Where Have I Been?

It's more like, What Have we Been doing?   Well, I'll tell you.

• I drove 2-1/2 hrs. north to Johnson City with my quilt friends to check out quilt shops for the day.
• Joel and I drove over an hour away to pick up hay to prepare for winter, and then unloaded it all in the barn.
• Joel drove well over an hour to pick up a new farm implement to create pastures.
• We took the Pyrenees puppies to the vet.....every three weeks for shots(three times).
• Joel had several dentist appts. to replace a crown.
• We drove to Knoxville for a day so I could compare different sewing machines to replace my old one.
• Then, another day, I drove to Chattanooga to buy a new sewing machine at a dealer there.
• We spent 2 days loading up our alpacas to deliver them.....yes, we sold all of our alpacas!
• I drove several friends to Loudon quilt guild (an hour and a half away).
• Next day, Joel and I drove to Land Between the Lakes in KY to pick up a steer and another mini-Jersey calf.  (9 hours on the road that day!)
• Went north to a friend's house to spend the afternoon making items for the quilt guild Christmas party.
• Collapsed for a few days to recover from all the driving.

Um, yeah, that's what we've been up to.  I have no idea how many thousands of miles I put on the car this last 5 weeks, but it's a lot....especially if you add the impromptu trip to Florida onto the total miles driven.   In between all of the above, we still had our normal appts. and daily routines to fit into the mix.   And, of course, there are the animals that need to be taken care of as well.

Oh, yes, and we also worked on some more fencing.    See me on the tractor below?   We had many more holes to dig to put in the posts to try and finish up the entrance to the farm.   And this summer we are on track for it to be the third hottest summer on record!   Yuk!   Have I told you before how much I hate the heat?    Any temps above 75 degrees are just too danged hot for me.

But we persevered....and brought home more posts to put in the ground.

Those things are monsters to handle!

Pole vaulting anyone?

This required a lot of grunting and groaning.   From Joel, too!  hahaha

And into the hole you go!   Now, we plumb the post and tamp in the dirt around it.  Wash, rinse, repeat.

A couple of days later this is what we ended up with!   Not too bad, eh?

Now we have fencing on both sides at the end of our lane by the road.    A few days later we cut off all the posts to the same height and I started applying stain to the whole shebang.   Yup, that's fence talk.   Shebang.   Gizmo.  Lollapalooza.   Anyway, this project is almost done.   We have ordered 2 black powder coated gates to install at the end of the fencing that will secure our property a bit and help to keep the dogs on our land.   Hopefully.   Well, maybe.  We'll see.

Yes, it's these little cuties we hope to coral.    You should see how big they are getting.   Each time we take them to the vet for their shots they have doubled in weight.   Yup, they're going to be over 100 lbs. by the time they are all grown up.

And speaking of cuties, here's a last look at the alpacas in with Miss Buttercup.   Next post I'll try and show you pics of the two latest bovine additions to the farm.   Um, yeah, Houston, we have a problem.

You see, when we picked up the hay I was taking pics as usual.    I stupidly placed my camera on the left trailer fender you see here and proceeded to help Joel unload the hay.   As one of the bales was falling to the deck of the trailer I heard a sickening crunch.   Yes, you guessed it.   My precious Nikon fell off the slippery fender onto the gravel below and split apart.   Horrors!   It still makes me upset just to think about it.   So, now, I have no camera to document our comings and goings.  And finding a camera repair shop has been a bit difficult.  

In the meantime, I'll try and make up for it with pics from my cell phone.   So, you see, we've been just a wee bit crazy busy.  Oh, yeah, and I've been squeezing in canning and dehydrating in between all this all over "stuff".    Whew!   I think I'll be glad when it's nice and chilly outside and all I have to do is think about what to make for dinner.

So, what have you been doing lately?
Deb

Details

The day of the quilt guild picnic here on the farm was a crazy busy day and while I thought I was taking the time to take a ton of pics, it turns out I missed a lot of shots that I now wish I had taken.   I have, however, come across a few photos that tie into that event and thought I'd show them to you now.

What we have here are the flower centerpieces from the tables.   After the party one of the girls had arranged them in a row on the table of our screened in porch and I liked the way it looked so much I shot this pic of them.    The flowers kept really well for over a week and added a festive touch to the porch.

This is a close up of the repurposed chalkboard sign from my shop in Florida.   It worked great hanging on the wall under the galvanized W.O.F. letters.   I can think of a ton of ways to use this sign in the future.   The sign is actually an old cupboard door from a vintage kitchen of a circa early 1900's house.   The outside wood has chippy paint and the black is simply chalkboard paint covering the center panel of the door.  It's one of my favorite farmhouse pieces.

Ugh!  Remember this ugliness?   This is the damaged wall and entry to the bathroom in the pavilion before we remodeled.   Well, I had shown you how bad this looks before but never gave you a peek at how wonderful it looks now with new trim, a repaired threshold and fresh paint.

Ta-da!  Quite a difference, wouldn't you say?   And now the door has a sweep attached to the bottom to help prevent little bugs from entering the bathroom and making a mess in our clean space.

In preparation for the picnic I had 4 signs made up at a local sign shop in town.   It was handy to simply drive my car to 3 strategic locations along the road and push the metal sign posts into the ground.   The ladies who came to the picnic said the signs really helped them know where to turn to get to our place way out in the country.

Our red adirondack chairs are usually on the concrete pad of the pavilion.   But there was no room for them the day of the picnic so instead we decided to place them around the farm.   Now that these two chairs are out by the potager garden overlooking the valley I think we may leave them there permanently.   The view of the valley is my favorite and I love looking into my garden, too.

We also placed one solitary adirondack chair way out beyond the girl's pasture on what I like to call "Sit Upon Rock".   The chair easily rests on a huge boulder with another beautiful view of the valley below.   And it's a favorite place for me to sit with my box of watercolors and a sketch pad.....puttering around with my paints.

As I walked outside a couple of weeks ago to walk the dogs, this is the view I had of the full moon rising above the mountain, framed by the big maple tree and the adirondack chairs.   Yup, what a great place to sit and enjoy the simple moments of life.

Life is good,
Debbie

A "Fantastic" Farm Day Picnic

No, I'm not gloating.  The name of our quilt guild is The Fan-Tastic's.   And so, when it came time to name the picnic this year I dubbed it a Fantastic Farm Day Picnic.   On Friday we had over 70 women find their way to the farm to come to the annual picnic.   This was the first large outing we hosted here in Tennessee and while it was a bit of work to get ready for the event, Joel and I both really had a blast watching the ladies wander our land and take in the beauty that we get to enjoy every day.

 So, who do we have here, you ask?   Well,  it just so happens that a few days before the picnic I got an email from Karen, my cousin from PA that I haven't seen in over 40 years.   She and her husband, Les, were going to be vacationing at Mammoth Cave in KY and wondered how far away our farm was from Mammoth.   You guessed it, after they left Mammoth they arrived here right in the middle of a crazy busy week.  Not that we cared....I just felt bad that we didn't have a lot of extra time to spend with them.  At least we had overnight to visit and catch up on our lives.

 Then it was back to work.  Here's the crew taking a break for some much needed lunch.   When Lynne and Barb P. approached me about the possibility of having the picnic on our farm, I asked Joel if he would mind and we both easily decided it would be fun.   Then I corralled Barb D. into helping as well.  The day before the picnic Barb P.'s husband, Jerry, pitched in (as well as Lynne's hubby, Jim) and helped to load the 14 tables from the church into our trailer and unload them again here.   Jerry was great at figuring out how to lay out the tables and squeeze 80 women onto the covered portion of the pavilion.   Thanks, guys!

Early Friday morning Lynne, Barb and Barb showed up, ready to put it all together.   It sure helped that we had prepped a great deal before the actual event.   A few days earlier we got together and wrapped the Ball jars that had handles with a strip of burlap and red & white gingham.   Lynne brought cute sewing themed pins to attach to each jar and both the jar and pins were favors for all the women.   Plus, they used the jars to drink from during the picnic.   We hope they liked them as we thought we were quite clever to think of something farm-y as a favor.   giggle......hey, I told you we had fun doing this!

 Here is the pavilion all set up for everyone's arrival.   The one table in the foreground was askew while we waited for the hanging planter to stop dripping water.  Oops!   I had watered the plants earlier and forgot how long they drip.  We put a mug at each place setting with a cute red & white straw in each one.   And there were red & white daisies in large Ball jars as centerpieces on the tables.  I wish I had taken the time to take a few more pics of the different areas we set up but I was kinda running around making sure everything was ready before 9:30 when the first guests arrived.

Off to the right you can see the round table set up just outside the pavilion.   It had a chalkboard welcome sign standing on it with a box that contained napkin wrapped plastic ware.  On the box was a label that read "Shovels, pitchforks and scythes".   Bah-ha-ha-ha!   Come on, you know that was funny.  There was also a metal shepherds' crook hanger....you know, like the kind you hang a plant from.  Instead, I hung a bucket filled with bug spray and sunscreen for the ladies to use.

 Joel directed traffic along with Barb D. and after the ladies parked up and down our lane they began to wander around the farm.   Pretty soon we had a mob in the studio while the girls asked questions about the building.   Yes, I was reminded once again what a lucky girl I am to have such a fabulous space to play in.

 And here we have 2 friends admiring the quilts we had hung on the line.   Just how many different ways can you bring a quilt theme into a farm picnic?   You'd be surprised!

 I snuck away at one point to take a pic of just a portion of the cars parked along our lane.   What a great turnout we had!   All in all we had over 70 women show up.

 Lynne had brought a microphone and equipment to use so the ladies could hear us talk about what we had in store for them during their stay on the farm.   I was surprised when they handed the microphone over to me and asked me to tell about how we came to be on this land and explain what the ladies would be doing after we ate.  And then it was time for the food.....and everyone lined up to begin sampling all the goodies brought by the group.

Here is our president, Stephanie, chatting with Joel while they watched the goings on in the shade of the pavilion.   Joel and I were totally shocked when Stephanie presented us with a gift card with thanks from the guild for hosting the picnic.   That was so unnecessary, but we appreciated it very much.

The week before the picnic I sewed an apron for each of the four of us girls using tea towels that said "Everything is better in a mason jar".   I added some chicken fabric for the lower ruffle, and chicken wire fabric for the waistband.   A little bit of frayed red and white striped fabric became the pocket and ta-da!   Farm-y aprons!  Here is my sweet friend, Barb D. taking a much deserved break to eat some yummy dessert.

And speaking of Barb......chuckle....she took the song "Old MacDonald Had a Farm" and changed it around a bit to read "Joel and Debbie had a farm".   Well, you know what happened next, don't you?   She wrote up the song to include all the animals and their sounds we have on our farm and printed copies of the song and led the girls in singing every single round to the familiar tune.   We really got a chuckle out of hearing 70 plus women singing about our farm animals.   

Here is Barb P. singing along with the others.    What a great day we had!  After the meal the ladies wandered around the farm using the maps of the farm I had printed out the night before the picnic.   It was a treat for Joel and I to watch as small groups of women wandered up to the chicken coop(Nancy Stewart came away with a shirt full of freshly laid eggs.....grinning from ear to ear as she showed them to me), and over to see the Civil War soldier grave, and down to the barn to check on the animals.   

We even had croquet and badminton set up in the front yard.   Although, I am not sure if anyone played out there because it was getting warmer and warmer with each passing hour.  As the party was winding down I spied Nancy and Nance relaxing on the swing that looks out over the pasture and ran over to take a quick pic of them.

All in all, I believe everyone had a good time.   We had lots of ladies tell us they would like to come back and do this all again next year.    Hmmmm, I think we can make that happen.   Thanks, girls, for your kind words of praise and admiration.   We were totally humbled by your accolades.   And a huge thank you to Lynne, Barb and Barb.   The picnic was a success because of all your hard work and "Fantastic" (I just couldn't help myself!) ideas.

Taking a week to unwind now,

Farmer Joel and Farm Chick Debbie

The Last (I hope) Slipcover

Yes, I hope this is the last slipcover I make for the foreseeable future.    A few days ago, I switched around a couple pieces of furniture in the farm house and put this green rocking chair out in the studio.   The white chair that had been in the studio is now in the living room where I sit to stitch at night while Joel and I watch tv together.    All in all, the switch of chairs was a win-win and they both "fit" better now.    This swivel rocker is very comfortable, but the dark green fabric hails back to our days at our much more formal Hunt Club house.   Ummmm,  not gonna work in my cheerful studio.   Yup, time for a change!

 Once again, I pulled fabrics from my stash and began tearing into yet another slipcover project.    Here you're looking at the right arm fitted and sewn.   Whew!    The pink fabric is oh-so-soft Minky and the front panel of the arm is left over fabric with, you guessed it......blue birds on it!

 Making progress.......the two seat cushions are done.   The lime green fabric was a throw that I had draped over a chair in its former life.   Now, the soft fabric is very cozy to sit on.

 Yup.    The second day of sewing yielded great progress.    The cream fabric is actually a vintage chenille bedspread I found at a thrift shop a couple of years ago.   I am always keeping my eye out for these babies because they make up great pillows and add a funky vibe to clothing as pockets and cuffs on jackets.  

 Just add the seat cushion......

 .....and the back cushion.......

 ......and my fun pillow that I made at my shop in Florida and it's done!

 I think this slipcover is now my favorite of the 4 that I stitched up this month!    And the easiest part of sewing this one was taking the original ruffled bedskirt already attached to the bedspread and repurposing it as the skirt of the slipcover.   Ta-da!  

That chenille bedspread yielded a whole lot of usable fabric.   What a find for $4.00.....wouldn't you say?

Here's a close up of the hot pink piping  and the bluebird fabric panels.    I love mixing all those fabrics and patterns together!  And this is the softest, snuggliest( I made that word up) chair in the house now.

Molly especially seems to enjoy the soft, cozy feel of the fabrics.   She hopped up here on the rocker when the job was complete and actually sighed as she settled in for a nap.    What a funny dog!  She knows her fabrics!

So just when I thought I was done adjusting the studio while Barb was here......I went ahead and added another tweak to the whole design.    Happy colors, happy fabrics, happy quilter.
Deb

The Studio "Refined".....and Lots of Little Projects

Last post I told you that Barb came to visit us from Alabama.   When we all lived in Florida, she and I used to get together and help each other redecorate our homes by moving furniture around and making pretty little vignettes on tabletops with whatever items we found handy.    It was fun to "re-use and re-purpose" books and candles and pretty dishes from our cupboards.   While she was here, she and I had some fun in the farmhouse and studio once again moving furniture and hanging items on the walls which made the spaces feel cozier and more like "home".

One day she and I went to an antique store I like to check out every few months.   On this trip we found the baskets above.....perfect for hanging on the wall and organizing patterns, books and all my rotary cutting rulers.   How nice to free up some valuable counter space by removing the clutter and making use of the vertical space in the studio.   The sign on the wall was given to me by Julie and Jarrad over 25 years ago.  They bought it with their own money when they were teenagers and gave it to me for Christmas one year.   I've carried it around with me and used it in many different places over the years and now it has a home, once again, in my studio.    It makes me smile when I look at it and remember those two as teenagers.

Barb moved some furniture to create a cozy little sitting area just inside the studio door where I sit to do my hand sewing.   I found the little table at an antique shop on the day I took her back to Alabama.  And my footstool fits under it perfectly.   The teapot lamp is something I've had for years and I dug it out of the last box of items from our move here, cleaned it up and bought a new lampshade for it.

 This sweet little footstool has been recovered more times than I can count over the years.  It was fun to take a day and put together this little appliqué cover for the stool using Edyta Sitar's appliqué shapes from one of her books.  And the little bluebird reminds me of the bluebirds we have right outside the studio windows.

 After Barb left, I got busy with the next item on my list of "to-do's" for the studio.   The generic tan chairs at the sewing tables are super comfortable, but they're not especially jazzy to look at.   So, I pulled out all my Kaffe Fassett fabrics......a little bit of this and a yard or two of that.    I wanted to use the fabrics the way he does in his quilts........all mixed up with different colors and many different patterns.    I used everything from large florals to smalls prints, polka dots and batiks, too.  

 Kinda crazy, right?    But somehow all the mixed up fabrics seem to "work" together.   At least in my color craving mind they do.   And they're such happy colors, too.   The chairs got pretty ruffled skirts that hang half way to the floor, covering up the office look of the underside of the chairs.

 This looks like a dress to me, does it look that way to you, too?

 And here is the second chair with entirely different prints.   This chair has the same length skirt, piping around the seat and different fabrics for the side panels of the upper chair slipcover.

   

 The design on the back of both chairs is made using a template called an orange peel......because it looks like a section of an orange peel.   Ummmm, yea.   Anyway, I have been playing with that template this last few weeks and decided I liked it so much I wanted to use it as a decorative part of the upper back of the slipcover.   There is a pleat in the center back of the fabric and then to hold it closed I hand sewed  a hook and eye closure at the base of each orange peel.   All in all, I'm very happy with the way these slipcovers turned out.   And they bring my happy colors into the studio!

 Here is the quilt I am currently working on as it hangs on my design wall.   There is a lot more I'd like to do with this quilt and it will remain a work in progress for the next few weeks.    Each block is an orange peel appliqué.......some of the peels are from one whole piece of fabric, while the others are from 2 pieces of brightly colored fabrics I pieced first and then cut out the orange peel using the template.    All the peels are then placed on different colored background batik fabrics.

See what I mean about using different fabrics?   I just love the highly colorful nature of this quilt.   I'm working on stitching around each peel using lime green thread which is taking me a while to do all the blocks.   And I keep playing around with the direction of the peels.....some are laying on their sides while some are upright.    Pretty soon I hope to have the quilt laid out in a pleasing fashion and then I'll move on to the next step....some pretty awesome borders.

 This is the area by my ironing station.    Another of the baskets holds all my essential tools used while pressing garments and quilt blocks.    It sure is handy having everything out and conveniently located at the ready.

 Ok, so, now onto another project.    After I dropped Barb off at her house, I popped into her fabulous thrift store and within 5 minutes I was at the checkout with my "finds".   After spending only $7.95,  I jumped into my car with a grin......and three sweaters in a bag next to me on the car seat.  Now what in world am I going to do with three sweaters, you ask?    Make a wreath!  Yes!

I bought a straw wreath at Hobby Lobby and some "u" shaped pins in the floral department.    When I got back home, I used my rotary cutter and cut the sweaters into approximately 4" strips.....trying to keep the cable designs on the sweaters in the strips for some added texture.   Then, using the "u" pins I altered the colors of the three sweaters and worked my way around the wreath.....sticking the "u" pins into the straw wreath to secure the sides and ends of the sweater strips.   I found some tan and grey yarns in my knitting stash and randomly wrapped the yarn loosely around the wreath.    Three teal bells and a small pinecone were hung at the upper end of the wreath.   To hang it from a wreath hangar on the door, I slipped some satin ribbon around the wreath and tied a bow to secure it to the hangar.   Ta-da!    Now I have a winter wreath I can use year after year.

 When I discovered I had some bits and pieces of the teal sweater left over, my mind went spinning trying to think of different ways I could use it.   The end result is this mug rug.   Sorry for the dark picture.....darn.   Anyway, I used more Kaffe Fassett fabric pieces to sew around the sweater piece and now the mug rug sits on the little white table next to my hand sewing chair.  And no more cappuccino stains on my little white tablecloth.   Too.   Much.   Fun.  

Remember this from the last post?    Yes, it's the old album case.  Well, it's still a work in progress while I locate a larger piece of butcher block to overhang the entire top.  Then, the grain mill on the right, and the black walnut cracker on the left will get permanently mounted to the butcher block.   While it's winter, I have some plants inside like the small rosemary bush above.

It just wasn't very pretty sitting there in a plastic pot.   I pulled out some of my stash of burlap and put elastic thru some casing I sewed to the inside of the new bag.    Elastic at the bottom also helps when I take the plant to the sink for watering.   Now the bag doesn't get wet and I don't have to remove it every time I water the plant.   And it sure looks a whole lot better than the plastic pot with writing all over it.   A small bowl underneath the plant keeps the surface of the table top from getting wet and now it all looks much better to me.  

So now you know what I've been doing this winter......lots of little projects and a few bigger ones.  I love how some fabric mixed with a little bit of time and imagination can transform even the most mundane items in our life into something colorful and pretty.   And now I have access to the perfect studio where I can let my creative spirit fly.

Happy, happy farm chick,
Debbie