A dusting of snow?

The dusting predicted for late Friday night
turned into almost 3 inches.

The only one really happy was Bentley.








Because BT had to get out the tractor and do this!











I had to shovel off the snow on the deck.








I even shoveled the sidewalk.



Oh those weathermen! Sorry Rusty.
Thank goodness you're not the weather man for this area,
or I'd have to hurt you.

the snow is coming, the snow is coming.

The weather man at bedtime last night said we'd have 4 1/2 inches by morning.

BT got up early to blade snow.

This is what we woke up to.

Never believe a weatherman. Sorry Rusty!

The birds were busy this morning filling up.

There were 6 male Cardinals when I went for the camera.

Apparently some are camera shy.

I finished all 69 blocks for the autograph quilt.

BT helped me design a pattern to set the 6 different colors in.

The 70th block I will use for the date of the reunion.

8:30 PM Saturday night and now it's snowing, the ground is covered.

We'll see what morning brings.

19 degrees, 6 MPH winds, feels like 12.

Card holder/Pot holder

Remember in December when I made this?

I tried to figure out how to display my vintage potholders. Some I displayed in and on my kitchen cabinet.

In that cabinet I found the Christmas card holder. It hit me then, I can use it to hang clothes on!

Be sure and check out Karen's Sew many ways blog. She has some great tips on Tuesday tool time and some other days too!











With the approaching storm, look what it looks like at the daughter's house , in Oklahoma City.


And check out what the blacksmith made today.

Just going along for the ride.

Over the river and through the . . . .


to the steel supply company I went with the blacksmith today. That is the wide Missouri River at Jefferson City.

I sat in the jeep while he had the steel cut small enough to fit on the trailer.

There I saw this small rack full of various sizes of steel. I wonder if this is to a blacksmith like a fabric store is to a quilter? I'm sure there was tons (no pun intended) more inside the huge building where he was.

After this stop, we pulled across the street to TNT, a builders supply markdown warehouse. If you have OCD this is not the store for you. You had to dig for most anything you wanted. They had new cabinets, drawer pulls, ceramic tiles, carpet squares, wallpaper, oak trims, office chairs, window stripping, tape, paint, you get it, everything under one roof. Oh did I mention they had a water leak. So in one area there was a big green plastic tarp made into a chute. A chute to move the water into a barrel.

While shopping we talked about replacing the area rug in our bedroom. After 17 years it was showing some wear. We dug until we found one that measured 8 by 10 feet. It was it enclosed in a heavy plastic bag and looked perfect. So did the price, it was 20% off. Total cost $48.

We also found a package of gloves for the blacksmith marked $1.98, it rang up 98 cents minus 20%. What a bargain.

BT loaded our rug just as it started to sleet. Luckily it was just a 12 mile ride home and the rug stayed dry.

We moved it to the bedroom, vacuumed it and admired our nice, new, clean rug!

The rest of the afternoon, I sewed some more of the autograph blocks, made chicken and rice, baked brownies, made panhaus, and boiled some chicken for soup stock.

The blacksmith worked on making a utility trailer to pull behind the 4 wheeler.

The grand kids came just as we finished dinner. Today was their Mother's birthday and Jeremy was taking her out for dinner. Happy Birthday Lori!!

Now we wait to see if the bad weather will hit us as predicted.

(Zoey, see how I put my ironing board under my sewing machine? And I use an office chair to turn from side to side. Works great when paper piecing and ironing every piece.)

Paper Piece lesson LIMITED TIME ONLY

Carol Doak is one of my favorite paper piecers. I have several of her books. I treasure her CD's. I can print the paper patterns straight from my computer to tracing paper in my printer. Most of her CD patterns can be enlarged with the click of a button.

For a limited time only you can view her on The Quilt Show. I used to subscribe to the Quilt show, however, I let my membership expire this past year. It became a little too pricey I thought.

But from January 25 through January 31 you can click here and watch an entire show free.

Krumcakes

Today after several hours of sewing for me and a couple of hours of blacksmithing for the hubby, we decided to make Krumcakes, also known as New Year cookies.

These take two people to make. It was my job to pour one tablespoon of batter onto the griddle. You time each side for 30 seconds and then turn it. The hubby's job was to take them off the hot griddle and immediately roll onto the tube.

Krumcakes were always a tradition at BT's parents house. I can remember his mother making big batches of them. (Thanks Delphine for the memories!) They have anise in them. You can fill them with whipped cream or just eat them plain. They are light, airy, and crispy if made correctly. I really think you could eat the entire batch and never get full. That is unless you use the whipped cream.




Here is what my stove looked like after we finished, A MESS!












Grandpa is showing Alex how to fill his cone with whipped cream.









Elizabeth got whipped cream everywhere, especially when her Daddy put it directly on her hand!

So how was your Sunday? The sun was shining here today. The first time in over a week. Now they are calling for snow tonight and tomorrow.

Still sewing that vintage fabric

This is how I start my blocks. I draw out my pattern, and try to fit as many as possible onto a sheet of paper. I take it to my scanner and hit copy. That is after I put a piece of tracing paper in my printer. It saves me from a lot of drawing.

I buy the tracing paper in the art department. Buy the kids stuff, not the expensive art paper. Most the time I use a 40% off coupon from Hobby Lobby.



Today as I was cutting into my vintage red fabric I saw this sticker. How funny, this piece at one time contained 33 yards. I never had the entire piece. However I still have about 6 yards left of it.




Here is what it looks like as I sew. You sew, flip, and iron. That's why it's helpful to have your ironing board low. I put it at my chair height.













So I remembered today something I had stashed in the attic. It is a Measuregraph. I used one similiar to this at the TG&Y five and dime store that I worked in.

How retro! Measuregraph is still in business too. If you would like to have this neat tool let me know. The first $40 and it's yours!








I even found this pull out chart on it. Too cool!

In those days, you pulled the fabric through the slot. It measured the fabric on the top. When you came to the desired amount, you push the blade down. It made a small slash in the fabric. You then ripped the entire piece off.

That would never happen today. Probably because there is not much 100% cotton fabric around. Most of it contains some polyester.




This shows some of the 25 blocks I finished today. Only about 50 more to go!









Nancy, here's your block. You like it?


I see more sewing in my future.

Vintage fabric

This is the view out my sewing window today.

Rainy.

Gloomy.

Depressing.

That is until you find this vintage 36 inch wide fabric in the bottom of your stash.

I am going to give it a try for the autograph quilt.

Off to sew now!

Making deer sausage 2010

The deer sausage story is on the blacksmith's page. While you are there, become a follower too.

On a personal note, I am hoping to find time to do some paper piecing this week. I am starting an autograph quilt. The names were all written on fabric 2 1/2 years ago at a family reunion. That reunion is held every 3 years. So I really need to have it finished by June of this year!

What a weekend! FLU BUG GO AWAY

7AM Saturday morning. We wake up and the blacksmith is having terrible stomach cramps. The day went down hill from there for him.

8:30 AM the son calls, can I watch the baby (the boys had stayed all night with us). Lori had the flu. It hit her about 4 hours before it came to our house.


My day was watching this little dare devil. Her brothers were pretty much entertained with cartoons and the Wii fit.


Saturday night I slept in the spare bedroom. The blacksmith was still very ill.

I woke up at 2 AM to check on him. He was starting to make a turn for the better he thought.


Sunday morning, 7:30 he got up and took a shower. I stripped the bed completely. I opened the windows in the bedroom, turned the ceiling fan on high and shut the door.

By the time all the bed clothes were washed and bleached, it was down to 60 degrees in the bedroom. There flu bugs take that cold!

The kids came back as their mother was still not up to par. Their Daddy had to run his traps on the river.

So this is what I did next. She loves her bath.

Between laundering 3 loads of clothes, making a batch of pepper jelly, making a batch of sweet dough, feeding the kids and reading the newspaper, my day was full.




Oh did I say I had to keep an eye on this little traveler?



Tonight the blacksmith is feeling better. Hopefully all bugs flew out the window.

What do you do after sled riding?

You come to Grandma's house and she makes you hot chocolate with marshmallows and whipped cream.





Of course Grandma needed a perk me up too so Lori and I had some of this.

It's Dulce de Leche Coffee. I actually borrowed this picture from Ree. You know Ree, she is Pioneer Woman. Here is her recipe. Lori and I skipped the Kahlua, mainly because I didn't have any.

Baby it's still cold outside

Yes it's still freezing in Mid-Missouri.

The guys have left to go ice fishing. Visit the Blacksmith's blog to see yesterday's report.

As for me, I am going to make this Gumbo.

I attend the cooking school years ago on a

husband's business trip.

It's the best Gumbo I've found.

Let me know if you try it.

Then I am going to cut some fabric for Laurie's Granny. I need 230 printed squares, 4 1/2 inches square. I found some pretty

fabric at Hobby Lobby yesterday.

If I'm lucky I might get to take care of the 3 grand kids while Mommy does some YMCA time.

Hope you're all staying warm.

It's gosh darn cold outside

Here's the proof.

If you want a good warm you up recipe here is Sarah's beef stew recipe.


Sweet potato stew

1 lb beef for stew cut inito 1-inch chunks
1 can beef broth
2 medium sweet potatoes cut into 2-inch chunks
1 large onion cut inot 1 1/2-inch chunks
2 slickes thick-cut bacon, diced
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
2 T. cornstarch
2 T. water

Coat crock-pot with pam. Combine all ingredients, except cornstarch and water in crock-pot. Mix well.

Cover, cook on low 7-8 hrs or on high 4-5 hours. Take out meat and veggies, mix cornstarch and water, stir in cooking liquid and cook 15 mins. Then mix it all back together.

Visiting another blogger

It's official now, BT is retired. December 31st was his last day, high noon to be exact. So if I'm not around to blog as often you will understand why.



And that has been the case the last few days. We went to see
this blogger. As you can see Josie was thrilled to see us. If you
think we really drove 7 hours just to see Josie, I've got a bridge
to sell you.

Sarah and Rusty greeted us when we arrived on Saturday afternoon. We spend the better part of 4 days with them. Those days included lots of shopping, lots of eating, lots of cooking and lots of 3 laptops running in front of the TV. The guys even got in some home
improvement repairs. (Rita: Sarah even made breakfast enchiladas for us. BT didn't get the whole tortilla thing)



On Monday evening Rusty drove us to Okarche, Oklahoma to a well known eating establishment, Eischen's. It has been featured on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. You can view it here on YouTube.

It was about a 40 minute drive out in the middle of nowhere to a small town of 1100. The building at one time was an IGA grocery store.

We arrived just before the dinner rush.



Here's the entire dinner menu! So for us it was 2 chickens, okra and the sides that were included, dill and bread & butter pickes, along with onion slices and sliced bread. Drinks were served . . . a styrofoam cup and a can of soda, or as they called it "pop". Tableware was several sheets of butcher paper and a plastic fork.





The chicken came piping hot. Forks weren't really necessary. We
all enjoyed the chicken way too much as there were only
2 pieces left! We discussed stopping for dessert on the way home, but no one could find room for it.





Thanks kids, for your hospitality, your great cooking Sarah, and the laughs the past few days.

We will now head home to extremely cold temperatures and possible snow.

Hope to see you soon, you too Josie!





PS Sarah, can I have your recipe for the sweet potato and beef stew?