What a great place... Miss Effie's

Scott County, Iowa is nestled along the shore of the Mississippi River, and I have found no reference on the Internet of any Barn Quilt organization, but I did discover a charming site that is defiantly worth a few minutes of your time. Now in my neck of the woods, it is not uncommon to find a pick your own strawberry or melon patch. We can even find pick your own Christmas trees, but in Scott County they have a pick your own (U-pick) flower farm. I want to share with you the words from the Miss Effie's Country Flowers and Garden Stuff web-site:

Our story...........
and we are sticking to it!

Cathy and Cliff Lafrenz started Miss Effie's Country Flowers and Garden Stuff in the spring of 2002. We started with a 20 foot by 20 foot patch of cut flowers. We have since expanded to almost an acre of flowers. Every spring we plant over 6000 annuals for your cutting pleasure.

When you come to Miss Effie's, you are given a bucket and a pair of clippers and are invited to cut anything throughout our gardens. The flowers change by the season so every day ..... something new blooms. A one gallon bucket of flowers is a bargain at $10.

We love hosting your parties and events on the farm. Our 1948 Behlen corncrib is perfect for a daytime picnic or an evening meeting. The corn-zebo will comfortably seat 20 people. Use of a gas grill is also available.

We are proud members of Quad-Cities chapter of Buy Fresh, Buy Local and we encourage you to look for local options when buying groceries. We are also proud to be the ONLY Animal Welfare Approved farm in Scott County Iowa.

Our chickens gift us with beautiful eggs ....... eggs are available but please call ahead. We also sell jellies, jams, herbs and fresh veggies.

Please come visit and sit a spell.

Now what Miss Cathy didn't share with us on her biz site is her new found love of Barn Quilts. Here is a link to what I surmise to be her first few Barn Quilts, from her personal blog: http://misseffiesdiary.blogspot.com/

I'm back

I have been away from the computer for more than a week, and I returned to find a little news from my Barn Quilt searches done in abstention. There is now a new site added to the Barn Quilt Memories sidebar from Caledonia (Houston County), Minnesota. They are the self-proclaimed "Wild Turkey Capital" of Minnesota. I assume that this mention of Wild Turkey is referring to the bird and not the libation. There is an easy to down-load brochure of the Barn Quilt project, but I was not able to locate the map.

I have found a notice of a Barn Quilt meeting to be held the Blount County Public Library in Maryville, Tennessee at 7:00 on August 12th. (sorry for the short notice) The Appalachian Quilt Trail is a partnership of Clinch-Powell Resource Conservation and Development Council.

There is a story in the Courier-Journal from Louisville, Kentucky about the eight-member "Buffalo Gals" homemakers' group in Stamping Ground, Kentucky, in Scott County. They now claim to have created 147 Quilt Squares for Scott County and beyond, and also have a wonderful web-site. On Sept. 4, the Buffalo Gals will host two free workshops at the UK extension office in Georgetown to teach anyone who is interested the art of painting barn quilts. For more information, e-mail Minch at cminch@uky.edu or call (502) 863-0984.

There is another news story about the Powder Springs Quilt Trail in the Atlanta Journal-Contitution. This is also known as the Southern Quilt Trail in Cobb County, Ga.