Look What I Got!

This is Euphoria by Karen Sikie. I won this from QUILTsocial. I was so surprised. I haven't won anything in a while. Which is fine, I think I win everyday when I look on all the quilty goodness blogs out there and learn from all the talented people out there in bloggyland. This was just the icing on the cake!!!

These are 1/2 yard pieces of really yummy fabrics. I can't wait to use them. I am thinking that I could make a nice wall hanging for my front room. I have one wall in there that is such a luscious color of red, but the other walls are a golden yellow and I think this will do well on the golden yellow wall, dress it up really nicely. My poor walls are bare because I can never decide where to put what. I forget I am not renting and if I put a little hole in the wall in the wrong place I won't get into trouble...it's MY wall!

Then there are these great little butterflies to go with it. I'm going to have so much fun with this! Sorry about all the wrinkles. I was too excited to share with you to stop and iron it all!

I just love this fabric! You all should head on over to QUILTsocial and check it out. There is all kinds of fun stuff there, including tutorials, which is why I went there in the first place. Now it is on my favorites list...I'll be going back more and more!

A Fun Flimsey

I started a table runner for my sister out of a batik charm pack I had wanted to play with. I also used a jelly roll that I bought which turned out to be the wrong color for the project I was going to use it in. I used maybe two strips of it for the table runner. I used more of the batik pieces. I had cut those in half and then cut five inch pieces out of the jelly roll strips. Sorry, I haven't taken a picture of the table runner. I guess I was too excited about this impromptu flimsy I did.
I just started sewing the cut charms after laying them out together in like colors. I did a "pattern" of sorts by just grabbing the top piece of a pile sewing it on the strip, then taking the top piece from the next pile and so on. I only stopped when I ran out of jelly roll strips. Then I started a "strip race". That always goes really fast once you get past sewing the first two strips together. I couldn't wait to see how it would come out. I knew it was going to be very light with some flashes of color.

Jelly Roll/Batik, strip race

That was fun! There would have been more color, but there were a lot of natural background pieces among the pieces of batiks, I supposed I could have pulled those out and added in the left over color pieces I have. I just didn't think about how it would work out. I like it anyway. I have no clue where I am going with this from here. I am thinking about an organic quilting, maybe curvy lines along the seams, maybe even some decorative stitches from the machine. I could go many ways with this since it is so open.

I am starting to gear up my brain to do a quilt called Labyrinth. I had seen a picture of it on Pinterest and then a girlfriend sent me a link on Facebook. I figured that was a sign. Then the very next day I found the pattern for it at my LQS! Of course I bought it! I am now going to go and pick up the fabrics for it. I'm doing it in purples. Although purples probably won't look wonderful in my bedroom. I might have to give it to someone else, we'll see. I may be too attached to it after I spend the winter working on it!

Speaking of seasons...fall came to my neighbors yard. I have some fall in mine but most of my trees are evergreens, so I don't get the color like my neighbor did.

He does a wonderful job keeping his yard nice. I was talking to him today when I was out taking pictures of the flimsy. He was out draining all his irrigation pipes. I water with hoses and those have been hung out to dry for a while now. As soon as the rains come back I start putting my stuff away. No need to water when Mother Nature takes care of that for me.

The pallet barn had to be set on the back burner for a while. I don't know when it will get finished. The poor room mate was rear ended last Thursday evening. Some teen aged boy, not paying attention. The room mate seems to have a pretty bad case of whip lash. He is at the emergency room right now seeing if they can get some X-rays to tell if there is any worse damage. I just got off the phone with my insurance adjuster. GAH! Accidents are such a pain in all aspects of the word!

Hope your week is going well!

Horses, Pallets and Barns

The room mate and I (mostly the room mate though) are putting up a pallet barn. My old mare that I rescued in California doesn't do well in the wintertime here. She's a California girl after all and used to the mild weather all year long. So I dreamt up an inexpensive way to help keep her and her little pal warmer during the winter. I went and collected pallets from the two towns close to me. It took a while to figure out where I could get loads of good ones. I initially collected 42 of them. So far the barn has cost just over two hundred dollars for 2 X 4's and 2X 6's. We won't add in the equipment I had to buy to make it easier! (That stuff just goes with owning a farm anyway, so it's an expense I would have had whether I built a barn or not.)

My first dream barn was twenty feet by ten feet, and then I got realistic for the time we had to build it. The barn is now ten by ten feet, which should be enough for a horse and a half. I will have to train the old mare that this is a good thing. She's a nervous girl and doesn't like being confined. I will just give her her favorite foods in the whole world to show her that the barn can be a good thing. I am sure that she will go in on her own when the rains and winds are coming down on her. She's been spending the cooler nights with her butt backed up against my bedroom wall and I am sure that can't be good for the house!

The pallet barn half way done:

It does look a little wonky in spots, but keep in mind these are pallets that were thrown together for one time use and not engineered for a building. They are definitely not square by all means. But nailing them together in several places and then putting up the roof will make it stable (ha ha...get it? Stable.) I have metal sheeting that I picked up at a recycling store last year just for this purpose. I am also going to put the sheeting all around the outside walls and that will make it even more sturdy.

I'm so excited! The room mate has been such a great help to me around here!

Next year I want to put up a hay barn, and if the two horses don't get along in the one space we will build another horse barn too.

Fire in the Sky!

I love the sunsets here! When there is a good one it is always so bright and firey! I have tons of sunset pictures.

Last night was gloomy and cold. No fire in the sky. I took this picture a couple of days ago, but still wanted to share.

When I went out to feed the big critters, there was a familiar nip in the air. One that I hadn't felt in a while, which is fine with me, I don't particularly care for nips, especially ones that are in the air! I looked south and low and behold, there was a little bit of snow on the Olympics. I'm not absolutely sure, but I think that is a little early. I haven't been here long enough to say for sure.

I guess that means it's time to get out the mucking boots and make sure there are no spiders lurking in them, and get them ready for mud season. I do know that if there's snow on the mountains, I need to be ready for the mud to come soon.

I just want to be the first to say...it is Spring yet?