Number 6

This post is dedicated to an overload of pictures of my latest quilt finish.

I really love the way this one turned out.

I cannot take credit for the pattern.

It's called True North by Melissa Corry.

Last summer I picked up a fat eighth bundle from

an Amish quilt shop in Shipshewana.

I had no idea what I was going to do with it.

I just knew how much I loved the colors.

That became the material for the stars.

I couldn't wait to get decent outdoor pictures... even without the binding. ;)

The weather cooperated to get some good pictures...

the dog, not so much.

Does a shadow count as a photobomb?

Once I added the binding, I took more pictures. :)

It would have been really cool to get our ducks in the background but they didn't cooperate either.

(Maybe I should have bribed them with peas!)

So for quilt number 6:

46" x 63" (lap size)

machine pieced

machine quilted

Drake the Drake

This is one of our duck hens with a drake in the background.

Last week we discovered two things about our drakes (the males).

We noticed that their drake curl finally came in.

Yay!

We also discovered that their heads are darker than the hens.

This makes it a lot easier to look at them and tell them apart.

The darker headed drake heads are in the upper left and right.

The lighter brown headed hen is in the middle left.

Beautiful hen.

This is Bender, another one of the hens.

Something happened when she was little and now her tail bends to the right.

We nick-named her before we knew she was a hen.

The name stuck so that's what we call her.

Don't let the defective looking tail fool you, she's one of the bossier hens!

The hens have freckled beaks.

They are also the ones that QUACK!

The drakes make a quieter mumbly sound.

All these years I thought all ducks quacked.

Nope, only the hens do.

Now I know.

This is Drake the drake.

We've decided to keep only one Indian Runner drake.

It's better for our sized flock to have only one male.

We let Connor name and pick which one is going to stay.

(Like we had a choice!)

And on another duck related note.

Our experiment of keeping the ducks inside the yard has ended.

They've been evicted.

It took us a couple of days to figure out who was destroying the plants in the flower bed.

Initially we thought it was the dog but there wasn't quite enough evidence.

Then we found the ducks in the flower bed.

No question as to what caused my plants to look like this.

So the ducks were re-located (again).

They are back outside of the fenced yard.

I think Pepper is happy to have the yard to herself again... well almost.

We still have the two not-so-little ducklings and chicks in the yard.

Fantastic Four

We let our four youngest birds outside to play on Sunday.

At some point in the late afternoon we found them on our porch.

Obviously Pepper didn't mind... she didn't even bark.
I'm not sure if that makes her lazy or well trained.
We've been working with her on leaving the ducks and chickens alone.
It's one thing to be on the opposite sides of the fence and another to live with them.
She's done pretty good so far... everyone is still alive!

While they are cute and friendly, we don't want our feathered friends on the porch.

They leave too many bombs!

(One is too many in my opinion... although the bomb cleaner doesn't mind.)

Inspecting the dog bowl.

This rooster, which we've named Ra, is quite friendly.

If he was human, I'd say he was a people person.

The crazy bird jumped into my chair to join us by the campfire.

Honestly, we hope he stays friendly.

I'd rather have a friendly rooster than an angry one!

The four of them don't like to be separated.

If you take one, the others will squawk like crazy.

They even follow us around the yard, which is really cute.

We definitely live on the funny farm!

Just for Mom

The men of the house pampered this mom quite well for Mother's day.

Actually, it started Monday with a blizzard from Nolan.

Friday, Connor bought me dinner.

Sunday morning I got breakfast in bed.

And to top all that off, Dwayne made homemade chocolate chip raspberry muffins for me!

These are our favorite muffins.

I also got to spend some quality time quilting.

In the evening we had a fire and roasted meatballs and

marshmallows (not together... that's yuk).

Needless to say I've been well fed!

Tub Time

 

Over the weekend we let the ducklings have some swim time in the tub.

They looked like drowned rats.

Their feathers haven't come in yet, so they're

stuck with their not-so-water-proof down.

Still cute and so much fun to watch.

They had a blast splashing and swimming.