Mountain Musings

All Sold Out!

Well...while the cat was away, the mice definitely played and had fun for sure!

We had a wonderful past few days...especially since Sarah and I invited our friend, Anna, to stay a couple of overnights and help with Saturday market while Hannah was at the conference.

We arrived at the Farmers' Market parking lot soon after 5:30 a.m. and began setup. Not only was it very dark, but the light drizzle called for putting the tent sides up to protect Hannah's soap and Sarah's baked goods.

We anticipated a slow market with the dreary day...wrong! Sales soared! We're wondering if the new chalkboard that Anna prepared caught customers' eyes, or could it have been all the folks downtown mid-morning for the seasonal parade? There's the chalkboard above with the Featured Today items listed. Hannah has new round shaving soaps and shampoo soaps available now, and the shaving soaps were all sold out! The seasonal scents like Country Christmas sold well, too.

And as much as we love for Sarah's baked goods to sell on Saturday mornings...we surely were hoping that the Turtle Cheesecake slices would come home with us...all sold out!

We are so thankful for Anna's help with loading, setup, and unloading--all the behind-the-scene things that go into making the booth look nice and ready for customers--plus all the excellent selling during market. Thank you, Anna! 

Now, we're hunkering down for Hurricane Sandy this week and are praying that Tom (who just got back from the conference--by the way, they had a great time!) won't get shipped someplace that might need his help with power outages more than here in our area of Virginia. Stay safe!

~Deb

Bloggers' Quilt Festival ~ Cake Walk

Hello and Welcome to all the new visitors and quilters stopping by Mountain Musings from the Bloggers' Quilt Festival sponsored by Amy's Creative Side.

The quilt that I'm entering in this fall's Festival is called Cake Walk.

If you're a regular reader, you saw this quilt earlier when I blogged about making it, and you've probably also spotted it in some subsequent Farmers' Market posts. But here it is again and the story behind why I made it:

I love perusing quilting blogs for inspiration, ideas, and fun tutorials. So back in the spring when I visited Sewn with Grace and saw Renee's beautiful cake quilt, I knew I just had to make one like it for Sarah's booth at Farmers' Market this season.

First day of Farmers' Market began the first weekend in April so I had one short month to order the fabric and get it sewn and quilted for the opening day. I almost made the deadline...not all the quilting was finished for the first market, but it still looked okay on her display table.I wish I had a fat quarter for all the customers who have made comments, taken photos, or asked about the pattern for the quilt displaying all of Sarah's sweets! It's definitely not because of how I made it...it's all about the pattern and those gorgeous cakes!

Here's the back:

I think this was the most fun quilt I've ever made--mainly because I was making it especially for Sarah and for her new business venture but also because I love the uniqueness of Lori Holt's cakewalk pattern. Thank you for coming over and taking a look!

Bloggers' Quilt Festival Stats

Finished quilt measures: 64″x 70″

Special techniques used: applique, buttons, rick-rack for added effect

Quilted by: Deb Girotti

Categories: Wall Hanging, Art Quilt, Applique Quilt

If you'd like to see more quilts, visit Amy over at the Quilt Festival. Here's the schedule of events:

October 26 – 31 Linky open
November 1 – 4 Nominations are made
November 5 -8 Vote for your favorites
November 9 Winners announced

~Deb

White Unto Harvest

The house is abuzz this morning with getting folks out the door and on the way to Asheville, NC, where the White Unto Harvest Conference will be starting today.

Half the family will attend this time, and half of us will stay home. I'm in the stay-at-home group, and I'll miss terribly seeing all the families we usually meet and fellowship with. Hello, everyone!

Hopefully, they'll bring home lots of pictures of folks in the crowd and plenty of information on the workshops, too! Stay tuned.

In the meantime, while the cat's away...we'll see what adventures await!

~Deb

Roasted Sweet Potato and Quinoa Soup

Recently over on the Tasty Kitchen blog, they posted a recipe for a yummy sounding soup. It was just perfect for the chilly weather lately! It was a hit with the female members of the family, although it wasn't a total favorite of the male members. ;) Let us know if you try it and how you like it!

Roasted Sweet Potato and Quinoa Soup

Prep Time 15 Minutes

Cook Time 50 Minutes

Difficulty Easy

Servings 4

• 1 whole Very Large Sweet Potato
• 3 Tablespoons Olive Oil, Divided
• ½ whole Large Sweet Onion, Diced
• 2 whole Carrots, Diced
• 1 clove Garlic (large), Minced
• 32 ounces, fluid Chicken Or Vegetable Stock
• Sea Salt And Pepper, To Taste
• 1 cup Cooked Quinoa
• 1 Tablespoon Butter
• ½ cups Panko Crumbs
• ⅓ cups Parmesan Cheese, Finely Grated
• Parsley, To Garnish

Preheat oven to 400ºF.

Peel and large dice sweet potato. Place sweet potato on a rimmed baking sheet and drizzle with 2 tablespoons olive oil and sea salt. Roast in the oven for 20 minutes.

In a large pot, heat the remaining tablespoon of oil and saute onion, garlic, and carrot until tender. Add potato to the onion mixture and add the chicken stock. Simmer for 20-30 minutes until all vegetables are completely tender. With a hand blender or standing blender, mix until pureed. Adjust seasoning. Add quinoa and reheat.

For the panko topping, melt the butter in a small fry pan and add the panko and cook until lightly browned. Add the Parmesan and stir to combine.

Top each bowl of soup with the panko crumbs and garnish with the parsley.

~Sarah

Our Morning at the Wharf

Mom and I went downtown to a lovely little shop located at the historic train station district, otherwise known as the Wharf. Appalachian Piecework has started carrying my soaps, and they were having their 1-year anniversary open house, so we took the opportunity to visit for the first time.


The shop is full of beautiful antique textiles, baskets, and more. Laurie, the shop owner, designs and hand-dyes scarves, weaves linens, and restores old fabrics.


We loved wandering the rooms and capturing the vignettes she had arranged so perfectly. Bags of unspun wool were tucked everywhere, and fragrant dried herbs hung from the ceiling.


Of course, Mom loved the old quilts that were displayed; it was almost like we were in a museum, yet we could touch the exquisite items.


We could walk through Laurie's sewing studio nestled in the back of the store; piles of eye-catching scraps were waiting to be stitched into a new masterpiece.


While we nibbled on homemade cookies (similar to these), grapes, and apple cider, Laurie and her daughter began arranging my handmade herbal soaps in an antique wash bowl nearby.


More quilts hung near a large loom in the front room, and a jar of colorful dried flowers adorned a shelf.


We noticed many old baskets which were made from salvaged wood that Granny would have loved seeing.

We enjoyed soaking in the atmosphere and hope to bring my aunt when she visits in December.

~Hannah

It's Walnut Picking Time!

It's been a beautiful autumn week here in Virginia--great for enjoying the outdoors. Granny and I went out looking for trees that looked like this--loaded with walnuts: Because when you find trees looking like this, invariably you'll find fallen walnuts to pick up:And once we pick up lots of walnuts, Granny gets to work laying the walnuts out to dry in the sun:And then she'll crack them open so more stain will come out when they're placed in a bucket of hot water: And someday soon that stain will be just perfect to use for dipping her handmade baskets. Lots of work goes into making a perfect basket, and Granny definitely enjoys every part of it!

So...how many walnut gathering outings have you been on lately? :)

~Deb

Previous year's post on Granny's walnuts here.

Celebrating National Cake Decorating Day

Did you know that today is National Cake Decorating Day? Well, neither did I - until yesterday. I ran across this odd holiday and promptly decided it must be celebrated! What better way than to decorate a cake, right? It's really feeling like fall around here, so I decided to go with the autumnal theme. :) So fun to make!
(click to view bigger)

Top row: 6" carrot cakes and mini cupcakes cooling, coloring sugar red, dipping frosted cupcake tops in sugar, frosting the top of the 6" cake and covering with more sugar.

Bottom row: Mini cupcakes with hole poked in center, making marshmallow fondant, using a mixture of vanilla and brown color to paint the fondant (removing powdered sugar and adding more dimension), using knife to score veins in all the multi-colored fondant leaves.

That was my morning from 7 to 12:30! :) It's early enough in the afternoon that now that you know about this holiday, YOU can go have some fun and decorate a cake. Try it!
~Sarah

Dayton Days!

It was a busy and fun Saturday for our family! Part of the crew headed to the weekly Farmers' Market downtown...Sarah taking her baked goods and Jonathan helping her with setup and selling.

Hannah and Granny headed a different direction--all the soaps and baskets traveled to Dayton Days Autumn Celebration this weekend. Tom and I went along to help unload, setup, and help take in money and bag items that sold for Granny.

Lots of vendors (over 300), lots of people (they say usually 20,000 attend!), lots of sunshine (we prayed for no rain!), and lots of sales...yay!

Here's a picture of the crowd starting to arrive just after 8 a.m.  All the streets were closed to traffic, and white tents and vendors lined the roads in front of businesses and homes: Here's Hannah setting up her Pleasant View Soaps booth: And here we are sitting behind our booth waiting for customers to arrive. You can see why we were thankful for no rain--our space was 15 feet long, and the tent was only 10 feet:Granny enjoys talking to everyone who comes by, and, of course, enjoys selling her baskets: She lets folks know that Sarah helped her make the solid oak handles on all these baskets and that she always reinforces the bottoms. Here she is showing a customer what she means:Some of our friends came and bought soap and baskets:It was a good Saturday! Now...Hannah and Granny will prepare for the next big craft show in my hometown of South Boston, Virginia--the Holiday Living Show on November 10. 

~Deb

Two Men and Some Baskets ~ Part 2

I mentioned in the last post, Three Men and a Plane, that Erich and his co-pilot Kyle returned the next morning to help Granny make basket handles while they awaited their plane's repair.

Here's Erich and Granny getting started bending the long strips of wood that had been soaking--and hopefully becoming pliable--in a large trash can of water. After measuring how long each strip should be to make certain baskets, Erich bent and stapled each handle together per Granny's instructions:Some of the work was trial and error while other handles went together a bit easier:Erich really worked hard all morning and made 22 handles by lunchtime:Kyle helped while Granny sat and rested just a bit:Let's take a break and feed these hungry guys some lunch and have Granny lie down awhile before teaching a basket class in the afternoon.

Okay...rest time is over and down in the basket shed Granny gets to work showing Erich how to lay out the strips to make the bottom of a "Granny" basket. Yes, that's what it's called...really! Below, he's woven a couple of inches, and it's looking more like a basket! Good job!Time to lace up the top of the basket...and sometimes your mouth becomes a third hand to hold your weaving strips. He definitely learned this trick from Granny: And when you're all done...you put your name on the bottom of the basket with the year you made it and pose with the basket teacher! Erich wanted to leave his basket the natural color rather than dipping it in Granny's barrel of walnut stain. He'll take his very own handmade basket back home to Texas. A great day's work!

And while Erich was busy making a basket, Kyle was looking over all Granny's baskets she's made to sell at Dayton Days this weekend. He purchased one to take back home to Ohio that he picked out from this group: And there are more here: This week we'll be busy with last minute details getting ready for Saturday's show. If you see anything here you like, just let us know....or stop by to see us in Dayton!

~Deb