Boy Baby Quilt

Enjoyed a baby shower recently for one of my niece's who is expecting her first baby in January.  I have seen similar quilts in the latest quilt magazines, and I always love doing scrap quilts.  This one was a great one to pull out the 2 1/2" strip drawer....yes I said drawer.  I have drawers for strips starting at 1" all the way up to 5" and every 1/4" in between.  Is this a problem that I could share that tidbit of information and it doesn't bother me what anyone thinks about that????  But I digress.....Any hoo..... I  pulled all of the blue and yellow strips that I thought would play well together.

Then I found a basket full of novelty samples, that someone gave me a long time ago and I cut up several of those to add to the mix.  I love to use novelties in all of my quilts.  It is like finding a surprise picture in the piece.

I quilted it with a simple all over loop 't loop.  And to make the binding scrappy.... I used some of the leftover blue strips and pieced them together to do the binding.  I did cut them down to 2" wide instead of 2 1/2".  A very simple, fun piece with a lot of possible color variations to make it your own.  :)

Veteran's Day

Words cannot adequately describe the sacrifice and commitment that it takes to serve in our nation's military.  I just wanted to take a moment today and honor that debt that we often times take for granted today. 

This little piece of clip art reminded me of the day our son-in-law got to come back home from Iraq to the cul-du-sac.....and the warm reception he was greeted by neighbors, friends and family.

The emotions are still so unbelievably fresh as I gaze on these moments in time.

Thank you Shane for your service and sacrifice.   

Thank you Lord for bringing him back to us safe and sound.

Journaling

Mail and packages.....I don't know about you, but I love getting "good mail" and packages....especially surprise ones.  In this day and age of electronic every thing, this kind of mail is hard to come by.  Every fall I get this little box in the mail.  It is always a surprise when it comes, not because I don't know what it is, because I do.  But I kinda forget when fall rolls around and all of a sudden it shows up in my mailbox.  Oh yes, it is October and time to get the new book for next year!!!!

Back to the beginning..... about 17 years ago, I received a book offer in the mail from the Michel Design Works wanting to know if I wanted to purchase a diary for the coming year.  The glossy insert of sample pages was VERY enticing.  I wondered if my appeal for the pretty book was enough to get me to write in it EVERY day.  Could I keep up or would I get bored with the whole thing?  I really was not sure.

So I thought, I will give it a whirl and order one.  And guess what?  I did fill it out every day......365 days.....for 17 years.

You can see how stuffed some of the books get by the end of the year.  I probably should find a better place to keep them, they are just stacked in the corner of my bedroom.  I don't want them too far out of reach because I refer to them often.

My only regret is that I didn't do this earlier when my kids were small.  Oh the things I know I have forgotten.  I am lucky to remember what happened yesterday.....really.  I have a better record of the grand kids than I do of my own girls.  Which there is some benefit to that too....as the moms are so busy, I know....  been there, done that.

So the book for 2012 has arrived with the potential to hold a lot of activities and emotions that ebb and flow through the days and nights ahead.  Every year I do a mental discussion do I want to do another year, so far the answer has been yes.

There is a place to write down appointments and a modest space to journal every day.  There are special two page spreads with prompts to direct your writings for special holidays and includes extras pages in the back for special occasions and birthdays.  There is also a page to make your very own index for each book.  I include photos, newspaper clippings, ticket stubs and other mundane paper items in each book.  I have even glued in extra pages in some of them to include special items.  I write about my cooking and lack there of recently, entertaining......haven't done much of that in 3 LONG years (but hope to get back to that soon), my sewing quilting projects, silly things the grand kids say or do....naughty things too.  It is what it is.

I will just tell you the artwork and quotes included on each page are beautiful.  I did notice recently that Barnes & Noble had them, at least at our local store, it was not a hard bound book.  But if you wanted to leaf through one, you could see it there.  I am including the website below, if you want to order your own copy and start a new tradition for your own family.  You won't be sorry.

http://ourcountrydiary.com/

Last Garden Tomatoes and Old Recipes

Hot Spanish Sandwiches 

Well I must say, my tomatoes were not the prettiest this year as you can see and for some reason were kind of slow coming around.....the season seemed to be short. 

I decided to make Spanish Sandwiches, a recipe I haven't made for years and one ALL my girls absolutely hate.  So why am I sharing this with you..... because the Silver Fox and I like them and I can eat them with a few modifications.  I got this recipe from a dear lady already in Glory (who I might add, died and saw the pearly gates of heaven, then came back to earth for a time and told about them)....my dear friend's mother, Juanita.

I have been cooking my bacon in the oven lately....350 for about 20 minutes....turning it part way through cooking.  And on parchment paper too....no washing the pan...even better.

Hot Spanish Sandwiches

10 slices of bread toasted

1/2 lb of bacon cooked

Slices of cheese

Put bacon & cheese between 2 slices of toast.

Pour sauce over the top.

Cook 2 T. onion in some 1 T. of oil

Add 3 cups strained tomatoes

1 green pepper chopped

2 t. of parsley

1/2 c. chopped celery

Simmer 20 min.

Can thicken with a bit of flour in butter.

Pour over your hot toasted sandwiches.

Yum!!!

Chili Sauce

 

Then still more tomatoes on another day when I checked the garden.  They are coming fast and furious now, knowing their time on this earth is short.  :)  I decided to make some chili sauce....another recipe I haven't done in awhile.  Only this time I am going to freeze it, instead of canning it.

BTW, I thought you might like to see the way I hold recipes or any other paper item that I want to stand up and look perky.  I use old flower frogs ......very cute.  The chili recipe on the left I had my daughter Sally write out for me when she was 10 and include the date and year.  You might want to do that if you have younger kids or grand kids around.  They are such dear things to pull out of your recipe box or book.

I picked all of the peppers I had left in the garden and luckily I had bought a bag on onions at the store.

I chop everything in my Cuisinart......I pretty much use the recipe as a general guideline, just so you know.

Chili Sauce

24 large ripe tomatoes

4 white onions

4 green peppers

4 t salt

1/2 t ground cloves

1/2 t all spice

1 T cinnamon

1 c sugar

1 1/2 pints vinegar

Chop everything and cook slowly for 3 hours then can.  Or if you want to freeze it like I did.  I waited for it to cool down and then bagged it in freezer bags.  I put a quart of sauce into a gal. size bag, then got the air out of the bag and laid them on a cookie sheet so they were nice and flat.  And froze them.  Then you can stand them upright in your freezer like a file folder and see what you have and pull out what you need.

I also made a small batch of the sauce the other day and just added the other ingredients to make the chili for us to eat after I let the sauce cook down a bit. 

Every time I make chili with this recipe for those who have never had it.  They pretty much go nuts over the flavor, because it is sweet and the spices make it unique and interesting. 

Enjoy!!! 

Play Purse

What a cutie patootie......my dear Cora, who just turned 8 last weekend.  Here she is holding her play purse I made for her.  She has been a purse girl, even since she was old enough to carry something.  She doesn't pack light either.  Everything from toys, stuffed animals, mirrors, combs, money if she has any, books, keys and anything else she can cram into one.  You get the picture.

 I have had these designs for quite awhile and had showed them to Cora at one point and she wanted it yesterday and would ask me if I was working on it.  I had no idea when I started this project that it would literally take me weeks and weeks to complete.  Mind you I was not working on it 12 hours a day.  But there were several days when one hooping would take a whole afternoon.  So this project is not for the "slam it out" mindset.  Notice her initials and flower key ring.....

 This is the back of the purse with cell phone and lip gloss pockets.

 Credit cards and money pockets

 All the beauty products....mirror, file, lotion and hand sanitizer.

 Driver's License with her picture and name, ipod, and sunglasses

Here you can see all the accessories....they are all finished front side and back.  I found a picture of Abe Lincoln to add to the $100 bill.  Let's just say this stuff is stinking cute.....And BTW, Kate Anne was here the other day and saw me working on this.....I could just see where this was going.....Kate says.....I want a play purse too, Mommo......as I am screaming inside.....NOOOOOOO.  Oh sweet, Moses.....her b-day is next August.  I better start NOW.

Here is the link to find this set.

http://www.mollymine.com/product_info.php?cPath=1&products_id=58

Harvest

As I took these pictures several days ago there were combines humming in the fields all around me.  I like to ride in the combine....it is a prospective like none other.  You are sitting on top of the grain as it is cut off the stalk and pulled into the machine.  Then magically the trash is thrown out the back and the grain is delivered into a holding tank.   The cabs look like airplane cockpits to me.  So many gauges and levers, then there are the warning buzzers, if the machine perceives something is not right.  It is really an overwhelming machine.  I never drove one.....too chicken...too afraid something would happen and oh, so much $$$ to fix.  The farmers around here are having the "joy" of trying to keep all the metal and debris out of their machines from the storm this summer that destroyed hundreds of grain bins and buildings around here.  I heard that many are having flat tire issues as they run over stuff and ruin their tires.

 My last few weeks have been filled with migraines....and not sleeping....taking meds to get rid of the latest round.  I think I have had 1 day out of the last 14 when I haven't had to take something.  And the MO has
changed.  I normally wake up with a migraine between 3-5 AM and hopefully have it gone by noon.  The last couple weeks, they have been visiting any time between noon and 9 PM.  I new wrinkle in the program, with no changes in my life, so go figure.  Let's just say my production level has suffered.  Enough of that, but it messes up my schedule of my postings and my life.... grrrr

 I just wanted to show the bounty of the land during this harvest season.  My mums are almost like weeds, I have them planted around an old set of wheels in my front yard with some other items.....trying to cover a well casing in my front yard.  Who has a well casing in their front yard?......let's just say NONE of my neighbors do.  There is suppose to be a clematis there too, but the mums I think have taken it over.  Who knew they wouldn't play well with others.

 My daily walk to get the mail and paper every afternoon.  I really like it better when we have corn planted here, partly because I just like the look of the corn better and then I have access to corn stalks to make a shock of that by my front door this time of year.  :)  The corn really does closes us off from the road and the world and I like that too. But the beans were beautiful this year, tall and lots of pods from top to bottom.

 The rusty chicken guarding the hen and chicks in the garden.

Several years ago we built a "civil war" type fence out of our wooden fence post collection.  Now who do you know that has a repository of wooden fence posts?.....oo oo oo, that would be us.  I have a thing for wooden fences.  I take pictures of them, admire them and then want to recreate them here in the perfect spot on Pine Ridge.  This is looking between the posts at the soybean field before it was harvested last week.

Little Quilts

This little half square triangle scrap quilt is very sweet.  I did this one several years ago and it is hand quilted.

I recently watched a quilt video where several techniques were shared in using vintage linens to incorporate into your quilt pieces.  One of my favorite tips was using pieces of lace on the back of your quilts to make a casing with which to hang them with.  I loved this idea.....since I have boxes and boxes of vintage lace and linens.  So I went digging and found this collar set....I used one half of it on this piece.  What a nice little surprise...like a piece of jewelry... for the back of the quilt.

This little cutie patootie is from a recent online challenge from Kathleen Tracy.  She has written several books based on historical type doll quilts, while incorporating historical diaries and writings from the appropriate time-period.  Here is her website to check out her books and her blog as well.  I have taken a class from her and am anticipating another fun weekend next February when she comes back to Iowa  for a quilt retreat at our local Grout Museum.

 http://www.countrylanequilts.com/

I did machine quilt this little piece.  I love using the special stitch on my sewing machine that looks like a hand stitch...a great affect without the effort.  I also used a leftover piece of binding to finish the edge and included the other collar piece of lace for the casing.  Nice touch, don't you think.  :)

I like to collect label type fabrics of all different varieties when I see them.  This one looks like it has been ink with sepia tone ink.  I used some fine tip permanent fabric markers to hand color it and then wrote my info all around the outside of the design.