20 Minutes increments will get a quilt done. Today I had several 20 minutes increments. As you can see the top half is sewed together into rows. The bottom has a bit more to go, but will hopefully, I will get the flimsy done between other jobs on Sunday. I see people who don’t start because they don’t have a big area of time, but one can accomplish much even with small time bites. You might want to try it with whatever you’d like to get done. I will also be trying this method to get my goals written down for October, November and December. I have been looking for a big chunk of time and not finding it. So I need to try this.
This little house with a detached garage on 4 acres with it’s own well and septic tank,
this 36 x 48 horse barn,
and this hoop house are what have been taking so much of my time lately. The property adjoins ours. The owners were not in good enough health to keep things up, therefore there is a lot of work to be done as you can easily see. After a lot of negotiating and biting our tongues, we signed the papers today and will take possession either on Monday or Tuesday, when the sale is recorded by the county. We have a potential tenant (I have had to check out as well as one can), who with his wife is excited about doing the yard work and painting. They will only rent the house, not the land, barn, or hoop house. The barn and land are for the sheep. The plan is to put the garden that is currently on the steep hill, between the barn which is on the lower side of the trees and the hoop house. It is much flatter and will be so much easier to garden. So there are more garden boxes going in this winter. And probably less quilting as well.
Another hour of sewing and bit by bit, the quilt is progressing.
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I made a brief visit to the Sew Fun program this morning and found:
This shirt is from the LoriAnne pattern, with a cowl made to cover the neckline. What a unique way to change a look!
These quilts made from foundation piecing and Mylar Stars books. Neither were extremely exciting.
Sew Fun had the usual purses and pressing mats, pillows, and even a purse organizer, but I think more thought should have gone into this program. I think the program chair may be running out of ideas, or maybe it is just difficult to keep coming up with new things to sell us.
I left early and got some quotes on lumber prices to fix the stalls in the barn and a few groceries and was back home by lunch.
AND THEN, after lunch, I took some “me time” The weather was so beautiful and it will soon be winter, my soul needed to be nourished by just sitting in the sun enjoying the gorgeous view. Do you ever do that? Just be quiet, sit, and enjoy. I think I will do it more often. Why am I always in such a rush to get things done that I don’t take time to enjoy the little things?
The rest of the day was spent cleaning a freezer and doing credit checks on a potential tenant. Tomorrow we will take the money to the attorney and the following day, the papers should be signed. And then, the real work begins, getting the house ready to live in again.
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This 16 patch quilt is finished and ready to toss in the washer and dryer. I like to do that with each quilt so there are no surprises to the recipient. This quilt measures 52 x 63″ and I’ve used the darker green on the back which is the same as the binding.
I’m so far behind in my schedule making. Usually by now, I have October on paper. But not this year. Perhaps it was because we did so much more outside. I would like to complete 2 quilts a month as well as some doll clothes and embroidery. I guess it’s time to put pen to paper.
Ram, Ram! Do you know why a male sheep is called a “ram”. The above photo should give you a good idea. One would think their heads are made of steel. If the shepherd is not very careful, the ram could see him/her as competition and injure or even kill the shepherd. Astro and his girls have been moved to a different pasture without buildings and with lots of hot wire. They will have to sleep under the cedars either until he is out of rut or until I sell him, depending on my patience.
More ram? Yes, the quilting machine must have had communication with the above ram. It practiced ramming on this fabric. There must have been a tiny spot where the foot was able to get under the fabric at an intersection.
I am fortunate. I took the piece and the quilting out to this point. These are small pieces and it took me awhile to get the quilting out and will take time to put a new piece in by hand. Since I don’t want to move it, it is something I will do to save this quilt. Some people have quilting machines rip their fabric at places not as easily repaired. This type of thing makes me want to roll my eyes, when someone says “but don’t you quilt by computer?”. Yes, I do, but I still am right there. This could have been much more major if I hadn’t been. A computer driven machine just means there is more work involved because first it has to be programmed and then watched to make sure it behaves.
Goal #1: The hoop house is nearly weeded (one more aisle to go) and lettuce has been planted for the next round. Most of the spent plants are out. It looks almost bare. But the big sweet potato plants are trying to make up for all that
Goal #2. Then we tackled the job of moving sheep into different groups so the girls would get bred with the guys we chose. Fortunately the ram Shetland sheep have horns which help us to be able to grab them. So my helper made a door in the fence and a divider between the two sides of the night area, and we separated Zillow and put him in with Juliette (a Quessant sheep) and her daughters. The new Shetland sheep coming will go in with them. Then new ram, Stormy, will go into the area where Zillow was. Oh happy day, no one will be breeding his relatives. There are still the three Cormos which DH would like me to sell. I will put that on my must do list. Such a toss up caused by breeding time!
Then moving on, I found a sew along project to share with you. It is a bear patch quilt in 4 different sizes from SEW FRESH QUILTS. I’ll be making mine in the crib size which is 47 x 47″. The page (click the red word) is for the introduction and fabric selection. The bear paws are half square triangles which means they will be easy. Yes, I will be making it – just a matter of when I can get started.
Goal #3: The next quilt is now mounted and waiting for me to quilt.
Your turn: I have a question for you. I started the blog to encourage myself to get more done. I find now that I’d really like to be more help and encouragement to you? Would you like to be able to make a list of what you plan to accomplish this week/month? Would you like more information on how I do something – anything related to homesteading would be in this list? Or do we need an exercise encouragement or weight or what? I really need your imput into this to be able to have a better blog and not waste your time. Maybe I can find out how to make a poll. Does anyone of you readers know how to do that? Have a good day and we’ll meet again soon.
Just 10 – 15 minutes here and there can make a big difference in a project. Most of these blocks were made with minutes here and there. Here I have laid out the blocks that were on the board in the order that I wanted to sew them.
Then I gathered them into piles with each row kept separate to sew them together.
With just half an hour, I was able to put this strip of pale green down the sides and
here they are waiting on the ironing board to be pressed and cut apart when I have a few more minutes. In this way, I can get much more done, then if I have to set aside a larger space of time.
They are cut apart and are being put back up on the wall, waiting for the next step.
Yesterday the pumpkins were picked and some headed home with daughter and her husband. They don’t look all that big in this photo, but that post is an 8×8. There were 6 large, 6 medium, and 6 small. The plants did a great job of producing some of each.
Today. the hoop house received new skin and the vents were moved down low to better suit our needs. This has been an all day job, with two men working all day, another doing odd jobs and part of the day, I played go-fer.
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All those minutes here and there have produced a 50 x 63 quilt top. Even though it used many 2.5″ squares, there are many more where those came from. There may be several scraps blocks in the very near future as the scrap drawers are a bit full.