Jan.16… Hand quilt along update…

Half way through January, and it’s a windy,chilly day here in Ga.

This kind of weather makes quilting a real delight, curling up with the quilt your quilting on is sooo toasty warm.🙂

Sorry I didn’t get a post up and running last update. I was too weary after all the Christmas crew . I totally enjoyed all the grands and the children home,however we are adding up to be quite a crew with 22 mouths to feed for several days.

Update time! Last round I was here…

Now I’m here…

The braid and the lines are done with scallops being worked on and the grid work.

A closer look.

I need to add a Camilla to this post, my bushes are blooming their hearts out.

Then there were some that were in a bouquet ,and just about done gone. They still dressed up an old planter.

This Hand Quilt Along is an opportunity for hand quilters and piecers to share and motivate one another. We post every three weeks, to show our progress and encourage one another.  If you have a hand quilting project and would like to join our group contact Kathy at the link below.

Kathy, Margaret,Nanette, Sharon, Karrin, and Daisy

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May 31… flower and birds…and…

Whatever else I happen to photo..🤓

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted some of the flowers that are happily blooming …so here goes.

Gladiolus ,these I planted fresh this spring after a vole eat a large amount last year.. anybody know how to keep voles away other than getting a cat… Caroline ( the Rottie) isn’t cat friendly.

Hydrangea

Poppy

Lilies

More lilies

Blooming cedar?
Nope it’s honeysuckle growing in amongst the limbs.

Ruen drake looking pretty
And the arrival of more ducklings to replace the ones a skunk got in one night.

The first day of arrival they were ready for food and water…
Now they are lively and growing like weeds..

Yes, I know dirty water.. I just changed an hour before taking this photo.🤷🏻‍♀️
There are 4 magpie ducklings and 4 ruens

Here are some little birds that I seen while kayaking,here’s a video of them dancing.😄

A rag rug I finished up. Feels good to have that pile of rags out of the way.
And a new rug on the floor.
After a thunderstorm one evening last week,the sky was beautiful!

Have a lovely week friends.

April 24…. update on my world…🙂

My daughter is very good at keeping me informed on how the grand children are doing,and little sneak peeks into their lives!

Candice is a chip off the old block here, she loves her chicks as much as I do!

While her younger sister is the story teller..

Reagan is a good listener.🥰
My daughter in law has made masks for the business that we own,and the two boys (her and mikes boys) who thought that they were cool.

Here’s Mike and Hubby at work wearing them… quite the outfit.

The business has been steady,as we were essential to commercial business. Here they are working at a commercial warehouse, fixing a loading dock door.

We have had lots of rain lately making things so green,and fresh.
Here’s a few photos of nature

Dogwood

Last camellia bloom

Turkey tracks

Viburnum blooming

Good old hot dog roast!

Any one in need of fresh farm eggs? It’s amazing how quickly 11 eggs a day add up. I can’t use them all , so I share with family and friends.
Praying for all my blogging friend’s good health.

March 29…. photos of my world

Spring is in full swing here on our little farm,so that means lots of out of doors work,…mowing ,weed whacking ,weed pulling,and mulching. Of course, it also means… sore muscles, blisters on your hands even with gloves on, farmers tan ,and ant bites.

However when it’s all done ,it’s so worth it! Here’s the big flowerbed almost done.

Not to many flowers blooming here yet.
There are around the house though
Azaleas,Gerber daisy,and amaryllis

We’ve had a real problem with predators wanting to get the chickens and ducks lately. Sad to say a pair of skunks got into the young ducks,eating three leaving me two😡…

Caroline took care of the hawk that got into the chicken pen…. no one messes with her chickens. She watches out for them even sleeping at the chicken pen gate. Caroline did try to get the skunks ,bless her for trying but the spray was to overwhelming.

Last weekend we were up to our lot. It was a lovely weekend with watching the osprey rebuilding their nest even saw a territorial fight between the osprey and bald eagle.

And a start of a beautiful day

We bought Leona an iPad so she could have screen touch because of not being able to use her hands.
Well ,if hands don’t work then a nose will.
Puzzles are a favorite past time for her.

Stay safe and enjoy life!

Jan.25…. a big mistake? 🧐

I had a few feed sack scraps that I wanted to use up in a wall hanging. I picked out a gray fabric that I had laying around. I liked it when I laid the little feed sack fabrics against it, but somehow when sewing it together… it started to look nothing of what I thought it would.

Eeeek…..😱
On the point of ripping out the gray,when daughter walking by said, that mom would be perfect in my house.
Me .. really?! You like it!
Sure do was her reply..
So I continued.

Then it hit me that black would really pop those blocks out as they all just ran into each other. Here is the finished top, that I’m much happier with.

Daughter is thrilled with it, so I happy .

I have some exciting news!

Our youngest son and his wife are expecting their first little one.
That means I get to make a blanket,which will be crocheted.
Baby’s arrival will be in Aug.

The ducks eggs didn’t do for me, so when I was in Virginia spending time with daughter and her family ,I brought back with me a few of her chicken eggs. They are showing signs of a bitty growing. Leona is excited!!

I really don’t need any more chickens ,as my hens are doing well and will soon be laying. The tarp isn’t very appealing but the dark adds heat to the hen house which has been nice for its been cold the last week.

Camellias are blooming!

Have a lovely week.

Dec. 8… Fall,Flowers and Failure…

Three F’s … if I was in school ,I don’t think I would have gone home to Mom. 😳 Today though those three F’s are all positive even if one of those words are failure.

I’ll start with fall first. I know that up north a lot of y’all are having snow and cold temps,here in the south we are just getting through the fall that was surprisingly pretty for the south. I’ll show you then let you decide… just promise not to compare it to the New England States.😀

It is also time for Camellias to start blooming..

The hard frost didn’t kill the Gerber daisies up against the house

Of course a confederate rose can’t be left out even though they all died in the first hard frost. I photoed these the day before it frosted.

Now on to the failure…
It is often a challenge to keep Leona’s mind busy ,as she is very limited to want she can do. We got her a iPad so she can do puzzles with her nose,(she has no control over her hands),she can watch movies ,only I limit them as I feel there’s more to life than movies. … The new challenge…

Yep… to hatch some duck eggs!
Leona thinks it would be fun to add ducks to the farm. I agreed ,and that it would be fun to hatch them.
Amazon shopping soon started,looking for an incubator. That was the easy part!
Shopping for duck eggs this time of year was more of a challenge. EBay was the place we settled on ,purchasing 6 ducks.
I researched YouTube and google for information on how to hatch duck eggs,learning all I could on this subject.
The day arrived when the eggs came in the mail,of course the incubator was up and running according to the advice from my search. Seven eggs were placed inside,and the waiting began.
The family was all here on Thanksgiving day,excitement was high on candling the eggs that day. The grandchildren gathered around in the dark bathroom ,one holding the flashlight for me as I chose an egg…. sad to say our excitement went to disappointment! No signs of life in any of the eggs.😢 we were all a sorry group walking out of that bathroom. The grands sat in the living room for awhile with sad faces then I heard Reagan say, “ MomMom are you going to try again, you aren’t going to stop now are you?” Well, that snap me out of that sorry mood! Of course, I’m going to try again! We wouldn’t have baby ducklings for Christmas but we will shortly after New Years.(Maybe! 😁) so with promises to post them photos of what’s going on in the incubator,everyone was back to normal.
I ordered more eggs that have arrived and are in the incubator on day two!

So what went wrong? First when I did the research I should have typed in hatching SHIPPED eggs.
Shipping eggs is hard on eggs,often dislodging the air sack so that it floats around . First problem
With that problem one needs hatch the eggs in a paper carton with the egg point down so the air sack stays in the top where it should be. Second thing I did wrong..
The third mistake…..is that one needs to gently hand turn the eggs after seven days of sitting still in the incubator,even with the turning it’s different than with normal hatching.
So cross your fingers along with me so that on day seven I can carefully candle to see if there is life! It was mention not to candle often shipping eggs until day seven as to not disturb the air sack any more than needed.
The failure really hasn’t been a failure for Leona and I are learning this together and it has been enjoyable ,even with that first shock of all dead eggs!
So what kind of duck are we trying to hatch…
The Silver Appleyard duck.
Have a great week!

Oct. 18….Heterogeneous….

Now isn’t that a fancy word for miscellaneous!😁 that is exactly what this post is,a little of this and a little of that!

For the first little …

Hubby and son( Mike ) need to put time in on their diving,so they look for interesting ways to do this. Here is one of the ways they put that time to use…

Hubby said it is something that he wants to do again! Maybe next time I’ll go along to run the kayak to put their trash in.

On to the next little…

Look at darker spot in the photos that is a curled up leaf, when the wind blow the leaf out of the sun it was all dark, with the sun a red spot.

Some more littles….

Daughter-in-law made this cream cheese peach cake.. it was heavenly!

This was a morning glory vine that was huge and full of lovely blooms.

Of course ,there has to be some lake views..

And what’s a post without a quilt …

This quilt I purchased off of eBay. The lady ,Mable Minard, made the top was from Truro, Iowa, born in 1900 and pieced the quilt around late 1920’s to early 1930’s.

I love it’s uniqueness. I do believe that some of its fabrics are older than 1920’s but l will post more photos of it in another post when I go to hand quilt it.

Leona enjoying a cozy blanket on a cool morning.

Have a great weekend!

June 4…. a peek into my world lately

Summer time heat has hit us hard ,and earlier then usual,over Memorial Day week end ,it set a new record in Augusta with temperatures at 101*. We decided to go camping to enjoy the water!

I did a little hiking and come across a lonely grave. It was hard to read but with some finger tracing ,I finally figured out what was in graved in the head stone. It read… Willis Craft born July 1809 died March 21 1874 . After doing some google search ,I learned that he was very active in the community of Elberton,Ga. It was his dying wish to be buried out on his farm,which is now a lovely wooded area. His family was buried in Elberton.

Caroline enjoying a little water herself on a hot day!

The lilies haven’t minded the heat.

My guava tree is blooming for the first year.

And we will have Kiwi this fall!

And all the hard work of mowing,weed whacking,and weed pulling pay off!

How old this century plant is ,I don’t know but I do believe it’s getting some age to it . I’m looking forward to it blooming!

And of course there’s time to notice a little toad!

Hope you are enjoying your soon to be summertime!

March 14… the Value of life…..

I want to thank each of you who sent their love and sympathy on my last post, if truly meant a lot!

Papa’s death was a shock to all of us as he was a very active 80 year old . Papa’s death was treated as a crime site being a fire was involved,he was burning some trash in a bin when some tar on the outside of the bin caught fire lighting the grass around it. He was trying to move a small trailer away from the fire,when he went down on his knees,coughed than there was no more respondence. A grandson who was there called 911 right away,but till they got there the fire was pretty much out except for the front of papas shirt where he had put the lighter to light the fire in his pocket. Papa was burnt bad enough on the face that there was no viewing of his body, however the undertaker made it possible for the family to view a hand which gave closure to the lot of us.

The autopsy reported was there was no smoke in the lungs , it was stated as a medical heart disease as the clause of death. That ,my friends ,was a real relief to me to know he was gone before the fire ever hit him!

While parting of a loved one is hard,it was wonderful to be loved and have memories of a wonderful father in law.

Then there is freshness of spring to value….

And then the enjoyment of having a sweet tempered Rottweiler around again. Caroline didn’t want her picture taken.😄

The fun of sewing for others….need to finish binding them yet though.

The anticipation of watching this cocoon hatch…

Also valuing the time spent with hubby in a short get away in the blue ridge mountains.

Moments that make precious memories are what make my life full of value.

Oct.14… Mother Nature…..

I’ve been in awe of her in many ways these last few weeks with the hurricanes then beautiful days.

She is also keeping me busy cleaning up after her! We had leaves plastered to our vehicles,house and shop like we were trying to camouflage them.

We had a few scary moments driving..

Then Mother Nature gives moments of absolute wonder…

Provides relaxation..

And then there’s critters,flowers and fungi…

Truly the poetry of earth is never done!

Have a great week !