I'm Back, and Just in Time, Too!

Wow, I'm feeling good! Now that I am feeling so good, I can see that the past year or more I was wading each day through a metaphorical toxic sludge. An infected tooth can do that and more. Anyway, I'm all fixed up and ready for the coming lambing season!

We are shipping two flocks to Massachusetts this year. I think we've got nearly all the "M" states covered by now! I'd sure like to get a flock located closer to me, so that I can more easily swap rams.

I updated the Cascade Farmstead Sheep Association website to include the blog of Flock #4. I haven't read their blog lately and need to catch up!

I've been working on my online store, and have some new patterns coming that will be lots of fun. This morning I added one of my newer designs to the blog and am writing up the pattern this weekend to be available on the store as a freebie. There was no way I could sell that pattern after the 3/11 disaster, and I hope that quilters around the world will find this design helpful in some way, to remember those who were lost in this tragedy.

~ Ronda

Moving My Quilt Stuff to Another Blog

Which seems appropriate... I've moved my quilting supplies from one room to another in our house before getting settled into it's very own room!

Because this farm blog is for farm stuff, and because quilting is one of a few subjects I'm enamoured with, but that may not interest most farmers that visit my blog, I'm moving such topics over to Momma Made This.

If you are a quilter, I look forward to seeing you there!

Soothing the Soul

I have so many activities that soothe my soul, that really make my heart sing.

A row of canning jars full of something yummy that I made for my family.

New lambs that arrived without help or incident. (Cascades, of course!)

Spinning fleece into yarn.

Watching geese protect their newly hatched goslings.

Monitoring my bees as they build their colony and create honey.

Watching my garden grow, and won't that be nice once my Jon has put up some fencing to keep the sheep and chickens out of it?

Watching my son flourish at school; he's Salutatorian, and just a few days ago received an acceptance letter from his first choice University!

Making quilts that warm our hearts as well as our bodies.

But today's "Soothe the Soul" is about spinning fleece into wool. I have to admit that I have not done much spinning of our Cascade Farmstead fleeces. While the Cascade fleeces are far superior to the breeds we've had in the past, I'm so caught up in quilting at this time in my life that I just have not been able to get back into spinning for the time being. Someday.

However, I'm hoping that "someday" comes a little sooner... I have the bags of fleece from Greener Pastures Lavender that are truly gorgeous and so nice that after my attempts to spin last year, I decided I needed to refine my spinning skills a bit before working on a fleece this nice. Maybe this summer when it's too hot to have a quilt draped over and around me during the quilting process!

I keep telling myself that, while I want to do everything, I need to whittle down the "want to do" list into a very practical "these are the things I want to do MOST" list, so that I have finished projects to show for my efforts. This seems to be the stumbling block for creative people, but I'm working on it.

Quilting

I recently finished my first bed-sized quilt. This may seem astonishing considering that I've been an avid quilter for 20 years. But I began with miniature quilts, took several detours along the way, and made a number of what I call "nap sized quilts" for kids and adults. These have been loved and worn and loved some more by my family.

While I've designed many bed-sized quilts, and have dozens in various stages of progress, it took this long to finish one for our bed. I can't begin to describe the feeling of accomplishment, the appreciation of the beauty of this quilt, and that it's finally on our bed. Finishing any project brings such a nice feeling, but this is huge, not just in size or impact, but in the emotion it brings every time I see it or touch it! I'm so inspired, and can't wait until I can get the next quilt into my quilting hoop; this one for the kid.

As an artist with so many quilts in varying stages of progress (or lack thereof), I'm in a hurry to finish a few and get them on our beds before I spend the extra time needed for intricate designs. So the "utility quilts" are currently getting nearly all of my "quilty" attention, and I'm investigating something that I never thought I'd resort to... big stitching. I first heard of this technique back in the mid-90's, and dismissed it. But now, I'm thinking big stitching will be faster than tiny quilting stitches, but more personal than machine quilting, and may be just the ticket for the twin-sized quilt that I pieced for my son.

In my research about big stitching and whether this was a technique that would last, or shrink or or or... I discovered that the books on this subject are old and hard to find, and I'm currently in no position to purchase any. But I did run across a blog written by a woman in Australia who is currently enamoured with big stitching, and posted what works and what doesn't work. Yay! Her lovely blog is Quiltsalott. And she helped me determine, through her own trials and error, which thread to avoid. I've got some idea which route I'll take, and will post on that in future.

Hoping that these midnight ramblings due to insomnia do not come back to haunt me...

Post Script
I moved my quilting stuff to a new blog: Momma Made This. If you are a quilter, please follow me there. Or follow both!