jacob in his manly apron

 Forging on...

How do you spell goof-balls?  J-o-h-n and J-a-c-o-b.  Paul... not so much.

The guys are building a forge in the old barn ruins.  They've salvaged some handhewn beams and lumber from the old structure and are getting all settled in.  Will and John tore down an old "shed" for a friend and they were able to keep the metal in trade for the work.  (Only in Indiana do they call a building a "shed" when its bigger than some folks' home.) Walls and a roof will go up soon.  They've been pounding away but the forge is far enough from the house that we really don't hear anything.  They've been staying up late working on their projects.  They all smell of woodsmoke. Right now, it seems that rebar is the metal of choice- good for beginner blacksmiths, I suppose.  They have a friend who is all pioneer-y and he's been able to give them words of wisdom and advice from time to time.  Jacob didn't want his picture taken in his apron, but I said it looked cool and so he started  posing for the camera.  My dad would be in his element with those boys- only he'd make them pick things up a little better.  And I have to say that they have been ingenious making do with what they have.  A certain satisfaction in that, isn't there?   The forge is on the backside of the milk house.  The floor is concrete. Two of the walls are original to the barn and the other two they are making from old wood.  The cross beams will come down once the walls are attached to stabilize everything.  See that one sticking out in the foreground on the right of the picture?  There's a drain ditch in the floor and I was stepping ever so gingerly over it and wasn't looking up- banged my head so hard I broke my glasses(fixable) and nearly knocked myself out!  Even got a hug from John for that little trick.  They're using an old blow dryer of mine that no longer heated- seems to do the trick for bellows- where does one acquire bellows?
  

forge in the works

Necessity, the mother of invention- blow dryer bellows

 Speaking of making do with what you have...  Sandy came over last week and spent the night.  We did a little sewing and generally had a great time.  We usually try to think of projects to work on ahead of time, but I was drawing a blank.  Then, I found this nifty pattern- Simple Star by Bonnie Blue Quilts.  When Sandy saw my meager stash I do believe I heard her gulp.  She said that she would be all panicky if her stash got that depleted.  Yeah, it's pretty lean in there, but I was determined.  Sandy sat back and watched me audition fabric- I needed 11" WOF X 8.  Four lights and four darks.  Sounded pretty simple.  That, my friends, was a real challenge.  But I think the quilt came out right nice.  You might notice that the 4 corner squares are a tad different(gray instead of green)- and I had to do some creative piecing a couple times to make things work.  But it's all good and I like it all the more because I just used what I had.  I "made do."


I like!  Wish I had enough fabric for 4 borders... 56x63"



 A couple more "make do's"

Hand dyes in the collection 20x24"

Sampler- perfect for little bits of fabric 19x23"

I quilted a few things the other day.  I was on a roll. Got three floaters done and one small.  A floater is what I call a small piece that doesn't need to be pinned onto the bottom leader.  Quick and easy.  I'm teaching that class on Quilts Without Corners, Saturday.  I stopped in at the shop, today, and they had enough interested in the class that we lined up another one in April- already full.  Who knew?      


tree skirt- still needs its ruffle and binding



rerun- 'cause it makes me smile





36" of makin' do



floater quilted