Once Upon A Path....

Once upon a time there was a girl named Natalie Jo who loved to read storybooks and often imagined herself as a character within the pages she held in hand. Never, however, in her wildest dreams, did she imagine that a sign from those same pages could lead her down a path where fairy tales come true. But, if you make your way to Mason, New Hampshire you'll find just that!

  



At first you too must look for the signs....don't worry they're aplenty in these parts!

 



In no time at all,

 



you'll find yourself headed down a familiar sun dabbled path.

 



Keep to the path, don't talk to strangers,

 

and before you know it

 

a storybook cottage will appear right before your very eyes!

 



Not just any storybook cottage mind you.....this one belongs to Grandmother!

 



Imagine what fun it is to enter the same door through which little Red Riding Hood, the wolf, and (thank goodness) the wood cutter did all those years ago.

And for this we can thank none other than....

 



  Elizabeth Orton Jones, the illustrator extraordinaire from last month's book 

Prayer For a Child.

 

Enchanted by the beauty of New Hampshire during a business trip in the 1940's, Jones followed her own path to Mason and soon became a resident. In 1948 she used this neighboring cottage as inspiration for her illustrations in a Golden Book version of Little Red Riding Hood.

  

Today the location is known as Pickity Place and is infused with delights at every turn.

My favorite is the museum room.

 



It's filled with numerous edition of Little Red Riding Hood,

 



a sweet collection of dolls in red capes,

 



and of course.....

 



...that dratted wolf!!!

Have no fear however, as it seems the woodcutter has already had at this one and left

only his silly bonneted head behind.

 

In fact the most vicious thing we saw all day was of the feline variety and quite too hot and tired to bother with us in the least.

 

The gardens are numerous and filled with trails to encourage exploration.

 

   The kitchen and culinary gardens are a special treat in that
the herbs and edible flowers grown there....   

 



.....are sure to be found on your plate should you partake of the gourmet luncheons offered.

 



If your lucky I imagine you might even catch a glimmer of Little Red

gathering up a bunch of flowers for grandma,

 

and rounding out the bouquet with and abundance of Queen Anne's lace

 



and lavender sprigs.

 



Another lazy kitty was to our benefit...

 



as it gave free reign to the red feathered friend we saw so like the one...

 



featured in another of the book's illustrations!

 

I truly can't imagine a more realistic storybook setting than can be found at Pickity Place.

  

Nor can I imagine a better companion doll to Jones' Golden Book version of Little Red Riding Hood than this lovie. 

She is a Nancy Ann Storybook Doll and plastic versions such as this one were first produced in 1948, the same year Jones' Golden Book was published. Quite a coincidence! 

 

Cape wearing weather it may not be but this little lot are good spirits about it....

 



....as they perpetually greet me with their cheery faces and seem ever so happily ever after! 

 

 

Made Lots of Iced Tea.....

.....and then spent the rest of the day drinking it.

Too hot for words.....

Made the Beans Spill

 No I didn't spoil a surprise. In fact the invites went out weeks ago. It's only now, however, that the sun has returned and the temps have risen (somewhat at least) that the prep work has gotten into full swing. Good thing too because next Saturday is our neighborhood's annual summer block party. This year's theme is "Survivor"  and we've got challenges galore planned out!

 

 

One such contest involves beanbags and so with the assistance of child #3 several color coded batches were stitched up in no time.

Go Team!

Made An Addition to My Summer Wardrobe

No, the new addition was not the dress....that I've had for ages. Originally when it was crisp and bright I wore it with shiny ballet flats and a cardigan and I loved it. Now after oodles of washings it's faded, soft and worn in all the right places which means I love it even more! It's the perfect barefoot dress which is fine if your staying home but sometimes you need to step out quick for milk or kids, neither one of which require ballet flats or cardigans. Most often I just slip on my flip flops and head out the door which is fine except when your flip flops are black. It's kind of a downer to to be wearing sweet pastels and then anchor your feet down in black so when I spied these little beauties at Old Navy today I was delighted. And at the ultimate bargain price of $2.50.....

 

 

.....I snagged myself a second pair in green to go with this thrifted skirt !

 

 

Hmmm.....seems there's the possibility of making a patchwork version out of them as well!

 

 

Summer Sewing

As much as I love my cozy little sewing nook at the top of the stairs, come summer the heat up there has me more than grumbling. This year I smartened up. . . . .

. . . . .and relocated to the sun room! The open windows provided not only a blessed breeze but also great light and a view outside. This new arrangement worked out so well that the nook has already made reservations to vacation there next year as well!

With our last "official" Farmer's Wife gathering scheduled in July, I first set up shop to work on getting something together for our final show and tell. There was quite a bit of sewing. . . . .

. . . . .and trimming involved.

Block #91, Strawberry Basket, was one of my favorite creations and fun to make but. . . . .

. . . . . upon completing Broken Sugar Bowl (block #12) I decided enough was enough. I had 20 of the 111 blocks made up and was itching to lay things out.

Inspired by the image of this quilt I decided to make the sashing strips and cornerstones a bit wider than those called for in the assembly directions for the sampler quilt in the Farmer's Wife book.

I had intended to to use a pink fabric for the sashing strips themselves. . . . .

. . . . . but then came across this print which I had fallen in love with years ago and yet never found the right project to use it in. Perhaps this was it?

I began laying it out and loved it. Soon after I started piecing it together, however, I learned the one downfall of relocating my sewing nook. . . . . .opinions! Being in the sun room put me much closer to the hub of daily activity. Lots of foot traffic through the space meant lots of mouths were walking by as well and each one seemed to have an opinion. While given individually the consensus was unanimous. . . . . .I was making something very ugly. Needless to say my seam ripper packed it's bag and joined us downstairs where I frantically attempted to remove as many of the stitches as I could.

The few raggedy blocks and sashes that remained intact were reluctantly revealed at our gathering the next morning. They met with many more opinions of. . . . . approval?!!! My Farmer Wife cohorts actually liked it! Well probably not the mess of dangling scraps I was displaying but the fabric choice was deemed a winner!

And so my Farmer's Wife blocks and blue sashing needed to be reassembled. I, however, decided to take a break on my quilt. . . . .

. . . . .and work on someone else's. Although I don't believe it to be very old I found this patchwork quilt at an antique mart for a mere $20. Considering it a bargain price for the fabric alone I snatched it up in order to re purpose it into smaller projects. Wanting to spruce it up a bit I decided to rewash it and hang it up to air dry.

Stringing a bit of rope between the sun room windows proved to be such a great impromptu clothesline that I decided to root out every last scrap of retro fabric in my possession. . . . .

. . . . . and give our clothespins a workout!

Believe it or not it was actually quite fun to take down each piece as it dried. One by one I ironed them, and cut them into even smaller scraps for use in my newest passion. . . . . English Paper Piecing! More on hexagons, triangles, and diamonds in a later blog. . . . .

. . . . .for now I'll turn to circles and the huge assortment of big and little ones I used to complete a very unique custom order.

While I thought of yo-yo button flowers as mere pincushion toppers someone else saw them as eye candy for her scrapbooking creations. I was a bit confused at first, weren't scrapbooks two dimensional? Shouldn't she be using flat, paper flowers? And then I saw her work. Seems I've been quite out of the loop as far as scrapbooking goes! Add in some felt leaves and a hefty bouquet of Bitty Blossom Pins and let the fun begin!

As one thing often leads to another, I soon found myself adding more felt, some gingham paper, and. . . . .

. . . . . tiny pin backings to the yo-yo flowers. . . . .

. . . . . for a batch of custom name tags! Perfect for a garden party. . . . .wish I was going!

And who doesn't like a few blue (and green) birds in their garden? This batch was actually for a baby shower but just as fun.

A celebration of a very different sort was held at Candlelite Quilts this summer. July marked the 5 year anniversary of their grand opening and so a birthday bash was announced. There were fun and prizes for everyone. . . . .even the employees! Now considering the fact that these employees are some of the very sweetest people you could hope to meet I was very excited to have a hand in creating something special for them. First I painted . . . . .

. . . . .while dear hubby went to work incorporating their candlestick logo into a fabric design I could print out on some cotton material.

Eventually the fabrics were cut, pieced, and embroidered to create a quilt block pincushions upon which the rest of the goodies would go.

Around about this point things start to get very messy in the nook!

The pincushions, however, seem to be falling into place. . . . .

. . . . .as they welcomed an entire tribe of Candlelite Sweeties! Happy Birthday!!!