Upon Request: An Unpublished Book from Long Ago

About that quilt that I promised was coming soon? It still is in progress and hopefully done this next week, albeit months later than I had hoped. Meanwhile, upon request, I am daring to put forth the first of many pieces from an unpublished book, that I wrote many years ago. It's title is The Smallness of the Place. I wrote it shortly after we had moved to Vermont and it is my record of our amazing experiences of going from a tiny home in the city of Denver to life on a three hundred acre farm in Orwell, Vermont. It is all true, except where it is laced with my imagination that grew to be as large as the farm. We rented The Old Wilcox Farmhouse from landlords that were in the process of moving to Maine in 1990 and so my story begins...

                                                                              The Old Wilcox Farm

The Old Wilcox Farm

In our country village, houses were named for their original owners. It doesn't matter if they haven't lived there for forty years, and although the mailing addresses are now by route and box number, a person's whereabouts can be stated by simply telling the name of their homestead. We lived on The Old Wilcox Farm. It's history was written within its walls. It was then, thirty years ago now, one hundred and sixty-five years old and we wondered if some of its previous residents returned to visit us?

Front side of The Old Wilcox Farmhouse

I loved listening to those willing to tell about the farm's history. "My girlfriend lived there", one Orwell resident said.

The view from the upper window where the door to the
veranda used to be. In the distance, the unkempt orchard
and field to the left of the animal barn.

Another added, "My uncle lived there and as a child I would sit out on the upstairs' veranda" (that is no longer there). "We would look out to the orchard", which had been too long unkempt to grow apples when we lived there. "A door used to be here and a wall there". The upstairs closet turned into a bathroom and the downstair's bathroom, was a modern addition, now joined to the pantry, which used to be part of the wood barn.

Cupboard door  in the wall for easy
access to wood stored in the wood barn
and doorway to the pantry, laundry room
and bathroom, what used to be
part of the wood barn.

The wood barn addition to the back of the house with a
side door entrance to the house. An upstairs attic and bedroom
 above the huge kitchen below, all heated with the kitchen's
wood stove. The front of the house had a living room, parlor,
library room and study and its upstairs, 4 more bedrooms
and a spacious hallway.

The primitive but functional laundry room and pantry.

The downstair's bathroom. My
additional decor was a chamber pot sitting
on the floor, a reminder of what was no
 needed thanks to the addition of this main
floor bathroom, as well as the one added
to the upstairs.

One bedroom had four different floral wallpapers, all exposed, but that isn't all that was exposed.

The original wood lathe was exposed as well and little cracks that lead to the raw outdoor weather, fortunately only in the hall, under the window where the door to the veranda used to be. Yet only small drafts found us in cold weather. We stayed warm, protected and dry, though the ceiling told of less dry days.

When we moved there we removed old rugs and found petrified spills beneath, of what we were not sure we wanted to know. Newspapers of thirty years ago lined shelves, and the wallpaper in the closets told of the room's original decor.

I once dreamed that Mrs. Wilcox appeared in a home-made printed dress, matching the wallpaper in the closet and proudly showed me a patchwork quilt, all hand-made, though her quilt stitches, by my standard, were too large! Muslin curtains and crocheted doilies were on all the dressers and I wondered where she found the time to make them? There are remnants of many gardens, too many for me to keep weeded and a barn with an old-style milk room. No modern conveniences to shorten the work load on this farm.

Flowers from the back gardens freshly cut for our kitchen
table, an extravagance not available to us in Denver, where
flowers weren't so plentiful. Vermont's summer rains made
growing flowers simply natural!

Some say our wood barn was once a summer kitchen to harvest all the family would need to last them through the year. I can't even imagine how they did their laundry, though I met a ninety-year old woman who talked of setting up housekeeping in her first house that had been "the hand's house" on the hill. She had no running water. Not all was glorious in those days, though in my mind I can see the orchard trimmed and bordered with a vine-covered fence and to either side pastures, one of corn and the other of hay and the woodlands, bordering all. Natural flowerbeds in the wet ravines remained overgrown with wild growing orange day-lilies. The back flowerbed was filled with roses, day lilies and mountain lupine in a vast array of colors. The vegetable garden like another patchwork quilt, sewn in rows all straight and neat, except for the pumpkins and squash that added large squares of green, hiding their colorful fruit.  

Annual flowers growing unattended in the back flower
gardens.

The hand's house on the hillside in back, filled with
antique art books, owned by our landlords,and across
the road from an in-ground swimming pool.
This was no ordinary place we had rented. It was the
stuff dreams were made of!

This "hand's house, used as a book house" was 

the size of most regular houses!

The lower animal barn with garden space in front of it!

Animal pens, so clean and neat that they have no smell, for this is My dream.  Chickens are in the barn still needing protection from things that might eat them in the night. Cows are there too, unless in the pasture, just behind the pens and down the hill, next to the cow pond, filled from the fresh spring upon the hill. "Too pastoral to be real," some would say, but The Old Wilcox Farm was real and kept beautiful in my dreams, though the cows really lived down the road on another farm.

Field to the right of the garden area, and a cow pond
in front of the brown pasture land now leased to those
nearby farmers who would come in and plant and harvest
the fields.

(This story continues, so stay tuned. We were truly blessed to have lived out our dreams here for almost seven years. By the time we moved to Castleton, we were ready to live a bit "less rural". The expanse of the farm lives on in our memories, and after the farm sold and we bought a house in Castleton, we continued to live out our dreams large! So why the title, The Smallness of the Place? Read on to find out! 

This is dedicated to my friend, Sharon, who just moved to Brattleboro, Vermont from Staten Island and wrote that Rudyard Kipling wrote The Jungle Book here in Vermont and my response was that it seems that Vermont is so inspiring that many people write when they come here and confessed to writing a book that has been sitting on my shelf.  I quickly added that not all writers publish, but she requested to read it and I told her I would post it in segments. Most of my readers know that I live an incremental life, having suffered with Chronic Lyme Disease and having limited energy. It hasn't stopped me, however, from moving to Vermont, writing this book, teaching as well as nursing and then retired to create designer pincushions, a blog and now quilts. So because Sharon asked for it...I am posting this!

Regarding My Absence

Dear Readers,
I apologize for seemingly dropping off the edge of the internet, but Christmas came too quickly and I suddenly needed to finish two projects. Those that know me well, know that while I love to start new projects, finishing them is another matter! As testimony to my "finished-is-better-than-perfect" philosophy, I am posting pictures. This third simple, hand-tied comforter was finished and mailed to my niece's step-child before Christmas! Sewing for a young princess is always fun! Pink, lavender and blue are my favorite colors too and add a bit of Disney, with a touch of lace and I'm all in!

For my niece's little princess, I simply sewed lace around a Disney Frozen
Princesses fabric panel and then appliqued it onto a background of patchwork
 squares. Would you believe these squares were left over from another
comforter made some time ago?

It is backed with a soft sheet brought up and over the front to edge this
hand-tied comforter. It should keep this little princess warm all winter!

Of course, it needed a special princess pillow case to go with it.

And another one in fabrics left over. Sleeping on pink is always good!

Then onto making a crazy-quilted Christmas stocking to better match one made almost forty years ago before my youngest daughter was even born! I was a bit rusty after not doing crazy-quilt work for several years and I had to content myself with what came of it. See the picture below. Again my "finished-is-better-than-perfect" rule was applied! This is the way projects go when there was no time to waste as Christmas neared. It was done in the nick of time for Santa to fill! I will include pictures of our other family heirloom crazy-quilted Christmas stockings that we have used now for the past 39 years!!

This crazy-quilted stocking was made for my youngest daughter's boy-friend
to better match hers. You can see below that the match was made, though
each is unique and different.

These are our family stockings that we have used for almost 40 years. The
stocking on the lower far right is the one made this year, and as you can
see still looks vintage! Fortunately I still had some similar fabric, which made
for a better match!

Our Christmas stockings fit right in with our old-fashioned tree, though
they fit in regardless how you decorate.

This manger was made by my husband when he was a young boy. It is
at the center of our home each year as we celebrate Christmas along with the
creche set he and his mother purchased piece by piece after his catechisim
lesson at the local Cenacle in Brighton,Massachusetts. Fortunately we have
another set just like them that were his parents, along with the manger his
father made, so each of our children will inherit a similar set.

Our Addie-boy was delighted that he had a real tree to sit under! After getting
tangled in the lower string of lights, and him making a mess of our tree skirt
 as well, we placed a couple of folded paper towels on saucers with a
bit of "Goo-Gone" on them under the tree. Cats don't like the smell of citrus
and this made him choose another favorite spot to "camp out". 

I am relieved that Christmas has come and passed! Although I love advent, it seemed that our Christmas preparation wasn't complete until but a day or two before Christmas! I got into the real Christmas spirit just when my niece's car was stolen in Denver and in it were coats for my niece and her step-child, along with gloves, hats, boots, backpack and lunchbox. Her young family was already financially stressed with the Christmas season and so I went through my house and crafts and did a bit of shopping as well to put together what I could to help meet their needs and got it packed and sent in time for Christmas! The intent was that my package would at least bring some warm hand-me-downs and a few gifts besides! Fortunately her car was found, though her personal items were lost and gone forever! I have made my first New Year's resolution already: I am going to start planning for Christmas 2019 now! Holiday rush equals holiday stress! Of course, I already knew this, but how quickly I forget!

This holiday also came with unexpected news. My end-of-the-year doctor appointments brought another shock! I had found an article on line about a woman with Chronic Lyme having issues with Mast Cell Activation Syndrome. It read too much like my own health history to not share with my doctors. I didn't give it much more thought. Not only did they listen to me, but agreed with my finding and are considering the possibility that this issue might well be cause for some of my health issues. I am to be pre-tested in January, to be followed by more testing should such other inflammatory reactions occur again. It seems I continue to be a "red herring" in the medical world!

After getting over the shock of potentially having still more medical issues to address, I have been reading more about mast cell dysfunction and have found the information most helpful! I have already made changes in what I ingest. The more information I have regarding what might annoy my body will help me to better honor its preferences! I have ordered books to study in the new year. I figure knowledge is power and hopefully I will learn how to avert medical crises! It also came in the nick of time to stop myself from becoming the Holiday Grinch as we hosted our two daughters and their significant others to celebrate Christmas here at Little House! As I review 2018 and set new goals for 2019, I will once again add health goals to the top of my list, cross my fingers and pray for another productive year! I have lots to do and am eager to get started! Planning and setting goals are part of what I need in order to focus and accomplish my sewing dreams!

Take care, my readers and have a wonderful and healthy New Year!! Sincerely, Jane McMillen

(E-mail me at jmcvermont@comcast.net if you are interested in possibly ordering any Christmas stockings. If enough are interested, I may well make a "batch of them". Note that the male stockings are made with a boot cuff, heel and toe of matching fabric, and the female version has lace and a band at the top. I am charging $45 each plus shipping and handling. Know that they are pieced using a foundation of unbleached muslin, and then embellished with hand-embroidery and measure about      24-25 inches long and about 7 inches wide. They are backed with a heavy, rich fabric and a strong ribbon hanger is added to the inside top of the stocking. When filled by Santa they are guaranteed to bring delight year after year! I will heed my resolution and will make only a limited number of these during the first months of 2019, so as to leave plenty of time for my other quilting goals and not push making them too close to the holiday season. Each is a one of a kind Christmas stocking of heirloom quality and properly stored will last for years of use!)

*A special thank you to my husband for his help in photographing the pictures included in this blog!

Creating Multiple Quilts

Creating multiple quilts is a little like watching grass grow! It starts slow, but after a bit of time, I am inundated with quilt blocks, such that new plastic containers became necessary to keep them all organized. If all goes according to my plan I will have quilt blocks enough for six quilts by the end of the year. They, of course will still need to be stitched into quilt tops before they go on to be quilted. Here are pictures of what I am working on, though to be sure, until they are stitched, all are subject to change. I am, however, wanting my readers to know that while I don't blog often, I remain hard at work to accomplish what I can!

This is to be a hand-tied comforter for my nieces step-child. There will be
white cotton lace around the center panel which is surrounded by multi-print
pink, blue, lavender and purple patchwork squares. I will keep this simple,
as it is to be completed by January 2019, in time for her birthday.

These are simply a few of my double appliqued heart quilt blocks? So far
I have 54 blocks almost done, but my plan iss to do two a week for 52 weeks
for a total of 104 blocks by the end of the year. I am playing catch up right
now in hopes of reaching my yearly goal! All are done on different shades
of un-bleached muslin or neutral prints, as in the end it  or they are
supposed to look like scrap quilt(s).

These are some Civil War Sampler quilt blocks from Barbara Brackman's
Civil War Sampler quilt book. Years ago I took a sampler class and found
it so interesting to see how the same blocks turned out so different using
different fabrics and so I decided to be "a class of two" making two blocks
each week that are the same block design but made of different materials. I
 should complete 104 different blocks to make into two quilts by the end of the
year. I am considering constructing them differently using different sashing
strips and different style borders. This has provided me much practice
constructing different sorts of machine-pieced quilt blocks. I do hope,
when finished, all the different designs in the blocks will tie together to make
two colorful and unified quilts.

More of these same Civil War blocks. Barbara Brachman's book has 50
different quilt blocks with complete instruction for each! I love the red,
off-white and blue Civil War reproduction fabrics! Did I mention that my
grandfather, John L.Campen fought in the Civil War under General Custer?
I have read many novels and books about the Civil War, including those
about the prisons of this time period. What a divided time in our nation's
history! Almost as many died of starvation and disease as were killed in its
various battles. My grandfather spent over a year in different prisons. He
was fortunate to have survived the war and sustained only a minor injury
when his horse was shot out from underneath him!

This is a 9 patch/9 patch quilt with a poinsettia block in the middle of each
9 patch/9 patch block...The quilting of the unbleached muslin quilt blocks
should add much design to the quilt. Even so, laid out, I am not sure that
I like it and am considering different ways of constructing it to make it
more interesting. I laughed and told one of my friends, that  the real
creativity comes when you have the blocks cut and sewn and then decide
to redesign it! It is a very old and simple quilt pattern (usually).

This is another 9 patch/9 patch quilt, though I may put it together in a more
random fashion? I am not certain yet, but you will note the different
 Christmas colors used. I am going to further explore ways of using
9 patch blocks and consider redesigning this quilt too. 9 patch/ 9patch
quilts can be beautifully simple, or downright homely? I am not sure that
adding the poinsettia blocks in the middle creates the effect I was hoping
for. I take heart that a few of my mother's beautiful quilts were redesigned
while in the middle of creating them!  Some quilts despite beautiful fabrics
turn out to be ugly...I am trying not to take it personally...

Using Connie Harris Farrington's modus operandi, I have had a relaxing year simply focusing on making quilt blocks, as well as working on finishing a quilt of my mother's, not included in this blog.
I have taken a longer break than I planned to make some new pincushions for Maria Wulf's Fall Open House in Cambridge, NY. this coming weekend. I was also slowed down by some health issues as well, so I have fallen behind on some of my quilting goals. A period of catch-up will be needed. Working on multiple quilts and projects at a time is a little crazy, but overall it has been very successful and never boring! Doing different projects at a time is actually keeping me motivated
and creative!

While I haven't been blogging on a regular basis, so as to not bore you, I have not been idle~ It has been a year of practicing my hand-applique skills and piecing skills of all sorts. My new quilting machine has been sitting idle for too long in the basement, as I prepare quilt tops for much quilting practice ahead! I am trying to be patient with myself as I learn all the different aspects of quilting. No matter how many quilts or comforters I make, I am still learning new skills and practicing old ones. I have more quilts in my heart and head, but will continue to work on everything incrementally, as I finish some old UFO's that I want to complete. In between I will be creating simple hand-tied comforters for relatives and friends that I want to keep warm during the winter!

My quilt projects continue to be organized so that I have nothing to worry about (see my blog, Process for a Multi Quilt Quilter of 7/19/18) which talks about my new modus operandi of creating multiple quilts versus one start to finish. Keeping everything organized is my new way of keeping me calm and collected, knowing that they will all be finished someday by someone, albeit, not necessarily me!

Did I fail to mention that my goal has been to live as long as Grandma Moses and become The Grandma Moses of the quilting world and create oodles of quilts before I die?!! That is my plan and I am sticking to it!! I do hope my body cooperates, and I will soon write about some of the ways I am working to maintain it, but that is a topic for yet another blog...Stay tuned!

Part of the fun in all this is finding materials on sale at good prices and sometimes they come already
color coordinated. The other part of the fun is trying new patterns and learning new techniques!

Love these pinks and browns!

8th Annual Open House at Maria and Jon's Bedlam Farm October 6th and 7th

I am getting ready to deliver my wares to Maria in preparation for their outdoor gathering October 6th and 7th. I make designer wool pincushions, that are mostly stuffed with crushed walnut shell filling. Every year I feature different new designs, but also bring a large variety of the sorts of pincushions that I have made in the past. Here are samples of the sort that will be seen at Maria's sale:

A whole flock of silly little chicken pincushions.

This year's new Penny-rug style dog pincushions.

This year's new cat, snail (in memory of Maria's Socrates snail)
and bunny pincushions.

Traditional Penny-rug design pincushions.

Colorful Penny-rug style designed pincushions.

Felted Wool Owl Scissor-holder Chatelaines (necklaces so as to keep your
scissors handy).

Two-toned with Button old fashioned wool pincushions, all sizes.

Floral and other designed Penny-rug style pincushions.
The biscuit-shaped pincushions are what I call biscornu pincushions.

Needlebooks, eyeglass cases, coin purses and button purses.

Fruit pincushions including yellow pears, oranges, peach and lemons.

More fruit pincushions, including plums, apples, peaches and lemons.

Over-sized tomato pincushion and needle-book.

Over-sized pumpkin pincushion and needle-book.

Regular-sized pumpkin and Tomato pincushions.

Strawberry needle-books and pincushions and mini-tomatoes and
mini-pumpkin pincushions.

More two-toned and three-toned old fashioned pincushions and
 mini-corn candy pincushions.

Large and small owl pincushions.

 Flower-pot pincushions.

Penny-rug style pins and ornaments.

More pins and ornaments.

Everyone is invited to attend this Open House at  Bedlam Farm at 2502 State Route 22, Cambridge, NY from 11 AM to 4 PM. It is a free and fun event which will  include poetry readings, book signings, a preview of  Jon Katz's new book, Gus and Bud, to be published by Simon and Shuster.  Jon is a NY Times Best Selling author, so come meet him in person! His books will be for sale, along with other books by his friends and book signings are all part of the event. There will be sheep sheering, sheep herding demonstrations and a sale of art wares by eight different artists in Maria's schoolhouse studio. There will also be performances by the Albany Warriors Chorus Group as well as Sisters of the Shawl Belly Dancing. I will refer you to Maria@fullmoonfiberart.com for more details.

The variety of designer pincushions you will see will include felted wool flower-pot pincushions, two-toned old-fashioned wool pincushions, various fruits and vegetable sorts of pincushions, as well as chicken and owl pincushions. What I am best known for are what I call "penny-rug" pincushions. These are colorful appliqued  felted- wool pincushions, embellished with embroidery, reminisce of early penny-rugs made in the 1800's. Other miscellaneous items, include felted wool coin purses, button bags, eyeglass cases and needle-books and owl chatelaine scissor holders. Know that whatever is left over from this sale will be featured later in my shop on Etsy (at Littlehousehomearts) This shop will be closed during this event at Bedlam Farm.

Besides my wares, there will be seven other artists' work displayed and on sale in Maria's school-house studio! All are welcome! It is a lovely way to spend part of your Columbus Day Weekend as you celebrate leaf peeping season in Upstate New York and Vermont!