Where oh where is summer?

Here it is almost August and we are still waiting for those hot days. There has been lots of rain, but the heat is lacking. That means that the crops are way behind. We are not even thinking about combining the wheat yet. Let's hope, that August will be more like we are used to. The Two Cylinder club (for those not in the know, that is the club for antique John Deere tractors enthousiasts) had their annual show in Drayton. Since this was the year of the crawler or bulldozer, Laurence had to have his J.Deere 40 there. But when he drove it home the week before from the shed to the workshop something was seriously wrong. It ended up that the "head" had to be replaced.I have no clue, what it is, only that it means major bucks. It also meant a quick trip to Flint, Michigan for a new one. But as you can see, he did get it all together and made it to the show. See that little engine at the left? That is a stationary engine and it is used to make home made ice cream .Other years it is a very popular spot, but since it was cool and rainy that day, I did not see many customers. Each day there is a parade and this year the crawlers were first in line. In total there were over 20.I spend most of Saturday there and even saw our statue being sold at the small auction they have. Now it is up to Laurence to get our farm sign here.Once in place I can finish the flowerbed. Quilting was not forgotten. I finished the quilting on this workshop sample with Chinese Lanterns .I never like to start the quilting on a project, but once I'm quilting it gets better. Today I finished another small sample with one more to go. Those I hope to show next week.

One of my favorite auctions

The Amish Parochial School Auction was last Saturday and I would not miss that if at all possible. Laurence and I both went and each has his /her day figured out. I head for the tent with the pies first, so I can get my choice. They are delicious and not pricey.It is not unusal to see people walk away with 6 or more pies. They keep well in the freezer, though I did not get quite that many.At the same time Laurence got our bidding number. I took the pies back to the car and first things first.... a visit to the horses next. Where else can you see about 100 buggy horses, all lined up. This picture could have been taken a hundred years ago. But that are not the only horses. About 200 are being sold and these range from big Clydes to smaller ponies. Most of them are standing around hay wagons and I did not see many arguments. From there it was only a short walk to my next stop....the tent where the quilts are being sold. I had gone over on Friday afternoon and asked if I could see the quilts. Everybody else was still setting up, but the quilts were all ready to go. This way I could take my time looking at the ones that were of interest to me. This year there were around 120, from small baby quilts to king size ones. The one in this picture was the top of the auction and brought $1300.It was all hand appliqued and had a beautiful design. There was one for $1000, the rest were lower. I did end up with quilt 108 ( yes I sat through them all) It is a lone star in beiges, dark red and very dark blue. It is 110 by 96 inches and suits the room. Once that job was done, it was time to eat and there was no shortage of food. Sausage on a bun seemed to be the favorite. And it is the only place I know of, where there is a different line for each flavor of icecream. Laurence had watched the different auctions and had just about enough ,so after a short visit to the horse auction we went back home. I know, that next year we will be back. It is the place to meet family, friends and neighbours.

Yard work

On Monday I had a store owner come to the house to look at all my workshop samples. She might be interested for me to teach in her store. Since the the samples were all over I hunted them all up and put them on my design wall. The next step will be to take individual pictures and then update my workshop list. All of the classes are hand applique with no sewing machine involved, just the way I like it.

When we moved in December it was too late to figure out what plants we were looking at. By now I have a pretty good idea. Behind the house is a big area of the flower bed covered with a pretty ground cover, but it had taken over and had to be cut back.

That chore was completed last week, just in time.Laurence had a meeting at a resort (tough life!)near Grand Bend and the wives were invited along. Yesterday I had the whole day to myself, while the guys had their meeting. I started the day visiting the Lambton County Museum ,where they just happen to have an antique quilt show. There was a good collection of crazy quilts and signature quilts. I spend the morning there and on my way back to the resort I found a nursery. One of the first things I heard was "Perenials are 10 for $20 That was all I needed and I came back with a trunkfull of very healthy plants.

By now they are all planted ,since we can expect rain.

In front of the house is a area with shrubs and a statue, left by the former owners. The lower evergreens in the front had lots of brown spots and since we want to replace the statue with our farm sign anyway we dug the shrubs out with the help of the tractor. Next step will be to move the farm sign, but who knows when! I have not decided what I want to put in the front, but it will be either other low evergreens or some perenials.

Sashiko.....finally finished

Yesterday Blogger did not want to co-operate and I finally gave up. This morning was better. I do have problems at times to get all the pictures to show up, usually the first one, so that's why the rose is first, just in case it was a no show. With the cool and rainy weather we have had, the roses are doing very well and I think I start to like them.So far I have not run into many problems disease wise. This piece with hand appliqued circles and sashiko is finally all together. The borders were a lot of work. I did each border piece seperate, sewed the whole thing together and then finished the sashiko where the border pieces would meet. That way I could match them no too badly. I have not decided how to quilt this. I could use a big stitch, similar to sashiko or machine quilt it. Regular quilting is not possible with my painful shoulders, what is too bad, but reality . It does not help either, that I try to keep the flowerbeds looking not great, but acceptable. Behind the house are a lot of shrubs and in front of them is a real nice groundcover, that has taken over. Very slowly I'm pulling most of that out and later will replace that with some SLOW growing perenials. As I was working away I heard a noise and I found this little fellow in one of the bushes. He did not like the idea of having to share the flowerbed with anybody else. We have had company of and on for the last week. Shawn and Emily flew from Calgary to Hamilton, spend some time with Jeanette and Tony., Then we picked them up and they have been busy since with weddings and visiting friends. A few more days at a cottage and it will be time to fly back home. It was really good to see them again.

A farmer's fix

Our lawn looked a little yellow, according to Laurence and that needed a change. Since the big farm sprayer was empty and clean, he decided, that it would be easy to spray some liqued fertilizer on the lawn. Now our lawn is big, but it is not a field with as a result, that we have a tiger striped lawn. There was not enough fertilizer in the sprayer to make it work right and there was not enough pressure to spray the right width. And around the flowerbeds it is still a little yellow. He wanted to try it again, but once was enough for me. This is the workshop sample with the Chinese lantern plant. It is ready to be quilted. The size is about 19 by 26 inches. If the weather stays like this, I should finish it by next week. The weather has not been good in the last week. Most days we have showers and it has been cool. By the time you can work in the garden, another shower shows up. The roses seem to like it though and I have a wide variety of shapes and colors. I think I might to start to like them. Today is Canada Day . We missed the local parade , but might make it to the ball game later in the day. I will leave you with this week's favorite