Grow Your Blog Hop!..and giveaways!!!

EDIT!!!!! The giveaway is now closed but I would still love to meet you! I am still working my way through all the blogs in the Grow Your Blog Hop and have enjoyed meeting everyone so much. Can't wait to go through all the rest of the blogs and see what everyone is up to!

Thank yall for visiting with me and I hope you enjoy peeping around the farm and would love for yall to grab a tractor from the sidebar for your blogs and PLOW along with us!

Good luck in the giveaway yall!

xo jan

Hey yall! Welcome to Sew and Sow Farm! I am so glad you made your way around to visit with us for a while. I was so excited when a friend told me about the Grow Your Blog Hop held each year by Vicki of Two Bags Full! And this year there is an amazing 500 bloggers joining the party. Vicki has typed her little fingers to the bones entering all these links! Thank you so much Vicki for this opportunity and for all your hard work!! And  I really appreciate yall taking the time to stop by my little neck of the woods. I'll try to be quick because I know yall have alot of visiting to do~

My name is Jan. I am a farmers wife and a mother to an amazing daughter currently in Graduate school. We live in the beautiful North Georgia Mountains.Around this blog you can expect to see a mixture of our farm life and my sewing adventures! I also love to write and share stories about everyday life.I started my blog in February of 2013 as a means to communicate with the outside world and learn and share my sewing. I never realized how many new and exciting friends were there and ready to accept me into this amazing blogging universe!

My peeps are all grown up yall!

We have approx 65 mama cows, 6 bulls, lost count of current calves, 3 Great Pyrennes, 3 Border Collies, Several fantastic barn kitties plus a few at the house, 20 chickens, (11 of which were hatched this year by a very determined broody hen)and a rescue Chihuahua named Missy! I help my hubby daily around the farm and my favorite tractor to drive is an Allis Chalmers D17. There is a model of this tractor in my blog header.
Here is a collage of some of my sewing projects over the last few months. ( I really need to update that collage!)

I think I have pretty much decided that I just sew what I like. I do not want to limit myself by putting a label such as A Modern Quilter or A Traditionalist. I spend almost everyday throughout the entire year outside for a large majority of that day. I found a need to carry some small projects around so I started English Paper Piecing. First hexagons and then Lucy Boston honeycombs! Yall I fell hard for Lucy Bostons Patchwork of the Crosses. We even started a "I Love Lucy International Bee" I am currently working on a Patchwork of the Cross quilt using reds creams and blues!~ I am going to call this quilt" Lucy visits America!"

I also take my EPP to cattle auctions!

You can read more about Sew and Sow Farm here and see lots and lots of pretty pictures.

Thats another thing I love! I love love photography. Especially quilt photography.

 So yall, whether I am out at the barn or in my sewing space, I always have sewing and other crafty goodness and YALL on my mind! I so appreciate this blogging and sewing community. I thank yall for your valuable time! I hope that you will find something here to peak your interest and come back often and stay a spell! I would love to get to know ya! Feel free to grab a tractor from the sidebar and plow along with us!

xo jan

Oh but wait, there is one last thing that I always love to do, especially during blog hops, is a giveaway! I LOVE to share what I am fortunate enough to have. So I have two giveaways. And they are surprise giveaways! Just tell me in your comment if you prefer a giveaway suitable for making something for a girl ,boy, man, or woman! One choice please and I will announce the TWO lucky winners on February 15th!  (Giveaway Hint:"cotton" lol) This giveaway is open to everyone including international entries! Please be sure that you are NOT a no reply blogger or just leave your email in your comment!

Also, my one year blog anniversary will be February 18th 2014! Be sure to stop back by then. Not sure what all I will be doing but I know I will have a great giveaway to celebrate!!

And, something else I love to do is give a shout out to a couple of my newest friends and followers, so please join me in welcoming Eva of handmade by Eva Rose and Kristin of Kristins Quilts and Stuff!

Welcome to the farm ladies! I am so glad to have yall plowing along with us! 

Thanks for stopping by yall!

Good luck!

xo jan

PS. I have bronchitis and a sinus infection so it may be a day or so until I can visit everyone and reply to comments. :(  xo jan 

Civil War Sampler using Pam Kitty Love fabrics.

Bees, bananas and a beanie.....

Hey yall!
Boy I had forgotten how busy winter can be around the farm. Back during hay season I kept thinking how I couldn't wait for winter so I would have more sewing time. Well I was certainly wrong about having more time this year. The constantly changing weather has really kept us busy. The animals safety and care are always our number one priority and we do not often see 5 degree weather with a minus 10 degree wind chill in North Georgia. Then the torrential rain we have been experiencing. The animals have really had a struggle this year. And I lost my hat on a tree branch. Actually it was a toboggan that I crocheted to match my scarf and tractor. But it landed in the mud in the cow pasture and I new it wasn't going back on my head no matter how many times I washed it, so I made a new one.

 It is made with an Alpaca Blend. I love this yarn because it is so warm but not itchy like wool. And its washable. I just crocheted a few rounds of  Double crochet, one round of Single crochet in the back loop only to turn the hat, then a few rounds of Granny Squares, then finished with a few rounds of  Double crochet. I like having the Granny Square rounds to let a little air in because this yarn is so warm.  The first thing my handsome farmer hubby dude said was " It doesn't match your scarf". I guess that is my fault because I made such a big deal about making a scarf to match my tractor which is Allis Chalmers Orange! But I just don't think the cows will mind if it matches or not.
 I am also so excited because I have finished my Bee blocks for January. I participate in three Bees. The Inchy Hexagon Flower Swap , the Global Scrap Bee and the I Love Lucy Boston International Bee.

 My partner for January in the Inchy Hexagon Flower Swap requested Civil War Reproduction print flowers. These prints are from Judie Rothermals 25th Anniversary collection. I hope she likes these. I love Civil war prints. Just a sneak peek.

And then January's Queen in The Global Scrap Bee requested foundation pieced Kaleidoscope blocks in bright rainbow colors. These are my first ever Foundation Paper Pieced blocks. I love how they turned out but I will have to get used to the Foundation Piecing process. She asked for two blocks but I would like to make two more before I mail them out.

And finally Januarys Queen in our I Love Lucy Boston International Bee chose Pink, green, orange and yellow for her colors! This was a fun block to make. These colors are so bright and happy. I like to think that Lucy Boston would love seeing all the variations of her Patchwork of the Crosses quilt.I sure have.
 And now I would like to share a story about some bananas with yall. The other day after feeding the calves at the barn and turning the chickens out, I told my hubby I was running up to the grocery store to get some bread and bananas for lunch. He asked me if I needed any money, I told him no, but he fished some out of his pocket anyway and handed it to me. He's sweet like that. :)  I was standing in the grocery store picking out bananas when I heard a young boy say in a quite little voice" Daddy, I want some nanas". I looked up and saw a cute little boy around 6 yrs old, wearing raggedy jeans and a flannel shirt that was at least three sizes too big. He had huge brown eyes and a crew cut hairstyle.  A beautiful girl around 10-12 yrs old with white blond hair and bright blue eyes grabbed his hand and told him " Not this time Brandon" and dragged him away and back towards their daddy.  I glanced back up and saw her and the boy and another boy around 8-9 yrs old all following a giant of a man. He looked like Paul Bunyan only with long shaggy brown hair. A long brown beard and huge, calloused, cut and bruised hands. He looked very weary and had dark circles under his eyes.I placed my bananas in my basket and went to get the bread. As I started down the next aisle something made me look back at the little family. They were gathered around the luncheon meats. Each child had a "Lunchable" box in their hands.( Lunchables consist of three or four crackers with the same number pieces of cheese and meat. Usually a snack and drink are included in the box). I grabbed a loaf of bread and stopped and talked to a couple of young adults that I know then headed toward the register. I usually go through the self check aisle but I saw a cashier that I knew so I got in her line to say hello. As I stood in line the little family got in line too a couple places behind me. The man was carrying a bag from the pharmacy and a 2 ltr Sprite. I think their mother must have been at home sick. Each child was holding their "Lunchable" box like a lunch tray, single file behind their daddy. After exchanging greetings with the cashier I asked her if she knew that family. She said she recognized the kids but didn't know the father that well. That usually they are with their mama. As she rang up my bread and bananas, I glanced back at the little boy. Sheri, the cashier, told me my total and I handed her some money. She got out my change and handed me my receipt. I asked her to keep the change ( it wasn't but just a tad) and apply it towards that familys groceries but not to tell them who left it. You see, I didn't want to embarass the man by giving it to him or offering to pay. Often people will not ask for help. Whether its pride or fear that people will judge them. It doesn't matter. And it doesn't change the fact that they obviously were having a struggle for what ever reasons. I smiled at Sheri picked up my bag and went out the door. I loaded my bag into the car , got in, answered a text message I received when I was in line, put on my seat belt and backed up.
Just as I was leaving I glanced in my rear view mirror and I saw the family leaving the store. The daddy was carrying Brandon, and Brandon was carrying a bunch of bananas!
What a good father he is!
 Yall I would love to give a great big warm welcome to two of my newest friends and followers:
Lynda Davis and maureen of Mystic Quilter. Welcome to the farm ladies. I sure am glad to have yall plowing along with us!
Yall I hope you get all your bee blocks finished, enjoy some bananas and hold onto your hats!
 Until next time.. xo jan

Yeehaw Yall! It's 2014....

Well yall it is ALREADY January 2, 2014 and I am just now getting the chance to tell yall a very HAPPY NEW YEAR! So where were yall when we slammed the barn door on 2013 and hitched up the team and rode into 2014? Celebrating with friends and family? Snuggled on the sofa watching the wonderful and exciting chaos happening around the world? Or leading a glamorous life like me?

Sitting at the Stockyard selling calves!
 Yall the exhuberant cheering of the crowds at Times Square in NYC on New Years Eve was a mere whisper compared to the ding of bawling these calves were making being away from their homes for the first time! Couple that with the ramblings of the Auctioneer made me very glad that I remembered to bring my Ipod!  But all was not lost, I also brought along some handsewing.....

Yessssireee! Sitting through approxiamately 1100 cows/calves being auctioned takes quite awhile. But look at all my honeycombs I was able to cut out and piece.

So, I just wanted to pop in real quick and tell yall Happy New Year! I have so many mixed feelings for the last year it is really hard to put into words. I would like to say, that I started this blog back in February not really knowing what to expect and not really knowing WHY. I had been reading alot of very popular blogs for awhile and I know that I wanted a place to share my sewing and farm life. At first I thought I must not be doing something right or maybe I was boring everyone to tears. I was so worried about my blog becoming POPULAR!(which is very out of character for me) But somewhere along the way, things started changing. I really started enjoying the act of sharing a little bit of my life with yall and forgot about whether or not I (Sew and Sow Farm) was becoming popular.  But mostly, I fell in love with all of yall. Your lives and your stories. Your creative processes and your failures. This community welcomed me with open arms. Chickens and all! So I would love to say THANK YOU! Thank you to every one that has ever read a single post of mine, Thank you for all your kind words and the TIME that you gave me to me and Thank You to every one of you for sharing the bits and bobs of your life. I look forward to seeing what yall are up to this year and I hope you will find something to enjoy around here!
xo jan