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.

My New Years resolutions . . . NOT

I don't make resolutions.

I can't keep resolutions.

I'm not good with will power.

I'm not good at keeping secrets.

But I do know what I'd like to accomplish.

I started my version of a Dear Jane quilt a couple of years ago.

I'd like to finish it this year.

I started this cute paper piece project of the season last year.

Both of these projects I'd like to finish in 2011.

But you know If I don't there will always be another year.

This week I've been marking a quilt top.

Tonight I finally got it in the frame.

All it took was a little help from my mother in law,

via the web cam

on exactly how to put it in the frame.

So for the time being the Dear Jane quilt

and

the season quilt blocks are just gonna have to wait.

I've got a lot of hand quilting to do.

If any of you quilters want to join me . . . come on over.

I've already had an offer from My Loves, my life.

I will supply thread, needle, and coffee with dessert!

Mom is in town!

The blacksmith's mother is home from Texas for a couple of weeks. After doing our grocery and errand shopping on Tuesday, we picked her up at BT's sisters house.

It's always good to visit with her. Nothing like talking in person, rather than over the phone or the web cam.

She and I quilted Tuesday afternoon. She is a pro at quilting. She has done it many more years than I have.

I stopped about 4:00 and made a big pot of split pea and ham soup. At dinner time the grand kids and their parents came. So great grandma got to see the little ones.

After dinner, the guys worked on grinding pork and venison. Jeremy will be smoking 100 pounds of deer sausage this weekend.

I took the MIL home about 8:00 PM.

Wednesday morning, I set a pan of cinnamon rolls to rise. As I put them into the oven, the blacksmith went to pick up his mom. She was coming for breakfast. I fried some sausage and made another pot of coffee.

While we quilted after breakfast, I cooked a big pot of the pork left over from sausage making.

After the meat cooked off the bones, BT and Mom ground the meat. She then made us a huge batch of panhaus. I froze about 7 containers. She cooked enough to make three pans full.

For those of you not familiar with panhaus; it is cooked pork, some of the broth, salt, pepper, cloves, allspice, cornmeal and flour. You cook it until it's very thick and then pour into loaf pans. After it is cooled, usually overnight in the refrigerator, you slice and fry it. OMG so good!

Here BT lifts the heavy pan while Mom scrapes out the panhaus into the loaf pans.

The rest of the afternoon, she and I quilted. We reached the half way mark.

She wanted to go home before I started dinner. Needless to say we had some extra fried chicken left after dinner, since I had bought and fixed enough for three.

This evening we will go to BT's sister house. Mom is making lasagna and 4 homemade pies for all the family tonight. She has cleaned out some of her storage and is having a lottery drawing for her kids.

As for now, it's time to fry some panhaus for breakfast, and then back to my quilting!

Day 2 of quilting

My baby sister loved playing around Grandma's quilting frames today.
Grandma had just rolled her quilt for the first roll. Whatever that means?

My baby sister is really trying to get Grandma's attention.

Then my baby sister got into Grandma's books.

As written and photographed by me, Alex. 5 years old.

Valentine's Day 2010

This is what I found on my kitchen counter when I woke this morning. He didn't let me down. For 42 years now, I have gotten candy. Candy is one of my biggest weaknesses. I've tried to overcome chocolate, but I just can't kick that habit.

I thought for sure, I wouldn't get candy this year. He's retired and stays home most of the time unless we go together. It was a mystery how he had bought candy without me knowing.

Come to find out after I left for work last Friday morning, he made a very quick trip to town.

Man I love that Man!!!

It was so cold out today. The temperatures stayed around 25 all day with lots of wind. So we pretty much stayed inside. Dear hubby helped me square up my quilt and put it in the frame. So this is what my living room looks like now.

Now if I can just get my fingers, hands, and elbows conditioned overnight! Please feel free to come and help me quilt!

Check out the Blacksmith's blog too.

Blacksmith 101

This is Derick. As he will tell you he's in 8th grade but gonna be a freshmen next year. (Remember when we were that age we always wanted to be a year older?) He is BT's great-nephew.

Here he's working on a tinner's anvil that BT sent him home with today, along with 2 sacks of coal. Too bad he didn't send him with a hammer. Oh well, good advertisement I guess for a Stanley product.








This is a spare stump we really didn't use. Derick's Dad had gotten him this so called anvil. He is using a better hammer. Well for a while it was better. That is until the screws came out of the top and the head flew off.









BT is helping him with his fire. Nice forge too. Actually Derick knew it was in the dump on the home place and dug it out. Notice the nice new motor on it.

This is the first hook Derick made by himself before we got there. Way to go Derick!












Last week Derick was here when the deer sausage making was going on. That is when he really took an interest in forging. This was his first lesson in making a hook.







BT made Derick a tomahawk. Here he's using the 50 Little giant Trip hammer on it.












A southpaw blacksmith.










The son captured this great photo of his Dad during the forge weld.

It so great to see the young interested in this craft. Blacksmithing like quilting is gaining popularity. If this young man keeps up his interest he will be helping us with demos. On second thought this young man has a younger sister, maybe I will see if she wants to learn to quilt!

Quilted wallhangings are finished!

Here they are finally! Rita from Reetrving asked me to make these for her friend in MN. I put them in the mail this morning.

I also add these for Rita as a special little gift. I found the pattern on someones blog. I can't remember who's, so thank you to who ever it was.

Now I have one day to clean house and plan my meal for Christmas night. the DIL loves fried chicken instead of turkey. As do the 2 grandsons. So fried chicken it will be. That is if I remember to remind the hubby to pick the chicken up at the butcher shop on Christmas eve day. If you can fry the chicken without it ever being frozen it is so much better.

Today I finished shopping. Yeppers I bought the last two presents today. I usually have my act a little more together but this year it is lacking. Can I blame it on the economy, the election, the weather, or the fact of getting older? I don't know.

I made an old family recipe from my mother in law yesterday. It is so good. Especially since BT and I have been picking out Missouri black walnuts. If you'd like to try it here is the recipe:

Cornflake Cookies

1 cup sugar

1 cup coconut

3 cups cornflakes

3 egg whites

1 cup nuts (we used black walnuts)

Beat egg whites until stiff. Add sugar and beat. then add coconut, nuts and corn flakes. Bet well and drop on ungreased cookies sheet using a teaspoon. Bake 300 20 minutes.

So good.

8:30 pm, 24 degress and a winter storm warning has been posted!

A quilt top finished

I had a fun two days creating a quilt out of 6 embroidered blocks for my friend Roseann. Her mother had finished the blocks for her.

It's amazing when you keep track, how much fabric goes into a quilt. Even with these large 17 square in inch blocks I bought 6 3/4 yards of fabric. I had enough to cut the binding already. My remaining amount were not enough to make a complete 1/4 yard. In fact the bind is just by inches enough.

She will now give it back to her mother to have it hand quilted! Lucky girl. My next project won't go near as fast. I have to create two wall hangings using some photographs.

Happy sewing!

Come draw with me

Do I have any volunteers to come and draw with me today? I am tracing some embroidery patterns.

Here is my first attempt to copy a pattern. It's taped to my patio door.

This is a series from Lynette Anderson Designs. It's actually a free download of 12 Noah Ark blocks. Visit her at Noah's Ark for your free copy.

Here is my primitive attempt (remember we are in hard times) to make my own version of a light box. Like my pink extension cord? It's one the husband doesn't carry off! Last week when the Direct TV service man was here they even joked about it. I guess BT pulled it out for him to use.


The box is from our entertainment center. I used a defective window for the glass. It's one we replaced and for some reason kept the damaged window in the attic. Cost for the light box is $0.00. You can't beat that.


Here is a closer look at the pattern, Over the River and through the Woods.... It's by Crab Apple Hill Studio.

So if anybody has free time, give me a call.

BREAKING NEWS:

LUND, Sweden, Oct. 19 (UPI) -- Drinking a lot of coffee reduces the size of many women's breasts, a Swedish researcher finds.
Helena Jernstrom, an oncologist at Lund University in southern Sweden, said that the effect is the result of a gene that about half of women possess, The Local reported.
"Drinking coffee can have a major effect on breast size," she said.
Jernstrom became interested in the subject because of research that has shown that large-breasted women are more likely to be diagnosed with breast cancer, while downing at least three cups of coffee a day reduces cancer risk. She decided to look for a correlation directly between drinking coffee and breast size and found one.
Her study tracked 270 women. Jernstrom's results were published in the British Journal of Cancer.

I don't know about you, but no more cappuccino latte, mocha's, espresso, foaming java for me. It's now VODKA!!!!!

Friday Auction!

It's very unusual for our area to have auctions during the week days. This Friday was an exception. An out of town auctioneer came for a house hold estate sale.

It just so happened the deceased lady was best friends to my Aunt Faye. Aunt Faye was my quilt mentor. She was a very generous and giving person. When I saw the pictures on the auctioneer's web site, I knew it had an Aunt Faye Quilt listed.

I was at the sale about 30 minutes before it started. The house sold first, then the Jeep Cherokee and then some of the furniture that was not removed from the house. Including the bedding. Luckily the one quilt I was interested in was on the first bed sold.

And that is how I became the owner of another Aunt Faye quilt.

Dresden plate right?

I stayed for 5 1/2 hours. I would have stayed until it was over, but unfortunately I had a hair appointment and I just couldn't cancel at such short notice to the hairdresser.

My son showed up at a great time, just after they started two bidding rings. He bid and won 4 antique folding wooden chairs for me, with a picture frame thrown in. Cost $5.00

I also won a big aluminum roast for the son.

Another great buy was a shopping bag with a full size bow tie quilt top in it. It also included a crochet table cloth which I gave to my sister without even taking a picture! The best thing in it was 103 of these pieces.

CAN YOU HELP ME OUT HERE?

Are they for a double wedding ring?

If so how many do I need?

Most of them are tacked together in pairs of 2.

Now for the part to make you wish you were there. I bought a shopping bag with a quilt top, quilt blocks and huge crochet table cloth.....cost $25.00. (I will try to take picture tomorrow of the quilt top.)

The last thing I bought was a big basket with tons of embroidery thread. Of course once again I gave it away to my Mom before I took a picture of it.

There were two binder rings of small plastic envelopes with thread in each bag. All were numbered and colored coordinated. The basket also had several pairs scissors, including 2 small gold bird looking embroidery scissors. The was a set of 12 quilt blocks, all cross stitched with the thread and instructions included. 2 or 3 of the blocks were finished. Several pieces of cross stitch fabric, some homemade lace or tatted lace, and a nice piece of linen and 1 piece of upholstery fabric. Such a buy for $12.50

It was such a fun day, I wish I could have stayed till the end. But you know a girl needs hair color once in awhile!

Two more quilts for Mom finished

I finished quilt two more quilts for Mom.

Mom finished this one in hopes, that it will be for her new great-grand baby due in April. That will be her 5th one.

Feedsack Friday

My friend over at Oodles and oodles is hosting Feed sack Friday. So I dug and dug and found these in my stash. Unfortunately I still have two feed sacks that will not come out of hiding. I remember them distinctly, one green, one pink. Anyway here is my very small stash.

I also am showing you two quilts. The signature block is that of my father. Bill Cardwell (1913-2000). This quilt making, I am assuming was hosted by his youngest sister, Faye. It has the names of her neighbors, church friends, sisters, mother, mother-in-law and the one signature of a male, my Dad!

Sister Faye was married in 1939, so I know it was made after that. Unless it was a wedding gift for her. There is no one left to ask the history. I received it after all of the above had died. I treasure it and I give thanks to my sister Lona for giving to me. She knows my love for quilts.

The other quilt is also made from some feed sacks, it came from my Mother's side of the family. Not sure of the maker as I was the first on that side of the family to make quilts.

Thanks Oodles and oodles for the memories you conjured up!

Busy week

BT and I have been off all week. We keep joking it's a practice week for retirement. The good news is we have gotten along all week. Bad news is retirement isn't close enough.

Monday afternoon we packed a cooler with sausage, cheese, crackers and drinks. We then loaded Bentley up and hit the river. My what a peaceful afternoon. We walked the beach and sat and watched the water flow by. There wasn't another boat on the river until we pulled in to the bank to take out. We saw one boat with 2 guys fishing.

Jeremy, Lori and the boys came over to fix a birthday dinner for BT. They bought T-Bones and Rib eyes. I made the salad and the potatoes. Of course we had BT's favorite cake, Chocolate with white icing. More on the high light of the night in next weeks blog......stayed tuned.

Tuesday we worked on the deck. First we applied a stripper, then a cleaner. BT worked in the blacksmith shop later in the day. He made a shovel for Jeremy's BBQ grill. I cut some grass.

Wednesday we put one coat of stain on the deck before noon. Thursday weather permitting, we will do another coat.

BT went back to the shop after we ate a late lunch or early dinner. He made 4 steak turners out of railroad spikes and 2 hand shovels for the flower beds. I made a baby doll quilt for little Josey. I had made her a quilt when she was born, she is now 3.

We delivered 2 steak turners and the baby doll quilt to Jeremy. We had to take a picture of Brady with his frog gig Grandpa made for him. He asked last night when he saw little bothers picture that we needed to take his picture. Then we took one of the hand shovels to Kathy. She thought it was too cool to use.

Back home we sat out front and watched the hummingbirds till dark.

73 degrees 9:51 and still sleeping with the windows open!

2 days down

With the hubby gone, I've been trying to keep busy.

Monday I worked all day. Played with the dog when I got home. Ate Gardetto's and an ice cream bar for dinner. Had a cup of hot tea for my bedtime treat. Watched the Olympics and once again slept with the windows open.

Today, I stayed on the computer the first 2 hours I was up. After that I ironed just the few pieces left over from the laundry. I then hemmed 5 pairs of school uniform pants for McKenzie. By this time it was just noon. My lunch was marinated grapes*. It was a beautiful day outside so I decided to travel to Lake Ozark to go shopping. On my way I crossed the bridge just below the Bagnall Dam.

I stopped at a couple of decorator's outlets, Marshall's, super Target, and last Circle of Friends Fabric and Quitting store. That's where I found myself a new Paper Piece book, titled "A year of Paper Piecing". Last but not least, McDonald's for a Large Sweet Tea!

It was then deck time with my new quilt book and the daily news paper. Then I cut some grass.

My Naked Ladies having finally bloomed this year. These bulbs were originally started from BT's Grandmother Martha. She was born in 1894 and never learned to read or write. There was a radio program called Kitchen Klatter during the 50's and 60's. She would listen to the recipe and tell her husband when he came home from work. He would write it down for her. Later if she wanted to make it again, he would read it before he left for work. As newly weds I loved going to her house. If it were an afternoon visit, she would have gallon jars of homemade cake donuts or popcorn and always orange soda. If it were for dinner, she would always have 2 kinds of meats.

I will close the evening out by watching the Olympics. And who knows what will be my dinner. maybe popcorn and ice cream?!?

7:16 PM 79 degrees.

*Recipe for Marinated Grapes

1 cup sour cream (not lite)

1/2 cup sugar

1 teaspoon Vanilla

Mix well, add stemmed seedless grapes. (Purple are my favorite)

Chill well, OH SO GOOD!