Mountain Musings

UFO Progress ~ Wall Hanging Almost Finished!

This week I've been diligently working on the fall leaf wall hanging or mini-quilt--I'm almost done!

This afternoon I've been tackling quilting around each leaf, and then I'll quilt in the ditch around the orange border. I love the way the quilting is making it look!

At the moment I only have straight pins to use...all the real quilting pins are either in Sarah's Double Wedding Ring quilt or in my Postage Stamp Quilt (which isn't on the UFO list yet...but is fast becoming a candidate!).

It is quite prickly trying to quilt around leaves with straight pins biting into my hands and arms as I try to twist and turn this project. I may break down and buy more pins--with three quilters in the house they'll always be put to good use.

Here's the front with the orange binding not attached but placed so you can see what the final result will look like:

I should have taken the picture the other direction so you could better see the three extra leaves I appliqued outside the border...mostly to cover the hole I accidentally cut in my fabric. They are at the top right corner area--two purples and an orange. This mistake turned out better than I thought!

And below is the backing fabric which I won in a giveaway on a blog last year. All the colors are amazingly the same as the front! I'm not sure what I would have done with this fabric anyway...it was the perfect size for this project...just what you see here!

Hopefully, I can finish quilting and put the binding on early next week. Yay! Another finish...almost!

Also, I wanted to publicly thank Susan over at Blackberry Creek for her recent UFO Blogger giveaway. I was her winner, and here are all the goodies she sent me: bundles of fabric, 5 patterns, notions, and two wonderful quilting magazines!

Thank you so much, Susan! I love it all!

You can find more UFO participants this week linked over at Blackberry Creek.

~Deb

Three Antique Planters

This seems to be the summer for planters! Take a look...

This McCoy yellow turtle planter is my absolute favorite! My sister brought it from SC a couple of weeks ago for my birthday. Isn't it unique?

I orginally spotted the turtle sprinkler this past spring in an antique store in Greenville when I visited my sister. I knew I loved it then...but didn't bring it home with me. After getting back to VA, I told my sister to please go back and check and see if it was still there. But, no, it wasn't. Oh, well.

Little did I know that vendors had been switched around in the store, and yes, the yellow turtle was there after all...just in a different spot. I didn't find out that part of the story until I opened the gift. I love it!

Switching from yellow to green...here's a McCoy green planter I found at Frank's Country Store in Mount Crawford a couple of weeks ago when my sister came to visit:

This one certainly isn't much to look at compared to the turtle, but I've been looking for a rectangular planter especially for my kitchen sink window. It's now planted with a spaghetti cactus.

Here's the McCoy signature on the bottom:

When I was growing up, my mom had a planter just like this one, and we think she sold it at a yard sale many years ago for fifty cents! So this purchase was specifically because it reminded me of my childhood...and because I like plants on the kitchen windowsill.

Our next stop was Shenandoah Heritage Farmer's Market, and here's the planter we found there:

This one is a Shawnee Two Button Boot and Dog blue planter marked with USA on the bottom.

I bought this planter for a gift...but the longer that dog sat on my desk looking at me, the harder it was to think about giving it away. I almost didn't. But the family told me I didn't need another one!...and to give it away like I originally planned. Okay.

So now this blue planter has a new home with my friend, Jean. I planted a purple shamrock plant inside the boot which I hope will live...and thrive.

(If you're interested, another friend--MsGreen Thumb Jean--has a yellow boot planter listed in her Etsy shop.)

Do you like to search out unique antiques in little out-of-the-way places? What's your favorite find?

~Deb

Adventures, Antiques, & Aunt Bet

Last week when my sister Bet and her teacher friend, Sonia, visited us from SC, we planned some special outings for all of us girls while the guys were at work. I love girl outings. :)

On our first day of adventures we drove over Afton Mountain to a little shop--Rockfish Gap Country Store. Here's a picture of the outside with lots of gardening ornaments...love it all...couldn't you just take home one of everything?!

Next we headed back up Afton Mountain and made our way over to the Blue Ridge Parkway for a picnic lunch. It had been many years since my sister had traveled the Parkway, and Sonia had never ever been on this scenic route! We looked forward to showing her how beautiful the mountains were!

The day actually was quite hazy, and Rockfish Valley from the top of the Parkway wasn't very clear. That's illustrated by the photo on the top left below, but at least it gives you some idea of what we saw.

Our picnic was just delightful! And for a special treat for dessert we planned smores...hmm...can you tell we had quite the time getting that bag of charcoal going! Everyone pitched in, and finally we had fire!

While on the Parkway, we visited Humpback Rock Visitor Center. Here are Bet and Sonia posing in front of the ranger station before we walked down to Appalachian Farm. We always enjoy seeing the gardens and chickens, strolling through the old cabin, and talking with the  interpreters. Here are some photos:

This man below is caning a chair bottom, and the lady interpreter enjoyed having her picture taken. Sarah posed in front of the antique quilt and old baskets inside the cabin.

Other days we visited Green Valley Book Fair, browsed shops at Shenandoah Heritage Farmer's Market and shops in Harrisonburg, walked downtown, toured some gift and antique shops, and lunched at the historic Depot Grill.

And on their last night in VA Granny treated us all to ice cream at The Split Banana. Here we are on the street in front of the shop--Jonathan and Tom were able to join us on this outing. Yay for the guys!

We had a terrific week with our company! Come back soon, Y'all!

In another post I'll show you a couple of antique pieces I ended up with during our travels.

~Deb

Knockout Roses YouTube

I mentioned that I would post the link to the P. Allen Smith Knockout Roses video once it was posted to YouTube.

Here's the link. I think he did an excellent job of making Granny feel special! Let me know what you think.

~Deb

How does your garden grow?

Catchup Post # 2: Inside the Veggie Garden (especially for Leigha and Sherrin :))

Although these photos were taken 2 weeks ago, at least they will give you an idea of what our garden is currently looking like. Everything is filling the beds with greenery and vegetables!

In this first photo, you can see the top of the garden entrance gate. In this long bed are growing zucchini, yellow squash, lettuce (which I have since pulled), spinach, kohlrabi, and cucumbers. So far we have enjoyed the delicious results in several dishes, and the cucumbers are becoming pickles as I write.

Here is the southern end of the picket fence garden, looking towards Granny's basket shed; you can see not only the pole beans on their supports, but the clothesline around the top of the lower garden, a new feature Dad added this year for stopping the deer.

In the middle of the long raised beds grows a row of herbs, such as bushy Greek oregano, cilantro, thyme, dill, and rosemary. There are some sugar snap peas and Swiss chard in there, too.

This is a photo looking southwest, towards the tomato bed. We have about 6 varieties growing, 35 plants total. Hopefully the harvest will be fully ripening any day now, although many of their leaves are blighted.

In the corner of this view is a large bed containing turnips past their prime, beets, carrots, and peppers.

The tomato bed is intermingled with basil and marigolds, and I recently mulched it with leftover hardwood mulch. The cucumbers climb a chicken wire trellis.

This is the first year I have planted pole beans; Granny and I strung the string supports between metal snow poles. Garlic had been growing at the end of this bed since last fall, and I replaced their spot with some okra which is sprouting up nicely already. More pictures later!

How is your garden growing?

~Hannah

Roses in the Ground!

Saturday turned out to be a great day to plant the knockout roses. It was overcast and not too hot. Unfortunately, Granny didn't get to see them in the ground before she left for SC, but she can always read the blog and see pictures!

I love the way an engineer thinks. Everything was measured exactly before the digging started--from one end to the other, muliplied, divided, and conquered--or whatever you do to get everything perfect! I would have taken the roses and eye-guessed where they should be, dug the hole, and been done with it.

Thankfully, opposites attract...and I'm blessed with an engineer who makes sure I don't mess things up!

Tom ended up digging all ten holes...exactly where he put the stakes! Then I planted and watered them...and now we pray for sun and rain and growth so they'll be pretty when Granny comes back.

Here's Part 1 of the project finished below. The stakes on each end and in the middle indicate where the Green Velvet Boxwoods will be planted--Part 2. Walker's Low Catmint will fill in the empty spaces around the semi-circle and make a beautiful bed. That may happen early this fall.

My next step this week is putting down a weed barrier around the roses and adding mulch. Thankfully, that doesn't require math!

~Deb

UFO Progress...or Not...

Well, this week has been FULL of Fun, Food, and Fellowship with my sister and her teacher friend who came to visit...and getting Granny packed and off to SC for the next few months (will post soon on some of our adventures this week).

So needless to say...we've been busy antiquing, picnicking, and strolling the shops downtown and nothing has been done on the UFO projects since last time.

Susan over at Blackberry Creek wanted us to post our progress (or not) today for Mr. Linky and her halfway-through-the-year giveaway for all UFO participants.

Next week I'll play catch-up and hopefully have something to report!

~Deb

UFO Progress Report

This week my UFO-ing has been hit-and-miss--we're preparing for my sister to come for her annual summer visit this weekend (she'll take Granny back to SC with her when she leaves...boo-hoo)--and the days have been busy. This visit Bet is bringing a teacher friend with her, so we've planned some day excursions for them next week, as well as some great meals.

I even had to stop cleaning and menu-ing to make my Saturday Sampler block for this month. Sarah and I will attend our class tomorrow morning, and until yesterday I hadn't sewn my block! This month's is called Tempest in a Teapot. I'm all finished.

For this week's UFO Progress Report, I continued working on the leaf wall hanging I reported on last week. All the leaves that needed to be finished are now appliqued. Then when I was tearing/cutting away all the stablizer behind the leaves, unfortunately I cut part of the border fabric with some very sharp scissors. So I need to figure out a creative way to fix the hole--maybe smaller leaves falling down the side of the quilt to cover it?

The other UFO I was working on (the pinwheel quilt) was dusted off and laid out on the floor to see what to do next. Two rows have been sewn together with smaller pinwheel blocks in the sashing. I am not too good at matching seams up...so that's what stopped me from finishing when I first began this. I think I'm going to rip out that long row of sashing and get it right or either decide not to use the smaller pinwheel blocks. Still in progress...

Susan, over at Blackberry Creek, is hosting the UFO Challenge. Check other participants over at her place.

~Deb

Family Fun

Catchup post #1 ahead!

Over the past month or so, we documented many fun family activities with a camera, but neglected to post about them here on the blog. We won't forget the happenings but thought we'd let our readers in on at least a few of those photos. These special times included, but were not limited to the following!

Father's Day

We had planned for quite awhile to try out a local Japanese steakhouse and thought the perfect time would be to celebrate with Dad for Father's Day. The experience was a first for many of us and was not only entertaining, but delicious. Thank you, Dad, for being a faithful and godly father with integrity, wisdom, kindness, (I could go on...).

Fishing

Dusting off our rods and reels, we renewed our fishing licenses for some relaxing adventures by the water. We did actually catch something this time (Sarah was excited about her bluegills)! It was an enjoyable summer activity that we'll have to do again soon.

Graduation

We traveled to attend a graduation celebration and recital in honor of two siblings. It was meaningful to hear of God's work in their lives up to this special milestone and have fellowship with the other family and friends present.

Geocaching

This has become sort of a family tradition on Memorial Day. We explored the terrain, found historical dates, and saw undiscovered areas of our county and beyond. This particular geocache had to do with Stonewall Jackson's cartographer Jedidiah Hotchkiss. Jonathan finally unearthed the cache at the base of a tree. We also searched for some more on July 4th but got no photos of the hunt. Anyone want to go with us next time or have your own stories to tell?

Photography Boot Camp

We participated in a photography weekend put on by the Hynes family, which included a morning canoe trip in which we glimpsed eagles, herons, and ospreys, amongst other varieties of water fowl. Plenty of opportunities for taking pictures of Virginia's natural beauty and developing our camera skills.

{ photo credit }

Coming next: Catch-up post #2-Inside the Veggie Garden

~Hannah

Bloomin' Tuesday ~ My Mom's a Knockout!

Today I'm joining MsGreen Thumb Jean for Bloomin' Tuesday with a post that's slightly different; I'll be telling you an exciting story about Knockout Roses.

It all started the week before Mother's Day...

First, have you ever seen or heard of P. Allen Smith, the gardening expert with his own television show and author of many books and online newsletters? I'm subscribed to his gardening blog but had never checked out any of his books from our local library (until now) or watched any of his televised programs.

When I found out that he was having a contest for Mother's Day called "Why My Mom is a Knockout," I wanted to enter for Granny! The winner would receive up to ten Knockout Roses (depending on space available), plus P. Allen's proposed "garden plan," plus a dvd of the makeover he films with an explanation of what he recommends.

I thought, "why not?" and entered my paragraph of 50 words or less saying why I thought Granny was a real Knockout! (Wish I'd saved what I wrote, but I didn't!) Plus, I sent in a picture of the perfect place in the yard that my mom would most like to plant some roses--in all that empty space beside the handicapped ramp:

Would you believe that the next week my phone was ringing with a call coming in from Little Rock, Arkansas? What in the world?  I don't know anyone in Arkansas! It was P. Allen Smith's office calling to tell me my entry had been selected. Squeal!

I exchanged emails with Mary Ellen, his assistant, and had to send in a photo of my mom for them to use in the makeover dvd plus another photo with a different view of the rose area. Here's the picture of Granny I sent in for the contest:

Then we had to sign release forms and patiently wait a month or so to receive the dvd of P. Allen's filmed makeover and proposed garden plan for the roses. We loved watching the makeover because he made it very personal by calling my mom's name a couple of times in the dvd.

Here's the plan that he sent sketched below (click to enlarge to read it better). Basically, he's suggesting adding Green Velvet Boxwood and Walker's Low Catmint to the rose garden for some added variety.

The makeover will also be shown on P. Allen Smith's Gardens television show...next year sometime. Edited to add YouTube link of the makeover.

Mary Ellen worked with a local nursery to arrange details, and last Friday ten beautiful Knockout Roses were delivered!

Below are the roses ribboned off at the Garden Center before delivery. I had to go check them out and take pictures--5 reds and 5 pinks!

And here they are all lined up after being delivered:

Yesterday I began the yard prep and roped off a half-moon circle near the deck and placed the roses just as P. Allen suggested so I'd have an idea of how much space was needed for all the plants. Sarah mowed that part of the yard as low as she could, and I spray painted the half-moon circle so I'd have a visual sketch of where to kill the grass.

Tomorrow I plan on finishing the yard prep so the digging can begin later this week. Let's get these Knockouts in the ground!

Recap: Ten 3-gallon roses at $24.95 each + $45 delivery fee + tax = over $300 -- all free! I'm very thankful!

And if I can dig ten holes without killing myself, I'll be doubly thankful!

You can see other Bloomin' Tuesday participants here.

~Deb