Charity quilt with modern quilting

Here is a charity quilt that I quilted with a really nice and fast leaf design. Combined with the parallel squiggles, I'm pretty happy with the results. If I was doing it again , i might outline the blocks as well. Look for more squiggles from this quilter!

Snowballs by Rebecca

This is a quilt that Rebecca made as a wedding present. I love this fabric and the pattern! I quilted it with an organic wavy line across the blocks and then a little flower in the corners. Hope they like it!

Quilting for Shirley

Here is a quilt that my sister in law worked on the last few years. Of course she picked a complicated mariners compass for one of her first quilts! But it's just beautiful and I hope the quilting does it justice. It was fun to quilt and there are two layers of Hobbs wool batting.

Drought and Lie down.

We've been trying to lay low here due to the extreme heat. Way too many days over 100 degrees. We've had about 3 minor rains since April or so. Rain 3 was just 5 minutes long today. I know, that's pathetic. I've been watering trees to try to save them. Our pastures are brown with a tinge of green from the first two rains a few weeks ago.

I did attend two clinics this year and both have been very helpful for Fly and myself. In March Jack Knox gave us a clinic and showed how to use a round pen effectively and without stressing the dog. Fly and I made some GREAT progress on actually going 'around' the sheep, rather than 'at' the sheep which is how she was thinking before. I'm actually seeing her go round sheep when its time to pick them up as well.

Then in late June we had a HOT clinic with Gordon Watt (it was unbearable weather). Gordon immediately saw that we have no 'stop'. You just can't make progress with your dog if she won't 'stop' when you ask for it (Lie Down is the command but the dog can sit or stand). So, he set us on a journey around fences with sheep and asking for a Lie down. We are teaching Fly that its OK to relax and actually STOP while NEAR the sheep.

I've really seen a change in her attitude from these two clinics and we are working much quieter and slower now than we used to. I've also made changes to my working attitude which all translates to the dog as well.

Some of you have asked about the breeds of sheep I have. I have mostly St. Croix (all the wethers and 1 ewe) and two Katahdin ewes that have only had 1 lamb between them so far ( a ewe!). Here are some good links for reading on the two breeds. They are both from hot climates and have a good resistance to parasites, which are a huge concern for sheep. Parasites can kill a sheep easily. They are also good, easy mothers.

• Katahdin
• St. Croix

I've been rotating the sheep in the pasture using 320 feet of portable, temporary electric fencing. After a false start we got the hang of it and now the sheep can go about a week or so before I have to move them. It's really working out quite well and will keep the pastures parasite free and it is better for the sheep and the grass. I should be able to get 12-15 weeks out of the field I'm using. I put up a portable shade for them when we don't have a nearby tree.

Here's Fly after we put the sheep in the stall. Look what a good job I did Mommy!

And then taking them back out, nice and easy .

and of course the water break at the end!

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and one final shot of my little herd of 16. The two on the left are babies!.

Baby lambs are SO cute!

Two of our three ewes have delivered and we now have 3 very cute little babies.

This is Dr Pepper with her two babies Soda(female) and Pop(male.

This is Rosemary, Freckles is her mother.

Longarm quilting designs since June

Ok, one of my fans mentioned that I haven't blogged in ages! guilty. Will two posts in one day make up for it ? I have been doing lots of herding and NOT really making good progress. Fly and I are working on 'Lie down'. Without a lie down, herding is impossible. We hope to get back out there soon. In the mean time, I realized that its December already and I have lots of presents to work on and my TODO list is WAY too long. I have quilted MANY charity quilts for the guild and my quilting is getting better and better. I had to get a new bobbin case for the longarm and re-time my machine, but all is good now and I'm able to quilt without breaking my thread every 4 feet. Here are some designs I've done. Daisy, I'm learning that echoing makes anything look better. Feather Loops in border Loopy flowers, I like how they filled the sashing too. Squiggle on a stem , instead of flowers. You can put ANYTHING on a stem. Loopy star on Rebecca's quilt, easier than it looks! Ribbons, like this too! Meandering leaf feathers and loops. This was easy, fast, and fun.

Cats and Harley update.

Did I mention that I have 3 cats ? Two are barn cats and Sammy-pants is an indoor cat. Sammy is a girl, we assumed she was a boy until we took her to the vet when we first got her. Here is Sammy She is a trouble maker but I love hearing her gallop thru the house! She also is the cat detective. If something is going on , Sammy is there to watch! If only she could talk. Here she is making sure the printer is working. And playing with Homer Homer and Harley are brothers, about 5 years old now. We call them the 'Bobcats' because they are both about 12 pounds of solid cat. Homer is the grey tabby, Harley is the handsome black and white. That black spot on his nose was so small when he was a kitten, it looked like a speck of dirt! Here's Homer in his favorite sleeping spot, Randy's sock basket! And here's Harley at the barn, love his green eyes! And a full length shot of Harley Harley recently had a run in with a car, cow, or horse. He's doing better and I think we are going to save his eye. Poor guy hasn't been feeling well. I've been medicating his eye every 3 hours to make sure we save it. Until about two days ago, his face was so swollen he couldn't even close his eye. Hope that green eye makes a comeback!