We Had a Wedding!

Yes, Jeremy and Hannah were married Saturday, July 15th.   It was a wonderful day filled with happy smiles, good friends, loving family and some tears to tie it all together.   I'll post more about the wedding next post.  I'm still gathering pics from family and friends.

The months preceding the wedding are a blur to me now.....um, let's just say we put in some overtime here on the farm.   Why, you ask?   Because not only did the kids plan a wedding in mere weeks, but we invited our out-of-state family and friends to our farm the day after the wedding for a reunion.   Yeah, that's where my crazy came in to play.

You see, we've been working on many different projects over the 3-1/2 years since moving here....many have long been completed.   But there are several that continue to be "works in progress".   Ha!  Not any longer.   One of those not-quite done projects was my potager garden.

I've been playing around and dreaming about the final "look" of my little potager garden for 3 years now and this year I was determined to move things into high gear to get it as close to "done" as possible before all our company arrived.   That involved over 7 tons of rock, (some as pea gravel for the paths, and some larger rounded river rock to line the flower beds)....2 pallets of garden soil, 70 landscape timbers and a 300' roll of 6' wide landscape tarp.   Toss in over 100 plants, railroad timbers to hold back the pea gravel around my swing, and let's not forget to plant my summer veggies while we're at it.   I can say one thing about the last 3 months......I've got a great tan from all the outside work I put in on the garden.

 I've shown you pictures of the garden before.....in bits and pieces, as I've worked on it these last couple of years.   But now it's much nearer to completion.   Wellllllll, is a garden ever really finished?   I guess not.   Okay, so it's probably more accurate to say it's about 95% done.   Here are the double gates Joel and I built as the main entrance.   The large maple tree is off to the left of the pic and gives welcome shade for the swing during the hottest part of the day.

Taking land that used to be a field and organically killing the grasses, designing paths and covering the paths with pea gravel became a lot more work than I ever anticipated.   Thankfully I had John, my garden helper-dude, that put a lot of muscle behind the wheelbarrow.   And I know I personally moved tons of rock by myself on the weeks when John wasn't available to help out.   This swing in the pic above used to be under our cover of trees by the alpaca pasture.  Now I get to sit under the maple and gaze down into my favorite view on the farm.....the valley below us.

The potager is a combination of veggies and flowers, herbs and medicinal plants, too.  This end of the garden is the workhorse portion.   There are beds of cantaloupe, watermelon, fennel, tomatoes, zucchini and yellow squash, snap peas and cucumbers.

This side of the garden contains the herbs for cooking and the flowering plants I grow that get dehydrated and turned into tea that we drink all winter long.

Here's a closer look at the tea side of the garden.   There is echinacea, German chamomile, lavender and lemon balm.   In the wheelbarrow is regular mint and chocolate mint is in a bucket at the back of the wheelbarrow.   Surrounding the plants on the outside edges are the thornless blackberry bushes that have yielded like crazy this year.   I'm still picking berries every other day after harvesting for over a month.

Here is the herb side of the garden with wine bottles edging the beds and pea gravel in the pathways where I walk.   There is oregano, chives, two huge rosemary bushes, basil, French tarragon, parsley, cilantro and hyssop.   All of these herbs get cut and dehydrated inside the house in my handy dehydrator.   Then they get put into Ball jars for use over the next year.

Between the herbs and the swing is a large bed that will remain mostly open until next Spring's planting season.   I'm still deciding what I want to plant in there, and for now I'm quite content to let it be an open space.

I put perennial flowers  in the three beds up closest to the house where we can see the riot of colors whenever we walk outside our doors.   These hardy plants will/should come back each year on their own, making them a frugal investment as I should only have to plant them once.   They will all more than double their size from what they look like now and will fill in, creating a cottage garden.

Joel and I built these raised beds last year and they have come in really handy.   In the foreground used to be lettuces, but it's too hot for them now.   In between the lettuce rows I planted onions that are growing nicely.   There are also leeks in this bed and celery in the back.   The second bed is nothing but beets and carrots that are currently waiting for me to harvest them.   Ahem....in my next free moment I will scurry out there and get right on that.

The third raised bed is hard to see, but it is loaded with Beauregard sweet potatoes.   The vines are going crazy.   I can hardly wait to harvest the potatoes this Fall.

This is the side with the cantaloupe, zucchini and tomatoes.    All the plants are doing pretty well and I'm harvesting almost daily now.

And then one of my favorite foods is fennel.  It's delicious sliced up with onions, potatoes, carrots and sweet potatoes.   Spill some Extra Virgin Olive Oil on the whole mess, toss with your hands and add sea salt.  Bake on a baking sheet at 425 degrees for half an hour or until the veggies are roasted and enjoy!  Yummy.

 This is one of the three flower beds near the entrance....this pic was taken more than a month ago, you should see how much the plants have grown since then.   The blueberry bushes are on the left of the bed.

This is the third flower bed, flanking the swing.   This Fall I hope to replace the 4 electrified wires that are my current fence and put a more permanent fence in.   BUT not until the temps drop into the 60's.  Nope, no more fencing in the heat of summer for me!!!   Been there, done that too many times.

Check out our blackberries.   These babies are the size of half my thumb.   They continue to produce and produce.   I've been freezing them because I didn't have time to make my jam during the wedding preparations.  Now I have so many that I can whip up several batches of my favorite seedless blackberry jam, and still have plenty of berries left over to make blackberry cobbler all winter long.

Oh, how I love my garden.   Last weekend Joel and I stopped at Johnson nursery in Cookeville.   What a fabulous garden center it is, too.   I brought home a gorgeous set of Corinthian Bells.....a huge wind chime made with powder coated aluminum.   They are now hanging in the maple tree next to my swing in the potager.   The chimes are "musically designed to produce soft, rich tones" and sound off in the light breeze we almost always have blowing thru our farm.   Sitting on my swing, looking down into our valley with the chimes playing a melody for me has brought tears to my eyes......I just feel so lucky to be able to enjoy all that God has provided for us.

All I can say about my garden is..........happy, happy, happy.

But now I'm off to can some more veggies,
Debbie

Barn Quilt

Don't you think barns deserve a quilt, too?   Huh???   I know, I know.   Some of you think I have finally gone around the bend one too many times.    For those of you who are the uninitiated I will offer up an explanation.   A barn quilt is a painting (on a square piece of exterior grade plywood) of a quilt block that would usually be done in fabric and made into a quilt.   Except it's a painting.   On wood.   To be hung outdoors.   Get it?

Barn quilts come in all different sizes and colors and vary greatly in the choices of designs.   Recently our quilt guild had a guest speaker, Suzy Parron, who has written two entire books about barn quilts, how they came to be, and where you can drive in your state to see them.   Here in Cumberland County we have a barn quilt trail.......you can drive thru certain rural areas and you'll spot a barn quilt on barns and outbuildings.   How cool is that?

After Suzy gave her lecture to our group she also taught a class on how to create your very own barn quilt.   I've been wanting to make a couple of barn quilts almost ever since we bought our farm, so, I was all in!!    Since taking the class I've been thinking about what barn quilts I would like to create for some of our buildings here at Whispering Oaks.   To that end, this is what I painted yesterday.

 And Joel loved it, too!    I painted it with him in mind and we decided to hang it on the end of his workshop.   It seemed to fit right in there.

Of course, while we were there taking pictures the dogs had to come see what we were up to and get in on the action.   Shadow just loves a good scratch on the head.

When Jeremy and Hannah visited us a couple of weeks ago I asked Hannah if she would put her artistic talents to use for me and make a chalk board sign for Spring for our porch.    Didn't she do an awesome job?   I love it!

So this week I brought out my bunnies and sprinkled them around the house and screened porch.   This Peter rabbit fit right in with our Spring theme.    I'm so glad winter is behind us and I can "decorate" the outside of our house once again.  

Look for more barn quilts in our future,
Debbie

Calling All Quilters

You girls are going to love this, I promise.   Now that we are retired and living our dream here in Tennessee we have connected with many like-minded folks who are also retired.   But everyone here seems to be from somewhere else.....many from states in the upper midwest, a few from New England and the rest are from various states scattered around the U.S.

That usually means road trips are involved to go visit family a few times a year.    Some choose to fly "back home" while others gear up for the long hours on the road as they head toward their loved ones.   Recently I came across the perfect way to make those miles go faster.   At least it would make the miles fly by if you're a quilter.  

And here it is:

Yes, girls, this lady obviously has a very handy....and understanding....husband.   It looks like he built this special table to fit inside their vehicle, complete with a drop down for the lucky lady's Singer Featherweight sewing machine.    And he even rigged up a system to get her plugged into power so she could sew the miles away!   Just imagine how many quilt blocks you could piece as your hubby drives down the interstate for hours on end!

All you would have to do before your trip is prepare your quilt block pieces by getting them all cut out.   Then when you begin your trip you could simply pull out your zip lock bag of prepared pieces and begin sewing!   I would have loved to pass by this vehicle on the road to see her sewing in action.

Sigh....why didn't I think of this?

Jealous quilter,
Debbie

Jeremy & Hannah's Engagement, Part Deux

Ok, so when we left off, Hannah had just said "yes" and looked in the direction of the bridge.   Both she and Jeremy started to laugh as the sorority sisters broke into hoots and hollers as well as the group of their friends waiting down under the bridge.

The two groups made quite a ruckus cheering on the newly engaged couple.

Awww, how sweet.  I'm so very grateful to have all these pics captured for family and friends to share.

I'm not sure at what point Hannah figured out that the howls of appreciation were coming from her friends.

Oh....yea.....I think it was right about this moment when she realized she and Jeremy weren't alone and that the cheers were for them.

How much fun was that?

And then the funniest thing happened.   A crowd surrounded them and people were hugging Hannah and taking pictures.   I was confused because I thought everyone involved with Jeremy's plan was down under the bridge.   Who in the world were all these people?  Turns out these were well wishers who just happened to witness the proposal and wanted to get in on the happy moment.

Now it was our turn to wish the happy couple congratulations.

We all came out of our hiding spots and joined Jeremy and Hannah on the museum steps.

Friends and family holding the "Yes" signs.

Everywhere we looked there were crepe myrtle trees with their trunks painted blue.  Kinda weird, but kinda interesting, too.   So I'll leave you with one last shot of the happy couple....in front of the blue trees and the bridge spanning the Tennessee River behind them.   I feel like the symbolism is a little prophetic......a sweet young couple planning a new life together, going off into an unknown future much like those crossing the bridges behind them going off into the future.

Joel and I want to wish God's richest blessings on our son and soon-to-be daughter-in-law.   We are thrilled for Jeremy to have found someone so thoughtful, happy and caring to share his life with.   And we are tickled to welcome Hannah into our family and look forward to creating many years of memories together with her as Jeremy's wife.

And so I'll sign off with this pic of a very pretty (pretty to me at least) manhole cover.    Our memories of Chattanooga will forever be changed with all the happy events of today etched in our hearts and minds.

Looking forward to the (about to get busy) next few months!

Debbie

Jeremy and Hannah are Engaged!

Joel and I are excited to announce to you, our friends and family, that today our youngest son, Jeremy, asked his girlfriend, Hannah, to be his wife.   And she said "Yes!".   Jeremy has had this day planned for several weeks now and he invited Joel and I to be there to see him propose to Hannah.   Joel was a little under the weather today so I drove down to Chattanooga because I simply could not miss this!

Jeremy planned for friends of both he and Hannah to hang out near the museum in Chattanooga and then we would all join up with he and Hannah after he proposed.   I arrived an hour before the designated time to allow myself time to find a good spot to take some pics.   You know I wasn't going to miss out on capturing this event on camera, right?

I took this shot from the walking bridge that spans the Tennessee River.   And you can just barely make out the glass enclosed outer deck on the museum on the right.   Yes, that far away!   I was worried the lens on my camera wouldn't be able to get in close enough to see their faces.  As I waited there were about 30 girls dressed in army fatigue green clothes and they were taking a lot of pics of one another.   Turns out it was a sorority taking end of year photos.   A few of the girls asked me what I kept looking at and I explained that my son was going to propose to his girlfriend.  

Well, that was all it took.  They said they weren't leaving until they got to watch the big event, and so they kept peppering me with questions wondering if every couple that walked out on the deck of the museum was my son.   We watched the Southern Belle glide past with a boat load of patrons on board.  

And many people walked up and down the deck of the museum, but none of them were Jeremy and Hannah.   Let me tell you there is a lot going on in downtown Chattanooga on a warm spring afternoon!   There were people everywhere.....parking was at a premium and the sidewalks were crowded with folks enjoying the lovely weather.

Some of Jeremy and Hannah's sweet friends and Hannah's roommates met nearby at The Ice Cream Show and made up signs for after he popped the question.  Hannah's sister and family and other friends also were in on the proposal and they all met up under the bridge, watching the deck of the museum, waiting to shout "yippee" after Hannah accepted the ring.

And then, finally, I spotted them walking up to the museum.   I don't know if Jeremy's heart was pounding as much as mine was.   I was afraid I would shake the camera and get blurry pictures.

Wouldn't you know they stepped up to the glass rail on the side of the deck facing the bridge?   I asked 3 of the sorority sisters to step in front of me so that Hannah wouldn't look over and see me as I snuck in pics in between the 3 girls.

And then all of a sudden Jeremy dropped to one knee and Hannah must have known what was coming next.   How sweet for this mama to be able to watch her youngest son propose to the woman that completes him and makes him so very happy.

I think that was a resounding "Yes!" from Hannah, don't you?

Sure looks like a "Yes" to me!   How very sweet.

Well, you get the picture, right?  Check out the lady off to the right hand side of the pic, grinning at the kids.

And then Hannah heard some commotion.....

Stay tuned for part two,
Debbie

$1,000 Prize and Quilt Retreat

Yes, I won a $1,000 prize.....just wait till I tell you all about it.   I never win anything.....ever.  But did I ever win big time last week.   I am in the process of consolidating all the sewing machines I have collected over a lifetime of sewing and quilting and reducing them down to a smaller number.   To that end I went looking at different brands of sewing machines to see which brand I felt was the best buy for the money.

After doing my research I settled on Bernina, a brand I had used in years past and several months ago I traded in two of my old Vikings for one lovely Bernina that is my everyday workhorse sewing machine.  I log a lot of miles on my machines and they need to stand up to the rigors of all I ask of them.   My new Bernina has not disappointed me.  I am trying to get down to 3 basic sewing machines......my workhorse, a smaller lighter less expensive machine for traveling to retreats and classes, and a serger for finishing the edges of fabrics when I make garments.

And so I found myself at the Bernina Sew and Quilt in Chattanooga last Saturday with yet another of my "old" machines I wanted to trade in on a much smaller, less expensive machine for retreats.   I had been looking online at the new limited edition Bernina 350 and fell in love with the funky painted surface.   Sewing machines nowadays cater to we quilters love of color and they have begun painting all manor of interesting motifs on the front of their sewing machines.   Paint jobs such as this:

How cute is that????   I mean, seriously......this machine had my name written all over it.   So at the dealership I asked about trading in one of my old machines while they brought out the box containing this adorable pint sized machine.   I was already sold.   Just tell me how much it's going to cost so I can spirit it away in my car, please.    And then I remembered I had received a scratch off sales brochure from Bernina in the mail the previous week.   Huh.   I wonder if I should mention it to them.  

Oh, well, nothing ventured, nothing gained.   I produced the brochure from my purse and they casually said that I should go ahead and scratch off the section with the "surprise" discount underneath the red coating.   I scrounged for a nickel in my purse and began to scratch off the red flaking coating and underneath was a $ sign and some numbers.   I looked at them and looked up at the shop owners and looked at the numbers again and asked the salesman if what I was seeing was correct.

Yes, my scratch off that I almost forgot to look at was for ......wait for it.......$1,000!    Holy cow!   I couldn't believe it.   Well, the owners were laughing and shouting and took the scratch off card back to a classroom full of ladies, dragging me along with them, to show them that I had just won $1,000 off a sewing machine.   How do you like that?  They even took my picture standing behind the box with my new adorable machine in it and put the pic on their Facebook page.

That cute little machine safely rode home in my car while I smiled from ear to ear all the way back to the farm.    And another fun aspect about this colorful, happy machine is that the motifs are also three dimensional.   Yes, it's says "I (heart) sewing" on it........and I do!
One of my favorite little poems is this one...

I cannot count my day complete
Till  needle, thread and fabric meet.

Even the scissors are three dimensional.   Well, I had already been looking forward to going on quilt retreat the following day, but now I could hardly wait to get there to show the girls the sweetest little machine I've ever owned.    It got lots of use those few days at retreat and it sewed like a dream.  Now I won't have to drag my large, heavy, much more expensive machine to classes and retreats.   This one fits the bill for traveling just fine.

And speaking of retreat.....did we ever have fun.   Here are Kathi and Kathy sucking up the glaze I made for the blueberry lemon scones I make each time we go to retreat.   I think they liked it.   Again.  Giggle.....

Kathy was doing hours and hours of handwork on a new project that is going to be out of this world gorgeous.    She is the queen of fabric "stash" as evidenced by this little pile of fabric choices she had on her work station.

You think this is a lot of fabric?   Ha!    This is a mere sampling of the varied materials she has at home.    Her quilts are wild, colorful, and whimsical.   Yup, right up my alley.   No fuddy-duddy quilts for her.  No sir-ee!

We almost forgot to take a group pic this year and managed to fit one in right before packing up to leave on the last day of retreat.   What a lucky girl I am to have met such a friendly, welcoming, fun group of talented ladies to hang out with.   I wish you had been a fly on the wall to listen to all our hilarity.   We get very little sleep at retreat as we can't seem to stop ourselves from sewing "just one more seam" while yakking about all manner of subjects.

Sorry, Barb, I captured you with your eyes closed.   Barb got tired of sewing and brought out her knitting project and finished up her fingerless gloves.   They turned out awesome with pretty cables along the back of the hand!

What did I sew during retreat, you ask?    I whipped up this child's quilt which still needs to be quilted with batting and a backing.   It's destination is for the Blue Jean Ball which raises money for Kids on the Rise, a non-profit agency that partners with Cumberland County Schools to provide mentoring for kids in need.

And then I quickly pieced together this star quilt which will go to our charity quilts for pregnancy centers in Cumberland County.   Our guild members make these smaller quilts every month to donate to organizations in our community.  It also needs to be quilted and that will be my project for next week.  I also worked on an ongoing project quilt for myself that will hopefully get finished sometime this Spring.

After having so much success sewing at retreat I was really in "get 'er done" mode back at home and knocked out this quilt utilizing all the leftover fabrics from a quilt I had just finished making for my own personal use.   I love these blues and creams and they make me think of winter.

At retreat I had picked up these appliqué snowflakes and they seemed to be the perfect touch to add to this simple design.   Yes, I do have a lot of quilts to load onto the longarm machine next week, don't I?  The fabric leftovers which made this quilt were from the quilt shown below.....

I began this quilt last January and had worked on it off and on for over a year.   Three weeks ago I brought it out and told Joel I was going to sew until it was finished, no matter how long it took.   Well, I put over 70 hours into it over a two week period but I managed to get it done.

 I may have lost count but I believe there are 14 panels of hand embroidered snow scenes.   They evoke a bit of Currier and Ives in that they are scenes reminiscent of days gone by.   And yes, I said "hand" embroidered.   I love to have hand work to keep my hands busy at night while we watch tv.  Once the hand embroidery was completed I had to make a crazy number of blocks to sew onto the panels.   Hmmmm, and make sure I used light enough fabrics in the areas where the panel embroidery would bleed over onto the pieced blocks.   Oh.  My.  Stars!  

It seems that every pieced block was a different size, a different quilt block pattern and all the while I was keeping an eye out to make sure I used soft enough colors so I could finish up the embroidery once all the blocks were sewn together.   Yikes!

The embroidery panels run all across the top of the quilt, down the right side, along the bottom and up the left hand side.   I love each and every romantic scene.  

Quilting this quilt is going to be a real challenge for me as I have put so much time and energy into making the quilt top that I want the quilting that holds the three layers together to be just as special.   We'll see how that goes in the coming weeks.

And so now you have a quick overview of the last week here at Whispering Oaks.  Whew!    But wait, there's more.   I'll show you what else I've been busy with in the next post.

Stay tuned,
Debbie