Selvages

What to do ,when the creative well has dried up? Get out the box of selvages and start making post cards. Most of my fabric is neatly folded in boxes, but I like my selvages all together in a big mess. Then when I need some, I feel like I'm on a treasure hunt. I have collected selvages for quite a few years and now I'm getting more from friends. Next came the box with workshop samples. Each time I teach a workshop, where we make flowers out of wired ribbon, I come home with more samples. These also go in a box. And this box is also overflowing.These 3 cards are the result. I use WonderUnder to put it all together, plus some machine work. Come to think of it, I wonder if there are blue pansies. But that was the only color I had 3 of. Next up was the making of a Christmas Card. Yes, you read it right, a Christmas card. Each year I make 10 to 12 cards. I have done this for years and I have never kept one for myself. After all these years it is harder to come up with a new idea, so when something popped up in my mind, I decided to try it out right away. It has to be doable in not too much time. I had all I needed on hand and managed to make one in the time I allowed myself. Now the finished card and supplies are in a box and will be used on a rainy day. Last year I made cards with a kimono ( to let everybody know how happy I was to go to Japand in January) And I did not keep a card. This small kimono was left over from my last project, see last week, and I made myself this card. This one I will keep! It is too large to send away anyway. We have had a busy week. Last Thursday we picked Shawn and Emily up at the airport. They came to Ontario for the very sudden funeral of Emily's best friend's father. The visitation was on the farm and afterwards we drove up north to near Algonquin Park to stay a few days with friends. We have done this for years and always had good weather. This time I can describe it in 2 words: IT RAINED!

Most of our plans included being outside and had to be changed. We did manage to walk a short trail ,that was just completed. And when we came home on Monday afternoon we discovered , that not one drop of rain had fallen here at home.Next time it will be winter camping in the bush, at least if I can convince Laurence.

On our way home I stopped at the quilt store in Cookstown and found one more piece of corn fabric. I will need a few more, before I can start on my "corn" quilt.

Finially finished

Nothing like being a little on the late side! For our guild show last year the challenge was to make a small wall hanging using a synonym. I came up with this idea, but found out that it was not really a synonym, more of a saying. I put it away and made another quilt. But I never like to leave things unfinished, so a few weeks ago, with nothing better to do, I picked it up again. There are 4 small, folded kimono's in the center. The saying is as follows: something old (top left, made with a piece of vintage Japanese fabric) something new (top right, made out of fabric I just bought) something borrowed ( bottom left, this is the first folded kimono I saw. I received it from my friend Janet from England years ago and I have borrowed it for this quilt) something blue ( bottom right, made out of a blue oriental fabric) The circles are out of a old piece of oriental fabric appliqued on the blue background. The sashiko designs are done by hand. The quilt is machine quilted. And this time I even put a label on the back right away. Most of my quilts still do not have a label, but I promised myself to do better in the future. For years I have tried to grow dahlia's and most of the time they do not get very big and are full of bugs and holes. My aim was always to get one that is dinner plate size. And this year I managed that. The white one in the center is as big as a , smaller size, dinner plate. This afternoon I will cut some of these to take to my mother-in-law. She loves flowers and used to grow all kinds. Now that she is in a retirement home she really misses that. The next best thing is to bring her flowers from my garden.

More farming stuff, just once more

Our wheat harvest was done on Friday afternoon and that made it possible for us to go to the yearly meeting of the "other" antique John Deere" group on the province on Saturday. Here they have some of the machinery working, what really appeals to Laurence. He knew, that there would be a few old combines at work. After some last minutes repairs the 7 combines were all in the field. While I was asked to take some pictures Laurence took a ride on the second combine. With the clouds in the sky and the sunny weather it made for some good picture weather. I was quite impressed with the line-up of these combines, till the next morning. Laurence told me, that I should see what he had found on the Internet. Now that was impressive! The previous day 200 combines harvested wheat, all at the same time, to set a new Guiness Book Record. It happened near Winkler, Manitoba and you can see them in action and learn more about the charity it is for at www.harvestforkids.com. And yes, it is very impressive. If we would have been closer Laurence would have gone, even if he had to drive a few hours. On Sunday evening we went to the Dettweiler Meeting House. This is the oldest, stone church in Waterloo County. It was build in 1855 and has been restored as it was in that era. The small part in the back was added and has washrooms. There is only hydro in that part. Once you go inside, it is as if you were back in the 1800's. Benches all around an old wood stove. At that time the women would sit on one side, the men on the other. The wooden planks coming down from the ceiling have knobs on which to hang your hat. Maybe you have noticed the keyboard on the left. There is no hydro in this part (notice also the lack of light fixtures ) There seem to be a few outlets behind the pulpit. And there is no air conditioning, something we could have used that evening. Even with all the windows wide open it stayed very warm and humid. But the singing was great! I'm almost finished with the quilting on a piece and I hope to have it completely done by next week. This here is an upcoming project. The seedbag Laurence found at an antique mall in Ohio. What was interesting for us was, that the previous night we had stayed at a b and b ,where we saw the same bag. The hostess was the grand daughter of the Yoder, who owned this company. Laurence's orders for me are, that I cannot cut the bag up in pieces. On the right are a few pieces of feed sack fabric. In front are logo's I have cut of Laurence's hats over the years. Right now you cannot do that anymore, because the logo's are embroidered right on the hat. How it will all go together, I have no clue, but I will come up with something.

Not a good day, at least at the start

Yesterday I had to get something at the home farm and while there the young couple, who rent the house offered me a bag of cucumbers. In the winter they had asked Laurence for a patch of ground to have a garden and Laurence had worked up a patch. Now they discovered , that after a week's holidays things had grown more then expected. It was just last Sunday ,that Jenny mentioned, that all the cucumber relish was gone. When we moved a few years ago I had decided not to do any canning and I got rid of my jars and my, mostly too old anyway, spices. Now things have changed and I'am planning to can, besides applesauce, peaches and tomatoes, relish and pickles. So this meant a trip to town to get new spices and some supplies. And since I threw out my old recipes, I also had to look for a new one. Everything was cut up last night, all ready to go first thing this morning. The relish was cooked and bottled. Then when I had a sample, it did not tast like it should. Something had gone wrong.Anyway, this is the first time in almost 40 years, that I could not use my relish. So I will ask for my old recipe from my friend Pat and try it next week again. I was told that there are an over abundance of cucumbers where these came from. So not a good start of my day. Then I tried some machine quilting and could not make that go. I gave up at that point and went to the garden, where I found this lily. I had totally forgotten ,that I had planted it in between some bushes. I bought it for Easter last year and once it quit blooming I had taken it outside. Now that was a nice surprise. And Another pair of socks. The pattern is out of Sock Innovation by Cookie A. Yarn by Socks that rock. A somewhat boring pattern in a very boring color. I was glad, when I was finished. Now it is on to a more challenging pair. The crazy quilt is still on my wall and that's where it will stay for a few weeks, till I have figured out, how to put it together. So far I'm pleased that it all went together.I have made up my mind, that this is more a project for colder days. This afternoon I got another quilt top out. This one I started for our guild challenge last year. Once I found out, that it did not really fit the criteria, I forgot about it. And oh wonders, this time I could get my machine to work. For some reason machine quilting is hard for me. I seem to get really tense and end up with very sore shoulders and back. But so far so good. Later in the afternoon I helped Laurence with bringing the large round straw bales out of the field to the barn. Just like the threshing I talked about last week, this also is much easier. No more handling small bales up in a hot barn! Now it is all done from a tractor seat. Only 2 small fields of spring wheat to combine and this part of the harvest is finished. This has been a great year with a good yield and a great price. It is not often, that you get both. Usually it is one of the other, or both are way down.

Just now a truck drove in and I received another bag of freshly picked cucumbers and green peppers. These were the left over from todays harvest after they had cut up enough for 2 batches of bread and butter pickles. Now this time it will be done right!!