chicken-feed bag tote

The following picture is to prove my theory: "if it isn't moving, you can sew it!" :-) On a longarm list I read daily, someone made a tote out of a dog-food bag. She was inspired by this website: http://www.soaustin.com/home a lady in Texas recycles bird-food bags into totes and gets an amazing $20 reselling them! I just had emptied a chicken-feed bag the other day , and just had to try it out. Her bird-seed bags are much more colorful, this one for the chickens is a boring tan. Anyway, I think it will be a great way to carry all those apples we will pick off of our trees this fall. Sturdy, and disposable if needed. Not to mention, one-of-a-kind! ! !

Starry Nights pattern

Here's a few pictures of a new pattern that I'm using with the IQ, called Starry Nights. I thought the border fabric in this customer's table runner was a perfect match with the pattern.

Our farm animals

About a month ago, we got 8 chickens from some friends that have flock of over 30. They had some older hens that they wanted to separate from their group. We used to buy fresh eggs from them, but thought about trying out having our own chickens. We are really enjoying having them around. We let them free-range in the afternoon, they stay busy pecking at bugs & scratching in the dirt. So far, they haven't been much trouble. It will be interesting to see how it goes in the winter, when they have to stay inside. They really get excited to go out- when I go in to let them out, they race out the door, sometimes squeezing through two at a time. They love to eat table scraps- leftover noodles are their favorite. Or carrot peelings, bread, or watermelon.

Here are some pictures of them, and their coop, and nesting boxes. We found out after the nesting boxes were built that you only need 2 or 3 nests for 8 chickens, so we are way over-built here. But, I guess we have room to expand someday! It is funny, because they seem to prefer about 2 nests & all lay in the same 1 or two openings. We are getting 3-5 eggs a day- just right for our family.

New IQ pattern images

Some of you have asked lately if I have pictures online of the patterns I have available with the Intelliquilter. I've attempted that this weekend. Here on my blog you should find pictures of all the current over-all patterns. You can look at the categories on the right-hand side bar in the blog- you should see categories like "IQ Patterns- Floral" or "IQ Patterns- Geometric", and click on those links. It should bring you directly to the post with those pattern images. Keep in mind that these pictures are not all at the same scale, and can be sized bigger or smaller when it comes to actually quilting it out.
I hope this helps you pick out the pattern you'd like on your next quilt. I am often adding new ones, and will try my best to keep it updated. Let me know if there is a certain kind of pattern that you'd like, but don't see here, and I'll be glad to see what I can do to find one.

IQ Patterns- basic

IQ Patterns- Feathers or Hearts

IQ Patterns- Other

IQ patterns- seasonal / holiday