One Maid a'Milking

I don't often post about our little farm life because there's really not much change over the course of weeks.  Sure, baby animals are cute and they tend to start coming about this time of year, but we don't have very many animals.

But today, things were just a little different.  This red mamma goat lost her kid a couple of days ago.  With no baby to empty her bag, she was miserable, so we decided to help her.  Richard held her and Jolie milked her.  We have another baby goat whose mamma is not able to provide enough milk, so we're hoping that we can convince her to nurse on both females.

While we were outdoors, I thought I'd take a few pictures and update you on the state of affairs at the Marcotte farm.  This video shows Jolie milking the goat for the first time.  In fact, it's her first time milking anything.  She was a bit timid at first, but as you can see, she got over that fairly quickly.

Meet Chanticleer.  I'm really the only one who calls him that, but he surely meets the description.  Yes, his tail feathers drag on the ground.  The brown feathers over his wings don't reach the ground, but it's pretty close.

The baby goat that Jolie tried to convince to nurse on the brown mamma.

This lamb is Kevin.  I have no idea why she has that name.  I'd have called her Coon because of the black rings around her eyes, but apparently I don't get to name the new babies.

Since all the animals (except the mean ones) are free to roam the pasture, it's difficult to get a picture of just one at a time.  Here is a video showing Jolie catching the baby goat and trying to get it to nurse.

I don't know the miniature horse's name.  We have two and this is the female that joined our menagerie just a few weeks ago.

One of the hens decided that a feed sack would make a good nest. She hasn't begun setting yet, and I don't know whether she will, but since we don't know how old the eggs are, we're leaving them for her to decide what she will do.

And that's our farm at this point in time.  Who knows what will change in the next day or week or month.  Richard sort of does his thing and I just check in from time to time, so I never really know what's happening.  I drop in to see the new babies playing, or sometimes to pick eggs, maybe just to walk around and chat with Rich.  For the most part I find out about things when Rich tells 
me--just the setup for me!

Pin It Weekly #103

I enjoy using improvisation when I'm quilting because it allows me to play with fabric and to deviate from following plans and patterns.  It's a great way to quilt without concerns and worries.  

That said, I thought it would be a good idea to let you peek into my thought processes and into the ideas of improvisation.   The "rules" of using improvisation in theater work quite well for quilting, also.  #8 is questionable--until you think about looking the quilt in the eye.  Really look at the quilt. Really.

You're allowed to make a mistake.  In fact, there are no mistakes.

And make do with what you have.  There's no need to struggle with whatever is missing or whatever doesn't match or whatever anything.  Just enjoy the available resources and go with whatever! 

Most importantly, enjoy yourself.  There's no right or wrong way to piece a quilt or to quilt it.  Just make it work for you.

Elephant Family

I finished my Louisiana Traveling Quilt today and still had a bit of daylight, so to speak.  I'd been wanting to make a pillow using this pattern that I found on Pinterest and followed.  Sew Fresh Quilts is having a quilt along using Lorna's pattern here.  Her pattern is quite easy to follow, but you know me, I had to do my own thing, so I made a few changes.  

I wasn't interested in making a quilt because I have too many other projects going, but I really liked the idea of a pillow.  The color came about based on the scraps that were still sitting on my worktable.  

Those are the fabric scraps that I won on Silly Mama Quilts blog.  I've had them for a few weeks but didn't want to put them in the big scrap bin for fear they would get lost, so they've been waiting patiently for me to get to them, and this seemed to be the perfect project.  The little pieces in the pattern worked perfectly for using the scraps.

In Brooke's picture (above) I see one of the ears and, I think, the flower garden fabric.  I also used fabric from this bag for the little elephant and some of the background on the pillow.  

I really like this pillow.  I am excited for the grand-kids to come. They will want to play and take naps on it.  If that works, I may make a few with other animals.  

It's 18 X 18 inches so it's plenty big enough for napping.  Because I didn't have a pillow form that large, I just stuffed it and stitched it closed.  I may consider making a pillow form then adding a zipper in the bottom but perhaps not.  We'll see how it goes. 

 ‪

#‎elephantparadeQAL

Monday Modern--Louisiana Traveling Quilt Update

My Louisiana Traveling Quilt Bee quilt arrived last week, and it is STUNNING!  I absolutely love it.

It's perfect.  These colors grew out of someone else's idea because I started with gray and grey.  This block on the right is my original idea.  I did add some white and beige, which gave everyone else lots of room to wiggle into a color they liked more.

Obviously, yellow and teal are the perfect compliments.   

Toss in a little lime green for fun and we have a beautiful quilt. 

I loaded it on the long-arm and began quilting last weekend.  

Tonight it's completely quilted and is now waiting for the binding. I'll audition some fabrics tomorrow and, if all goes well, this one will be finished and photographed by tomorrow night.  However, the weather does not look as though it's going to cooperate.  

No matter about the weather, I am loving this quilt more and more!