September ~ Hope Chest

Did you give up on me?  It was very close, but finally finished on the last day of September!  So much has been going on here the past month: big chickens (which went out last week), more hay to bale and haul, garden harvest of tomatoes and peas, all of which I'm very thankful!  So I grabbed every spare minute to work on a crazy quilt.

"Crazy quilts, born of necessity, were made in an all-over design consisting of pieces of material, regardless of size or color...They were sewed together in crazy fashion, usually on an inner lining ..."  Marguerite  Ickis/The Standard book of Quilt Making and Collecting.

My fabric pieces were scraps given to me by my mother-in-law several years ago; most are large prints left from shirts, etc. she had made for her grandchildren in the 1980s.  I pieced the blocks on newspaper, then trimmed them to size.  A quilt with such a busy pattern needs no fancy quilting stitches, (as if I could!) therefore I simply quilted along each seam line, except in the solid red, where I did a melon-shaped pattern.

 The quilt measures approximately 52 1/2" x 62 1/2", a good size to throw over the foot of the bed on a cold night ~ or

as a lap quilt to snuggle under while reading or watching TV ~ or,

spread it on the ground for a picnic lunch.

And while we're talking crazy, how did this fella get to be in the middle of the quilt?  Perhaps the bowl of chips can be set over him. (Also, I see a seam I skipped :()  Now to come up with an October project!

Charlotte

A few weeks ago we had some really good hay that the farmer decided to put inside the barn.

It has been years since any hay has been put inside.  This was the part of the barn we had fixed for the cats to be safe from dogs.  Last winter there were only a few square bales on the ground so it wasn't the warmest place for the cats and no place for new kittens to be born.  I wondered what the cats would think when they saw their "home" filled almost to the ceiling of the barn.

They love it!  And there are all sorts of nooks and crannies where they can hide and make their warm bed when the winter winds blow.  The farmer left a space at the door where I go in to feed them.

Cats are important to have on a farm.  We rarely see a mouse around the chicken houses where they can do a lot of damage to the insulation on the buildings.  Gotta take care of my cats!

Charlotte

Two cans

sit on the bathroom vanity; both are the same size, very similar in color and design.  Both are aerosol cans and the contents are unscented.  One is "extra hold", the other "lasts all day".  What if ...............

Think about it.

Charlotte