It's a weekly quilting bee!

I have been occasionally joining the ladies at my son and daughter in law's church to quilt on Tuesday mornings. 

It's always such a good time.  It makes me get out of bed earlier than normal.  Seeing the sun that bright, that early is an eye opening experience!

A couple of weeks ago I told the quilters about the conversation between my friend Nell and me. I told Nell I was busy on Tuesday mornings quilting at church. She said "You must be the youngest one there". 

I told her no, we were all about the same age, (or so it seems). Nell then told me she thought of church quilting ladies as old white haired ladies with Kleenexes stuck in their watch band or shirt sleeve. 

When I told the quilters that story they all got a good chuckle out of it. 

Fast forward to the next week. After our break for prayer and coffee (with treats) I went back to my spot and was sewing away. Suddenly it got very quiet, I looked up and saw everyone looking at me. I looked beside me and there stood Darlene and Janet waving a Kleenex at me. It was time for my initiation to their group.  Everyone had a tissue in their watch band and was waving it at me. Hilarious!! Now you know why it's fun to quilt with this great group of ladies.

This was the tissue group that day. Sometimes there are as many as 12-14 quilters. Most of the time there are 2 quilts in the frame. Unfortunately, I forgot to get a shot of the quilt they were working on. It's a solid color whole quilt as it is called. The striped fabric is the dust cover and it hadn't been removed yet.

 There is always show and tell. Here Janet shows off the quilt she made for her grand daughter. 

I quilted on this one last week. These quilts will be auctioned at the church picnic this summer.

Pictures didn't do justice today to the quilts. This one was small but striking, it had really unique piecing.

This one has some beautiful quilting patterns in it. I'm just glad I wasn't elected (or volunteered) to bind it.

The colors in this piece are much brighter than the picture shows.  Browns and blacks make a beautiful combination in this log cabin and star pattern.


As usual, I am looking forward to Tuesday mornings out!

A step back in time.

6/22/1845-5/16/1923

Gerhard Heinrich Tappel, (the blacksmith's great grandfather) came to America in 1867 from  Twist Germany. Gerhard settled in Osage County, Westphalia Missouri. He was 22 at the time. 

Katharina Lueckenhoff 9/27/1849-7/2/1913

Eleven years later he married a local girl from Osage County. On November 19, 1878, they were married. Sometime in the 1870's they bought 360 acres in that same county and set up household. 

This is that house as it stood in 1988. It had been in the Tappel family for over 100 years. 

Gerhard and Katharina had 6 children. The blacksmith's grand father John Bernard was born in this house in 1882. 

Ben & Cecilia wedding day June 14, 1921.

John Bernard, known as Ben, and his wife Cecilia raised 4 children in the house, including the blacksmith's father, Henry, born in 1922.

Sylvanus Monat, Henry and Delphine Tappel, Catherine Tappel Hagenhoff

September 29, 1948

Although Henry did not end up owning the house, he did start his married life there. Henry and his wife Delphine lived there the first 7 years of their marriage and operated the farm. The blacksmith was born while his parents lived there in 1950.

After they moved away Grandma Cecilia and later her son Jim, owned the place until they both passed away.  Jim had lived in the house up until the mid 1980s.

After Jim passed the farm was sold and an auction was held to dispose of the personal property.

The barn as it stood on auction day 1988.

Auction day. 

The 2 men holding auction items up (you'll see them later in the family picture) is brother in law Doug on the left, and brother Pat on the right.

Fast forward to present. . . December  28th, 2014. 

The Rackers family graciously invited the Tappel clan to come see the house. 

It has been restored on the outside and is used as a family gathering place. It's a hunting lodge, a farming house, and a summer and winter retreat.

Inside, they added running water, including a bathroom, and refreshed the wiring. Much of the interior still looked like it did in June of 1988. Memories!!!

This is the majestic queen as she stands today, completely refreshed with new siding, new railings & floors on the porches, new roof, and new windows. 

The back side. 

The barn has a fresh coat of paint.

All the bedrooms upstairs have these great porches!

Just as Grandma had, the kitchen still has a wood cook stove.

The house has a cut limestone foundation with a full basement. This is a view going up the stairs from the basement.

The house has all the original wood floors. Note next to the sink, they kept the old cistern pump.

This was found on one of the bedroom walls. Uncle Jim must have written this at a very early age, as he misspelled his last name. 

The spring still running.

Inside, the Rackers had even decorated a fresh cut cedar tree for the season. 

The current generation of the Tappels include eight children.  Of these eight, Pat, Darlene, Marla, Bernard (the blacksmith) and Janie made the visit.

The 5 with their spouses. Pat and Doug, (shown on auction day holding up dishes) are the first two on the left back row. 

One last photo, Janie said, "Mom always took my picture on this sidewalk holding a doll." Her youngest brother Pat, was the only doll she could find on this day.

We want to give a big Thank You to the Rackers family for the invite, the coffee and cookies,  and the house and barn tours. It was great hearing stories of the house and farm by both families.

Connor Turns 2

First I must apologize for being so far behind.  Our trip to Florida, then Christmas, New Years, and life got in my blogging way.

We flew to Florida the first week of December. After all, Sarah and Connor both have birthdays that first week. Rusty has one 3 weeks later. So it was time to celebrate.

I appliqued a birthday shirt for Connor. He is a real CARS man!

Of course, his cake had to have cars too.

Grandpa and I gave him his first tricycle. He seemed to really like it right off the bat.

Uncle Jeremy and Aunt Lori gave him what appeared to be his favorite toy of his celebration.

The following Monday it was off to Disney World. Sadly, it was a heavy mist all day long. Did I mention all day?

Connor was a pretty good sport most of the time wearing his Mickey Mouse rain poncho. Here he and Grandpa are waiting in the long line for one of the rides.

The cars was his favorite ride. The rain didn't dampen his spirits. He cried every time we'd take him out. So Grandpa or Daddy would take him back again!

Connor meets Goofy, and from here it went down hill.

He was not happy to meet Donald . . .

. . or Mickey Mouse either.

We did, finally, after about 20 pictures to get one almost good picture.

On Tuesday we went to see Santa. That too did not go well. Had Connor known Santa was standing in behind him, there would have been more tears.

The rest of the week we chilled out at home. The little guy had plenty of new toys to play with. There were daily walks with Grandpa "outside".

It was our coldest trip ever to Florida. Coats were necessary almost every day. It gets harder every time to say good bye. This is our traditional front porch picture.

Our daughter had been nominated for an Emmy. She is a news producer for WFTV in Orlando

The day after we left our daughter and husband got all dressed up for the award ceremony. Aren't they adorable?  Even baby boy #2 is in the picture! She didn't get a statue, but still it is a great honor to be nominated.

That's Connor's birthday week.