2017 in review

March 1st, brought much sadness as my mother who was 93 passed away. It was peacefully in her bed, in her room, at home. My sister and I were both with her when her time on earth came to an end. She was a beautiful woman, inside and out. She was always so giving. I have so many remembrances from her around the house. She would go to town and come home with something she saw that she thought I would like.  

 This photo was taken a couple days before she gave me her wedding ring.

Mom loved Blue Boy and Pinkie. She painted  2 large paint by numbers when my husband and I were dating, waiting for me to come home at night. It always had to be by midnight, including the night before our wedding! 

Almost 2 year old Logan got to fly home with his Mom for the funeral. I'm not sure what he was eating, however it must have been good, it's all over his face. 

 A cool little dude, enjoying cooler weather in Missouri than his home state of Florida.

My sister, my brother and I enjoying a meal at Ecco, mine and my brothers favorite hang out. He grew up near there and now resides in California.

Spring concert at Lizzie's (on the right) school. Here she is with her best friend (and second cousin) Laycee.

Mother's ring on the bottom, mine on the top. Both were remade many years ago by a grade school friend Kas A Designs.

We went to Florida in April. The little one turned 2.

He loved the rocking chair we got him.

 Our farewell photo, always a must.

 Our Missouri kids at Easter!

A quilted wall hanging I made for the Missouri Blacksmith Association annual auction. 

Hubby and my basket making friend Pattie do a little forging. She was up from Georgia to teach a foot stool weaving class at our annual conference.

I got a private class at home!

We took her to meet Joe and Alice Dudenhoeffer. They are expert basket makers like Pattie.

 Of course she and I did a little shopping at the basket shop too.

 Some of the best guys, are those at a BAM conference. 

 . . . .along with their spouses and mother!

 This was one of our purchases at the auction.

 A good picture, my friend Beverley took of us. Sometimes we do clean up pretty good.

 Pattie and Patti!

The blacksmith and I put down new deck flooring. He forged all new railing. Here the grandsons help.

 It's a beautiful deck. I am so proud of his work.

A quilt I pieced for my friend Margaret. It's for her great grandson. 

 Of course Margaret's great granddaughter wasn't left out. 

 Lizzie got back into making pillow cases. She's a wiz at sewing theses on the hand crank  machine.

We went to the annual gathering of fantastic knife makers in Cedar Hill. Thanks to Bonita and Hank for hosting. Good friends, good food, good times. 

 I pieced a patriotic quilt for St. Margaret's Church. Here we are hand quilting it. 

Some close up detail, the Eagle had 121 pieces of fabric, the entire quilt had over 2500 pieces.

 Carol, an old neighbor and classmate, made the beautiful embroidered label. 

 It sold for $5000.00, yep you read that right. My buttons were popping off! 

One of our biggest Ox Heart tomatoes. We had tons of them. We'd give away buckets full and two days later there would be more buckets. Next year, we must cut down on plants.

 Central dairy ice cream before heading back to school.

 I need to learn to take selfies with all of us in one picture.

 This was prior to eating ice cream!

We enjoyed the Hamilton Missouri steam engine show for a couple of days. Margie, Willy and I got to ride in Phil's beautiful truck all through town in their parade. 

 Eclipse 2017, who didn't celebrate???  This is a group of us that gathered in Osage Bend. 

My high school friend, and  wedding singer Rita, and her husband came for the event. He took some fantastic pictures. Of course we celebrated with Moon pies. 

I pieced this top for Sarah, not my Sarah. This is the daughter of my babysitter, 40 years ago!

Speaking of 40 years ago, guess who turned 40?  Yep our son Jeremy. I love this shot I captured, when his sister who flew in from Florida for 36 hours to celebrate with him!

 A great family photo!

We saw Joe and Alice doing a show and I purchased the coolest basket from him. It has a swinging handle. I don't think I have enough fingers and toes to count all of their baskets I have. 

 Our Florida Hulk and spider man!

After 15 years I redecorated our bedroom. This quilt was made out of vintage fabrics. Some of which came from my great grandfathers general store in Stanton, Missouri. I hand quilted the entire thing. 

 Our Bentley. He's not aging so well. He's 12 years old now. Deaf, and blind in one eye.

All three Missouri kids got deer. For Lizzie, it was her first. For Brady, it was his first as a solo hunter!

 Another quilt for Margaret!

 I pieced this scrappy quilt for me. some day I will hand quilt it. 

December found us back in Florida for Connor's 5th birthday. We made a trip to Lego land. 

 Can you tell his birthday theme was Minions???

 The daughter turned ummm. . .   well she turned another year. 

 As did her husband! We all enjoyed the trip to NASA.

Logan enjoyed it until he came to the see through tunnel and could see the story below him, Grandpa to the rescue.

 Birthday margaritas for Sarah and I. 

 The December goodbye, until next time picture. 

Margaret had this quilt top of baskets that her mother pieced 50-70 years ago. I added borders to make it queen size. I will bind it after she gets it hand quilted. 

 Christmas 2017, I received this unexpected gift from a blacksmith's wife. It is gorgeous.

Margaret, no wait, Margaret's' neighbor brought me these hand appliqued blocks. She also brought the vintage yellow and muslin fabric. I had the 36 inch wide green. I did purchase 2 yards of muslin. Just barely, did I have enough fabric to make a queen size top. 

HA! My contribution to the Tappel Christmas gathering. No longer will they talk about my copper pennies (Marinated carrots).

 Christmas 2017.

We are ending the year with making Krumkakes. In the past few days we have made 3 batches. 

I can't wait to see what 2018 brings us. I know right away our Florida kids are coming home for a week. It's a first. I'm busy gathering winter clothes for them. As I type it's 15 degrees, with the lows below zero.

Here's to a healthy happy 2018 to you all. Thanks for reading. 

January and February 2017, catch up

January brought much sadness to us. We lost a really good blacksmith friend. Preston had gone out to cut some wood. He had gone well prepared, including his hard hard. As he was cutting a tree, the limb fell on him, killing him instantly.

At his burial, we brought an anvil for Preston's final ringing. It was very touching.

 January 5th, my hubby brought me bittersweet from the woods. Sweet!

I worked up this quilt from scarps of another project. I want to make it bigger. A friend sent me some vintage fabric. Someday I will add borders.

This paper piece pattern I bought many years ago. This is the month I started on many UFO. 

 This is the back with the tissue paper still sewn on.

 After the paper is ripped off.

January 22, I final get it to lay flat. Now to hand quilt it. You might wonder how big is it? It's

38 inches square. The starburst alone has 1090 pieces. 

 The patriotic quilt is now finished with the hand quilting. More on this as the year progresses.

The tree trimmers hired by the electric cooperative have invaded our land!  UGH, over 20 trees taken down. I baked them cookies, to use as a bribing tool. I might have well eaten the cookies myself, they didn't work.

 January 31, time to replace the ironing board cover.

My quilting friends took me to Blue Skillet Soul restaurant for my 65th birthday. The food was fabulous. As for the birthday, I'll take it, a birthday is always better than the alternative.

Up next is my project for the Blacksmiths association of Missouri Conference. I now have the official state map, cut to size. I'm wondering if I can put it in the car that way. Once again stay tuned for the rest of this project.

 This was valentine's day at quilting. Charlotte set a beautiful table with some great treats.

As he has done the past 46 years, the hubby gave me a heart shaped box of dark chocolates. My only regret is I didn't save all those heart boxes.

February 18, I finished this baby quilt. It too is made from left over scraps.

Life is Good!

A Quilter's luncheon

I invited my quilting friends from St. Margaret Church over for a luncheon. The weather didn't cooperate as the roads got slick. Thanks to a husband or two they all arrived safely. 

 I forgot to take an after picture but I made them all  spool doilies.

I had 7 decorated trees up.

I also had all 19 of my vintage sewing machines on display with their history.

 From left to right here is what's in this room:

1948 Singer 66 from a friend (who I actually dated once). His mother Ruth Ott, owned the Singer store in Jefferson City for years. This machine features what is called a Godzilla finish.

1953 Elna Supermatic. I was telling my friend I was looking for a Singer featherweight. She told me about a machine in a case her late husband had in their garage. Next thing I knew she gave it to me. In it's day, it was considered a fancy machine. According to the book with this machine it belonged to Gladys Ewing Niehaus from Lamar, Missouri. According to google she was born in 1900 and died in 1985. This machines operates with a knee bar.

1952 Singer model #301 bought at a Moffet auction for $10. It features a slant needle and will sew blue jeans with no effort at all. 

I was given a singer 1961 Singer Rocketter from Jim McCarty. You might know him as the editor of The Rural Missouri newspaper. This machine will do zig-zag by putting different cams in it.

Franklin machine treadle, bought this at Bernie's cousin’s auction in July 1994. She sewed all her dresses with this and quilt tops too.

1911 Singer 24-62 a chain stitch only machine bought at Moffet auction. Machine is working, but the cabinet needs to be restored.

1931 Singer model 99, hand crank. We had no intention of buying a sewing machine at the Gratz auction, until we saw this beauty early in the day. It wouldn't be sold until late afternoon. Being a few miles from the auction we went home to research it. We returned just shortly before bidding began. Luckily we won. It wasn't in this pristine shape. My friend Phil restored the machine. It sews beautifully.

My friend Pattie called me from Georgia, she had found this 1904 Singer 15 K in her garage and wanted to know if I wanted. The price was right, FREE. I restored the cabinet and Phil restored the machine. It features a sphinx decal. This decal isn't seen too often on the singers machines. 

1949 Featherweight 221 at Cornerstone Antiques in Fulton. My friend Sharon runs this shop. She had advertised it on craigslist. The case even had the original bill of sale. It was sold in 1949 for $145.00. That is after Mrs Snyder traded in a Franklin machine. She made a down payment of $29.00 plus $2.90 tax. Featherweights are one of the most sought after machines. Not my favorite, yet I still have 3 of them.

I saw this 1954 Featherweight 221 on Jefferson City Craigslist. I was the first to call. The young man had no clue what he was selling. It was $25 dollars. It has everything original with it, the booklet, the oil can, the grease tube and all the accessories. I didn't need it, but I would have been crazy to pass it up for this price. I could easily resell it for $300-$400.

1949 Singer Featherweight 221 at a rummage sale for $50, another bargain just too good to pass up. 

 

I found this Singer 15-91 dated 1952 (my birth year) at Missouri Blvd Antiques. The cabinet is model #56. The machine has been modified with a special foot which enables me to machine quilt. That is the only thing I use this machine for.

Maybe my most beautiful buy. It's a 1919 Singer 66 Red eye in a parlor cabinet. I found it on craigslist in Washington, Missouri. The cabinet is tiger oak and has 9 doors and 5 drawers. This machine was equipped to sew either using electricity or treadle. We did no restoration to the machine or cabinet. It sewed perfect when we got it home. In goes in the cabinet in a very different way.

My sister in law called from Truman Flea Market saying they had one of those old black machines, was I interested? They had no clue what the machine was. However when she told me it was $55, I had her buy it sight unseen. It's a Singer 99 dated 1956. It's My most used machine. I do most all of my piecing on it.

 

I got this 1912 Wilcox & Gibbs from the local Goodwill after a Facebook friend brought it to my attention. This machine only sews a chain stitch. It was $30. Check out the foot control. It's pretty neat and it weighs a ton!

I bought a White Rotary machine from Darlene Wolken. According to the book found in the Martha Washington cabinet that houses this machine, it belonged to Nora Lydia Pries, she was born in 1898. She married William Carl Brandt and had 4 sons according to the 1940 census in Illinois. At that time her boys were: Leroy 18, Floyd 8, Wayne 6, and Delmar was one year old. They lived on Second street in St. Peters, Illinois.

In my search I found that her husband died in 1952 at the Jefferson Barracks Veterans Hospital. He was born August 11, 1892, this making him only 59 when he died. She was widowed at the age of 54. Nora died on July 13, 1982, at the age of 84.

Further in my search, I am pretty sure she married some years later to a Mr. Washington. In her son Leroy's obituary in 1968, it listed his mother as Nora Washington. Leroy was injured in World War II and lost the use of both legs. I found quite a military story about Leroy on line. It's always fun to learn the history of the antiques I acquire. (Darlene is one of the ladies I quilt with and she was at the luncheon)

I wish all the quilters could have come, but illness and weather made that impossible.

Here Rita and Janet and several others of us played some card game that Darlene (a.k.a. Miss
gameoholic) brought.

Ready for lunch. (This wasn't the exact table setting but close)

This is the quilt we are working on now. Does it look familiar? Yes it's the patriotic quilt I pieced. You see I owe these ladies a meal and more for quilting it! Willie, Henrietta and Virginia are quilting away.

Yep, that's me in the back. Thank you Janet for the photos. Here Hilda and Marilyn are
helping.

The end of 2016 is here. To my quilting buddies I toast you to many more tiny stitches, lots of laughter, great fellowship and good snacks! I love you gals.

Sew on  ~ ~ ~ ~