Under the Needle: August

Another Under the Needle post with little to report, but substantial progress has been made on one of my EPP projects. It's grown from 10 stars to 42. The stars are about 5" in diameter. I still love making these little stars so stitching continues.

The end. Turning my hopes toward September. 😉

Still Weaning and a Speedy Trip to Nebraska

I'm still playing catch up, but we finally finished weaning on Saturday and I've still got pictures to sort through and share from the previous week. Most days, the boys gather a pasture, drive them to the pens, sort off the calves from the cows, run the calves through the chute to process and vaccinate them, and then run the cows through. They bring them up a few head at a time:

And funnel the calves towards the chute using a series of gates:

Each calf  and cow gets vaccinated

 and the cows and bulls get a dose of Cydectin, which is a pour on wormer for internal and external parasites

And the boys just run down the line, making sure each animal is treated

Then DH runs the chute

And Olan runs the gate, opening it one way or the other in order to separate the heifers from the steers

And then the process starts again as the boys bring up another bunch:

There are 4 sets of pens on the ranch so you never really get a sense of how many cattle DH tends to because they work them a few pastures at a time and they're never together in one place. We also raise both beef and Corriente cattle and those are kept separate, but at any given time there are between 1500-2000 hd of cattle.

We've got  a good crew and they put in a good day's work

On Friday, the 20th we packed up, gathered my FIL and headed north to Nebraska for a funeral. DH's cousin, Dave, passed away after battling cancer for 20 months. DH has a lot of cousins...over 35, but he was closest to Dave. They shared a love for ranching and horses and family. We drove up on Friday because we wouldn't miss a chance to honor Dave and let his sweet wife know how much we treasure them both. DH has a HUGE family and he grew up in a tiny town in Nebraska and over 700 folks gathered at the local school gym because it was the only building in town large enough to accommodate a crowd that size. It was so good to catch up with everyone - I adore DH's family - but I sure wish we had been there for a different reason.

We drove back on Sunday. 1538 miles. I wish I had taken a recorder to document the stories that my FIL and DH shared across the miles:

I could have written a book about the Sandhills of Nebraska as I sat in the back so they could visit and stitched the miles away:

With the exception of about 30 minutes one day, it's been almost 2 months since I've sewn a stitch or even darkened the doorway of my sewing room so it was rather nice to have uninterrupted time to work on my never-ending English Paper Piecing project.

You would have thought I would have more done, but our trip was almost entirely composed of little country back roads and it was a challenge to thread my needle and piece the little stars together. And the answer to your question is yes...these are for two different quilts. I haven't made a lot of progress, but here's where they were before our trip:

Hand Stitched Stars Progress

Before I went down to help my mom as she recovered from hip replacement surgery,  I cut strips:

and prepped some a lot of diamonds and hexies for my EPP projects:

I am still smitten with these little diamonds

 and feel a little sense of accomplishment with the completion of each star:

The bright stars will have diamonds chaining them together using Kona Snow:

While the reproduction stars are being stitched to hexies using Kona Natural:

The lighting in my mom's living room is not conducive to hand stitching so I bought this Beam and Read. I've heard it's what all the "in-the-know" quilters are wearing these days, and although I've never been one to follow trends, I'm smart enough to know a good thing when I see it and this little gadget is mighty handy!

I don't know how big these projects will be and there is no deadline. These are long-term projects to be pulled out when life calls for a little hand stitching

Contemplating Another Hand Stitching Project...or Two!

I'm not sure of this is wise, but I've got another EPP project on my mind and it's being kind of bossy about me getting started on it. This quilt is the culprit:


                         

I found it on Pinterst and it links back to this blog: Plain and Simple.

This one caught my eye as well

                                         

I'm not a swooner, but WOW.  Those little 1/2" hexies kind of scare me. but I think the 1" hexies are too big. I may just have to make one star and see how it goes, but right now, something like this is definitely on my bucket list.

And then there was this one! The link goes back to FB.



I don't do FB. Pinterest steals enough of my time! :) Gosh, what a fun way to use scraps! Now if I could only devise a way to add more hours to the day. Wonder if I can paper piece these stars in my sleep.

English Paper Piecing Projects

I've always been drawn to English Paper Piecing projects. The only one I've ever done is this Irish Chain version. It allowed me to make hexie flowers without committing to an entire Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt. It was a good way to test drive English Paper Piecing. :)

A few years ago, Bonnie Hunter shared a hexagon project. Here's the link. I didn't want to use her picture without her permission and I know how crazy busy she is. And I started cutting hexies in blues and browns and creams:

I liked having a portable hand stitching project and worked on it in spurts:

This is where I left off early last year:

And there it sat, abandoned on the back of a shelf. Now the hand stitching bug has hit me once again, but I've lost my passion for this one so I think I'll find a stopping point and finish it off.

When I was visiting my Mom back in February, we visited with friends of hers and the wife is a quilter. She took me upstairs and showed me some of her quilts. I'll share some at a later date, but she shared this one particular quilt top that I fell in love with:

This was pieced by her grandfather's first wife who passed away during childbirth in 1899. It was passed down to June and I was simply charmed by it. Old quilts like this are truly a testament to 'making due'. Not only are some of the stars made up of different fabrics:

But some of the points are even pieced using impossibly tiny scraps:

June is at a  loss as to how to finish it, or even if she SHOULD finish it. Parts of it are so fragile where fabrics have deteriorated.

I was so touched that she shared it and the story behind it with me and I am now on a mission to make one.

I am using a package of these Quilt Patis templates that I bought 2 or 3 years ago

 and pulling fabrics:

                                                

One down. Umpteen more to go, but this is a project I intend to savor one stitch at a time.