Stories from the Sewing Room

It's once again time to share my PHD progress. 

Linking with Ms. P Designs' PHD program

I had a really good month. I completed one project, item one on my list, the Magnificent Mystery.

I made progress on several other projects. I cut, sewed, and quilted item 9, dino baby quilt. I'm expecting to get this one bound this month.

I custom quilted item 23, the Linda J. Hahn Beach Bumz quilt. My goal this month is to bind this quilt.

I cut and sewed item 20, Range. 

I made some progress on a new start, item 3 in the starts, the third knitted selvedge rug. As you can see, I'm around 2/3 done and my yarn balls are nearly depleted. In fact, the first ball is gone and I'm now just joining selvedge as needed.

I'm also making progress on new start 4, but cannot show pictures until the end of the year. I feel pretty good that we're half way through the year and I'm half way through my PHD.

Meanwhile, I've been quilting more. It's been a bit of a challenge as my machines have been rather testy. Must be the hot, humid weather we're stuck with currently. Oh, speaking of weather, that Morgan-Monroe forest tornado has now been upgraded to EF-3. Anyway, here's what I've done. First, I quilted Twinkling Teardrops on Legene's quilt. 

Next, Cynthia selected Even Flow Nest for this quilt.

And Basic Swirl for this one.

I quilted Mike's Swoosh on Charlene's.

And Woven Wind on Paula's. Gah! Her piecing is always so precise.

I also finished up all that binding, with four of Ann K.'s.

And this one of Mike's. As you may recall, he had a rubberized outdoor fabric for the back and he wanted it for the binding as well. I didn't feel comfortable with the idea of pressing it, so that was quite interesting, just kinda finger pressing the joins and holding the binding in half. It turned out pretty well and he seemed really happy with it.

Things have been a bit challenging on the home front. I went to get groceries Friday before my daughter arrived for the weekend. I was carrying the groceries in, turned around to close the door, and EEEK! SNAKE! I knew rationally that it was likely a harmless rat snake, but I. REALLY. DO. NOT. LIKE. SNAKES. I texted my husband that I may need to burn down the house. He and my son ended up leaving work early to rescue me. It had moved by the time they got home. My husband did eventually find it and relocated it up the road into the tree line. He said it was about five feet long. You can't see in the picture, but there is an entire bunk of wood just below the dark areas in the picture.

We had been treating Poppy the hen's infected eye for over a week and thought she seemed to be doing a lot better. Then my daughter informed us that Smoky the rooster was ill. Oh, and looking closer, so was Henry the rooster. I feel awful that we hadn't noticed they were sick. It did occur to me that I hadn't noticed them crowing for several days, but I can't usually hear them when I'm in the basement and I figured I had slept through the morning crowing. Nope. 😔 Of course we couldn't find a vet who sees chickens, especially on the weekend. We got them an appointment on Monday with the same vet who treated Beaker. 

She diagnosed them with Mycoplasma gallisepticum and bumble foot. It is unclear whether they were born with it, they picked it up from the environment, or whether the Barred Rocks may have brought it with them. Smoky is in really bad shape and probably won't recover. Henry is a toss-up. We have them isolated in separate containers in the garage and are giving them pain meds and antibiotic. I feel sad and really guilty. The vet also said if we were a production farm, we'd have to cull the whole flock, but since they are pets, we just let them live out their lives, don't add any more (weren't planning on it anyway), and let nature run its course. The hens seem fine right now and Peanut is mostly tolerating the other three now that the roosters aren't in the run. Still, it's pretty devastating. 

On a happier note, we went out to harvest the peas Sunday and discovered zucchinis and loads of bush beans. The peas were pretty far gone. My daughter gave a bunch to the hens. You can see in the picture below that they were pretty sub-par. We ate the purple beans for dinner Sunday evening. I shredded and froze the zucchini (4 cups). I had a pound and a half of green beans that I blanched and froze. I shelled the peas even though they are snap peas. I got maybe a cup and a half, which I also blanched and froze. 

Walking past the stove later, I noticed the water from blanching had turned pinkish. 

And then it turned red. 

And later still, it had darkened a bit more. Fascinating. 

Wednesday, there were two more zucchini.

We also have baby bluebirds.

And my husband found this plant growing in our spare property. It's American bellflower.

Other than that, my shoulder is still in a lot of pain after all the seam ripping and the custom quilting. 😒 I also managed to lightly burn my leg on the coils of the hose of my steamer. Good grief. That takes some talent. 

Until next time--

Linking with Quiltery and Alycia Quilts.