of my sewing for the week, but Cousin Kim finished up a baby quilt from a cute jelly roll of baby fabric I had sitting around.  Her son Nick has a friend who is having a baby, and this will go for him/her.

Click on the picture to enlarge it and see the cute prints with unicorns and swans. Kim did a super job and used just about every square inch of the jelly roll for the blocks, border and binding. She is the queen of frugal. This delightful quilt finished at 50.5 x 59.5”.  At Kim’s request, I quilted it with a simple loop design. 

So, do you remember that my plan was to shampoo the carpets of at least one room last week? Well .... it didn’t happen. But not for lack of trying. Oh no. It was a major cluster-foxtrot, if you know what I mean. I got the guest bedroom cleared and vacuumed. Then I got out the carpet cleaning appliance, the instructions (just to refresh my memory), and set to work. But nothing was happening. Everything seemed to run fine, but no water/soap was moving out or in. I checked the beater bar, the belt, cleaned all the parts, etc. Bruce even came and helped me disassemble some non-“user-serviceable” parts to check and clean. It just wouldn’t spray out the soap or suck it back up. We figured the pump must be kaput. After almost two wasted hours, I gave up. And I’ll have you know that I didn’t utter even one foul word through the entire process. So now I guess I’ll need to call in a professional to do it. Damn! (Oops!)

That’s it from here. Today, October 31, is also the anniversary of my mom’s passing (14 years), so she’ll be in my thoughts throughout the day. Tonight is trick-or-treating, but we’re turning off the lights and watching our usual movie, Young Frankenstein. We’ve already been around to the three neighborhood families of kids we love to deliver their treats to them in person.  

So Much Progress (and a Finish) to Share

Another busy week draws to a close, but I'm jazzed because I have something(s) to share with you! Happy Saturday, and welcome!

First, a finish. YAY! I finished the Newport Butterflies quilt for Cousin Kim. The fabric line that we both loved was called Newport, and it contains several butterfly prints. Kimmie loves butterflies. Hence the name Newport Butterflies. I had purchased the fabric in a 10" square stack (a Layer Cake), and cut those in half to make brick-sized pieces that would show off the print. I didn't realize until just now that the pattern echoes the brickwork of our house in the background!

The sashing or "mortar" is Kona Snow, and Newport Butterflies finished at 58x72".  After practicing quilting butterflies a bit, I forged ahead and quilted lots of little butterflies and swirly loops into the quilt.

Like the meandering lines, the butterflies are multi-directional. 

They are cute, but definitely not a consistent size or shape. Do I care? Heck no! They are different, just like in nature. I know Kim will love them.

Newport Butterflies was my OMG (One Monthly Goal) for December. That makes 12 of my 12 monthly goals finished for this year! Woo-hoo! That is such a happy thing for me, especially given all our challenges this year. And it shows that sewing is definitely my happy place and keeps me grounded when the world is going crazy around me (or is the world just fine and I'm the one going crazy?) Anyway, I'm linking up to Elm Street Quilt's OMG Finish-Along post. This was also my finished goal #3 for the 4th Quarter Finish-Along. My goal list is HERE.

I made a couple zip pouches for sweet friends. One of them I forgot to get a picture of before gifting it this week. But the other one is stuffed with little gifties and I did get a picture. These are just Bonnae's colors! The zip pouch is sitting on a newly-sewn ironing pad made from a couple of fat quarters.

The ironing pad is two-sided. This print above was a quilty cheater cloth that I picked up for a song on this year's quilt Shop Hop. The other side, shown below, is a wild purple fishy print which was a fat quarter I ordered from Spoonflower last year. It's laying on my newly-covered ironing board pad. Yep, I've been busy!

And speaking of Spoonflower, I couldn't resist their 50% off fat quarters earlier this month, so I bought the two shown below. The cannabis print is to make into a zip pouch for my brother who imbibes (and lives where that is legal). He's an epileptic who has used marijuana for decades (since we were kids living at home in California where he secretly grew it) to control seizures. Oh, I have stories about those days! Anyway. The other print is just one I fell in love with.

Next in line will be to quilt this little nap quilt (bad shot of partial basted quilt) for the grand cats Xbox and Carl. The size is roughly that of a crib quilt. It will be delivered sometime between Christmas and New Year along with the family gifts when we see them.

And then there is this monstrosity - my rainbow selvage blocks from this year. This quilt top has been sitting in Time Out for a couple months. I was hoping that it would somehow either change itself or that I might grow to like it. Nope. If it weren't already sashed, I would've ripped the large 16-patch blocks into four-patches and started over. But I hate it so much that I'm not willing to invest that time in it. Heck, I'm not even going to add outer sashing. Just quilt up the da** thing and donate it. Bam! Done!

And last but not least (are you still awake?) are the four blocks I stitched for the Block Lotto this month. They are hourglass blocks that measure 6.5". As usual, since my friend Nann and I have been running the Lotto since August to keep it going until year-end, the blocks I make are for donation. It's sad, but the owner of the Block Lotto site has decided not to renew the site. I can't say that I blame her. Interest has fallen off over the years, and she has to pay the site hosting fees. So, this will be the last month for Block Lotto.

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ALERT!  I just moved Newport Butterflies from the washer into the dryer. Since this was the quilt's first laundering, I had thrown two color catchers into the wash. As I went to put it in the dryer, I checked the color catchers - only to find out that they weren't color catchers, but dryer sheets! WHAT?!? What is happening to my brain? Didn’t it just get back from vacation? Well, it doesn't look as though any colors bled. Whew! Thank goodness I used good quality fabrics.

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As I age, I've learned that I don't enjoy or cope well with all the stress of the Holidays. For us, that's about mid-November through the end of the year. So, we've devised alternate routines and celebrations that let us keep things very low key. Thanksgiving is either just us (and maybe a family member or two who doesn't have plans) or going out to family or restaurant. Christmas gifts are bought here and there all year as something reminds us of someone, or else they get gift cards or money. Wrapping is minimal (a bag?), reusable or given in a card. Decorating is also minimal (bonus: we've been able to donate a couple tubs of "stuff" to charity). Christmas baking this year was a two-fer. I made Bruce's favorite cookies, which I do periodically for him, just in time to serve some for dessert at our family dinner gathering last week. Neighbor gifts are jars of jam that I made last summer. Even the kitties got their gifts early (new beds and catnip toys) when I took advantage of a Chewy coupon a couple months ago. I can't decide if it's my age, or if I'm getting smart or lazy or some combination of all of them. But I rather like the toned-down version of things. It allows more time to enjoy people; friends, family and each other.

I've already shown you the picture of our tiny Christmas tree, but now I'm going to treat you to our menagerie nativity. There is no baby Jesus, although we did find a half walnut shell for his manger. Stay tuned for that next year. In the meantime we have a little soapstone elephant (from last year’s Kenya trip), a wood deer (that I got in Austria in 1970), a dough turkey (made by son Shane in 3rd grade), a see-no-evil monkey, a rooster from Portugal, two marble mice (they're the best kind), a pewter rabbit (Austria, 1970), a one-eared bunny that just wandered in, a wood-carved owl (also Austria, 1970) and a smiling Buddha-like character. Eclectic, irreverent, cute. Just like us!

Thank you for reading my blog and sharing your thoughts and friendship over the year. I truly love and appreciate all of you. I wish you and yours the Happiest of Holidays, whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukah, the Solstice, or whatever else (because I don't know all the holidays, to my shame). May you enjoy good company, love, warmth, peace and plenty.

When Your Brain Goes on Vacation

To be honest, I don't know if my brain has been on vacation or if it was kidnapped. Of course, that would beg the question "Who would want to kidnap it?", which pretty much answers the dilemma. I just wish it had taken me along wherever it went. But it's back now, and apparently ready to get on with blogging and life in general. So I've got a few catch-up things to share.

First, I sewed up my December blocks for the Butterfly Threads Seeing Stars Sew Along over at Diane Knott's blog. This month we're doing pinwheels, which were fun. Here are my blocks:

This is the 4th month of the Sew-Along, and I'm really enjoying it. I originally started out with busy backgrounds for my blocks.  The more I used them, the more I hated them. So this month I re-did a few previous blocks - the worst offenders - using plain Kona white as a background. Much better. Here are the first three months with busy backgrounds.

Before, with too-busy backgrounds

And here are the four months' worth, having replaced a lot of the square-in-a-square backgrounds with plain white and adding this month's pinwheels:

After, with mostly-fixed backgrounds

Four of those churn dash blocks (two in the bottom row and the two blue ones in rows above them) are likely candidates for some plain white background transplants next month! 

This past weekend I also finished my Block of the Month for December for our local quilting shop's (Nuttall's) BOM class. This used a Mini Quick Curve Ruler for the petals, and I really enjoyed making these. The right one was made with the fabrics they gave us, and the left one is made from stash. 

These are all four of my BOMs with their fabric so far:

And these are my extra blocks, which will eventually make a kid's quilt for donation. Note that there was no way on earth I was going to do all those little half-square triangles again. I did a giant red nine-patch instead.

I also wanted to show you the quilt that Cousin Kim made for her son-in-law for Christmas. He is a graphic designer by trade and a disc jockey by hobby. This was a pattern from our local Shop Hop from a few years ago. The pattern had a lot of mistakes that Kim had to puzzle out and fix. You can see some spacers she had to add to the center of the two side borders.

I had the pleasure of quilting it: a cross-hatch in the center portion and a basic stipple in the outer border. 

My Christmas sewing is mostly complete; I just have to sew up a back for the quilt for Cousin Kim, then baste, quilt and bind it. I'll have a progress report on that this weekend. It's really the only thing left on my Christmas list. How is your Christmas sewing and shopping going? 

This week is mostly free of obligations, other than a doctor check-up for Bruce's arm. It's probably too early to get all the stitches out, but at least he may progress out of the monstrous splint he's in.   

The End of Pink... but not the Apricots

Our apricot tree is like the Energizer Bunny ... it just keeps going and going. This week, after taking 4 cases to Weight Watchers. They asked me how many trees we had. When I told theme only one tree, they found it hard to believe until I showed them the picture. Ha! I also took apricots to neighbors and a meeting I attended. That left me with a couple cases to deal with at home. We ate lots of fresh, yummy fruit. And then there were two more batches of jam, several quarts of frozen apricots, an apricot pie and some apricot turnovers. And yes, some went to waste before it could be dealt with. It makes me feel guilty, but on the other hand, I’m only human. We capped the blisteringly hot work week by filling the kiddie pool (meant for grandkids) and getting in it ourselves. We’re nothing if not immature. You’ll keep the secret, right?

And I got a lot of sewing done, too. I don’t know how the hours of some weeks can stretch to accommodate so much, while other weeks ricochet by in an instant. But this was a good, long week. 

First out from under the needle we’re these string blocks. There are 4 that will finish at 9” and 6 that will finish at 4”.

And then there were the bitcoins rows, made from 1.5x2.5" scraps.  These will eventually become part of a border, but I have a new block plan for them for next year.

I also sewed some little scraps and lingering waste triangles into some miscellaneous crumb blocks - two at 6.5" and four at 4.5" (top row, center in picture below). They will go into the Parts Department for eventual inclusion into a future quilt.

And that was the end of my pink scrap sewing for the month.  I'm thrilled to say that it decimated my huge drawer-full of pink scraps. Here is a recap picture of all the Rainbow Scrap blocks that I made in July. I'm linking these up to Angela's Scrappy Saturday post. 

A total of 77 blocks.  But wait, there's more!

I had so many pink scraps, that I sewed two pink quilts for Quilts for Kids. First up, Little Pink Scrap Quilt A (38x48"):

I used leftover 2.5" squares, leftover solid strips and tied the whole thing together with a cute piece of floral fabric - not a scrap, but any use of stash is good! 

Here is a detail of some of the heart and loop quilting I did (shown after quilt was washed).

And here is Little Pink Scrap Quilt B (44x53").  It, too, used leftover squares and strips, plus two 1-yard cuts of fabric (one sparkly, on back, and the hedgehog fabric border). 

I added the two pink quilts to the pile of baby-sized quilts I quilted for Quilts for Kids this month. Five other quilts quilted (sewn by others), plus the two pink ones finished entirely by me.

There is some quilting detail on one quilt I want to show you. I did some free-form loops and stars with variegated thread on this starry blue quilt (sewn by a man!)

So, my quilt finishes for the month are shown below. I'm most thrilled with Crumbcakes, of course on the top left. The Little Pink Scrap Quilt A was goal #9 from my Finish-Along Quarter 3 list, which you can see HERE. I'm particularly thrilled that I did two quilts instead of just one.

And a shout out here to Cousin Kim, who finished this lovely quilt for herself this month: 

It's the last weekend of July, and the summer is half over. Where does the time go? More importantly, DO YOU WANT SOME APRICOTS???????????

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.....