Mountain Musings

Birthday Quilt for a Friend

Today was a wonderful day here at Mountain Musings!! Very special friends from out-of-town came to worship and fellowship with us at church and then came home with us for the afternoon and for an evening meal. Ooh, I loved it!

My friend, Leigha, is celebrating her birthday on Monday (Happy Birthday, Leigha!), and so it was extra special that she came this weekend to celebrate it with us!

Ever since I found out that she had asked to come visit us especially for her birthday, I knew that I wanted to make her a quilt as a surprise gift.

I first posted the start of this Wallflower quilt here in this post. I love the fabrics (Millhouse Inn by Fig Tree Quilts) and the pattern (Wallflower by Thimble Blossoms), and I loved making it for her! Here's a picture showing the front of the Wallflower quilt. The monogram W is for the family name:

And a picture showing the back:

Thank you Granny and Sarah for your help in making these pictures possible:

Leigha's 7 children helped her unwrap the quilt. I think she was surprised, and I think she liked it!

Checking out the label:

While waiting for the spaghetti sauce to simmer for our meal, Hannah occupied the girls by teaching them to make some chocolate lip butter:

Pouring the chocolate butter into the tins and tubes:

And a final picture that shows the menfolk and Granny in the background:

We certainly enjoyed a delightful day with our friends!

Now I can mark this quilt off my list! And I'm wondering which project I'll start on next. Maybe it should be the double dump truck load of mulch that's sitting out in the yard waiting patiently to be spread...

~Deb

My Day in Pickens ~ Meeting a Sweet Blogger in Real Life

Last week I was traveling to SC to visit my sister and also to pick up Granny and bring her back to Virginia with me.

Lisa, who blogs over at Shady Grove Adventures, had invited me to come to her neck of the woods whenever I was in the area again. Lisa and I are blogging and email buddies, but we had never met in real life (until last Monday).

I LOVE adventures and just couldn't pass up Lisa's invitation, so we emailed and set up a time to visit and have lunch together. Granny wanted to come with me, so we drove the hour out to her place and had a delightful time! Lisa really showed us some wonderful South Carolina hospitality!

As soon as we arrived, Granny and I spotted a "Club Car"...and Granny has been saying how much she needs a golf cart to get her from the house down to her basket shed (my garden shed) and back up the hill!

So Lisa gave her a ride to try it out! I think Granny really liked it!

We enjoyed seeing the chicken yard, and Lisa showed us one of her prize chickens up close and personal.

I'm not sure if the fresh eggs in our delicious quiche for lunch was from this particular chicken or not, but if so, she did herself proud!

After a grand tour of Lisa's house, including her wonderful sewing room and seeing sewing and knitting projects she's working on, she presented me with my very own walking stick! Her husband Tom had made it especially for me from a sassafras tree on their property! I was thrilled and very touched at their thoughtfulness! 

So while Lisa prepared lunch (quiche, garlic-cheese biscuits and fresh fruit with Hummingbird Cake for dessert--oh yummy!)...I participated in craft time!

Lisa put beads, cording, and string on the table for me to make myself a name bracelet to add to the top of the walking stick. I loved making it!! Thank you, Tom, for such a very nice walking stick!

We took pictures out on the deck after a tour around the outside of the house (loved the raised beds!), and so soon it was time to leave.

Then Lisa presented me with three plants from their property to bring home as parting gifts: a dogwood tree, a container of 10+ Bird-foot Violet plants, and a Passionflower plant. Ooh, I hope all these plants live so I can have a remembrance of our special day together.

You can see pictures of what the plants will look like over on Lisa's blog here. And also she wrote such a delightful post about our visit.

Thank you so much, Lisa! Granny and I thoroughly enjoyed our day with you and our adventure in Pickens!

I love meeting bloggers in real life!

~Deb

A Successful Market Day ~ Part 5

Saturday...the greatly anticipated opening day for Farmer's Market finally arrived!

We began the day early with a chilly 29 degrees...using flashlights to see inside boxes at dark o'clock to determine which soaps to display and which boxes held the pies. The van was loaded with stuff to unpack and a tent and signs to get in place!

Vendors began to arrive to set up their wares at the Wharf Parking Lot. Here's a shot taken looking down the main sidewalk as flowers and vegetables are brought out to display:

Hannah and Sarah worked on their booth to get it just right. Here they are just before market opened for customers:

The girls will experiment with a different table arrangement next week. This L-shaped display was necessary because end-to-end tables went just over the alloted parking space line. Oops! There were honey vendors in the parking spots on both sides of them--some close quarters.

Here's an upclose photo of Hannah's soap display:

And an upclose photo of Sarah's baked goods display which included pies, fudge, lemon blueberry muffins, butterscotch bars, and cheesecake wedges in the fridge:

Here's Sarah with bags of homemade marshmallows, gummy squares, cashew brittle, and puppy chow she made. Her free samples drew a crowd around her booth throughout the morning!

Here's a view from behind Sarah's booth as she keeps track of all the paperwork. She took custom orders to bring to market next week, too:

One of the fresh flower vendors sold out long before the end of market. Her display was beautiful, and her flowers attracted lots of customers:

She gave folks wandering by her booth a free tulip while supplies lasted:

Fresh veggies were everywhere!

My favorite: Beets!

There were several honey vendors. Jonathan was very interested in checking out those displays since his 30,000 bees arrive for pickup at the bee store this afternoon. The beehives he and a friend made are in place on our property awaiting their occupants. Post coming soon on his adventures as a beekeeper!

Some musicians set up at the end of the parking lot and played for a portion of the morning:

And there's Granny...she bought Sarah's last coconut pie and also some Gardener's Therapy Balm from Hannah. What a sweet and encouraging Granny! Well, that was a sampling of Saturday's Farmer's Market...one week down and 32 more weeks to go! Oh, my, I'm wondering if my kitchen will survive this venture!

~Deb

Cakewalk at the Farmer's Market ~ Part 4

The nine cakes are all decorated--some with hearts, some with daisies, and some with cherries!

And the iced cupcakes await on cake stands!

But one thing hasn't been done yet...I need to layer them all together, and it must be done today. Farmer's Market begins at 7 a.m. Saturday morning, and our arrival time is 5:30 a.m.! I'm wondering how I will ever finish in time!

What am I talking about you ask? Why do I have to layer them all together?

Well.....I guess I'd better show you a picture and stop teasing! Believe me...there's been no room in the kitchen for me this week with all of Sarah's baking going on!

So I baked some cakes at my sewing machine!

I've been working on a cake quilt for Sarah's booth--Sarah's Sweets! The pattern is called Cakewalk by Lori Holt, and the fabric is Flower Sugar by Lecien Fabrics. Isn't that a perfect fabric name to use for cakes?

If you click on the pattern, you can see there were originally 12 cakes...but since Sarah makes cupcakes, I substituted three blocks of cupcakes for variety. The fabric for those is from scraps:

I first saw the quilt idea over at Sewn With Grace, and Renee graciously sent me the cupcake pattern she used. Thank you, Renee! She also made her Cakewalk quilt using Flower Sugar fabrics, and I think her quilt is beautiful!

You can see Lori Holt's (the pattern designer) Cakewalk quilt using her very own Sew Cherry fabric over at her blog Bee in my Bonnet. Thank you, Lori, for a great pattern!

And Jodi, over at Pleasant Home, shows her Cakewalk quilt here.

My Sweet Sprinkles inner border is by Michael Miller fabrics, and the outer cupcake border is Buttercup Cupcakes Galore by Timeless Treasures:

At this point, I wish a long-arm quilter lived next door to me to do all that wonderful quilting for me ...real quick-like! I've not done free-motion before...so I think some straight-line quilting will be the order of the day.

Okay...I guess I'd better get busy and get these cakes in the oven...aah, I mean over to the sewing machine to be quilted! ;) See you tomorrow at Market!

~Deb

Home Again!

Last week I left all the Farmer's Market commotion going on around here and headed down to South Carolina to visit my sister for a few days...and I picked up Granny and brought her back here to live awhile with us! Yay!

We just got in last evening, and it's good to be home! While I was away, the girls entertained a photographer and reporter from the local newspaper who interviewed them, snapped lots of pictures, and wrote an article on their involvement in the local Farmer's Market.

Here's Granny reading about them in today's paper, and here's a link to the front page article:

Hopefully, the exposure will mean some extra sales on Saturday. The girls hope so!

And did you know that I'm making nine cakes and lots of cupcakes for the Market this weekend?

Can you picture what we'll all be doing from now until Market opens? Will we survive this week of busy-ness?!

Stay tuned...I'll show you on Friday all the cakes I've decorated!

~Deb

MillHouse Inn ~ Wallflower Quilt

There's not much to report this week on any UFO Progress...but here's what I've been doing instead.

Last weekend I started working on a new quilt with one of the older jelly rolls I've had in my stash for awhile now--Millhouse Inn by Fig Tree Quilts. The more subdued colors in this fabric line perfectly fit the friend I'm gifting it to.

First, I needed to order some border and background fabric and some extra pieces to go along with the jelly roll I already had. Those oranges don't really look subdued though, do they?My next step was laying out the 40 jelly roll strips and picking 9 of them to use on the front of the quilt:

And here are more strips over on the cutting table:

I'm using Camille Roskelley's Wallflower pattern for this quilt and am familiar with it already because I made two of these quilts for friends three years ago. You can see one of them completed in my Flickr photos here. And now I'm making a third for another friend...I must like this pattern!

Here's the front, and I'm just beginning the flower stem applique. That's a jelly roll strip laid out for the stem, but I'll make it slimmer than that. It really takes shape once the flower petals are attached.

Hopefully, I can work on this quilt some in the coming week. I'll show you more completed portions another time. I don't want to ruin the surprise just in case my friend happens upon this post.

To see other participants in the UFO Challenge, visit Susan over at Blackberry Creek.

~Deb

Girls in the Garden

You would think this post might be categorized under Gardening, wouldn't you? Well, since it's not quite springtime yet, you won't find us in the garden today...so I'm going to label it under crafts. Huh?

Pat Sloan, quilter extraordinaire, recently completed her Girls in the Garden blog hop with some of her newest and wonderful seasonal patterns. Take a look:

                    (photo credit: Pat Sloan's blog)

I enjoyed hopping from blog to blog looking at all the wonderful creations made from Pat's patterns--wallhangings, table runners, pillows, etc.

I love the coneflowers, but look at those red birds in the winter pattern. I'm not sure which one I'll make first! I was one of the winners of a complete set of these patterns!! And I can't wait for them to arrive! Thank you, Pat!

If you'd like to order your own, check out Pat's Webstore here.

~Deb

UFO-ing at the Friday Night Sew-In

I guess this post qualifies for two buttons! I'm a Little Green Quilter over at Blackberry Creek, and I'm participating in tonight's Friday Night Sew-In over at Handmade by Heidi.

That sounds impressive...but my UFO-ing and sewing have been mighty sparse...well, okay, almost non-existent this year. But tonight I plan to work on two things:

First, I'm going to be putting painter's tape--for quilting a straight line--on the still-hanging-around postage stamp quilt that's been spread across Granny's bed ever since she left for SC. It's a good place for it--out of sight, out of mind--no, wait, what am I saying? Not really! I need to finish this quilt!

For the Sew-In tonight I'm going to be starting on my January Saturday Sampler block (the last one for this quilt!) which Sarah, of course, has already finished...I'm posting a picture of hers so you can see what my completed project will look like tonight, hopefully!

I'm getting ready this afternoon to soak my fabric and iron it dry, figure out the pattern, and be ready to begin actual sewing this evening. The next Saturday Sampler class begins a new year in March, and, yes, after much debating I decided to join again. I could not resist! (Note to Julie S.: I'm in the 10:00 class!)

Updated to add: block completed!

In some non-crafty news, today Tom and I are celebrating our 32nd Proposal Anniversary. Maybe we can reminisce together a bit while I'm sewing tonight.

Have a great weekend, everyone! We're expecting to be snowed in with 5 - 8 inches on Sunday...our first real snow this year!

~Deb

Good Fortune Notebook

Speaking of beautiful quilting fabrics...my favorite fabric designer is Kate Spain, and one of her newest lines of fabrics is Good Fortune, seen here at Fat Quarter Shop.

Yesterday the mailman surprised me with a package sent all the way from Michigan from Stephanie, also known as Mama Pea of Peas in a Pod blog.

Stephanie and I have struck up a blogging friendship over the past months (we're both wanna-be UFO-ers), and she made this beautiful notebook and sent it to me:

I LOVE it! And I especially love the panel of words she sewed to the front of the notebook. I'll definitely use it for lots of lists and things I should remember and don't, plus it's made from beautiful Good Fortune fabric!!

Here's a photo showing both the back and front:

I love how blogging makes the world seem smaller! Thank you so much, Stephanie!

~Deb

Back to Back Quilting Fun!

Yesterday we drove over the river and through the woods to our friends' house to teach a quilting class...and a yogurt making class!

While Hannah was in the kitchen teaching two families how she makes yogurt, Sarah and I were setting up the sewing machines, arranging a pile of scraps from which the girls could choose to make blocks, and unbagging various quilts we brought for a show-and-tell to start the session.

Sarah began by showing her sampler quilt she made a few years ago from a Leisure Arts Learning to Quilt book. She wanted to show the girls the many different blocks that are possibilities:

Sarah decided to pick the rail fence block to teach the class since the project was an easy one for a beginner. Here's Hannah below holding up an example of a small rail fence quilt she made using the Alex Anderson Start Quilting book:

Each of us girls brought our mats, 6"x24" rulers, and rotary cutters--three basic necessities for a quilter to learn how to use. Sarah demonstrated the technique, and everyone started cutting the scrap fabric they had selected to make their own rail fence block.

I have some great pictures of the girls cutting and sewing and having fun, and I wish I could show them to you--I did think of a way to post the completed blocks without putting faces on the internet. Here are the four rail fence blocks the class of six beginning quilters finished. I think they did an excellent job!

And did I mention back-to-back fun? This morning Sarah and I attended our last Patchwork Plus class for this Saturday Sampler session.

Our class started out with a Show-and-Tell also. Here's one of the class participants, along with our teacher "QuiltinGal" Barbara, showing her last year's Saturday Sampler quilt all finished:

I have all these same 12 blocks finished...they just need to be made into a quilt--and, of course, that beautiful center medallion, the extra corners, and all the applique need to be done!

And today I saw the new fabrics (Alex Anderson's latest release Leila Rose by P&B) already displayed for the next sampler class beginning in March, and they are calling my name! Should I or shouldn't I?

Here's our teacher, Barbara, demonstrating how to set in some of the blocks as we work towards completing the quilt top:

And finally, Barbara reviewed how to attach a binding on a small sample:

I learned something in class today about cutting bias binding on quilts larger than a wall hanging...I've always cut my binding from selvage to selvage and never on the bias no matter what size of quilt it is. No one ever told me I should do it differently! Maybe that's just something everyone already knows.

I'm glad I learned this technique of cutting on the bias to make bindings, and I'll have to practice on these Saturday Sampler quilts!

We've had two fun days of quilting! I hope you enjoyed going along with us!

~Deb