Absent for a Good Cause

Last week, we found this little lady in the field all alone. Her mother wasn't well and the new born lamb had wandered off. More than likely she survived for 12 hours or more without nourishment which for a new born is very dangerous. The poor little baby was brought into the house, wet and lifeless. My faithful canine friend, Sheila, sat with me by the fire for several hours warming the little baby and feeding her slowly with warm formula. By bed time she was alert and standing on her own. Sheila was licking her constantly and sitting by her crate keeping vigil.
Well, the little lamb is thriving and is such a sweet dote! Sheila still greets her and allows her to nuzzle up close which is a no go for our fierce little terrier. Lambs are adorable but serious maintenance, the rewards are priceless.

Appliqué II

This Sunday, 11 March, we are hosting an Appliqué II workshop.

I have made two pieced blocks and am using the appliqué block that you see as my middle block for a gorgeous spring table runner. This project evolved as part of a weekly class that takes place on Monday mornings. I developed the idea after we all discussed what skills everyone wanted to learn or improve on. Although I am a huge machine enthusiast, I do recognise and appreciate how important hand sewing skills are. Some of us are going to scallop our borders and others might be adding prairie points. A table runner is, in my humble opinion, the perfect project to use for developing certain skills. It takes very little time, not terribly expensive and best of all, if you don't enjoy the technique your learning it won't take you forever to complete the runner. Can you imagine trying a new technique on a king size quilt and half way through it you're wondering if you'll ever complete it? Or better yet rolling it up in a ball and shoving into the back of the press swearing you'll never touch it again! sadly we all have projects like this.

I believe that everyone is capable of learning and perfecting a wide assortment of skills and creating beautiful quilts. Hopefully these classes encourage women to believe in their abilities and become more confident in what they could achieve.

What's New!

The days are flying by and with spring just around the corner life is good! The days are getting longer and we have a few new inhabitants here in the garden. Yes, you heard me right, this gang of troublemakers has taken up residence in our garden. We have five pet lambs that we are raising, every year we have a few pets and every year I lose a few more plants in the garden. One year all my lavender was pulled up and eaten or destroyed.

With the arrival of spring comes the arrival of GAA. Two of my three children are heavily involved in hurling, football and camogie; why share this with you? Well, I need to set some shop hours so as not to disappoint people.

I have classes Mon thru Wednesday morning so you can count on me being in the shop on those days, although Monday afternoon is not a great day to stop by. I am however here all day Friday and by appointment on the weekends. As far as Thursday is concerned, please call because that is my only day to get errands done but I am around. I work very hard at trying to accommodate everyone, especially my customers that drive great distances to shop with me.  I am extremely fortunate to have been supported by some fantastic women over the past several years, their patronage and continued support has been a god send and I appreciate each and every customer that walks through my door. So while I try to set some sort of hours please do know that if they don't suit do always call and I will always try to accommodate.

We had a bag workshop here two weeks ago and here are two bags.  Everyone left with a finished bag and hopefully had a great time!  I am planning on another bag workshop, a rucksack is on the agenda. The new schedule of classes are in development and will hopefully be added this week.  We are moving right along with our website and working on developing a user friendly site so that our customers around the country can order online.