While I was in Phoenix, Pat and I took a couple of long drives around to see the sights (and the desert!)  Monday's weather was beautiful - sunny and warm. 

We had snow on February 19th, not a lot, but enough that it was sticking to the roads.  I love snow when it comes for a bit and then goes away, no shoveling needed. 

My favorite photo:

A couple of weeks ago, my black hen escaped from the chicken pen and Luna found her, leaving me with just two hens (the Welsummers I got last year) so Cindy and I were talking about either getting eggs and incubating them (running the risk of getting roosters), getting checks (already sexed) and raising them, or buying full grown chicks (getting eggs that much faster).  We decided to go with chicks when the rancher that has Araucana hens wanted $100 for three of them.   Cindy had seen some Sapphire Gem chicks at Tractor Supply which sparked her interest, and we chatted briefly about getting chicks at dinner Thursday night, and she was going to start watching for chicks to come in.  Fast forward to Friday afternoon while I was walking the dogs - she was at Tractor Supply and which chicks did I want?  We got 6 chicks in total, 4 for me and 2 for her (she has a larger flock than I do now).  Here are the breeds we got:

1 Mystic Onyx

3 Sapphire gems

1 Starlight Green Egger

1 Easter Egger 

Cindy is keeping two of the Sapphire Gems, the rest are mine.  I forgot how cute chicks are - just little fluff balls!!

Here are the three colors - the black one is the Mystic Onyx, the light grey one is one of the Sapphire Gems, and the light brown one is one of the Eggers.

 

And I have a watch cat on duty.....

 

I spent the last weekend (plus a few more days) in Phoenix, visiting Pat and Debbie.  I had a hard time getting my suitcase to close though.  Jessie though she would fit in my bathroom case. 

If not that, maybe my carry on?

James just said forget that - I get dibs on the suitcase! 

I got a Valentine's gift!  Alli's program gifted me one of the art projects that they made (not Alli's class, one of the more advanced groups).  (And yes, James photo bombed my picture...good thing she's cute!) 

 

These photos were taken before the rains blew in.  I know we need the rain (or more accurately, the mountains need the snow due to the melt from the unseasonably warm weather we had) I, for one, am ready for Spring! 

Just in time for the next pattern to be dropped, I finished Block 4 in the RBD quilt.  This was a fun one - the blocks are a bit more complex looking, but still not too complicated to do, if you read the instructions, that is.  I had to re-cut a few pieces for this one after I put them together wrong (not the instruction's fault!) 

Since I finished the potholders, I made up a few "mug rugs" - quilted coasters.  Pretty cute, if I say so myself! I think I need to get back to quilting before I bury myself in these.

Ripley looks so sweet, sleeping with her toy.  She makes me smile. 

What I did with my Saturday.....I should have been cleaning the house, cleaning up more leaves in the yard,etc., but instead, I made hot pads. 

I wanted to make up a few to have on hand, and got carried away with them.

I refreshed my perm this week - it has been 6 months, and my hair grows fast, so it had grown out a lot.  The before and after:

One quilt project that's been on my mind for well over a year (the magazine is from the spring of 2024) is a cat quilt.  Move over chickens, it's time for a kitten quilt!  The original quilt had cats in one color, but....I'm going to try making all the colors cat's come in.  Maybe not a white one, as the background is white, but well see what I can come up with.  Here's my orange tabby sample that I did. It's not too obvious from just the one block, but the cats are sitting on books, honest!  There are 14 cats in all, and I'll add cats as I run out of other things to make, so it could be a while before this one is done.  I could also decide halfway through that they should be all one color and start over.  Always a work in progress around here!

I got my Island Hopping Mystery Five-0 quilt sandwiched yesterday - never my favorite part of quilting, but James is always there to help me out, holding the fabric down for me, removing the tape for me (though it would be more helpful if she'd wait until I was done with it before she removed the tape...) and just generally being a nuisance, aka helper kitty. 

 

Done!  The Aloha Spirit (AKA Aloha Mystery Five-O) is done.  I didn't get much else done yesterday, but that's okay by me.  I did a dump run of green waste on Saturday and filled up my green waste container with another load (all the leaves in the garden area out out!) so my home chores were done, time to sew! 

I was checking something on the blog, and noticed that this is my 2,999 post!  I'm not sure how I got to this point from something I started as a way for my mom to see my photos easier (she was just starting out on her computer journey and emailing photos didn't work well for her.)  It's been almost 20 years (my first post was March 12, 2006) and I'm still posting.  Wow!

On that note, I finished the Casa Grande quilt.  Most of the stains did wash out.  If you look closely, you can see them, but you have to look for them, so I'm okay with it.  Still not happy, but, it will do.

I picked up another UFO (Unfinished Object) to work on.  It's been hanging out for about a year, and it's time to move forward with it.  I had the top row finished last year, and I got the bottom row started this month.  The quail are just ironed on, I need to sew them down now, but the hardest part of this project is getting to this point.  Deciding which colors, ironing on the interfacing (which I messed up this time around, adding more time to the project) cutting out all the pieces, and ironing them down. (This step is crucial around here - I don't know how many beaks I've lost from James "helping" me while I was busy somewhere else.) The actual sewing is the easy part.

The bulb I gifted myself at Christmas is in full bloom. 

 

Sarah M made me a couple of afghans using that really thick, plushy yarn.  So sweet and so soft and warm!  

Whew!  It's fixed! Much better now, with all the points going the correct direction.

 I also got the next block done for the 2026 RBD quilt, so I'm caught up on that as well.

 

I finished the January block for the Liberty quilt BOM, except.....when I put it up on the design wall, I noticed one little problem. 

Not quite the correct alignment for the corner piece. 

And I just can't resist cute kitten pictures.  They look so sweet! 

Here's the start of my 2026 Riley Blake Designs Block of the Month quilt (RBD BOM for short).  The blocks are pretty detailed, so it's fun one to try. 

You know you have a problem when you make the bed around the sleeping cats.  Jessie was sleeping on the pillow on the floor so I just scooped her up in the pillow and put her on the bed, and left the corner unmade where James was sleeping.  

I took advantage of the long weekend and nice weather to clean up the yard.  It's been a mild (temperature-wise) winter, and some of my flowers have blooms on the still. 

With the mild temps and the amount of rain we got this year, I went through about 5 gallons of round-up spraying the emerging weeds. With AJ's help, I also raked out the rest of the leaves, trimmed the rose bushes, and trimmed up the crepe myrtle trees.  I also pulled out the remnants of the garden, fertilized it,and turned all the soil.  Hopefully I'm set for spring!  (Probably not, but I have a head start now.)

And the mystery table runner is finished! 

 

All this time, I've been blaming Jessie for getting into the yarn.  Then, I walked in to this: 

 Busted!!!

The local quilt shop - Sew Simple - has started their annual Block a Month quilt/club - Liberty Island Sampler.  (Yes, I’m a sucker for Block a Month quilts -how hard can it be to just make 1 block, right?)

 

Another week, another Mystery Quilt!  This was a mini-mystery (Lucky Break), and was for a table runner.  I used fabric I already had, and have all the pieces made, now I just need to put it together!  

 

Here is Candy Cane Lane completed! This was a quilt kit that Margene and Jordan gifted to me for my birthday.