quilting

For my birthday last month my mom got me this beautiful bundle of Anna Maria Horner's Folk Song.  After a quick Pinterest search I found a free pattern I thought would be fun and cut right into the fabric.  The top came together quickly and now it is just sitting waiting for me to quilt and bind it.... which for me usually gets put off for quite some time :)

I also got a bundle of Roots and Wings to make this quilt.  My triangles are all cut out and ready to be sewn but life has been full of other things recently and I have not had time to sew any more than this... just 2 more weeks of CC for most of us - then one BIG project (I will be sharing about this soon) before I can get back to my quilts :)

I also made this fun fabric map of the US.  You can find the map pattern here if your interested in making your own.  I traced the map backward onto heat bond, cut out the pieces, ironed them on to the back of fabric scraps then trimmed the excess fabric.  I lightly traced the map onto my background fabric with pencil to help with placement and then ironed on my fabric states. 

Now I just need to frame my map and hang it on the wall with this piece that I finally framed last week!

what i've been reading

I love to read and although I don't often have lots of time to sit down and read I usually have a number of books that I am working through, some more quickly than others.  Anyway, I thought I would share some of the things I am reading now, or have recently finished reading...

I have been talking about wanting chickens for years and recently decided that it was time to do some serious research on chickens and see if chicken keeping was something doable for our family.  So along with lots of internet research I purchased these two books:

I finished A Chicken in Every Yard pretty quickly and really enjoyed it, and if you can only get one book on keeping chickens, this is a good one.  Lots of helpful information and easy to read.  I am still working through Keeping Chickens and the further into the book I get the more I am getting out of it, although most of the information is very similar to what I already read in the first book.

I was picking up some books we had on reserve at the library and came across this book.  I am always looking for good reading material for my kids and this looked interesting, so I grabbed it.  I am only one chapter in, so I can't really give a real review of it, but I am looking forward to reading what happens next.  And just to be clear - I do not always (actually rarely ever) pre-read books before I hand them off to my kids, but sometimes when I see something that looks interesting but has not been recommended my someone I trust then I will read at least part of the book before recommending it to one of my kids.

In the wee hours of the morning, while I am feeding Kai, I have been reading Edie's Lenten devotions.  I look forward to those few moments of encouragement and reflection in the still darkness of the early morning. I will be sad when the series is over!  You can read day 2 and find out how to subscribe to her Lenten devotional emails here.

This is another devotional I recently read and really enjoyed.

Tallulah and I started this book together last night and I am looking forward to finding a few moments each day to connect with my child who is feeling her place as the middle child right now.

We have not started it yet, but Heidi at Mt. Hope Chronicles inspired me to read A Tale of Two Cities aloud to the kids.  I am hoping to start this week :)  You can get if on your kindle for free from Amazon.

What have you been reading lately?