Sew Wonderful Badge

http://www.maryjanesfarm.org/farmgirl-sisterhood/badges-sc-sew-wonderful.asp

Easy to store and carry, I repurposed an unused Bible cover for the sewing kit. The front compartment was perfect for pins, fasteners, measuring tape and also had a zippered compartment for buttons, sorted by color. The center was just the right size for spools of thread and another zippered compartment on the back, held scissors, snap fastener, crochet hook, ruler and fabric pencil.


The homemade flower pin keeper was made by sewing together and stuffing two circles of fabric. A large brown button was the center and embroidery thread looped figure 8 style through the center and around the outside edges created the 'petals'. The 'vase' is a glass container used to store additional pins.

Bee Good to Your Mother Earth Badge

http://www.maryjanesfarm.org/farmgirl-sisterhood/badges-gg-bee-good.asp

I read Montrose: Life in a Garden by by Nancy Goodwin while waiting for the weather to warm up before starting my garden. Montrose is a year long journal artfully illustrating the challenges and joys of caring for the extensive gardens of the Montrose estate. Though the detailed descriptions of the flora and fauna can be overwhelming, the author's love for her home is a central thread running through the story and is easy to understand. In one chapter, while walking the reader through the tasks of maintaining a certain garden, she tells the story of the friend the garden was named after. The friend died very young and tragically and you feel the author's loss. The details of her life with the field mice and friends and her beloved cats among others, left me with a warm fuzzy feeling.

March 2010 - the Garden

This year we started our Square Foot Garden. The updated Square Foot Garden technique is perfect for organic gardening. According to Mel Bartholomew, the author, he has been successful with this technique all over the world,from Haiti to India! We already had a garden area layed out in 4 roughly 2 x 8 beds. We decided to build these up instead of using the typical 4 x 4 boxes since we already had the paths built out.

I loved the Harvest Apron in MaryJanes Ideabook.Cookbook.Lifebook (p222), and decided to make it in order to get my first Farm Girl badge. To make sure I got the dimensions right, I created a pattern using some left over Christmas tissue paper. It was very easy to make - much easier than the "store bought" pattern I had used before - and perfect for beginners!