Happy Thanksgiving One and All!

We are spending Thanksgiving Day with Pete's cousin's -- all vegetarians -- so we had our turkey dinner tonight.  It's a good thing we only do this kind of meal once a year.  I am stuffed and sleepy!

Have a good day.  Don't eat too much --save room for pie.

High Winds & High Seas

A northwest wind has been blowing for almost 24 hours.  Cairo and I headed for the beach this morning, but  the wind blew us away.  I took my gloves off to take a photograph and one of my gloves went flying.  I caught up to it just before it hit the water, but I never got around to taking the picture.  Cairo and I hightailed it home and I made myself a niece hot latte.

I delivered the grid walls I use at my shows to my friend Barbara, who hosts a large hand craft show in the Naugles Barn at Hallockville every year.  The wind was even fiercer coming across the farm fields. my fingers were numb by the time I got everything into the barn.  Luckily, the weatherman is predicting warmer weather for the end of the week, and the barn will be heated.

If you want to avoid the big box stores on Black Friday, head up to Hallockville for the Country Parlor Holiday Home Sale: 

Country Parlor Holiday Home Sale

Hallockville Museum Farm

6038 Sound Avenue, Riverhead, NY 11901

November 29 & 30, December 1, 2013

Friday & Saturday 9am-3pm; Sunday 10m-3pm. 

The East End's most unique holiday show of fine folk artists and craftspeople in the historic Naugles Barn at Hallockville! Shop for the finest in folk art, crafts and gifts including baskets, tree trimmings and holiday decor, wreaths, rugs, woodcarvings and decoys, gift baskets, ornaments and so much more-something for everyone on your list! 

Christmas TIme is Marching In . . .

I have two shows left this year, and I am burning the midnight oil to get stuff finished for them.  My studio is a vile mess and is starting to make my nerves jangle, so I think tomorrow morning I will spend an hour or so cleaning -- so I can mess it up again!

I am fueling myself with cups of coffee and lots of Christmas carols.  I've been daydreaming about having a scone with my morning coffee, but I am not going there.  With impending pumpkin pie, I am curtailing my sweet tooth.

I have had fun the last day or so making little needle punched figures and mounting them on vintage Christmas tree bobbins.  They make me smile.  I think they look like a little army of Christmas critters.  (I just taught myself how to watermark photographs, since so many get pinned on Pinterest.  Not that anyone would want these awful phone photos, but its a good skill to know.)

I've got to get back to work!  Time to turn on Holiday Sing Along with Mitch Miller.

New Forms Group 40th Annual Art & Fine Craft Show

Quick Change Artist

That's what Mother Nature is: a quick change artist.

Yesterday I picked a beautiful bouquet of nasturtiums -- in the middle of November!  Fresh flowers in my kitchen make me smile.

I turned off the heat before going to bed last night -- the temperature outside hovered around 52 -- and the house was still pretty warm when I got up this morning.  I made a big mug of coffee and settled in to read some blogs.  I looked up a few minutes later and it was snowing!  Now the nasturtium bed looks like this:

I thought I would be upset, but I was thrilled to take Cairo out for a walk this morning (after I dug out a scarf and gloves and my winter jacket).  Cairo was not thrilled, so we didn't go far, but I came home and put Christmas music on and I have all sorts of new patterns rolling around in my brain.  So I'm going to get to work!

Fun at the Farmhouse Quilt Company

A big, beautiful sage green farmhouse sits on the south side of the Main Road in Southold with lots of land stretching back beyond it.  Head down the eastern most driveway and you will happen upon another large building. This is the Farmhouse Quilt Company.  There's a chicken coop to your left, and two rabbit hutches on the west side of the building.  Stroll up the brick pathway past the white picket fence.  On the porch, rocking chairs are waiting for you to sit a while and admire the quilt that's hanging there and the mums that decorate the doorway.  Did you die and go to heaven?  

This is all the creation of Janet Heins, who owns the farmhouse with her husband Eric, and has a thriving long-arm quilting business as well as the Farmhouse Quilt Company.  Beautiful fabrics are everywhere and Janet's quilts hang on the walls.  It has lots of windows and the late autumn sun streams in onto the big worktable,  just perfect for classes.  There's coffee, tea and apple cider and a homemade pumpkin cake -- made by Janet's husband!  Can it get any better?  Yep.

Janet's prize winning quilt 

Happy hookers

Candy for quilters

Hard at work

Janet's daughter Lindsay, who is her mom's right hand woman, lives upstairs with her charming family and their puppies -- yes -- two puppies!  A 5 month old yellow lab named Chase and a brand new black lab whose name I can't remember.  And I can't forget Gregory, the gray cat with gorgeous green eyes.  (The chickens and rabbits are Lindsay's, too).  I am in heaven.  But it doesn't stop there!  Later in the day Janet's youngest daughter arrives with a toddler and a brand new baby boy named Mason. And I got to hold and feed him!

More eye candy

Such serious students . . . 

Lindsay and Janet hard at work

In between all this fun stuff, I taught a rug hooking class.  It's such a pleasure to share my love of rug hooking with people who want to make rugs too, and the students yesterday were all quick learners.  Lindsay hooked the most perfect letters I have ever seen.  She's a natural, as is her mom.  We're already planning another hooking class, and a needle punch class, too.  Can you tell I was thrilled with the day?   I am hoping to teach many classes at Janet's shop.  I felt so welcome there.  I felt at home.  Thank you, Janet!

Winter. Humph.

We made a good showing at the Fiber Festival of New England this past weekend, especially considering it is a relatively new show (4 years old) and relatively small.  I think it will grow and expand and it is good to be a part of that.  Here are some bad pics of set up.

When we set up on Friday it was about 70 degrees and humid in Springfield.  When I woke up at home yesterday it was 30 degrees.  It's also Daylight Savings time, the stupidest idea ever.  I'm not happy.  I can't stay awake at night, I'm up before 5, and I don't know what the heck to wear.

My next adventure is this weekend.  I am teaching a rug hooking class at Farmhouse Quilt Company in Southold, New York on Saturday.  This is run by Janet Heins and her daughter Lindsay.  We met years ago at a craft sale at her son's grade school and became reacquainted at the Eastern Long Island Quilt Show this past June.  Janet is in much demand as a long arm quilter.  I hear her shop makes grown women drool, so I am looking forward to our day together.  I've made up a few extra kits, so if you want to join us, give Janet a call at 631-236-6030.  You have a choice of two kits -- Eggs and Farmhouse Star, which I designed just for this class.  I think we'll have a lot of fun.