There are advantages to keeping horses and raising chickens in the same pasture.  The hens scratch through the horse manure, spreading it so it doesn't create a bare spot in the pasture, or become an incubator for parasites to grow.  The chickens eat any undigested feed so it's a good symbiotic relationship {win win}.  

Every now and then though, the girls do get into a little trouble.  For instance, in order for the horses to have access to the water troughs the chickens also have access.  Sometimes {like this Saturday} they get brave and decide to perch on the edges of the trough, dipping their beaks in for  a little sip.  Sometimes they get more than they bargained for....like this girl did.  

I love to sew, enough so that when we came up with the business name Sow & Water Robert thought we should go with Sew & Water to reflect more accurately what we both love.  That being said, I haven’t shared a tutorial or many sewing tips here.  As a beginner seamstress {even the title ‘seamstress’ intimidates me but I can’t call myself a ‘sewer’…that's just gross} I feel I have much more to learn than I have to offer as a teacher.  But today’s tip I just have to share, first here’s a little background.

I learned to sew solely so I could learn to quilt.  My grandmother {Maw Maw} made beautiful quilts and she was still working on a few of them when she went to be with Jesus.  I took one of her quilt tops to our local quilting club and received an invaluable quilting education complete with 15 surrogate grandmothers.  I was hooked. 

It’s been over 10 years since I finished my first quilt.  Recently, I’ve really wanted a Christmas quilt.  Mom had one that Maw Maw had started but wasn’t happy with {the quilt had a pucker}.  I brought it to my new quilting group {new marriage =new house=new town=new quilting group} and the verdict was unanimous; I have to remove the center of the quilt, recreate it, then add it to the borders so it will still be Maw Maw’s quilt and she would be pleased with the outcome.

Now, as a beginner seamstress there is one thing I have experience in; seam ripping.  If you’re not real good at sewing you get real good at seam ripping {correcting your mistakes}.   But I’ve never had to rip this many seams at once; thankfully one of the ladies told me about an electric seam ripper {that sounds great, I’ll have that}.   I looked it up, watched a video and thought, “that looks an awful lot like an electric razor” {light bulb}. 

• It is the perfect width to use on seams {tiny}
  
• It costs $7-$10 at TJMaxx {electric seam rippers on Amazon are around $17}
  
• You may already own one {I won’t tell}
  
• It is incredibly fast, safe and won’t cut your fabric

Here’s a quick video of my trimmer in action, hope you find it helpful!  Happy sewing!