Country living and simple quilt projects

Because it's beautiful and makes me happy, I'm starting this post with a sunrise. One of the things about living in midwest farm country is that sunrises and sunsets are often dramatic and colorful and simply beautiful, writ large on an unbroken canvas.

Also being a farm, farm kids sometimes find unusual fun. Ryan got a load of rock delivered and the kids promptly decided to sled down it like snow. It didn't destroy the sled or the kids, by some miracle.

Also by some strange miracle, we actually have a church near us that has a barn dance in October. Here we are in a friends' barn, in the picture I believe it's "The Hokey Pokey". They also played some line dancing country, some swing, some rock/pop, etc. It was a potluck and was lovely.

We also have two new small, furry additions to the family! They appeared on the farm and have been tamed and brought in. This is Jinx. Her original name was Misty, but it just doesn't suit her. She's a kitten, so it's not like she responds to her name anyway.

And this is Altair. Yes, in this picture he's lounging in a liter box. I don't know why. I guess he finds it comfy?

I've also managed to get a little quilting done. This is a twin-sized scrap quilt I made from what I had sitting around in my scrap box. 

We also had a secret Santa exchange at work, so I made a quick reversible table runner.

Dahlias, slippers, and steak fry

The attempt to revive my blog continues! 

Fall is always a busy time on the farm, Ryan took two cows to the locker this last week and we have a batch of chickens out on the pasture along with our Thanksgiving turkeys. Weather has been good this fall for all of them; honestly with climate change it's getting harder and harder to raise poultry in the summer. June is hot more often than not anymore. 

I'm literally watching this little guy out my window as I type this up, as he wobbles around on new legs from being born this morning. It's a rainy day to enter the world, little calf!

The dahlias have been awesome this year, we ordered some bulbs from Old House Gardens and they've done beautifully. Dahlias are annuals here, although you can try to dig them up and replant them. I know Ryan will try. In the meantime, I've ordered some for next year already. ;-)

Under my needle this last week I finished a pair of slippers for H, which she's been begging for since July and I haven't wanted to tackle. I used this pattern, which was ok. I shortened it by 1.5" in both pieces to change it to a size 4 for her.

I lined them in minky, which makes them super soft inside, but I think is part of why I had trouble getting them to fit together. The minky is so thick I probably should make the top piece a bit larger to accommodate the bulk. The pattern is also a bit wonky, but is nice for how well it finishes seams. I'm also continuing to quilt the lake-and-sky quilt, which is super slow going. 

As it's early fall now, the kids had an impromptu dance session on the driveway while I sat in an Adirondack chair and watched the sunset. Simply lovely.

I also took the following pic when some friends and their kids were over Saturday afternoon last weekend:

I adore this picture because those three boys are sons of these three (oh so young-looking!) handsome guys:

Can you match the kid to the dad? None of the three are actually in the same order in both pictures! This is something I never had growing up - lifelong friends starting in elementary school, and I think it's completely awesome. 

Yesterday Ryan and I went to the Polk County Democrat Steak Fry. I've heard there were over 12,000 people there, and I believe it. It was crazy. I think all of the major democratic presidential candidates were there, as well as most of the "minor" ones. 

If you look closely, you might be able to see a podium in the background of that photo, in front of the giant Iowa flag! I don't have a candidate I'm supporting at this point, I really haven't made up my mind. There were a couple candidates (minor ones) that I'm definitely not supporting after hearing them yesterday. A couple were a total mess! Those ominous-looking rain clouds you see definitely did open up and pour right at the end of the event and on the last candidate speaking - poor guy. Based on the crowd reaction, I think the caucus in Iowa will come down to between Elizabeth Warren and Pete Buttigieg, but we will see. Iowa's famous for last-minute momentum. 

The steak was surprisingly good, even if it didn't come from our farm!

Reconnecting

Someone I mentor has been gently encouraging me to reconnect with this blog, so here is my feeble attempt to do so. 

The farm is going fairly well, we have about 30 head of cattle now and have stabilized at raising about 180 chickens a year and 50 turkeys. 

That may or may not be about to change as our poultry locker is shutting down after this season and we're not sure what we'll do about it. A new locker is opening up near Omaha, but at about twice the price as the current one. Regulations in this state are deeply unfriendly toward small poultry lockers, and federally inspected lockers require that you bring 5,000 birds at once (yeah, that's not happening!). Those are definitely owned by Big Ag.

I do continue to quilt, here is what is currently "under my needle" and in progress. It's a large quilt, which I am attempting to quilt to a level I am comfortable sending it to a show. 

I've also finished a few others since my last post, of course. Here is a scrappy baby quilt...

...that I made from the scraps of our new bed quilt. I hand-quilted the center of this one, so it took forever. I've been working on it since 2008 and finished it in 2018.

I made a charity quilt for Cradling New Life (love the power line fabric!!)

And finished up a hand applique project I call "boil the ocean", inspired by a trip to Hawaii (also started in 2008, I think!). 

I made a couple of denim quilts for gifts and to auction off for Ryan's campaign fundraiser:

And I participated in my first Quiltville Mystery Quilt by Bonnie Hunter (if you're looking for a positive, uplifting daily blog, hers is the BEST!), this is "Good Fortune". Not my usual style, but a lot of fun. The mystery aspect with weekly pieces to complete kept me going.

I completed a whole cloth silk quilt, which is a lot of lessons learned. I designed this pattern for my sister-in-law's wedding quilt, but that one was too busy to see the pattern. I have some red silk I'd like to remake this on, and do it better. 

Last, I've participated in the last two Cherrywood Challenges, themed "Prince" and "Bob Ross". I've made it into both tours of quilts, but not yet won a prize. That's my next goal, we will see what the theme is this year.

Family life is going ok, it doesn't ever seem to slow down. Ryan didn't win his campaign, he's currently contemplating when and how and where he will try again. 

He fairly promptly picked up a "part time" job as the general manager of the Iowa Food Cooperative, which is not quite as all-consuming as a political campaign, but not far off. 

We continue to ballroom dance, mostly at Red Friar's in Ames through the winter as our standing date night.

The kids also keep growing, H went to her first year at Clearwater Camp solo before we joined her at family camp. I swear she wasn't this unhappy at camp, I just timed my only pictures before leaving very poorly.

Z is more able to enjoy the Northwoods every year. 

Ryan's brother also got married this summer in Vermont, to a lovely woman who suits him well. This pic is Ryan's dad, sister, brother, and Ryan. Apparently I didn't get a good pic with the lovely bride!

And the kids started taking on more of the farm chores this summer as well (yay!). 

I think that's all the news that's fit to print for now!

2017 in summary - picture heavy!

Strap in, this is going to be a big post! My life went totally off the rails in March when I got my second promotion in 6 months to a Director job. It's demanding and crazy and I love it. But it means things like blogging took a serious nose dive. So I'll try to put this in some sections and you can skim past anything that doesn't interest you. ;-)

Farm
The farm had a decent year this year, the only major weather event was that it was dry. That means hay prices are really high and Ryan is scrambling to find some that's not ridiculous. 

We also had a major hailstorm in June like nothing we've seen before. It was like someone was firing a machine gun against the side of the house. Between the house and barn it did about $40,000 worth of damage and we're still working on getting that fixed (insurance covered it). It even dented the metal roof of the house, which is supposed to be able to handle "class 4 hail" (whatever that means). Here's a picture of my lilies right after the storm:

But our beef and chicken are still awesome and I can occasionally convince Ryan that we can eat some of it instead of selling it all! ;-)

Quilts

I have still made time for quilting because it's vital to my well-being to do so! 

I made this one for a fundraiser for my son's school, if you look at the quilting it is a "deconstructed pocketwatch". It is about 40" x 50" or so

 Detail:

My modern quilt guild issued a paint chip challenge, which is where you draw three paint chip colors out of a hat and have to design a quilt using those colors (we could add white and black). So here is what I designed, which I really like but Ryan is not a fan. It is a modern take on waves crashing on a rocky beach, like the ones you find in the NW, like in Oregon. It is smaller, about 3 feet square.

There was also a Riley Blake challenge, which is where they sent me some fabrics to make a quilt out of. I liked the fabrics, but this quilt ended up way too busy. It's very small, about 30" square. It needed more places for they eye to "rest". 

I was blessed with a new nephew this year, so I made him an I-spy quilt. This one is about 50 x 60".

This one might have been my favorite quilt this year. I made it to benefit the United Way at work and a co-worker bought it. It's a decent sized wall-hanging, about 45x55". 

This one is a pattern from Gudrun Erla using her strip ruler. I intended it for our bed originally, but Ryan said it was too busy so I finished it differently and gave it to my stepdad. It is queen sized. 

I also made another little baby quilt with boats on it, but it doesn't have a destination. There's a strip of minky fabric down the center that is super soft.

This last quilt was created for my main quilt guild challenge, which was called "Pretty Pink Petals." The quilt had to be 30"x40", have a pieced background, have applique, and have pink flowers. So this is my quilt "Pretty Pink Pedals." Ha!

Another member of my household also finished her first real quilt! She did most of the work, including the rotary cutting (closely supervised), piecing, and all of the quilting! So so proud!

Family

So that brings us to family goings-on. 

Z loves Lego, and here he's playing with them at the science center. 

Ryan and I went to Sunset at the Vineyard at Penoach Winery several times over the summer; it's probably my favorite Friday night activity!

This was also the first year I took Z to family camp with us, which he thoroughly enjoyed.

And of course we saw the eclipse. We drove down to the middle of nowhere Missouri to watch it in the line of totality, and it was 100% worth the 4-hour drive!

And I have two big kids in school, with their obligatory "first day" picture:

H loves being a farm girl more and more each day. She's started collecting eggs with daddy sometimes and here she is being a quintessential farm girl, including night gown and muck boots. 

 Here are the kids at halloween. I had Mario and Wonder Woman. I made Mario's overalls, but the Wonder Woman dress was purchased (I made the bracers). 

Lastly, the biggest impact on family life was that Ryan decided to run for the Iowa House of Representatives in Des Moines. He announced in August and hasn't hit high gear quite yet for campaigning, but has been working on some of the behind-the-scenes framework and attending lots of local meetings and events. 

We hope you have a great new year, I look forward to what 2018 will bring!