Ripley, West Virginia - Southern McGown Teacher Training, Day 3. Appalachian Distillery and Fairplain Yacht Club.

Yesterdays dye class was exciting, informative and exhausting. Today's was a lovely, relaxing contrast. It was taught by Katherine Webster and was a wide cut.

Attic Treasures. Designed Jane McGown Flynn. Hooked by Katherine Webster.

Katherine did not emphasize the primitive aspect of the pattern, so we did not feel compelled to follow a primitive style colour plan. Instead we each chose colours that suited us and she was very encouraging of our individual choices; from white tulips to spot dyed ones, dark backgrounds and light, 5 cut to 8 cut.

My colour palate.

Katherine explained the choices she had made when hooking the piece and demonstrated some techniques and the use of black and white photographs of the work in progress to check values..

At the end of the day this is what I had completed. My plan is to dye and overdye paler golds and blues for the tulip like flowers, terra cotta/gold for the vase and dye a mahogany/seal brown spot dye for the background. I'm still playing around with whether I will add any sort of border.

After class we left the "campus" and drove to Fairplain Yacht Club for dinner. Across the parking lot is the Appalachian Distillery so we had to check it out.

Aside from "Straight Moon" (which was a smooth burn) they make a variety of flavored moonshines including Apple Pie, Spit Fire (which tasted like cinnamon hearts candy), Peach and Paw Paw (a fruit that grows in West Virginia).

The friendly proprietor let us taste a few and then took us on a quick tour of the distillery. This container holds the corn and barley which is steamed to make the mash. It is then transferred into large plastic tubs until there is enough to put into

the Still. Here it is distilled, up through the copper section that eliminates the sulphates and provides some flavor. The first liquid taken out through"the beak" is the "head", which contains the gases, and it is re-distilled. The "heart" is bottled. Three Xes on the bottle means it has been distilled 3 times.

I love the look of the copper elements.

At this point they bottle and affix the labels by hand but hope to get a bottling machine.

Jennifer, myself and Marjorie. The owner, Dwayne, invited us behind the bar for a picture and also let us taste the bourbon that he is making but not yet promoting for tasting.

A little distillery decor.

Then it was across the parking lot to the Fairplain Yacht Club for dinner. We opened the door into a country bar that I felt I had seen in many movies and TV shows. A large barn of a place, bar at one end, wooden tables and chairs, stage and lots of room for dancing. I bet it really hops on a Saturday night.

The owners daughter told us the story of the name when asked. Her Italian mother always wanted a restaurant and her father tended bar. They opened the place 9 years ago and her mother thought it would be funny to call it the Yacht Club because it sits next to a pond.

Good steaks and shrimp, sweet potato fries and broccoli with cheese sauce and an extensive beer menu. It was Trivia night and the parking lot was beginning to get crowded as we left; 50cent wings the next night!