it's a zoo here

Mama robin is tending to her 3 hungry beaks in a corner of our front porch. Not such a good picture because it is taken through the window in order to not scare her away. Good thing we don't have very much traffic to our front door!

And the squirrel wars have escalated and we now have captured the enemy! No matter that the enemy is a little baby squirrel, unable to fend for itself out in the world. But it's time to get these critters out in the open, not tucked away in a nice cozy corner of our attic!

Bob found a hole chewed under the eaves that was the front door for our squirrel family, and was able to figure out sort of where the activity was happening in the attic by following the noises we could hear upstairs. The live trap placed in the attic near our little trapdoor was unsuccessful. He had to resort to cutting a hole into the sheetrock, and after getting some insulation out of the way he spied one or two little squirrels hiding from him. We baited the live trap (peanuts and peanut butter), barricaded the opening, and this morning had a little squirrel trapped. We put the trap outside and waited for an adult to come around before opening the trap.

Run, little squirrel, run!

The saga is not over, we have to set the trap again to find out if there is another baby, then make sure the adults are out, then repair the damage outside the house and the sheetrock inside. The outside hole is in the very peak of the roof, 2 stories high, and not a place I can climb to alone. Heights are not for me. Doing heights alone is definitely not for me! Heights alone while trying to cover a hole is like a disaster waiting to happen!

On a much more pleasant topic, I have been piecing together some blocks that will make a table cover that is part of the Clothesline Club at Bear Patch. This group focuses on patterns and fabrics from Darlene Zimmerman, and the prints are all reproductions of the 30's era. There are 30 of these blocks and a border to finish it off.

During some evening TV watching, I have started stitching together some of my hexagons, assorted colors and shapes. This is what I have so far--

and I'm not sure where it's headed! These are English paper pieced shapes, which is why you can see my basting threads on some of the blocks. I remove the basting and papers from the center blocks as more are added.

I tried a new ruler that Debbie ordered for the store and it is very timely because it fits right in with the 9-patch blocks I made for an upcoming class. So nice when things work like that!

This ruler is used for the technique that uses squares instead of strips for piecing the blocks, something I learned about in January from a Primitive Gatherings book. That technique does work best with a block size that is easily divisible by 3, but this ruler makes it possible to get around that. I tried it out this morning with squares that started at 4 7/8", and it worked!

I used my new stockpot (thanks B&B) to cook up a batch of a good soup, the recipe is here on a good website for vegetarian recipes. Several more things on their recipe list that I want to try, I need to keep working on variety and protein to keep this vegie plan going. I am mostly very happy that I have made the switch, but I do find that eating out is challenging. Next time you look at a restaurant menu, try eliminating everything that has meat and/or cheese in the description, and you will find that you are not left with much to choose from! I did splurge last weekend when I was enjoying a dinner out with Bob to mark our anniversary. I ordered a chicken breast and it was yummy, but I deeply regretted that choice at 1:00 in the morning! If/when I decide to return to my carnivorous state, it will be a gradual change!

Such is life here on this pleasant spring day!

a bunch of misc.

Odds & ends to share with you--

Just found this video of a special thing going on at Mammoth Mt. (yes, they are STILL getting snow!). It was on their Facebook posting so I watched it, only to be very surprised at the end with a cameo by my guy Dan! Looked like he almost made that jump, too!

The fight over possession of our front porch has ended for now, and Mama Robin won! We have been through this before with robins that want to nest in a nice protected spot under our porch roof. I thought last year was the worst because the nest was used 3 times for 3 batches of baby birds, and we couldn't even think about making use of our porch swing without getting chased away. But this year, the nest was moved to the other end of the porch, right near the front door, and ole' Mama Robin is not happy with anyone in her space. So after the first batch of birdies flew out of the nest, I asked Bob to please knock down the nest so it wouldn't be used again. Which he did. 3 times. Very persistent nest builders.

Then he informed me that he couldn't take it any longer and it was my turn to rid the porch of the robins. So I have relented and decided I better not mess with Mother Nature any longer (since I can't get Bob to do my dirty work)! So we are expecting again!

My clematis is blooming, which is a cause for celebration because I don't have a good history with clematis. They never seem to like to grow where I plant them. This one was planted last summer and I was happy to see little shoots starting after the snow melted.

The garden is up and nothing has eaten it yet! Beans and squash, lettuce, spinach, peppers, tomatoes, asparagus. The asparagus hasn't shown up yet.

My hand quilting project is coming along, but I have reached the end of my thread for now. This is Winterberry Table Rug by Sue Spargo. The red background fabrics are flannels and most of the rest of it is felted wool

I am using Weeks hand dyed floss, 3 strands, and making a big "primitive" stitch (since that's what I can do!). I started out with outlining a row of stitching all around the shapes, and then thought about echo quilting out to the edges, since that seemed fitting for this style of quilt. But that was a real bugger to actually do, way too many twists and turns, so I am just doing a crosshatch grid over the background. 1 1/2" between lines, since that's how wide my masking tape is. So I used up my Lancaster Red floss, then Nancy had some the same color and gave that to me, and then my source dried up until last Friday. Weeks had a booth at the Quilt Market, and I found one remaining hank of this color on their display. I tried to buy it but the gentleman very kindly donated it to my cause. But these are small hanks, and I have used that all and still have a ways to go. I'm crossing my fingers that Maggie will come through with some for me after her trip to a stitchery shop out in Wayzata. There aren't many places left that sell supplies for cross stitch, crewel, hardanger, embroidery, etc. This was to be my May completion challenge project, so I'm hoping I don't get in trouble with the Posse if it's not complete in time!

Leisl's rather large (and heavy) flannel quilt is ready for delivery...

And Nora's quilt is ready to have the binding stitched down. The binding is the striped fabric you can see at the bottom. The pattern is BQ from Maple Island.

Nora is my niece and has recently moved into her own new home, so she needs a new quilty accent to complement her decor. Hope to have this done in about a week when I can take it down to Lake Park when we go for a visit.

That's it for today! Now I can load up another quilt!