Forced "Resort" Needlework Retreat

 I had great plans for this week - catching up on neglected housework, staying caught up on harvesting, and cleaning the rabbitry, mulching around tomatoes, maybe even getting to sew some. But, that all changed when my daughter who is temporarily back with us while she apartment-hunts and who was  house- and dog-sitting for some friends caught a nasty cold, thinks there's an allergen in the house, and needed to come home to bed.

So I became the sitter at this lovely house just around the corner from ours:

I haven't yet made use of the indoor exercise pool or theater room, but I'm really enjoying the upstairs bedroom's view of the marshy lake and have set up a little embroidery/cross-stitch station in such a way that I can glance up now and then and watch the loons cavorting on the lake.

I finished the cross-stitching for the #myshepherdsal challenge by @Annmakesthings on Instagram. The challenge was to cross-stitch something referring to sheep, shepherd, and/or something with a Christian theme. I compiled several patterns to come up with the Christian theme and a tiny sheep in the corner.

My plan is to mount it to my dad's desk sign that he was given as a missionary in the Philippines. I'll just glue it to the name part since that's not my name and I'll still be able to enjoy the lovely carving and the tie to my dad.

I've also been able to finish another birthday cross-stitch, this one for the daughter who spent some time helping refugees in Ukraine, where they grow lots of sunflowers. She will be coming to live temporarily with us this weekend as she plans to find an apartment with the daughter who is already here.

Twice a day I've scooted back home to take care of rabbits and quails, water gardens, clean house, do laundry, harvest and freeze beans, and whatever else little jobs need doing, including taking chicken soup to the sickie. 

When I leave the big house, I have to crate the dog since he's smart enough to unlatch some of the doors. I don't like to leave him crated for more than 3-4 hours, so I try to get my housework done quickly. 

I've also gotten to pull out my neglected Everyday Embroidery that I started in 2022 and only got half done. That will be my focus over the next few days as well as doing some reading.

I embroidered a heart near the June block to celebrate our anniversary.

I finished a partially done embroidery that was the May 2022 BOM from Jennifer Reynolds.

So, despite plans suddenly changing, it's turned into a quite pleasant thing and I hope to report lots more progress.

If only I were a dog-lover. 😏 Actually, he's a good dog and we're getting along pretty well.

Where I've Been, What I've Done, and What I Hope to Do

 Hello from the rabbitry! There's been a lot going on around our "micro-farm," as my Lovey likes to call it. So, there's not been a lot going on in the handcrafts area. 

The rabbitry is currently quite full and with trying to feed them a lot of forage to save on feed costs, more work is required. Fortunately, it's pleasant work.

Earlier this summer my Lovey bulldozed out a lot of scrub pine trees and rented a massive chipper to turn them into chip mulch.

In their place, we're growing a nice feed plot of rabbit food - buckwheat, red clover, white clover, alfalfa, crown vetch, and rye from The Rabbitry Center. The rabbits love it. I'm hoping it will work for the quails, too.

Yes, we finally have some quails. This picture shows how tiny the chicks are on Day 1 - much smaller than chickens. I did several things wrongly in incubating them, but still got some hatches so we can slowly build up a flock still, just not as quickly and efficiently. And I learned a lot.

In that same newly cleared area I'm growing tomatoes and squashes, letting the squashes wander as they may, not bothering to weed or mow around them.

The beans in the raised bed are looking good for this time of year in the north.

I got creative in making a bean and cucumber trellis out of an old rusty swingset frame, some pressure-treated boards, spray paint, twine, cardboard boxes laid flat, and mulch. I think it turned out pretty well. The beans particularly are really climbing quickly up it.

Last week was also busy with helping with the art class at our church's day camp. One project was drawing a picture/landscape on cardboard and then filling it in with various colors of yarns.

Another project involved making cards by dipping paper into a shaving cream and paint mixture and then scraping it to make a design. It was interesting to see the middle-schoolers' creativity and variety of designs in all of it.

I did finish another birthday cross-stitch, which I think is so pretty...

...and started another one.

In moments of insomnia, I pulled out my old, sadly neglected Everyday Embroidery (and other stuff) fabric and added a few things. Now I'm inspired again to do more on it.

And, of course, there's the everpresent and still growing crocheting. I think I've finally decided to turn it into a kind of boxy long vest. 

So, goals for this next week...

Homesteading

* Stake up & mulch tomatoes

* Paint quailery

* Start building extra rabbit cage

* Try to sell one of the breeders

Homemaking

* Catch up on cleaning

* Unstick cabinet drawer & put away a lot of handwork stuff

* Pick blueberries & freeze

Crafting

* Continue sunflower cross-stitch & crochet

* A little wall mosaic every day?

* Finish last block(s) of Scrappy Spools & start assembling

* Organize sewing room to be a guest room also

I think these goals ought to keep me pretty busy, maybe too much so, so I'll modify if necessary.

I hope your week goes smoothly and delightfully.

Back Again

 I just got back from another 6 hour (one way) trip to my mom's after having made the same trip two weeks ago. So, I'm enjoying being at home, catching up on this and that as well as trying to plan ahead a little. 

My siblings and I are starting the process of moving Mom to live with my brother and his wife and we're trying to help out our aunt who is bedridden in a nursing care place in the same city as Mom with congestive heart failure. So, that's why all the back and forth. 

And of course I took some handwork...

Pattern by pinkernpunkin

Before I went this most recent time, I tackled a project that kinda intimidated me so I'm relieved to have it done and well-received. A friend had asked if I could fix a quilt made by her husband's grandmother quite a few years ago. It had gotten damaged in storage, probably by mice and she wondered if I could fix it. I said I'd give it a try.

This was one of the three damaged areas on the front and there was a long frayed area on the back. I started by pinning the edges of the tears to the batting in position and then took long stitches to draw everything together.

Then I hand-appliqued a long strip of blue fabric over the holes on the back and machine appliqued some stars on the front, using a zig-zag stitch to make a start to cover a tiny hole also.

She was happy with the result so I'm happy (and relieved!).

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Another friend and I got to go to the Tulip Festival in Holland, Michigan on the 7th and despite the rain and most of the tulips being past peak, we had a great time. We really enjoyed the quilt show and took far too many inspiring and intimidating pictures. 😉

I will quit there lest I overwhelm you. 😄

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

When I was home, I enjoyed getting to work outside, even if it was unglamorous work like spreading rabbit manure around the berries and fruit trees.

I also finished and mailed/gave three birthday cross-stitches to my kids.

And my kind Lovey gave me this for my birthday.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

This week's goals:

Homemaking:

* Catch up on daily chores

* Finish washing windows and install screens

* Clear clutter at bottom of stairs

Homesteading:

* Make new garden bed out front

* Build wire rabbit nesting boxes

* Smooth out new rabbit food plot area for planting

Machine sewing:

* Fix Melanie's machine tension problem

* Piece stars for Christmas quilts

Handwork:

* Finish Summer stamp 

* Find pattern for next birthday cross-stitch and start

Reading:

Continue: Renovation of the Heart - Dallas Willard

                You Art Not Your Own - Alan Noble

 Bemoan the probability that I left my novel at my mom's. 😑 I'll have to start a different one, I guess.

Well, I hope your week is delightful and full of the blessing of the Lord.

Monday Goals Made on Tuesday

Well, looking back on last week's goals, I didn't finish even one of them. 😒 

So, I'll list them again later and try harder. 

But I did get some other things done, thank goodness.

Besides keeping the house and homestead running, I finished the cross-stitching part of this gift and only need to do the outlining and mount it for gifting the early part of May. I have another one done, but it also needs mounting to be ready three days after this one.

I'm continuing to enjoy growing my microgreens with this self-watering method from Mike VanDuzee and am eagerly awaiting more of the drip lids. The new ones will fit kombucha bottles so I don't have to use plastic bottles. Though I do make my own kombucha, I'm willing to buy a few while I'm out running errands and want something to drink.

I also did a silly thing - I started a new project. 😁😉😐

I've had this Crazy Yarn from Stonehedge Fiber Mill for a long time, buying a little here and there as I visit the mill or see them at fiber festivals. I've tried to knit something with it and used some as a table runner for awhile till I decontructed that in order to use the yarn otherwise. Now I'm going to crochet myself a super simple top mostly so I can use the yarn and have something kinda mindless to do with my hands while watching tv or listening to my husband monologue which he does occasionally. 😍

I may be forced to revisit the mill and buy more yarn along the way, but I'll try to suffer through that. 😉 I want to take a new friend to visit it anyhow, so...

I spent the afternoon with said new friend yesterday and came home with some treasures.

This is an inkle loom, for weaving narrow bands. This is a particularly large floor version. I've been looking for some time at buying a table-top one, but couldn't really justify the expense when I didn't know if I'd even enjoy the process or what I'd do with the finished products. But I certainly couldn't turn down a free one!

So I need to clean it up really well (it was stored in a barn loft), replace two pegs, and watch lots of YouTube videos on how to do the weaving as well as read the books I ordered from the library. I'm rather excited!

She also has a huge stash of yarn, so gave me some with which to make more baby afghans for the pregnancy care center. I'm excited about that, too.

Another thing on which I spent some time was helping my Lovey cut a hole in the Critter Corner floor so he can put in a floor drain for easier cleaning. He's so good with all this stuff and able to figure out how to do things even if he's never done them before. As it happens, putting in floor drains is part of what he does in his day job. We moved the rabbits out while the noisy cement saw was working so they wouldn't be too traumatized since the older does are pregnant.

One of my jobs for today has already been happily done - ordering more literary teas from Simpson and Vail Teas. The leaves are so rich and flavorful that I get several small pots' worth of lovely tea from a few tablespoons and one must have a good tea while sewing or reading, you know.

This week's goals... (I like the way Joy laid out her crafting goals separately and specifically, so I'm gonna type mine out that way this time.)

In the yarn basket 

* Continue on the Olivia top - easy relaxing

In the hoop

* Finish all outlining of cat cross-stitch

At the sewing machine

* Repair Doug's quilt as able

* Prepare quilt back for Ann's Autumn Jubilee quilt

* Find #9 for Chookshed Challenge

* Put binding on Christmas wallhanging

On the loom

* Thoroughly clean the loom

* Get educated on inkle weaving

In the kitchen

* Make paneer

* Experiment with blending herbs for tisanes, ie. lemon balm, lavender, chamomile, and dried apple

* Order more SVTea - done 😊 (That felt good!)

In the home

* Declutter bedroom

* Organize stuff on craft room table

On the homestead

* Start cabbage, lettuce, kale, Swiss chard indoors

* Pruning and yard clean-up

* Help Lovey put in Critter Corner floor drain

Well, here's hoping I haven't planned too much for one week, but I'm off to get at some of it. Check the sidebar for some of the places where I link up.

Hope your week is productive yet calm.