≡ Menu

Crafts and Artsy stuff

 Who can resist a pretty flower? Some of them, you can eat!  Spring and Summer offer many edible flowers; fall has fewer, but they are beauties – and easy to grow. A fun thing to do with edible flowers is to freeze them in ice cube trays for drinks and punch. You can use these… Click to see how to make Edible Flower Ice Cubes – it’s EASY

The Rich Heritage of Quilt Trails

I know you have seen them off in the distance – a bright splash of color on an old barn. These are “Barn Quilts” and they are a great tribute to our heritage and “the art of rural America.” They honor our long-gone quilters, like my mother Chloe. Quilt trails are popping up everywhere the… Click to see all the Barn Quilts in and around Williamston, NC

The most easterly Barn Quilt on North Carolina’s Quilt Trail is on the Pack House barn at Big Mill B&B in Williamston, NC. I just love it! I used to go to Quilting Bees with my mother when I was a child. I would play under the quilt all by myself. There were no other… Click to read more about Barn Quilts and Miss Chloe’s LaMoyne Star …

Chloe’s Big Mill Barn Quilt : Behind-the-Scenes

Big Mill B&B is going to be part of the Tar River Quilt Trail How did the Big Mill B&B barn quilt idea and project happen? In essence, I read about the American Quilt Trail and I wanted to be part of it. I picked a favorite quilt pattern – one that my mother made… Click to read more about Barn Quilts in North Carolina …

Chloe’s Journey to Spinning and Knitting a Hat

My love affair with knitting started years ago when I adopted my sheep, Maggie Belle and Yorick I was a graduate student at East Carolina University in  fiber arts, with a specialty in spinning and natural dyeing. I had lots of wonderful hand-spun yarn, but I never learned how to knit until friend Jody taught… Click to read more about Chloe’s hand-spun yarn

Ho, Ho, Ho – Holiday Crafts Roundup

The holiday season brings up memories of holidays past I remember making Christmas decorations when I was a child. we would gather things like cotton bolls, sweet gum balls and pine cones. My mother would work her magic and we made pretty decorations for our tree, and they were all made with what we found… Read more about Chloe’s DIY Crafts from the farm

How to Make a Cork Wreath

What do you do with all those corks you’ve saved?  Make a Cork Wreath. It isn’t difficult if you follow my directions and take it one step at a time. Here is how to make the perfect Cork Wreath. Cork wreaths are pretty any time of year, but folks like them for the holidays. I… Read more

Okra Santa Ornaments from Garden at Big Mill

How to make these cute Christmas Santa Claus ornaments from Okra We must remember to grow and dry our okra here on the farm in the summer so that we can have these wonderful Okra Santas for Christmas. These ornaments are made from the okra seed pods that dried on the okra plants at Big… Read more about How to Make Okra Santas

Spinning and Raising Sheep on the Pamlico River

In another life, I had sheep in my yard. Remember the sixties? I didn’t have a lawn mower and I really did believe that the sheep would groom my yard. I needed the fleeces – I was working on my master’s degree in fibers – spinning and natural dyeing. I lived on the south side… Read more

Making Molasses

Molasses — that dark, sweet liquid that tastes so good on a hot biscuit — was once a staple on every farm in eastern North Carolina Melvin Price and Lucy making molasses My dad’s family made molasses and to him molasses on a sweet potato was a meal. He told me all about how they… Read more