A Boy's Best Friend

Having grown up with Newfoundland dogs, I couldn't imagine not having some four legged friends in my life! Here is a beautiful picture of middle son and his beloved Sophie. Sophie was abandoned a couple of years ago on a very busy road and made her way up our long laneway. She was in a horrific state and terribly malnourished. She has found a very loving home here on our farm and more importantly she has found her best friend. Middle son and Sophie just adore one another, soulmates.

There is no greater way to teach a child unconditional love than with a pet. Both Farmer Boy and I grew up with pets and so too will our children. It has taught them kindness, patience, loyalty and above all it is better to share your journey in life with a special friend than go it alone. Now if only Farmer Boy would let me get a donkey or two, I really want a donkey!!!!

Summer Holidays are Over!!

It has been a long time since I last blogged, in fact I just discovered that it was May!!! Yikes, time flies when your having fun. Anywho, I would like to say that I have been busy with my Bed & Breakfast but sadly the tourism industry has been brought to it's knees this year -- my business was down 50%. We had rain every single day here in Ireland, and I mean EVERY SINGLE DAY!!!! I had a lovely couple sitting in my dining room one morning, it was pouring outside, calling their airline begging to get on the next flight out. I asked them to take me with them but it was not to be!!

The poor farmers are watching their barley and wheat turn to porridge in the fields, there will be major losses this year. The children are heading back to school a week from tomorrow and they never made it to the beach once this summer. Sooooo, instead of sunning myself this summer and seeing as though I had no guests to entertain, I actually did quite alot of quilting.

Do any of you remember these star blocks??? I used Allspice fabric in a pattern from Heather Mulder Peterson's book - Fat Quarter Cottage (I think). There is a friend of mine up the road in Wicklow who is doing the same pattern with Allspice but with a slightly different color scheme. She has fallen far behind and needs to set a goal of one or two star blocks per night!!!! You know who you are!!!!!
When I started this pattern I thought I would never see the end of it, but I persevered and the end result is at the bottom of this post. I have many things to share over the coming weeks, hopefully I will get back into the swing of things now that school is starting back.


I love this fabric, I love it soo much that it sat in my stash for nine months because I couldn't bear to cut it up. Honestly I think quilters are crazy people!!!! My stash continues to grow and farmer boy is growing very suspicious of the plastic containers that keep appearing in my sewing corner!!!! I am preparing for another famine, a fabric famine!!!!!
Here she is in all her glory!!!! My beautiful quilt is in Rebecca's hands now (my longarm professional friend), it will hopefully be on my bed for Christmas!!! Rebecca is going to long arm this beauty in November, we both have a long list of projects that are of a greater priority so my quilt will have to wait until Rebecca can give it her full attention!!!!

By the way those are my three monkeys over there and our Austrian student Michaela. I taught Michaela how to quilt this summer, I will post a picture of her quilt in the coming days!!!!

I have lots to share and hope you will be back soon!!!!

Keep smiling!

My Beauty!!!

Sherry and I have a friend named Rebecca. Rebecca is from Australia and is a beautiful quilter, she has purchased a long arm machine and is practicing before she heads off to a Long Arm Summer School. I gave her my "Simplicity" quilt to practice on and look at the pictures. I can't wait to put the binding on!!!

Rebecca did a gorgeous job. Thank you Rebecca!!!

On the homefront there is nothing much going on. The sheep are fairly self sufficient right now, although they will be sheered soon and I will certainly be there to take pictures! The children are all involved in their activities and are anxiously awaiting their summer holidays.

Summer is a far cry away, it is still very cold here and we have had gale force winds since Saturday. The weather is wet and miserable, it feels like October. This did not stop us from having a party here at our house this past weekend and all the usual suspects were there. The comments I have received from everyone is how pleasant and friendly everyone is. The circle grows bigger and bigger and all are welcome. I think the reason we all get on so well is that we are all expats and have a shared experience of being on the outside looking in.
So that is all folks, enjoy these pictures and hopefully I will have more to show soon!

Bye and keep smiling!

Stars and Plumbers!

This is what I have been doing on the quilting scene lately!!! I have made three sets of each of the color combinations you see here. The quilt that I am working on requires 44 stars. I have enough fabric cut to make close to 180 stars, I am not going to be doing this on my own so don't fret. This is going to be one purdy quilt, I am using the Allspice Fat Quarter bundle and yardage that has been sitting in my stash for not quite a year but getting close to it!!

I have also added a playlist over there on my sidebar with a beautiful song that I fell in love with when I first heard it over on Liberty Star Farm . Hauntingly gorgeous!!

Now, let me tell you what my day has been like. I need to share and I hate to whine but FarmerBoy isn't here so this is my only outlet today. This morning I had a house full of guests and while they were all eating breakfast I was cleaning the kitchen. To properly clean a greasy kitchen you need hot water, really hot water! Guess what? There was no hot water, nada - none to speak of. Could all those guests have used up all that hot water, no way!!!

The boiler isn't working, on a saturday and FarmerBoy is unreachable doing his FarmerBoy thing! I called my ever so faithful plumber and put on my sweetest voice, "Please, Please Please come and fix my boiler...."! Guess where he is??? In the southern most part of our county, playing 18 holes of golf...... Crap!!! What am I going to do?????

I have a house full of people tonight, no hot water and a massive headache from the stress of it all!!!! So what do I do? I ignore all the problems and I play with my blog and catch up on all my favorite blogs!!!! Thank you for listening, I feel so much better now!

There are a couple more close up pictures of my stars, I think when I am finished here I am going to start working on more stars. Why worry about something that I can do nothing about and when the going gets tough the tough get sewing!!!! LOL


I love these two as well as the brown floral above with the small print background.

Thankfully all of my guests are Irish and I will simply offer them a discount and use of my electric hot shower (which by the way I have to go clean). They are here for the motorcross races, all men and we all know that men can be very easy peasy about stuff!!!! Heck, if I look pathetic enough maybe one of them will look at my boiler. That sounds kinda of, wait I hear a truck....could it be, YES its the plumber!!!!!!!

What a great guy, he fixed the boiler. Yippee, we have hot water!!!!! He is my hero!!!!!

So long!!!!

Finally - A quilt!

I bet you all thought I had forgotten what this blog is all about!!! I really want to focus more on the quilting than the family but sometimes they don't let me quilt. So my revenge is to talk about them and they don't always appreciate that. (Evil laughter ringing through my empty house)


This first picture does not do this fabric justice. The fabric is "Simplicity" by 3 Sisters From Moda. I can't get enough of it, I want more and more and more. It is the sweetest fabric and so delicate and cheerful, it brings a smile to my face just working with it.

I also think I have mastered the whole charm square dilemma, a charm square is a 5" precut square and you usually get one square for each of the fabrics in the designers line. So in this fabric line I received 48 or 50 charm squares. The charm square are cut with a pinking scissor or whatever they use in the factory. I sewed the four squares together and then trimmed them down and it worked a "charm"!!!!


The border will hopefully get down tonight and will be ready to be quilted. The pattern is Legacy "Butter Charm and Jelly" (I have to double check that). I have another quilt all cut up and ready to piece. Another cute fabric from Moda, Swell by Urban Chicks. Hopefully I will have that ready to show you soon or maybe not, it all depends on how demanding the guests are!!!!

Bye for now and hoping to be back soon!!!

The Sound of Silence!!!

I know that I have been a very bad blogger, life just somehow keeps getting in the way. Silence has decended on my home, no guests for the past several days. I have one more free night and then I start all over and go straight through until the end of the month. This time of year is very difficult, working 18 hours a day and caring for the family takes first priority and then everything falls where it falls!! The other night we all went for a walk in the woods behind where we live, the kiddos wanted to show me two things. First the Blue Bells!!!!! The entire wood is carpeted with blue bells, the scent is incredible. The second item on their list was a swimming hole, actually it's a stream. I look at my children sometimes and realize that they are real country kids, they can't wait until it's hot enough to go swimming in the stream!!! Even FarmerBoy is looking forward to it.

Here is the gang rambling along the path, the local gun club keeps these trails cleared. We all benefit from their hard work, a woman and her horse were out treking and stopped to talk with us. This of course led to a long conversation with our little princess!!! She is desperate for a pony, "everyone has a pony, why can't I"!! FarmerBoy argues with her but she manages to come up with a solution to every obstacle. We have land for grazing, we have barns (just need to build a stall in the barn) and of course she promises to take care of it day and night. Yeah right. Mommy and Daddy will be out their shoveling you know what everyday. Little miss muffit can't feed the dogs and cat without an emotional breakdown!!!!!!! I pacified her by making a promise to take her riding and the two of us will take some lessons together, then and only then will I make a decision. FarmerBoy and I would love to get a pony and horse, I really want a donkey but that is another discussion for another day! We don't think she is ready for the responsibility, time will tell.


If there is anyone out there who is preparing to travel to Ireland within the next couple of weeks, please do me a favor!!! Bring warm weather with you, it is really cold here -- I mean really cold!!

I have quilt pictures to show you but I just noticed that they are missing, I will do another post.

Bye!

Overtired, Overworked and Seriously Underpaid!!

I have not had a moment's peace in several weeks. Between paying guests and children's activities I have been run ragged. I have been ordering fabric and patterns in the hope that as soon as my student helper arrives from Austria I will have a bit more leisure time!!!

We are growing very concerned about the tourist season, we need the income that I make from Bed and Breakfast to help us get through the winter and the past two winters have been difficult. We (farmer boy and I) have decided that the B&B will close this September and I will return to the workforce (the one outside the home!!!!), it is becoming increasingly difficult to earn a wage and the children are suffering because of the demands on my time. I am soooo excited to be reentering the real world and taking some courses to update my skills, even the children are happy! Of course I promised them a big holiday to Disney World Florida if they pitch in and do their fair share, actually I'm the one who wants to go to Disney and it would be cruel to leave them behind!!! Farmer Boy and I are huge fans of the waterparks, I kid you not we are overgrown children when it comes to water and Disney!!!

Many apologies for not writing, I have been toiling away and barely had enough time to read my emails. I am trying to work out a system this week of cutting fabric for patterns and then putting them in ziplock bags for safekeeping. This hopefully will make it easier to just pick up some piecing when I have a free moment, NOT!!!

So Long and keep smiling!

Sugar n' spice!

Sugar n' spice and everything nice, that's what little girls are made of. Our little princess played in her first Camogie match today. She is the little angel all in white with the blue helmut, I tried to center her in each photograph. Just click on the photo to get a better glimpse. What an exciting sport and these under 10 year old girls are no exception. There are no mamby pambies out here on this field. They go after every ball and are aggresive and play like true champions, and yes those are sticks in their hands, or as we call them hurleys.

In Ireland, the GAA (Gaelic Athletic Association) is the glue that holds every parish together. It is particularly strong out here in the coutryside amongst the Farm boys (and girls). Hurling is the fastest field sport in the world and is very exciting to watch. The hurleys are made from Ash trees and hurt when you get hit with one (the stick not the tree). I wanted to publicly say that there was not one tear shed during this game, however I have been to a few boys' matches where there was alot of crying taking place.


The children play hurling and gaelic football in school as part of their physical education program and then play for the local club from end of March to October. It is a nice way to get to know people in your community as well as get all the local gossip (something the Irish are never short of !!!!) What's funny about going to a girls match versus a boys match is the way the girls interact with one another. When you arrive at the pitch (field) there is alot of hugging and holding hands and fixing hair with the girls. The socks have to be just so and the shirt tucked in just right, I'm sure many of you can relate. With the boys it is a whole different can of beans! The boys will wear dirty uniforms for starters, they don't care what they look like. Thank God for mommy's!!!! The boys also like to test out the strength of the helmuts or shin guards by hitting their friends really hard in those areas with their hurleys to see if the equipment is really doing a proper job. Boys also don't talk to one another as animatedly as girls, they barely say hello and then they talk while kicking rocks all the while making sure you can't hear LOL!!!!!! Girls are very quick to ask if there teammate is okay if they fall or get hit or even an opponent for that matter. Boys will actually taunt one another and if an opponent does something dirty then threats are made.
I also want to note that it was bitter, bitter cold today and the wind was unreal while standing watching this match and I stood with friends on the sidelines the whole time. Farmer Boy and DS2 at half time went and watched the second half from the car. Big Babies!!!!! When my daughter asked where her daddy was I said that he was in the car because he was cold, she shook her head. GIRL POWER or as she says, "Girls rule, boys drool"!!!!!! Please give me strength......

Keep smiling and see you soon!

Finally Something Quilty!!!

Finally, I have something quilty to show off. I have been cleaning up a number of projects that I have actually shown before but I thought I would show you one of them. First of all, my lovely assistants are holding up my Thimbleberries quarterly kit. I enjoyed this quilt but I am astonished at the finished size and the fact that this is supposed to be a wall hanging. Farmer Boy and I were laughing at the size of the wall you would need to hang this!!! It is quite large. The children are standing on the sofa and they even commented on how big it was!!


The last time you saw this the borders were missing and it had not been quilted. Here it is all finished and the binding sewn down by hand! Yee Haw!!!


They insisted on a closeup, when the flash goes off they drop the quilt on the floor and race over to see themselves on the camera. Talk about vain!!! LOL And they have been eating chocolate eggs so I am sure there is chocolate on my quilt!!

I used this quilt to try to expand on my machine quilting skills which desperately need some expanding. I am tired of the meandering stitch and spent some time trying other designs - the kind you make up in your head while you are doing it!!!!!!
I started this the other day and had to put it on hold, full up with paying guests for two nights, it is a kit that Farmer Boy bought me for Christmas. It is the Roman Holiday print by Moda, Charm squares. Very easy to do and goes together very fast. I have a couple of complaints regarding this quilt and my dear friends I would like you to bear with me.

My first complaint is that if you were a beginner and had purchased this quilt you would have been up the proverbial creek without a paddle half way through this kit. The directions were fairly non-existant when it came to putting the rows together. The yellow half-square triangles were the first thing I noticed, they didn't give you proper directions to cut enough. I had to go back and cut more when I realized the mistake and of course I cursed myself first and then reread the cutting instructions and low and behold it was not my error!!! Also, piecing the blocks together for this style of quilt is tricky for a beginner because you are sewing the rows together on the diagonal and if I hadn't done something similar to this before then I would have been really confused.


The next complaint is the finished size. The width on one side is a half an inch wider than the opposite side. The whole thing is wonky, I have tried to square it up as best I could but it still looks alittle screwey LOL!!!! And that brings me to my next complaint which is more of an observation and question. I don't think I really like working with Charm squares, sometimes things don't seem to measure properly when I am using them. Answer me this, Do you square up your charm squares before you begin a project. Does anyone else have problems with charm squares or is it just me? My problems with the squares are not major and they are great for quick projects but I am not sure whether this is user error or design error!!! Oh well, it is a really cute lap quilt and will look great at Christmas. I will hide the wonky uneven shape, I am quite experienced at hiding mistakes LOL!!!! Now I have to finish the borders and get it quilted.

All the best and keep smiling!!!

The Bunny is Out of the Bag!!

A very sad day in our house! Another milestone has been hit and passed, the Easter Bunny is dead.... So is the toothfairy! According to my three little darlings, a discussion has taken place in their bedrooms and they have come to the conclusion that I am the toothfairy as well as the Easter Bunny. However, there is no way that I am Santa Claus. According to DS #1 I am too cheap to be Santa, I would never in a million years give them all the wonderful gifts that they receive on Christmas. Should I be slightly insulted by this, I'm not sure, LOL!!!! The gig is up and I have been found out. So this year the little darlings put in requests for Easter. They wanted the giant Cadbury Eggs and if I could throw in some Cadbury creme eggs they would be very appreciative. Quite matter of fact.

I gave them a right lecture about not telling other children, particularly small children that I am the Easter Bunny. Especially since we are going to an Easter egg hunt on Saturday over at VerrySherry's. How annoyed would those parents be I asked them? Can you imagine the embarrassment, LOL!!!!

I would like you all to take a good look at the bicycle that FarmerBoy fixed up for me and very proudly presented it when all was done!! First of all, it is 50 years old and the tires wobble. Secondly, it is too small (I am 5'11 and this bike is for someone 5'4). There are no brakes and it squeaks something fierce.

When we made our annual camping trip to Co. Kerry this past summer, I refused to ride it. A protest of sorts, my family went off on their bikes (FarmerBoy used the one he fixed up for me) and I walked. We were staying at the caravan/campgrounds on the Muckross Road in Killarney for 8 days and the entrance to Muckross House and the Killarney National Park was just across the road. It was heaven on earth. We were also quite lucky that the weather that week was the best weather of the summer. Just outside the caravan park was a bicycle rental hut and my parents offered to rent the children bikes for the day because their bikes were in pretty bad shape (no brakes, too small - frankly dangerous). Well FarmerBoy was standing firm in his conviction that he had a wonderful bike and that there was nothing wrong with it... While standing at the hut the children were picking out NICE bikes, FarmerBoy was standing there with his 50 year old Raleigh and a group of Americans came up behind us and one of them kept staring at FarmerBoy and his pride and joy! The American said to someone in his group, "Is that what they are renting out" in a tone of absolute disbelief!!!!! We were hysterical, no that is just my husband on his precious antique! You have to see it in person to really appreciate it. There is a wire clothes hanger holding the rear fender on and the front fender rubs against the tire. Feel my pain, please!!!

I have been a very busy gal on the quilting front, but it has been mostly finishing up all of my projects. You know; adding borders, machine quilting and sewing on the bindings. I am half way through a Christmas quilt that FarmerBoy bought for me this Christmas (I bought it with his credit card and wrapped it beautifully I might add - then placed it under the Tree). I have all the blocks done and need to put it all together. Hopefully I will have something to share with you soon.

Take care and keep smiling!!!!

Monkey in the Middle

I am a very lucky woman! I live with three great men, one is my husband and the other two are my sons. A big celebration is happening in our house because of one of these fellas. Over there on the left is Farmer Boy and my very special monkey in the middle, DS#2.

DS#2 is the typical middle child, he is between the prince (first born son) and the princess (the only girl who is also the baby). Unlike his siblings he is not an athlete and has always been the slowest at running and could never quite get his coordination together enough to throw a ball let alone catch one. His talents lay in the muscle that resides between the two ears, yes his brain. This little 9 yo will tell you that he wants to be a barrister, he thinks that the wig and black gowns that the men and women wear into court over here are just the coolest. I hope he becomes one, or anything else his heart desires because he is without a doubt smart enough. This little boy has spent many hours watching his brother and sister, watching as they won medals and were honored for their athletic achievements and in the sister's case as an Irish dancer. There have been many tears over his inability to win a medal.

Farmer Boy and I have spent many an hour explaining to him that one day his day will come. DS#2 plays the piano by ear, his piano teacher tells him that he is by far her most talented student. He taught himself to read when he was 4, school comes so easily for this little guy. But what he really wants is to be recognised for being him and he wants a damn medal to show everyone that he is talented too!!!! Well, we got a phone call today, the most exciting phone call ever!!! My little monkey in the middle has won the GOLD MEDAL for the County Wexford Boys Under 10's Art Competition!!!!!!!!!!!!! He is going to the National Competition in May!!!!!!!!!!!!! I almost cried when I heard the news. It could not have happened to a more worthy child and he is on cloud 9. There will be 2 medal presentations, one from the local community and one big one for the County. My little baby is bursting with excitement, and we couldn't be any prouder!!!!! And what makes us really proud is that his siblings came out to the car after school and they were just as excited for their brother as if they had won themselves... Quick get me a tissue......

When the Cat is away the Mouse does alot of Damage!

Well, I don't even know where to begin!! This morning I awoke at 6:30 to serve breakfast to a lovely Danish couple at 8:00 am, then I had to depart at 9:15 to deliver DS#2 to the County Wexford Art Competition. The location of the competition was southwest of Wexford town so I knew I was going to just hang out and wait for him, what I didn't know was that the children had three hours to complete their drawing!! Yikes, that is alot of time to kill especially when you know that your child is the pokiest child in the world and will use every 180 minutes!!!! Soooooo, at 1:00 pm I am headed home at last. I have an hour and a half to make us lunch and clean the kitchen and then head back out the door. DS#2 has a karate belt test at 3:00 and that is another 2 hours of sitting around watching his nibbs hi-ya the tester, over and over and over. This day is going to be horrendous and on top of it all I don't feel well (stuffy nose, achy, cough and other yucks).

Back up to the coming home at 1:00, are you ready for this???!!!! Farmer Boy, oh brother I want to smack him, is mowing the grass with DS#1 and is giving him lots of instructions. You know, Do as I say not as I do!!!! Farmer Boy came to the steep embankment behind our house and stopped his brand new toy and said to DS#1, "never try to drive down the embankment, you could overturn the mower and get seriously hurt". The ding bat then proceeded to put the mower into drive and went down the embankment, he slammed into our caravan (camper trailer/RV) the hood of the mower is damaged and the fenders on the left side of mower are cracked and hanging off!!!! He is telling me this story will trying not to laugh and waiting sheepishly for me to hit him, which I would like to. Honestly, I think its time for a trade-in!!!! LOL

P.S. DS#1 gives a very funny blow by blow account of the whole incident, I think he may actually have more sense than his father!!!