A light and a dark scrappy sprouts blocks.
Also a light and a dark circle of squares blocks. The squares in the dark block are all different fabrics, guess they're just too dark to see the differences in the picture.
I found the background fabric when digging through a box with lights. I love the soft little blue flowers.
The barns on our farm are old barns, built in the mortise & tenon style. They're perfect for the barn swallows to make their mud daub nests. The other morning when I went into the west barn to feed the young heifers, the barn swallows were having an absolute tizzy! Such chittering chattering and flying in circles! What was going on, there were no cats to be seen? I walked towards the north end of the barn and saw the reason for the excitement, these little guys were ready to spread their wings and fly.
It's interesting that all the adult barn swallows who have nests in this barn, were coaxing the birds out of the nests, not just their parents. By noon the young birds had taken flight, the nest is empty for a short time until the swallows lay eggs for the 2nd hatching of the season.
We have so many barn swallows on our farm. Whenever we're working in the hay fields, mowing, raking or baling, the swallows come swooping and gliding in their figure 8 glide eating the insects as they fly. They're amazing to watch and they never fly into each other!
So pretty!
ReplyDeleteI love the blocks you have been making for RSC20 :) Those sprouts are sew cute too :D
ReplyDeleteI love hearing about your barn swallows.. nice that they help diminish your outdoor bug population and have 2 rounds of young ones... do the young ones come back next year to find a mate??? I love that the entire barn swallow community urges the young ones to fly like that too <3 Have a great day! Kathi
We don't band them so we have no way of tracking them but I do think they return to our farm. In the spring there are always fights over the old nests. We don't know if it's the young birds or the older ones. I'm always sad when they leave in early fall.
DeleteI love the picture of the birds - lovely!
ReplyDeleteAnd I love your quilt blocks. They remind me a lot of one of my favorite quilt designers, Lori Holt.
Have a great weekend!
I like that pattern with the squares that form a circle!
ReplyDeleteYour sprout block are so pretty and the circle of squares are pretty awesome too! They are going to make great quilts. I think it's interesting about the swallows having a 2nd hatch. I just learned that robins do too. We have an abundance of robins and chickadees and lately a few starlings(who are not my favorite). Thanks for sharing your barn swallow photos.
ReplyDeleteGreat blocks!! and how cool on the birds!! Did you get to see them fly?
ReplyDeleteNo, I didn't see them but I told our DIL and she took the grandsons to see them. Two of the birds flew away while they were watching. The 3rd one was gone by noon when I checked.
DeleteI'm envious that you were able to get a picture of the baby barn swallows about to take flight. Our baby barn swallows are always tucked into their nest when I'm out there and so they leave without being seen. I always look forward to the adults keeping me company when raking and baling hay. Redwinged Blackbirds and Bobolinks also keep me company.
ReplyDeleteWe have so many barn swallows in our barns, we often see them teeter on the edge when they're ready to take off. You can tell they're nervous. The redwinged blackbirds usually make their presence known more in the spring time. We don't have bobolinks in our area, at least I haven't seen them. Happy stitching!
DeleteBeautiful blocks in light and Dark BLUE, Gretchen!!
ReplyDeleteI agree that the little flowers are charming,as are those little barn swallows! Barn swallows are a very pretty bird.
ReplyDeleteyour blocks look so perfect
ReplyDeleteThe contrast between the light and dark blues is really striking. Love your blocks this month.
ReplyDeleteYour blue sprout blocks are just fabulous.
ReplyDeletesuch precious babies!
ReplyDeleteYour circle blocks are beautiful and they are definitely on my list for one day. Love that you had circle blocks and then the adult barn swallows were flying circles over your head. The babies are adorable and how fortunate that you had the opportunity to take a picture!
ReplyDeleteThose darn barn swallows are a pain. We fought them for weeks, they insisted on building a nest on the front of our house. Hubby would knock it down and a couple hours later they'd have a new start on another, for days!!!! He had read somewhere if you place a piece of aluminum foil where they want to build they will stop and guess what, it worked. Thank you for linking up to Put your foot down.
ReplyDeleteYour Circle of Squares blocks are so pretty. I make some of these one day.
ReplyDeleteThe barn swallows are adorable. We don't have them where we live in Ohio so I know little about them. It's a fun fact to learn that the new fledglings have a cheering squad when they're learning to fly.
Pretty blocks and such a neat picture of the babies! Farm life has it advantages - so much to learn! Thx for sharing! Hugs
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