Getting my Goat

As I was thinking about the title for this post, I remembered that song from A Sound of Music...

High on a hill was a lonely goatherd

Lay ee odl lay ee odl lay hee hoo

Loud was the voice of the lonely goatherd

Lay ee odl lay ee odl-oo

and on and on. And now it's stuck in my head. And now it'll be stuck in your head too. Misery loves company, you know. You're welcome. 

So what is all this talk of goats, you ask? Well, I made one yesterday. It's the final section for And On that Farm.

Without counting all the ways I hate McKenna Ryan patterns, I'll just say I was happy to have a little helper cat as salve for my wounds-to-come.

These always start with making the backgrounds, and this is perhaps the most stressful part. I'm only provided so much fabric, and so I don't want to "F" up. Fortunately, no problems.

Next, I made this little duckling, and that was easy enough. I believe it will have some beads for eyes once the whole quilt is finished.

The goat is holding a quilt in its mouth. The quilt was made up of large pieces. Here's the placement template from the pattern.

The placement template is very nice, and I can even see it below my teflon pressing sheet. The problem is that the largest pieces are laid down first, and then you can't see placement of the remaining pieces.

My way of dealing with this is to trace a template onto wax paper, and then use that to find my way.

And that went together fairly easily.

Next, I made the eyes. They are four layers. I left that pin there so you could see the scale. The top pieces are tiny. Tweezers are a must.

And then I got so engrossed in making the rest of the goat that I didn't even stop to take any pictures. I can't fuse down the quilt or the nose piece until the whole quilt top is finished because it extends out into the borders. For now, I just laid it out so you could see it.

The next time I work on this quilt, I'll be sewing it together and adding borders. The borders have more applique in them, and so it'll be a bit of a to-do finishing it off. That probably won't happen until the end of summer.

It was a fairly nice morning yesterday. I went out to fill the bird feeders. The kitties are loving this needs-badly-to-be-mowed field. The grass is lush right now. The cat-tle are grazing peacefully.

It would be a good time for Molly the cat to bring her pony up.

They keep an eye on one another when they're outside and spend most of their time together. Just as I snapped the picture below, Sadie walked out of the frame. She was sitting there right next to Smitty and they looked pretty cute together. He's about twice her size.

She's a mighty hunter despite her diminutive presence.

Also, I walked around and took pictures of some of the blooming things. This is the same red tulip near the front door.

There are a few coming up in random places around the yard. The red one is planted in a barrel, and so the critters don't bother it. Of the ones I planted in the ground, only white ones are left, the deer having eaten all the others. For some reason, they leave the white ones alone.

These are growing in the barrel with the poppies I brought back from Ireland.

They're covered with chicken wire to keep the squirrels out, but the leaves are growing up through the chicken wire. We're going to cut some larger holes to give the leaves some breathing room, but still small enough to keep the squirrels out. Now, take a look at this foliage. This picture was taken yesterday morning.

Already, I've determined that these poppies are biannuals, meaning they need two full seasons to bloom. Last year was their first season, and so I'm expecting to see flower buds very soon. I look almost every day, and so far...nothing. Although I brought the seeds back from Ireland, I was unsuccessful in getting mine started. Mae was able to get hers going, and so the seeds for these came from her plants. She said the foliage had changed after the first year. So, I looked back for some old pictures and came up with this image from last summer.

And you can see that they've taken on a different shape. Interesting, huh? Now...bloom you guys! I can't wait to see them. I still have some more seeds, and so I'll try to get another round going this year so that I have poppies every year.

It was a pretty relaxing day yesterday, despite the goat. Mike tried a pork loin in his Traeger grill, and it turned out great. This was our dinner last night. The corn has our favorite Honey-Chipotle Butter on it. The pork simply had the Traeger prime rib rub on it, and then it was smoked and roasted. Look around the outer edges of the pork, and you can see the slightly pink "smoke ring." It was so tender and delicious. We had it with some of my homemade plum chutney, and that was a tasty dinner...super easy for me, and for him too, if you want the truth of it. He just kind of throws the meat on and forgets about it, monitoring it on his iPhone. What a marvelous world we live in.

This morning, we're above the clouds, and we're expecting a dry day. Rain should return around dinner time, and so it's probably a good day to get out for a walk.

Smitty is loving it. It's one of the first days when he's been able to take his favorite morning nap in the sun.

Yesterday, I got started on the last of the Sundress blocks, and so I'll start there this morning.

I'm guessing there will be time for sewing in the afternoon, and so I'm starting a new project...this one:

It's from this book:

Mine is going to be randomly scrappy, and so I'll be doing this the painful way of cutting each little 2-inch square individually. You can see that the center of each criss-cross of the Irish chain has a pink and yellow "flower." There are also green squares in each corner. Except for those, everything else will be cut and chosen randomly. The Irish chain is probably my favorite traditional quilt block, and I've wanted to make one for a long time. My projects are always broken down block-of-the-month style, and so I'll work on this a row at a time. There are 49 blocks, and so 7 rows, plus the border. It'll probably take me about a year to make all the blocks.

Finally, there are just a few days left to get in on the draw for Smitty's Birthday Giveaway. Don't miss it. I've given you the link back there. Thanks to all who have entered. I'm completely enjoying all the stories you're telling me about your beloved pets and grandpets. So glad I asked the question.

And now...on with slow-stitching. I'm checking the forecast, but I think a walk is in my future for this morning too.