JOHN C> CAMPBELL offers up great experiences as People Still Make Things!

 

Jan came back to the school to do her story since she had her border done. Janis from Tulsa and she and her husband come together. He takes blacksmithing and he is awesome at it. His class was doing chickens and he decided to do a peacock.  After some sewing and figuring Jan decided to make a peacock too. The body is now cheddar...guess who suggested that color...

The theme of John C.Campbell Folk School is "We are still making things." So she did this above her peacock. Now the family has a wonderful large metal one for the garden and one for the wall too! Isn't this awesome?

If you would like to take a five day workshop in a beautiful place (Brasstown ,North Carolina) then this is a good bet! The food is wonderful and the people who come are really great. You go away on a cloud of happiness...there's a story for you.,

Also, if you do not get their catalgue, you are missing out. Just type in "John C. Campbell" into google and you can sign up for it. It is kind of like how it used to be when you got your Christmas catalgue as a kid.

Here is Jan's husband's peacock....it is fab and has blue beads set into it....

Above are a couple of chickens from the Blacksmithing class...I wish I have better and more peacock photos

Below is Charlotte's quilt called "Music to Paint by". It is her husband painting and his nephew playing the sax as he worked. I often tell people in my lectures that if you do a story quilt about a man it is their favorite quilt. After saying this in class, Charlotte talked to her husband on the phone and he said "did you show Mary Lou that quilt of me painting?" "It is the best one you have ever done." We had a good chuckle over that in class. It is a NEAT quilt...wish you could see these in person.

 

Charlotte lives in Florida and Laura her sister lives in Texas and they come and take a story quilt class almost yearly to be together. They are hilarious and they have so many stories. They are good about sharing ideas and even fabric with other classmates. I love this when people share and have fun with each other in class.

Charlotte's story quilt about her family at the beach was wonderful to see as the characters came to life...the lady with the hot dog is her Mother and the little girl in the water is laura her sister and I think the girl with the hotdog is her....Super!

Here is a border all ready for the quilt story...I love the butterfly don't you?

This darling lady is Laura's Grandma in her two Grandma's story quilt....darling!

Here is the other Grandma...isn't the birdbath wonderful and the dogs? This is going to be such a wonderful story quilt too. Laura and Charlotte have done many story quilts and their family is so lucky...they will have all of this history.
      I heard from a friend yesterday that one of my students who is just wonderful has brain cancer and she is some institution and her friends finished her story quilt about her husband and she has it on her wall to comfort her. Isn't it nice that she has such a quilt. Have you done a story quilt? Maybe you should consider it.

Here is the beginning of the hen house

Here is the lunch box at the beach on Charlotte's quilt...fun! She is making a rickrac pie crust when it is quilted.....

Didn't this lady do a good job with her chicken?

Above is the beginning of my John C.Campbell garden and I add more leaves to my chard and leaves to my beets....below is the real garden...

I am looking for the rest of my photos which are somewhere in my computer...do you ever feel this way?

I took this photo while sitting on the porch...isn't this beautiful?

This reminds me so much of West Virginia's Cedar Creek where I also teach for five days....

This iron work is on the outside banister of one of the dorms....it is so beautiful and each twist is another shape....there are bits and pieces of beautiful folk things all over this campus and it is a place to go and forget about your cares and really get into the process of creating. If you think that sounds good, please sign up for my workshop next year in May. You won't be sorry.

I fly into Atlanta and drive 2 1/2 hours to Brasstown and the drive is wonderful

Sad Days and Glad Days....Count Your Blessings

I love this photo because I remember well when I used to do this with my daddy.

These last couple of weeks have been unbelievable in a way. I just found out today that a good quilting friend who had a darling house and all of the energy and talent in the world has brain cancer and is in a bed away from her darling home, waiting. Last week I found out another dear sweet sweet friend who is just darling has been diagnosed with an inoperable cancer and is going to go through chemo therapy...I so pray for both of them that they will get the miricle that they need. Two other good quilting friends have been heavy on my heart with serious illness's and I just feel so sad. I have prayed everytime I think of one of them. It is hard not to just sit and pray all day long and to leave it to God to work. Do you know what I mean? I just want the best for those that I love. I am home and cleaning and sorting but have the time to sit and pray and think.
Thankfully it is sunny here and I will get to see some of my Grandkids soon and that makes me feel so much better. Little ones always have so much wisdom and so much love.
     The happy news for me is I finally found a sofa that I like...I got rid of one of my toile red and cream sofas and the other one will soon be on it's way out when I can find one I like that sort of goes with the Country French theme of the room.
I found a nice Christian thrift store that can use the things I am purging and it feels great.

Here is a closeup of the fabric which I love....my big chicken fit perfect in the corner of the sofas....very fun. Mel gave me a fabulous Paris pillow a couple of years ago and it is now on there too. I am going to get silk cream colored drapes I think for my window.

SA couple of weeks ago I did a hunt online for Fiestaware. I bought six sets from Macy's and I knew I could do better even though I bought them on sale. Hooray, I found a site that I could get two plates for the price of one plate at Macy's. I bought another twelve plates in all different colors.

Some of my dinner plates are in the dish washer....I just love pulling out the new dishes...the colors make me so happy and they aren't chipped like my old ones.
     I have been srpaying my plants for aphids today....boy they do love my yard! I wish I had more lady bugs coming to visit me. My poppies are in full swing as is my rose over my arbour and some of my beautiful purple lilacs...I just love seeing things bloom. Planted tomotoes and hope for a BIG crop for gazpacho which I adore...I think mine is the best!

I am ending this with a photo of Queen Elizabeth who I love when she smiles...and she seems to smile more and more. I guess that is the secret, we only have today so keep smiling friends...and count your many blessings.
OH one more photo of my friend Sandy....we usually split a huckleberry Milkshake when she comes to my retreat from Davis California...I am thankful for her and for huckleberries...they are delicious!

Come next year and you too can have a milkshake like this one!

I used to live next door to some wonderful people when I was five that I ate vbreakfast with each day. I told my Mother I was not hungry and I ran across the alley to Mrs. Foley's. They would fix me breakfast and listen to me when I sang. Roy, Bonnie and Ray Foley were in their late 70's and they laughed at everything I did and said. I loved it there naturally. I will never forget Mrs. Foley's delicious banana cake she made for her husband Roy. This hopefully will be a story quilt one day. That is one of the fondest memories I have as a child.

 

Mrs. Foley's BEST Banana Cake for Friends and Family

 

2  cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 4 tablespoons butter,  room temp
• 2 tablespoons veg, oil
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 large egg white
• 1 teaspoon REAL vanilla extract
• 4 large ripe bananas
• 1/4 cup whole milk
 Cream Cheese Frosting....
• 4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1/2 teaspoon REAL vanilla
• 1 & 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 2 tablespoons chopped  pecans

375°OVEN . Grease 8-inch square pan

 

Mix together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

Now Mix butter, oil, and sugar. Beat in eggs and egg white, 1 at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add REAL vanilla.

In new bowl, mash bananas with milk. Set aside.

Now mix in half of dry ingredients into butter mixture. Mix in bananas. Add the rest of the  dry ingredients. Pour cake batter into greased baking pan.

Bake 40-45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into center of cake comes out clean. Now cool cake. 

Frosting....

Using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat cream cheese and vanilla. Reduce speed and gradually add powdered’ sugar.

Spread frosting on cake. Sprinkle with pecans.

 

Mary Lou's Happy GO Lucky RETREAT for 2013

Isn't this the prettiest flower pot you have ever seen? Jeannine from Millwood close to where I live came to my Idaho retreat and she had never done easy hoochy piecing and look what she did! She has style and she is fun!
    I have at least one retreat each year in Idaho. Next year we will be having it in Spokane instead. We have new handouts and people work on story quilt and hoochy piecing of flowers, cats, birds, fish and other fun things. I sometimes show how I embellish and we talk about how to choose fabric and what you may not understand about the color wheel. I divide it up like relatives and it is easier to understand I think. Luckily I came from an art and painting background and I see things like a painter first and quilter second. We have amny people who come more than once and always some new girls who fit in perfectly. I can bring books and ideas from home and some quilts that never go on the road too so that is always fun.  This year the weather was wonderful. We did two field trips during the working part of the week to the quilt shop and later the next day to the Coeur d'Alene hotel for lunch. I pay for drinks and desserts there. It is a beautiful lake that everyone should see. All in all it is a ton of work for Mark and I but we love doing this and Tina who comes in from LA to cook works hard too. It is really one of my favrotie weeks of the year. Hope you can make it next year.

Judy, Sandi and Sandy are hard at work....creativity is filling this room!

Food is always a big part of my five day retreat and this was my favorite salad. It was served with choices of dressing and a hot pan of french onion bread (the best stuff I have ever eaten). Tina flew in from LA again this year to cook for us for the week. She had great food and presentation. Everyone got my handouts and also the recipes for the week...it was very fun. Connie my Girl Friday made notebooks with the Eiffel tower on the front since Paris was the theme. Next year it is Cowgirl Quilters...

Dinner is served-chicken and linguini with tossed green salad and fresh hot bread

Here Miss Tina takes a break from cooking with basil strawberry water....

These are hot capachino muffins with spread that tasted like light coffee and mini chocolate chips in it....really good and she had a large bowl of fruit....

Cupcakes anyone???

Carol from Arizona completes a fun flower-

Sandy an alumi is making a new cow that is going to be quite wonderful...she has tons of ideas. and she made MOOlon Rouge for you girls that follow the cows...she has until the end of August to complete it....So far it is pretty wonderful

Breakfast fruit...we had hot muffins (different kinds) each day with fruit...and the last day a really good strata that Tina made...

Jennine hard at work....her nickname is J-9....I think I misspelled her full name again...J9 is easier. :0)

Quilts by the new girls are off and running...great colors and good jobs with a new technique for them...

 Carol falls in love with her fabric!

Sandi another alumni put together her swapped fish blocks from my swap group...she is putting a mermaid into the blank spot (or something else clever) and then she will do a great border...love those fish!

Mari Linfesty my friend who had come to my retreats many times did this quilt of swapped birds and Flower Power Flowers...she has made many wonderful quilts from the swaps....Mari is very clever and a riot-the alphabet is in my "Out of the Box with Easy Blocks book)

Carol, Wendy and Sandy work along....

Here is Wendy's Mooey Christmas...it is going to have a Christmas tree and ornaments and lots of other fun things...her body is going to be a present....so great!
The cow pattern is in the "Out of the Box with Easy Blocks Book"

I took a photo of Sandi's desk because she works like I do....

Foxglove anyone???Easy hoochy piecing...so fun!

Mari sews along and makes us all laugh....

Here Kathy works on a great story quilt about going to Washington DC with her Granddaughter and seeing fireflies for the first time...Lincoln Monument and Washington Monument will go in there and her border and colors are fabulous...
Kathy is an alumni too and they drive from California to Spokane so they can take home great things from the Farm Chicks show and Artfest which are the day before the retreat

 

Judy is an alumni and she is a docent for the Monterey aquarium and is doing a "Trusty Rusty" quilt and has so many awesome seashells and creatures in it that we all just watched as it developed into a really wonderful quilt....

Cindy works on her blocks and she increased her stash at the quilt shop we visited...she had fabulous colors and fabrics and she was alot of fun...everyone was positive which was really great and the group really pulled together as friends fast....

We swap fairy gifts in my longer workshops and this was my gift from Wendy and Sandy and I loved how they presented it....went along with out fun theme

 

Chili verde cooking away all day and served with rice and tortillas plus guacamole, cheese, salsa, lettuce etc....

I brought beads and charms to make bracelts one day.....the photo is missing people because I took it the day after and not everyone wore their works for art...these were a big hit (thank you June for the idea)

Kathy, Sandi and Carol get ready to dish up....

Part Of Kathy's darling and happy border