Shorter days are here

Saturday we had a visitor. Jenny came and she had Bernie, her Bernese Mountain dog, along. I just had to take a picture of a sweet dog in front of the sweet peas. These are in full bloom and it seems, that the more you pick, the more blooms there are. Another sign that fall is near are all the dahlia's I have in the garden. They always take a long time to get to the blooming stage, since I put the bulbs right into the garden. The yellow ones are almost dinner plate size. The orange ones are smaller. I like the color better, but these only last a short time. We did get the sedums planted.I have ordered 200 daffodils to plant in between, but I will not pick those up till our guild meeting next week.Jenny came home with 120 crocusses and they will also need a home. We even planted grass seed on the part that won't have plants. I phoned the hardware store and asked if they had anything that would drill holes in the ground and that would fit in an portable drill and I was lucky. There is one there,even on sale. I will pick that up next week also. Why do it the hard way, when there is an easier way! In the quilt department. I needed a card and I came up with this idea. The back ground has some selvages sewn on The sunflower is fused and then covered with some thread painting. Size is 5 by 7 inches.I like to do these small projects when I get tired of the bigger ones. I'm still not finished quilting the one from last week. The center is an all over design and there are feathers in the border. I have never been able to do even close to a decent job with these feathers. This is shown from the back. The front is harder to see, since it has different colors. I think I'm getting a little better. These feathers are all done free hand. I only draw the spine. 2 more to go and I can put the binding on. Hooray, another project to scratch of the to do list!

The final move

When we moved in December it was too late in the year to move our farm sign. Then this spring the legs snapped in a bad wind storm. We moved it to the workshop and there it stayed. Laurence was busy and so it did not get done, till last week that is. To prevend the legs from snapping in the wind again he brought 2 cement block over and put them on each side of the potentilla. Next we had to find a small generator to run the drill, but it all came together on Monday and it is done. Today I visited my friend Lois and at her place we pulled out a bunch of perenial ivy. I planted that tonight around the blocks, so hopefully by next year they will be covered by ivy. If you look to the right of the sign you can see another bigger flower bed. At one time there was a statue. We sold it and pulled out all the overgrown evergreens. It is still very uneven and there are a lot of weeds. That job will be tackled next. I'm going to borrow a rototiller (sold ours for I did not think I would ever need one again)Since the bare patch is big, I needed a lot of plants. I wanted sedums, but could not find any in the nursery I went to today. On my way home I saw a sign at the end of a farm lane with "perenials for sale" On a whim I drove in and boy, was I glad I did. It was an Old order Mennonite place with a good size greenhouse and lots of plants. I came out of there with 14 good size and very healthy sedums for $70 plus tax. Now to fill in between the sedums I thought of daffodils. The plan is for the daffodils to bloom in the spring and by the time the foliage turns brown, the sedums have grown enough to cover the foliage. One call to Ontario Seed did the trick. There will be 200 bulbs waiting for me on the day of the next guild meeting. Now on the quilt front. This flannel quilt top I bought at a store a few years ago. My plan was to machine quilt it, but instead it ended up in the to do pile. But that is about to change. My next project will be to machine quilt the top with the Dutch fabrics. I want to do a real good job, so this quilt is my trial piece. The center is an all over design and in the border I want to try free hand feathers. I did learn what not to do. You can see the way I basted the layers together and it did not work. I get tangled up in the threads while quilting. I end up cutting the basting as I quilt, what is a real nuisance.

Memories

I grew up on the farm in Friesland with Friesian cows and horses. That was in the days before these black horses where popular all over the world. All his farming life my dad had some Friesian horses around. Although we milked a lot of cows for those days and had an up to date milking machine, we never had a tractor till after I moved to Canada in 1970. My dad did not like anything with a motor, but could tell you the pedigrees of all the cows and horses for generations.Our horses, all registred, did the work,Besides that we drove and rode them. I can still remember when the inspector of the Association would be in the area. Dad would take one or two horses by the halter and on his bike he would go to the next town. We would follow on horse back if necessary. Right there, in the middle of town on the cobbelstones the horses would be judged. If they were good enough the branding iron would come out and the appropriate symbol would be burned in the neck. Over the last 25 years there have been Friesian horses in North America. Inspectors would come over and judge the horses here for entry in the books. My brother let me know, that this would happen near Woodstock near the end of August. So last Saturday, with the combining over and some free time I convinced Laurence to come with me to see the judging. It was just like the olden times with the black horses, shown by people dressed in white. The weather was not co-operating and at first the judging was done outside in the rain, but later it was changed to the inside arena. It was just like I was home again, except this time I was only watching. This made me wish I could still be riding, but that has not happened for a very long time. After a few hours Laurence really, really, really had his fill, so back to home it was, where I had so Skype with my brother in Friesland, who had been to a similar, but much larger show near his place. Back to quilts now. I finished the sashiko sampler and it turned out not too bad. The final size is 43 by 43 inches. Fabric used is Essex (linen/cotton mix) by Kaufman Threads used: overdyed cotton threads by Sassalyne. Appliqued circles come from a piece of silk fabric bought from John Marshall Crest designs: Japanese Design Motives 4200 Illustrations of Japanese Crests ( Dover book) Setting idea: Japanese Quilt Blocks by Susan Briscoe

A busy week

Last week Thursday we started finally with the wheat harvest and it could not have gone better. By Monday afternoon Laurence was almost finished. Just when he started at the last of the neighbours it started to rain. Not that we were out of work. Monday was also the day to get ready for the chick delivery on Tuesday. A lot has to be done at the last minute. As this picture shows, our quiet road changes during harvest time with lots of activity. It is fun to see how 2 large combines try and get past each other. As I write this Laurence is back combining and he should be done soon. Just for a break we went to Jenny's on Sunday. Laurence received a ticket for a ride on the jet boats on the Niagara river and since it promised to be very hot, this was the week-end. Tony went along for the ride. Jenny and I chickened out and went to the botanical gardens instead. The guys had a great time and came back thoroughly soaked. We had been warned and had dry clothes and shoes along. During the harvest I do not have to be right there all the time, as long as I can do whatever comes along " right this moment". This morning it was announced that the rest of the large strawbales had to be brought inside and some help would be appreciated. Now I can drive the tractors, but I'm not very good at it. This I could manage and by noon another job was completed. Next up was a visit to the doctor for my mother-in-law. After supper it will be the rest of the lawn to cut. Not much in the quilt department will get done! I'm working on the machine quilting of a sashiko piece. It is going, but slow. I should be able to show it by next week. I find that very slowly I can do a better job and my shoulders are not quite as sore. 2 more tops are waiting and then it will be back to some new applique.

Another one done!

The sashiko on both of these pieces was done a few years ago. I quilted the one on the left, but did not get around to do the other one. But last week it finally happened. I'm planning to hang both upstairs in the hall. This is after I have put something on the big window to keep the sun out. The sashiko on this piece are all cranes. The patterns came out of a Dover book with over 4000 crest designs. They had to be enlarged, but it works well. And I will not be out of patterns in a long time. This was the first time I used a variegated thread and I like the result. It seems to blend in better and gives it a softer look.

This is, what I look out to, when I do machine work. As you can see I'm working on another quilt and this one is much bigger. I put another small table behind the machine and use my ironing board to the left side. This way I get as much of the quilt as possible level with the machine.

Last week I mentioned, that we finally had started with the wheat harvest. That did not last long. After one round they tested for moisture and the wheat was way too wet, so the combine went back in the shed, where it still is. The weather is warmer, but we have not had the hot, sunny days we need.

I bet you, that there are not many people, who get their bread delived at home anymore. But we do. Every third Wednesday afternoon at about 2, a white van will drive in the lane. Out comes the baker, Guehnter's from Milverton, with the bread. And it is the best bread you can get, according to Jenny. She refuses to eat anything else. Nobody home.....no problem. The bread is put on top of the freezer and you can pay the next time.

Blame it on the apples

I know that I'm a day later that normal,but it is that time of the year again. The old harvest apple tree at the home place is loaded down with apples. That is a change from most years. With this old tree you never know, what to expect. Last year only halve the tree had apples, the year before there were none. After a year with apples it usually takes a year of. On my way to get a tool out of the shop I realized that the time had come to pick apples and make apple sauce, so that's what I have been busy with. It is a messy job, but come winter, it is handy to have all those jars all ready with dessert. This past week I managed to get 2 small wall hangings finished. When I was visiting the guild in Perth in the spring I promised to make a pattern with a snowy lady slipper and here is the result. It is hand appliqued and machine quilted. I like to put the focus, in this case the orchid, in a frame with 2 colors for a back ground. It makes it a little bit more interesting. The Jack-in-the-pulpit has been around for a while, but I never came around to quilting it. This one is also hand appliqued. I consider these practice pieces. There is one top I want to quilt, but I feel that I'm not good enough yet. So there are 2 more tops to be quilted in the next few weeks. By then I should have a feel for what I can do and what my "weak" points are. We had some warmer weather in the last week. If it stays sunny for the rest of the day Laurence will be able to start combining the wheat. In general the crops are a few weeks behind a normal year, whatever normal is. But with this, in general cooler weather, the flowers have been doing very well and last way longer than other years.

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

Summer

Summer is finally here.We had a hot one today with temperatures around 30C. With the rain we had last week the crops are growing very well, but so do the weeds. I was all set to edge all the flowerbeds with the shovel, when I heard from a friend ,that there is something called a flowerdbed edger you can rent. What a life saver! We rented it for 1/2 day and with Laurence running it, we went around all the beds in no time. Next time we will wait till the soil is drier. I had to clean the mud out quite regularly. But it did the job. The pots in front of the house look good. Now I realize that the colors are not all coordinated, but during the move I lost the tags and so had no clue what color the begonia's would be. Next year better. At last count there are 25 rose bushes that have survived the winter. The first ones are blooming including this pale pink shrub rose. I really did not want to look after this many roses, but looking at all the different colored buds I might change my mind yet. At last count there are 21 orchids in the house, including these 2. Where they all came from, don't ask. Last evening was our horticulture meeting and the speaker, Gerald Swan, is an expert in growing orchids. I learned a lot. The one on the right I took home from Jenny on Sunday . It did not look good with brown leaves all over. I took it along last evening and was told what to do. Gerald even transplanted it for me in a larger pot. Now it will go in the windowsill above the sink and I just hope it will show some green growth soon. The one on the left I won!!!! The speaker brought 4 orchids for door prices and since I had the first number, I could take one of them home. It is another lady slipper with the name of "Transvaal" I saw a picture in one of the speaker's books and it has beautiful brown flowers. With all this weeding and cleaning in the garden not much applique is getting done. I'm working on 3 smaller project and should have something to show next week.