Zipping along...

We visited some good friends in southern Indiana recently. I never dreamed how much fun a zip line could be. We were ready to go again.

Our friend's father and uncle are extremely creative. It's always fun to see what new creations they have added to their adjoining places. Like this anatomically correct buffalo made from pine cones, real cattle horns, etc. 

Smokey the bear's newest friend is also crafted with pine cones and complete with wooden ears and snout.

They not only have a sense of humor, but they are becoming masters of chain saw sculpture. This handsome guy (another of their creations) fresh from the cigar store, is currently residing in the round out-house that they built from an old grain bin. 

The out-house is a handy addition to the nearby shelter where family and friends gather frequently (at the shelter, that is). The door and hardware are even crafted to complete the curve of the building. This is probably the more adorable "out-house" ever .... it looks like something right out of Tolkien's The Hobbit. 

This big fellow is a commission they recently finished.

Isn't it fun having creative friends who enjoy life so much!

Giants on the prairie

Wanted to share some photos from the time spent helping with the harvest of corn and beans this year. I marvel to think how many bushels of corn or soy beans these bins are capable of holding. Could you imagine counting each individual kernel of corn or bean that go into these giants. And there are hundreds and hundreds of these scattered across the county. 

This Aermotor was intact and pumping water for livestock. So many times, all you see are skeletons of these lovely sculptures.

I read at one time, the water windmill numbered over 6 million across the U.S. landscape. The wind turbine seems to be trying to catch up with it smaller cousin. I am in awe over how large these structures are. Here's a quick link comparing sizes: http://www.energy.iastate.edu/renewable/wind/images/howtallareturbines_08.pdf

Couldn't resist stopping to snap photos of this adorable 35 ft. tall creature. He's a "fire breathing" steel dragon located in Vandalia, Illinois. Googling him, I learned he really "breathes" fire when fed tokens you can buy for $1 at a nearby liquor store. Will have to check that out the next time we go that way.

Here are the true giants on the prairie:

Fossils and fabric and buttons, oh my...

As Dorothy said, "there is no place like home". We are done helping with this year's harvesting of corn and beans. It has been a dry year, so the corn yield was down. Seeing friends and former neighbors again was wonderful even though we didn't get to visit everyone we would have liked.

In addition to helping with the harvest, we visited around with friends, helping with various chores and fix-it jobs, like building several wheel chair ramps, fixing a deck, changing a leaking faucet, reupholstering 6 dining chairs and re-gluding their legs, taking photos for a friend for eBay, etc.

Per usual, we came home loaded to the gills with treasures. It wasn't all work, there was some play time, like visiting fabric and quilt stores, a favorite thrift store in addition to Goodwill and our favorite the Half Price Book Store.

The Wabash River bank gave up some interesting fossil rocks to add to my rock collection. One of the books I read this past month was Tracy Chevalier's Remarkable Creatures. If you like historical fiction, read her books. Anyhow, one thing mentioned in Remarkable Creatures was the amount of time one can spend walking the beach, constantly looking down, searching for rocks and fossils. I find time spent like this so relaxing and you never know what lovely piece of nature you may discover.

There was a wonderful fabric store in Kalamazoo that had a lovely sale (22% off) on a 100% cotton. This included the wonderful quilt store quality fabrics.

The best of this plunder, is all the lovely cotton fabric, buttons and creative notions June, a very generous friend gave me from her fall cleaning spree. She had a quilt shop in one of her lives, so you know the fabric is awesome. It's all washed now and waiting to be sorted by color. I think some of the fabric will be used to make charity quilt tops for babies and young children. 

What can I say, thank you again, June.

It's harvest time...

We are helping with the fall harvest, so my blog is on the back 40 for a while. Will return soon. Thanks for visiting.

A happy quilt – my first machine-quilted quilt:

Was thrilled at how my first machine-quilted top turned out recently. Had several of these 9 patch blocks for a number of years before getting around to making enough for a queen size quilt. The fabrics in this quit (the 9 patches and blue sashing) are all 30s and 40s fabrics, including the blocks I pieced together. Also yellow in the blocks and in the squares between blocks is old fabric (36" wide). Some of the yellows are darker in value – but that adds to the charm, don't you think.

 

Kinda got carried away with piecing the backing for this quilt. 

Have been admiring quilts that have a little "extra" added to the back and maybe I went over board with this one. Wanted to use up as many of the 2.5" squares that were left over from the piecing of the blocks on the front. And, I pretty much did that. What few squares I had left were incorporated into the patchwork coasters I posted earlier.

New color for shelf

Had a quart of Benjamin Moore paint that I bought for another project that didn't come to fruition .... so here's the primitive shelf with its new paint color .... butterscotch.

Here's the next mini-project. "Mini" meaning it should take too long to finish. Plans are to recover this wonderful old footstool with some new fabric.

Found this piece of upholstery fabric in the remanent bin .... just love the color and pattern. It's fresh and contemporary feeling.

Sometimes mistakes are made...

I let myself be talked into picking this turquoise color to paint a primitive-type shelf that we have sitting on our front porch area. Wanted a color to compliment the cushions I made for the glider – normally, I would have chosen a variation of a lime green that is in the fabric. But, my hubby picked the paint to match some of the turquoise blue in the fabric. YIKES! If we lived by the ocean, this would be a wonderful beach color. But we are near the "shores" of the Arkansas River as it flows through northeastern Oklahoma. The shelf is getting repainted. Will should you the new color soon.

This past week has been project week at our house. Here's a wonderful mid century solid "rock maple" dresser that I stripped and painted with a Behr paint. The color is called "Bleached Linen". Don't you just love the names they (whoever "they" are) give to paint. Sometimes, I just feel like painting a wall or piece of furniture just because of the name given to a color. Consequently, choosing paint is a fun part of the process, but I can also agonize over making the right color choice – just need to realize it can be repainted!

The green glass pulls on the drawers make the dresser more "cottage-like" and they are much more aesthetic than the original wood pulls that looked like large peanuts. 

The name of the furniture maker is burned on the side of one of the drawers. This was a pleasant surprise, since we had recently moved from Indiana. Not much to be found on the internet about "Peter Klerner Furniture" other than there were several Klerner furniture makers in the Corydon area. So I am just guessing on the date on this piece being from the 40s or 50s based on the design.