Calving Season 2017.......First Calf Born

Our first calf is born...

The Cow Boss tends to the new heifer calf...

He trims and iodines her navel.

First Calf gets ear tag Number 1

Mama has her fed and cleaned...

Here are a few more of the expectant mothers

relaxing on this non-rainy 

Western Oregon morning.

We traveled up river a few miles

to feed the replacement heifers...

A pair of eagles perch in the trees 

above the river...

They keep an eye on any fish in the river...

They also watch us feeding the cattle.

CLICK BELOW to view a quick video 

of the new baby

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May Your Bobbin Always Be Full,

LuAnn Kessi

Dresden Plate......Progress

I have been paper piecing dresden plates

 while riding along at 55mph...

They travel along with me in this train case...

they are addicting....like potato chips

I finally convinced myself to stop making more 

of them and actually put them into a quilt top...

I put together this very simple background:

This is a quilt for a toddler bed.

I am hoping the simple background will 

allow the  tiny dresden plates to shine...

I am planning to create a few LARGE dresdens

to be included in this composition...

Before applying the dresdens...

I will do all of the background quilting...

This will eliminate all of the machine quilting 

stops and starts

around all of the dresden plates.

This is my Monday project @ the Quilt Palace.

More to come next Monday!

CLICK HERE to view my Take Along Quilts

CLICK HERE:  to see My Quilts

May Your Bobbin Always Be Full,

LuAnn Kessi

Floral Monet.....Quilt Top

Last October I pieced half log blocks

while @ a Quilt Retreat in Idaho...

46 half log cabin blocks

Hoffman Floral Fabrics

Here it is February...

they are finally up on the design wall...

The side triangles are all cut and

I am hoping I have enough of that gorgeous

large floral fabric for the borders...

Time to piece this into a quilt top:

I set the blocks on point so I am

piecing diagonal rows...

The blocks are all pieced together.

Time to add the borders...

This is all the large floral border fabric

I have in the whole world...

I am hoping it is enough.

The border is on....the quilt top is done!

I had a 12 x 8 inch piece of border fabric leftover.

I must be living right!

 Our brown beauties are close to calving soon:

Does it show?

First calf is due February 18th.

CLICK HERE:  to see My Quilts

May Your Bobbin Always Be Full,

LuAnn Kessi

New York Beauty......Quilt Top DONE!

Spent the day piecing the 2nd half of the

New York Beauty Quilt Top...

It is wonderful to finally have it 

all in one piece!

Speaking of pieces...

there are 1,995 NYB star points

in this quilt...

2,363 total pieces

It measures: 93 x 88 inches

The next step is preparing a backing...

I have a bolt of 108 inch white fabric...

I plan to dye a backing with Lime Squeeze.

I am planning to machine quilt this with 

green variegated thread...

the green Lime Squeeze backing fabric

will work nicely with the green thread.

As you can see,

the design wall has my next project on it:

CLICK HERE to view all NYB posts

CLICK HERE:  to see My Quilts

May Your Bobbin Always Be Full,

LuAnn Kessi

Machine Quilting......Frayed Edge Quilt

I spent the day doing what I love to do...

Free Motion.......Machine Quilting

This quilt was created by:

The Harlan Valley Quilters

It is one of the many comfort quilts they 

create  each year and gift 

to members of their community.

I have quilted a few of these frayed edge

quilts over the years...

You need to leave the raw edges 

of the hearts free,

no stitching over the edges of the heart shapes,

they need to fray up when they are 

washed and dried.

This close up view shows the edges

of the heart shapes...

I stitch about a half inch in from the edges.

The background requires very dense quilting...

I stitched tiny loop d loops.

I stitched curls on the dark blue

inner border...

Not much will show in the yellow floral border

so I stitched random plume shapes.

After 6 hours of quilting...

This Frayed Edge Heart Quilt is ready to

hand off to the next quilter for binding.

Then it will be washed and dried 3 times...

it will fray and shrink up and get oh, so yummy!

CLICK HERE to view how this was made

CLICK HERE to view my frayed edge quilts

CLICK HERE:  to see My Quilts

May Your Bobbin Always Be Full,

LuAnn Kessi