Home, Home on the Range

 

The last two weeks of January the girls and I spent some time at my parent's house. All because it's one of the best times of the year.... Fort Worth Stock Show time!

 

The girls and I jumped in and helped out where we could.

 

First we welcomed the Newbies to the ranch.  Isn’t he a cutie?



 

Got the minerals ready to put out in the pastures.  (I know, I know, the outfit is a Hot Mess!)

 

Drove tractors…..

 

We also saw gray, wet skies for too many days!  I think the cows were wondering how do they get inside to stand by the fire too? 

 

 While most of the time was spent eating, breathing, and sleeping cows, I did manage to craft a little too.  My mom busted out her Bernina. 

***Sidenote – No, I didn’t learn to sew from my mother.  She’ll tell you that the “Sewing Gene” skipped her and went straight to me.  Bless her heart.  Frankly, she’s too hard on herself.  I’ve taught her to sew two quilts while patiently waiting on both my girls to arrive.  I thought she did great!

Back to my story though, I learned something on this sewing adventure, Mom said that she bought this beauty over 30 years ago for $1000!  I nearly choked.  If I had to spend that much on my first sewing machine (Janome DC2010), I’m not sure I’d be sewing at all!  I’d probably still be sitting in the dirt somewhere playing with plants.

Here she is, no, not my mom, silly…….

 

And here was our mission.  Feed bags, yes, you’ve probably seen this craft before but aren’t these bags just begging to be so much more? 

 

Mom has a Master Gardeners seminar coming up and the group wanted to sell some items to help raise some money.  These were perfect. 

Master Gardeners, for those with crinkled eye brows, is a group of plant and garden enthusiast/gurus.  And yes, I did get my love of plants from Mom.  We could probably plant talk all day.

So with the deadline looming I helped her create these.  I merely cut, she sewed them up.  Rather nicely, huh?

We decided that everyone has enough reusable grocery bags so these were created a little shorter and wider.  We had the gardener in mind.  I’d totally tote this around in my garden to carry tools around and then use to haul my veggies back to the house.  Since I’ve left she’s made another 4 or 5.  She’s on a roll!

 

To finish off the trip I stopped by my aunt’s house.  She was de-stashing her stash.  I kind of feel like the American Picker Guys and totally hit the “Honey Hole”!  I probably made out with about 20 yards of truly vintage fabric.  All these pretty calicos staring back at you are from the mid 1990’s and before.  YAY!

 

What do you think I should sew with them?

 

I always love going home.  Good things happen there.