It is that special time of the year, and one of my favorite things in the world is the "Yes Virginia" story. Everyone should read it, believe it and live it. I share it with you now because it seems so easy for us to become cynical and self centered, forgetting the beauty, goodness and joy around us.

"DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old.
"Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.
"Papa says, 'If you see it in THE SUN it's so.'
"Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?

"VIRGINIA O'HANLON.
"115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET."

VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except [what] they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You may tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

Catching UP

So sorry that I haven't kept up, it has been a very busy couple of months.

One of the biggest jobs on the farm during the summer is putting up feed.

Lots of normal rectangular bales go into out barn and then there are the big round bales that weigh around 800 pounds. They get fed in the field during the late summer early fall when the grass isn't growing as well.

The silage bags are 8 ft, by 150 feet, and we do three of them to feed the cows in the winter time.

We also finished up the farming season with the carrot seed harvest. First the seed is swathed and left to dry,

then combined, boxed into totes and taken to the seed company to be cleaned.

Not a great year for farming, but there is always next year.

Moving on to shop news, we had a great weekend at the Portland Quilt Expo the end of Sept. where we debuted the new Quilter's Golden Edge paper piecing projects. They are really addicting and I hope you all have a project sitting by your chair at night.

Dan's family had a reunion and almost everyone made it, a good time was had by all.

We also got to spend a night in Long Beach with our girls and their families, the weather was amazing, it was 83 at noon when we left to come home. Picture perfect weather. It was really fun to have the whole clan together. Our grandson's are growing fast, Collin will be a year in a couple of weeks and Justin right behind him at nine months.

So now we are on to birthdays, pumpkins, turkeys and Christmas, my how fast it goes.

We are going to be hosting a Holiday Open House at the shop this year. And in my spare time

I am painting here at home. It is that wonderful time of the year to get our nest in order.

Till next time, count your blessing, share your gifts, and remember to extend a hand to

those less fortunate.

Where does the time go?

This is a bean picker, doing what it does. Seems like it took forever for things to mature this year, so much irrigating, but now, they are disappearing and there is nothing that makes me happier than the harvest. This hasn't been a great year, just too dry, but as farmers there are no choices, you plant your crop and hope for the best. All I can say is everyone needs to eat their veggies.

So you must know by now that I am constantly obsessing about skies and weather. This is what farmers do. Well here are a couple of beautiful skies (my opinion) from a week ago when the weather was cool and gray. I wouldn't want to live where the sky was a constant of anything, I like variety in my surroundings. Have even been seeing trees starting to turn. Wonder what is coming in the weather department for fall and winter?

Dan and I were sitting out on the deck the other night watching cars go by and stop to look at the field of carrot seed. You forget that it is unusual to see acres of carrots going to seed. It is drying nicely, and I will be sad when it is combined and gone. Not only are they pretty, they have a really wonderful fragrance, who knew? There are also lots of little baby calves bounding around in the pasture making for lots of entertainment.

Now, I am just about knee deep in the new paper piecing, and hope that by August 31st we will have all the details ironed out. In the meantime, I am piecing up a storm and hope to have lots of new ideas to inspire you as well. This has been such a busy summer and trying to get any quilting done has been a bit of a challenge. But that just makes me enjoy it all the more when I get the chance.

Took a short break last week and went to Olympia to spend the night with a friend. We went out to dinner, drank a little sangria, shopped a little and sewed a little, along with a lot of good conversation. Nothing like a getaway to refresh and recharge, even if it is a short one.

Time to get sewing... pictures coming soon.

Come Saturday Morning

So strange to be home on a Saturday. In fact I have the whole weekend off from the shop, oh separation anxiety! So nice to have cooler weather. The peas are all harvested, but there is hay to make if the weather allows. I drove up the road to take pictures of the pea combines a couple of nights ago, but I got distracted taking this picture of a rainbow in the irrigation. The beans are coming along, and supposedly will be gone next week as well. Interesting part of farming is that things are always in a hurry. Hurry to work the ground, hurry to plant, hurry to water, hurry to harvest, always something. Timing is so important in life.

Part of the fun of staying home is spending the day paper piecing and watching my cat "Fuzz" sleep. Now if you are not a cat person I don't expect you to understand, it's ok. But Fuzz is just purrfection on four legs. I have had him for almost two years, and he has a great purrsonality as well as being beautiful.

This is my "Five Years of Fig" honeycomb quilt. This includes all the Fig Tree fabrics for the last five years. When Lissa Alexander came from Moda headquarters last week I received a fat quarter bundle of Mill House, the next group to come from Fig Tree. So I am going to continue on my little "honey's" this afternoon. This isn't a great picture, but it is a great project. Precut goods of this group will be in the shop this week, they are so beautiful.

And finally, this to me is one of the sure signs of summer and harvest, golden grains ready to be combined. However this year, our cool weather arrived at the wrong time, but we take what we get and are happy. Farming is a big gamble every year. Some you win, some you don't, but the rewards are great. We also have lots of new baby calves romping around, and the apple trees are dropping apples for the momma cows, one appropriately called "apple eater" stands and moo's at us when she sees us outside.

Whew...

What a week this has been. Record heat, lots of farming, and so much wonderful fabric and so many things that I want to do. This is a picture of some of the fabulous thunderheads that we had this week. This picture was taken on Wednesday when the bank said 110 as I was leaving work. Too Darn Hot! But, on the farm side, there are peas being harvested, combining is happening, and hay is in the field, so there is progress. I love the time of the year when things start being harvested.

I am often reminded that there are "wants" and "needs" in life.

So right now I am trying to sort out the wants and needs to see if they can be blended together to accomplish both things at once. No, it isn't working this morning, I need to do laundry, but I want to sit on the deck and sew.

We had a really nice visit from Lissa Alexander from Moda this week. Lissa is full of energy and enthusiasm. We had lots of questions and she was very helpful. We look forward to starting our block of the month, Green Piece in September. It is a really beautiful quilt that has variation to make it your own. I am even planning on making my own.

OK, I give, time for laundry, then some stitching...

Hot, Hot, Hot

Isn't there a song about Hot, Hot, Hot?? Well it is time to start singing! This is a summer to remember for sure. I have actually cooked dinner already this morning, then will pop it in the fridge so that it is ready to microwave tonight when I get home from work. Won't be wanting to cook then for sure. Washing machine, dishwasher and air conditioning are all running. This gives me pause for gratitude that I have an air conditioned car, home and shop.

This is amazing "hay" weather however, and there is still lots of irrigation flying. The heads on the grain are starting to drop, which means it is drying and getting ready to combine soon. It is fun to watch the crops ripen and the reward is of course, the harvest. Some years are much better than others, and to be honest, this one is not going to be terrific, but farmers do, what farmers do, we get what we get and we are sturdy people who hopefully will continue for generations to come.

Off to work again with high hopes of having customers to enjoy the cool shop and the wonderful fabric. Isn't it to hot for anything except quilting? Maybe a chick movie and quilting? Paper piecing tests are coming along and should be able to post about them soon, it is very exciting!

What a way to start a day!

Now I admit to being a morning person, so the fact that I was up at 4:15 this morning isn't really anything unusual. But when I did my morning walkabout on the deck and in the yard, I noticed large black and white cows laying just across the driveway. They were on the wrong side of the fence, just laying there in the cool morning. So I recruited Dan and we put them back where they belong. Did you know that when it is this dry outside the electric fence isn't as hot as it normally would be. Thus not being as big of a challenge for the cows. One nice parts of this activity is that it was cool this morning, the cows were calm, and no one saw me in my pj's and flip flops playing cattle chaser.

But I did go out and sit on the deck doing some paper piecing this morning. Our new shapes and sizes are working out well, Pictures soon.

Great Summer Evening

This is the view from my back deck on this hot summer night. What a summer we are having!

Had homemade ice cream and apple pie for Dan tonight just to let him know that I do think of him sometimes. Lately we have both been swamped with work and are like ships in the night, but he is still number one to me.

This is a picture of the field of carrots out my front door, they are beautiful and smell so sweet. They will dry and be combined for seed. We have raised lots of crops for seed, but this is the first year for carrots. Baby calves are bounding and it is a very busy time for farming. We raise corn, peas and green beans for frozen food processors, so when you eat your veggies, we thank you.

Tomorrow the shop will be welcoming Lissa Alexander from United Notions in Dallas. It is an honor to welcome her to our store. Hope that she has a wonderful visit. We will also be buying more Moda fabric for your shopping pleasure.

We have new paper shapes and sizes for our paper piecing addiction that hopefully will be in the shop by the end of the week, if you haven't tried it come in and get your free sample packs. This is a great take along project.

Better get some stitching in before the day ends.

A new venture

This is Collin and his kitten Ruby. Ruby was thrown out into their yard from a passing car. All I can say is bad people, lucky Ruby. She found a family better than what she was born in to. Please spay and neuter your animals.

I have two adorable grandsons, and they are amazing. They have brought me to the realization that I am getting into the later part of my life, and how much work raising children can be.

Took a leap this morning and am doing a personal blog from home. Seems that my best times of the day are late at night or early in the morning, so this is a peek into the private life of a daughter/wife/mother/quilt shop owner/granny and friend to many. I don't have a sister, so my friends are so very important to me. There is a strong community of women in my life that I care so deeply for. Talking with Cindy at the bank yesterday and we commented that one of the good things about getting older is that you can see both sides more easily than we did when we were young.

I am a total morning person and this is one of the best mornings of the summer, it is cool out, the sky is waking up for a great day and my cat is sitting on my feet waiting for me to put the computer down.

Providing glorious fabric for projects that being joy is what makes my heart sing. Being able to help someone find just that perfect piece is the fun part of what I do. Owning a quilt store is challenging in many ways, after all it is a job, but it is a great place to be. Join us if you can in person or virtually.