Under the Needle: April

 I made a little bit of progress on 8 quilts this month - all of them on the list of quilts I made in January. 🎉

I don't really enjoy piecing backings, but quite a few quilts were at that stage so I checked those off this month.

I pieced the backing for this Scrappy Americana Quilt that has been sitting on the sidelines for a few years

As well as the backing for this UT quilt for our son-in-law

My Gingham Farmhouse Quilt also got a backing - haven't decided on the binding...red or gray? Today I'm thinking red will be a fun pop of color for the front.

And I pieced the top (the HSTs were finished a few months ago)

and backing and made the binding for a red and white quilt from fabrics I received when I participated in an online swap last December. I love this floral fabric that will be the backing.

I also sketched around all of the hearts 3 times for Follow Your Heart (an old kit by Sweetwater) and pieced the top:

And pieced yet another backing

I also made Broken Dishes blocks with a flannel Primitive Gatherings Layer Cake and pieced those into a top for our girl

I finished this Adventure Lies Ahead quilt

And I finished this 'Corn' Quilt

With company, a road trip and an air trip this month, I'm happy to have accomplished anything!

The "Corn" Quilt

 This is just a fun little quilt I made for our granddaughter for her birthday. She's crazy about Unicorns and calls them 'Corns' and thus the perfect opportunity to use this fabric was created. I didn't have any ideas past that so I just cut the panel squares and pulled coordinating fabrics from my stash and let that set on the design bed for a while, waiting for inspiration...

Sigh. Pinwheels kept sweeping in and I continued to wait for different inspiration...I feel as if I make a lot of quilts with pinwheels, but I finally gave in...

Pinwheels seemed to fit the essence of this whimsical quilt - they pair well with 'Corns'. 😉

This isn't a very big quilt because I wanted it to be portable and a big quilt isn't very portable when you are 3 so it just finishes at 42" x 42"

Sandy quilted it with this sweet design called  Billowy and I used a pink from my stash for the binding.

 I backed it with this fabric that I had long before grandchildren arrived because I knew it would be needed one day. 😉

And now it is packed and about to embark on grand adventures!

Road Trip

 Last week DH and I took a roadtrip and drove 600 miles to check on our cows. 

Then we drove 600 miles back. Lots of miles for a couple of old folks. 

We left on Monday and got back on Thursday. The new camp man started last week and it'll be a while before he gets his feet on the ground, but other than a few phone calls about water troubles, he held down the fort. Another phone call from the electric co-op troubleshooter about power being down - something always goes awry when you try to get away. I can't even recall the last time DH and I were both away from the ranch for longer than 2 nights and that was only twice in 20 years We took our trip to Zimbabwe in 2015 and were only able to really do so because our girl had just graduated and she was able to take care of the ranch while we were away before she began her Masters program.

Our cows are a motley bunch - here's a handful of them

but most of them are dog gentle

Snack time

Calving season is one of my favorite times of the year

We're not used to these long-eared rascals

                                        

They are so cute

Cattle with a little ear do better in the area where we have them

Some have more ear than others. LOL

Brahmas are not known for their ease, but that little Brahma-X was sweet as can be. We had to move a set of them because it hasn't rained - It is incredibly brushy here and they use a helicopter to gather

It was crazy to watch the pilot practically skim the ground and maneuver on a dime to herd the cows

The boys set up a temporary loading chute

We brought Cydectin and DH poured the cows 

                                       

as they loaded onto the truck

The calves were loaded onto a couple of trailers and we had to drive through Laredo 

to move them to greener pastures

Where they were unloaded and reunited with their mamas

We've known the young man that is taking care of them for 25 years. We hadn't seen him in 20 years and it was definitely God's hand that put everything together

We are incredibly grateful for these sweet faces

 And His many blessings

Adventure Lies Ahead Quilt

 Last year our boy and his sweet wife requested a couch quilt and when I saw this wide back print in September, it became my inspiration fabric and I built the quilt around it

I pulled coordinating fabrics from my stash (one of my favorite parts of the quilting process)

                              

And cut everything after settling on a pattern: a simple 9" framed square block

                                          

Jackie and Sandy quilted it using a wheat colored thread with a design called Whisper

And I pulled this brown for the binding from my stash

                                

I know a lot of folks don't like brown, but I think it adds so much warmth to a quilt

I used a 9 x 10 block layout for a 76" x 85" quilt

We're still waiting on rain - the trees (and mesquite) are the only green anywhere

I'm just tickled with the way the fabrics from my stash and the backing worked together

I'm excited to gift this!

Skeet says a quilt made with love makes the best gift

The 1st Week in April

 Spring in our neck of the woods means wind...and lots of it (I resurrected an old photo) 

Spring rains...not so much. Green springs are rare around here. Honestly, we've had probably 4 green springs in 20 years. Our rain generally arrives in July, August, or September and even then, it's rare. 10" is our official annual rainfall, but that doesn't happen often either so we're still in Khaki Season around here. Most daylight hours are spent bouncing across pastures, feeding cattle

 fixing more leaks

And wondering why people keep mowing down our mailbox

Sigh. 

It's pretty rough looking, but it's level! LOL

DH wants to build a new one, but he said we'd probably get sued because if he builds it, it's going to do some damage to the next vehicle that hits it. Grin. So we just moved it about 12' farther off the road, closer to the cattle guard

The wind didn't blow on Sunday so we took some time to hike and hunt for arrowheads. 

DH has a built in arrowhead sensor - he often finds them when he's trotting across a pasture and on Sunday he was on his game. It was a fun way to spend some time- a little break from work. Hiking over steep sand terrain for 4 hours, wore me out - that sand is deep.

 but it was a good day

I didn't get many stitches into my current binding project that evening before I looked like Skeet