Mo(u)rning Visitor

We have at least one pair of doves around our farm. As best I can tell they are mourning doves. I love to listen to the cooing sounds they make. This morning one was sitting on the ramp railing right outside my front door.

It looked like it was sleeping, but came to full attention when I opened the inside door.

Then about a minute later it was back to sleep.

I found this article listing some facts about doves. It's nice to know they eat weed seeds. 

Last evening I started on the bead work on the sunflower. 

It is slow going. Earlier my husband asked if I was finished with it yet. When I told him no, he responded that I must enjoy projects that take a long time to make!

While in the midst of cooking supper yesterday I decided to go through my file of recipes that I have been saving. 

Some of them were more than 10 years old, according to the date printed on the bottom of the page. Most of them I have not tried. I threw a lot away. Then I went back through them thinking a lot of them I could find on-line again if I wanted to try them and threw out even more. My goal is to try at least a couple of these recipes every week and keep the ones worth making again and toss the ones we don't like.

Today I Spent My Day

Cutting, cutting and more cutting. Seriously, all morning. 

I have all the squares cut. I need to cut about 100 more strips. 
It seems like it is taking a long time, but I am sorting - triangles in one pile, skinny strips in another, etc.

This afternoon I had to helped with baling hay.

I am happy to be helpful, but it makes me so nervous. And, we did my two least favorite fields today.

One is about a half mile long, is less than 100 feet wide, has a fence (neighbor's) at one end, beans on one side and a deep dredge ditch on the other. I stop at the end where the fence is and let Husband make the turn. I do not want to take out any beans, or even worse, the neighbor's fence.

The other field is not quite a half mile long, crops on three sides and a deep dredge ditch right down the middle that is as long as the hay field. There is a narrow passage at the end of the ditch that has to be crossed four times. This field is so narrow that one windrow of hay is baled on one side, cross the passage to bale one windrow on the other side, cross back to bale another windrow, cross to other side to bale last windrow and cross back AGAIN to get the last windrow.

The crops all around make me nervous. They are our crops, but I don't want to be the one who runs them over. Those ditches make me nervous. I am so scared of getting to close to the edge and putting all of it - the tractor, baler, hay rack, MY HUSBAND, into the ditch.
I usually end up in tears at least once or twice every year. It happened once already. I didn't cry today, though. Yay me!

When we were baling the field with the ditch in the middle we noticed a police car stopped behind my vehicle (actually Husband's old Expedition) which I had pulled just off the road into the field. Then he drove off. I worried that I wasn't far enough off the road, but I was. Don't know what that was about. While baling Husband noticed a decent size hunk of wood laying in the field. Then, we noticed that one tail light/turn signal was not working on the Expedition. Then, the brakes went out. Fortunately, we were at home when we discovered that fun tidbit. And, that hunk of wood? Turns out it was a piece off the underside of the hay rack and the back tire is now rubbing there. Always something.

A Walk Around my Yard

I took a little walk around the yard yesterday to see how my plants are doing. 

 These two Petunias are in planters right outside my front door so are shaded and protected a little. I neglected them when I was at Retreat and some of the other ones don't look well at all. I will be surprised if they survive.

  

These three are growing in the area planted with plants from my brother's prairie.

These two double lilies are by my mailbox. I hope the mail carrier is enjoying them as much as I do.

 These two are just out my front door.

 This one is also out my front door. The wind kept blowing the grass in front of the phlox so not a very good picture. 

 Every morning there are rabbits in our yard. This morning one lucky rabbit found an apple that had fallen off the tree.

In the midst of organizing my sewing/guest room I decided it would be a good idea to start cutting another project. 

Hey, it was fabric that needed to be sorted and put back in the right spot so why not cut some of it up first? This is Sticks and Stones from Annie's ePatterns Central.

Since I have finished sewing down quilt bindings I needed a project to work on in the evenings while watching TV.

I picked up this project again. Most of the stitching is finished. The next step will be adding beads. That could take a time.

More Organizing and More Random

I have been working on organizing the sewing/guest room some more.

Although it's hard to tell from this picture!
I hadn't really gotten it as organized as I wanted when Son came to visit for the week of fair. In order to make room for him, and his dog (and the dog's crate) I pushed things into the closet, under the table and back against the wall and cabinets. Now I am trying to find things again and put things away so that I don't have to do that every time he comes to visit.

Plus, I have finished up some projects and unpacked from retreat. I have been stacking patterns and ideas at the end of the ironing board. They need to be sorted and filed. People give me their scraps so I have bags filled with tiny pieces of fabric along with fabrics from projects started and finished.

We play Quilt Bingo at retreat and I won two fat quarters! 

One is a purple mottled fabric with gold metallic dots. The other is 100% cotton but has a shimmery, shiny look. I think it would make a great dragon. I had looked at it several times. Finally, on the last day of retreat I Bingoed so I got to pick a prize. I picked up that fabric, again, and put it back down. I kept saying, "I love it, but don't know what I would do with it". One of the ladies said, "You keep looking at and touching that fabric. I think you really want it. You'll figure out something to do with it. Just get it!" So I did. :)

And, I was gifted this birthday bundle of batiks by the four girls that I go on outings with. 

I had missed the latest trip because I was baling hay. Isn't it nice they thought of me?!

But, I do have a list. And, while it appears that I haven't crossed many things off, I do keep adding to it. Also, I did cross off Find Mini Iron because I found it this morning. And, during the night I remembered where Gma's Flowergarden is, I think, hope, know. (I went to look as I wrote this. Went right to it.) Funny how things come to mind in the middle of the night. So to more items to mark off that list.

Son gave me a cube unit he no longer wanted. I got that put under the table and have started filling it. 

That allowed me to get rid of the old headboard (the tall thing with binders in it) that I had turn on end and was using for storage. With that and the black drawer unit gone there is more floor space. I was having to move them around all the time to get to other things anyway, so that is good. This is an old picture. All those boxes have been unpacked and the shelf has much more fabric on it!

I used up a tiny bit of pieced fabric patching a hole in my shorts.

The shorts aren't that old and haven't been worn much, but now they are even better than before! ha

And, I finished the second of these two quilts. They will go to their new homes this weekend.

This one for the young man.







This one for the young woman.

Both quilts together. 

I didn't intend for them to be different sizes, but there were more T-shirts for the young man had designs on the front AND back that were used.
They had a young cousin who passed away several years ago to leukemia. The family had a T-shirt made in his memory. It is included on both quilts.

Also, my garden is producing cucumbers. They are a mini variety, small but tasty.

I picked twelve yesterday. I know there are only eleven in the picture. I ate one before even getting it in the house. Yummy!