Oh murder

The weather has been glorious.  I think this photo says it all.

What you can't see in the above photo are the feathers strewn in clumps on the road and all around the pond.  The Canada geese are molting.  It always gives me a start when I spot the first pile of feathers.  It looks like someone who is fed up with the goose poop has resorted to murder.

Of course no one would do that, though we might turn the air blue as we clean off our shoes....again.  Sigh.  There are two adult geese with no goslings.

Yep.  Poop and feathers everywhere.

And the two with goslings.  Seven eating machines.  With no flight feathers, all they can do all day is eat and poop.  Which they do with gusto.  Sigh.

Of course the dogs find it all very interesting.  :-)

On Wednesday The Viking was in rare form.  This is his lunch, which he insisted on eating for breakfast.  Peanut butter and strawberry jam.  "It's JELLY Nini!"  Oh.  He made sure I knew exactly how he feels about jelly.  I got a lecture.  This is the gist....  "I don't like jelly.  I don't like any kind of jelly.  It makes me feel awake.  The funny kind of awake.  The pretend awake.  The kind of awake from coffee.  That kind of pretend awake."  Amazing child!  Now we are all trying to figure out where in the world he learned about caffeine!!

He cheered up after he ate the sandwich he "doesn't like" and played happily ("Nini!  Come look at my house!")  until we went off to the hospital to pick up Mom and Dad.

Dad had a few hours in emergency with a painful knee.  Tests didn't show anything dangerous going on, so after a day or so of being cautious and using the rollator, he is back to his normal cheerful self.

In my free time I got on with quilting the denim, and this evening put the tote bag together.  Not bad for my first try.  Looking forward to working on the next one.  :-)

Learning curve

Some days the learning curve is steeper than others.  Today I learned not to leave random paper napkins laying about on my sewing tables.  

 At least it's pretty easy to rip out.

The bag back is done.  Lots of fun and some frustration.  Mostly with the linty thread.  Time to experiment with other threads!  Not bad for a first try though.  I think I've finally conquered pebbles.  Feathers I have no problem with, or paisley.  Bear claws not so much.  Also the flowers.  I have to study the books more.  This is also helping me get a better idea of scale and how designs can work together....or not.

Mr. and Mrs. Mallard are regular visitors now.  They waddle up the yard when they see the car pull in, hoping for a handout of cracked corn, which The Viking is very keen to provide.  This evening The Tramp and I were outside replacing a windshield wiper on my car, and when we turned around we found we had not only ducks, but a rabbit too.  All very nonchalant about our presence and the dogs barking behind the front door.  The four adult geese and three goslings are always very much present as well these days.  Our own little wild kingdom.  Heh.

Yum and Yuck (sort of)

Just catching up with a few photos, kind of in order.  Sometimes I come up with a theme when I'm typing.  Yum and yuck is reaching a bit though.  Heh.

This month Bernina had a 25% off special on presser feet.  Yum!  I had watched a video on binding a quilt with the #71 Run and Fell foot.  I mentioned it at bee and Cathy was able to loan me hers to try out.  It works great, so I took advantage of the sale, and with practice I'll know what adjustments to make depending upon quilt sandwich thickness etc.

This sandwich was a bit thick and firm so I struggled a bit and only one of the corners is what I would call well done.

But it looks just fine when you are galloping by on your horse.  ;-)

I also made three more blocks for the Honey Pot Bee sampler.  The foundation pieced envelope blocks look simple, but were a bit of a challenge to put together.  I also made it harder for myself by printing song lyrics and a poem on fabric.  It was tricky to line everything up just so.

This is the "echo" block.  I decided using pink and purple would represent the yin and yang of The Tramp's and my favorite colors.

It's yummy colorful!

I take The Viking for a swimming lesson once a week.  He was thrilled with his new "'merican flag bathing suit."  "I love it because blue is my favorite color, Nini!"  At the same time we found a matching backpack on clearance to use as his own "gym bag."

I finished the biscornu I was working on as a swap gift for the March guild meeting.  I added a few crystals for sparkle and the recipient was very pleased.  I added a gift bag with chocolate and pretty pins.  Oops.  I didn't take a photo of my pincushion and gift bag which also included some pins and yummy chocolate.  The next swap is tote bags.  I can't wait.

We've had a bit of yucky cold weather interspersed with the warm spring days and this is what Maisy thinks of the cold.  :-)

The geese layed at least five eggs in a nest at the foot of our driveway.  Sadly a fox (we are guessing) thought the eggs were yummy and the nest is no more.  We've put some rocks in it's place to discourage them from re-nesting in the same spot.  It was kind of yucky being attacked by large and outraged geese each time I went to the mailbox!

We had several nights of below freezing weather which killed the flowers on many of the azaleas and has also killed the new leaves on several shrubs and trees.  Yuck.  I'm hoping they survive.

A St. Patrick's Day photo of Stardust in her yummy greens.  :-)

The Evil Step-Daughter in New Zealand has been busy working on a gift quilt.  She does amazing work, even with small children and large dogs underfoot.  Just fabulous.

The Sit-Down Free Motion quilter's Facebook group has a free-motion sampler tutorial and I've done my practice and filled in the first square.  Not bad.

 The Viking and I stopped at McDonalds one day this week while we were rushing around doing errands.  He saw some children at another table wearing their Happy Meal boxes as hats and glasses so he had to try it.  He also continues to enjoy dipping his apple slices in ketchup.  YUCK.

 I ordered some more Valdani pearl cottons for my BOM chicken project.  Yum!

 Some beautiful days have prompted walks with the dogs.

The pond is looking brown and yucky from the recent rains and scummy from all the pollen.  The dam end has been eroding at a newly alarming rate and a lake and pond management company has been contracted to fix the problem.  The narrow strip between the water and the expensive new road is quite squishy and large chunks of the bank fall into the pond after each rain.

Yesterday I was startled by the dogs barking frantically at the back door, rather than at neighbors, cars, delivery trucks, dog walkers and what-have-you out the front window.  Luckily I spotted the doe on the other side of the fence before I opened the door.  I hate to think what Crazy Maisy would have done to herself if she'd tried to go over the fence.  I know there are deer everywhere, but this is the first time I've actually seen one in this neighborhood.

The last jeans I made are wearing out so I'm making four new pairs for the summer.  The Bernina was giving me fits yesterday with the thick topstitching thread and it took me all day to get it sorted to our (mine and the machine's) satisfaction.  Yuck.  The serger was a trooper through it all and worked like a charm.  Yay!  Something had to go well.  That stripe fabric was making me dizzy too.  It was nice to move on to a grey pair.  Now for the black and the blue ones.

The Sailor Son flew out to California to his gal's graduation at Travis AFB.

They are now sending us scenic selfies from their drive across the United States to Virginia.  This is Hoover Dam.  They hope to be here by Wednesday.  I can't wait!

Oh dear.  That means I better finish up this sewing and then clean house!!!  Yuck!

January

Some winter days you just have to take it easy.  A warm perch doesn't hurt.  

I took The Viking out to get him a pair of "renoculars" as he says it.  Now we can watch out the front window together.

His imagination runs wild these days.  He declared the wastebasket lid a "police car hat" and ran around yelling, "Emergency!  Emergency!"  I'm not sure he really knows what constitutes an emergency, but he certainly relates it to firetrucks and police cars.

When we go on our bee retreat in April, Cathy is going to help us put together the Chain Reaction quilt pattern she developed from an antique quilt.  I've cut out all the pieces and am ready to go!

As part of the "Glitterati Army" I also participated in another pattern test for Molli Sparkles.  His Diva Alphabet is fun and now I have a "sign" for My Sandbox!  :-)

 There is no excuse not to go out walking when you have a three year old around with energy to burn.
This day was pretty chilly.

And he was a train for the whole walk, sound effects and all.  He also insisted on bringing Yertle the Turtle.  It just happened Yertle fit in his hood perfectly.

On another day he gave me quite a workout trying to keep his trike moving along in a relatively straight line!

Cut to the next weekend and it was so warm out we did some yard work and I ended up stripping down to a tank top.  Weird weather.

And this poor forsythia is very confused.  It is definitely not spring!

I finished the hard part of my Texas Tumbleweeds quilt top.  It still needs borders.

The Viking has had a bad cold so I pulled out some hand sewing to do while I keep him quiet watching TV for a while in the afternoons.

I also decided to play along with the 365 Challenge quilt.   A block a day for a year.  I don't know what possessed me to start this, but I have managed to keep up so far.  We shall see.

While we were iced in by winter storm Jordan I continued to work on my Omigosh quilt which was put aside over the holidays.  Also something I was probably crazy to start.  Half of the blocks are done though and now I'm working on the churn dash blocks.  888 pairs there.

Made into 444 four-patches.  Now I'm in the process of trimming them.

We were lucky I suppose, not to get feet of snow, but what you see here is solid ice.  So we were iced in for several days anyway.

It was a great opportunity to watch the birds flocking to the feeders though.

Stardust didn't mind the feet of snow she got to play in!

The Viking is feeling a bit better though I'm still spending all day wiping his nose and washing my hands.  It was nice enough today to go for a walk on the greenway with Maisy.   As we came over the bridge and onto the greenway he declared it to be "very river-y today!"  He also said he was walking with a tractor.  Not being the tractor or riding on a tractor, just walking with it.  Hmmmmm.  This was before he grabbed onto the leash to help me walk Maisy.  He decided she was a bus pulling us along.  An empty bus.  "Take us home, Maisy!"  I wonder what we will be next time?  :-)

I got bored pretty quickly trimming little bitty four-patches.  So I've cut some of the triangles and added them on to a few.  I still have over 400 to go.  Insanity!  My brother is wondering what institution they are going to put me in.  Tee hee.