Osage Bend Picnic, Quilts 2011

Sunday August 7th was St Margaret's Picnic. As usual the food was delicious, golden fried chicken, pot roast smothered in gravy, mashed potatoes, corn, green beans, the best cole slaw and even fresh sliced homegrown tomatoes. I particularly liked the bowl of fried chicken livers that were placed on the table in front of me, not to mention the raisin pie I picked from the dessert table.

After stuffing myself I went outside to see the quilts. Forgive me ladies, if I got the names mixed up.

Rail Fence

Stars around the Galaxy

9 patch

Wild Cats

Heart Patch

Log Cabin pastels

Red and White ABC's

This one was adorable. It measured 41 by 58

Double wedding ring

Star Garden

Traditional Log Cabin

If I would have bid on one, this would be it.
 I loved it.
I even found some selvages used in the blocks.
 It measured 101 by 111.

Broken Star

The heat was drippy. 
So much humidity.
We left before the auction started.
 I hear the 28 quilts bought in about $10,000 for the parish.

This grand child was more interested in the refreshments instead of looking at quilts.

About an hour after this the heavens opened up, the winds blew storm storms in with lots of rain. Thankfully the quilts were unharmed!

Another beautiful day in the country!

That's no bull!

What a majestic old barn. This timber frame structure has been in the blacksmith's family since he was 5 years old. Whether you view it in black and white....

 or color, it's still beautiful.

It now belongs to my BIL, Pat. Wouldn't a barn quilt look awesome on it?  I've been after him to let me put one up , but he keeps saying he's going to paint the barn. Three years later the barn isn't painted and the quilt isn't up.

I had the chance to photograph it last night when we were there.  You know some times you are asked to feed the neighbor's dog, or watch their cat, or even feed Johnny's gold fish. Well we had to feed this . . .

and that's bull!!!!!

Tomato soup recipe

Okay gals here is the recipe a few of you have asked for. The soup will be a great thing to have on a cold snowy day, which is what would be nice after the record breaking temperature's we have had here this week.

15 lbs ripe tomatoes (I weighed before I cored)
4 large onions, chopped
4 stalks celery, chopped
1 red pepper

Core and quarter tomatoes, add all the vegetables and cook until tender.
Put through sieve.

I use a Norpro Sauce Master like this one.

Now take:
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup salt (I used just a little less)
1/2 cup butter (Yes I used real butter)
1/2 cup flour (I use more like 3/4 cup, I like a thicker soup)

Mix all this together with a fork, a pastry blender might work. You want it to be smashed well.

Mix dry mix with tomato pulp and boil together for 5 minutes.

Ladle into quart jars and seal. (This gave me 6 quarts and 1 pint)

Pressure cook for 15 minutes at 15 pounds pressure.

When you heat the soup this winter, do not let it boil. I like to add a little bit of milk to tame it down.

I can't take credit for this recipe without giving credit to the blacksmith's aunt Mary.

Enjoy!!!!

I am seeing RED

I feel like I've been MIA. It's just that I we've been busy with canning, watering (heat indices of 110 and rising), and cutting lots of red fabric. Plus taking care of the 3 grand kids, for a 3 day weekend while their parents went on an adults only float trip.

I started cutting the red 5 inch squares I won from Sew Many Ways into 2 1/2 inch squares. I found some blue to add to the color and now it's time to sew. And the red and white fabric inside the blue squares, are the selvages I won. No waste here!

I found the pattern in this book. I support my local quilt shop and found this book and many more I really wanted to bring home with me.

Here is more red we made last night, 6 quarts and 1 pint of homemade tomato soup. Bring on wintertime, I'm ready for it now. (More ways than one!)

I'll leave you with some of the fun the boys had over the weekend with their big wheels.

He's 10 YEARS old!

Our oldest grandson turns 10 today.

He is spending the day with us.

These pictures were taken Sunday at his bowling party.

His mom made the cake. She is so talented.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY "B"

Some days you just have to play!

No quilting today. No canning today. No cleaning the house today.

The grands needed playmates so the blacksmith and I headed to the Osage river. After all it was 94 degrees out!

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

There were three sisters whose Mother embroidered 6 quilt blocks for them. All 18 blocks were done in the same blue threads. None of the sisters sew or quilt. The oldest sister asked if I would make hers into a quilt. I said yes, but I won't quilt it. I will set it together for you. You get it quilted and then I will bind it.

This is what sister R's looked like. She had it machine quilted and it turned out beautiful. The quilter took the time to enhance the pattern, going around small pieces. The blocks and the pattern really stood out.

Sister M found out that I made R's into a quilt and asked me if I would piece one for her. Again I gave the same spiel. She too took it to the same quilter and it turned out beautiful. There was nice detailing going around all the points.

Sister M then saw the other two and asked me to set hers together too. What a challenge it was in our small town, with only 3 fabric stores to choose from, to find different blues all in the same shade. But I persevered and it all worked out good. I spent a little more time on this one, piecing the borders, which meant a lot more cutting of the fabrics. These blues had a little metallic threads in them and the fabric was just beautiful. The same quilter did this one.

Now I have nothing against machine quilting. I even used the same quilter several times and I know machine quilting can be just as beautiful as hand, maybe even more so.

And then it came back to me for binding and this is what I saw.

Glad I am not the beholder.