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.

Busy time

The busy fall harvest has started. But the weather is beautiful and that is a great help. I have been very busy and that's why I skipped a week. First I was in Toronto for 3 days where I gave one trunk show and taught a two day workshop. I was worried about the drive into town, but in the end it was not bad. Barely home we took off for a few days to Ohio. There we met the tail end of the hurricane with very strong winds and no hydro. We did do some shopping and I managed to get fabric for a new MCC quilt idea. More about that later. At one of the Bed & Breakfasts, I saw this seed bag. The grandfather of the owner had started this company and when she found this bag, she had to have it. Wouldn't you know -- later, when we were later in an Antique Mall in Berlin, Laurence found the same bag, in very good condition! If you are looking for something special, send him to look for it. If at all possible, he will find it! On Tuesday we went to the big agricultural show near Columbus. By 3pm, we had seen it and decided to go home. A lot of people in the area were still without hydro. So just after midnight we were home in our own beds. The next day was guild meeting and I asked for a show of hands of people, who would be interested in starting another quilt for the Mennonite Relief Sale. At the end of the 2 meetings, 60 had shown an interest, so it will be a go. When I was putting things in the car to go to Toronto, I dropped my camera in the garage. Not a good thing to do. It still works, kind of. These pictures are taken with my Nikon D40. Up to now I could not get them on blogger. Thanks to my brother I managed this time, but the screen looks different. I have no idea how it will look in the end. But at least I tried. This little fellow we found on the hood of the tractor yesterday. The first time I saw one. The second orchid wall-hanging with sashiko top is finished. This one has yellow ladyslippers with the roots showing. The roots are twisted overdyed silk ribbon. I did the sashiko first with Nr 5 overdyed pearl cotton (does not go very easy), before I put the frame in with the reverse applique. It has been very good weather. We tried the white beans, but they are not quite ready, so now we are harvesting the soybeans. Then right after the winter wheat has go in the ground. So it will be busy, busy, busy!

Yellow Lady slipper

The last week I have been busy with another sample for a 2 day workshop. The center is a yellow lady slipper. I used about 7 green fabrics, mostly batiks. For the flowers I used 3 fabrics , a yellow fossil fern with orange spots, a multi colored brown/orange for the sepals and a multi colored piece for the center of the flowers. The roots are twisted 1/2 inch wide overdyed silk ribbon. This is all appliqued by hand. Surrounding the plant will be a row of sashiko. Usually I use a cream colored thread, but this time I use a number 5, overdyed perl cotton. This looks fine, but it is much harder to get through the fabric.

Tomorrow I"m going to Toronto for a few days. I had it in my mind, that it was today, but it always is a good idea to phone and make sure. And I would have been one day too early! So instead of going to the city I went with hubby to the Outdoor Farm Show near Woodstock. Turned out to be a good day with good weather.

Tomorrow morning I will load the car and after lunch set out for the big city. I will give a trunkshow at the Pieceful Night Quilters Guild. Then I will give a 2 day workshop (Orchids) at the Cock-A- Doodle Quilt store.

Pears galore

A long time ago we bought 2 very small pear trees. We were told, that we needed two for cross pollination. One grew, the other lasted a few years, till we had to cut it down. The one left usually had a few pears, all ready at the same time. But this year we have a big crop, much more then we can ever eat. I took some to town this morning and neighbours will be asked to come and pick some more. Canned pears are not a favorite around here. And the last jars I had on hand were filled with fruit relish last week. Now on the quilt front. The fabric in the center was given to me by Jenny after her visit to Hawaii as a thank you to for looking after their dog. It is a batik with small turtles and it is only available in Hawaii. I have looked at it for almost a year and a half and finally came up with this idea. The 1/2 yard was enough for 2 blocks. Both blocks are in the Hawaiian style, where you fold a piece of paper in 8th, draw a design on one part and cut it out. This is similar to the snowflake cut outs.

I drew this orchid block (final size 18 inches), basted the top onto the back and needle turned it by hand. It was a good excersize with all the sharp corners. For the border I found a fabric, that had the same colours and was a pretty good match.

Before the one above, I practised with this pine apple block. Much easier and faster to do. For the back I found a piece of fabric on sale with ginko leaves in the same colors. These 2 pieces will be added to the other pieces yet to be quilted. Next week I should have one more piece to show.

Roses

Now that the harvest is finished we are getting sunny weather again. Later tonight I will have to water some of the flowers. Have not done that for quite awhile. On Sunday we visited Jenny and she took us to Niagara for our anniversary. We had a great meal, overlooking the falls. I had thought that it would be very busy on a Sunday, but it was not. No problem finding a parking spot. I have been busy getting some new samples for workshops. This one is totally finished. Even the binding is on. The flowers are 3 dimentional and made with 1 inch wide shaded wired ribbon I just noticed now, that I should have turned the close-up a quarter turn. The leaves are fussy cut out of a fabric with bigger leaves.The green and black check used to be black and white.I dyed it last year with some left over dye and it wished I had done more.

I machine quilted it, using a variegated thread. Total size is about 21 by 21 inches.

Next week I should have another workshop[sample to show you.I want to make one more 2 day workshop, again with orchids and sashiko. Up to now, whatever I drew did not work, but this afternoon I managed to get something drawn up, that might work. I even found all the right fabrics, so tomorrow bright and early I will start on that one.

It will not be quite as busy on our farm for the next few weeks. By that time the white beans (of pork and bean fame) will be ready. So this will give me the time to work on the applique of the orchids, in this case yellow lady slippers. I did get a program to edit my pictures, but I think I need a tutorial to figure out how it all works.

The year of the gladioli

The last few years I have noticed more farmers trying to sell , mostly flowers, at the end of the farm lane. Last week I counted and in the 16km stretch I drive on the 86 to get to Wallenstein I could buy flowers at 18 places. The biggest is almost a farmer's market, where you can buy flowers, vegetables, bedding plants , eggs and summer sausage. This cart has an over abundance of glads and for 3 for a dollar you can't go wrong. It is not often, that I do not stop for a few.

The busiest corner is just before you reach Wallenstein. At that intersection there are pails in 3 corners with flowers, each with their own margerine container to put your money in. Now to the quilts. I found the pattern of this small wallhanging in the January edition of the AQS magazine. It talked about raw edge applique, something I have not done often. I had just the right piece for the mountains, so I gave it a try. I have to say, that raw edge applique does not turn my crank. I prefer to work by hand, although this is much faster.

I did quilt this on the machine. As you can see I still have not figured out how to crop the pictures with the new computer. There are a few other things that I will have to learn, but mostly everything seems to work.

We are still in the harvest. And we still get lots of rain. We are finished with the winter wheat here at home, but now Laurence is combining spring wheat, barley and mixed grain for the neighbours. But we hope to be done by the end of the week.

Where is summer?

At times is looks like we are in the tropics. Not temperature wise, but precipitation wise. We get up in the morning and soon after the sun will be shining. By the time the dew is burned of, the first clouds are rolling in. Then around noon or a little later the rain is coming down. Usually not much, but enough to prevent us from combining. So we still are not done. Last evening Laurence managed to do 2 hours worth after supper. Only one more hour......but it is raining again. Instead we put our farm sign back up. After 15 years it broke it's posts this spring during one of the storms. This time we thought we were smart and got pieces of iron to put in the ground. The posts would be bolted to these pieces Problem was, that when we put the posts in years ago, we put lots of stones around the posts to keep them straight. And those stones are still in the ground. What should have taken an hour took all morning, but we got done, right before the first rain! The orchid quilt is finished. I put the binding on, with a narrow green piping and the sleeve in the back has been sewn down. It was a lot of work, but I'm happy with the results.

And the canning has started. I used to do this way more when the kids were home and we had agricultural exchange students for the summer. At that time I used quart jars, but now I'm back to pints, or 500ml. We have our own harvest apple tree and even with a very poor crop, we still had enough to can and freeze. The rest are salad beans. Now some peaches and tomatoes yet. Nowhere near the few hundred jars of years past, but it will do.

Last week I could not get pictures to show up (new computer) but to my amazement I managed this time. My "tech support" is coming Saturday, so by next week everythings should be working just fine.

I have more projects to show and I'm working on another workshop. And guess what........it is raining again!

New computer

Our old computer could not do the job anymore, so we updated to bigger and better one. But with it has come all kinds of problems. We are not what you call computer literate,so we have to wait for our son-in-law to come back in a week. We just hope that he can answer all our questions. But what works, works very well. I love the bigger screen and the speed. I even managed to get the pictures on Picassa, but that's as far as I got. So I hope to have better luck next week. The harvest is still going, slow on most days. This is the first day this week without rain. This makes it very hard and frustrating. Say yesterday. Laurence started at 11 and it was a beautiful sunny day. Combining went well, but by 2.3o it got dark and soon after the rain came down hard. End of combining for the day. Instead we ran some errands in Kitchener. This morning again was sunny, but by this time, 7 in the evening, he is still going. Not only makes it for a long harvest, the quality does not improve either. From the best, grade 2 it went to grade 3. And for some to the dreaded "feed" category with a decrease in pay. One more long day would finish here, but then he has to combine for different neighbours. I'm at home doing the chores and do whatever I'm told to do, from bringing meals to fetch parts. When not needed there is time to work on quilts. I planned to show a new workshop, but that will have to wait till next time. Also put the binding on the orchid quilt, even made piping!! I want to make one more 2 day workshop, but I have not been able to come up with the right idea. I hope I can post lots of pictures next week.

Anything floral

It does not happen often, or let's say almost never, that we get a delivery from the flower shop here on the farm, but on Monday,before 8 in the morning, this arrangement was delivered . It was a thank-you from Shawn and Emily. It was a very nice gesture. It has some long lasting flowers,including orchids, so we should be able to enjoy it for some time. We have had a lot of rain during the last weeks and everything is very lush. No brown grass this year. And keep the lawnmower handy!! This year I planted scarlet runner beans on each side of the old seed drill and you can see them grow bigger daily. Next year I will try perennial sweet peas.
I love begonias and keep the bulbs from year to year. These are some of the smaller bulbs that keep on blooming.
Now to some blooms inside. In a few weeks we have to attend a wedding and I know, that the prefered gift is money. So I made this card to hold the bills. The back ground is hand made paper from Ten Thousand Villages. I bought a big sheet and used most of it for last years Christmas cards.This small piece was left. The center is hand dyed. The rose is made with shaded wired ribbon. The leaves I have had for years and never found a use for them. The narrow ribbon is held in place with beads.
Next week I should have at least 2 projects finished. It all depends on the weather.
The wheat harvest has started. Yesterday was a beautiful day and a lot of combining got done, but this morning it was back to showers. As I look out the window I can see the sun. Let's hope we get a few nice days.

Mount Forest Quilt Show

The Four Corners Quilters Guild in Mount Forest, is 10 years old and they had their second quilt show last week. I had given 2 trunkshows ( one was in April in a snow storm with a very small group present). After that I taught 2 workshops. Last month the president Betty phoned to let me know, that they had 20 finished small landscapes and they liked to do something special. She came by last week to pick up 3 of my wall hangings, the milk can that goes with the farm quilt and the matching picture. I went over on Thursday evening and it was a lovely show. It is not often that you see so many projects finished after a workshop. There were also 2 pansy quilts. The show was very well organized and hung. I love the smaller shows. That way I can pay better attention to the quilts. At a big show I loose track after the first 100. Here are Doreen's pansies. She framed hers behind glass.
What a novel way to frame a landscape. This one is by June. She folded fabric and tacked the corners.
Quite a few were framed behind glass.This is Audry's winter wonderland
A wooden frame also adds to it. This one is also by a June.
All in all a very succesfull show.
What a difference a week can make. Last week we were wanting some rain and oh boy, did we get rain. Almost every day it is coming down. The combine is ready to start in the wheat, but that will not happen this week anymore. And yes, the corn in front of the house must be 10 feet tall. We cannot see the mailbox anymore.
This morning I took the Postcard quilt ( must get a better name!Any ideas?) to church. I needed 3 large tables to be able to square it. It was a big job, but with some help it came all together and the quilt is ready for the binding and sleeve.Then only a few smaller details and I can ship it of to the Relief Sale Committee. Always a good feeling to get it done.
My new workshop is ready to get quilted .And yesterday I got a brain wave for a new 2 day one. Again with orchids and sashiko, but a completely different design. This time it will be 4 different lady slippers.
And finally a thank you to Olga, who let me know that the moth in last week blog is a cecropia. I hope to see more and then in better shape.

Back to normal

It is back to the two of us. The newlyweds came back late on Thursday and left, with the dog, on Friday. I had a scare on Thursday evening. I had tied the dog up outside, but when I looked out the window the rope was there, but without a dog attached. Since these dogs(bassett hounds) are known to follow a scent and forget where they came from, I just knew he was gone. But luck was with me. He had eaten all our dog's food and was playing on the front lawn. Boy was I glad. Now he is back home on the ranch in Alberta. When I asked Shawn if they wanted something for the guests to sign at the wedding,they decided on a big pillow. I made this top with 1/2 inch strips.In the center is a picture of the couple taken 2 days before the wedding. That is just temporary. As soon as I get a good wedding picture I will print it on a piece of fabric and finish the pillow. Not all the spots were filled. I wanted every person to have a spot, but most couples put their names in one. I do think that just about everyone signed. On Saturday morning we left for a few days for the cottage of friends. On the way I made Laurence stop at the quilt store in Cookstown. I needed fabric for the binding of a quilt and I had not been able to find it. I have run into that problem before. The quilts for the relief sale usually take over a year or more from start to finish and go through all kinds of changes and in this case I had used all the fabric for the double strips in the center. But luck was with me. I found the fabric and this collection of John Deere fabric on sale. It will make a nice quilt for some farm boy, young or old.
Yesterday I found this moth all tangled up in a window of the shed. I carefully took it outside where it slowly took of after a few minutes. It was huge( see my finger) but not in good condition. I have never seen one before and do not know the name.
Today I finally had some time to start a new piece. I like to make 2 new workshops, one with shaded wired ribbon and another one with orchids surrounded by sashiko. It is always good to have some handwork going.
The weather has been good. Right now it is hot and our corn is getting taller by the day. A few more days and we not be able to see the road anymore. We will be surrounded by tall corn till at least October.

Wedding day

Saturday was the big day and what a glorious day it was. The weather was perfect, not to hot and not too cold. As usual there was a lot of confusion to get everything ready in time. I got back from the hair dresser in time to have our pictures taken on the bride's parent's farm. Everything worked out great. The biggest problem later was that the pillow for the ring bearer was forgotten. A quick turn around by the bridesmaids to retrieve it,took care of that. After a beautiful church service we moved to the farm, where a great meal was waiting for us Here are the newlyweds in front of the white fence, surrounded by canola fields. These were specially seeded for this occasion and bloomed just the right time. The mother of the bride had pictures taken at her wedding in front of a white fence, so to keep with the tradition this white fence was put up. Later pictures were taken right at sunset.
The tent was beautifully decorated with trees and flowers.
Shawn had told me, that he wanted their quilt in the tent, so we put it up early in the morning. I had a plastic sheet along, but that was not needed.
Once it was dark there were fireworks, a surprise for most of us. The couple left soon after for their honeymoon. This afternoon they returned for a short visit. Tomorrow afternoon we will bring them to the airport in Kitchener from were they will fly back to Calgary.
We had a busy time here at home. All the people got along fine, but the 3 dogs decided that they did not really like each other, so we had to watch them.
Slowly during the week, our company left and now it is only us and Abner. He will depart tomorrow.

And this is about as energetic as we all feel here at Lauren Farms.Tony and my brother Wiebren took lots of pictures, but they did things with this computer I have not been able to figure out, so I hope to have more pictures next time.

Boys .....and their toys

The first guests have arrived. Little Abner here came all the way from Calgary and seemed to have enjoyed his first plane ride. He will be here on and of for the next 2 weeks. He must be one of the easiest dogs to keep. Yesterday the tent went up, so last night we had to have a look. It should hold about 300 people for the reception on Saturday evening. A lot of decorating will be done yet.
On to the toys. Both the bride and groom's families are farmers.It seems like every time there is a "farm" wedding there are pictures of the couple and wedding party with big tractors, combines or whatever. The bride made it a point, that this would not happen at her wedding.
But when the guys found out, that there was some extra room under the tent, the word " tractor" came up. Now you have to realize, that a farmer often is attracted to one color of tractor be it red, green or yellow.
The bride's family has "RED" equipment. For Shawn that would not do since we are "GREEN and YELLOW" people.

So this morning one of our antique tractors was hauled out of the shed. It needed to be washed and waxed, a job my brother was willing to tackle. He came all the way from Holland for a wedding and here he is put to work!!!Tomorrow The tractor will be loaded on a trailer and trucked to the tent.
Right now it is not too busy here, but that will change by tomorrow. By Friday we will have 7 extra people and 2 extra dogs, so it will be a busy place. But it all will work out. The weather promises to be great, warm and sunny. Tonight there is a shower for Shawn and Emily at church and the wedding rehearsal is tomorrow evening.

Getting so close.....

The wedding is just over 1 week away and things are starting to get busy. It looks as if we will have 7 guests and 2 guest dogs. How that last one will work out with our dog will be interesting. The first ones, my brother and his wife from Holland will be here Saturday. Mowing lawn gives me lots of time for thinking and it dawned on my ,that my big purse would not do for the wedding. I made this small purse with stuff I had at home. It does not show the colors well. In reality it is much darker.
Two days ago there was a phone call. There will be a ring bearer, but there was no pillow and if I could make "something simple" My friend Lois to the rescue. She had a small pillow form, a piece of cream dupioni silk, cord the make piping ( I chickened out and did without) and 2 buttons that I could cover.
The bridesmaids will wear brown ,so it had to be cream and brown. By last night it looked like the picture above.

By supper time today it looked like this. There will be a button in the center with brown ribbon to tie the rings to. This was all stuff I had around. But it did nothing for my cleaned up room. All my boxes with embellishments, ribbons and beads are all over and this will have to be cleaned up before long. I have been busy cooking and most of the food for next week is ready. The reception will be in a big tent on the bride's parents farm, so there will be lots of things to do before the big day. So I might not be back till after the big day, but I will have pictures then

Once upon a time

Once upon a time there was a little girl, who loved to help her mother in the garden. Whatever had to be done,be it seeding, weeding or watering she was up for the challenge. As she grew older, that slowly changed and she had more important things on her mind. Then when she went to university and started to work in a garden centre for the summer, she let me know ,that gardening definitely was NOT her thing.
Now let's go forward 10 years. This little girl is all grown up and married. She lives with her husband in a house with both a front and a back yard. And in a few years they have been able to change a piece of lawn into a beautiful garden.
Now she is loves gardening again and it shows. And that is not all. How come her orchids are blooming better than mine? Despite her lack of care as she claims?
On the home front things are getting done. The garage doors have been painted.
The next thing on my long list, the installation of stones around one of the flowerbeds was completed today, thanks to the local CO-OP. It's not what you think. I had muddled around putting a few stones in their place each day, as many as my old back let me do. But this afternoon hubby had some extra time. He needed more fertilizer and he had to wait for the delivery. I must have been a sorry sight and he wondered if I needed some help. With him digging and me putting the stones in the right place we finished before supper. The clean-up will have to wait till tomorrow.
After a visit by our accountant in the morning, it will be of to the last guild meeting for the year.

Home again

Hard to believe, that I have been home for a few days already. Quilt Canada is over for another year. We left very early on Sunday morning for Toronto and flew from there to St. John's, New Foundland. I had never been there, but I hope to go back. My "super-volunteer" waited for me at the airport and took me to the residence. By that time it was way past lunch, but Verna took me to Tim Horton's for a quick bite. Supper was spend with some other girls from my guild. After supper I found out just how steep the hills are. On Monday I had signed up for the "Bird Island Tour " 3 bus loads full of quilters ,all warmly dressed, were taken to the boats . So far so good. As long as we stayed close to the shore I felt fine, but once out in the open, I started to think that this had not been a good idea. I became seasick and except for the picture of the lonely iceberg, I just sat, waiting for it all to be over. Once back on shore I could not wait to get back to my room. The afternoon was spend sleeping. By supper time I felt like eating again and with some of the other teachers we found a place not far from campus. Tuesday was for a lecture in the morning and going to the merchand mall and shows in the afternoon. Awards for the Juried Show were announced in the evening. There were some incredible quilts, but not picture taking was allowed.
Than it was back to work. All 3 workshops( 1 two day and 2 one day) were full with 20 students. I had done quite a bit of work beforehand and that came in handy. The girls were great and came from all over the country, from the North West Territories to New Foundland and one lonely American. I forgot to take pictures till the 3nd day and could not resist taking this one The workshop sample is on the table. The one shown was an extra one, also with sunflowers, I had made some years ago.
Here we are hard at work. For both of the one day workshops we used shaded wired ribbon. Since it is not easy to get at times I provided the ribbon. Any leftover at the end of the day, could be bought. And as you can see here, the ribbon sold like the proverbial hot cakes.
But it was not all work. In the evenings all delegates and teachers ( about 600) were bussed to the Convention Center for supper. There were some long waits, but the food was worth it.
By Friday the four of us ( Nancy Bergman, Helen Marshall from New Zealand, me and Penny Berends) decided to have a quiet supper. We asked the cab driver for the best fish in town and we ended up at "Ches's and yes it was very good. We even got a certificate as first time visitors.

And all to soon it was Sunday morning and it was all over. We left a cool St. John's and came to a sweltering Toronto. And I brought the needed rain home with me!. All in all it was a great week. My hat of to the organizing committee. They did a tremendous job. A thank- you also to Verna and Donna, my 2 volunteers, who were ready to do whatever had to be done. Verna even took me after the workshop on Friday to Signal Hill, so I could prove to Laurence I really had been there.

Now it is back to work. Less than 4 weeks till the wedding. We will have guests from Holland and out west, so I'm busy cleaning and weeding. Even have to do some painting. All my things have been put away and the quilt room has been cleaned up. No more applique till after the wedding!