Easter Greetings

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Tina

Last of her line

November 1996 - April 2011
she was a good dog

Warm and Fuzzy Feelings

I want to share an email I got the other day. I can't tell you how happy it made me.

Subject: Thanks for telling us about KIVA

Hi Henrietta,

I really enjoy both of your blogs. I found Henrietta's Other Hat because of your quilting and I've been inspired by your talent.

The quilting is amazing but it was some of your non-quilting entries that really touched my heart - and then my husband's when I shared them with him. Today we made two Kiva loans because of your words and encouragement. We gave you the credit for sending us - so hopefully you'll hear from Kiva. Thanks for sharing!

Isn't that just the coolest thing? Thank YOU Melissa for taking the time to write.

I have added a new blog to my Blogroll on the right. SpiderWomanKnits do check her out, I have linked to her post about making astonishingly easy (and quick) Market Bags from Vintage pillowcases. And, also, too, she has chickens!

Check out this recipe for Killer Easy Chocolate Pudding

Now it is time for tea, my lovely vintage J & G Meakin Cornflower pattern transferware cups (bought on Bonanza for $3.50 - 2 cups 4 saucers, what a steal) fit the mood today. Wish you were here, I have two cups!

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O Happy Day!

I think!

This was a UFO. About five years ago (maybe more) Lori was making an Ozark Maple Leaf quilt from Nickel Quilts by Pat Speth & Charlene Thode and I thought "I like that" so I made about 20 blocks and put them aside. You know how that works, right?

Images should enlarge when clicked.

I was inspired by Judy Laquidara to dig through my sewing shelves and find a UFO and finish it.

Yes, well. One down and I'm not telling so don't even ask.

The Fabrics

The blocks were made with scraps from stash and a white on cream for background. Two of the blocks were distorted horrors and IMO unusable, that left 18, so after considerable head scratching I thought if I set them on point 4 x 3 I would get a usable throw. This was perhaps not the best setting choice for this particular block, but too late now!

The setting triangles are Connecting Threads "Fox" from their Quilters Candy Mirage line, which was quite a surprise for me when it arrived because I bought on the picture not the description. We live and learn every day.

The inner border is an older Moda, still available if you search diligently. The little circles compliment the Fox (which does not play very well with others) and added a little foo-foo to what was otherwise an unloved project.

Final border fabric was bought for the purpose, the name is "Stockinette" and it looks exactly like knitting! Cool! Super-duper sale from Connecting Threads again also available in red, green and blue, I bought 6 yards for backing border and binding at $2.48 a yard and used it all.

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Henyard Chronicles

The hen project is not just about eggs, I get vast pleasure watching my chickens go about their daily business from my office window. In many ways it is more satisfactory than sitting in front of the tee-vee.

My henyard is a perfect microcosm. (def. #1) There are characters; bullies, braggarts, complainers, followers and leaders; there are noisy dramas, both tragedies and moments of communal joy.

One of my favorite hens was a little bantam cross I called Bella. She was one of a bunch I trapped for Click picture to enlarge an old friend, a neatnik who was being driven crazy by hordes of prolifically breeding and prodigiously (def. #1) pooping chickens. My suggestion that I trap and remove the roosters, imposing a halt to the breeding was rejected out of hand. It was the poop fouled up (sorry) that course of action. Over a period of weeks I trapped and brought home literally dozens of small hens. The roosters were dropped off after hours at the Humane Society.

Many of the hens flew out of the henyard just as soon as their wing feathers grew back and departed for points unknown. Bella was one of the ones who stayed, she was easy to recognize, among the serious eggers, the heavyweight black Australorps and Silver Lace Wyandottes. Each of Bella's feathers, delicately shaded from tan through salmon to brown had a perfect round white dot. The picture above is of her daughter who is not quite as pretty, but much tamer.

Bantam hens brood often on huge clutches of eggs and nature has good reason for this. It is not uncommon for the proud hen to hatch nine to twelve chicks and raise just one to adolescence, at which point she abandons them and enjoys a few weeks of freedom before starting on the next batch. Like people some are good protective mothers and others are more casual. Attaining adulthood is equally perilous for the young, especially if they are raised by one of the wilder hens. Chicks meet cats and dogs and quite often simply get lost.

Each day the small chickens greet the dawn with noisy enthusiasm from the olive tree in which they roost at night. The big hens prefer the hen house, which has a roof and proper roosts, no clinging to a branch on a wet night in a howling gale for them. Before it is properly light the little hens have flown over the fence to start their daily rounds, busily scratching up the neighbor's flower beds and patrolling the paddocks in search of seeds and delicious bugs. In the evening they return to eat before fluttering up into their tree, grumbling and squabbling as they decide where to roost for the night.

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Big Waves

This video of secondary wave surges was taken downtown Kailua Kona on Alii Drive, a historic district. I have marked the photographer's position with a red dot on the map. The video starts by looking across the bay towards the King Kamehameha Beach Hotel, which is the big beige block. Then it pans towards the gardens of the Hulihee Palace, summer home of Hawaiian Royalty with the Mokuaikaua Church (1836) steeple behind.



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Superstition or Serendipity

This is my 13th loan through Kiva and the borrower Nancy's 13th loan too. I have a natural bias to lend to women, 8 women and 5 men to date; which I am working to correct, next loan goes to a man. In this case, whether from superstition or pure serendipity, this is where the money goes.

From Kiva:
"Nancy, aged 40, lives with her three children in her own house in Huancayo, Peru. More than six years ago she opened a food stall in her house and since then she spent every day preparing meals. Her children are grown up and help her in her business; they cook and serve meals.

Thus hard-working Nancy earns a living. She also accepts orders for large quantities when many people come together and celebrate a special event. Her work philosophy is to be always available for her customers, keep order in her business and have adequate control over her accounts. This ensures a stable income and is according to her the key to her profitable business. Therefore she intends to buy new cookware and utensils.

This is her loan No. 13 with Microfinanzas Prisma. Nancy is very happy to rely on continuous financial support, since she always repaid her previous installments on schedule. In addition, she likes being a member of her communal bank, because all her fellow members are responsible and very supportive.

She thanks those who will manage her loan, because it will be very useful to the progress of her activity. She will use the loan to invest in new utensils and plates. She will also invest part of her loan in her farm business and buy a few bags of fertilizer." (translated from Spanish by Kiva)

Y'all come back!