Spuds and Thread

I am chatty this week.

The back door cold front predicted for yesterday morning did not materialize beyond a few stiff breezes. The husband and I got all the potatoes planted. I took the hoops down off the lettuce—it can fend for itself now—and will move the hoops in anticipation of getting the corn seedlings out under some heavier row cover this week. This is a gamble, yes, but the seedlings are 8” tall now and they can’t stay in the greenhouse much longer.

Deciding when to plant inside based on when seedlings can go outside is still something I have trouble doing accurately. Then again, there are so many variables. I try to aim for Memorial Day as the outside planting date and work backward. If we luck out and get a warmish spring, though, it’s nice to be able to take advantage of the extra growing time.

The husband said he found a fresh ground squirrel tunnel in the garden. I need to get the .22 out and have it ready. I’m not doing all this work to feed rodents.

We had a fox in the yard yesterday morning. I was on my way out to the chicken coop when I saw something run out from behind the woodshed in the direction of the coop. At first, I thought it might be a coyote, but it wasn’t very big. A bit later, when I headed out to the greenhouse to check on seedlings, it ran out of the woods and across the path in front of me and I could see that it was a fox. I am sure it was hoping for a free chicken meal. I’d be happy to let it stay here if it would eat some ground squirrels.

The husband says that one of the Barred Rocks caught a mouse in the coop the other night. Perhaps we need a house chicken (both of us are allergic to cats). The spring invasion of mice has already started. I have to check the traps every day.

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The positive/negative quilt blocks went into time out. I’ll revisit that project again in the future. I was in a post-project slump after finishing that Candy Coated quilt—the recipient was very appreciative—and needed a quick, instant-gratification project. Donna Jordan, of Jordan Fabrics, did a YouTube video on the Moda Love Quilt. This is a free pattern and is written to be used with 10” squares, 5” squares, or 2-1/2” squares. The larger squares, obviously, make a quilt. The charm squares make a wall hanging. The little squares make a 12” block.

I went stash diving and pulled out an old, old charm square pack of a line called Heidi, from Laura Ashley. I’ve had this forever and it seemed like a good time to use it. The background is a remnant of Kona Bone from the stash. I ended up with a very nice 32” square wall hanging:

I haven’t decided yet if I will put a border on this. That would make it big enough to be a baby quilt. And now that I know how easily this goes together, I might use one of my layer cakes to make the quilt size.

My order of quilting thread arrived from the store in Spokane:

From left to right, front to back, I got Linen, Blush, Parchment, and Pearl. Those are all neutral enough to cover my needs. I’ve tried a couple of different threads, including some polyester ones, and I keep coming back to the Signature thread. I just like the way it quilts up.