I took a day off from painting and cleaning in the bedroom yesterday to relax, recover, and then in the afternoon, join our Reenactment unit at our annual reenactment at the Union Mills Homestead. This is a picture of the restored grist mill at Union Mills which was built by two Shriver brothers in the 1700's. This is a park now that offers tours and does events such as our Civil War weekend, corn roast, pancake breakfasts, microbrew festival, and flower market, to name a few, and there are two Shrivers of the family living across the street in two private Victorian homes that are quite beautiful as well. Shriver is a family with deep roots in the Maryland countryside, and one of the descendants of this branch of the family (another branch is that of the Shriver house museum in Gettysburg) is in our Group.
The home has also been restored and is part of the tours are offered by the group that runs the property. They have a gift shop that sells the stone ground flours and cornmeals that are made right in the grist mill. I buy all my cornmeal here and it really makes a difference in the taste of the cornbread, it's so different than commercially produced meals and flours. Union Mills is on the way from my house to Gettysburg so it's convenient to stop for supplies on the way to my volunteer job.
This is another shot of the Shriver home. Much of the original grounds are still part of the park and we thoroughly enjoy camping and doing our event here. Both Confederate and Federal forces camped on this property on the way to the battle of Gettysburg in 1863. I'm wasn't able to dress in my corset for the event because the incisions on my abdomen are still healing, so I drove up in modern clothing with projects to work on in hand. I sat with some of our unit members and chatted while I worked on putting the binding on the quilts I'd made for the grandbabies. There were several new units participating in the event this year and it was nice to see new faces among the familiar ones. I always enjoy the opportunity to socialize with people I don't get to see nearly enough. The weather was cool for this time of year and quite comfortable, getting even a little bit chilly by the time we had a pot-luck dinner together. By dinner time, I was exhausted and sore and ready to go home. Unfortunately I didn't sleep well because I'm still learning what to eat and not to eat without a Gall Bladder. lol
These are the two baby quilts that I got finished between Union Mills and some time spent at home last night while watching TV. I finished the last one this morning early when I couldn't sleep and went ahead and got up. I had pieced these last year when I found out that my daughter was pregnant again and then they sat for many months before I machine quilted them last week. I did traditional blocks (this one is called Churn Dash or Monkey Wrench) with Hawai'ian fabrics since the boys were both born in Hawai'i. The backings are the same fabric as the sashing that's touching the blocks so they're easy to tell apart. I'd made nightgowns from the backing fabrics so it looks strange to me to see those same fabrics on the back of the quilts!
The two quilts have wool batts inside them that I had made from some Romney fleeces that I'd bought at one of the Sheep and Wool festivals. There's nothing like natural fiber wool batts with natural cotton fiber fabrics, they really breathe and are so comfortable. They're soft and snuggly and definitely just waiting for the boys to use, and the wool batts aren't too warm for them to use in Hawai'i. We use the wool batt quilt I made for our bed most of the year, only changing it out in the hottest part of the summer. I am guessing the Aidan will decide which one he likes best and the other one will be for Collin when he's just a little bit older and is more able to snuggle up in it.
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