Beautiful Day for a Hike

The creek bed along our hike. It was a beautiful day.

Nathan poses for a shot. He received a hair cut after this hike!

Nolan always has to find a way to get to the middle of the creek.

A very rare shot of me, taken by Nolan.

Finally something that sparked Nathan's interest: A wooly bear caterpillar. 

The men enjoying the wooly bear at the lookout.

It was a wonderful few hours out of doors. We realize we need more of this in our busy lives. Of course, it helps when the weather cooperates, which is hasn't much this fall. Happy Tuesday. I'm off to work.

Harvest Days

 In the past few years I've taken my camera to fewer and fewer places. I'm not exactly sure why. One of the reasons may be that my boys don't really prefer to have their photo taken and when I do take some shots of them, them tend to look glum. It hasn't made for the most enjoyable photography so I guess I just stopped trying. Of course, then we need pictures for something and can't find any recent ones. So, I'm trying to be more thoughtful about these teenage years.


Yesterday we went to Landis Valley Harvest Days. Landis Valley is a wonderful hands on history museum that is less than 5 miles from our house. The boys pass by every day on the school bus but I think we've only been there one other time. They do have a children's museum called Hands on House which we frequented many, many times when the boys were young. It was a gorgeous, sunny, fall day and Mike and I were determined to get outside as a family. Harvest Days seems a perfect opportunity.

The shoe maker stand was unmanned when we stopped by. I wish we could have learned about this trade. You can see a few of the tools and the start of some shoes in this photo. There were lots of little tools that we had questions about. 

 This was one of my favorite exhibits: dying. The brown scarf was dyed using different types of mushrooms and the blue was dyed with indigo. Apparently, to dye with indigo one thing that has to happen is for the oxygen to be taken out of the dye bath. They told me the chemical they use to do that (which I can't remember). I asked how this was done originally and was told "little boys urine." I'm not joking! We had a good time wondering how they determined this method. When the yarn or fabric comes out of the dye bath it is actually green. It turns blue when it re-oxidizes. Pretty wild, huh?

 Here she is stirring the pot of red that had some wool yarn being dyed. It takes only a few minutes in the dye bath. She informed us that it is better to dye something several times to get a darker color than to leave it in too long.

 I was really surprised at how vibrant the colors were. I didn't realize how brightly things would dye using these methods. Goes to show you how little I know!

 Of course, the amount of time that it takes to make the dye and to get the colors you want is unbelievable. We take so much for granted.

 The boys had wandered off during my extended visit with the dye ladies. I guess I can't blame them. They are standing next to the spring house, A.K.A. old fashioned refrigerator.

 Here was another amazing craftsman. He was making hickory brooms. They are made from one log. To make a large broom takes about 80 hours. I asked who would have made these and he said it was often the job of the children. Making brooms isn't difficult once you know how to handle a knife and it was a job that was preferred to being out in the fields because it wasn't nearly as labor intensive.

 Here is Nolan checking out the finished products. I'm not sure I'd like a round broom myself but it was fascinating to hear about how they were made.

 Nolan checks out the PA Dutch kitchen. I didn't think to take a photo of the outdoor bake oven and the bread and cookies that we tasted. The museum has summer and winter institutes where you can learn more about the arts like hearth baking and fraktur painting. I think I may check into taking one of the classes.

 Nathan agrees to pose for a shot in front of the hearth.

 This man was showing us the labor intensive method of making linen thread out of flax. Here is the second step, breaking apart the flax stems (?) to get at the fibers inside. The first step was getting all of the seed pods off the flax. These pods were opened to reveal the flax seeds. The seeds were used to replant the next years harvest, for linseed oil and for eating.

 Here he's showing the fibers within the flax.

 There were several more steps that included some really medieval looking tools! There were many steps to getting the fibers out of the flax. After that they would be spun into thread which could then be woven into linen to make a shirt. It required quite a huge field of flax to make a shirt. No wonder old houses have such little or non existent closets. If it took that long to make the fabric, who would want a lot of clothes!

 This was a plant in one of the gardens we walked through. I don't know what it is called but I like the way it looks. It was interesting to note that the gardens were all raised beds. Even back then they knew that it was better to grow things in soil that isn't compacted.

 Of course I had to include a shot of the quilt in the frame. There were women quilting in another area but they weren't very friendly. One of the women was making beautiful cathedral window blocks, though.

 Here was another garden we walked through. Landis Valley has a heirloom seed project that I wanted to find more about. I'd like to use heirloom varieties in my garden next year if I can.

 The blacksmith is always fun to watch. We weren't clear about what he was making.

And finally at the end of the day we found the musicians. This man with the waxed mustache was playing all my favorite songs. I wanted to jump in and sing along.

Sewing a Goodbye

Here's my stacked coins quilt top. The coins don't match up. As long as you don't lay the quilt out straight you can't tell. Oh my.


Sewing always gives me time to think. What I've been thinking is that I'm not sure my sewing has any purpose and is taking up time, money and space in my life and my house. So I've made some hard decisions. I've decided to give up my sewing room for good to the computer. There is just no good reason to keep sewing. I've got no one who wants my quilts and my kids are too old to make things for. Nolan even told me today that if he was in a play or musical he didn't care if I helped with costumes. It just didn't matter to him. I guess that made me realize that I have other more important things to do.


So, I'm going to try to use up my stash. I'll make baby quilts and put them away for the odd baby that comes along. When the stash is low I'll give it to Lancaster Creative Reuse. The boxes will be gone and my sewing room will be rededicated to school work and Mike's music. It is right, it is good. 


I doubt this blog will last beyond the boxes of fabric. I'll share my last few quilts here and I'll be glad that I've spent the last few years chronicling our life in this way. I guess every mother has her moment when her life changes and she has to give up who she thought she was. It's hard to say goodbye to yourself but I guess that's an important part of mothering....knowing when it's time to say goodbye to the person you thought you were and taking on the role that others need from you.

Slice and Dice

Here's my friday night/saturday morning project. I've decided to make a stacked coins quilt (or maybe even two). It's a fairly simple quilt that uses up a lot of stash fabric. I'm really looking to decrease the boxes of "stuff" around here and decided to dedicate my current sewing to that end. 


We've had quite a month of school with Nolan. It's been challenging for him to be thrown into a new school in the 8th grade after being homeschooled for several years. I wanted to give him (and me) a break this weekend so we worked diligently last night to get all of his homework finished. I cut rectangles while helping him and got up this morning to cut more. 


Nathan and Mike are at a cross country meet and Nolan and I are heading out to market. After that I'm planning some more dedicated time to cutting and sewing. I'm really looking forward to this relaxing weekend. 


I hope yours is peaceful as well.

Mobile Sewing Room

Here's my current sewing room. We like to call it the living room, too. I can't even believe I'm actually feeling whiney about having to cart my fabric around the house. Many people don't have a dedicated sewing space. It's just that when one is used to having everything set up and ready to go, it is an adjustment to have to dig through boxes for fabric and kneel on the floor to use my cutting board. Oh, poor, poor me! (Note: the reason for all the boxes is because we had a flooded basement and the computer etc. needed a new home...my sewing room.)


Now I'm done with the pity party. I'm actually very excited about this weekend. It's supposed to be beautiful all weekend and we all have Monday off. So I'm hoping to get all the homework done tonight so we can enjoy the weekend unencumbered by thoughts of school and work.


I'm also hoping to get a bit of sewing done. I spent last night purging my extraneous sewing notions and patterns. I do this every so often and it does feel good. We have quite a pile for the Goodwill in our dinning room. Another project for this weekend! My hope is to make a quilt or at least get the top started. I've had this fabulous cowboy fabric in my stash for quite a while and I'd like to use it this weekend. I'm still trying to decide if I want to use it as the backing for a quilt or if I want to cut it up and piece it somehow. I'll be thinking on that today at work. I am on the road and so will have some thinking time.


Have a happy Friday, all. Be thankful for at least one thing today.

St. Therese Prayer Quilt

St. Therese prayer quilt made with ribbon embroidered rose buds and just a smidgen of patchwork. Medal, of course, bought from Gardens of Grace. It's for sale in my etsy shop.

Gardens of Grace

...is a lovely shop full of gorgeous recast Catholic medals by Alice Cantrell. I think of the blogs I have read over the years, Alice's (A Number of Things) has been one of my favorites. Her artwork is so peaceful and joyful and full of the good things in the home and garden. I've always been amazed at anyone who can draw and paint, as I cannot do either, and anyone who is accomplished with watercolor is beyond amazing to me. Alice, of course, is a watercolorist. Wow.


Ok, enough gushing, although I didn't even get to the part where I talk about her little books. 

Yesterday I received my package of medals. In my last post I mentioned that I used the money from my Tau wedding gift quilt to purchase some medals from Alice. I decided to work on a St. Therese quilt first. Coincidentally, today is her feast day. If you don't know about St. Therese and her 'little way' just click on the link. She really is one of the great saints of our time with such a simple message. We can all do something small to make a great difference. It is good to remember when we see the grand accomplishments of others and start to believe we have little to show.


I have to admit I sometimes feel this way. 


So, St. Therese reminds me that it isn't always the big grand things that we do in life, it can also be the small that make a difference. So, today, pray for someone you know is hurting, read a book to your child, clean something cheerfully, be grateful for all that has been given you, even if those things include stink bugs and cat hair. Remember, if you have stink bugs in your home, it means you have a place to call your own. If you have cat hair on your furniture, you have a pet to keep you company. So rejoice and do something little.


I'm off to work on my quilt......