Frost

Finally.....the harvest is over. Hubby got up at 3.30 this morning to combine the last corn and he finished before sunrise. Conditions were just right with the ground frozen. So that is it for another year. I took these pictures soon after the sun was up and there was still frost on the ground. All is gone now and it turned into a beautiful day. Not much in the quilt department to report. Worrying about a sick mother in Holland and a sick mother-in-law here took most of my engergies.A workshop last Saturday in Newmarket, a trunkshow tomorrow in Brampton and another workshop on Saturday in Orangeville just about does it for this year.I'm trying to machine quilt a small landscape, but I feel like I'm getting worse instead of better. Might have something to do with not feeling the best with a sore throat and a cold. These are my final few roses, clinging to life. This bush flowers from springtime till late fall. The small roses are not very showy, but they are very pretty.

More postcards

Yesterday was the November meeting of the Waterloo County Quilters Guild. There had been a lot of interest shown in making postcards for a quilt for the Mennonite Relief Sale . For those members, who have never made a card, I decided to have a workshop on December 2nd. It did not take long to fill that one with 24 members and now there are enough signed up for another workshop in January. This one will not be till after I come back from Holland in the middle of January. The due date has been changed from January to FEbruary. I also handed out 100 information sheets.These 2 cards are samples I made.One shows the MCC logo over stamps, the other is the logo for the Ten thousend Villages.More information you can find at www.mcc.org The goal is to make a 4 inch by 6 inch fabric postcard showing some aspect of the work by the Mennonite Central Committee. I will collect these cards ( we hope to get around 100) and give them to the local office. From there the cards will be distributed to the volunteers all over the world. They are asked to take the card(s) to the local post office , put stamps on and have the card hand cancelled and pop the card in the mail. I do not think that all the cards will make it back, but I hope for the best. These cards will be the beginning of another group quilt. It usually takes 3 years from the beginning till the quilt is sold.

Postcards

Last month I introduced at our monthly guild meeting a new idea for another quilt for the Mennonite Relief Sale. The first step is making postcards.Since a lot of the members have never made a fabric postcard I will be teaching a workshop on December 2nd. I made a few samples of Christmas cards to use during the day. This is all what I have been able to accomplish this week. The harvest is almost done,but my husband twisted his ankle coming down the steps of the combine, so that changed things. Xrays showed that it is not broken, but he won't be able to walk much for a few weeks.So I will have to do the chores for him. So far so good. I'm fine as long as the machinery does not break down. I'm absolutely not technical, give me a horse over a tractor anytime. When time allows I will make a few more cards.It is fun to make small projects.

Smile Quilts

Every year, in the fall, the Waterloo County Quilters Guild has a bee day where we make quilts for children with serious illnesses. The quilts are called "smile quilts" and are delivered to the hospital in Kitchener. In the last 5 years our guild has provided over 450 quilts. Once at the hospital,they are distributed by the nursing staff.We were provided with a pattern beforehand, but it is up to us to decide want to make. Over the years I have bought a collection of animal prints and each year I make at least one quilt. This year's sample you can see here. I have to buy some flanel for the back before I can machine quilt it. As you can see there was a good turn-out and a lot of work was accomplished. Yesterday I had to teach in Mount Forest, only 30 minutes from here and Saturday it is back to Orangeville. This all keeps me hopping. At home we are still combining. It is muddy, so far so good.I have not had the dreaded call "we are stuck". It is a relieve, when finally all the crops are in and we can settle in for the winter. There are lots of projects waiting for the time when there will be less interuptions.

I still don't get it !

On Saturday I gave a talk at the fall meeting for the Mennonite Women of Ontario at First Mennonite in Kitchener. They had some very good frames for hanging my quilts up. This was the first time I have seen 4 of my appliqued quilts hanging beside each other. And guess what..... MY CAMERA WAS AT HOME, so no pictures.Today I send another small wallhanging to my mother in Holland. She has now one for each season. And after I had send it in the mail I realized that I had forgotten to take a picture. When will I learn, that my canera should always be handy.So today a "boring" picture of my latest project to finish. It is a large bedquilt that I pieced. The machine quilting has been done by Creative Sisters in Kitchener and now all that is left for me to do is the binding. I'm not used to such a large quilt, so it will take me a while. But I have the time. The weather is still not cooperating, but we are combining corn. There is lots of mud and the combine has been stuck once.Right now they are flying right along. This means, that I have to stick around in case something comes up, like moving wagons, giving rides to the next field or going for parts. And of course there has to be food at mealtimes either in the house or taken to the field. I hope by next week I can say, we are finished for another year, but I have my doubts. .

I still don't get it !

On Saturday I gave a talk at the fall meeting for the Mennonite Women of Ontario at First Mennonite in Kitchener. They had some very good frames for hanging my quilts up. This was the first time I have seen 4 of my appliqued quilts hanging beside each other. And guess what..... MY CAMERA WAS AT HOME, so no pictures.Today I send another small wallhanging to my mother in Holland. She has now one for each season. And after I had send it in the mail I realized that I had forgotten to take a picture. When will I learn, that my canera should always be handy.So today a "boring" picture of my latest project to finish. It is a large bedquilt that I pieced. The machine quilting has been done by Creative Sisters in Kitchener and now all that is left for me to do is the binding. I'm not used to such a large quilt, so it will take me a while. But I have the time. The weather is still not cooperating, but we are combining corn. There is lots of mud and the combine has been stuck once.Right now they are flying right along. This means, that I have to stick around in case something comes up, like moving wagons, giving rides to the next field or going for parts. And of course there has to be food at mealtimes either in the house or taken to the field. I hope by next week I can say, we are finished for another year, but I have my doubts. .

Orchid

In 2 years Quilt Canada will be in New Foundland. Since I have never been that far east I would love to go. When I received a letter from the people on the workshop committee I got busy and made a list of my workshops. I only had one 2 day workshop, so I came up with another one.This quilt is about 25 by 27 inches and consist of hand applique and hand sashiko.I took a picture of one of my orchids and drew up a pattern. The pot is cut out of a piece of Japanese fabric I had. The twigs, leaves and flowers are hand appliqued. The "moss" is hand embroidered with the turkey stitch on an extra piece of fabic and sewn down later. The oval consists of 3 rounds of sashiko. The border was done last.The border pattern fits into a 3 inch square and I was very lucky that it all worked out in the end. I should know by now that it is much better to design a pattern before you start the work, than to do it as you go. I have run into these kinds of problems before, but have not learned my lesson yet. With all the other things going on, it took a while to finish it. If we could just get some nice weather now. After rain, sleet and snow we are in need of sunshine. There is still a lot of harvesting to do. It is of to my guild meeting now. I have an idea for another quilt for the Mennonite Relief Sale and I have to find out if there is any enthousiasm for my idea.

Harvest time

What a beautiful week it has been. After a lot of rain we finally have been able to combine the soybeans and started to plant winter wheat. Not that I'm doing much of the field work, but I'm busy keeping things going at home and I have to be ready to help out where ever necessary.This all makes it hard to get any quilt related work done. I do teach some workshops and this picture was taken in Mount Forest, a very easy 20 minute drive from here.The lazy one with nothing to show is moi! I taught the "Small Landscape" workshop there a week and a half ago and had a great group. And I will be back again on the first of November with the same workshop for another group. Things should settle down soon. My mother-in-law moved last week to a retirement place in Listowel. Everybody pitched in with cleaning the house and getting ready for the auction yesterday. The weather was perfect ,so everything could be put outside on the lawn. When it started at 11 it seemd that there were lots of people willing to spend their money. This was very good for grandma, but I think it was hard on her to see so many menories go. I was fortunate to be able to buy all the things I had my eye on, though at times for considerable more then I had figured on. By 3.30 it was all over and by 6 everything was cleared out and we could lock the house up. Not the end of the day though. Since it was so nice, it was back to combining and emptying wagons, so the day was not over till after 10. Next week I should have my new workshop done. All it needs is some sashiko around the outside. And then it is time to start on the wall hanging of my home farm in Friesland. I have decided to do it all with hand applique, even if it will take me al very long time. In the end I will be happier.

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.

Basket quilt

No,this quilt has not been made by me. This is the latest quilt by my 85 year old mother-in-law.It measures about 50 by 50 inches. The center consists of small squares, 5/8 of an inch before seam allowance. How about that for eye sight at that age. Hilda sewed all the squares together by hand, first 10 in a row and then 10 rows together. Later these small squares were sewn together into long strips. Finally those long strips were sewn together.. Once the border was in place and marked she stuffed some of the flowers in the borders after which she quilted it by hand. It is from my mother-in-law that I learned about quilts. The first time I saw a quilting frame was in her "front"room. When we took over the dairyfarm, grandpa and her moved to the new house build at the corner of the farm. That was over 32 years ago. Ove the years she has helped me with countless projects. We each had our favorite part, for her quilting for me applique and (sometimes)piecing. But that is about to change. Grandma decided that it is time to move to a place where there is more help available. So....we are busy taking her around to see places, trying to set up an auction and trying to sell her house. So you see there is not much time for anything quilt related. It also does not help that I ordered a bushel of peaches. Each year I forget how many peaches there are in a bushel, but most have been canned or made into jam by now. So if this blog does not get updated for a few weeks, you know the reason.

New card

We have been invited to a wedding this coming week-end and I wanted to make a fabric card.First I looked around for the largest envelope I could find, in this case a 6 by 9 inch one and a smaller evelope to stuff something in.Once this far I found a left-over rose from last week's project and I was on my way. The background and leaves are machine quilted on a piece of thick quilt bat. Now how to fasten the small envelope under the rose? First I tacked the top halve of the rose down by hand. The next step was to find a small piece of Velcro. One side is sewn to the back of the rose, the other side to the background of the card. One problem solved. Next I glued another piece of Velcro to the back of the small envelope. It is easy to attach the envelope. Loosen the bottom part of the rose, stick the evelope under the rose and the Velcro will hold it in place. Instead of a binding I used a zigzag stitch around the outside.

Roses

This week I made this small quilt for my, almost, 90 year old mother in Holland. This is the third one in the series and is meant for the summer.I used some off white wired ribbon for the 3D roses. I painted the ribbon with Seta Colors I had on hand.One side is yellow, the other side has some red along the edge. The black and white checkered fabric I put in some left-over dye and it came out this lovely green. I wished I had used the whole meter, instead of a fat quarter. The border is another piece of fabric that I dyed last week. Now I have to find some time to machine quilt it. Then a quick trip to the post office and it will be on its way. I'm thinking of some maple leaves for the fall quilt. But this is August and I forgot how busy we are in good weather. The wheat has been combined here and at the neighbours and the straw is in the barn. I even helped this afternoon driving the tractor, so the job would be done before supper. And then there is the big tree with harvest apples. That means making apple sauce for the freezer.And the(early) sweet corn! We like to take the easy route, so we plant our sweet corn at the outside of one of the fields with a six-row corn planter. The corn is planted in no time, but if we win the yearly battle with the raccoons we have lots of corn, more than we can use. So dear friend Pat came over today and left with a car load and more friends have been contacted. And this is the early variety.....there is more to come.

Canadian Foodgrains Bank

On Saturday morning we went for a quick visit to the farm of Eunice and John Bosomworth near Ayton. They had an "open house" with the proceeds going to the Canadian Foodgrains Bank (www.foodgrainsbank.com).In 1983 a group of churches started this foodgrains bank, so farmers could donate part of their crops for relief. Later the urban churches got involved. Often they would rent a field, pay for the inputs and donate the crops.With the low grain prices a group of churches in the area of Hanover tried something different. They asked if the Bosomworths would be willing to show their extensive collection of (mostly) John Deere tractors and implements and their Norwegian Fjorden Horses. So you can see there was something for both of us. The day was hot and sunny and when we got there the field was already full of parked cars. The horses were very friendly and quiet and took all the business in stride. The collection of tractors was amazing. We had to go from shed to shed. Too bad that the light inside was not very good for taking pictures. And ....it was very hot. We could not stay as long as we wanted. By noon the wheat was dry enough to start combining. Now we are glad we did not waste any time. After a few very hot and humid days we got rain and more rain. We did get our crop of, but only halve of our neighbour's. But it looks promising, the forecast predicts 4 or 5 sunny days. By next week I hope to have a picture of a new landscape. And I hope to get some help in doing a better job with this blog.

Play time before harvest time

Just in case you wonder what my husband is up to while I'm doing quilt related things I have some pictures for you here. For years he has been interested in antique John Deere tractors. Ove the years he bought different ones, some all restored and some in very rough shape. One cost $150 to buy, but an awfull lot more to fix up.Some he likes to use for the small jobs around the farm.So while I was trying to dye fabric last week, he got ready to take some tractors to the yearly show in Drayton, about a 15 minute drive from here.Back to the fabric. I have dyed some fabric before, but never had the idea that I knew what I was doing. So after this dye session I signed up for the Basic Dyeing Workshop at the Quilt University(www.QuiltUniveristy.com). It is a 4 week course and I just finished lesson 3. And I'm learing a lot I will show pictures after the last lesson is done. Laurence usually uses the "new" tractor with the trailer to haul the tractors, including a bulldozer, so he can leave everyting in town. That way the truck is still available. The first job is to wash and polish the tractors. Once at the fair grounds each tractor has its place. This year it was the "Year of the A", so ours was in a line-up with similar tractors. It is a fun week-end, even for me, more of a horse person than a tractor person. But now it is back to work. Yesterday we started the wheat harvest. So far the weather is cooperating, but the sky looks threatening. This also means, that a big part of the summer is over.

Play time before harvest time

Just in case you wonder what my husband is up to while I'm doing quilt related things I have some pictures for you here. For years he has been interested in antique John Deere tractors. Ove the years he bought different ones, some all restored and some in very rough shape. One cost $150 to buy, but an awfull lot more to fix up.Some he likes to use for the small jobs around the farm.So while I was trying to dye fabric last week, he got ready to take some tractors to the yearly show in Drayton, about a 15 minute drive from here.Back to the fabric. I have dyed some fabric before, but never had the idea that I knew what I was doing. So after this dye session I signed up for the Basic Dyeing Workshop at the Quilt University(www.QuiltUniveristy.com). It is a 4 week course and I just finished lesson 3. And I'm learing a lot I will show pictures after the last lesson is done. Laurence usually uses the "new" tractor with the trailer to haul the tractors, including a bulldozer, so he can leave everyting in town. That way the truck is still available. The first job is to wash and polish the tractors. Once at the fair grounds each tractor has its place. This year it was the "Year of the A", so ours was in a line-up with similar tractors. It is a fun week-end, even for me, more of a horse person than a tractor person. But now it is back to work. Yesterday we started the wheat harvest. So far the weather is cooperating, but the sky looks threatening. This also means, that a big part of the summer is over.

Annual Amish Parochial School Auction

On Saturday my husband and I went to the 11th annual Amish Parochial School Auction. I have been to most of them and each year it gets bigger. The auction is held to raise funds for the Amish schools in our area. Each year it is on the farm of another member. It looks to me that there is an awfull lot of work involved. First of all parking, one place for the cars and trucks, another for the horses and buggies. The main auction is in a big field. You name it, you can buy it, from old agricultural implements to childern's wagons to old milk cans and I can go on. In another corner they sell horse related equipment and gear.One tent has all new furniture, another huge tent sells food.Most items are sold on consignment.This is all going on with 6 auctioneers working at the same time.And then there is the quilt tent. Each year about 100 quilts are sold,mostly small wall hangings or queen size quilts. One thing is a shame......the price. A nice, hand quilted, quilt will bring about $400CAn, good if you are a buyer, not so good if you want to make money. And then there is the horse auction. About 250 horses and ponies are sold. This also takes a big field, for the trucks and trailers as well as the wagons to which the horses are tied. At least this year the auction ring had a fence around it. Horses sold ran the gamut from Belgians, to drivers to riding horses. And then there was the miniature donkey, that ended up at the daughter of friends. Young boys have fun riding their ponies around before they are sold. And at the end of the day, what is better than buying a few pies, in our case for the freezer, though we did have a taste at the sale. And what did we come home with? Laurence found a 4 row corn planter in very good shape for $70 and he could not let it go. I could not understand, since we sold one like it, quite a few years ago, because it was "behind the times". I guess he felt nostalgic.I came home with a tree and a scrub. It was a great day. I will be back next year( it helps that it is only 10 minute drive from here)

Bed quilt

At the guild meeting in May we received instructions for making 2 pieced blocks.These blocks were due in June and would be put together and form the quilt for our raffle in 2007. Although not a hard pattern I had problems getting the blocks the right size. So....I decided that I needed some piecing experience. Since the quilt on our bed is about 15 years old and an ugly brown( but still in very good shape), it was time to piece another from scraps that I had on hand. This double nine patch is the result.The piecing is still not great, but it is getting better. Yesterday I took it in to Creative Sisters in Waterloo to have it machine quilted. The wall hanging was started in a workshop by Loraine Roy. It was all done with small cut up pieces of fabric, sprinkled on a background with netting over top to hold it in place. I enjoyed this part, but had trouble when it came to the machine quilting. I don't know how many needles I broke, so part way finished I gave up and put it aside. A year later I found it again and ,with more broken needles, I quilted the rest. Today is a rainy day here in Ontario.But did we ever need the rain! Hubby left early this morning to help with an agricultural meeting, so this was the day to try and dye some fabric. I'm a novice and make lots of mistakes. At times I get more on myself then on the fabric. Right now it is all curing in little baggies. In a few hours we will see if the end results are worth all the work. If it works out I will show a picture of the results next week.

Guild meeting

Last Wednesday was our annual meeting for the WaterlooCounty Quilters Guild. Other years the turn-out is low, but this year it was different. Lots of members and a full program.And of course....the lunch after the program was delicious, as usualOver the years I have had a lot of problems with my back and shoulders Jan and Pat showed in a very humorous way, how doing some carefull choosen exercises can help.I have tried a few of them and indeed ,it helps. Now I will have to remember to do them and .....take the time.I always like to get going on whatever I have in mind, but I might feel better later if I would have taken the time to limber up. During show and tell 5 proud members showed of their finished or almost finished pansy wall hanging, that I had been teaching in April.It is always fun to see how they all look so different. The ladies did a very good job.

Farm sign

For a few days we had computer problems. We tried to fix it ourselves, but seemed to lack the necessary skills, so we had to take it into town. But it is working again. A few things were added and changed and it will take a while for me to catch on to it all. We always have liked the wooden farm signs made by Brenda at www.brenwoodsigns.com.About 15 years ago, when she had not been in business too long, we decided to let her make a sign for our farm. It had to include the farm name and an old John Deere tractor. The 60 on the sign was the first antique tractor my husband bought. At that time I made wheat weavings, using our own wheat, so a few stalks were added. We made room for some scrubs and for quite a few years it looked very good. Slowly the scrubs took over and the sign faded, so last year we took it down. While Brenda repainted the sign we took all the scrubs out with tractor and loader and added some topsoil.Last fall I planted lots of daffodils and transplanted hosta's from around the house. This will be the year for them to show their stuff. If not up to snuf they will come out. Friend of ours, www.floralandhardy.ca, live close by. They have thousands of hosta's in all shapes and sizes for sale and it is almost too easy to go and get some. With all this nice weather it seems that quilting is on the back burner for the time being. I'm working on a pieced bed quilt,but there is not enough done to show you.

Summer

It must be summer. On my daily walk with the dog we met a tractor with a load of fresly baled hay.For me that is the smell of summer. What I do not miss is the work involved.Now that the dairy cows are gone, there is no more mowing, raking, baling and slugging the bales into the haymow. It always seemed to be very hot. What I do miss is the smell of the hay though! Last fall I gave 2 workshops at the guild in Sarnia.While there I was asked if I would consider judging their challenge at a later date. 3 weeks ago a carload of ladies dropped the quilts of and last week they were picked up again. The job was not easy, because ther were a lot of good quilts. 2 of the ladies brought their finished wall hangings along.It is always exciting for me to see. Here Norma Garder is showing her master piece. I do not have many roses. They are too much work and I'm not very succesfull with them. Now scrub roses. That's different. I have 3 varieties of the Explorer Series. All are hardy for our zone 5. And they have gone through some very cold winters. I neve bother to cut them back. Somethimes the rabbits do that for me, but they bloom regardless. Loraine Shaw and her sunflower wallhanging. Both ladies made their own border design. Keep up the good work. This row started with one small rosebush.It seems that a branch will bend down and eventually root. I keep digging these small bushes up and re-plant them .Right now I have another one in a pot ready to find a new home at Jeanette's.

Cows in the meadow

A few months ago I spotted an interesting piece of fabric with cows and chickens in one of my workshops. The owner gave me a small piece and she asked me to try and use it in a small landscape.This small scrap had been on my design wall for a while and yesterday I had the time to play with it.I found enough other fabrics that blended in and this is the result. The oval is 6 by 9 inches.The border is a fabric that goes from light to dark across. By cutting selectively I got the look I wanted. The border is dark at the bottom and lighter at the top. It is not finished yet. I like to applique a piece of old fence on the right and embroider a few stalks of sunflowers behind it. But that will have to wait till a rainy day. I will finish it with some machine quilting and a dark binding.