Turkey Tracks: Look Who Came To Live With Me!

Turkey Tracks: January 19, 2014

Look Who Came To Live With Me!

Isn’t she beautiful?

I’ve thought about her since October.

She’s the sister of the doll I sent my granddaughter for her birthday. And this sister comes with her own baby!

I called Becky Morse of Gallery on the Lake in Greenville, Maine, and she had not sold her yet. Becky packed her up and mailed her to me this past week.

I am in awe of whomever it is who is making these dolls.

This one will stay with me until my granddaughter’s baby sister is old enough for her. Three years, I think. Which means I can have her until then.

Turkey Tracks: Quilt Projects

Turkey Tracks: January 19, 2014

QUILT PROJECTS

I promised you pictures of the blocks I’m (mostly) hand sewing for a quilt–from Material Obsession 2.

Here are two blocks finished:

And here’s one in progress:

They are so much fun to work on.

Here is what my design wall looks like at the moment–now that Celtic Solstice if down:

The red and green quilt and the brown quilt at the top are leader/ender projects. And, for play, I made a fish block yesterday and cut out a few more blocks…

When I finish quilting “Sails Up” and “Celtic Solstice,” the fish quilt will become a primary task.

The trip to Alewives’ BIG sale (quilt store) was fun yesterday. Lunch out was, too. We got home just as the snow started coming down in earnest.

I bought two greens and 7 yards of this ORANGE backing for Celtic Solstice. The dark green will be a border, and the light green the binding. The orange just seemed…to fit the quilt.

So…one more border for Celtic Solstice and then, quilting.

What a fun project this Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt has been.

Turkey Tracks: Friday Night Update

Turkey Tracks: January 17, 2014

Friday Night Update

It’s 4:04 p.m., and it is not pitch dark yet.

But, soon.

And, soon, spring will come, too, as the days are growing longer.

We have been having a January thaw for the past week. We can see green grass again, and there is still lettuce in my cold frame. Imagine that… Beneath all that snow…

I HAVE TO ORDER SEEDS!

The chickens are laying again. Rosie, the Copper Black Maran, laid her first egg since, I don’t know, October? The Americaunas molted in the fall and started laying again a few weeks ago. They are, once again, looking posh with all their new feathers. Beauty, who is so ugly I called her Beauty, laid all winter–though the shell to her eggs is very thin. She is so friendly and sweet.

The Diva, who I think is Queeny, is in the kitchen, resting, healing (one hopes). Her neck still looks pretty bad, but her eyes are bright, and she’s eating.

The brother of my friend Linda, who house sits for me and cleans, was standing beneath the edge of a roof with lots of ice on it. A slab broke loose and hurt his arm, side, and leg and broke his foot. Last Tuesday, in the middle of our January thaw, Linda went to get into her minivan, slipped on hidden ice next to the van. Her face is all bruised, and she broke her wrist. She drove herself to the emergency room.

Of course she was not looking for ice; everything had melted off. And that’s when the ice is the most treacherous. When you think it’s gone. Now she and her brother visit each other, each nursing a broken bone, and laugh wryly.

I talk to her every few days to see if she needs anything and to remind her to go slowly. The loss of income is very serious for her, of course, and I will pay her same as always, work or no work. She is so good to me in so many ways–I can’t even begin to tell you all she did for me when John was so sick and how she has cared for me this past year.

Today I went to Belfast (about 40 minutes north) to the big Coop for ground chicken for the dogs and green things for me. AND to pick up this amazing herbal powder from Dr. Herzig, a holistic vet, that keeps Miss Reynolds Georgia bright and busy tailed. She thinks she’s a puppy again, which is great since twice now I have been sure she was not going to live through the night. For about three months this summer I had to gently force feed her. Anyway, it was nice to get out a bit.

Celtic Solstice: I put on the white border yesterday. And got one triangle border on when I realized that I had TWO blocks with the orange going the wrong way. Mercy! I took the rows apart and turned the blocks, and the job was easier than I had expected. When I finish here, I’m going to make a cup of tea and put on the other three borders. Tomorrow I’m going to a big quilt fabric sale to get some green or blue to finish this amazing quilt. And, the backing and binding. There are so many seams that I do not want to piece blocks for the back. It will be so hard to quilt if I do.

“Sails Up and Flags Flying,” the bright orange quilt, is loaded onto Lucy the longarm, and the great yellow thread has come in the mail. So…. Tomorrow, maybe…

Here’s a block to remind you…

And one of the really fun things I’ve learned from Bonnie Hunter is to take the time to “swirl” your seams on the backside of a block as it cuts down on bulk when it’s time to quilt the layers. See the little tiny squares in the middle of each block–that “swirling” means two layers of bulk, not four. Bonnie has detailed instructions under the four-patch unit “clue” of Celtic Solstice on her quiltville.com blog. Look for the “Celtic Solstic” mystery information.

I have been hand-sewing blocks for this great quilt–pictures below–from Material Obsession 2 by Kathy Doughty and Sarah Fielke, both from Australia. I have not decided which layout to use yet.

I am kind of leaning toward the second one, but maybe making it a bit bigger. I have almost finished two blocks and have cut out pieces for the third and chosen fabric for a bunch more. I am getting obsessed with the beauty of these blocks. I’ll take some pictures tomorrow.

BUT, if I do the first layout, it might make a great quilt for the red guest bedroom…

Who knows? It’s a work in progress… And I’m just having fun.

It’s dark now. I’m going now to lock up the chickens, fix dinner (stuffed green peppers and baked squash), make a cuppa, and sew. And to listen to what is likely the final part of P.D. James’ Devices and Desires, which has been wonderful, wonderful. James is a master of murder mysteries. This book is so full and rich and so full of depth.

Tonight after watching two Castle episodes from season 2–which is really all about watching Nathan Fillion whose Firefly series got cancelled way, way too soon (Josh Whedon, and the movie Serenity kind of finished off that series)–I’ll read another big chunk of Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch, which I’m really enjoying.

And, oh my gosh!, when checking spelling for Fillion, I realized he’s also in Buffy the Vampire Slayer just a bit, which Josh Wheden also did!!! I’ve always wanted to check out that tv series…ever since Julie Powell wrote Julie and Julia (from her blog about Julie cooking her way through Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking) and spoke of her delight in Buffy…

If you don’t have dog-eared volumes of Child’s Mastering the Art of…, you might want to get at least the first one and cook around it a bit.

Life is so full of wonderful surprises some times…

Turkey Tracks: Maine Winter Poem

Turkey Tracks: January 17, 2014

Winter in Maine

A Poem

Friend and fellow quilter Barb Melchiskey sent me this poem last week.

I chuckled, of course.

You might, too.

It’s winter in Maine

And the gentle breezes blow.

Seventy miles an hour

At thirty-five below.

Oh how I love Maine

When the snow’s up to your butt

You take a breath of winter air

and your nose gets frozen shut.

Yes, weather here is wonderful

So I guess I’ll hang around

I could never leave Maine

‘Cause I’m frozen to the ground.

When I asked Barb who wrote it, she confessed her niece sent it to her.

Here’s Barb’s nieces reply to Barb’s query about authorship:

Hi Aunt Barb,

I got it from the Facebook. It has no attribution, but it was initially posted by a woman named Bambi Trawn Boucher. It has been around FB for a few years.

Doing some research, it seems to be a poem called “Winter in Canada,” also unknown author. Maine has been switched in for Canada.

So…your friend probably would want source both!!

Glad you liked it”

Turkey Tracks: Diva Update

Turkey Tracks: January 13, 2014

DIVA UPDATE

I went to sleep last night after watching the weather. We will have a few more mild days and then the bitter cold will return.

I knew my severely frostbitten Anconda hen would not be able to stand any further damage.

I went to sleep knowing that she would have to come inside, or I would have to put her down.

Inside, first, I determined. She has been through so much, and her spirit is so strong. She deserves a chance.

So, this morning I got up and organized to bring her inside.

When I went out to feed the coop chickens and let them out, I saw the Diva on the hillside. She had not gone into the coop’s cage last night. She sat so still that I thought she might have frozen sitting straight up. But, it hadn’t been that cold last night… She moved a little as Penny dog went to sniff at her. She was weak, but alive, just sitting on the hill above the junipers. When I called to her, she moved and tried to come toward me, and limped her way down the hillside as if she were very stiff, and I gave her a hand full of mealy worms, which she began to devour. So, I went on to let out the coop chickens and to throw the leftover food in the coop to the twenty or so turkeys who are now bold enough to come right up to the coop. It is quite something to see four or five turkey males in full puffed-out plumage strutting around not ten feet from you. And it is fun to have them talk to you when you call to them.

After I fed the dogs and dressed, I organized a big box for the Diva in the kitchen. Two trips to the garage retrieved what I needed: a tarp to put under the box, the box, a screen to cover, and materials to line the box. When I had the box ready, I went outside with the fish net to catch her, which it turned out I did not need.

She was very weak when I picked her up inside the coop, where she had gone as the other chickens were outside. She hardly struggled and only squawked weakly when I picked her up. There was no weight to her–just feathers and…air.

But, she was outraged when I put her in the box! Where was this? What was I doing to her?

Before I could get her into the box and put the screen over it, she flew up into the far left window and flailed around weakly.

I had to weight the screen on top of the box with books to keep her inside.

After a time, she accepted the box and settled down. And in the past hour or two does not stand up and scurry around as I go in and out of the kitchen. These Ancondas are very, very skittish.

She ate all of the hamburger I gave her. But not the sunflower seeds. She has scattered her food all out of its bowl.

The box is the box that the electric lawn mower came in–saved for just this sick-chicken purpose–summer before last. The screen was a gift of the Swap Shop–back when we raised Chickie Annie after incubating eggs. (You may recall she was the only one who hatched due to problems with humidity. Later, she got eaten by a fox–which broke my heart.) I lined the box with newspaper and an old towel–so she will have a little warmth and traction around her feet. Later I will drape another towel over the box top to make her feel safer and to keep her warm tonight.

And I will sleep without worrying about her freezing to death outside or being eaten by something that goes bump in the night.

The rooster flies up to the porch railing and calls to her. He was very upset when I picked her up and she cried out.

I will not take a picture of her for you until she is better. She is very disfigured, but her feet and neck do seem better.

Turkey Tracks: January Thaw!

Turkey Tracks: January 12, 2014

(I don’t know why some recent posts are not separating paragraphs… Sorry…)

January Thaw!

It’s a January thaw!

It’s 50 degrees!

We can see grass in the snow paths again, and the chickens came out of their coop/cage and are re-exploring the yard. There is all sorts of talking and crowing and clucking and general delight going on in the yard.

Today’s job was to retrieve TWO glass bowls that the chickens have dragged to the back end of the cage. The chickens, in their boredom and hunger for different foods, literally lick those bowls clean and drag them around. Did you know that chickens have tiny little tongues?

Until today, I could not reach them from the front end of the cage with the crab net. Or poke a broom handle through the chicken wire to push them forward from the back end as the tarps were knee deep in snow. I’m going to try the very tall tree/limb cutter which has a curved saw on the top–and if that does not work, will try to life the tarps at the back end.

I NEED those bowls to continue feeding the chickens things like warm mash, leftovers, meat and milk, and so forth.

Well! The tree saw was too tall to wedge into the flap/gap between the coop and the cage. I finally got the bowls with a leaf rake–the longest one I had. The tines kept collapsing, but patience and effort was rewarded, and I gradually was able to turn each bowl over and over until I could reach it with the thick pole I use to prop open the coop roof. Yeah!!!! I am easily amused, apparently.

Meanwhile, the rooster herded his girls up together next to the house and told them I was an extremely dangerous intruder into their space. He is so cute and has come into his own. He crows all the time now. I’ll try to get some pictures of him soon, but we are getting more weather coming in over the next few days.

Last night I sewed the fifth row of seven of Celtic Solstice. It’s so pretty. Only I sewed one of the units upside down, which threw off the pattern. I took the offending block out of the row, fixed the unit, and resewed the row together. Now I had TWO blocks upside down. I took it all apart and fixed both units and resewed and QUIT for the night, thinking I would finish the rows today. But I have not yet, and I’m not quite sure where the day has gotten to.

I have downloaded another audio book: P.D. James’s DEVICES AND DESIRES. Oh my gosh! There is a mini-series of this book:

There is something so seductive about having someone read a story to you while you sew. I finished BEST OF WOMEN’S SHORT STORIES, Vol. 1, William J. Locke, yesterday and thoroughly enjoyed it. There were a number of stories I read in school, like Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper,” and it was a pleasure to hear them dramatized.

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I spent some time yesterday going through ALL the 1200 titles of the audio books as the search engine is not great on this system. I found so many books I will love to hear and made lists of the same. I thought a mystery would be fun for a change.

Turkey Tracks: Dianne Hire: Master Quilter

Turkey Tracks: January 12, 2014

Dianne Hire: Master Quilter

Yesterday was a miserable, rainy, icy, threatening day.

BUT, the Coastal Quilters met, and many members managed to make it to the meeting–where we were treated to a history of Dianne Hire’s gorgeous quilts and books, and the story of her latest book, “APP is for Appliqué.”

Really, we all felt as if in the middle of this challenging day we were basking in so much warmth. Dianne’s gracious humor, her own color-drenched and amazing quilts, the quilts of so many local quilters made from Dianne’s new patterns and brought in to share up close and personal, and our being all together made for a wonderful morning. And by the time we left, the weather had warmed considerably and grass was appearing in the snow paths.

For this new book, her fourth, Dianne drew fourteen complex, amazing patterns, and quilters she knew, many of them local, some of them met while she taught around the country, each took a signature pattern for their personal quilt–which would be included in the planned and approved book. The quilters could also use the other patterns in their quilts. And if you know quilting and quilters at all, you can begin to imagine the diversity these quilts represent. No two are even remotely alike, and all are astonishing!

Here is a quote from Stevie Kumble, Coastal Quilter’s press person, describing the new book in our press release:

The book itself has received acclaim from the quilting world and beyond. According to one reviewer, “The result is a nicely disguised technical manual as a feast for the eyes and an exciting project book. Fourteen stylized floral pattern designs provide the reader with the right place to embark on a unique journey of creativity. Tips and techniques from each contributing quilter will advance the reader’s sewing expertise in multiple ways. This book will either set appliqué design on its ear, advance it for the ages, or both.”

Dianne is famous for her use of color, and she helped pioneer the use of curves, innovative piecing, and so on. Dianne was on the cusp of taking quilts out of the traditional and into the contemporary.

Here is a web site with a lot of her quilts pictured–just scroll down and enjoy: http://dhquiltsandclasses.blogspot.com.

As you perhaps know, I can applique, but I am very drawn to and happy with my ongoing scrappy piecing project and using up my stash. But Dianne swears that these complex designs are not hard to make. The results, I can tell you, are well worth the effort.

The quilts of Coastal Quilter’s members Gail Galloway Nicholson and Roxanne Wells appear in Dianne’s new book.

And, this program was arranged by Gail Galloway Nicholson. Thanks, Gail!

And Dianne’s information is as follows:

Dianne S. Hire

One Hundred Bayside Road, Northport, Maine 04849

207-338-4789

email: alternatives2@bluestreakme.com

Turkey Tracks: Dump Run!

Turkey Tracks: January 12, 2014

DUMP RUN!

What do we do with our trash and garbage in Camden, Maine?

We take it to the dump–where we have a massive recycling program.

I start by recycling as much of my garbage as I can here at home. I have three compost containers out back of the garage for anything I can compost, and I have a bin of worms in the utility room here in the house. (There is a blog post on the worms–vermiculture.)

I sort trash in the garage. There is the garbage that can’t be composted (meat, oils, for instance). Other categories include returnable bottles (Maine has a returnable tax/refund on bottles), cans/steel, aluminum soda cans (I don’t have any of those really), glass, milk jugs (not many of those as I buy milk in glass containers), food plastic, newspapers, mail and boxboard, cardboard, brown paper sacks. You get the idea…

Here’s a video of our dump, and you can tell I went on a very windy, cold day. I speak at first of the blue bins at the front end of the dump line where bottles are deposited.

Recyclable/refund bottles get sorted by clear and color–and there are bins where the Lion’s Club picks up bottles for the refunds. Just off-site is another organization (Coastal Workshop) where one can drop bottles and the organization gets the refund.

Here’s a long shot down the recycling containers–you can see the entry point–the little red building–behind the car. I’ve never been sure what goes on in the big building to the left. There are offices in there–and probably dump equipment.

Here’s a container. There are big openings to throw stuff in along both sides of the containers.

My goodness! My car is waaaaayyy dirty!

What can’t be recycled goes into yellow pay-as-you-go bags–I think they are $1.50 now–and gets burned. This method is thought to encourage people to recycle as much as they can.

This trip I have two bags:

The bags get thrown into a hopper as one leaves the dump–where the bags are crushed into a much smaller footprint.

The dump also has a “Swap Shop”–which is closed for the winter. The Swap Shop is run by volunteers and is beloved by the community.

In the summer, there are always interesting items to be found at the Swap Shop. It’s a great place to take items you are not using, but which someone else might treasure. I got a small dog house there that John painted and repaired. The chickens adore it! I used it the year we let a mother hen hatch and raise babies.

And in the summer, or warmer weather anyway, you never know who you will run into at the dump. It is often a place for a quick visit with someone you maybe have not seen in a while.

Turkey Tracks: Dead Diva

Turkey Tracks: January 12, 2014

Dead Diva

I have not posted for a few days.

Mostly because I knew I had to tell you that one of the two Divas is dead, and the remaining one is very sick.

Winter in Maine is harsh, and this winter has been particularly difficult for us, with the ice storm at Christmas with all its power outages, and for all the animals. We have had sub zero temps and wind chill factors way below zero. The weather has taken a toll–and the Divas have suffered it.

One of the Divas was dead last week–dead in the coop as I opened it in the morning. She had terrible frostbite on her neck and around her head and her wounds were open and bloody.

Perhaps the others killed her. Birds will do that. And, given the Diva’s condition, it was a mercy killing, if so. Here is where “Nature” is “red in tooth and claw.”

The frostbite and open bleeding explains why the Divas were refusing to join the others in the coop at night. (Chickens will attack and peck at other birds with open bleeding.) And, by staying out, were risking more frostbite. The other Diva was in terrible shape as well, but living.

The remaining Diva is hanging in there. I am feeding her high protein foods and fats as much as I can. Some of her wounds are better; some are still fresh. She looks terribly bedraggled and has lost all her vibrant color.

I have such mixed emotions about her. Should I put her down or help her to live? Is she in pain? If so, how much? She is eating. As long as she is eating, I will not act.

I will keep you posted…

Turkey Tracks: “Songbirds in My Grandmother’s Garden” Quilt

Turkey Tracks: January 6, 2014

“Songbirds in My Grandmother’s Garden” Quilt

I began to realize sometime during making this quilt that it reminded me of my grandmother Louise Phillips Bryan of Reynolds, Georgia.

Although she had fabulous gardens with flowers of all colors, Grandmother loved the color brown best. She had brown eyes and fine, curly dark hair. Her laugh was HUGE–a belly laugh from deep inside. And she knew how to have fun and to laugh. She loved life and loved her life. She sewed and she knitted. She gardened, as I said above. She put up food and set a nice table. She welcomed guests.

I am named for her, and I spent a lot of wonderful time with her at all stages of my life–especially as we were an Air Force family and moved a lot. When my father had an overseas deployment, mother took us back to Georgia, to Grandmother and Pop. And, as I make this description of her, I am realizing how much of her ways I have adopted and believe are good ways to be in this world.

I had a lot of fabric pieces left over from the “Earth” quilt–and I wanted to keep them together as I was enjoying how they played with each other. And, to tell the truth, I have enough for one more quilt besides “Songbirds,” especially as I have lots of fabrics that will work well with this bunch already cut up in my stash. I am working on Bonnie Hunter’s current “leader/ender” project with what’s left of these earthy fabrics–a block with light and dark sides–allowed by strategically placed half-square triangles. Here are four of these blocks–and they can be combined in countless ways.

(A leader/ender project lets you work on two quilts at once–the one you are piecing, and when you need to cut your thread, the one that’s your “leader/ender” project. You always have blocks for the second quilt ready to stitch so you do not break your thread but just keep on chain piecing. Sometimes I make the half-square triangles and when I have enough, I make a few blocks as I sew along.)

Well! here’s “Songbirds”:

It’s another “Dancing Nines” from Bonnie Hunter’s web site, quiltville.com, where she has tons of free patterns. I made this one with 2 1/2-inch squares though, as that was the size of the strips I had. Bonnie’s pattern starts with 2-inch squares. The piano keys border though is from 2-inch strips.

Here’s a close-up so you can see why Bonnie says these blocks “dance.” They are off-set. The pantograph is “Check and Chase” by Lorien Quilting. I ordered it from Urban Elementz which has a huge selection of pantographs.

I love the borders on this quilt. the binding is a very, very dark muddy red.

And, here’s where the “songbirds” came from. I fell in love with this very contemporary fabric–and think it works with the more traditional front of the quilt. These little guys make me want to cup them in my hand.

Here’s a block close-up:

I loved making this quilt–which reminds me so much of my grandmother.

	celiamalm on Happy Birthday Soup
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	louisaenright on It’s A Sunny Sunday
	Tracy on It’s A Sunny Sunday
	Andrea R Huelsenbeck on Yeah! The Improv Quilt Is Off…

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