Instructive question

Before....

During.....

After....

Sometimes you learn more from a question than an answer.

About 20 years ago I was a full-time working mom, had a husband in grad school, 3 growing children, aging and ailing parents to help, and a farmstead to manage. I must have been crazy because every spring I'd plant a huge garden. Of course I had built-in slave labor in my children for weeding and harvesting but the inevitable fruitfulness of the garden meant many nights of canning tomatoes and green beans into the wee hours of the morning. I even canned the runty little potatoes that were too small for anything but soup. At one point a friend asked me, “Why in the world did you plant potatoes?!? They are 10 lbs for 99 cents at the grocery store!”

Believe it or not, that question has haunted me for the last 20 years. I think I was so astonished by the question that I didn't even answer her. Why, indeed, plant potatoes when you can buy them for 10 cents a pound? If you count your labor for anything (most gardeners don't), buying the potatoes at the market certainly made fiscal sense.

I don't think I have a good answer to the question even now after 20 years but I still think about it. Here are a couple of thoughts I've had...

1. Gardeners plant things for the same reason the chicken crosses the road. Every 6 year old can tell you the chicken crosses the road simply to get to the other side (a perfect example of what my husband calls a 'Microsoft answer – technically correct but practically useless'). I think most gardeners plant things simply because they can. I honestly don't know why more people don't “cross the road”. There are few things that give you as high a return on the investment as sticking a few seeds in the ground and watching it grow, mature and bear fruit. There just isn't much to beat that and it's something every gardener knows.
2. Joy; most gardeners plant things simply for joy. Anyone who has carefully stepped the potato fork into the soil at summer's end and turned over a loamy pile of dirt with perfect and beautiful potatoes spilling out will know what I'm talking about. Run your fingers through the soil, breathe in and smell the thousand fragrances released. Put those potatoes into a wire egg basket. Move down the row and repeat. Backbreaking? Probably. But full of joy, discovery and delight. It's the same sensation as reaching your hand into the nesting box and pulling out warm brown eggs laid by hens that have names. Would it be cheaper to buy the eggs at the market? Definitely. But where's the joy in that?

Joy is adequate reason for many other things we do. Why spend hours bent over, cutting fabric into little pieces and then hours over the sewing machine, sewing them together again? I could go to the store and buy a blanket to warm my loved ones' beds – why go to the bother of making a quilt? It's simply a matter of joy - love and joy.

Maybe in another 20 years I'll have more insightful answers to my friend's question but for now those two answers will do just fine. And there is a single potato plant growing in my garden right now...just so I don't forget the question.

Winter pillowcases

Most of the things I sew are for other people.  However, I found these über-cute snowmen down in the garment district and decided to treat our very own bed to some new pillowcases for winter.  Cheery, especially in the morning at bed-making time.

"Sausage" pillowcases are incredibly easy to make - I've made them with children as young as 4 and they love making their own in fun fabrics.  There are several YouTube videos that describe making them and if you have a serger, they are done in no time.  Go ahead, make your bed happy.

Upholstered Headboards

So....I started taking an upholstery class last September.  I still know next to nothing about upholstering but I'm much wiser about how much I don't know.  However, I rarely let a little thing like ignorance stop me from trying.  My neighbor, Maren, had asked if we could possibly construct some upholstered headboards for her daughters.  She had seen some she loved at a price she didn't love ($399 each).  With a little help from Pete and his tools, a trip to the garment district for supplies, some paint and glue and our pneumatic staple gun, voila - two very pink headboards for about $75 each.  Can't wait to see them as part of the girls' new bedroom redo.

Addendum:  Here they are in the girls' room...

Pea picking

My grandfather had one sister.  He also had two older half sisters (same father, different mother) and three younger half brothers (same mother, different father).  In addition to losing his father, he'd also lost four siblings or half-siblings to disease and accidents.  In those days life was "nasty, brutal and short" and families were often an odd patchwork.  He and his sister were very close, which is not surprising considering what they'd been through together.

Grandpa's sister was my Great-aunt Nettie.  During my childhood she was a widow who lived in Appleton, Wisconsin and once a year she came down to the farm in Illinois to stay with my grandparents for a month or so.  She was a gentle soul and I remember her sitting in a big creaky wooden swing and shucking peas in the shade.  In addition to farming my grandfather was a carpenter and he made a big wooden support for the porch swing so you could sit outside and catch the breezes in the shade of an old tree, a welcome spot in the days when no one had air-conditioning.   Aunt Nettie let me eat some of the fresh peas raw, a delicacy not be to compared with mushy cooked peas.

Odd, the snapshots from the past that come back to you.  I was out in the garden picking peas this morning and it reminded me of those days and people long ago and far away.  Raw peas still taste best to me.

Country roads

I feel like I should write something poetic about these pictures but I'll just let them speak for themselves.  

I love hedgerows.

And sunsets.

Tuesday in IL

I am in awe of people who do things really well.  I myself am a dabbler.  I love to learn new things but I am not a perfectionist by any means.  Which means that most of the things I make look like they've been made by someone who isn't a perfectionist.

Today I visited my friend Deb.  Deb is an extremely right-brained person with talent oozing out her fingertips.  She has been doing intricate cross-stitch samplers (reproductions from the 1700 and 1800's) and also hooking rugs for a good many years.  She's also a very talented horsewoman.  And Deb is a perfectionist.  No, she's a Perfectionist.  I thought I'd share a few pictures I took today to give you an idea of how talented she is.

Hooked rug of hollyhocks and animals.   Look at the detail! Click on picture!!!

Photos don't capture the detail but this is so beautiful.

Perhaps this photo lets you see some of the artistry that goes into creating a hooked rug masterpiece.

Detail of pineapple rug

And here's Deb with the rug she is giving (yes GIVING) me!  She left some of it for me to finish and I quake at the thought of dabbling with her work.

Deb and mille fleur hooked rug

After we spent an hour getting inspired by Deb's work, we went to Kathy's where Becca enjoyed riding Sonny.

Wide open spaces.  

A day of inspiration and recreation.

What's up?

When the kids were little they used to get a kick out of what they considered "funny sayings."  I was reminded of one of them today when I saw this.  Question:  "What's up?"  Answer: " Chicken butt!"