How to have fun at Grandma and Grandpa's

Underneath the pink snow pants and camo coat is a sweet little girl!

Now this sweet little guy, first wanted to make a quilt for his bed at the cabin. Later he was in the blacksmith shop forging hooks. His mother told him he was a real pioneer boy today!

Fabric shopping in Excelsior Missouri, and a few quilts thrown in

Last Saturday we had a blacksmith meeting in Excelsior, Missouri.  It's a Mennonite community. Nancy, another blacksmith's wife, and I had nothing to do but go shopping. 

Excelsior Fabrics is in a new beautiful building since I had been there last. They have a rather unique way of displaying their fabric. Their prices are awesome. Name brand fabrics under $6 a yard. You can buy quilting batting by the roll, a VERY big roll too. I think she said the price was around $69 and you can make 9 big quilts from one roll. What a bargain!

I took a picture of this barbed wire fabric for my friend Margie.

At Pleasant Valley Quilts,  I saw more black fabrics for Margie too. She is wanting to make a red and black bow tie quilt.  I just wanted to show her some options.

Look at the quilting in this block. It was quilted with a deep red thread. Perfectly spaced stitches.

I never looked at the prices of these quilts. I was too busy just admiring their beauty.

At Martin Goods and Gifts, I found these adorable baby bonnets for my great niece Eden who is to arrive in May.

For baby Connor, I found Farmall plastic dishes.

I couldn't leave without buying some fabric for myself . I also found a pretty handkerchief. It will be made into a bag for one lucky blogger. I bet no one can guess who it will be.

Our shopping lasted until noon. We then headed back to the meeting, where lunch was just being served. Mrs. Martin served ham and beans with several pans of made from scratch corn bread.

She also made 2 peach cobblers and one peach pie which was being served warm with Central Dairy vanilla ice cream. Besides the cobblers there were about 48 cream filled donuts covered in powdered sugar. What was a girl to do, but try both desserts!

The afternoon was completed with a trip to Weaver's Market. Fresh spices, grapefruits by the case,      and a big bag of jello powder filled my basket.

It was fun to spend the day in Mennonite country!

What we did during the Palm Sunday snow storm!

Yesterday we came home from Excelsior, Mo with a case of Texas grapefruit. What a bargain for only $16.

So today during the snow storm we peeled a bunch of them. We gave 6 or 7 to the grands and kept out 6 for ourselves. 

I  put the sections in jars, added a simple syrup, and cold packed them for 15 minutes.  17 beautiful jars of great fruit!

This is what was going on outside!  We ended up with 6 inches of wet snow.

Missouriana, 2013 Missouri River Quilt Guild Raffle Quilt

To commemorate the 25^th Anniversary of the Missouri River Quilt Guild, Missouriana was themed to things representing the heritage of the State of Missouri and of home. Block names are inked in permanent pigment ink on the quilt top; and the blocks are named for cities in Missouri (Jefferson City, Columbia, St. Louis, Springfield), landmarks (Ozark mountains and trails), the State bird (bluebird), State flower (hawthorn), State tree (dogwood), State symbol ( Missouri mule), Old Missouri (river) and other symbols of home life in Missouri.

Blocks designed exclusively for this quilt include the 18” appliqued dogwood by Vicki O. who learned back-basted applique from Jo Morton. She used Michael Miller Fairy Frost fabric for the petals. 

Eva S designed the quilt and machine quilted it on a stitch-regulated Gammill machine.  Her original blocks include the Missouri mule and the flying geese that fly around two of the large corner blocks. Eva used Caryl Bryer Fallert’s ombre fabric to achieve the smooth transition of light to dark in the geese. This is Eva’s first time to submit a quilt to a major show but has won ribbons for her quilts at the Missouri State Fair.

Members of Missouri River Quilt Guild were asked to create the traditional blocks. Making some of the old block designs was quite challenging and gave us all a new appreciation for our predecessors who did not have modern equipment and computer programs to properly size block units.

The background fabric of the quilt is Moda’s Kansas Troubles line. The central medallion consists of modern foundation-pieced dogwood blocks with vintage hand-appliqued and pieced dogwood blocks at the top and bottom. These are surrounded by Eva’s version of ribbon-embroidered hawthorn blossoms on hand-appliqued stems. The medallion is surrounded by a variety of blocks having to do with Missouri and home: various versions of Dogwood; Ozark Mountains; Missouri Star (3 different blocks with same name); St. Louis Star; Ozark Trail (2 different blocks); Jefferson City; Missouri Daisy (2 different blocks); Missouri Puzzle; Spirit of St. Louis (modified); Homespun; Old Missouri; traditional flying geese (many live in Missouri year-round), Burr Oak (about to take over our forests), Weathervane (if you don’t like the weather here, just wait ten minutes); Bluebirds Flying; Columbia; Missouri Cornfield; Indian Paintbrush; Honeybee; Spools; Bluebird on Branch; and Springfield. Many of these blocks were found in an out-of-print book entitled Missouri Samplings, compiled by Boonslick Trail Quilters’ Guild, Columbia, Missouri, 1980, and others in Electric Quilt 7. Eva used EQ7 to plan the quilt design. Techniques used include hand applique, hand piecing, template piecing, foundation piecing, strip piecing, hand embroidery, ribbon embroidery, and permanent pigment inking.

The quilt culminates in a border found in EQ7 and made in blues, greens and the background fabric to represent the many rivers and lakes found in Missouri. A block called Old Missouri (which looks like a bridge) happens at each of the four corners, intersecting the rivers and lakes. The quilt is bound in a variety of blues and greens. The quilt back was pieced using leftover fabrics from the top and features embroidered labels containing the name of the quilt and each of its creators.

Missouriana has been juried into the American Quilt Society Quilt Show in Paducah, Kentucky, in April, 2013. The quilt will belong to a lucky raffle ticket holder after the MRQG Quilt Show on June 1-2, 2013.

As you can tell there are some very talented ladies in our quilt guild. If you'd like to buy a chance on this quilt send me an email and I will in return, email you my snail mail address. Chances are $1.00 each or 6 for $5.00.  One lucky winner will be drawn at our quilt show (of which you all are invited) on June 2, 2013

Top of the evening to you!

It was a lazy rainy, sleeting, and  snowy day this morning. So what better to do then pile 3 of the 4 grand kids in bed with us. Sleeping to 8:30 AM is almost unheard of where they are concerned!

When the littlest grandson read he was left out he was shocked!

It was a gloomy day here. We went to an auction, but left before it even started. there was nothing there that we couldn't live without. 

Today consisted of a lot of TV time, sewing, peach cobbler making, cooking the traditional corned beef and cabbage, and watching it rain. 

Hope you all had a great St Patrick's Day!

A big THANKS to my Blacksmith!

Sometime last fall the blacksmith started making a sewing table for me. He forged all the legs and other metal parts. It was then that his helper (not me, his bff) had back surgery and couldn't assist him. The legs sat for a while. 

But then come February help arrived and the legs were riveted and tenoned together. (bff recovered from surgery)

Then the blacksmith called a friend, Tim about a wood working tool.  Long story short, Tim gave him red oak lumber milled from his property for the table top. Tim's tree farm is just about 4 miles from us as a crow flies.

The wood was cut, glued up, and clamped. It then sat for a week with the stain on it, while we went visiting in Oklahoma. 

Within a half hour of arriving home from Oklahoma, the first coat of polyurethane went on. He applied two more coats over the next few days. 

Voila'!  Here is the finished product. It measures 5 feet 6 inches long and 22 inches wide. 

It is positioned beside my "regular" sewing machine. It easily holds 3 machines. 

Here is my 1953 Elna and my Bernina Deco embroidery machine.

I love my table!  I also love my Blacksmith for making me the table!!

I just couldn't resist snapping a picture of him sewing his work gloves. 

A day of first

This might be my first post from my iPod.

Today I had a warm bowl of steel cut oats ready when I woke up. No the blacksmith wasn't in the kitchen cooking.

I have a very small 4 cup crock pot. I added 1/4 cup of oats and 1 cup of water. I then found a timer to plug it into ( like you can use on your Christmas tree). I set it to come on at 2:00 AM.

At 6:30 it was steaming ready to go. I added some butter, brown sugar, and a little milk! Yum yum.

Now if I get the picture posted I'll have lots of firsts today!

This might be baby overload to you . . .but not to me!

We've been out in the next state spoiling the newest grandson!

 We got this picture texted to us on our way out. He was just waiting for us!

Little C loves his boppy pillow!

On Sunday, we went to a flea market at the Oklahoma State fairgrounds. I spied 2 Featherweights. He wanted $450 each for them. The one that I bought a couple of weeks ago is even older and was way cheaper!

The blacksmith spied some rusty metal. He too said it was way over priced. 

Then it was back home to spoil the little guy some more. He and grandpa are talking hunting in this picture. He has just about outgrown the 3 - 6 month camo onesies Grandpa bought for him on the last trip out. 

Little C is checking out his new play mat!

 I didn't just hold him for four days either. I baked cookies one evening. . . .

  . . . while he slept on the couch. 

 We then both took a nap. 

Momma texted us this picture after we left today . . he was wore out from his 4 day visit with the grandparents. 

I miss the little guy already!