This past summer has been a joyful, if exhausting, time of all five of the little grandchildren here for sleepovers and adventures on the farm. My youngest granddaughter had been asking me so often to teach her to sew on the real machine. I have two toy machines that all the kids have played with. One of them has a secret compartment in which are an assortment of fun buttons. I found not one but two packs of pre-cut I-Spy blocks in the massive quilt cupboard and finally got them started.
Five year old Devan started first. Looks like she had her hand placement guiding that block perfect. Look at that right finger. We used the Bernina since it has a quarter inch seam guide and it can be set for half speed.
Why do the girls all want to trim the threads off the sides before they can start?
Gramma's hands were close by until six year old Elly got the hang of it. Then she chain pieced a whole bunch of blocks and told me she could do it all herself now without my help. Okay.
Putting them onto the design wall is exciting.
So far the blocks are sewn together in twos. Eventually we will sew four together then more.
We did put a large book under the foot pedal so their short legs could reach. And a regular chair. The chair on wheels just rolled them away when they tried to use the foot pedal.
Devan created a "Book" with a whole stack of her blocks so Grampa could read the story.
Blessings,
Gramma Chris
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I opened an upstairs bedroom window a couple of weeks ago and heard crows. Yes Crows. The second week of August. Crows cawing are a September thing here at the Farm. Then the other night there was a cricket in my bedroom. A loud cricket. Really loud. Under my bed. Late at night. Sigh. Our hot wet summer is coming to an end. The nights are cooler. The days are getting shorter. The ragweed and wild cucumber vines are choking out all the flower beds. I guess if I had pulled weeds earlier that would not have happened. The goats do not especially like rag weed or thistles.
Goats you say. Yes goats. The Farmer's niece milks 400 goats for a neighbor. She rescued a few in the spring and brought them home and had them in a portable corral that she moves around the yard every few days. They cleaned up all the fence rows around the farm house and yard. They were really cute until one discovered she could escape. So she did. Every day. Then the others followed. Nibbling my hostas and rose bushes. She even tried to get into the house. Did not happen.
So summer is nearing an end. The little boys will be here next week for vacation with Daddy and Mommy. His parents are celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary so we will be babysitting one night. Then they will be going fishing with some friends and the African Lion Safari to see elephants and lions and monkeys. Little David phoned yesterday asking if Grampa will take him on a ride on Gramma's tractor. That's the cab tractor with air conditioning and a radio. He likes that one the best.
I did not complete any quilts. I did not complete many blocks. I did work on a few and prepped the new Dear Daughter blocks. Another 4 will be released on Sept 1.
I have been leading a small group at church called Hearing God. We take one lesson each week in the workbook and take time to sit quietly listening to God and journal. It has been an amazing journey.
I am looking forward to making the 5 hour drive to Upper Canada Village in Cornwall, Ontario mid Sept to a quilt show with my high school quilting friend who went to Shipshewana with me.
The following week is our Canadian National Guernsey Show and I am going to a ladies retreat and taking my daughter away for the whole weekend. She deserves a treat away from responsibilities.
Plans are afoot for our Quilting at the Farm retreat end of Sept. Anyone interested in joining us? I have a couple of beds in one of the guest rooms.
Also, I am working on the details of my ministry trip to India in November. There will be 2 of us going for 2 weeks to encourage women.
And we have been decluttering and laying a new floor in 2 bedrooms because our son and his 3 little girls will be moving in with us for the coming year. This will be the 4th move in a year for the little girls and they will all be starting in new schools in Sept.
So, summer is coming to an end. I am trying to not make any further commitments and creative plans. But you never know. I made a banana cake from scratch last week and it was so amazing that I plan to make another today since I have some brown bananas.
Blessings,
Chris
My daughter completed her Master of Social Work in Strategic Leadership and she has taken the little boys home. They will be back with Dad for a week's vacation at the end of the month.
My little sister from China came to visit for a month and after we took a week to visit family in Saskatchewan, she went back home to start her school year as a grade one teacher. I had exactly one day without house guests before the three little girls return for two more weeks. They were here for three different weeks in July.
For my birthday last month, my daughter and sister gave me a gift of time for a whole day of de-cluttering and organizing. They were relentless. They emptied out two rooms of all the stuff we collect over the years and do not know what to do with or cannot find because of so much stuff. Two ancient solid wood dressers were loaded onto the truck and donated plus many bags of clothing, several boxes of dishes. They kept one dresser, but not sure it will stay. The problem with them, besides being so big, is they were used for many years in houses heated with wood stoves and have a particular fragrance that they generously share with anything stored in them. So out they went.
A new floor is being laid. My son found some flooring on sale for a dollar a square foot. I was looking at some for $3.50. He is laying it in two of the bedrooms and hopefully, there will be enough to do the upstairs hall also.
So what did I do with a whole day to myself besides drive tractor for two hours? And chase goats out of my yard? And eat ice cream and cookies and made an amazing smoothie? It had five green things - avocado, cucumber, celery, kale and spinach plus apple, orange, radishes, yogurt, protein powder and enough water to make it drinkable.
I read blogs. Listened to worship music. Read up on facebook happenings and did some correspondence. I washed bedding from six beds and dried it all. I even washed one comforter. It is in the dryer now. No. I do not hang laundry on the clothes line. It is too hard to carry the hampers out and reach up to hang things on the line, then remove them later. So into the dryer they went. I have not folded anything yet. But why fold them if they are all going back on the beds? The little girls return tomorrow. I will get them to help make up the beds.
But the biggest thing was to pack up, organize and remove at least 15 project boxes and organized four boxes of Go dies as well as five boxes of children's books I rescued from the little boys a few months ago. We took down one of the eight foot tables and put it out in the hall so I had room to work in here. My sister had been working on her quilt and we had both long tables in the middle of the room for her.
All these boxes were under the tables. Kind of out of the way. Sort of. But now they are out of the room. All the projects I had been working on over the past few months and many I wanted to work on. They have all been put away. Some in the hall closet. Most in the quilting cupboard upstairs. Well, almost in there. Have to squish some of them closer together.
What did I keep? Dear Daughter. I am behind on the last eight blocks. Dear Bright Jane 2. I have five orange blocks ready to work on. And the Huguenot blocks. Yesterday I machine appliqued two tiny circles with red silk thread. That's two more than last month. They will get put away tomorrow when I clear all my course work off the card table by my desk.
While rummaging in the cupboard upstairs, I found two packs of pre-cut seven inch I-Spy blocks. There are 80 different fabrics in each pack. I have this scathingly brilliant idea to help my youngest two granddaughters each stitch up their own quilt tops. After all, Devan has been asking me all summer to do some sewing on the real machine. We will use the Bernina since it has the quarter inch foot with the seam guide and it can be set to half speed. But first, I will have to take out the red silk thread.
Blessings,
Chris
