Rotten Rabbit and Dear Abby!!!

 Somehow I have mislaid the rabbit on felt which I had almost finished.  I have searched everywhere to no avail...  I will move on to the next block and hopes it appears.  If not, I shall have to do another...

And this is my "dear Abby"...sometimes called "blessed Abby."  With ultrasound, massage, exercise, sim treatments and ice packs she has me walking again without a cane and almost NO pain.

I am going to have to stay awhile at the assisted living facility with my mom and will  have no internet access... Hopefully just a day or two.

The life of the barn.....

Marlynne asked for a picture or two of my wonderful barn so I gather parts of older posts about the barn and combined them.

When we bought the farm in 1980 part of the barn had milking stalls and a drain along the floor... It often happens I'm taking a picture of one thing and inadvertently get a photo of something else that I need later. I was actually taking a picture of the gallica roses in this bed.  Not realizing I was also capturing about half of the outside of the milking room in its original state.  Before I could even start remodeling we had to shovel out a mountain of dried manure and scrape the floor clean... My DH is not a "handy man" with a hammer but he can really shovel "sh--"!

As I started the nursery I knew this room had to serve many uses.  To achieve my vision for this large room I figured I'd have to do "shabby mismatched" (my specialty) but found the 5 matching windows at the left at a thrift store "as is" lot. I couldn't believe my luck. The same day I found the 4 smaller matching windows on the right.  The room is quite large (about 12'x30')    

This room became an all-purpose work room during the nursery years... I build things for the garden in it such as benches and arbors etc. during the winter... In early March when plant seedlings began to arrive it was transformed into a potting center and May 1st the nursery opened... Friday, Saturday and Sundays it was open to the general public and during the week it was open by appointment.. So on the weekends the room was gussied up as a tea room with overflow from the gift shop..

During the week it was transformed for workshops and lectures...

 This was another accidental shot... I was getting the room ready for the weekend not realizing I also got a picture of the original drain in the floor which carried all the cattle waste out of the barn...I kept it covered with old carpets.  All someone would have to do is shovel the gravel out and it would be ready to use again...  

Then when the nursery finally closed it was transformed again into my big sewing room where I sewed garden smocks, aprons, etc. to sell at garden shows... I finally got tired of bending over sewing machines and quit.

Unfortunately I didn't quit checking the yardage at thrift stores and kept hauling it home and piling in this room with the plan to make totes and purses someday. In addition to what you see here there is a long counter on the inside wall which has many bins under it. This is what it looked like when   my neighbor "Super Woman" Liz came and helped me get ready for Cathy Kizerian's visit.

We got all the fabric folded and sorted on the rolling racks and actually found the cutting table. One rack has tapestries, one has cottons and one has home decor fabrics...

Even though it was a January thaw, the wind was blowing and we needed the big propane heaters. It's not the best place to sew as it is most often too cold in the winter and too hot in the summer...impossible to keep clean and of course, there's the mice...

But the light is incredible... and it is surrounded with old-fashioned rose bushes.

I still needed to attack the other end of the room not seen in the tidy photo... it is where there are 5 sewing machines, ironing board and another big rolling rack... all buried in fabric.. Liz went home with lots of goodies....  .

There are three sewing machines and two sergers.  The blue machine is a Sail-rite which is great for denim.

Since I was doing crazy quilting I had way more "fancies" than I could ever use and Cathy Kizerian flew up one February.  I kept what I needed and she kept what she wanted and we filled several large trash bags to take to the retreat to share.  The weather was as decent as you could expect in February and we were able to work long days with the big propane heaters going...

But a frigid front moved in and the last day we were working all bundled up.   Even the big propane heaters couldn't keep the room warm. All the wall bins are filled with trims and lace.

But we finished and it was great fun watching all the gals at the retreat cutting the fabric up even more. Ever so often I will see a piece show up in someone's block.

About a year and half later Susie Wolfe came and we spent almost a week working on our BoHo  bag project and putting together fabric packs for bags.. and the big fans were going and shade cloth was on the windows to keep the room cool.

There is an adjacent room which used to be the gift shop where I have more supplies and an ironing board set. up...It's a cute room with rosy wallpaper, lace curtains and barn wood cabinets.

So I think 6 or 7 women could easily work in the barn at the same time.  I seldom work out there by myself anymore preferring the comfort and convenience of the house... Maybe when I get enough CQers here in Spokane we could have a retreat of sorts..

When we do finally have to leave the farm and put it up for sale, it will be fun to watch people's reaction to this side of the barn...  Well anyway the rest of it is still a REAL barn....  I have a fantasy of someone buying it and turning the sewing room back into a milking room for cows..  Wouldn't they be contended cows surrounded by roses and such a great view?

Eye Candy for Possible Class!

I want to offer a "fans from ties" (Let's Tie One On) class this summer at the thread shop as an exercise in building seams and fancy stitching.  So for display in the thread shop today I assembled this wall hanging from an RR years ago.  The stitchers included Cathy K., Cobi W., Bonnie W., and Leslie E.

There was another one in the series and I'm using it on a journal cover.  I had to do some searching in the barn to find all the trim.  I love my barn.. I can always find something wonderful plus fabulous things I didn't even remember  I had..  I will add more lace which I have on order to finish it off.







The blocks went out looking like this.

Now that it's  finished I wish I had did it lengthwise with half fans... too late now. Oh Well!!!

More than a few glitches and adjusting.

There always a glitch or two in every block but this one has had more than a few... First the pink is just TOO pink and so I'm having to move it around into the rest of the block.... (small glitch) Second I initially placed the cottage too far to the left and then proceeded to really embellish it in place. (large glitch)  It really needs to be farther right to have room for my large rabbit which is already stitched on felt..  Am I going to move the cottage?... NO!!!!  I'm unhappy with the green seam so I will either take it out or do something drastic. (medium glitch)  Then I have a limerick I want to add upper left.  It's too long to stitch and I have it printed and still mulling over how to attach it in an attractive way.  Not really a glitch but definitely a problem.

And to add to the list of glitches, not only did the space for my large rabbit shrink, somehow the rabbit got  larger when I stitched it... Not sure what will happen with this pretty major glitch... Am I going to redo the rabbit?  NO!! And finally my rabbit looks sad.  In fact he looks about to cry. Certainly can't have a sad rabbit on a happy block.

Shirring from thrift-store pillow sham.

I salvaged the shirring and some fabric from a fancy, thrift-store pillow sham and used it to trim out this block... The block was from an old round robin (seams only) from 4-5 years ago..  I did a lot of fine tuning on it last summer and finally got it finished in style..  I'll hang it in the needlework shop... I think it turned out great.  Some of the fancy pillow shams at the thrift store have lovely fabrics and trims..