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

Making a Beeline to Apiculture!

All right, so just to set the record straight, the girls haven't been the only busy bees here in the Girotti household. :)  I've been up to some interesting projects as well--namely beekeeping!  A good friend of mine, Matt, who has wanted to do beekeeping for several years suggested we take on the project as a joint venture.  So this past January we bought hive plans, pine boards, glass windows, screws, and 30,000 members of the species Apis mellifera!

After several furious weeks of cutting twice and measuring once....oh wait--scratch that, reverse it...we completed the hives, paint and all, and set them up in preparation for our new guests.  

We put two of our hives here at the Girotti house, including the one above in a nice gladed spot in our woods.  After all, we have to make our bees feel at home! :)  The third hive was placed at Matt's friends' house. 

Last week, we picked up our bees!  Bees come in 3-pound (10,000 bees!) packages, each with its own queen.  Now, the queen is sequestered in a small cage called, appropriately enough, the queen cage. The queen cage is plugged with a candy-like substance and a cork.  This will come into play later in the story.

 

Matt and I suited up with light-colored clothing and veils.  Then with packages in hand, and armed with a supply of sugar water, we trekked down the hill to the first hive, followed closely by the journalistic team.

With trepidation we set the package on the ground next to the hive and planned our next step.  First, calm the bees.  Solution: spray them with sugar water.  Matt and I are planning on a little more natural, wholesome approach to beekeeping, including not overloading the bees on processed sugar; however, scruples were overcome this first time.  With a fine mist of sweetness inside the box, the bees instantly calmed down and their buzzing was silenced. 

It was determined that I would take the metal feeder can out of the package box and Matt would grab the queen cage. 

On the count of three, we executed the plan with precision!  I replaced the feeder can to ensure no bees got out while Matt examined the queen cage.  DISASTER!  Much to our chagrin, instead of a perky queen bee ready and waiting to lay thousands of eggs into honeycomb, we saw a lone, shriveled, very dead-looking queen. This was not, one might say, the bees' knees.

Consolation came, however, when we called up the bee supply store and were informed that they would replace the queen, free-of-charge.  Whew!  It was decided that we would install the other two packages, then head back over to the bee store and use the replacement queen on the third hive at Matt's friends' house.

Take number two: now with our movements honed with practice, combined with our latent beekeeping skill, the second hive went a lot smoother!  This time the queen was alive!  Remember that candy plug and cork I mentioned awhile back?  We removed the cork so the candy plug was exposed.  This allows the bees to access the plug and eat through it to reach the queen.  In the process of eating the plug, they familiarize themselves with the queen's pheromones and accept her as the leader of the hive.

So we hung the queen cage on the top bars and readied for the big event. Again, I took the feeder container out to expose the swarming, buzzing colony inside.  Matt took the box and gave several vigorous shakes.  Quicker than you can say, "Raw local additive-free honey!" the bees poured out of the package and into our hive!

It was amazing to see the bees' natural, created instincts take over. Immediately, they must have sensed they were in their new home, because several bees climbed out of the entrance and started fanning.

This is when they turn their bodies around and use their wings in order to circulate the pheromone that says, "Hey everybody, come on in!"

And come in they did.  We checked back about 15 minutes later, and nearly all the bees that had been left in the box had flown out and joined their comrades inside the hive.

We finished the evening out with the next two hives, everything going very smoothly, and only one sting between the two of us! 

We look forward to this new adventure and pray that God will bless our...that is, to say, the BEES...efforts. This will be a great way to learn more about His creation as well as help out Virginia pollinator population and have a lot of great-tasting honey!!  Stay tuned this spring and summer as the hives and honey grow!

-Jonathan

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

Preparing for Market: Part 3

Sarah and I are on the home stretch of getting everything ready for the farmer's market's opening day!

Here I am making a batch of Lemon Poppyseed castile soap to introduce at the market in the upcoming weeks of spring. It's bright citrus-y scent is combining with all the other fragrances drying on racks in our schoolroom and is wafting throughout the house.

We each had a vinyl banner made to hang from our 10' x 10' canopy--we were pleased with how they turned out! Dad spent this evening helping me figure out how to secure it to the tent, so we'll be ready on Saturday morning when we set up.

It was decided that we needed sandbags to weight down our canopy from any wind, so I quickly sewed up 2 bags from....old denim jeans legs!
 

After filling each lined leg with sand, I closed up the opening and sewed a reinforced grommet opening.

This final week will be full. It's not long now!

~Hannah

Sunday Scripture

And God said: “This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations:  I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth.

It shall be, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud;  and I will remember My covenant which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh.

The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” And God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth.”

~Genesis 9:12-17