Garden fresh

14 jars of our first garden bliss. There is plenty more to  come.

An evening of someone singing in the rain will make the garden happy too!

Summertime fun, family style

Life is good!

Mother's day, no wait it was Father's Day!

Sunday was mother's day, no I mean Father's day. It was confusing. 

The kids gave us hats for Father's day. Yes I got one too!  It helps that the maker of the hats is a good friend with an awesome embroidery machine. Thanks Deanna!

Can you tell the blacksmith eats, sleeps and breathes blacksmithing? But then my shirt is a quilting shirt. 

2009

Speaking of Father's Day, we take the kid's annual Mother's day picture every year at this tree they gave me in 2009. Let's see how they have grown.

2010

2011

Wait!  Where is the 2012 picture?  Wish I knew too.

2013

So this year we took it on Father's Day, because we weren't home on Mother's Day. They seem to be growing faster than the tree!

So this is the youngest. What did he do on Father's Day?  Watched his Daddy do the weather, of course!

Missouri River Quilt Fest 2013

Last weekend was our "big" quilt show. There were almost 300 quilts on display. Of course I couldn't photograph them all. Yet I took way too many pictures to post each one. Therefore I made a video. I hope you enjoy the beautiful works of art.

Missouri River Quilt Guild show 2013 - slideshows

The last week at John C. Campbell Folk School

My second week at the Folk School was spent just hanging out. The blacksmith was assisting in a class and I would be visiting with friends and enjoying the scenery.

This shows part of the path that I would walk everyday from the Keith house to the blacksmith shop. 

One afternoon there were about 17 of us that went to a wine tasting at Cherokee Cellars in downtown Murphy.

Tuesday evening I watched Chitter and Chatter dance in the Keith house. 

 One of the blacksmithing students gave my blacksmith a 5 leaf clover!

This is the Olive D. Campbell dining hall where we ate our meals. As my friend Rita would say, "It's all in the presentation". 

In the Davidson Hall the time travel cooking class was using the open hearth. The recipes and the equipment were from the 18th century.

 That's one large fireplace!

 I'd stop in for a listen occasionally at the intermediate mountain dulcimer class.

With just 3 students in the wood turning class, instructor Charles Watson had plenty of time to work with each of them. 

Here are some samples of his work. 

One night Charles did a demonstration on turning a bowl. The next day I was asking Charles why he didn't raffle the bowl. He wasn't happy with it he told me. I said darn I wanted to win it. 

The next morning as we waited in line for breakfast, he handed me a bag.  This is what was inside of it. Thank you so much Charles.  I will treasure my cherry bowl. 

I sure hated to see our time here come to a close. Let's just hope we get to go back real soon.

The weekend at John C. Campbell Folk School

Classes are over on Friday afternoon. Dinner is served at 6.  Students depart either after this evening meal or after Saturday morning breakfast.  Well not for us, we were there for two weeks. 

We were staying in our Casita in the now deserted campground.  Luckily for us our friend Bob, who would be teaching with Bernie the following week, was also still in town. 

First thing on Saturday,  we went together to a tag sale that we had checked out earlier in the week. We had been told more items would be added every day. We left empty handed as we saw nothing new. 

Bob asked us if we wanted to stop at the music shop, Kelischek Studios. George Kelischek speaks with a heavy German accent. We were the only ones in the big studio.  Mr. Kelischek picked up every instrument we asked about and started playing it. 

 These are flutes made from horns. Most of them were from African cows. 

The tiny violins were amazing. I do believe a 3 year old would be the right size for one of these. 

Hammer dulcimers, something I've found interesting for a long time. 

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 Harps, gracing the shelf. 

This was Mrs. Kelischek's garden just outside the front door.

Later in the day Bob took us to see Brasstown potter Rob Withrow. What a delight this was. Rob makes the biggest face jugs I have ever seen. 

These two guys were hanging out in the kiln, just waiting for a second firing. He told us how he throws them in session of rings, and then joins them together. 

  Another view in the kiln. 

 This jug was inside the shop ready for sale. It was maybe 30 inches tall.

Rob then asked me how my pottery throwing class had gone the previous week. He decided to give me a quick lesson. In no time I threw 3 almost perfectly straight pots. We then discussed a little business. He will be making some coffee cups with logos for the Blacksmith Association of Missouri. 

The rest of the day we just enjoyed each others company. On Saturday night we enjoyed a lovely dinner at the home of Blind pig and the acorn. 

The girls gave us a private after dinner, concert!  Great entertainment Chitter and Chatter! 

Also during the weekend I might have sewed on my featherweight in the Casita!!

What a peaceful, enjoyable, relaxing, weekend in Brasstown!

Week #1 at John C. Campbell Folk School

Here is the Casita, our home for 2 weeks in lot # 8 at the Folk School. We didn't know it at the time, but we had conveniently parked right beside the path to all the activities!  We would thoroughly enjoy two weeks in this shaded spot. 

Our blacksmith friend Bob took us out of town just a few miles to see this huge stand of bamboo. The owners even cut tunnels to walk through. I almost got vertigo inside of it. The sounds it made as it swayed side to side in the breeze were mesmerizing. 

This is the pottery studio where I spent the better part of the first week. It was my first attempt at throwing clay.

I pretty much kept to this shape all week. I just couldn't get the technique of pulling the clay any higher. 

This is John DeWeese, the instructor for the week. He is a very talented man. He told us his parents were both artists.

 The wood fired kiln is shaded by a timber frame shed.

My final project was a shaving mug for the blacksmith. However, it was only taken to a bisque form. I bought it home with hopes of finding someone local to glaze and fire it. 

The kiln smoked for a day.

 It smoked because part of our lesson was stoking the fire, as I take my turn here.

One evening there was a blacksmith demonstration for all of the students. Jerry Darnell demonstrated making a swan. I was lucky enough to win it too!

 Beautiful pottery and flowers adorn the lawn outside the pottery studio.

 Our first peek inside the kiln. 

We were like kids in a candy shop, watching the pieces come out. My new friend Jean made this face jug. 

I spy. . . we all were looking for our pieces.

Here are my finished pieces. I was pretty proud of them since this was my first time throwing clay.

On Friday afternoon after the week long classes are finished, it's show and tell. Here is the pottery class display. 

The woodworking class made traditional banjo's, know locally as Banjar.  These were made using native Appalachian hardwoods and groundhog hides. 

Sarah Hammond from Charleston South Carolina taught the most awesome basket class. No one, I repeat no one, in this class had made a basket before. In doing a little research I found Sarah's niece had a blog post about her, More than a Geechee. Check it out.

The weaving class taught by Kathrin Weber focused on warps. By no means does this picture do the weaving justice!  They were beautiful.

Here are the 18th-century tobacco and smoking implements made in Jerry Darnell's class. These items were used in taverns when using the long clay pipes. It was an early form of recycling. The pipes were used by everyone. At closing time, the clay pipes were washed and cleaned. They were then put in the pipe kiln (the long round cylinder in the back of the photos), and hung inside the fireplace to dry.   Some of the tools are flint strikers that hold the charred cloth and fire coal tongs with tobacco tampers on the ends. 


Friday evenings are free after dinner. Classes are over and everyone goes their separate ways. Lucky for the blacksmith and I, we have Bob for our personal guide.  He knows the hot spots to go to.  So we went just a short from the Folk School to Clay's Corner. There in the back room, the locals play music.  The only bad thing . . .it didn't last long enough. It was a great time.

That concluded our first week at school. But wait . . .there's more to come!