Rose Prairie Quilts and Farm

I get this magazine called Mary Janes Farm. Maybe you have seen it. It has some really neat ideals. This one was in the June-July 2011 issue. It's on pg. 74. I have seen others sort of like this one before. And I just had to make this one. Got so anxious to make it that I did not take pictures while making it. I'm sorry. But I'll try my best to write how I did mine. I did make mine a little bigger. I used fat quarters, (18 x 22) instead of the 17 x 19 suggested. I figure we all have fat quarters and not sure what the heck we are going to do with them. This is a good project just for them. You will need some poly batting (fusible) and fairly thin. That way it's not too thick so your glasses and such will not become unbalanced. That needs to be the same size of your fabric. Then for the ruffle you'll need about a 1/3 of a yards of some coordinating fabric. You need to cut 3 or 4 strips 3.5" WOF. It just depends on how much ruffle you like. I used just 3 strips.

Posting again from the war room. Reporting that there has been no attacks in the past 24 hours.  That is a good thing. Sorry to report thou the hen house has been under attack from a different invader. The black snakes are back. I have lost 5 golf balls this week. And countless number of eggs. I probably have gotten only a dozen and a half eggs this week. You know, I do not know how they did it. To be able to raise enough food to survive. Between the varmints, snakes, bugs and weather it is a tough job. They must of know tricks and ways to beat these obstacles. I would like to know a few of them. I did get a suggestion on how to put up a greater defence around my veggie patch. It was one of those DUH !!! moments. Cliff suggested that I put up some small holed chicken wire around the bottom of the fence. Like I should of thought of that. Oh well, I guess we all have a lapse in smart thinking. Till next time Kat =^..^=

 Cottontail company    Postings from the war room. I believe I'm fighting more that one company of varmints. I know of the groundhog company. But after reading about  groundhogs  behavior, I took notice a section with pictures of damage done to green beans.  They looked just like mine. It was not done by groundhogs thou, but was an example of what those cute, little adorable cottontail rabbits can do. Now I'm fighting a detachment of bunnies. My new plan of defence is to fill in all gaps around the fence, no matter how small. If that doesn't work I might have to invest in heavy artillery. A DOG .  But I do not think the man of the place will go for that. But it would work. I already know what kind of dog I want. I just love Basset Hounds. So sweet of a dog. I'll keep you posted.                                                         Till next time                                                              =^..^=

One of the things I love about vegetable gardening is that each year there is always new challenges and something new to learn. Whether its a new type of vegetable or the weather. Then there are the bugs and critters.  Well this week in the garden has been good and bad at the same time. The plants that are established are going well. But being so hot the tomatoes has not set, but the plants look great. It looks like there is no relief from the heat in the near future. The seeds I sowed last week, only half of the Swiss Chard is up but none of the lettuce did make it. I think I'll start some more in pots on the back porch and then transplant them. I think they would have a better chance. The purple hull peas came up. purple hull peas Green beans They look real healthy.                                           But the beans don't, something is eating them First I thought is was a rabbit cause I have been seeing one around outside the garden. But then this morning whe

Well I work on these blocks like I said I would but was not able to get it finished. Because of it not as hot as  yesterday was,  I found myself out in the garden half the day. I did get over half of the top done and a good ideal of what it is going to look like.  Also after working on it yesterday I realized I did not have the fabric for the border. Did not get that far, so it didn't matter.  I have to make a confession, I did not use the thangles. What I did was draw the marks that are on the thangles papers on the back of the strips. I do not like to rip out the papers. That is one reason why I do not do much paper piecing. Then the pieces that are around the center blocks I used Deb Tucker's ruler  the "Tucker Trimmer". To me it was easier and took less time.   What's left to do.                                                           Hope you had a fun and safe 4th.            

To celebrate our Independence and it is not going to a barbecue or fireworks. It is just way too hot for me to enjoy being outside unless I was getting wet. So I'm staying in the air conditioning and going to work on a WIP.  This is a thangles promotion they had, where each month for a buck you get enough fabric and the pattern to make the center of a block. The center is a 7" block. Then had to purchase or use stash for the remaining fabric that is used to make the 14"  block. I had 2 - 14" blocks done and  3- 7" centers. I love the colors and how appropriate for the fourth of July. So my goal is to work on this for the next few days and see what I get done by the end of the holiday. Hopefully I will have the top done. I haven't decided if I'll make it a full (72" wide x 92" long) or queen (81" wide x 97" long). You want to check out their website it's thangles.com .

I would like to share a couple of books that maybe you'll enjoy as much as I have. Books about women and their lives, whether they are living now or from the past are my favorite. I do read other types also but these two fit the first category. This Organic Life was written by Dr. Joan Dye Gussow. It is memoir of her life and love for vegetable gardening. She added recipes to go along with the topic at the time. I have read this one twice and will again. Something about this book I find very interesting. This other book is about Martha Skelton. She was a prolific quilter. It's a biography of her and her quilts. It has beautiful pictures of her quilts. Martha had made and hand quilted over 200 quilts. Last year her daughter Ann came to our quilt study group with a few quilts of her mother's. It was interesting to hear st orys about her mom that were not in the book. I loved seeing her quilts in person. This book is very well written. I like how the author took