"The whole world is full of things, and somebody has to look for them."
Pippi Longstocking, Astrid Lindgren, 1950
In the Sewing Room with P
One of the things on my to do list is making a few things for P to wear to preschool this fall. The first up will be a peasant style top for her. I'll use a pattern in Girls Style Book (ISBN 4579111817). I also have been wanting to make the ubiquitous Simplicity 3835 for myself.
My plan is to make them out of linen. I was waiting to get some alone time in the sewing room to work on these so have only gotten the preliminary steps done. Yesterday, I traced the pattern for Ps top (a shorter version of the one in the picture) and decided that a little embroidery would look good on the linen fabric. I drew a woodland fairy inspired by some drawings in one of my old books. P saw me drawing and declared that she wanted to draw a fairy too.
She said I could sew her design onto my shirt! Just think what I would have missed if I had been working alone. I can't wait to get them made!!
Garden Bounty
We have finished the onion harvest and cured them in the sun. Last night B hung the ones we will keep in old pantyhose (very old as I have not worn pantyhose in at least 15 years) in the basement. Hanging them in pantyhose allows air circulation around them and they seem to last longer. The total tally for onions grown this year is over 300 pounds!
There is still a good bit of fall harvest to do around here. We have lots of pears that are starting to fall from the trees. I never have found a good way to preserve these so we usually just eat a few of them. Does anyone have any good ideas for things to do with pears?
We cut a few of the ripe pumpkins and put them on the back porch to keep the deer from eating them. I am hoping that the rain predicted for this weekend will come and help plump up some of the shriveled looking pumpkins we have in the patches.
I do like the way this pumpkin grew sitting on the old water trough.
Our green beans are producing well now too. We pick them every other day for dinner.
Our raspberries which did very well last year are slow to get started this year. I do hope we have enough for some raspberry ribbon pies before we get a hard frost.
Making Plans
We are planners. We plan for everything. We plan our garden before planting. We make sure that we will be able to move things around and have a yearly garden crop rotation that will work in our space. We plan for our house renovating too. Our current project is the bathrooms. We have to make sure that the pipes will all be able to drain and that the plan will work with the rest of the house. We want to put a small half bath in our entry area because it is currently a large, not very usable space. The room has five doors which make furniture placement almost impossible. We have drawn the plan, then made a scale model out of legos, we now have a full size cardboard bathroom/closet built in the entry area so we can get the feel for where the new walls will be. We think we know what we want... but, there is still hesitation.
Sometimes I think the old farm way may have been better.
This little drawing is carved into the wall of our barn. The cupola barn was originally just the center square. This was apparently the plan for the the side additions. Should they be flat roofed or slanted?
The Last Day of Summer Vacation
We are enjoying our last day of summer vacation before school starts tomorrow. Those blue flowers are some of what is currently blooming in the prairie.
M will run his 500th mile today at a cross country cookout at the lake. He will be happy to take it a bit easier now. He has really been working to meet the 500 mile goal he set for himself.
D is busy doing his summer homework. As usual he has waited until the last day. He assures me this is not a problem.
P is playing with the girlers. She has another week and a half until her school starts.
Thoughtful Sunday
"So many things are possible just as long as you don't know they're impossible."
The Phantom Tollbooth, Norton Juster, 1961
21 years
Twenty one years ago B and I were married at Mountain Lake, VA.We started our day today with chocolate muffins and peach milkshakes! It has to be a great day now!
B also gave me these super earrings made by a local artist out of old typewriter keys. The perfect gift for me, I think. He reminded me not to put them on the other way or I would go around saying OX. Not the message he had intended.
Harvest
The last few weeks we have been busy with harvest and food preservation. We have frozen (and eaten) many peach and blueberry pies. We didn't grow the peaches but we buy them when they are in season.
We had so many plums on our trees that we tried making plum juice. It turned out a little bitter but that could be because we left the pits in until the juice was squeezed out. It would have taken way too long to take the pits out. The chickens are still feasting on plums and the bugs that are eating the plums when they fall to the ground.
All of our onions have been pulled. This is one of six varieties.
We planted nine varieties and dig the potatoes after the plants die. The potatoes and onions will be stored in our unheated basement. They keep well there while we use them fall, winter, and into the spring. So far we have 145 pounds of potatoes!
We have been harvesting the carrots and eating them too. They are fun because so many of them have a "freakish" look.
It looks like we will be having a lot of potato soup this winter!
We also trade our garden bounty with neighbors. We get goodies like peppers, tomatoes, pesto, cucumbers, and perennial flowers and plants.I like how our diet changes with the seasons. In the summer we eat lotsof pasta and rice with fresh vegetables. We love the fresh fruits too.
We freeze what we can through the summer. At the end of summer we start eating potatoes. At first we use the smallest potatoes and have them boiled or baked. After they have been stored a while and aren't
quite as juicy we have mashed potatoes, and soup, and other potato dishes which are perfect for the winter months.
This morning we are finally getting much needed rain. It is not a five minute downpour like we had the other day, this is a gentle thirst quenching rain. I hope our shriveled pumpkins can rehydrate. And that our grapes get juicy again before we harvest them for juice.
Celebration
I started this blog as a way to share creations from my sewing room.
I have also shared socks,
a few recipes from the kitchen,
some of my favorite books,
and some tidbits about life on our little farm.
I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
Thoughtful Sunday
I thought I would start something new here. I will post a picture and favorite quote each Sunday. Many of my favorite quotes come from children's literature.
(Photo: view from Grand Sable Banks. Upper Peninsula Michigan. Aug 2004)"
Like all magnificent things, it's very simple."
Tuck Everlasting, Natalie Babbit, 1975.
Doll Quilt - "Breaking Free"
As part of my clean up and get organized plan I am finishing some projects. Here is my latest doll quilt. This one is for a flickr swap.
The center portion is traditionally pieced with half square triangles and matched points. The sawtooth border is free pieced with different size/shape triangles.
I titled the quilt "Breaking Free."There is a little more color in the border fabrics but still has an earthy tone.
I can't tell you where it is going; that is a surprise. We wouldn't want the recipient to know would we? I hope she likes it.
Say Cheese
Ever since our June issue of Mother Earth News arrived I have been wanting to make cheese.
I finally ordered some rennet and tried making Mozzarella.
We used the 30-Minute Mozzarella recipe that was included in the cheese article. It tasted great and was easier to make than I thought it would be. We served it with tomato slices, salt, pepper, oregano, and olive oil. I almost didn't get a photo of it. You can't see the forks poised in the air ready to grab a serving. Yummy!
We will definitely be having this again. And plan to try the ricotta too.
edit:I ordered my supplies (rennet, citric acid, and salt) from Dairy Connection. I used the vegetable rennet. I also used milk from the grocery store. The directions say not to use "ultra" pasteurized milk. Be warned- there will be no left overs!
Odds and Ends
The other day B walked into my sewing room while I was working and said, "Oh, you're cleaning up the slow way."
Yes, he knows me well. I made this "little pink riding hood" cape for P from some thrifted pink velvet fabric and fringe trim. She chose the large pink button from the button bin.
Years ago when the boys were small I made capes like this for them and all of the nieces and nephews I had at the time. M was just walking then and his cape was very short. We still have the one I made for D. It is purple with metalic gold trim. I thought P would enjoy a pink cape. And as a bonus, the bulky velvet fabric moves out of my sewing room. Yep. Cleaning up the slow way.
Also, I have started making barn raising blocks out of the leftover bits of sock yarn. I first saw the idea here. I like the way the self striping yarn turns the corners.
I plan to knit up odd bits of sock yarn this way and eventually make an afghan.
Cleaning up can take forever!
Blueberry Gingerbread
Yesterday we took another trip to the blueberry farm. It was our fourth trip this season and we didn't stay long. We got a late start leaving home so there were a lot of screaming children and loud conversations in the field; not the peaceful experience I enjoy most. We picked six pounds of berries and headed home.
P, of course, wanted to do some baking. We had made a plum pie the night before with fruit from our tree so I didn't want to make another pie. I pulled out my blueberry cookbook and started flipping through it. I found this recipe for Blueberry Gingerbread. It looked interesting enough to try and actually tasted quite good.
Blueberry Gingerbread
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
1 cup buttermilk
3 Tbs molasses
1 cup blueberries (we were a bit generous on that measurement)
Cream together butter and sugar.
Add egg and mix well.
Sift together flour, spices, and salt and add to the creamed mixture alternately with the buttermilk. Add molasses.
Stir in blueberries.
Pour into greased and floured 9 x 9 inch pan.
Bake at 350 degrees for about an hour.
Where the Wild Things Are
One of the things we like about where we live is the wildlife we see. There are sandhill cranes that summer in our field. We also see lots of deer, wild turkeys, pheasants, and an occasional coyote or fox. We enjoy watching hawks and have even spotted a great horned owl sitting on our power line pole.
The wildlife is also one of the things we DON'T like about where we live. I have yet to grow a decent sunflower. Every year I plant them and every year they are eaten by deer. This year I thought we could just plant LOTS of them as we have the room. We are preparing more land to plant with native prairie plants so we used some of that area for a very large sunflower plot. I thought there would be enough for the deer and still have a few survive. Not so.
We also planted extra pumpkins knowing that the deer and other critters would find them. There are some pumpkins in the weedy area of the garden that have not been nibbled but quite a few have large holes.
Last year we planted corn three times and the cranes walked through the garden eating the sprouts as they came up. We did not get a single plant. This year we treated the seed with something that is supposed to deter the cranes. That worked. Now, we hope the raccoons will leave a few ears for us.
When we returned from our trip this weekend, we saw two red tailed hawks sitting on our power line pole. They were eyeing our chickens. They found out while we were gone that they could get a good chicken dinner here. We lost a couple of our new chickens including the feather footed buff cochin. I wish they had gotten the new roosters instead of the hens. When we are home there must be enough activity around the house to keep the hawks away.I sometimes feel like the wild creatures are invading our little farm place. But, then, I remember it is the other way around.
We have invaded their place.
We are working out a way to coexist on the same land. I do admit that I would rather lose the chickens to a red tailed hawk, coyote, or fox than to a neighborhood dog. We will just continue to plant and grow more than we think we will use and hope to end up with enough to make us happy for the effort.
Spiral Eyelet Socks
Here they are, the tenth pair of socks in the Two Make a Pair project.
These are knit with Austermann Step -75% superwash wool, 25% nylon it also has Aloe Vera and Jojoba oil. I am not sure what happens with the Aloe and Jojoba when laundered but it was nice to knit with it. The pattern we used was Spiral Eyelet Socks. There is a right spiral and a left spiral sock. They can be worn on either foot but the spirals are mirror images.
It was a little tricky to get the spiral design to continue down the instep. The pattern just said to "maintain the spiral pattern as established." Once I figured out how to start the new spiral on one side and end it on the other I was OK.
Look how well the spirals and stripes match.
Unplugged
I hope you had a good week.
We enjoyed a week of being completely unplugged. We visited with family
and are now ready to jump back into our routine here.
The Series Continues
Sometimes I feel like these little quilts design themselves. They certainly have a way of telling me what to do, or more often what NOT to do.
I have a hard time cutting into large pieces of fabric when I make quilts. I love to use my scraps. Last September I cut a large pile of two and a half inch strips from my collection of 1930's reproduction fabrics. I have been moving them from place to place in my sewing room and decided it was time to start something from them. The May/June challenge for the Doll Quilt Challenge group was the exquisite block. Yeah, I had to do it. I wanted to try something a little different from the others I have made. I used the print fabrics for the foundation squares and a solid for the triangles. I was hoping I would get a baby quilt out of this.
P and I worked on cutting squares off the strips. As I cut three or four squares from each strip P collected them and made a pile on the floor. When finished, I asked her to put the pile next to the sewing machine so they would be ready when we had time to sew them.
Well, a day or so later I sat at the machine with some strips of the purple fabric to cut into triangles as I sewed. Worked until each square had the two triangles sewn to them. I pressed them, trimmed them and laid them out. It was a small quilt. Just enough for a doll quilt. I guess those squares were just a bit too small to try and make a baby quilt. I didn't want to cut more. I was ready to sew them together.
When pressing the finished top I noticed a pile of squares on P's ironing board!
"P, why are these squares of fabric over here?"
"Those are mine."
So, that explains the small quilt. Moving on.
I found the PERFECT thread for quilting in my thread drawer, this beautiful hand dyed perle cotton by Melody Johnson. I bought it years ago when she spoke at our local quilt guild.
I tried hand quilting in the centers of the squares but the thread was not visible. Then I tried machine quilting. That just made the whole thing look muddy. I picked that out too. That thread needed to be on the solid fabric. I just couldn't make that work. I ended up quilting in the ditch. I like the clear look of the fabric that way. I am, however, eager to use that thread on something now.Here it is. The scrap quilt not made from scraps. 18.5 x 22.5 inches.
Don't Fence Me In
The middle school time was spent growing fast and working out that pecking order. Sometimes they felt like all the other girls were against them, like they were always getting picked on. It was a difficult time for them. Each seems to be comfortable with her place now and they are moving on.
They are big girls now. Big enough to run loose with the older girls. They are ready for the move to high school.
Yeah, they have more freedom. They can go wherever they want but they have a curfew. They must be in bed by dark.
They are feeling more relaxed.
They are more daring like the older girls.
They try new things and different personalities just like the high school girls.
They make new friends.
Soon they will be picking up bad habits from the older girls. They will be crossing the driveway and digging in the gardens. I just know it. I have seen it all before.
Yellow in July
Just a quick break from sewing and knitting to share pictures of the cone flowers blooming in our native prairie area that we burned in April.
