Happy Halloween

These place mats are being enjoyed by SweetOldBob and myself on our table. They are a generous 15" x 18 1/2" size.

I was thinking about Halloween when I was in grade school. We would dress up and parade thru the high school rooms.

As a child I didn't go out trick or treating as we were 1/2 mile from the nearest neighbors. But somehow I never missed that.

As an adult I went with a friend to trick or treat several people. She was dressed as Elvira and went to the door of a male friend of mine. I stood around the corner & heard his 10 year old daughter say "Dad, isn't she awfully old to be out trick or treating."

We made a couple of male dummies (no challenge to do that) and propped them in back of her husband's truck and drove thru town.

Then there were the Halloween parties at my cousin's house. A co-worker of hers came dressed as Cinderella and had a compact of fairy/magic dust. He would carefully open the compact and - poof - blow it all over us.

We had a Halloween party and my brother and husband concocted Pumpkin Jack. They had a grand time testing the recipe. It took a few tries before they had the correct mixture. They served it in a hollowed out pumpkin with a spigot. That was the year someone went upstairs and sprayed the toilet seat with shave cream and unscrewed the light bulb. My sister was the next bathroom guest. Her screams reverberated down the street. We think she's forgiven us.

Here's another applique quilt

More quilts

Lucy's Monkey Quilt done by Sue in upper left. Margo's Flamingo Shopper in upper left. That flamingo has an attitude.

Dee's Snowman Collection bottom left and Eleanor's Mystery Quilt Sampler on bottom right.

Pictures from the quilt show

This is Carol's Grandmother's Flower Garden, pattern from Eleanor Burns. Carol and sister

Eleanor are accomplished appliquers.

Great Show

We had a great quilt show today. We had way over 200 visitors to the show. We are a small guild, under 40 members in a small rural community.
The bed turning was a big success. We had a combination of 9 quilts, old and new. People were interested in the history of the quilts. One was found in a house a member purchased 30 years ago. The unknown pattern was pink, green and white. Another was a top that was hand pieced probably in the late 1800s. One of our members saved it from being thrown out. Another was my baby quilt that Grandma Gaylord made me in 1938. It is pink with white bunnies with black eyes. She handquilted it. The other old quilt was a tulip pattern in lavender & yellow with green leaves on a white background.
It started raining hard this afternoon in time for us to load our vehicles. I drove home in the rain but it let up some when I started unloading the car. I had a table, antique chairs that we used for vingettes, a coat tree and of course those bags and bags of STUFF quilters have.
Now to post a few pictures for your viewing pleasure.

Ready for the Quilt Show

We set up for tomorrow's quilt show. Our guild has nearly 40 members and the quilts we hung are great. I'll take my camera tomorrow and get pictures of some of them.
We have Eleanor & Carol of The Sisters Snack Shack, an ice cream shop across from the fire station where we hold our meeting and Ellen who all do beautiful applique. They all have quilts in the show.
Marilyn Belford has a portrait quilt of her son in law Ben in the show too. That might be on her website www.marilynbelford.com
I finished the labels at 11 a.m. and the binding at 1 p.m. Now I have to redo 2 labels and take them in the morning.
Nine of us went to the diner for supper after we finished. We were famished.

Mile A Minute Class

Did my Mile a Minute class with about 10 ladies today. Some people can't/don't think outside of the box. One whined but she made a block. I used little pieces of scraps, triangle, odd shapes, whatever but was a tiny bit careful with color selection. I got a kick out of the women picking scraps. One coordinated all of hers. Some were mostly rectangles but I showed them how to cut a wonky block so they were fine. Mile a Minute blocks look like a crazy quilt. The group got enough blocks to sash to make a lap quilt.
I'll take a picture of a top I made with 6 1/2" MAM blocks and sashed with purple. Forgot to take my camera today. Could have gotten pictures of a bunch of cottonheads to show you. (Q Tips up North, Batty.)
Still working on the quilt labels for show. I'm down to the wire. Give me an hour or two and they'll be done. (Unless I delete them like I did the first 2 pages of the guild newsletter yesterday.)

Triangle Guild Quilt Show

Our Triangle Guild Quilt Show is Sat., Oct. 25 at the Whitney Point Middle School small gym from 9-3. We've been busy planning this for several months.

This quilt that I made for my granddaughter Becki for her bridal shower in May will be displayed. It's from the Eleanor Burns Quick Trip book. Becki loves purple and lavenders so the fabric choices were easy. I used a lot of the Vintage Violet collection I had been hoarding for a couple of years.

Camp

This is camp, way up north on Carry Reservoir. The deck was added in 2007 the week before we went up. We spent a lot of time on the deck, playing cards, reading and napping. One night we were singing and watching the Northern Lights. What a place to relax. We can forget about our problems when we are there.

Grandma's Basket Quilt

This basket quilt was made by Grandma Ella Gaylord, at Itaska, NY in the early 1940s for my parents Jim & Dorcie Gaylord. There are 120 blocks, each basket a different fabric.

Guess what this is. Yep, the outhouse at camp.

Camp is back of beyond between Canton & Potsdam. We drive in 3 miles on a one lane road, no water, no electric. We have LP gas for cooking & lights in kitchen & over table. We carry in water and take baths in the lake. Camp is our special place. So peaceful.

This is how Owasco Lake looked this morning with the mist rising from the water while the sun was coming up.

Back home from quilt retreat today. We had a beautiful sunrise over Owasco Lake. I got some good pictures. Guess I'm going to need help putting pictures on this blog.
On Sat. night we all listed some of ur memories about going to retreat. Several said they love the feeling of peace they have when they arrive. Their cares are gone and they can relax and enjoy themselves. We are away from our daily routines and can concentrate on our love of quilting.
While I was there I made 6 potholders for our sale table at the quilt show. Worked on Jacob's Ladder and have only 16 blocks to go. Got a binding nearly sewn down.
Tomorrow several of us meet to discuss layout of the quilts to be hung at the show.

Tonight I'm busy packing to go to a quilt retreat at Casowasco, on Owasco Lake. We always have a great time there. What to take? A ton of fabric, sewing machine, tools of the trade, heavy duty extension cord (25 ft.), snack, clothing.
The temperature is dropping tonight so I've brought in my geraniums as they got quite wet today and a large planter from the living room window sill. When I come home I'll pull the geraniums out and put them in brown grocery bags. They'll winter in my daughter's cellar until about March 1 when I'll pot them up again. Then I'll take the asparagus fern and Swedish Ivy out of the other planter and repot.
As I brought the plants inside I was thinking about my Mom and her green thumb. She had two north windows in her kitchen on the farm. She kept her African violets in those windows. Other windows held geraniums, bloodleaf, coleus and impatiens. She was of the 'break off a piece and stick it in water to root' school. And root they did.
Til next time, try not to do the frog stitch too many times. Ripit! Ripit!

What did I ever do when I worked?

There seems to be a lot going on this week. Went to VA in Syracuse with Bob today. He had a CT scan. Came home and day was shot.
On Fri, Sat, Sun I will be at a quilt retreat on Owasco Lake. I can sew for as many hours as I want each day. If you haven't been to a retreat, it's a wonderful experience. I always come home more knowledgeable. We often do demonstrations of something new we've learned.
But my brother in law's funeral and calling hours are Fri morning. I'll rush down to calling hours and then leave for retreat. Will have car prepacked so I can take off from here as soon as I'm back.
Think I'll take that Jacobs Ladder quilt I started ages ago in autumn colors when Sue had a thought. She saw the Fons & Porter's book Cutting Bee Quilts and decided we should try this at retreat. We did. So far I've only seen one quilt made from the strips. That was a few years ago. That bag is out and ready to go. We watch Sue when she says "I had a thought....."
Need to make some potholders for our sale table on Oct. 25th for Triangle Guild's show at Fall Fest in Whitney Point. Will cut some fabrics and Insulbright and cotton batting for them. Nice quick projects. I have Halloween and Christmas fabric ready to cut.
And in the interim I'm writing a bio of my mother for the Huntington family newsletter my cousin Bobbie is putting together.

In the Beginning

In the beginning....I learned to sew with three instructors, my 4-H leader, my home ec teacher and finally with the one who didn't approve of the way the others taught me, my mother. Mom was a strict teacher. If the stitching wasn't right, you ripped it out, using a pin. No seam rippers in the early 50s. I learned to do the frog stitch the hard way.
Mom had a New Home Treadle machine. Grandpa Gaylord found it at an aution and bought it for her. It was old when she got it. But she sewed clothing for herself and for me. She made kitchen curtains for our farmhouse of red and white gingham. She made diapers for my sister and brother before they were born.
By the time I decided I really liked to make my own clothing that New Home was wearing out. The bobbin case was worn, stitches weren't perfect any longer. The bobbin tension was worn out.
Fresh out of high school, I went to work at Security Mutual Life Insurance Co. in Binghamton. After a few months one lunch hour I walked up the street to the Singer Sewing Center and bought a Singer Featherweight. We used that machine to make clothing for both of us.
After I got married mom bought a Kenmore machine. She continued to sew for herself for the rest of her life. She would make a housedress and apron to match.
My Featherweight is still going strong. It was used to sew clothing for me and for my daughter until she became a teen, in the era of patch over patch bell bottoms. Later I used the FW for quilting.

Bet you are wondering when I started quilting. Back around 1982 a friend got me to go to a couple of classes. We did a small block, Bumblebee, hand pieced, hand appliqued, hand quilted. I went to FL on a vacation that February and tried quilting it on the way down. Couldn't see. You know...the late 40s thing, arms aren't long enough. So I decided I needed my glasses changed. Found out I had glaucoma. I consider that little wall hanging my lucky piece. I use drops in my eyes nightly and have had little vision change since that time.

Then I put the quilting aside for genealogy. But in 1999 my cousin showed me some quilting she was doing. I told her "I don't have time to do that." Within a short time I was piecing a quilt, another quilt, and then another one.

After 29 years as a town clerk here in New York, I retired in 2003. Since then I spend a bit of each day sewing or doing something quilt related.

I belong to two guilds, Triangle Guild and Chenango Piecemakers. We are very fortunate to have a number of excellent quilters in each group.

One of our members is Marilyn Belford. Check out her website. marilynbelford.com

Not only is Marilyn talented, she's helpful to our beginners and a lot of fun to be with.

The very first night cousin Ella & myself went to Triangle Guild Marilyn brought in her first portrait quilt. It was of her parents. Ella whispered to me "Let's get out of here. We're out of our class."

Enough about me. I need to put up a profile, add pictures, etc. Like quilting, I want to try it all.

Tonight I'm setting up my blog. After reading Batty and Nan's blogs I thought I should get a part of the action.

The sun gone down here on the Chenango valley. The trees were beautiful today. We must be at the peak of our fall color this weekend.

Next Friday, Saturday & Sunday I'm going to a quilt retreat. We always come away with something new we've learned at the retreat.