Craig and I spent another beautiful day at the Raleigh Farmers Market, selling our heirloom tomato plants. Fridays are a great day to go, it isn't too crowded, you can actually get a parking spot, the selection of plants and veggies is great and it is the perfect place to work on your photography skills.
Here are a few photos from today.

Now that I know how easy ETSY is to use, I have listed my "Nana Bones" golf club covers. I use a knitting pattern that was published in the Boston Globe Newspaper over 50 years ago. My grandmother used to knit these for my father and Uncle Eddie, and they loved them.
Yes, we did call her Nana Bones, her real name was Mary Boner, she was always knitting or crocheting, and it seemed like she was always laughing, she was a delightful lady.  Anyway when she passed away, I was given all her old knitting patterns. Most of them are from old newspapers, they include knit Barbie clothes, santa door knob covers, and the golf club covers. They are something I will always treasure.

I just finished machine quilting a baby quilt for my friend Janet. I love working on baby/kids quilts, I don't know what it is about them, I guess they are just delightful. This one was perfect for quilting; in the area around the bunny I did in a small stipple which makes the applique pop. And the feathers around the circle make it pop even more.  This was fun!

We had another great weekend at the Raleigh Farmers Market. Thank you to all our customers.
Early Friday morning I walked the market and captured some of the beautiful flowers, veggies and interesting characters.

Sara has helped me put my Sunday aprons on Etsy.  To get to the Seedlings Sewn Etsy Shop, click here or on the badge on the sidebar to the right. It has been great having a computer pro living with us, not to mention she is also a great cook. I will miss her when she goes back to Madagascar at the end of June.

We will be at the Farmers Market tomorrow and Saturday.
Here is a Youtube video that Sara made of one of Craig's garden talks and Tomatopaloza 2008. It is cute!

I just finished this wall hanging featuring the hand dyed fabric of Lorin Fields of Beyond Surface Design. Lorin asked me to work on a wall hanging featuring circles for her booth at the Hickory Quilt and Fiber Art Show coming up starting April 30th in Hickory, NC.  I was trying to avoid it looking like the solar system, but instead I think it looks like a parcheesi board (which is kind of cool). The circles are fused down with Misty Fuse and fusible light weight interfacing. The hand dyed fabric is a pleasure to work with.
Check out the line up at the Hickory show, it sounds pretty good. (I would be going....but tomatoes are calling)

Back to my sewing machine. I love tomatoes but I love quilting more. I am machine quilting a quilt for my friend Dee. It is a joy to be working on such a beautiful quilt and I am honored that she trusts me to quilt it for her. See pictures below.
I have worked up the nerve to try soaking my tread in mineral oil. I learned this in Sharon Schamber's class.
I filled a cup with human grade mineral oil and plopped my thread in for about a minute. Then I dried it off with a towel. It just slightly coats the thread, is a nice moisturizer for your hands and oils your sewing machine at the same time (apparently it is also good for occasional irregularity, which my sewing machine suffers on occasion). It does seem to strengthen your thread, as I had much less breakage while machine quilting.
I hope Dee doesn't mind that I tried this experiment while working on her quilt.

What a busy weekend. Friday and Saturday we spent selling our tomato plants at the Raleigh Farmer's Market. It is a lot of work but fun. Craig and I always enjoy seeing our long time customers, some whom we see only once a year but we feel like they are old friends. It is great to hear how well our plants did for people last year. It is gratifying to hear so many people thank us for what we do, and how excited people are to get these plants.

This is our 13 years selling our plants at the market. Each year our customer base grows as well as the number of varieties we offer. Craig has worked hard to preserve so many old varieties of tomatoes.

Sunday was the cooking class and talk at A Southern Season in Chapel Hill. It was wonderful. I have been to a lot of Craig's garden talks and this was the best. He shared the stage with Alex Hitt, who runs Peregrine Farms, and was the first local farmer to grow and sell Cherokee Purple in the early 1990s.  The food that was prepared by Marilyn Markel was amazing, made with what is in season now - radishes, baby beets and beet greens, baby leeks and spinach, all grown and supplied by Alex. They are making plans to have Craig and Alex back in July to talk about and eat heirloom tomatoes. Watch the Southern Season website for more info.

Last Saturday Craig gave a Tomato talk at the Cape Fear Botanical Gardens in Fayetteville North Carolina. The talk was great and the gardens were absolutely beautiful with miles of trails lined with azaleas and flowering trees. Admission is free during the month of April. It is well worth the trip especially seeing there is a great quilting/fabric store nearby- Loving Stitches.

Next Sunday, April 18th, Craig will be talking Tomatoes with Alex Hitt at A Southern Season Cooking School in Chapel Hill. They will also be collaborating on a seasonal meal. It should be a lot of fun.

Look for us this Friday and Saturday at the State Farmers Market, Lake Wheeler Road, Raleigh.

I took a nuno felting class last Saturday at Thimble Pleasures in Chapel Hill. We made a beautiful nuno felted scarf. Nuno is Japanese for fabric. To create nuno felt, small wisps of merino wool and other yarn embellishments are layered on a silk chiffon scarf. During the felting process the wool fibers migrate through the cloth and pull the cloth along with them as they shrink. The felting was fun as well as good exercise for the arms (great for those "Hello Betty's"). The technique involved bubble wrap, tulle, a pool noodle ,warm soapy water and some muscle. The end result was a very pretty one of a kind textural scarf.
The class was taught by Vickie Clonz, who was delightful.
 Check out her website, annieskeepsakes.com