Remember these?

How many of these old check boxes do you have?  I can remember giving and receiving many a gifts in them. 

As I was cleaning out some bathroom drawers this week, I found them holding old bobbie pins, dental floss, razors and a lot of junk. 

This one rests on my closet shelf. It holds a mortar board gift box dated 1964. Apparently something the blacksmith received when he graduated from 8th grade. It also holds funeral cards from many years ago and some kind of gold metal flower thing, apparently broke off of something lost long ago. 

But now, these are things of the past.

Last week when my new checks arrived, they came in this book form. There are 3 books on each side of this folder. Now just how am I going to wrap gifts in this folder?

A new quilt, an old friend, and a free dinner

I made  a new quilt for my Casita. It won't show much, as I needed to add a layer to warm us on cold night. This one was an experiment. It's a scrappy quilt with a cotton batting. I tried my hand at some machine quilting. My main thought in doing that, was to get some very close stitches for depth. 

 Here's a few samples of my stitching. 

 I spy a star. 

 I almost got dizzy on this red block.

I even tried some writing.

 I did some stippling in the blue here. Can you see it Margie?

Speaking of Margie, here she is . . .  

Tonight's dinner was courtesy of her and Phil . . . well partially anyway. They raise meat rabbits. When we were at their place two weeks ago, they gave us a fresh butchered one.

Our free dinner. Well we grew the potatoes, the tomatoes, and the corn, and when you go to the garden and pick it, it makes you think it's free food. 

 Now if I just had a lemon tree! Thank you Jello.

Margie look, the blacksmith put his touch mark on the back of your "Gnome on the Range". Lucky you, he never puts his mark on what he makes for me.

Good friends and good food, life is good!

Back to normal

The blacksmith made it home shortly after noon on Sunday. It was so good to have him back home.  Being gone eight days only makes the heart grow fonder! 

The son and family invited us over for a birthday dinner last night. His fried fish was excellent! I had baked the blacksmith a birthday cake, white cake with chocolate icing. He confirmed this was his brother's favorite kind, after I was warned by the daughter it was wrong. His favorite is chocolate cake with white icing! In this picture he seems to be pretty pleased with his cake topper.

It is a small anvil I found last week in an antique store.It is from the 1904 World's Fair that was held in St Louis Missouri. The anvil celebrates the 100th anniversary of the Louisiana purchase in 1804.

Since's he's back, I guess my antiquing days are over with for a while. However I did find some great finds.

You probably heard me squeal Saturday when I found not one but two of these fans. Hilltop Market was an IGA grocery store that my aunt and uncle owned from sometime in the 40's to the late 60's. Now my sister and I each have a parlor/funeral fan from Uncle Ross and Aunt Tessie's store!

This, I purchased yesterday from EBay. I priced this same machine locally and it was $150 higher. It will be my first attempt at machine embroidery.

This I also purchased from EBay, a naked blacksmith! Need I say more?  It will be made into a necklace.

Praise the Lord, we finally got rain yesterday. It was our first measurable rain since March.  Looks like about 1/2 inch was in the rain gauge!

Grand baby is doing great. He's 22 weeks now.  Isn't she cute!

Now back to normal, what ever that is . . .

Today the government starts paying HIM

Yes today is the Blacksmith's 62nd Birthday.  Oh how I wish he was here so I could give him a big hug, or bake him a cake, or ask him for some help . . . but for the 38th year, he is gone on his birthday. He always goes on a primitive muzzle loading squirrel hunt. 

And this is why I could use his help. Our black lab Bentley was bitten, we believe by a snake. He wasn't far from me or the grand daughter when he gave out 2 little barks. But soon he started acting different, then his eyes swelled shut, his whole face started growing. I called the vet, first we give him ibuprofen (we used liquid children's stuff), later he will get antibiotics. 

So from this day on the government will pay the blacksmith to stay alive!!  

Happy Birthday Bernie!

Half way week

Here are my pot holders I won last night. They were made by Debbie who has Deb's place blog. Her mother is a blogger friend of mine and she recognized me at the first quilt guide meeting. 

It was a great night at the Missouri River Quilt guild, it was picnic night. Everyone brought a dish . . .  cakes, casseroles, fried chicken, hand dipped chocolate covered cherries, scones, fresh sliced tomatoes, bruschetta,  meatballs, and the list goes on and on. After all there were over 70 ladies there! 

Here is a pic of the blacksmith and his friend Kenny, as they prepared to leave on their 8 day hunting trip. Can you see who is guarding the jeep?

I wasn't the only one that didn't want him to leave. 

So while the cat is away, the mouse will play!

I found this antique soap holder on my first stop at the antique store. 

This ice scraper was only $2, maybe it doesn't look great to you, but the service station it came from belonged to the blacksmith's uncle! 

This was my jack pot find. It's Rowe Pottery dated 1993, and I am so proud of myself for asking if they would take less, then offering $10 less than it was marked, and got it!

I can't wait to see what rest of my week will produce.

My new threads

Tonight is quilt guild. 

I think I will wear my new handkerchief blouse. Thanks to my friend Mara, I ended up with enough for my all purple top. Here is my  hankie shirt that I made two years ago.

My next one just might be out of Christmas hankies!

 Front view

 Back view. It makes me wonder if the top two hankies didn't come in the same pack?

For quilt guild tonight it's a pot holder exchange. Bring 2 get 2! It's also picnic night. 

Here are my two potholders. 

Stay tuned for what I bring home!

Our trip to Hamilton Missouri

The trip started out Thursday with someone not too happy that we were leaving. Sorry Bentley you can't go this time. Probably not next time either.

We would be attending the Hamilton Seam Engine show with our good friends Margie and Phil.

Margie was a great host. She took me to Missouri Star Quilt Company. If you are a quilter and you don't know about this place, you should!  Their daily deals are so cool, and they are always available for $5 shipping.

I even found Judy Laquidara's book.  See Judy I took a picture just for you.

 We then got a personal tour of their warehouse a block away from the store, thanks to Margie's classmate.

I found this funny, all through the fair grounds were pink port a potties.  The doors were labeled "women only". Would you believe it didn't always stop the men???

 Later in the evening we watch the horse pull.  The horses were beautiful!

Phil makes two antique freezers full of homemade vanilla ice cream! One freezer was dated 1923, the others was a present for his parents on their wedding day.

Here's the Saturday blacksmiths enjoying Phil's homemade ice cream along with my fresh canned peaches!

 Margie and I pose for a quick pic.

Margie took me antiquing where I found this canvas bag. My Dad worked for the Missouri Highway Department when I was a kid. These were always coming home with sand in them.

I found this at the flea market. It's a moth ball container. It still has the original F.W. Woolworth sticker on it!

I even helped Phil by being his striker!

We had an awesome time with our friends, Margie and Phil, exchanged many stories, shared our food, and enjoyed their great town.