The Ladder Stitch

Rose Star Half Blocks

These blocks were rushed - I wasn't really feeling the love when choosing the fabrics and combining the colors. "Let's just get this blasted quilt finished!" But impatience comes and goes and now I am happy again, just plugging away on it, step by step.

There was also some small difficulty in picturing the construction of the block sliced in half. Visual people are always helped by a diagram - I'm glad to have a jar of colored pencils around and a copy feature on the home printer.  

Progress and Tedium

  
The blocks are all connected now but I am getting a little tired of this project. Six half blocks are needed for the sides and they are coming together all right; there just isn't any great enthusiasm at the moment. 

It is time to put it aside for a bit but I want the side blocks assembled and attached first. A good stopping point sometimes makes a difference in picking something back up again. 

And who knows? I may feel like pushing on through after all.

 

Snapshots of May

Saying Congratulations! with a pie

Packed up for the road

Dave ready for a ride

Plugging away on an old project

Planning for a new project

My Other Project

It was back in February when I cut into this pile of fabric and I have been dinking away on it off and on since then. I had two fat quarter bundles - one called Prince Charming Indigo by Tula Pink and the other Portobello by Alice Kennedy. I also had a Prince Charming charm pack and some additional yardage of a couple of the coral fabrics.

I was inspired by a Kaffe Fassett quilt, Light in the Forest, in his book, Quilts in Sweden. It is hard to say I followed the pattern, though, because I changed the block size, the fabric, the layout and the borders. It is a traditional concept, like most quilts, based on a "magic number". The finished blocks are 2.5", 5" and 10" so it is easy to rearrange and interlock the squares. I wanted some blocks that were big enough to show off some of these large scale prints.

I ordered some extra wide fabric for backing - no piecing this time! I'm trying something new and easy. Deciding on colors is always a bit of a crap shoot online but here's hoping it is a good match or at least, good enough. I haven't decided on quilting it yet - I will get the layers together and then decide. This one has been a project that has progressed one step at a time all the way through.

30,31 and 32

 

The last three Rose Star quilt blocks! 

Probably. If the design works out as I picture it... 

After a while, they all start to look alike. I wanted more red in the quilt so I tried to focus on red and pink and orange. We'll see if it is enough.

I have a lot of background pieces to sew up now and then a long process of putting all of the blocks together. Part of me wants to be done but mostly so I can use the leftovers in other projects. But I think I will keep these fabrics off limits in case I need them for half blocks or somewhere in the borders 
or the backing/binding.

Cows

It's been easy to take the cows for granted. Their field is just a stone's throw away and it seems as if they have always been there, eating grass. Sometimes they are up in the woods or in another nearby pasture; we see them go to the pond for a drink or, in the winter, following the tractor which doles out hay. Calves appear, with bright white faces, two or three born each year - but the herd stays roughly the same size, about twelve brown cows. They mostly walk around slowly and eat grass.

When we heard that Barbara, the owner of the fields and the cows, was asking neighbors if they wanted a cow (or maybe some meat), it was a surprise. She was saying that she and her husband, Bill, were getting too old to care for them. 

Why, maybe we should buy the cows. Well, we would need the field, too. What do we know about cattle? Crazy idea.

The next morning, Dave saw some cows corralled and some men talking nearby and we thought it might be over that quickly, the cows sold and butchered, just like that. What about the land? Would they sell the land? Would it be subdivided into ranchettes?  WOULD EVERYTHING CHANGE?

But they were all still there the next morning, chewing away and, so far, nothing has changed at all. 

I called Barbara, and she said yes, she was getting too old, she is 77 and Bill is 84 and did I know that she broke her hip in March? It was March 21 and more about the hip and the vitamins she takes and they heat with wood and there is a lot of wind up there on the hill and, when I could get her to talk about the cows, she said when she married Bill in 1955, his mother had some milking cows and yes, they have had cows a long time because that is, what?, almost 57 years ago. No, they aren't selling the land. Back to the vitamins...

There are about a dozen geese that are hanging out in the field these days, sharing the pond. When the cows go, it will still be a mighty pleasant meadow and it will be alive with frogs and birds and rabbits and coyotes. It will be green and pretty and will change with the seasons. But I've grown quite fond of the cows and I will miss them.