Back.....again

There have been a few problems with my web site, so it was gone for a few days. But all seems to be back to normal. At the beginning of September I gave a workshop in Orangeville for the Dufferin Piecemakers Quilters Guild.We had a big group of 20, each making their own small landscape. Last Saturday I was back for a second workshop and four ladies showed me their finished landscape. Here you can see Janet, Beckie, Marilyn and Doreen with their projects. Great work! I also took pictures of the individual pieces, but they were too blurry. I better start using a tripod for something that small or get a steadier hand. We have been busy around here.My mother-in-law will move next week to a retirement place in town and her house has been sold,so now we have to get ready for the auction on October 9th. And then there is the harvest. The weather has not co-operated the last few weeks. The soybeans are ready, but we need some warm, sunny days. My plans for the farm quilt have been side tracked. I need to come up with another 2 days workshop. I'm working on that first, but do not have enough ready to show you. I should have more by next week.

Hania State

I grew up on a farm in the north of the Netherlands, in the prvince of Friesland. We lived on an old farm with a kitchen full of old blue tiles. It was a great place for a kid to grow up. The name of Hania State is very old. State means from old a fortified farm and it must have belonged at some point to the Hania family. Around part of the yard was a wide ditch( not on the side you can see on this picture),beside that was a narrow strip of land with another ditch on the other side. On both sides of the 10 meter wide strip were magestic old trees. We were told, that is was a remainder of an old moat. No matter what, it was a great place to play.Over the years I always wanted to make a quilt with the old farm on it, but I never found the time. I also did not have any good pictures, since growing up vere few pictures were taken. But my mother to the rescue. On one of my visits she gave me this advertizing. Where it came from and who took the picture is not known. It is an advertisement for cleanig products and is over 50 years old. But still no colors. Years ago I received this painted milk can as a gift. I took it home full of knitting yarn. I can still feel my back!!!On the front is a painting of the farm. The rest is done in the style of Hindelopen,the town where where my mother grew up. And here is the beginning of my attempt. I drew the farm and had it enlarged. I have copied it onto freezer paper and colored it just a bit. Now I have to decide. Do it all by hand, even the small windows, which will take forever or use some fusing. I know what I like to do, but with everything going on I do not feel I have the time. My mother's 90th birthday is in January and I would like to have something for her to see.