An Heirloom Speaks, and I Listen

Tried to post this last night and this morning, but no luck. 

Remember that little cottage that I took a photo of yesterday with the Wedding Ring Quilt displayed on its side?  Well I returned there today since it was supposed to be open for Hand Crafted Items and Gifts.  Now granted, I’m not the shopping type, but I just had a feeling about this place located way off the beaten path in the hills surrounding the Cumberland River of Tennessee.  I was not disappointed.  It turned out to be a little gem for me.

Of course, there was a welcoming committee.  Can you believe the tail on that peacock?  Sure wish he would have lifted it up for me, but apparently there were no hens around.  I later found out the girls are probably already setting on eggs.  It takes one of them to appear for the males to get all excited at this time of the year.  The two Guinea Fowl just didn’t elicit the same response.

                              Not to be outdone, this striking chicken came to show off her little ones. 

On the front porch of the house was ‘Harry’ standing guard.  He’s the king of the roost and doesn’t allow any other peacocks out front.  I found out he’s about 17 years old.  I never knew peacocks lived so long.  At least the males do.  The females are more often taken by predators because they won’t get off of the nest if they are incubating eggs.

This fellow was strutting about the back yard.  He’s just a youngster.  Notice the short tail.  Mails don’t breed until they grow that long tail, and it takes a couple of years.

When they get hungry and want some feed, they come to the back door and screech!  Apparently, they’re also very good alarm clocks under the bedroom window. (Much to the consternation of the man of the house.)

Once I got inside the little cottage, there was an array of crafty items.  Cindy Horvatin is the artist, and has many talents.  Her specialty is custom designed stained glass art, but she also crochets and makes hand made goat milk soap from her own goats.

Her clear glass items use old farm windows for the panes.  How’s that for recycling?  If I had a house, I’d love this stained glass window set in an old farm window frame depicting an exact replica of a log cabin quilt.  She does very fine work!  She doesn’t do quilting per se, but reproduces some quilt patterns in stained glass. 

I made several purchases including something special for Robyn (which is not pictured).  Robyn said she didn’t want any gifts, so I’m just going to say I don’t have room in the rig for what I got her.    Among the other items I chose, was a bar of apricot and cream goat’s milk soap for my sister.  Not that I think she needs to smell better…

Now for the rest of the story…  I got a much better photo of the wooden quilt reproduction today that is located on the side of the cottage.  The inspiration for this panel came from a quilt that Cindy’s great grandmother made for Cindy’s parent’s wedding.  That was around 1940.  Cindy still has the quilt, and it won second prize at the Granville Quilt Show in the Antique Quilt category.  Cindy’s son painstakingly painted the reproduction for the side of the cottage, and so it could be listed in the Upper Cumberland Quilt Trail.  I just can’t imagine the amount of hours that went into the original quilt, or the painting of this representative panel of a cherished family heirloom.  I suppose the great-great grandma of the son that did the painting knew where every little piece of fabric for that quilt came from.  Amazing!

What a grand time I’ve had here in the Upper Cumberland River area, and such fascinating memories I’ll carry with me as I had out towards Knoxville tomorrow.

Thanks for stopping by… talk to you later,  Judy