Sewing and unearthing

I have about 24 children in my story times-all of them under 5 years old. We stomp and make animal noises and do lots of silly stuff to make books more fun. Some days (not all) I can't believe I get paid to do my job. For Christmas I wanted to give each of them something so have begun the story time bear project. I have lots of fabric I bought when I began sewing-pretty reproductions of old feed sack prints and other colorful fabric. This is a great way to use this fabric which I probably won't use on much else.

I've appliqued an "I love books" heart onto each bear. A nice side effect of sewing all these shapes on my machine is that I've gained more control in my free motion quilting. Kind of like warming up before drawing something.

Totally unrelated is this stone we unearthed from the old homestead area across the yard (which burned down many years ago). This must have been made when they built the old house. Funny, I come across pet 'gravestones' sometimes, hand written in concrete slabs. And the field behind where the old house sat always offers up pottery shards, ceramic doll heads, clay pipes, etc after the farmer plows the field for winter. Must have been where they put the trash. Once found the most delicate doll hand with fingers intact. Oh, and a ton of marbles. I've embedded all these in a cement collage outside the sun room door to remember those who lived here before us.

 With summer ending and all the leaves falling many things are becoming visible again. Fences, spidery patterns in the trees limbs, old farm machinery, birch bark, old broken down houses. This may be why I love fall and winter so. These seasons show the bones of the land. These are the parts I like to look at. They remain-even when all other living things are sleeping. Bones and dreams.

Rotary blade sharpener

Before I bought this tool I asked lots of people if it works and no one I asked had tried it. I just used it to sharpen a dull blade and it works very well! So happy to extend the life of those expensive rotary blades.

Irene Aug 2011

This was the view from our cozy sun room last Sat when Hurricane Irene came to visit. My trees were dancing and bobbing but none fell-thank you trees! The storm caused suffering for people up the east coast and lack of power for us for several days. Bob has decided to wire the camper up to the new, large generator so we will have a small place with hot water, stove and lights when (not 'if' around here) the power fails next time.                                                                                                                                                                        

This is Judy Irene who was visiting us last week. She beat me at gin rummy every game of the marathon we had. Bob kept running out to fill the tiny generator which kept the well primed and freezer on.





A local news commentator kept leaning into the wind on TV (before we lost power) and he couldn't help trying it out himself.

            We woke the next day to bright sun and clear sky. So, of course, we went shoe shopping. Only lost one big limb. Five days without power made us appreciate hot food, clean laundry and lights...