The Little Red Hen

Wordless Wednesday

For the Love of Orange

Yesterday we had a controlled burn in our native prairie fields.

Burn days are usually very enjoyable; we stand around watching the fire making sure it stays in it's boundaries. It is supposed to peter out when it comes to the green lawn areas and paths that are kept mowed.  If all goes well, we don't actually do much work - yesterday was one of those days.

I did get a bit of sunburn yesterday so today I'm staying in and sewing some scrappy binding to the Tealorange quilt. 

 

Tealorange - quilting progress

I decided that the Tealorange quilt needed simple quilting.  I started with stitching in the ditch between all the blocks and then added some parallel lines close to the ditch like I did on this quilt (but only in one direction).

Then, I decided that I needed to fill the whole space with lines.

I have to say, I think the result is well worth the hours it took. I am thrilled with the results on the whole quilt. 

I'm going to put a scrappy binding of orange and teals around it and will share a full view photo when it's really finished. 

It has finally gotten warm enough to be outside without sweaters so we've also been working on some outdoor chores. Yesterday we went out in the fields hunting for morels and asparagus - we didn't find any of those but we did come back with a big load of garlic mustard. Today we'll plant some more things in the garden any maybe even have a field fire. I tell you, the fun never ends around here!

What projects have you been working on?

Wordless Wednesday

A Sunny Day

We finally had a sunny day! It started off sunny and stayed sunny all day.

The chickens even ventured out. They usually just stay in the barn when there is snow on the ground.

They even came over to visit on the front porch.

I hope they enjoyed their day out because we are supposed to get six inches of fresh snow tomorrow night.

Flashback Skinny Tee

P is a skinny girl. Seven years old and all of 40 pounds. Usually when a shirt or top fits her in the shoulders it is way too short and doesn't even reach the top of her pants. Not a great look. So, she usually wears shirts that look a bit big on her. 

Enter Rae's Flashback Skinny Tee pattern. It seemed like this pattern was made for Miss P. I cleaned out my dresser on the weekend and found an old shirt of mine that P liked. We cut it down and made a great new shirt for her. This is the first shirt that has actually FIT her in years! She loves it.

The pattern is super easy and I was able to keep the existing sleeve hem and neck finish of the original shirt with careful placement of the pattern pieces.

She likes the top so much that she had to wear it for the rest of the day - which was spent threshing the black beans that we grew this year. 

A few weeks ago we pulled up all of the black bean plants and wrapped them in old sheets and put them on our upper porch to finish drying (we didn't want the beans to fall from the pods into the garden). Yesterday was the perfect crispy warm fall day for threshing.

First we wrap a big bundle of plants in a tarp. Then, P's favorite part, we thwack it with a stick to pop the beans from their dry pods. 

Then we pick out all of the plant parts making sure there are no beans left in the pods.

What is left on the tarp is a pile of black beans mixed with chaff.

On a breezy day we will pour this mix from bucket to bucket and let the wind carry away the chaff and we will be left with black beans to store for future meals.

Yesterday was a perfect fall day!

I also found the perfect pattern for the top of P's Elf costume for Halloween! She'll be a skinny elf in a Skinny Tee!

Raspberries

Raspberry ribbon pie tonight!

Summer Scheduling

I've been working and sewing like crazy lately and beginning to feel like Miss P was getting the short end of the stick. We've changed around our daily plan and have made more time for some "fun for her" stuff.

She really enjoys a good popcorn picnic with stories in the yard. We are happy that our heat wave broke for a few days and have been spending a little more time outside. 
We have been trying to have fun with our chores too. She liked giving the garlic bulbs haircuts yesterday. We have also mastered the "two minute tidy" where we set the timer for two minutes and then both tidy up very fast. We can really get a lot of stuff put away in two minutes! That's a fun thing to do right before we play a game or start to fix dinner.

I've been trying to sew before she gets up in the morning, after she goes to bed, or while she is busy with a project of her own. Sometimes, though, she wants to help with the sewing. Today we whipped out some Free Market Fancy improv blocks. 

Well, I'd better go. She says it's my turn for Spirograph.

edit: Thank you ROssie for pointing out my typing slip. The fabrics are FLEA Market Fancy, not free market fancy.  

American Chestnut

It's been hot and muggy here for quite a few days. I went out for a quick stroll after a two minute rain shower this evening. Really, I dashed out to get the little chicks out of the rain and by the time I was back inside and had dried off my feet the rain had stopped. Still, it was nice while it lasted. We are weary of moving the soaker hose around the gardens.

Anyway, I mentioned that I went for a short stroll-- I noticed that the air behind the barn was thick with a heavy pollen odor. 

The American Chestnut is putting on quite a show.


And now it's time to go start quilting a quilt!

Wordless Wednesday - The mushroom edition