Mountain Musings

Spring Break ~ Goats, Music, & Fellowship ~ Part 2

Spring Break week continued as we eagerly waited for the rest of the family to arrive in South Carolina on Good Friday. We were all scheduled to attend the late afternoon performance of The Living Gallery at Bob Jones University. Driving on campus is always a treat when the trees and flowers are in bloom. It was just lovely:
This was our first time to see this magnificent production where actors step out of paintings and then back into them (and vice-versa) to actually become part of the painting. If you didn't see it happen, you'd never know the characters were real. We loved it!

And my motto of always taking a camera with me everywhere I go? Fail! I left it behind because no photography was allowed inside the auditorium.

And what happens?! I met my blogging friend Becka, who writes Becka's Blog, for the first time InRealLife! She and her husband, Rob, were attending the same showing, and she had spotted us in the crowd and came over. Ooh, I was so disappointed when our cell phone camera didn't work! Becka and I will have to plan a real get-together another time with lots of blogging pictures!

Saturday and Sunday we traveled further south to Aiken to visit new friends that some of the family met at last fall's White Unto Harvest conference in Asheville, NC. Here we are getting acquainted with the Hammond family:First order of business was a tour of their dairy--so very interesting for all of us who know nothing about goats! We saw the milking station and the processing area where the milk is handled and where cheese and goat's milk soap are produced for several Farmers' Markets they attend each week:Thirteen goats were ready to be milked...most by machine, but some new mama goats needed milking by hand since little goat babies were newly born that morning! We arrived very close to milking time, so guess what? They allowed us to participate. Hi, Goats!And, yes, all of us practiced milking! Even I was talked into it! But Sarah was a natural and caught on quickly: The fresh milk from the mama goats was put into bottles for the babies...here are Hannah and Sarah holding some very cute little baby goats just before they fed them:  The Hammonds' daughter and son-in-law from Canada were visiting with their little daughter while we were there. It was great meeting them, too. Caleb talked with Jonathan while one of the kids had some fun nibbling on Jonathan's pants: Here are all the Hammond ladies, including little Miss Victoria:Jonathan takes a turn at feeding one of the newborns. This one was named Frisky: Now Hannah takes a turn feeding Peaches...there were enough newborn babies so everyone got some practice: Sarah always seems to find the doggies...or they find her:After a delicious meal around the table, we brought out instruments and played some Celtic tunes and sang a few hymns: Here's the Hammond family having fun as they prepare to sing for us: We also had an enjoyable time looking at wedding photos and watching the wedding video of Caleb and Jordan. Ethan, one of the Hammonds' sons looks along with Tom and Sarah: The next morning, Resurrection Sunday, we attended the Hammonds' home church fellowship which consisted of six or seven families. They met in a beautiful log house nearby.

Here Tom and I are posing with the Hammonds after the service...Mr. Hammond is the pastor of the church:We enjoyed the Easter brunch the ladies of the church prepared and also enjoyed fellowshipping with the families there:This home church day brought back many good memories of when church families met in our home for several years:
Flowers were blooming everywhere, and the day was just beautiful for outside conversations also. The Hammonds' youngest son, Noah, plays on the deck with the other children:Thank you, Hammond Family, for your gracious hospitality and friendship! We certainly enjoyed the visit!

~Deb

Spring Break ~ A Birthday & A Luncheon ~ Part 1

Our trip to South Carolina to visit my sister for her birthday and to pick up Granny and bring her back home to Virginia was full of a variety of enjoyable activities! Hannah and I packed for eight days away...and every day was definitely packed with fun!

As soon as we arrived mid-afternoon, we learned that my sister was attending a forum for her journalism students at 5 p.m., and she asked if we wanted to accompany her. Well...why not? Let's go!

Mike Gallagher, popular radio host and conservative political commentator, was the special guest speaker. We had seen billboards around town with his picture, but not being radio listeners, we had no clue who this famous personality was. Sorry, Mike!

The hour was super interesting, and Hannah and I really enjoyed his presentation and being on campus again.

The next day was my sister's birthday, so we planned to meet a friend for lunch at Mr. Salsa Mexican Restaurant.

Unknown to my sister, I was up to some shenanigans and arranged for the staff to sing Happy Birthday to her and bring out a complimentary sopapilla as a birthday surprise. I didn't know she'd be wearing a huge sombrero...ahem, not sure she was thrilled with that! But what a special birthday time and so much fun!

Here's our friend, Rhonda, and Bet together at the restaurant...friends and co-teachers for many, many years!Here are Hannah and Granny enjoying each other's company and waiting to cut the birthday cake: The next day included a very special treat of meeting with my sweet blogging friend, Lisa, from over at Shady Grove Adventures. Lisa drove about an hour to have lunch with us at my sister's house. I was looking forward to renewing our friendship after Granny and I traveled to Lisa's home in Pickens last year.

Lisa arrived bearing gifts galore!! Oh, my goodness! She had crafted such wonderful items by viewing our Pinterest boards to see what kinds of things we liked!

She brought my sister some Scrabble pillows that she made after finding them on her Home Sweet Home board! Since we both enjoy Scrabble, we absolutely loved them!And look what she found on my At The Garden Gate board: brick herb markers! Lisa told her husband she needed some old bricks for a project, and he found these for her!

At Christmas I always cry when I open special surprise gifts...and it looks like I'm halfway there in this photo. Crazy, huh? Tears over bricks!Here are all three bricks. I love them all--but the Chives brick is my favorite! Thank you, Lisa (and her husband, Tom, too)!Lisa sewed cosmetic bags for Granny and Hannah and even made one for Sarah! She definitely made our day with her creative generosity!  And I gifted Lisa with a Fig Tree "Chicken Scratches" applique flour sack towel. She has chickens, so I think she liked it even though I found out I'm not an appliquer: While Lisa was visiting, Granny took her out to my sister's garden shed where she showed her the 18 baskets she's made since Christmas:And, of course, we had to take photos together before she left. Lisa also wrote about our visit over on her blog if you'd like to read her side of the story! We had such a blogging good time! :).
Oh, yes, I'm just remembering that Sarah sent Coconut Cheesecake for us to serve for our luncheon dessert with Lisa.

She's testing out this flavor for Farmers' Market this new season and wanted some feedback. I'm a coconut lover and thought it was excellent!

And speaking of Farmers' Market, the girls are preparing for Opening Day tomorrow! Talk about a whirlwind of activity this week! This place has been hopping!

~Deb

~ Stay tuned: Spring Break ~ Visiting Friends on Their Goat Farm ~ Part 2

Spring Break ~ Quick Teaser

Well, we're home from our trip to South Carolina as of Tuesday night, and we're happy to have Granny back here in Virginia with us! More about our travels and fun with family and friends later.

Today was spent sleeping in and then laundry and unpacking, so no uploaded photos yet or thoughts about writing a post. But here's a bit of a teaser to show you what I did for the first time ever in my life over the weekend! Oh, my! Yes, that's Tom's hand to my right showing me how to squeeze the goat to start milking...I don't think he's ever done this either!

A time for new adventures ~ stay tuned! Do you have any Spring Break stories to tell?

~Deb

First Day of Spring Luncheon

Today marks the first day of Spring...and what better way to celebrate than to invite a friend over for lunch. 

As our doorbell rang, the fierce wind on top of our hill nearly blew our guest off the porch...in other words, it wasn't very spring-like!

Our Spring Luncheon Menu:

• Baked Potato Soup
• Toasted homemade bread
• Fruit Platter
• Red Velvet Cheesecake

Sarah was trying out a different cheesecake recipe to see how we would rate it as another possibility for this season's Farmers' Market. We liked it fine, but it lacked the Wow! factor...just a so-so cheesecake.

But it certainly looked pretty with the red velvet swirling throughout:Thank you, Jean, for helping us make a memory on this first day of Spring, 2013!~Deb

Highland Maple Festival ~ Friends ~ Quilting Day

After reading the last post, did you guess correctly that I picked both options and crammed all the fun I could into one day? Yes...a sliver of both please! :)

I decided to go on an adventure over the mountains and spent a half-day at the Highland Maple Festival over in Monterey. It definitely wasn't as crowded as most years because of the rainy weather, but I met up with some friends (planned and unexpected!) which made it all worthwhile!

Here are some pictures to document my day. First, here's the local Monterey Courthouse lawn where several vendors set up their wares:Some of the crafts for sale included knitted goods, birdhouses, primitive wooden carvings, and mushroom logs:
I stood for quite awhile and watched the guy carving wooden baby rattles...very interesting since he carves the little rings right on the spindle: I struck up a conversation with the man selling trees since Jonathan recently planted some apple trees for his bees, so this booth was very interesting to me:Two local shops in town, Morning Glories and Moonflowers and Wool Becomes Ewe, were delightful to browse. The garden shop is always on my list of musts when I visit Monterey, but it was my first stop at the yarn and fabric shop: The quaint yarn shop looked old-timey and very interesting--especially when I spotted the barn quilt on the side of the building. Barn quilt = must be good!This shop was small but fun, and being around beautiful fabric definitely qualified as celebrating National Quilt Day! After I finished my shopping, I headed back to where I was parked and ran into old friends we knew back in Williamsburg. In fact, Mary taught our kids to read music and play recorders many years ago. They live in the Monterey area now and were helping with the Maple BBQ Chicken: And...here are my friends from my hometown of South Boston and the ones I made the trip over to the Festival to see:We tried and tried to phone each other throughout the morning so we could meet up, having no clue that in such a small country town the lone cell tower would be overloaded and calls couldn't go through!

I finally gave up all hopes of running into them and was headed back home when I decided to try to call one final time...lo, and behold, the call connected! They were on one street corner, and I was on the opposite! What fun to get to talk at least for awhile!

Here's a partial view of the main street in Monterey looking back east, the direction I headed home:Back home again, I settled in for a cozy afternoon of sewing and worked on the first red block in my Block of the Month class in honor of National Quilting Day! It turned out better than I expected.

If I had a design wall...this would go on it!What a very full day! I hope you enjoyed going with me to the Maple Festival!

~Deb

Quilt Festival ~ Let's Sew All Day! ~ Part 3

After the all-day Quilt Festival and a much needed rest that night, we awoke the next morning to a rainy Saturday. The outside weather didn't dampen our spirits as the morning was filled with a sense of anticipation of how much sewing we'd get done on our selected projects.

My friend, Chris, outdid herself with all the cooking while I was visiting. Here's the delicious breakfast that awaited me when I came downstairs--quiche, fruit, yogurt, and muffins. Thank you, Chris! Next on the itinerary: Race to the Berninas!

Here I am sewing sashing on the twelve Saturday Sampler Blocks of the Month from the class I just completed at Patchwork Plus. Before I left on this trip, I had taken time to cut LOTS of strips, blocks, etc...everything I would need to ensure no hold-ups and lots of sewing time: Here's my photographer--John, a 12-year old Texas Ranger and the youngest of Chris' ten children, who kept us company throughout the day. I really wanted to bring him home with me after the weekend was over--he makes the best freshly-squeezed orange juice! Thank you, John!Chris worked hard and accomplished a lot--completing blocks for her block-of-the-month projects and a piano border for a table topper! Towards the middle of the afternoon we took a quick break for some fresh air and headed to her local quilt shop, Nancy's Calico Patch, which was only a few minutes down the street--how convenient!! And there was so much beautiful fabric and quilting inspiration inside:This shop displayed antique sewing machines just like my local quilt shop. Quilt shop owners must all be collectors of old Singer machines:Well, of all the inspiration and "eye candy" that I saw at the Quilt Festival...and of all the beautiful quilting fabrics that I saw in the quilt shop...I have to say that I was the most excited over this last picture I'll show you more than anything else from the weekend.

Chris' design wall in her sewing room which displayed all the blocks she's been working on encouraged me the most. Take a look! Aren't they all just gorgeous?! I'm longing to do every one of those blocks! I'm sure some of you quilters will recognize most of these blocks she's been working on.

Included on this wall is the Fat Quarter Shop's Mystery Block of the Month using Vintage Modern by Bonnie & Camille (far top right); blocks from the Sew Red for Women block of the month (top left and bottom); and four blocks from the Blogger Girls block of the month (the red/white/blue blocks, left middle rows).

I loved all of my adventures while I was away, and I hope you enjoyed traveling along with me to Williamsburg, to the festival, and to my quilting friend's home! I certainly had a wonderful, wild, quilting weekend!

~Deb

Quilt Festival ~ Excitement ~ Part 2

And we continue (see Part 1 here) our wild wonderful weekend...

Friday morning a wintry mix greeted us as we began our day...hmm...let's get on the road quickly and get to the Quilt Festival before the roads are too bad! It was a messy day outside, but inside--ooh, the excitement of all the quilters could be felt! This was going to be a fun adventure!As we entered the large arena, the crowds were already there. We decided what our plan of attack would be and made our way to the far left aisle to start our walk through the vendor booths. So much quilty goodness to see!Below my friend, Chris, and her mom are standing in front of a beautiful house quilt which was my favorite...until we saw the more elaborate quilts later in the day: Like I mentioned...lots of quilty goodness everywhere to entice you: Antique quilts were for sale. These booths interested me because I love antique quilts: Exquisite quilts, like the one below, were being raffled throughout the Festival. I would love to have taken one of these home...but I think I'd rather spend my dollar for a sure thing: What do you think of this whimsical quilt? It's a small wall-hanging named Red Solo Cup...and yes, red solo cups were placed into slots made for them in the quilt...unusual:Here's my friend, Chris, standing in front of my favorite quilt in the show. The name of the quilt was either Mexican Fiesta or Red Fiesta--not sure. It was intricate and beautiful! Here's an upclose photo of just one part of this quilt:

And here's one of the white glove ladies showing us all the quilting on the back:Below is the Vintage Linens vendor booth. I always think of my sister when I see stacks of vintage tablecloths. They are all just lovely but quite expensive: I saved the Best in Show quilt award until the end. This is definitely not your average run-of-the-mill quilt. Check out these horses! Did you notice that the method of quilting produced words on the quilt? Oh, my! Look closer: Well, I have many more pictures, but I'd better stop there! We had a super grand time, and I'm so thankful I was able to attend.

Do you know that I didn't buy a single thing?! Although I think the lady selling the vibrating pillows (which were for backs and feet) would have had a purchaser if she'd been located in the last aisles at the end of the day! Whew!

Just before bedtime, Chris and I set up our machines and got out our blocks and strips and readied our areas to sew the next day. Stay tuned for the next part of my weekend adventure ~ Part 3!

~Deb

Quilt Festival ~ Getting There ~ Part 1

Last Thursday began my wild, wonderful weekend quilting adventure, and I arrived home Sunday evening--tired but excited about the friendships renewed and the fun I had--and the sewing that was accomplished!

Since I was driving through Williamsburg on my journey to Hampton, I wanted to stop and visit some friends we knew when we lived in the colonial city for ten years back in the 90's. I planned a full itinerary!My long-ago homeschooling friend, Christine, and I met for lunch here at The Old Chickahominy House on Jamestown Road. Have you ever experienced eating here? It's quite popular.Here's the porch sign below that greeted visitors and announced their pies of the day:We both enjoyed Miss Melinda's Special - Cup of Brunswick Stew, Old Virginia Ham on Hot Biscuits, Fruit Salad, Homemade Cherry Crumb Pie, and Tea. It was so nice to see my friend again. Thanks, Christine! Next on my itinerary: I invited myself to our former neighbors' home who used to live in our cul-de-sac and who now live in an independent-living facility. We have fond memories of our neighbors hiring the kids many times to help in their yard and reminisced about our time in Williamsburg. She knew I was headed to the quilt festival, so she showed me her sampler quilt, below. It was beautiful! Unfortunately, I didn't quilt when we lived in the same neighborhood for her to give me tips...I was too busy homeschooling those years!Next stop: Duke of Gloucester Street! One of our favorite past times when we lived in Williamsburg was walking down DOG Street, finding the Colonial Bakery, and buying a gingerbread cookie and hot apple cider.

Another long-ago homeschooling friend, Beverly, and I strolled the street for old times sake! She treated and bought us both cookies and ciders as we walked and chatted. Here's Beverly with one of the colonial interpreters: My sister-in-law in Connecticut used to work for Colonial Williamsburg as an interpreter, so these next pictures are for her--maybe she'll recognize some of the workers pictured:

My last stop in Williamsburg was to the home of our Japanese neighbor who lives directly behind our former home. Chiaki was in our neighborhood Bible study along with this couple who also was invited to dinner at her home: Chiaki prepared some traditional Japanese appetizers for us...three dishes this southern girl had never experienced before. The cute little pouches to the left are Inari Sushi, and the food to the right is Sushi with Smoked Salmon, with capers on top.And the mango shrimp fruit dish was delicious, consisting of mango, shrimp, parsley with lemon juice, curry powder, olive oil, salt/pepper, and ginger. It was quite spicy, and the fruit was delicious:The rest of our menu included piping hot beef stew with a flavor unlike any I'd experienced...very delicious. Bread and a green salad accompanied our meal. Dessert was Banana Nut Cake topped with Vanilla Honey Yogurt with strawberries and blueberries. Chiaki worked hard in the kitchen for us!

Whew! What a day full of renewing friendships! I enjoyed myself a lot! I still had a half-hour drive in the dark ahead of me before I arrived at my quilting friend's house for the night.

The next day's plans were to attend the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival. Stay tuned for more from our wild wonderful quilting weekend. We've only just begun our adventures!

~Deb

I'm Going On An Adventure!

Oooh, I'm just a tad bit excited!

This morning I'm headed out bright and early destined for the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival in Hampton, Virginia.

Going with me: my trusty camera and a journal...all for blogging about the adventures which are sure to happen!

 I'm also bringing my sewing machine and lots of fabric pieces I cut this week ahead of time so I'd have plenty to sew on our wild and wonderful weekend sewing retreat.

I've pre-written the Sunday Hymn post so check back on Sunday and read why it's so special to me. I'll be home before you even miss me!

~Deb

Visiting Friends ~ Gifting a Table Runner

Sundays in our neck of the woods mean fellowship with friends before, during, and after the worship service. Lots of times that also means families follow other families home for additional visiting.

Last Sunday after church we were invited to our friends' home to extend our fellowship time with them and enjoy a meal together.

We drove an hour or so towards the Peaks of Otter. Here we are following our friends and enjoying the snowy scenery enroute to their home: Below: there are the Peaks! I've hiked the Peaks of Otter many times when I was growing up--they're located not too far from my hometown of South Boston, Virginia!Below Sarah's displaying the table runner that I made to take with us as a hostess gift.  I used the same Ruby and Bliss fabric lines that I used in the table runner I recently completed for another friend.

There were plenty of leftover charm squares, so I made an almost duplicate disappearing nine-patch table runner--but just a bit longer for this family's longer table--six blocks instead of four!

And here's the back showing the label. Labels are my least favorite part of a quilted item, and I'm not the best at making them.

When we presented our hostess gift, our friends immediately put it on their table. It looks like it's found a home here:

Here I am with my friend, Kathy, with the new table runner behind us:
After a delicious meal, some of us took a trek outside to check on the chickens. I don't think I could bring myself to actually pick up a chicken...but I thought the color Anna painted the henhouse made it look quite classy! Here's a collage showing some of the activity:

When we made our way back inside, Kathy was preparing some yummy slices of brownie pie!

We had a very enjoyable visit! Thank you to our friends for a lovely Sunday afternoon and evening!

~Deb