Wagons Ho! yall and LOTS of other stuff!!!

Hey yall!  Whew it has been a busy couple of weeks since my last post. From my town's 53rd( I believe) Annual 4th of July Wagon train parade, to my wonderful trip to Chattanooga to hear Alex Veronelli's lecture on Aurifil threads, to hay fields and babies, and bee blocks and black berries. So here we go.... take a deep breath , this might take a minute :

 Hey look! I can see our Traffic Light at the other end of town! And the Courthouse rotunda!

That's the end of the Wagon Train ! Yall come back , ya hear?

Then on to Spool in Chattanooga! Yall, I love this shop. Maddie is such a hoot and we had a great visit with Alex Veronelli of Aurifil. Alex took us step by step, (15 steps to be exact) , through the processes of making Aurifil thread! I was amazed by the dedication of Alex and his company in producing these high quality threads. Although Aurifil has alot of state of the art equipment, many of the processes are performed by hand in order not to rush the process of creating their splendid products.  Here are some photos from the lecture and quilt examples of how the different weights and thread types are used.

This was stunning! Beautiful thread collection!

Hand applique!

Sashiko!

Thread Painting!

The people are made of thread!

Loved the varigated

Loved this one!

 And then my favorite and what I waiting to see! Luke Haynes's quilt of Alex!

Can I just say this is amazing! I am just enamoured with Luke's work. He is so dang stinkin talented! Drop by his website and view his galleries! Speechless!

Maddie Kertay of Spool and Alex Veronelli of Aurifil!
Thank you guys for a fun afternoon! And also hello to Brad, Alex's assistant! He did a phenonmenal job and was so friendly and personable! It was a pleasure chatting with you Brad!

And I would love to say Thank you to Gayle! She was the wonderful lady that was sitting next to me during the lecture. As the quilts were passed around, Gayle would stand up and hold the quilts up for us all to get photographs! Thank you Gayle! She is so sweet and we are friends on Facebook now. I hope we can get together again in Chattanooga  again very soon!

Also, I have been hard at work trying to keep my ETSY shop stocked. This 6 block kit  was so dang fun to make. And I LOVE that I had Aurifil to match! :)

 And, in other shop news, I am working on putting together a couple of English Paper Piecing travel kits in a cute little burlap clutch that will include my favorite 4" Sullivans Stainless Steel Embroidery Scissors,an Acrylic 1" honeycomb template, 100 paper honeycomb pieces, a needle sample booklet ( so you can try different needle sizes), a glue pen, and a bobbin of Aurifil #2021 White 50wt thread that I will wind myself because I want you to try this thread for hand piecing! Pure Heaven! I think I will only have two of these kits, so if you are interested let me know asap before I list them on the company Facebook page at the beginning of the week.

And I have been busy with Bee Blocks and Charm Swaps:

Flowers for the Inchy Flower Swap.

Liberated Wedding Ring for the Global scrap Bee

Kaffe Fassett Charm Swap

1930's Charm swap

I Love Lucy International Bee

WIP for the I love Lucy Bee!

And Blackberries, babies and a high steppin' rooster!:

Blackberry juice!

Just had to eat a few with my afternoon tea!

Hi pretty lady on a gorgeous horse riding across my table cloth! I love your hat scarf thingy!

And Blackberry pie in the makin'!

 I have never made a blackberry pie that did not bubble over! Glad I put a cookie sheet under the pie plate!

I want to feed Swans too!

New babies;

This cow is "Little Bit III". Her calf is "Little Bit IV". They are both half Holstein/half Braunvieh.  My hubby's father brought home Little Bit I as a calf, she had a heifer, Little Bit II, which had Little Bit III and now she has Little Bit IV. All heifers. So 4 generations of Little Bits! (We lost Little Bit I last winter.) 

And this is "Libby", named after Lady Liberty! She is a fullblood Braunvieh and a sweetie!

And, I have a hen sittin'.  She is sitting on 16 EGGS! The second from the left is a photo of her last year! I will try to get a photo of her grown up and sitting on her eggs when it stops raining. They grow up so fast :) She is black with gold around her neck now.!

Whew!
  Yall, I am serious when I say I don't know if I have been washing or hanging out! It has been a whirlwind around here! I left out hay baling and corn planting and canning green beans, corn and tomatoes and making Bread and Butter pickles!  But I wouldn't have it any other way! I love our busy farm life. Sewing, quilting and blogging is definitely icing on the cake! And I have made a ton of friends on facebook. Facebook can be a really inspiring place and there are so many sweet and friendly people just waiting to talk and share their work! I spend way too much time over there! :)
  And, I WON a fantastic pair of Karen Kay Buckley scissors from my new friend Carole at " From My Carolina Home! " She has an awesome blog with lots of well written tutorials, recipes, book reviews and more! Thank you Carole for your generosity! I can't wait to try out those scissors!
  I was introduced to Carole by Karen of Karens Quilts, Crows and Cardinals! Karen does alot of wool applique, writes patterns and is awesome at Free Motion Quilting! If you haven't checked out her blog you should. She has several FREE patterns and tutorials and some gorgeous patterns to purchase in her Craftsy shop! Such cute stuff! I really want to make her Spring Basket! It is going on my "Must Make" Bucket list!

 AND,  a little exciting news is that I am going to be teaching a class at Spool! It will be a class on Lucy Bostons Patchwork of the Crosses! Yay! Here is the sample I made for the class!

So fun and very modern. I wonder what Mrs. Lucy would think of it??

I am sooooo excited to get the opportunity to share my LOVE for these fascinating little blocks! I am definitely addicted to making them! I will share class information as soon as I can!
  Now ,before I forget, I want to say a big warm WELCOME to all my new friends and followers! Fiona Ransley,Reconstructed Fabulousness,Elizabeth, Kiki's Dolls, Valerie, Jette, Lorraine, and Paula! Welcome to the farm ladies! We are so happy to have yall plowing along with us!
 And last but certainly not least! Aurifil has kindly donated a couple of gifts for an upcoming giveaway! I hope to be able to announce the plans for that sometime within the next couple of weeks, as soon as I can get things planned out, so stay tuned for more information!
 Until next time, have fun yall! Thanks for dropping by!
Let's get excited and make something spectacular!!
YEEHAW YALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
xo jan