Lynn Carson Harris

Thoughtful Sunday

"Every time a child says, 'I don't believe in fairies,' there is a fairy somewhere that falls down dead."

Peter Pan, J. M. Barrie, 1911.

Buckets of Berries

It finally came. The day we have been eagerly awaiting finally came - opening day at the local blueberry farm!! We went early, as usual, to beat the crowds.

We quickly strapped on our buckets and started picking.

We filled our buckets and came home to start our blueberry feast. We have been eating them by the handful, putting them on cereal, making peanut butter and blueberry sandwiches, baking them, and even freezing some. I think we'll be picking again soon!

Baskets in the Mail

Some of my baskets for the 8 two 8 quilt block swap have arrived! I requested basket blocks in fall colors. These are from Lisa.
 
Laura sent these.
 
The blocks are 15 inches. I have been wanting a fall color quilt for my bed. Yay.
Thanks ladies!

Thoughtful Sunday

"Going to Aunt Mirandy's is like going down cellar in the dark.  There might be ogres and giants under the stairs, - but, as I tell Hannah, there might be elves and fairies and enchanted frogs!"

Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, Kate Douglas Wiggin, 1903

Mini Vacation

The weather was just wonderful today! Sunny, not too hot, and the wind seems to have blown the mosquitoes away!  It was a great day for a mini vacation - in the back yard!

Of course, Miss Petunia came prepared with all the essentials for a fun time under the plum tree.

I brought a book to read too!

Take out dinner, books, markers, paper, crayons, a magic wand, and a pink umbrella - just in case - THIS is summer relaxation!

What have you done for a mini vacation this summer?

Thoughtful Sunday

"If you become a bird and fly away from me, " said mother, "I will be a tree that you come home to."

The Runaway Bunny, Margaret Wise Brown, 1942

The Year of the Placemat

My friend, Sara, declared this the "year of the placemat."  Placemats are like doll quilts in that they are small, quick to make, and a great canvas for trying out new techniques, or branching out to using different fabrics styles or colors. They are also practical for those people who don't have dolls to snuggle in quilts.  Placemats might also be easier to wash than table cloths. If there is only one messy person at the table then only their mat could be washed instead of the whole table cover!
Sara started a placemat swap group which was the motivation I needed to make my first placemat.  I think I'll be making more of these. They make great gifts that could be personalized or coordinated for a whole family.

This placemat is headed off to Tami. She says she likes bright colors.

How to Make Gardening Fun - lessons learned from a four year old

Sometimes I feel like our garden gets overwhelming. The weeds get out of control, some of the plants don't "keep" in the garden and you have to keep up with picking every day. It is great to have fresh food from the garden every day for supper but the extra time for harvest and processing to keep for the winter can get to be drudgery.

Just look at all those weeds! The about to give up pea plants are in the back of the photo below. In the foreground there are parsnips, carrots, and beets. There are a few more rows to my right. This is one of five garden spaces that we have this year.

Here are  Little Miss P's tips to make gardening fun:

1. Wear tights to the garden so the bugs don't bite your legs.
2. Plant picking flowers so that you don't get in trouble for picking flowers in the yard.
3. Take good care of your flowers. You have to dust them with garden dirt and then fluff them with a bit of grass.

4. Use the proper kitchen utensils. This makes the pea shelling REALLY fun. Make sure you have a spoon that is just the right size for ONE pea so that snacking while you work is enjoyable.

5. Plant pink food. It is always fun to have pink food on your plate. Beets are fun because they also turn rice and noodles pink when they are on your plate together.
(I think I weeded most of that light pink variety out thinking they were the radishes that we planted with the beets to mark the row. I pulled a "radish" the other day that I thought I had missed. I bit into it and--- it was a beet. Too bad.)

Spider Webs - A Cautionary Tale

I have this spider web quilt pinned and waiting to be quilted. It catches my eye often as it sits right next to the sewing table.

I thought it would be fun to try a small project with just one spider web. Sometimes, well almost all the time, I am so excited about starting a new project that just start right in without the full picture of the finished project in my mind. I took some quick measurements off the quilt and counted that I would need eight base triangles. I also wanted to use a print fabric for the background. The creative juices were flowing. The method for making the quilt was fresh in my mind so off I went. For one web I only need the strips sewn to one side of the triangle. Cut. cut. sew. sew. I could see this would be a quick project.

I was eager to see how it looked with the polka dot background. It took me a while to get it arranged so that the pieces fit together.

Um. Yeah. Half of the blocks should have the scraps sewn to the OTHER side of the base triangle.

Matching Socks on a Beautiful Blue Sky Day

For our latest pair of socks in the two make a pair project we used some yarn I spun in the early spring. We whipped up a pair of crew socks to show off the color in the yarn. There was enough of the yarn left that I knit a pair for P too! Now we have matching socks. The roving I used is an interlacements superwash merino.
 
The sky was such a pretty blue we felt we had to capture that in our photos too! But we got a little itchy, and the sun was in our eyes so we had to be quick.