I was at the grocery store this morning and spent more time visiting than shopping. Ran into a past customer/friend Christine from Des Moines who I haven’t seen in years. They have a house on Clear Lake so spend lots of time here in the summer. Wish I had snapped her picture.
Also saw a local lady who asked if I still made quilts and I said that I did – I sew everyday but now I sew for the journey, not the destination. She said I was the perfect example of that old saying – “If you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life!” Wasn’t that just the nicest thing to say?
So more rain last night – 1.5”! My succulents are drowning! How could we go from drought conditions to a flood watch in this county? Storm damage continues to show up southeast of our farm – many many trees have been lost. And more rain is forecast for tonight.
If you live in North Iowa, head to Klemme tomorrow between 9-2 for a quilting rummage sale. Connie will be happy to see you there! Tell her you read about it on the blog!

Reader quilts:







It’s time to hang Sugar Maple – pattern can be found in the online store.

Molly came to play yesterday – she and Telly ran and ran! A good time was had by all!
The orioles are migrating through – right now there are four sitting on the clothesline by the grape jelly feeder! I love watching them!
Here are the baby chicks!

The feather duster acts as a surrogate mama hen so the chicks can run under for protection when needed. I absolutely hate to say this but one chick has disappeared – there are only eleven chicks and I bought 12. What in the world happened?

Rose and Bill stopped by yesterday on their way to Colorado. I have had LOTS of company this summer. This afternoon I hope to sew!
I think I’m caught up – friends in MT sent this picture yesterday and I just loved it!

Love the pics of spoons, pottery, etc.
Mary, do you have a weasel or something. .?? So sorry about the chicks. 😥
Oh, aren’t the baby chicks cute? Did the missing chick show up yet? It would probably be cheeping and maybe you could hear it? Or check the feather duster? I bet you are counting little beeks every time you look?
Did you get a chance to try out the Scrap Tease block yet? It should help make your day nicer.
Storms came thru last evening. We got 1/10″ rain in our end of town. Hart Ranch, a big camper site about 10 miles south of town, got baseball size hail and wind. Haven’t heard about trees or other damage yet. Lots of broken windows and damage. One man just got a new car, drove there for a ball game and the back window is gone. Probably lots of dents, too. Tonight the weather is supposed to be north of us??
Has the sweet corn stalks straightened up yet? How close is the sweet corn ready for eating? Or will it go for silage for the goats?
Betty Klosterman – the sweet corn has not straightened up yet but we think the corn will be ready in about 2 weeks – it will be very hard to pick it when it’s laying on the ground all tangled up together. I just put the feather duster in this afternoon – the chick has been missing for a whole day and I cannot hear any peeping anywhere. Rat????
I thought of a rat, too, but with all the cats, I’d doubt if you had a rodent problem — or maybe the cats are fed too well? You could write your own mystery story? But you would have to be able to solve it first? It would have to be something that could climb into the cardboard box and then out with the chick. So you have many snakes around there? A small snake couldn’t eat a baby chick.
As for the feather duster, those chicks have never seen a hen in their very short lives.
Quilting problems are easier to solve!
Good luck. Take care. Betty
Betty / the cats brought a dead rat to the house yard about two weeks ago! I was shocked! I’ve lived here over 40 years and never saw a snake in that time! Instinct tells them to hide in those feathers
Hi Mary, l think climate change has a lot to do with changing weather patterns.what about some security cameras to see what is happening to your chickens? My lovely neighbours have their first grandson, born yesterday,and we’re suprise when l gave them a little quilt.they very kindly gave me a delicious, but hot curry! Yum!hope all are well, best wishes from sandy
Great pictures today. I think the lady has it correct…when you love what you do, it’s never work.
We got rain last night too, gloriously, wonderful rain.
It’s hard to believe it’s the last Friday of summer? Where did it go?
On the bright side, us grey haired folks can go places and not have to compete with the youngsters with kids. Actually, I prefer letting family with kids enjoy the outdoors and parks, then after school starts, it’s my turn to get out and about.
Have a great weekend everyone.
LOVE, LOVE the last picture! So you!!
Mary,
Maybe the 12th chick got stuck in the duster? Hope you miscounted!
Still here as the Firemen are keeping up with our Trail Creek Fire. Has burned near 40,000 wilderness acres!
Thanks for all the pictures!
That is an awfully big fire. So glad the firefighters have kept it away from your home. How far do you live from Montana? It looked like you might be in a spot where the divide might be on 3 sides of you? Beautiful country.
Early this morning we had 5” of rain. I don’t want to hear anyone say we’re in a drought. We’ve had 12.6” of rain in the last week and a half.
Great pictures today – love the chicks and their feather duster mom.
A couple of weeks ago someone dumped a kitten at our place. We fed it (it was starving) and gave it water. Our neighbor said they would take it – it showed up on our deck two days later. When she saw us she held up her paw like she was waving. She has an appointment at the vet on September 7th for a feline leukemia check, dewormed, rabies and distemper. Her name is Baby and the rest is history. Sigh.
I’ll be at the Klemme sale in the morning.😁
Gloria F – we haven’t had as much rain as you but we do not need anymore right now! BABY! Do she and Angel get along? I sure hope so.
Yes Baby adores Angel. Emmett however chases Baby up a tree so we brought Baby in the house in the mud room. She was obviously someone’s pet – she is so loving and trusting. And she starts purring as soon as she sees us. We feel so sorry that someone dumped her. After all her shots are finished we’ll be able to get her spayed.
See, she adopted you because she is looking for love.
Wow! I love the MT display pic too. Charming, comes to mind right away.
The babies are adorable. I wonder if one flew up and out. I can’t see your whole pen in the photo, but I remember when we did that and they started flying up to the rim of the cattle waterer we had them in. We had to put a wire top on it. Hope you find it.
Jeannie S…I love tied quilts. Makes them look so vintage. All the DD’s are great.
Sue in Oregon – I have searched high and low – they can’t fly yet either.
Thanks, Sue; I like the tied look, too. I do some quilting, but this was a little big for my machine, and I just wanted it finished.
All you people with rain! Please send some to West Michigan!
The weather is just the opposite here in Texas. Our front yard was a lake most of the summer. Now the yard had huge cracks in it from lack of rain. We did have a good thunderstorm last night that provided a little rain. Seems like it’s either monsoon or drought here.
One missing chick sounds like a snack for a snake.
Love all the pictures today…especially the DDs! Very clever with the duster as a surrogate mom! Too bad some of that rain can’t be sent to northern California and other western states. I don’t think we have had rain since March. It was in the 90s today and the sun is barely getting through the smoke in the upper atmosphere. Glad we can’t smell the smoke and we aren’t even near the fires. Pray for the firemen and the poor people who have lost their homes.
It’s hard looking at the weather channel tonight and seeing that hurricane headed towards the southern states, same as where Hurricane Katrina hit so all I am visioning is evacuations to get the people to safe grounds. Your pictures of quilts, friends visiting, baby chicks and seeing Molly tired out from running around the yard with Telly brought me happiness before heading to bed. Lots of prayers for all people in this world are going through with wildfires, covid still prevalent, evacuations and Afghanistan. Last weekend of summer and it’s been wonderful here for weather today so we sat outside tonight with our new gas fire pit enjoying the evening.