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Last month I got recruited mid-school year to teach a sewing class to a small group of girls in the local homeschool cooperative. It was kind of an “emergency” situation because the regular sewing instructor had a family emergency and couldn’t teach the second semester. I told them I would gladly do it but only if I could teach a quilting class!
is a certified farmgirl at heart. She’s happily married to her beach bum Yankee husband of 20 years. She went from career gal to being a creative homeschooling mom for two of her biggest blessings and hasn’t looked back since. Debbie left her lifelong home in the high desert of Northern Nevada 10 years ago and washed up on the shore of America’s hometown, Plymouth, MA, where she and her family are now firmly planted. They spend part of each summer in a tiny, off–grid beach cottage named “The Sea Horse.”
“I found a piece of my farmgirl heart when I discovered MaryJanesFarm. Suddenly, everything I loved just made more sense! I enjoy unwinding at the beach, writing, gardening, and turning yard-sale furniture into ‘Painted Ladies’ I’m passionate about living a creative life and encouraging others to ‘make each day their masterpiece.’”
is a “MaryJane Farmgirl” who lives in a large metropolitan area. She is a lawyer who has worked in both criminal defense and prosecution. She has been a judge, a business woman and a stay-at-home mom. In addition to her law degree, she has a Masters of Theological Studies.
“Mustering up the courage to do the things you dream about,” she says, “is the essence of being a MaryJane Farmgirl.” Learning to live more organically and closer to nature is Rebekah’s current pursuit. She finds strength and encouragement through MaryJane’s writings, life, and products. And MaryJane’s Farmgirl Connection provides her a wealth of knowledge from true-blue farmgirls.
an old-fashioned farmgirl with a pioneer spirit, lives in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. As a “lifelong learner” in the “Live-Free-or-Die” state, she fiercely values self-reliance, independence, freedom, and fresh mountain air. Married to her childhood sweetheart of 40+ years (a few of them “uphill climbs”), she’s had plenty of time to reinvent herself. From museum curator, restaurant owner, homeschool mom/conference speaker, to post-and-beam house builder and entrepreneur, she’s also a multi-media artist, with an obsession for off-grid living and alternative housing. Cathi owns and operates a 32-room mountain lodge. Her specialty has evolved to include “hermit hospitality” at her rustic cabin in the mountains, where she offers weekend workshops of special interest to women.
“Mountains speak to my soul, and farming is an important part of my heritage. I want to pass on my love of these things to others through my writing. Living in the mountains has its own particular challenges, but I delight in turning them into opportunities from which we can all learn and grow.”
Dori Troutman is the daughter of second generation cattle ranchers in New Mexico. She grew up working and playing on the ranch that her grandparents homesteaded in 1928. That ranch, with the old adobe home, is still in the family today. Dori and her husband always yearned for a ranch of their own. That dream came true when they retired to the beautiful green rolling hills of Tennessee. Truly a cattleman’s paradise!
Dori loves all things farmgirl and actually has known no other life but that. She loves to cook, craft, garden, and help with any and all things on their cattle farm.
describes herself as a goat charmer, chicken whisperer, bee maven, and farmers’ market baker renovating an 1864 farmhouse on an Ohio farm. With a degree in Design, Mary says small-town auctions and country road barn sales "always make my heart skip a beat thinking about what I could create or design out of what I’ve seen.”
Rooted in the countryside, she likes simple things and old ways … gardening, preserving the harvest, cooking, baking, and all things home. While you might find her selling baked goods from the farm’s milkhouse, teaching herself to play the fiddle, or sprucing up a vintage camper named Maizy, you will always find her in an apron!
Mary says, “I’m happiest with the simple country pleasures … an old farmhouse, too many animals, a crackling fire, books to read, and the sound of laughter … these make life just perfect.”
is a budding rural farmgirl living in Palmer, the agricultural seat of Alaska. Alex is a graduate student at Alaska Pacific University pursuing an M.S. in Outdoor and Environmental Education. She lives and works on the university’s 700 acre environmental education center, Spring Creek Farm. When Alex has time outside of school, she loves to rock climb, repurpose found objects, cross-country ski on the hay fields, travel, practice yoga, and cook with new-fangled ingredients.
Alex grew up near the Twin Cities and went to college in Madison, Wisconsin—both places where perfectly painted barns and rolling green farmland are just a short drive away. After college, she taught at a rural middle school in South Korea where she biked past verdant rice paddies and old women selling home-grown produce from sidewalk stoops. She was introduced to MaryJanesFarm after returning, and found in it what she’d been searching for—a group of incredible women living their lives in ways that benefit their families, their communities, and the greater environment. What an amazing group of farmgirls to be a part of!
Suburban Farmgirl Nicole Christensen calls herself a “vintage enthusiast”. Born and raised in Texas, she has lived most of her life in the picturesque New England suburbs of Connecticut, just a stone’s throw from New York State. An Advanced Master Gardener, she has gardened since childhood, in several states and across numerous planting zones. In addition, she teaches knitting classes, loves to preserve, and raises backyard chickens.
Married over thirty years to her Danish-born sweetheart, Nicole has worked in various fields, been a world-traveler, an entrepreneur and a homemaker, but considers being mom to her now-adult daughter her greatest accomplishment. Loving all things creative, Nicole considers her life’s motto to be “Bloom where you are planted”.
Bravo! One of my favorite quotes is from Alexandra Stoddard: “Perfection halts the creative process.”
Thank you Janice,
Wow do I love that quote!!!
~ Dori ~
“Do you have the courage to bring forth the treasures that are hidden within you?” Boy did this line strike a chord within me—thanks for that and for a wonderful post.
Hi Lynn,
It’s such a great quote.
Thank you for reading and following along.
~ Dori ~
Thank you- you’ve started in me a fire to have the belief which I have in myself to carry out what I feel I’m supposed to be doing too. I love the message of woman supporting woman. You go girl! ❤️
Jennifer,
The best thing we women can do is support each other! So thankful for those in my life that have been so supportive of me.
I’m happy I was able to start a fire in you! Feed it!
~ Dori ~
Dori, I would like to do this class with you. I joined the list on your blog page. I am hoping with this class I will avoid a lot of mistakes I could make when I try doing a full size quilt later on. I watched my mother and her sisters and friends make a quilt when I was a small child and it was the old fashioned everything done by hand way. My hands are not as good as they once were and I am not sure I will be able to even do this class but I am willing to try. I want to make a quilt just to be able to say I did it. I think it will be fun and learning the ins and outs will be wonderful.
Hi Sandi,
I think you’ll LOVE IT! I got your email and responded. Looking forward to having you sew along!
~ Dori ~
This is so awesome and inspirational. Thank you for sharing your heart and the creativity planted inside of you with all of us. Fear is a domineering creep that we must demand to leave immediately!!
We have all been given great and amazing gifts and talents that must be brought forth to enrich each other’s lives. MUST BE BROUGHT FORTH! For one another. Take courage.
Thank you Diane.
I so agree with you… we have been give such amazing gifts. I sure take them for granted.
~ Dori ~
You’re a natural…I knew you could do that despite any book. You love your grandkids and work well with them or any kids…plus you can sew! Great job!
Oh Bonnie,
You are such a wonderful encourager. Thank you!!!
~ Dori ~
I’ld love to receive and be a Farm Girl blog receiver. Thank you. susie_heller@yahoo.com
hi dori,
Elizabeth Gilbert was very much inspired by an earlier book , the ” Artist’s Way ” by Julia Cameron.
There was a recent New York Times article about her.
try and get a copy of this wonderful book too.
it is a “workbook” to delve into your own creativity – much referred to by many artists and writers
good luck with your quilting project too.
Lisa
i
Lisa!!! Thank you!!! I just went online, read about the book and ordered it! Thank you so much for the recommendation.
~ Dori ~
Hi Dori,
You are so welcome! I know this book will really help your journey to creativity.
Lisa
I don’t want to be critical because I admire your wanting to teach the younger generation quilting, but sewing on a diagonal can be so tricky. If you cut the squares a little larger and sew 1/4 inch either side of center and then cut the square in half you won’t have that distortion. One quilter to another!
Hi Cindy,
Thank you! I actually had that concern but crazily there hasn’t been a problem with this with my little beginner students in the homeschool class. They’ve sewn all their little triangles into blocks and had no distortion because of the bias. So fingers crossed… no one else will either! But yes, you are right! Sewing on the diagonal can be tricky! Thank you for the tip!
~ Dori ~
Dori, this was such a great post! What amazing things you undertake. I love the idea of the quilting class. I love quilts. Have some from deceased women in my family. My daughter quilts. I even wrote a short story collection “The Quilt Maker” with all titles quilt patterns. But I don’t quilt! LOL
And you are looking so trim and fit! Go, Girl!
Barb
Congratulations on teaching quilting. The on line course sounds interesting and challenging. Continued success.
Marilyn
I love this quote! I do have the courage and am now going into the next faze of my business-out of my house and making a rental house in the back of our house into the gluten free bakery I own. Everytime I read this quote something really stirs me and wants to come to the surface. A twist perhaps to what I’m doing.
Thank you for sharing your journey. Very exciting! Blessings!
I would love to be part of your blog please
What great ideas you have! These ladies will have a nice knowledge of sewing and quilting.
Beautiful words of wisdom from everyone, yes I love that woman encourage each other no matter the journey.
Thank You All