October 15, 2016

Greetings My Friend, My thoughts today are about chestnuts and quilts. Today I worked on both and I learned something new with both of them. Yesterday I went to Fabric House in Pound to get some material to make some skirts with and while I was there I asked about tying a quilt. I had ran a seam down the quilt with the back on and quickly found I did not want to do the whole quilt this way so I looked on Pintrest and Youtube to see what else I could do. I learned the technique is called tying off the quilt. Susan showed me how to do this method on a piece of scrap and batten. Today I began the process of pinning the quilt for tying it off. I have a row and a half done and I am seeing how tying off the quilt will hold all the pieces together. I was so unaware of the way quilting works on the process of keeping the pieces together. On the other quilts I sewed the seams and was happy enough with this method. Three of my quilts I did not use batten because I was not looking for a lot of warmth. In the midst of this my cousin Dawn called me and we got to talking about my quilt she asked me if I had taken lessons. I told her that I had not and I am making up my own process along the way. When I was 18 I made a quilt with no knowledge of the quilting process. I saw squares on the quilts I had seen in my lifetime. I figured out to make a pattern for a square and then I cut out squares, sewed them together finishing off with a sheet for the back. Back then I did not do the 2nd seam to hold the front to the back, I came up with that with the 1st quilt I made for Junior. I made 3 that way. This quilt I decided I needed to do something besides sewing the seams together so in came the research on tying the quilt. This quilt I wanted for winter so I sewed a sheet on the inside and a flannel sheet on the outside back of the quilt. I love looking at the pretty quilts but I prefer the more rustic looking quilt squares. I ran out of pins so this project is on hold for a few days until I get out to get some. Next I worked on some chestnuts or was it before, anyway you get the idea. I looked up a video on how to roast them so I could get the outside layer off, I found a method using water and the microwave so I went to town. I peeled the outside layer off and tasted my 1st chestnut which was okay. Now I need to see how to make chestnut flour or maybe chestnut butter. I marvel again at God's provision for us in the craziness of these times. We have several "crops" that are growing wild on our 9 acres like rasphberries, blackberries, walnuts, ginseng and chestnuts. We have a root cellar on this property and this year we are using this to store apples and potatoes and I dehydrated over 20 jars, baggies of fruits and vegetables. I did some canning and vegetable gardening over 30 years ago and then I entered into city, urban life leaving the back to the roots kind of lifestyle. Today I have picked up from years ago and I am loving this back to the earth way of life. I am not at this point able to plant a huge vegetable garden so I bought fruits and vegetables in season and dried them. We also don't have the ability to care for farm animals at this time if ever so we are buying our meat too. We are starting to get our meat from a meat packing place in Castlewood and I like this idea too. I do not know how far our efforts will take us but we will keep working at this for a while anyway. We have 2 sources of heat, wood stove and propane, we have our own well and a lot of produce on our property that is growing wild. That is awesome. We have a septic field for our sewage and we have a generator for electricity if the power goes out. Down the road we will find an alternative source for our electric needs. I thank God for pointing us in this direction and for all of the provisions found on our land and in our home. I love this lifestyle a ton. May God bless you and keep you make His face shine on you. Love Janet