Green Acres Is The Place to Be

Oh YES! I'm on vacation for the rest of the week and am OH SO HAPPY. Lorelai got home about 8:00 last night and Legare will be home tonight. I'm headed downtown for some shopping this morning and Hank will bring home our Christmas tree at lunchtime. If Hank and I do the hard part (getting the tree up and putting on the lights) the kids will usually muster up a LITTLE enthusiasm to help with the ornaments.

Since I'm in a festive spirit (thanks for your supportive comments about last night's post...I was, in southern belle-speak "sick and tired"), I thought I'd share something about myself that I haven't talked much about. I enjoy quilting. I'm not very good at it OR very prolific because I only like to work on it during cooler weather and we don't get much of that around here. I tend toward more folk art-type wall hanging projects which don't show very well here at home but look perfect at the farm.

This is the first quilt I attempted when I took a beginner's class at People, Places and Quilts, a wonderful shop in Summerville, South Carolina. This little log cabin is FAR from perfect but it surely does have a special place in my heart.

My next project was very ambitious...a folk art quilt that is just about all applique' with embroidered Bible verses about home and family. You'll see the full quilt below as well as a few close ups of particular squares. I enjoyed making it because it was more piece work than quilting and with the folk art quality, the applique did not have to be precise.

The last one I completed (below) was done on the sewing machine. Now mind you, I can only sew a straight line and even then sometimes the line ISN'T so straight. It adds a nice pop of color to the boring off-white wall in the master bedroom, don't you think?

Hank likes to think of the farm as his "manly man" retreat and there ARE many manly man activities...a bunch of pickup trucks, hunting and shooting, four wheeling, tractor riding, muddy boots and nasty dirty camouflage clothing (particularly if somebody actually kills something). The decor is a work-in-progress because I try very hard to keep to his "hunt club" philosophy while finding things that I like as well. It is VERY time consuming.

Just a couple more photos...the first turkey he killed...which hangs over the farm fireplace across from a wonderful vintage Coca Cola sign I found at an auction. I fear that if the place ever caught on fire, he'd save the turkey before he saved me. I guess that's OK because I'd be busy saving the quilts...Green Acres IS the place to be!!