Color Play : Mixteca

Mixteca designed by Eleanor Grosch for Cloud9 is making us dream of far-off and exotic destinations. Here are a few options for color pairing. This line works especially well with solids which help balance the energy in the prints.

Kona Pure Organic in Natural makes a nice neutral companion to Textila Rosa. A splash of bright pink and black would round everything out.

Lechuza pairs well with Pure Organic Chartreuse. A blue to complement, although not an exact match, is Lagoon

Tucana, Natural and Bright Pink. You can always turn up the heat with a little Marigold

Chevron Azul and a thin border of Pure Organic Grey with Sparo

Of Barns and Quilts

Recent travels have taken us to the historic Valle Crucis community along the Watauga River in Western North Carolina. This fertile valley sustains the people who work it or are fortunate enough to spend a few days visiting. We stayed at the Mast Farm Inn where each morning we were greeted with a delicious breakfast of one or more of the following: locally grown pork sausage, berry porridge, homemade biscuits, homemade yogurt and local fruit, and quiche made from fresh eggs courtesy of the farm's chickens. The Inn's chef lives on the property with his wife, the Inn's gardener, and their children who attend the Valle Crucis school a short walk down the road. Sound idyllic? I certainly think so. The work is hard there is no doubt, but the rewards must be great for the residents who are successfully preserving their families' heritage and integrating it with their modern lives.

The Mast Farm barn and garden beds being prepared for spring planting.

I just love the color and detail in the old metal roof.

The original farm house was built in 1810 and is now the oldest inhabitable log cabin in the county.

The first part of the Mast Farm Inn was built in the 1880s. By 1915, it had 13 bedrooms and 1 bath. 

Old farm tools displayed above the kitchen sink in the Woodwork shop.

Traipsing around the mountains we inadvertantly stumbled upon some of Western North Carolina's Quilt Trails. The quilt trail phenom was started in Ohio when Donna Sue Groves put a block on her barn to honor her mother. From that simple act, the project has spread to 30 states and Canada. Today, NC claims to have the highest concentration of barn quilts in the US.  To participate, property owners paint a quilt block, or sometimes a full quilt, on a piece of plywood and hang it on the side of their barn, house, church, or place of business. Do you have a quilt trail in your state? 

Watauga County, North Carolina

Many of the blocks displayed hold significance for the family, like this one made by the homeowner's mother. Each fan is dedicated to a family member, with each part of the fan representing something meaningful to that person.

Watauga County, North Carolina

Valle Crucis, North Carolina

Watauga County, North Carolina

Old Schulls Farm, Valley Crucis, North Carolina

McDowell County, North Carolina

McDowell County, North Carolina

McDowell County, North Carolina

There are quilt trail maps for the serious collector, but I thought it was more fun to stumble upon them completely by accident. It helps to have an eagle-eyed scout in the car with you. Who knows - you might even spot a black bear or two.

Game Changer: Industrial Hemp Legalized in Colorado

With all the attention that the legalization of recreational marijuana in Colorado has been getting, you may not know that Amendment 64 also included a provision for legalizing industrial hemp growth. This is a huge step for the sustainable textile industry in this country.

What does this mean for Colorado farmers and the U.S. economy as a whole?  

According to Envirotextiles, a Colorado-based pioneer in sustainable textiles, "for starters, hemp requires very little water and no pesticides and herbicides. With drought conditions in the state, hemp is the most viable cash crop to plant under these conditions. In addition to ease of growing, one acre of hemp can provide the same amount of fiber as 4 acres of cotton!  While hemp cultivation has been outlawed in the US, manufacturers of hemp products in the US have been thriving in recent years.  Given the difficulty of importing raw hemp for manufacturing, our farmers already have immediate demand for their new crops in existing and expanding domestic markets.  Simply put, farming industrial hemp will provide the US with manufacturing jobs, expand green initiatives, and provide our struggling agriculture industry with a cash crop that can be grown across the country." 

According to Wikipedia, the U.S. is the single biggest importer of hemp in the world! The world leading producer of hemp is China. It's about time we start growing this cash crop domestically.

Hemp truly is a wonder plant

• There are over 25,000 confirmed uses for industrial hemp that include clothing, paper, plastic alternatives, building materials, and much more.  Most products made from plastic, wood, or cotton can be made with hemp.
• The hemp plant is highly resistant to most insect and disease, largely eliminating the need for most (or all) pesticides and herbicides.
• Hemp is anti-microbial, anti-mildew, naturally UV resistant and readily takes on eco-safe plant-based dyes. 
• Hemp is 4 times warmer than cotton, 4 times more water absorbent, has 3 times the tensile strength of cotton. It is also many times more durable and is flame retardant.
• Hemp fibers can made up to linen grade, making hemp fabric a true joy to sew and to wear.
• Hemp is not a 4-letter word. Well, okay, technically it is, but it won't get you high and is not a drug.

Want to know more about this great plant? Watch this a-bit-hokey-but-very-informative, video.

Hemp Can Save The World

Wombat Day (and 20% Off Wombat Wonderland Fabric Collection)

Did you know that October 22nd is Wombat Day? What's a wombat you say? 

Common Wombat, Maria Island, Tasmania

Wombats are Australian marsupials; they are short-legged, muscular quadrupeds, approximately 1 metre (39 in) in length with a short, stubby tail. They are adaptable in their habitat tolerances, and are found in forested, mountainous, and heathland areas of south-eastern Australia, including Tasmania, as well as an isolated patch of about 300 ha in Epping Forest National Park in central Queensland. 

There are three living species of wombat,^[1] all of which reside only in Australia. They are protected under Australian law.^[6]

• Common Wombat (Vombatus ursinus)
• Northern Hairy-nosed Wombat or Yaminon (Lasiorhinus krefftii)^[11]
• Southern Hairy-nosed Wombat (Lasiorhinus latifrons)

Source: (Wikipedia)

Wombat Day is an unofficial holiday started in 2005 to celebrate these cute, furry, odd little creatures and bring attention to their declining populations due to habitat loss and hunting. October 22nd was chosen because it is the beginning of the traditional aboriginal spring planting season. Wombat Day is often celebrated by making things out of, and eating, chocolate! Chocolate Wombats are especially popular!

While we certainly don't begrudge any form of chocolate revelry, we thought you also might want to commemorate the day by taking home your very own wombat - wombat wonderland that is. So all week long we're offering 20% off this super soft fabric line by Australian designer Saffron Craig.

20% off Wombat Wonderland - use coupon code WOMBATS at checkout.

Expires 10/28/12

Happy In Her Wombats and Lovehearts Dress

In the mood for a little origami? Make a paper wombat. Or learn more about the marsupial so well loved the world over.

The River At My Feet

We've been getting more than our fair share of rain this fall prompting the river authority to open up the dam upstream on the Yellow River. The resulting rapids outside the Mill are quite a change from the placid stream of water we're accustomed to seeing pour over the rocks.

Here's a photo of people enjoying the river during quieter times. I wonder if anyone knows the names of these two? I believe the photo comes from the Porterdale Historical Society. That's the Cotton Mill in the background, during its heyday.

High sediment gives the river its name. High waters flood the river banks.

Photos from a kayak trip taken earlier this summer when water levels were navigable without a whole lot of work.

Lunch break at the rope swing.

Here's a great way to get involved with this river, one of Georgia's wonderful waterways