Another country auction

Today we went to another great auction out in the country. 

Lots of country parking.

Great country views. 

My friend Margie got an apple peeler. Her husband said it was an early Mother's day present. 


To read more about our day visit Osage Bluff Blacksmith.

Hodge podge

It's been one of those days when it feels like you go two steps forward and one step backwards.  It all started with not a good night of sleep.  I hope tonight is better.

One good thing is maybe, just maybe, Ms. Lizzie will become a quilter.  Today she took some of the blocks I have been working on for her quilt.  She was matching the fabrics.  So cute.  She loves fabric.

Timber! 

Not my house, it's the neighbors.  The blacksmith was involved in helping.  I was there for moral support.  Ha!  Not! 

The blacksmith thought I should do a trial run on the Easter cake.  At one point I was laughing out loud!  I can't even ice a flat cake with canned icing.  So this was a stretch for me.  It was a cooked icing.  I really think it's what my Mom use to call 7 minute frosting. 

This is my new ride.  Our last lawn mower served us well for many years.  I hope this one does too.

I have been looking for Crocs.  So yesterday, while at Tractor Supply waiting for the new mower to be serviced, I found these.  (See our peas, they are coming up nicely!)

They are sloggers.  My friend  Karen got a pair yesterday too! 


That's all for now.  See, I told you it was a hodge podge!

Someone got a new house for her birthday and a "Barber" doll!

  Happy 3rd Birthday Ms Lizzie!

The move is now complete!

This is how it was done. 

 It took one big trailer. Trailer #1

 Two more trailers, #2 and #3

A long trailer, trailer #4

 Trailer #5

 Trailer #6

Trailer #7 is still in our yard. Some leveling needs to be done before it's unloaded. 


And what you don't see, is a couple of these might have been loaded more than once!


It took a crew of guys, but it all was off the trailers by noon. 

The boys have already taken a liking to the woods.

Miss Lizzie has picked the trampoline as her favorite!

The backyard is so peaceful!

  The side yard has an awesome flower bed, with lots of maiden hair and pampas grass.

Lori's thinking shutters might break up the dark brick.

And then the neighbors came over to our house!

Grandpa got out his 4 wheeler and off they took through the woods. 

Mushroom hunting was unsuccessful!


Welcome to the neighborhood guys!  Love Mom!

Meet the NEW neighbors

Remember a few weeks ago I told you about the neighbors moving out?

Well let me introduce you to the NEW neighbors!!!!!!!!!!

It includes one biker babe . . 

Two punk rockers . . . 

One river rat . . . 

and one hot Mama.

Regardless, they do clean up nice.


You might say, they look so familiar.  You are right, it's our son's family that bought the house in the neighborhood!


They will be  closer to us now.  If we walk through the woods it might be a five minute walk. If we drive it's maybe a mile. 


Either way, we are tickled to have them close!


P.S. I was the Realtor on the sale way back when Eric and Kathy bought it and again on the sale to the son.  For some reason I never saw a commission.  Maybe I should get a realtor's license next time.

Wesley's tulip

14 years ago today, I lost my brother Wes, at age 51. 

 Every March about this time, this tulip, that I planted from his funeral comes up.

 I see it out my kitchen window and think about him.

What do these 3 women have in common?

A. They all went to the same quilt guild meeting?
B. They had never met in person before this picture?
C. Most of them came equipped with a camera?


If you guessed A, you are correct.  If you guessed B, you are correct.  If you guessed C, you are correct.


It's me, Osage Bluff Quilter; Gerry, at GerryART; and Nancy at  . . . with thread in hand (Just not a camera LOL).


Claire of two draft Mom, had invited me as her guest to the Missouri River Quilt guild meeting tonight.  As we entered the big room, almost every table was full.  We finally found a table with room for us.  As my butt was hitting the chair, the lady across from me said "PATTI???"   I kept from screaming NANCY???   We have talked through Facebook and our blogs for a couple of years now.  At one point Nancy lived half away across the state from me.  Nancy does some awesome sewing, not only quilts, but cute things for her grand kids.   She also has remodeled a complete house in the past year.


Nancy had come as a guest of Janet's.  Janet's best friend Esther, happens to be a blacksmith's wife and a friend of mine too. 


Shortly into the meeting, guest and visitors were introduced.  As soon as I got my name out of my mouth, over runs Gerry.  She looks at me and smiles.  I recognized her by her beautiful white hair.  I immediately looked for her green socks. We had never met in person either, but talk weekly through our blogs.  She is an awesome knitter in addition to being an excellent quilter. 


After the meeting we posed for pictures.  I am so glad Claire asked me to go.  There were some awesome show and tells!  This time next month I hope to become a member, right Nancy?


P. S. Oh and I  met Betty at Luv2sew.  She had been following my blog she told me!


P. S. P. S I forgot to tell you blogger Carla of Lollyquiltz was the featured speaker. She is an awesome job showing her quilts and telling their story!

A meeting of lots of blacksmiths

This past Saturday, we attended the Blacksmith Association of Missouri meeting in Cedar Ridge, Missouri.  It was a beautiful, warm day in the country.

Here, our host Bonita, prepares hors d'oeuvres  on a cheese covered anvil. 

There were some very neat buildings on the property.

 Bonita plays with a 9 week old puppy. 

Apparently this little guy didn't like the crock as much as I did.

Inside the bunk house was this neat old trunk. I remember my mother buying me Poll-Parrot shoes. The blacksmith worked for International Shoe Company when we were first married. This was one of their products.

Thanks to our host Bonita and Hank for a wonderful time!

Out of the mouth of Babes!

Okay the babe happens to be my 10 year old Grandson.  One day after school this week he asked to use my computer, to show me something. 

The first thing he did was to ask, "Is this Google chrome"? "Yes", I replied.  He immediately signed me out and signed himself in.  He logged into his school's web page and then onto his page, using his password. 

He brought up the start of the document below.  It had the first paragraph.  He then proceed to type away.   He didn't finish his report at my house, but when I went back to my computer he had signed out of google chrome. 

Anyone Who Thinks Kids Should Not Have Phones, Read This!



Bzz. Bzz. Kids should have phones because kids need a way to contact
parents. Games would keep kids quiet. Also if all of the computers at home
were full, your child could use your phone to search. Ding! Ding! One
missed call!



First of all, some kids need a way to contact parents because what if
your child was at a friends house and something happened? What would your
child do? Also, if your child forgot your numbers they could use the
phone's call list. What would you do if your child didn't have a phone and
they needed to contact someone?



Reason number two is that games could keep your kids quiet. What if you
were on a long trip and your kids were complaining? You could just tell
them to play on their phones. Also, if you had a phone call, their phones
would keep them quiet while you talked.



The last reason is kids could search the Internet on their phones. If all
of the computers at home are full, your child could search on their phone.
Also, it would leave a computer open for someone else to use.



In conclusion, kids should have phones in fourth grade and older. My
reasons again are kids need a way to contact parents. Another one is games
could keep kids quiet. The last one is kids could search on their phones
instead of using the computer. Does your child have a phone?




Essay by: Brady Tappel

The next night, his Dad sent us his essay!

Amazing at 10 years old.  I mean could you even type on a typewriter at that age?  Of course if there was a computer when you were 10, it took up an entire room. 

Brady, Grandma is very proud of you.   Maybe Dad will buy you a cell phone.  If I did, I'd never live it down.  Your aunt Sarah didn't get one until she was a senior in high school!

Love you Brady!!

Owners Sought For "Special Quilt" Lost In Tornado

Owners Sought For "Special Quilt" Lost In Tornado: The Piedmont Service Center is looking to find the owner of very special looking quilt, lost in the deadly tornado that hit the area in May 2011.

Dear Patti

I finally finished my version of the "Dear Jane" quilt. I worked on it off and on for about four years.  I'd get tired of it, or find something else more urgent and this would get pushed to the back. 


My original intent was to use up a big rubber tote of scraps that I had acquired.  In the end, I didn't even put a dent in that tub.  It seemed the more I dug for fabric, the more it fluffed the fabric and that made it grow. 


The "Dear Jane" quilt was made in 1863 by Jane A. Stickle.   The quilt always fascinated me.  Her's had 225  blocks, mine has 221, and I didn't even count all the piano keys in the border.  


You can read more about the Dear Jane quilt here.


As of now, my intentions are to hand quilt this next winter.  I'm not against machine quilting, and that would be much easier.  But hand quilted, I think, would really add to the value of it.

Friday night dinner out!

Our friend Tom asked us out to dinner Friday night.  I was excited for several reasons, dinner with a good friend, a chance to eat someone else's cooking, and to see friends.  One friend I didn't get to see was Deanna. 

St. Andrews Church

This is her church.  She works there.  It's a beautiful church.  Trust me, it's not black and white.  It's just that  I forgot to check the settings on my camera after I took it out of my purse. 

As we walked into the hall the men were all busy with frying.  Had Deanna not had her husband Jim off galvanting around the country, he probably would have been frying fish too.

The meal was delicious!  Tom, our gracious host, said it was a meal fit for us "mackerel snappers".  It consisted of fried fish fillets, baked potatoes (the best ones I've ever had), french fries, slaw, meatless spaghetti, cornbread complete with maple syrup, baked beans (the blacksmith said they were really good, and he normally doesn't eat baked beans) and many kinds of desserts consisting of cakes and pies.


After we stuffed ourselves, visited with several friends, saw our bus driver from high school (over 44 years ago), we made our way to Tom's house.  There we saw a lot of eye candy.  I was treated to see most all of Phyllis' beautiful quilts.  I wish I had taken my camera inside.  She made a yo-yo quilt that is out of this world!!!  Next time I will ask him if I can take a picture. 


Thanks Tom for dinner.  Next time it's on us!

Spring has almost sprung.

It's the first week of March.  Temperatures have been way above normal.  Today it reached 74 degrees.  Normal would be in the low 50's.

Lettuce, radishes, peas, and onions are in the ground.  In the dining room are 48 little containers of tomato, pepper, and brussels sprout seeds.  Some are even poking their heads up.

Potatoes were planted today.  We had some child labor involved.  It's always a joy!

But poor Bentley could do nothing but watch.  He has 7 more days to wear his Elizabethan collar. 

Phyllis' quilt

If you go back to my January 1st post titled New Beginning's you will read about how I  became the quilter for Phyllis' quilt. 

This quilt was absolutely a joy to quilt.  I put way more quilting in it than necessary, as that is what Phyllis did to hers.

The only part that wasn't fun to quilt was the flame block! 


My hubby isn't only a talented blacksmith, he's a template design maker.   He made the template that I used in the solid yellow block.

The back is always fun to look at.  So much detail in this one!

I spent a lot of quiet time quilting.  Time I could reminisce and pray.  I felt Phyllis was looking down on me. 


In the end I know she was . . . look at how much thread I finished with.  Just enough!


Rest in peace Phyllis.

Blacksmiths!!!

Today's post can be found here!

My poor Bentley

Yesterday we had 70+ temperature!  The blacksmith and Bentley went walking behind the house in the woods.  Lizzie and I were in the yard when Bentley came home first. He was acting strange.  He kept pushing against me and eventually went into the garage and walked in  circles.  That's when I saw it. 

Hanging down was a huge piece of raw skin.  I yelled for the blacksmith.  Immediately he said he needed to be seen by the Vet. 

I went in the house to call, and was told to bring him up right away.  The Vet's office is only 5 miles away.

The blacksmith left with Bentley and was back home in no time. It seemed Bentley would have to stay over night.  They would have to put him out to clean and stitch the wound.

The night was long without my dog. And then a storm hit at 3 AM.  Bentley hates storms, was he scared too?  We had two different rounds of hail.  The weather radio went off at least 7 times.  It was at that point the blacksmith told me if I didn't unplug it he was flushing it down the toilet. 

When I left for work at 7:30 there were still hail remains from 3 hours earlier. It was 47 degrees. 

When I returned home, this is what greeted me.  His hip is completely shaved.  He is now sporting a collar and lots of stitches.  They also gave him several shots for infections.

For 10-14 long days he must wear this collar, until the stitches are removed by the vet.

How he hurt himself we don't know.  It was a short walk that they took and as usual Bentley was off exploring not far away. 

It's going to be a long 10 days!