Orange Stars.....and all things must come to an end.

 I bought this kit a few months ago.  It uses the Buggy Barn pattern for stars.  I love the oranges, browns, and blues in the fabrics. 

 Not so crazy about the way I quilted it, but oh well. I did the pebble stitch and then a swirl down the points of the stars.  I think the quilting takes away from the pattern in the fabric.

 I used an orange Minkey on the back. 

 I've been doing lots of doodling for days.  I'm trying to add some more freehand designs to my quilting.  My quilting hero is Judi at Green Fairy Quilts.  I absolutely love her quilting.  I would love to be half as good as her.  I drool over her gorgeous quilting.  I'm hoping Judi publlishes a book on machine quilting some day.  I'd love to learn her techniques. 

 Well......this doodling is my at sad attempt at trying to improve my skills.

I'm going to put on some flannel tonight and try my doodles with the machine.  Crossing my fingers that it goes well.  I'm gettin tired of doing the same designs on quilts. 

And now to the end.  We lost one of our chickens this week.  For the last year and half this white chicken has given us an egg almost every day.  She got sick.  We searched the internet for clues and figured out that she was egg-bound.  A remedy was to put on a glove and lube her vent with Vaseline in hopes that would help the egg slide out.  Jaycee held her while I put on the glove and.....well it wasn't something I want to ever have to do again.  (Who knew that you had to be a chicken gynecologist when you own chickens?)  She was better the next day but still no egg.  Then she got worse.  Gary says she's happy in the big chicken coop in the sky. 

Another "end" in our lives is the end of our home phone.  We've had our phone number for almost 30 years.  It was a unique number because the first 3 numbers were 373, which were a Provo prefix back in the day, and the last 4 digits were the first four letters of our last name.  I was so sad to let it go....but we decided to go with just cell phones now.  Besides telemarkers the phone rarely rang.  Everyone called our cell phones or texted us.  So, we got new cell phones (didn't like the quality of Cricket) and new numbers. 

Making time for binding

This is a flannel panel I bought.  I added a blue border to it to make it bigger.  I quilted it up fast, but it has been waiting for me to bind for a few weeks.  I used to love to bind quilts while I watched TV.  That was before I got my new cell phone.  It has too many fun games and the internet.  It's a real time sucker.  I need to get in control of my life again.  I ignore Gary....too busy winning at solitaire and Farkle.  Completely absorbed in a game of Mahjong (Thanks Dad for getting me hooked on that one!).  I stare at my little phone screen until my vision goes blurry.  My goal this week is to put the phone down and go to my sewing room and sew a few quilt blocks or machine quilt.  I'd love to have a fun post about quilting!     

A Mother's Day Ride

 Gary took me on a ride Saturday. We've been waiting for a warm day to get out.  Yup...it was a sunny day.  Got a bad sunburn on my arms....so red and sore.  I wanted to get a little sun, so thought I'd wait a bit to put sunscreen on.  Then I was having so much fun I totally forgot about it.    

 It was a muddy, snowy ride.  I love this kind of riding!  It's a blast because it gets the adrenaline pumping through you.  There were tons of trees down over the road.  Most of them were partially removed so that you could go around them.  Sometimes you had to go off the road and around the tree, which got a little scary for me in a couple of places.  I don't mind going downhill if it's steep.  But steep, slanted uphill is another thing.  I got off 3 times and had Gary drive my machine up a part of the trail.  

We stopped here and ate lunch on these logs.

We shared a sandwich and chips.  Yum!  I teased Gary that it was such a romantic Mother's Day lunch.  Seriously....I can't think of a better way to celebrate.  A day out with him.

The river is pretty high and muddy.  Still lots of snow up higher to come down.

There were lots of places along the trail where the run off was still coming down the mountain to the river.

  

We drove over a lot of trees on the way.  I wanted to stop and get pictures on the way down, but there were people coming behind us so I couldn't stop.  It was fun to put it in 4-wheel and go over them.  It smelled like Christmas.....pine branches popping and cracking.

Just Ducky.........

These are the 2 newest additions to our home, Payton and Marley.  I can't believe we've added more animals.  I know we have the space for them, but it really takes a lot of work every day to keep them fed, watered, and cared for.  I blame it on Jaycee.  She really wanted 2 ducks and said she would take care of them.  Every day after school she lets them swim and then walks them around the back yard until they are tired.  They run after her.....funny waddling ducks!

 The all black one is a Cayuga duck and the one on the right is a Mallard.  We have no idea if the Cayuga is male or female yet.  We think the Mallard is a female because her head isn't turning green head yet like the males do.  In researching the ducks I tried to find out what her crazy hair-do is.  In ducks they call this a crest.  One site said a crested Mallard happens one in a million.  Crazy!  

These ducks would be lost without each other.  The black one follows the Mallard everywhere.  When they were tiny she couldn't move without the black one following her.  Now I see why they tell you never to get only one duck.