Quilt Show - Our 30th Year

One of the many quilts on display at vendor's booths

We've been busy all week at work setting up for the Warren County Historical Society's 30th edition of its Lebanon Quilt & Fabric Arts Show & Sale.  Quilt show week is always stressful because it is held inside the museum's conference facilities and galleries so we have been busy transforming the place into booths and special exhibits.  The show is Friday and Saturday, March 1, & 2 from 10 to 5 and Sunday from 11 to 4. Admission is just $5.00 and all proceeds go to the operation of the museum.

Quilt show is always wonderful fun. The entire show is a gorgeous display of some of the most beautiful new made quilts you will see anywhere. Each vendor's booth is hung with an amazing array of quilts and wall art and we can't get enough of the colors and patterns while we ooohh and aaaww over the intricate stitching. 

Betty Sue O'Dell's needle work 2012.

But its not all quilts. Each year the vendors bring new and exciting fabric arts ideas which they offer for sale either ready made or in kits.  Last year's hit was Rose Cheap Reynold's punch needle kits. Rose is back this year with some great new ideas.  Other favorite trends are wool felted items of all kinds, a variety of kits for everything from rugs to dolls and much more.

This year Julie Dawson, a fan of quilt barn art, has a collection of bird houses she hand made and hand painted with quilt patterns as if they were miniature barns displaying quilt barn art. They each have a tin roof as well. What a great idea.

A perennial favorite is the button jewelry booth. We always budget a bit of our quilt show spending money for a new button jewelry pendant or ear rings or bracelet.  This company comes up from Texas every year and has some wonderful jewelry all made from antique buttons.

Special exhibits include spinning and weaving demonstrations by Stringtopia of Lebanon and a vendor selling alpaca fleece and products. Also on display are examples of quilts from the Ohio Quilts of Valor chapter and the Lebanon Methodist Church's Ronald McDonald House quilters.

There is so much to see and do!  Come early and plan to stay all day.

Baby Chicks on the Move

I moved the chicks in their brooder out into the main part of the basement last night.  I'd put them in the furnace room first for two reasons. One, I wanted to lock them away from the cats and two, none of the wall plugs in the basement worked.  Larry from Current Solutions came yesterday afternoon and replaced the GFI for the wall plugs and now everything is working again, so I moved the chicks into the basement. 

Bee Hive Painted and ready for bees, I think.

Baby chicks give off a fine, greasy dust that would not be good for the furnace so I was glad to get them out of the furnace room. Their brooder box is sitting on a long wooden table. The cats don't know what to make of the chicks. The listen, they creep up on the box - which is a heavy wooden frame covered in small gage hardware cloth, and peer inside. What a great way to entertain the kitties!

The beehive, now freshly painted is sitting on the other end of the table. I've picked out a site for the hive near the garden and in a little grove of locust trees.  I am also collecting cement blocks to provide a platform for the box so it won't rest on the wet ground.  Somehow, I've not yet ordered the bees - that's this weekend for sure!

Spring Chicks at Rural King

Our old vacant Wal Mart building south of town has finally found a tenant. Yesterday Rural King opened a brand new store and I couldn't wait to visit.  Rural King is like a Tractor Supply only bigger, I guess, because this is a really big store with all kinds of things for farm and garden.



Baby chicks on red heat lamp

On its first day the store was manned by a lot of young kids and a few adults all very helpful but not sure of all the details - which is OK on their first day. They will learn quickly or move on I hope.

Most of the front is clothes and snacks and junk like that. I moved quickly toward the garden section my mission to buy a bag of 12% sweet feed to have on hand when Bramble calves next month.  As I rounded the corner of the isle headed for the feed racks I ran smack dab into baby chicks for sale. 

Red New Hampshire and Black Jersey Giant

They were nicely displayed in six different pens with heat lamps and signs proclaiming their breed. Since this is their first day open I figured the chicks were in pretty good shape. They looked to be about five days old.

You could buy straight run (girls and boys mixed) or just pullets (girls). There was one pen of mixed Bantam chicks.  The pullets cost $1.99 each which is competitive with the catalogs.

They looked healthy so I went looking for a sales person and picked out three New Hampshire's and three black Jersey Giants. They are now at home in my chicken brooder in the furnace room with a red heat lamp on them which is why the pictures are red. The cats are shut out of the furnace room and they are totally bamfoozled! The chicks have made it through their first night so I am hoping to raise all six with no problems.