Mountain Musings

Granny's Walnuts ~ Part 1

Picking ~ This past month we've patiently been waiting for the walnuts to fall and now are gathering up bags of them for Granny.

Hannah found some in the local park and in a church yard down the road, and she and Granny brought many walnuts home with them.

Cracking ~ next step in the process is cracking open the walnuts so the sun can dry them out a bit. This was a messy step, and black walnut juice spurted out on Granny's shoes and gloves. Granny's a fast operator...look at that hammer go!

Drying ~ then Granny put old newspapers down on the picnic table and laid the walnuts out to dry for a few sunny days.

Soaking ~ when the walnuts were dry, Granny put a portion of them in a five-gallon bucket and poured a pot of boiling water over them. She followed this procedure for several batches of walnuts.

Then Sarah lifted each bucket for her and poured everything into the larger garbage can you see on the right.

After the boiling water cooled off, she added more water from the garden hose to continue soaking the walnuts.

Using ~ what will Granny do with her walnuts? How will she use them? Can you guess?

~Deb

Florida?? Me??

It's a chilly overcast Monday morning, and it's pouring rain here in our area of Virginia. We need the rain so badly, and I especially love rainy days and Mondays!

Can you guess what I might be dreaming about on this dreary day? Does this look like a nice place to dream about?

It's a photo taken at Satellite Beach, Florida. And guess what??

Vicki, over at her blog 2 Bags Full, recently had a giveaway for one of her commenters to win a week at her condo located at Satellite Beach. Here are lots more beautiful pictures of the beach and about the contest on this post.

Can you guess what I'm going to say next?

I won!

Me?? I won?? I'm going to Florida??

Vicki's little great-niece, Miss Maddy, drew my name out of the pretty fall basket!! Isn't she a little doll?

Miss Maddy dressed up like the Cowardly Lion for the special occasion, and you can read all about it here.

They even baked a cake and wrote the winner's name on it, but Miss Maddy licked the icing off! "Deb" didn't stay on that cake very long! How fun!

I've never been to Florida before, and I've only been to the beach maybe twice in my life. So you can imagine how excited I am!

And guess who's going with me?  G.R.A.N.N.Y !!!

If you'd like to see a slideshow of where we'll be, go over to Vicki's blog and scroll down on the right sidebar. You will see a box there to click where you can view pictures of her beach condo.

Can you picture Granny and me sitting and knitting and reading and watching the waves? And walking on the beach in the early morning? And taking pictures, of course!

I'm so very thankful for Vicki's generous offer! I'll be sure and post plenty of pictures so you can feel as if you're right there with me next month!

Hope your Monday will be a good one, too!

~Deb

Coming later this week: Guest poster, Granny!

High Spots and Low Spots

Yesterday was definitely a high spot on the calendar for us...it was the long awaited day that Tom and I would meet our long-time friends, Fred and Chris, in Richmond for lunch.

We try and plan a get-together as a twosome (just us girls) once a year and a foursome once a year to renew old friendships and to catch up on what's happening in our lives. With 14 children between us, there's a lot of information to pass along, lots of grandbabies' pictures to show off, and lots of quilt talk!

Maggiano's, located at Short Pump Town Center, was a fun new place for us to visit. The food was delicious, although we opted for the soup and salad and didn't experiment with some of the more exotic Italian dishes.

Our personable waiter gladly took a picture of the four of us together. What a good day it was! Thanks, friends!

On another note...since I've mentioned our home church on the blog many times before and posted pictures of some of our activities, I would like to mention that this Sunday was the last gathering of our home fellowship...it was a low spot for us today.

In the past months some families have moved away from our area, and others who were driving long distances (like 2 hours each way) have (understandably) decided that it was too much to drive each Sunday. Another family decided that they needed a fellowship with a larger cross-section of families. So a decision was made to acknowledge the end of our home fellowship and pursue whatever else the Lord might have for us.

Would you pray for wisdom and discernment for us to know what to do next, where to find fellowship of like-minded families, and for encouragement for all of our family during this season of our lives. Thank you so much!

~Deb

Friday Night Sew-In Results

What I worked on last night for the Friday Night Sew-In:

The Caroler table runner (below)....I'm ready to now organize and cut each 9-patch block vertically and horizontally and sew them back together. I purposely am just showing a picture before cutting all the disappearing 9-patches so the friend who's getting this (in case she reads this post) won't know what it will eventually look like.

Fruitcake table runner (below)...same story as above. The three 9-patch blocks are awaiting cutting and arranging into a pleasing pattern. This is a gift for another friend.

And the third table runner I worked on for the Sew-In is Sanae for Moda (below):

I also completed knitting the Ribbon Scarf last night. This one's for me!

If you'd like to see what others worked on, click on their blog links in the Sew-In post here.

~Deb

Friday Night Sew-In

Tonight's the night for sewing...or knitting...or any craft you're working on this month!

Heidi, over at Handmade by Heidi, is hosting the September Sew-In. I've never joined in before, but tonight I plan on finishing the scarf I started knitting recently with the yarn I purchased in Mahone Bay.

And then...I'll start on some table runners using three of my Moda charm packs. I surely won't accomplish as much as I'd like, but at least I'll get started. Here's the fabric I'll be working with:

I'll be using the same disappearing 9-patch tutorial as I did when I made the table runner seen here.

There are over 120 participants, and you can check out everyone's Friday Night Sew-In progress by clicking on the links found here as we all begin posting our finished projects later in the day on Saturday. So check back to everyone's blog.

My Saturday plans also call for lunch with dear friends in Richmond. So I may need to burn some midnight oil tonight for the Sew-In! I hope your Saturday is a good one, too!

~Deb

Work-in-Progress Wednesday ~ Double Wedding Ring

~ Sarah

I Met a Lurker and Survived!

I love meeting new people! 

This weekend I met for the first time a very friendly young lady named Bobbi who is a faithful Mountain Musings reader. However...she admitted that she's never left a comment, so I hadn't really interacted with her on the blog.

Bobbi lives two hours from us but was visiting the area this weekend with a friend. We emailed last week and decided on "Saturday morning at the Dayton Farmers' Market" as a good place to meet. Our local quilt store, Patchwork Plus, is conveniently located right next door.

The Farmers' Market boasts lots of cutesy shops including a Mennonite bakery, coffee shop and Hank's Smokehouse to name a few of the eateries.

I told Bobbi I'd be sitting at one of the tables near the front, and she said she'd know me from seeing pictures on the blog...which was a little bit eerie.  

Granny was with me, and we both kept looking around trying to figure out which arriving customer would be Bobbi.

Then...in walks a smiling Bobbi who came right to our table and said, "Hi, Deb. I'm Bobbi!" We hugged and sat down to a wonderful conversation. I am so glad that she suggested that we get together and meet! It was a real blessing.

I absolutely loved the fun adventure! Now I have a new friend and hopefully a new commenter on the blog...hint, hint. :) Thanks to Bobbi and her friend Vickie for a good Saturday morning get-acquainted-time!

~Deb

Continuing On

"And they continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. And all that believed were together, and had all things common."  ~ Acts 2: 42,44

* photo taken at Sherbrooke Village, Nova Scotia

~ Deb

Star Struck Quilts Blog Tour WINNERS!

Did you enjoy the tour on all the blogs spotlighting Barbara Cline's new book, Star Struck Quilts? I did!

I used Random.org this morning to select the winners and drum roll please:

First place winner for Star Struck Quilts book is:

DONNA FOSTER at Pieced Treasures

Second place winner for the gift set of Notions is:

RUTH BEACHY

Third and Fourth place names (not winners yet) will be included with names from each of the other blog tours and Barbara Cline will draw a name for the fabric and $25 gift card. Nancy and Heather, you should have already received an email from me as being in the hat for those prizes.

Thank you all so much for participating!

~Deb

Star Struck Blog Tour Continues ~ Deadline Tonight

If you're here looking for the Star Struck Quilts blog tour, scroll down a few posts for the giveaway or click here to go right to it. We'll be posting the winners' names tomorrow morning.

Thanks for visiting!

~Deb