A Buzzy Day on the Farm

Put on your farm boots we are headed to the farm! We have work to do. 🤠

No pigs are in the pig barn. They have been empty for quite a while. We always kept a bowling ball in the pens for them to play with and music streaming from the feed room. We always like to keep our "oinkers" happy when they reside here. 🐖🐷

The hay barn is filled with lots of round bales.

So what are we going to do today? Well we do need to check the bees and feed them- just to give them a boost.

We only lost 1 hive this winter. It was a weak hive. Mr. Pinker has already removed it. 

The bees are buzzing about , going in and out of the hive . They are covered with pollen so they are visiting  early wildflowers that are in bloom. 

Mr. Pinker has prepared a homemade feeding box which we will  place a short distance from the hives. 

 It is filled with sugar water, and hay so they will have a place to land while they enjoy the sweet treat.  Holes are drilled in the side so they can go in and out of those spaces as well. 

Soon the fence line will be lined with thistle for the bees to enjoy. Mr. Pinker has already sewn clover seed in the beeyard.

Well lookie here. 🤠🐮🐄 Here comes the gals and a new visitor. 

 May I  introduce to you   Rodster the Bull?  He is visiting from a neighboring farm in order to court a few of our gals.❤❤  Isn't he handsome? Romance is in the air at the old farm. 

Aaah and there is Edna! "Edna , dear will you come down to the beeyard to see something?" Hmmm her ears perked up so I know she hears me. 

Edna just turned her head and snorted. Oh, well. What can you do? She thinks she is a cow and wants to monitor Rodster and hang with the gals. 

The gals look fat and sassy . Don't they? 

I wanted to show Edna my new quilt. But since she is too busy , I hope you do not mind if I show it to you.

Some of you may remember the glorious stack of quilts that I came home with from the camping trip last month. Well this is one of them that I picked up for a song at a thrift store.

Is this called a stained glass quilt? It is quite gorgeous.

As soon as I saw it , I snatched it off the rack for I just knew I wanted to pair it with my bee decor come summer time.

It is machine pieced and machine quilted.

A thrifted quilt from Arizona

The quilter used a pretty yellow fabric for the backing and the same fabric for the binding.

Pretty yellow backing fabric. 

So what do you think? A great find or what?

Since the bees are checked and fed, I do believe our tasks our done for the day.

The gals are too busy eating to visit us so I guess we can head back to house, kick off the farm boots and sit back and rest. Doesn't that sound like a grand plan? Once we rest, we can then pull out our needle and thread and perhaps work on a project.

Thank you so much for joining me on the farm today. It made light of the work that is for sure. Maybe next time , Edna will be more neighborly . Hee ! Hee!

Love that gal!

Enjoy your day!

As Always, 

Happy  Stitching and Quilting, y'all

Melisa

Thank you for the sweet visit. 

A day on the farm refreshed one's soul. 

Hugs and Stitches!!!!🤗🧵❤

Dedicated to my baby sister, Amy who loved the farm.  Love and miss you, Amo. 

Papa's old corn crib which now has extra square bales in it. 

Squash Casserole and "Summer" a Cross Stitch Freebie

  Come on in and grab a  plate and spoon and let's head to the table!  It's squash season!  Our squash has not come in yet, but a neighbor has been sharing their bounty. Squash Casserole is on the menu as well as biscuits. Oh  bummer, the biscuits are not homemade , but that's ok.  In the oven is pork chops; they will be done soon.   

Happy Friday' y'all and a very lovely day to you. Have you been enjoying fresh veggies straight from the farm or garden yet?  Our garden will be a little later in producing compared to last year; we were late in getting everything in the ground . Anywhoo , we have been enjoying a few variations of the Squash Casserole. It is always fun to experiment. 😋💗

SUMMER SQUASH CASSEROLE RECIPE

INGREDIENTS

5 medium squash , sliced

5 Tablespoons of butter, divided

1 small onion chopped

1 cup of shredded Cheddar cheese

2 large eggs, lightly  beaten

1/4 cup of mayonnaise

2 Tablespoons of sugar

1 teaspoon of salt

1 sleeve of Ritz crackers crushed or about 3/4 cup

DIRECTIONS

1. Cook the squash in boiling water for about 8-10 minutes or until tender. 

2. Drain squash well and gently press between paper towel to remove excess liquid. 

3. Melt 4 Tablespoons of butter in a skillet over medium- high heat; add onion and saute for about 5 minutes or until tender. 

4. Remove skillet from heat and stir in squash, cheese, eggs, mayo , sugar and salt. 

5. Spoon mixture into a lightly greased 11 x 7 inch baking dish. 

6. Melt 1 Tablespoon of butter. Stir melted butter and crushed crackers.  Sprinkle over the top of the casserole evenly. 

7. Bake in preheated oven at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes or until set. 

Alrighty, now that dinner is on the table, let me show you my newest quick stitch. It is simply called "Summer" .  

 "Summer" has a little blue farm house flanked with tall sunflowers.

 It  is a small stitch  measuring 3 3/8" squared if stitched on 14 count aida . 

I used 7  DMC floss colors which included DMC 815, Blanc, 782, 937, 898, 931, and 3371. I whipped this wee stitch up in just a few short hours.  

I finished mine on as a flat and then just pinned it to a basket which sits by my stitchy spot. 

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If you are interested in stitching this piece,  just grab , the images. For printing tips, refer to the post Tips for Printing which has loads of tips from my sweet friends. 

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Well, Sweeties once I finish the dishes, I am packing up the old camper and heading down the road.

 I hope you will drop by tomorrow for another house stitch . Have a fabulous Friday and ...

 As Always...

Happy quilting and stitching, y'all

Melisa

"America to me is freedom  " - Willie Nelson

Hugs and Stitches!!! 🤗❤🧵

Dedicated to my sweet baby sister, Amy . I love and miss you so much, Amo! 💗💗💗

Yesterday , I posted my newest embroidery "Time for Gardening". My Year of Hearts blocks are coming along. 

Tulips and a Trifle - An Itty Bitty Spring Freebie

 

Happy Farmhouse Friday, ya'll!!!!

Jack wanted me to extend his gratitude for all of the kind compliments from Wednesday's Farm visit.  I have to admit he is a bit of a diva and quite spoiled on the farm. 

                                    

For Farmhouse Friday, I am working on a basket sampler.  I use baskets for everything. You will see what is in the basket soon. 

Today I am dreaming of tulips. Our tulips have not bloomed, but they will soon.  

                          

I have been playing with scraps of fabric . 

                 

I sewed scrappy strips of goodness willy nilly and then cut out the units into a large tulip shape.  

 Four blocks pieced and appliqued. I will probably make 20 blocks .

 The blocks measure 10 1/2" unfinished. 

Can I interest you in a cookie? 😃

 It is a no calorie cookie but full of sweetness. I was in the mood to stitch a trifle yesterday and whipped up this little bunny with a tulip in no time flat. 

If you are interested in stitching Bunny & Tulip Trifle  ,grab the images below. Many of ya'll know but I always encourage you to read my little disclaimer and note about getting my charts. 

NOTE: Normally I have been able to create links to the charts and instructions which were in JPG form. For some reason, recent updates on Google Docs. has prevented me from doing that and I am not able to create a pdf without having to deal with storage issues.  Many dear stitchers say they right click, save the image and then print.  I think some have copied and pasted it to a Word document that they can print off as well. I hope you are able to find a way to enjoy this chart. You will have to click each page to save. Thank you so much for your patience and understanding and for all of the helpful tips and ideas. 

I stitch my little designs for fun and to decorate my home. I feel very blessed by this community and love sharing my little charts, but I am not a professional designer. And I do not have professional software. Thank you for understanding . I am always grateful for your kind encouragement , your visits, and for stitching my little designs.

This is a choose your own colors chart, but if you are interested I used DMC 898, white, black, 3828 and 937

                 A plate of trifles.

 I have shared a number of Spring Trifles. I do need to get busy on other seasonal trifles . These are teeny stitches and are great to use up some of your scraps of cloth . To see how I finished my trifles click here.  

If you missed any of the previous trifles, click on the names to go to the post with the charts. They are  Love Trifle ,   St. Patty's Day Trifle ,   Sheep Trifle ,   Bunny Trifle ,     Strawberry  Picker  , May Basket ,  Love Bird Trifle ,    Nesting Bluebird   ,Bunny Trifle , Carrot Trifle , Patriotic Ewe Trifle Chicken & Watermelon Trifle , Bee Skep Trifle ,  Little Jack Trifle  .

Alrighty , sweeties that is what I have been up to. Well except for being elbow deep into  spring cleaning . Got to get rid of those winter dust bunnies.  Have a wonderful weekend and ...

As always...

Happy  Stitching and Quilting, ya'll

Melisa 

Be a tulip in a field of weeds. 

Hugs and Stitches!!!!🤗🧵❤

Dedicated to my baby sister, Amy . I love and miss you Amo. 

         

I am joining these lovely ladies' link parties. I hope you check them out; they always have so many wonderful projects going on and provide the opportunity for other needleworkers to meet. 

Jennifer at Inquiring Quilter for Wednesday  Wait Loss- Wednesday

Denise at For the Love of Geese for Put Your Foot Down- Thursday

Kelly at My Quilt Infatuation for Needle and Thread Thursday- Thursday

Nina at Creations, Quilts, Art , Whatever by Nina for Off the Wall Friday

Alycia's of Alycia's Quilts for Finished of Not Friday

Michelle  at From Bolt to Beauty for Beauty Pageant - Friday

Wendy at Wendy's Quilts for Peacock Party - Friday

Frederique at   Quilting Patchwork Applique for Patchwork & Quilts - Saturday

Piecing Along on Quilt Alongs-

Hello there , Sunshine!!!! It is another beautiful winter's day. 

      

Earlier this week , I rummaged through my fabrics and found 4 lovely fabrics to use for Block #1  in the Atlanta Garden Quilt which is a free QAL with Barbara Brackman of Civil War Quilts blog. 

She posted this block called "Garden of Eden in her Wednesday Jan. 11, 2023 post along with the story of Carrie Mabry Berry who lived in Atlanta during the Civil War and kept a diary- very interesting. I hope you will drop by Barbara's blog to read more about Carrie and to see different versions of the block. 

 This block was a super easy one to piece and so enjoyable. 

Barbara gave an "Introduction to  the Atlanta Garden BOM" in her December 21, 2022 post along with information on the alternate blocks and yardage.  Each month on the 2nd Wednesday, Barbara will release a new block and in March she will begin a applique BOM. How exciting!!!

 My shoo fly blocks have increased by 21 blocks.  These are for Kathleen Tracy's Shoo Fly Quilt Along. 

 I think I have enough to create a mini quilt for the month , but I will be making more this next week. 

There is always something fun going on in the quilting and stitching communities. Isn't there? 

          

Yesterday was Farmhouse Friday and I failed to show you what I was working on .  

This is my Granny's log cabin . She didn't live on a farm , but it was more like a little mountain homestead with an apple orchard and lots of grape vines . 

Well , sweeties,  I have the grandbabies' ball games to head to and then a bit of shopping will round out my day. Hopefully, by the evening I will be able to sit down and sew a bit. I hope you have the chance to do something you enjoy today. Have a fabulous weekend and... 

 As Always...

Happy quilting and stitching, ya'll

Melisa

Be happy with the beautiful things that make you you! - Beyonce

Hugs and Stitches and Warm Winter Wishes !!!🤗❤🧵

Dedicated to my dear sister, Amy  . Love and miss you., Amo ❤❤

Ya'll come back now, ya hear !

 I am joining these lovely ladies' link parties. I hope you check them out; they always have so many wonderful projects going on and provide the opportunity for other needleworkers to meet. 

Jennifer at Inquiring Quilter for Wednesday  Wait Loss- Wednesday

Denise at For the Love of Geese for Put Your Foot Down- Thursday

Kelly at My Quilt Infatuation for Needle and Thread Thursday- Thursday

Nina at Creations, Quilts, Art , Whatever by Nina for Off the Wall Friday

Alycia's of Alycia's Quilts for Finished of Not Friday

Michelle  at From Bolt to Beauty for Beauty Pageant - Friday

Wendy at Wendy's Quilts for Peacock Party - Friday

Sarah at  Confessions of a Fabric Addict  for Whoop! Whoop! - Friday

Frederique at   Quilting Patchwork Applique for Patchwork & Quilts - Saturday

Angela of  So Scrappy  for Scrap Happy Saturday