Mountain Musings

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

Chalk it up!

Recently, while thinking of ways to try to up my sales at market, I was musing how it would be nice to have some sort of sign out front. That way people walking by wouldn't have to come into my booth to see some of what I offer, and I could catch their eye and entice them in. :) A white board or chalkboard would have been nice...but we didn't have any that I could use, and I didn't want to buy one. So why not make one?

Dad was kind enough to donate a piece of plywood, and I started off by sanding it slightly and putting on a coat of plain black spray paint just to help prime it a bit. The board was a little bit large to make the whole thing a chalkboard, so I measured and decided to have a 3 inch border around the edges.

Once the black paint was dry, I used painter's tape to mark that off. In our stash of spray paint in the garage, this yellow color was the best option, so I applied a coat around the edges. When that dried, the tape came up easily and left a nice, sharp edge between the black and yellow.

   

 

 

Mom bought this chalkboard paint for me at the store, and it had to have at least 2 coats, with a hour between each coat to dry. It was easy to brush on, and since I had the black spray paint as a base coat, I could stay comfortably away from the border without it showing.

After about 3-4 coats, it was all done! It just had to cure for 24 hours, and it was ready to write on. This past Saturday, I made a few items that I don't regularly bring, so those were highlighted. I don't know if it was because of the Labor Day weekend, or if the chalkboard really brought more attention to my booth, but it was a wonderful day of sales!
It just took some scrap wood, leftover spray paint, a small bottle of chalkboard paint, and some time! We'll see how it works in the weeks ahead. :)

~Sarah

18 weeks down, 13 to go!

It's been awhile since we had an update about market here on the blog! Hannah and I are still keeping busy every Saturday morning, and it's been an enjoyable experience so far. The market has been open for 20 weeks now, and we've only missed two - one during the derecho and one during our Texas trip.

Ever since we got back from Texas, my baked good sales have actually been pretty abysmal...it was quite a sudden drop, too. I think we've determined that people are just more interested in the more abundant produce now, including corn, so they don't want sweets as much. I'm hopeful that as cooler weather comes, my sales will pick up. This past Saturday was a bit better than the previous 3 weeks.

It's been nice to get a number of regular customers that have their favorite items to come and buy. There's one man who always comes and gets 2 cheesecake wedges, no matter the flavor. He told me last week he may have to buy up some extra near the end of market to freeze for the winter months. :)

The farmers' booths around us are so colorful and overflowing with yummy garden produce and flowers! We have tried out some corn, plums, and eggs from fellow vendors, and everything is so good. 

There have been a couple of weeks lately that Hannah was unable to be at market for the full morning, so Mom has helped out with manning her table. :) It was nice to have her there and point out all the people that we've been telling her about. We've also had several "interesting" run-ins, with some rather odd people. Why are the odd ones usually the most talkative?  

If we decide to do market next year, we need to attend at least 20 weeks this year to have a reserved space. Only 2 more weeks until we hit that threshold! Yay!

Market runs until the Saturday before Thanksgiving, and we should be able to make them all. There will be a couple of weeks that Hannah will be at different craft shows with Granny, but I think I should be able to still go and perhaps bring a small sampling of soaps as well.

The temperatures the past few weeks have been wonderful - I'm glad to be past the 95 degree days, when my candy was melting. I'd rather be a tad chilly while setting up! :)

There was a hint of fall in the air today, in fact...it was a rainy afternoon, and some really nice cool air is blowing in the windows. I just heard some geese flying by outside, too! Ahhh. What's going on in your neck of the woods?

~Sarah

Random Round-Up

Oh, my! It's been ten days since I last posted...and when emails start rolling in asking if we're okay, then it's time to slow down, catch my breath, and start writing!

So here's a smattering of what's been going on around Mountain Musings this past month:

Back on Memorial Day we were invited over to our friend Kendra's home for a cookout. The red, white, and blue decorations were very festive and patriotric, and we had a wonderful time of fellowship with her other guests.

Kendra asked that we bring hymn books and instruments for a singing time after we ate:

Sarah and Hannah played their flutes, and Jonathan accompanied on guitar:

Thank you, Kendra, for inviting us and for being a super hostess!

And in other news...on the last day of May we rode an old farm wagon out to the fields for some strawberry picking and came home with over 40 pounds of beautiful berries to freeze. We picked near the end of the season, and very few folks were in the fields. Normally this checkout area is quite crowded, and the parking lot is jammed:This week we're going blueberry picking...our freezer is filling up already!

Farmer's Market update: 

Sales are going well, but honestly, there's no rhyme or reason to what will or won't sell or how many folks will show up! It makes it quite hard for planning how many baked goods to bring. Each week Sarah is busy in the kitchen making homemade marshmallows, candies, fudge, pies, and cheesecakes. Here she is in action:

Homemade marshmallows always sell well at market: On Sarah's non-baking days, Hannah takes over the kitchen with making and cutting soap. Below are bars that have been cut and are ready for labeling. She'd better work fast...she just received an order for 95 bars!

And if you haven't checked Hannah's latest post over on her blog, she's been kidding around over there!

Granny has been making baskets left and right in preparation for a couple of fall craft shows. Unfortunately, the last pictures I took of her weaving down in the garden shed were accidentally deleted! I'll have to take more for a future post.

Here she is enjoying watching Hannah in the kitchen. On tap for our Father's Day meal was grilled pizza with freshly made bratwurst purchased from the farmer's market and served with fra diavolo bbq sauce. Yum!

We all enjoyed celebrating Father's Day yesterday, and we are so thankful for such a godly and faithful dad whom the Lord has given to our family.  ~ Deb

Friends at the Farmers' Market

Sarah and I were blessed by another good day of sales, turnout, and weather at the farmers' market today. We are getting the routine down now after our 7th week of arriving at 5:30 am. It's always nice to have help from Dad or Jonathan setting up and breaking down the heavy stuff (we need to get some pictures of them soon!).

The specialty Farmers' Market soap I created just for this season has been a hit so far. The tag above shows that this soap features fresh goat's milk.

We were especially glad to see some familiar faces this particular Saturday--2 different Virginia blog readers showed up! Family friends from Harrisonburg came by to see what our market was all about and to patronize our booth. I think Joelle's colorful outfit matches Sarah's cupcake quilt. :)

Our second visitors were Mr. and and Mrs. H, who drove an hour to surprise us while they were nearby on a getaway. Two "strangers" in sunglasses walked up and inquired how much a bar of soap was--and I was thinking "this looks like somebody we know...?" Wait, it was our friends! Thank you both for coming and brightening our morning!

We enjoy seeing our regulars (yes, we are beginning to recognize certain market-goers), but when someone we are acquainted with arrives, it makes it even more fun.

~Hannah

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

Preparing for Market: Part 2

The second in the series is here! Since my first post, much has been done, although there is still much to do.

My mini refrigerator arrived, and I was very excited - until Mom pointed out the dent in the side. Ahhhh! After going through the rigamarole of reporting the damage, returning it, and reordering, I now have a non-dented refrigerator ready to go. It's big enough to fit 2 pies and at least 16 cheesecake slices, and it hopefully will be able to keep everything cold enough through the summer. 

Hannah and I also set up the tent and tables out on the back deck and figured out how everything would be set up and displayed. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of that whole process. Oh well.

With scraps left over from my apron and some from the scrap bag, I finished a quick little placemat/runner for my side of the table.

The majority of my week, though, has been spent on
the computer pricing my products. First I had to go through each recipe and figure out the ingredient and packaging costs, then I plugged that figure and other costs into my Excel spreadsheet that Dad so kindly set up for me. I'm almost done with that so I can set my final price for each product.

Stay tuned for next week's happenings!

~Sarah