On the veranda, the annual battle with the Carolina Wren has begun. He loves to build nests in my plants, which I object to on several fronts. First, I don’t need him defending a nest near the front door. Second, I cannot water the plant with a nest in it, so the plant will die (and this year they were so expensive!). Third, the nest is too prone to raiding by squirrels if it is on the veranda, and I’ve seen this before where the eggs are eaten. So, I do everything I can to discourage this before eggs are laid. When My Sweet Babboo saw him starting a new nest, I went out and pulled the partially done nest out of the pot before he could finish it. I put foil strips on the baskets and some pots, and this seems to be working. For now, anyway.
My Sweet Babboo put the feeder back on the pole, and word is getting around. The goldfinches gathered for breakfast.
I’m still taking pictures of them in the trees, trying to get the perfect pose and sharpness for the fair.
Oh, the Fair! I went to the website this week to see what cooking contests were going to be offered, what the rules will be for dishes, and they are all open for entries. So I entered the cooking contests, and looked over the sewing, crafts, photography and quilting categories. Then I pulled projects from the past year, just to see what I had. Three projects from last October’s Autumn Jubilee are eligible, plus the Sashiko bag, and the March Quilt Along Oh My Strippy Stars. Now I need to finish Quadrille, and the miniature quilt. I have to put labels on all these as well.
My friend had her hip replacement last week, and she allowed me to bring dinner for her and her husband the day after. I made my Chicken Florentine lasagne, putting it into two dishes, one for her and one for us. This time I shortcut the recipe a bit further and added more flavor by using a jar of Alfredo sauce instead of making a cream sauce from scratch.
We had ours that night for supper. Yum! It was delicious! The leftovers didn’t last a day, LOL!
I made significant progress on Quadrille this week. It was days of just dithering around last week, not being able to make any decisions. I spent way too much time on Pinterest, watched some youtube videos, and went page by page through the books I have on quilting designs. These are all pretty good, providing ideas and motifs to copy.
Pathways to Better Quilting by Sally Terry – more of a book of shapes to practice, then combine into motifs or border designs. This one is helpful for working out thread paths.
Adaptable Quilting Designs by Sue Patten – Interesting designs for center motifs with ways to adapt into continuous line borders and variations for corners.
Helen’s Copy and Use Quilting Patterns by Helen Squire – Contains 127 motifs to copy and transfer to the quilt for center motifs and border quilting. Most are not continuous line for machine quilting, but are for hand quilting. But the motifs can be adapted, and I use this book more for inspiration than actual quilting patterns.
Eventually, I just decided on what to put in the pinwheels and got going. I did some stitch in the ditch on the blocks, then started on these triangle motifs. I put curves in the scrappy triangles, and more modern lines in the background like a bit of ghosting.
Once I finally got some stitching done, I was able to come up with the remaining elements. Some feathers will be done with more angles as well, so it will be a cross between traditional and modern quilting. It took all week to do four blocks. But now I am on a roll, and hope to get two blocks a day done for the next 8 quilting days to finish off the center. Then I need to make a decision on the borders and quilt those. I still think it is going to take more than a month to finish. But we’ll see. I’m show you the whole process later, when we get to that step in the mystery quilt along.
What are you working on this week?
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From My Carolina Home 
I hope your foil “foils” those wrens! Hahaha! Good luck, some birds are so determined to build a nest where they shouldn’t. The Lasagna Florentine sounds delicious. I think I’ll get that one thrown into the supper mix for next week. Good luck with figuring out what to enter in the fair. All in all, it’s always fun for you.
Setting here reading the chicken florentine recipe made me hungry and wanting to go to the store.
Hi Carole,
Thanks for sharing Creative Spark links-this is fast becoming one of my favorites! Your pictures are beautiful and I’m sure you will do well at the fair!! I’m working on the quilt repair for my cousin. It was made for her by my aunt (her mother) and her dog had torn it up. Four of the blocks had pieces that were shredded so I found some similar fabric and replaced the pieces that were shredded. I unsewed the remaining pieces as well because many of the pieces were badly faded and plan to replace those as well. The backing has a small rip that I can easily fix. It was tied so no problem with the quilting (also made it easier to deconstruct). My Aunt used a polyester batting and I’m debating whether I should stick to polyester or use a cotton blend.
That’s so interesting that the wrens keep coming back to your veranda pots to build their nests! I hope the foil strips help – I’ve read that sparkly wind spinners will keep the critters away, too. We mostly have trouble with squirrels wanting to dig in our pots. The chicken lasagna sounds yummy, and I bet your friend really appreciated it after her surgery. Good luck with all your fair entries!
sounds like you might have figured out how to keep the birds from nesting in the plants that is good – I like seeing the birds but don’t want to have clean up after them on the porch! The casserole looks great
Is there somewhere near by and away from the front door that you could put up a sacrificial nesting basket ? That way they might leave your flower baskets alone. Might.
My mom had the birds in her hanging baskets many years ago. She always left the birds alone and the baskets died. Her heart was too soft and baskets were only like $1.99 back then lol.
My mom had the birds in her hanging baskets many years ago. She always left the birds alone and the baskets died. Her heart was too soft and baskets were only like $1.99 back then lol.
I went on a sewing retreat this weekend and finished one quilt and started 2 others UGH. I’m all caught up with quadrille and anxious to get to the borders. But I am committed to getting my pile of tops quilted. I’m on a roll, I have three done and working on the fourth of 9. My stash busting figure will be much better this month.
What to do about wildlife – the issues never end. Fix one thing and something else comes to replace it. The critters dig up everything we plant. I’m glad they appreciate the habitat weve established, but they need to respect some boundaries. I love how you’re quilting Quadrille. It’s nice to have some inspiration, even better to add your own touches & left your personality shine.
I’m so glad that once you got started ideas started to come together. I hope you continue to make good quilting progress and are enjoying seeing it come to life under the needle. 🙂
Dinner looks yummy! I got the Quad quilt sewn and got a border on it. Seems like it’s an old friend! It was so much fun – “More please”. Have to decide to keep it or send to auction for the Animal rescue. I have 3 tops now to be quilted and I never do that – too much pressure! LOVE the birds. Arborist is coming Wed. to cut down 4 of my trees, transplant one and give another a haircut. But they were all full grown when we moved here 34 years ago. Of course the only healthy one if the bunch is a berry tree (volunteer) and leaves nasty purple berries all over the place. Birds love it! Thanks!
What a good idea to put foil in your planters. I need to get some foil streamers for the bluebird house as the sparrows are challenging the bluebirds.
Like what you’ve chosen for your quilting design. My daughter does custom quilting and it can take weeks to finish.
Working on prepping quilts for the frame for my daughter and working on the final touches on one just finished.
Try putting an ugly rubber snake in your plant to keep the bird out-that has worked for me.
All the fun of the fair! Guess there is some preparation before your entries are ready to go. I seem to remember that you did quite well last year?
PS I’ve just looked up your chicken lasagna recipe it looks delicious. Thanks so much, I’ll be sure to give it a try. Using up the remainder of a cooked chicken makes it easier.
It is so interesting to me what birds and animals will do that makes no sense, and need help from us. We have some sparrows in the gutter. I am afraid they will get washed out by the rain but the shingles that slid down provide a roof and they are still there…no babies yet. When they leave, I will get it taken down and the shingle put back. I was going to quilt but thunderstorms are circling….glad you have a plan and have started working onQuadrille. I do find sometimes when I want to do a more complicated quilt, getting something started on it helps to get the juices flowing!
How lovely you are to take a meal when someone is recovering. You are a good friend. Sounds like a delicious recipe. We had to chase a bird out of the bbq, trying to build a next this past weekend. I have finished borders on Scrap Dance TWIST, and have it ready to go the the long arm quilter. I have another SD on the table, waiting for some serious pressing before it gets it’s borders. And, realized there is a 3rd, thankfully not king size, ready to quilt. Focusing on getting some things DONE this month, while I wait on Quadrille.
Good luck with the bird nesting. Would a scarecrow of some sort on the veranda help? It was so nice of you to help your friend with the meal. I’m sure she appreciated it after the surgery. I have been busy doing the blanket stitching on the border of the Amanda Murphy Winter Wonderland quilt. I finally figured a color strategy for the threads to keep from changing the threads and bobbins so much.
We are constantly attempting to keep the mockingbirds from building which seems impossible, and they are quite testy and a little on the mean side. Taking a meal is a lovely expression! Happy Weekend, Carole!
Good luck with the wren. They drive me a little crazy here. For 2 years they tried to build nests in the bumper of my car. They can build FAST!
I’m working on the Goldfinch quilt all weekend.
I’m sure your friend was grateful for that delicious sounding lasagna.
This turns into a busy time of year for you. Good luck with all your entries for the fair.
I always love watching you get ready for the fair. That yellow bird picture is wonderful. He could almost be posing for you!
You are going to be rocking the fair! And your chicken alfredo sounds like a wonderful dish to take to your friend.
This week has been nutty — We were gone on Father’s Day and left the next day after PT for a funeral in Ohio so I had to pack up the yard sale stuff yesterday. I delivered probably 95 percent to the community theatre’s rummage sale site. Yay! Probably more but I’m going to try to marketplace a few things first and donate some to an art center. More PT, dinner with a friend last night (which was more like a counseling session), another friend coming tonight and Saturday another funeral. Someday I’ll get to the lake.