Farmers and Farmer's Wives

So, I jumped on the bandwagon a week or so ago and bought the book and started the Farmer's Wife Quilt!  I am a member of both the Flickr group and the Yahoo group.   The blocks are addicting when you start out.  I was making 2 a night but recently I slowed down.  I'm using my collection of Urban Chiks Swell and Sweet fabrics along with some Tanya Whelan florals and Lecien Flower Sugar.  I can't wait to see more blocks together.

AND speaking of Farmer's....


A few weeks ago we had a terrible hailstorm that ruined my vegetable and battered the pond lilies.


The biggest fatality was the cucumber patch.  This picture almost makes me cry.  I had to pull out all the plants and throw out the half-grown cucumbers.

 Since it was too late to plant more cucumbers, I picked up some pepper plants to replace the cucumbers:

 I went out a few days ago and took photos of the recovery effort.  The pond has recovered amazingly.  There are lots of new lily pads and about 6 lilies blooming!  More than usual.

 I lost a lot of tomatoes and the plants and fruits were bruised but they seemed to be trying to come back and a few have turned red (these are tiny grape-sized fruits that should be larger like Romas)

 The corn stalks were shredded by the hail but seemed to be coming back and growing taller and taller and the corn cobs already starting, YAY

AND THEN....  yesterday evening we had a rainstorm.  The wind came whipping in first, then it rained for about 15-20 minutes hard and then settled into a light sprinkles.  No hail.  This morning I went out to the garden and YIKES.  My corn plants were lying on the ground, yes, lying.  They are probably 8 feet tall now, maybe taller, and the roots were stool firmly in the ground, the stalks had not broken but they were bending down touching the ground.  Rosie had a good sniff and I was lucky she didn't decide to "mark" it.  I hope the sun will attract them back up straight again.  For now, I propped them up with a garbage can, lovely.  A couple of the tomato cages also blew down and covered the pepper plants!  I propped them up using a board.

I am seriously wondering how real farmers do it.  This is a fun little hobby for me, not my livlihood.  I have a much greater appreciation for farmers now.  And for farmer's wives and quilting.  I'm now working on block 7 and these are tiny pieces.  At least I can protect my quilt from hail and wind.