A quilt with a story

This is what we woke up to this morning. We knew it was in the forecast, but you never seem to be ready for this.It will all be gone by tomorrow and we hope to be able to continue the corn harvest. About the quilt. Grandma Helmuth lived through the depression and she has been recycling her whole live. When we went through her house to get it ready for the auction we found in the back of a closet a bag with fabric. Jenny went through a collection of carefully cut up blouses, shirts , aprons and skirts in checks and plaids. She decided that she wanted the bag and on the day of the auction it was hers for $2. She did not know, what she wanted to do with them at first,but later decided to make a small quilt for a gift. She carefully cut out patches and sewed them together Then it was my turn to do the machine quilting. The binding has been sewn by machine and I will start the hand sewing on Saturday. That day we have an art and crafts festival at our church, the Listowel Mennonite Church in Listowel. This will be show casing some of the talents of members of the congregation .It is not meant to be a crafts sale, although some participants might have items for sale. I will show a collection of my quilts. Where: Listowel Mennonite Church, Listowel When: Saturday, November 1st from 10 till 3

Corn harvest

Nothing news worthy has happened here on the farm. As the weather permitted the equipment got cleaned and put away. I managed to get most bulbs out of the garden and the plants put away in the shop. At times I have been doing that with the snow flying and that is not pleasant. We started yesterday with the corn harvest in a small field with no tile drainage. Once it gets wet in the fall it gets tricky to get the corn of a field like that. Today was test plot day. In the spring we get different varieties of seed from the different dealers. Some are old stand bys, some brand new and at times an experimental Once it is time for the harvest, we will ask for a weigh wagont to come. First things first. After catching up to the news it is time to get down to business. Each variety is checked for what is called standability ( how many stalks are standing and how many are broken) and how many plants there are in a certain area. Than it is back on the combine. Each row is combined and augered in the electronic wagon. The weight is recorderd and the corn is augered from there to our wagon. But that is not all. A sample is taken and the moisture content is determined. After the last corn variety has been tested, we receive a paper with all the information. Then, when the seed dealers come around for orders, Laurence can make informed decisions! I did get some machine quilting done and I hope to have it finished by next week Saturday I will be teaching "sashiko" in Brampton.

Fall

After a few wonderful sunny days during the week-end we are back to fall weather with rain and c0oler temperatures. Time to clean out the garden and bring the begonia and calla bulbs in. Yesterday was guild and I was gone for most of the day.I usually have a long list of things to do. I did stay for both meetings, because we started the sign-up for the next MCC quilt. I will give 4 workshops in January and at the end of the day each participant will get a kit with pattern and fabric. For home work they will have to hand applique the block or piece of the border and out of all those pieces I hope to come up with quilt. I did manage to finish my crazy quilt block. This is number two of four, but the rest will have to wait. I like to start on a block, but seem to run out of steam during the process. Either I cannot come up with more stitches for the border or I cannot find the right laces. And that with boxes of "stuff " I have gathered over the years. Right now I'm working on some gifts for Christmas. Yes, I know I'm early, but the time is now or it will not get done. Then I have to finish a small quilt top Jenny made with old pieces of fabric she bought at grandma's sale. We have a visitor right now and as you can see, she is not very happy. She misses her owners, who are going to the "Sheep and Shear" Festival in New York State. It usually takes a few days for her to get used to our place. We have to watch her, because she has discovered that there is a big yard to run around in. Trouble is, that she is not very good in coming back, what worries me. So as long as her owners are not here, she will stay on the leash.That's why the sad look on her face. Laurence is doing much better and is back to doing the chores. The beans are combined, the wheat planted, a field has been tiled, so now it is waiting for the corn to dry some more before the combining. Lately I have been using Picassa for the pictures and it has been a hit and miss process. The uploading of the pictures I can do, but after that with the text I have problems getting it published. So let's hope it will work this time.

White beans

It has been slow going here on the farm. First I had my yearly dose of laryngitis/coughing spells. I was not feeling sick enough to go to bed, but on the other side not well enough to get anything done. Than on Sunday morning, doing chores, Laurence injured his back. He had a back operation 12 years ago and had been doing well. At first he thought it were muscle spasms, but now it seems to be worse. He cannot sit, lay down or stand for any length of time. And would't you know, the weather turned to really nice and sunny. On Monday afternoon he decided , that if he just could get on the combine, he could sit and harvest some soybeans. It did go slow, but it worked.With the help of some neighbours the beans got combined and some wheat got planted. By evening it took some doing to get hime back down, but according to him, he would have felt the same sitting in the house. At least his mind was on something else. Yesterday was the day for the white beans or navy beans. Not many farmers around here grow them, but if it works out, they are a very good crop. Again Laurence managed to hoist himself in the combine. It did go slow, but by evening all the beans were in the truck, except this container full. It di him good to know, that it was a very good crop. I dipped right into the combine and got a real clean sample. And tonight we had baked beans. According to hubby they tasted fine, but could use some "zap" So next time I have to look for another recipy. On Monday I received my first fabric postcard in the mail I have made many and send away many, but up to now I never received one. This one was made by my friend Karen and this was her first design. Well done, Karen and I hope to see more in the future. With 5 sunny days coming up and more beans to get combined and wheat to get planted, I do not think that there will be much quilting going 0n here at Lauren Farms. The main thing will be to try and get hubby up and around again.

Crazy Quilt block

It is cold and rainy outside and most of my flowers are gone. But inside this orchid brings some cheer. Grandma received it as a gift and it bloomed for months for her. Now that she is in a retirement place, she does not have enough room to keep them all. So this one came to me and I got it blooming again. It is back to crazy quilting. I have a few workshops coming up using this technique, so it makes sense to get back into the groove. This is the second block of 4 ( I hope!) using the horsey things I got from my mother and pieces of lace I received from my friend Janet in England. It is a lot of fun. In general it takes me longer to decide on what to use, that to actually do the sewing. Some days I have more ideas that others.

The harvest has stopped and we are waiting for some nice, sunny days. Once they arrive it is time to get the tubers and some bulbs out of the garden and store them for the winter.