This lime green Quilt Diva bag measures about 6 1/2" x 4 3/4". I just finished it to wear to the Quilters Heritage Celebration this weekend.

The Purple Churn Dash pin is for Nan to wear when she meets us there. While we were eating breakfast last Friday, she was able to book a load on Wednesday from Catonment, FL to Camp Hill, PA on Friday. Then she's coming to Lancaster to meet us for the quilt show. It's her first show.

Now for a short nap and then off to Vestal early tonight to honor Connie, the retiring Town Clerk from Vestal. I first met Connie in 1975 when she was running for office for the first time.

She and I were among the founders, along with the late Margaret Lamoreau of the NYS Town Clerks Association. We spent many hours folding flyers, typing mailing labels and traveling around the state to convince other town clerks that we needed to organize ourselves so we could better serve the people of our town. I served 29 years and Connie has served 30 years. JoAnne from Nanticoke has been town clerk for longer than us. Town Clerks put it in the minutes.

Speaking of minutes, I really wasn't born taking minutes of the delivery, as someone once said but I started as secretary of organizations during high school. During the years when I worked at Lander Company in Binghamton, now closed, I was the union secretary and later president. Now I'm secretary of both Triangle Guild and Chenango Piecemakers.

Happy stitching,

Chris

Things To Look Forward To

Right now I'm lookng forward to going to the Quilter's Heritage Celebration at Lancaster, PA which is April 2-5, 2009. Several of us are driving down, meeting HMM and Fabaddict, Sage and Nan there. I'll be wearng my Purple Churn Dash pin and earrings.

Last year I met some other AOL quilt chat women at the show. There's Kattig in her green jacket with the Purple Churn Dash blocks all over it. And then Helen Marie, Deb and Jackey in front of the Wilbur's Chocolate Factory. Rose is appropriately dressed in pink. I finally got to meet Helena Crocker who is wearing a Purple Churn Dash name tag around her neck.

My second "looking forward to" is a quilt retreat in late April at Casowasco. This is put together by members of the Chenango Piecemakers Quilt Guild.

The Chenango Piecemakers Quilting . . . . It's functional, it's an art, it's

My third "look forward to" is a Full Spectrum: From natural Fibers to Quilts and the Textile Arts show at Binghamton University Sept. 10-Dec 5, 2009. It sounds like a wonderful exhibit at BU's Art Museum.

Lots going on and lots to sew.

Chris

Truckin Quilter Continues Her USA Tour

In her first appearance in many

years in this area, the Truckin Quilter

came to Binghamton last night. She

visited Binghamton and Vestal today.

I met Nan at the Pilot Truckstop

and we had breakfast at the

Red Oak.

Then it was a whirlwind trip

to WallyWorld.

She got a call that she needed

to pick up a trailer in Hanover,

PA by 4 or 5 p.m. today.

We rushed back to the truckstop

where we took a few minutes to pet Foxy and take pictures. Waving farewell I left the truckstop and drove back home.

Til we meet again, Nan, safe trip. I'm really looking forward to our next meeting and I know Nan will be too.

Nan is one of our AOL Quilt chat people. We've been chatting for several years but this is the first time she's been to NY for many years. As we drove west on Rt. 17 to Wallyworld, she saw a sign reading Johnson City. She told me she delivered lockers to the school (JC High School) while it was being built. That must be well over 25 years ago.

Have a great day sewing,

Chris

Finally.....World Peas

Finally..........World Peas. This little hot pad is sandwiched with Insulbrite. It is going to be a gift for my daughter Mickey. I had tried about six times to download the other picture and took a second one. This time it worked.

At National Quilting Day last Saturday, Rosalie show us how she made these purses. I had to try one so I wouldn't forget the technique. I used two 10 3/4" squares seamed together and turned to make a square. Velcro was used for a closure for the center pocket. After a search thru all the drawers in the sewing room I finally found some snaps which I will sew on to close the two outside pockets. The price was 79 cents. Wonder how long ago these were purchased.

Have a great day sewing.

Chris

Spitting Watermelon Seeds

I'm looking for just the right green fabric to use
for a second border on this topper. I hadn't
planned to use the pink dot fabric for a
border. It was out being auditioned for another
project and the watermelon fabric fell
next to it. Perfect.
Do you remember sitting on the porch
eating watermelons and spitting the
seeds out onto the lawn.

I still can't download World Peas. Will
keep trying.

Chris

Ready for Hot Stuff

Here's a pot holder being sewn together on my faithful Featherweight. I stitched the strips to a used fabric softener sheet. I like to round the corners so they are easier to turn with less bulk. And here is the finished pot holder ready for my kitchen. I put a loop on the pot holders as I hang them, not having any extra drawer space for them.

And here is my Not So Shrinking Violets hot mat. This is one of those octagons with Insulbrite in the middle. I made another one, World Peas, but tried three times to download the picture. So no World Peas today.

This morning I put a butt end pork loin in a large kettle, covered it with water and it is simmering slowly on the stove. When it is done, I'll take it out and put it on a cookie sheet. Then I will pull the meat off the bones and removed any fat. I'll serve it with a good barbeque sauce, probably Brooks BBQ Sauce on crispy rolls. Yummy!

Chris

National Quilting Day

Today is National Quilting Day. Chenango Piecemakers Guild members spent the day at a Sew In. Some worked on donation quilts and other pursued their own projects. Some members had a chance to demonstrate new ideas to the others.
I cut several more octagon tops for hot pads and table toppers, showing the folding process to make the octagon. Rosalie showed how she made her folded purses. Martha and Elaine showed how they made potholders. There were lots of new ideas to try. Mary showed a beautiful old diamond star quilt she had repaired. Kim showed us how to make Easter eggs using styrofoam eggs and fabric. Janice was working on a Grandmother's Flower Garden in reproduction fabrics. Our other Martha was hand quilting a small piece with her beautiful tiny stitches. The first baby quilt was displayed.
The guild makes a quilt for the first baby born on National Quilting Day at Chenango Memorial Hospital.
During the afternoon I slipped out to Sew Nice, a quilt shop in Norwich. Diane and Flora had the foundation paper I wanted and some lovely fat quarters that asked to go home with me. I was given a pattern in honor of National Quilting Day. It is a house in the center of a star. I'm anxious to try it. I think it would make a great pillow top.
Somehow today I once again realized how bad my math is. Octagons have eight sides. Hexagons have six sides. When I call triangles squares it will be time to hang up my rotary cutter. I've been calling those eight sided table toppers hexagons. Very kindly nobody corrected me. My math and my proofreading skills are about equal....zilch.
It was a cool but sunny day for a drive to Norwich and back home. It was a day spent quilting with friends. It doesn't get any better than that.

Remember when..........

Remember when recipes were called receipts. Our friend Lois Ann sent me a receipt when I was looking for a good molasses cookie recipe.
Yesterday I made a batch. SweetOldBob helped stir the dry ingredients into the wet ones.

Here's the recipe.

Old Grange Receipt
Molasses Cookies

Cream together (mixer works great for this step)
1 cup sugar
1 cup shortening
1 cup molasses, light or dark
3 eggs
1 large teaspoon vanilla
Mix these ingredients well and add to wet mixture
4 cups flour
3 teaspoons soda (not baking powder)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon giner
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Stir until the flour can't be seen. Drop on lightly greased (I use a cooking spray) cookie sheets.
Flatten with fork. Baker at 350 degrees for about 8 minutes. Watch like a hawk so they don't burn and turn into hockey pucks. The receipt made about 4 1/2 dozen.

These were so good. We took a dozen to my son in law at All Points Auto Works. He said they were good. Bob loved them.

Thanks Lois Ann.

Yo Yos R Us

Yes, that is right. Yo yos r us. It took me about
1 1/2 months to make the yo yos while I was watching TV.
Then I pinned them to a straw wreath, leaving plastic on wreath so I didn't have to sweep up straw chaff from the bedroom floor. I used pins with a large head and put buttons on the pin for flower centers.
The dusty pink background is a piece leftover from hemming my bedroom curtains.
Our APHNYS Historians Regional Meeting was a fun and informative one yesterday at the Owego Town Hall. The morning speaker was C. R. Jones speaking on gravestones and gravestone conservation. His talk was of special interest to me as the Town of Barker took over Rogers Cemetery at Chenango Forks last year. We have a need to repair and conserve the old stones there. There are several zinc or white bronze stones in that cemetery.
This little cemetery has close to 200 burials and room for 200 more. The cemetery is the burial place for many early settlers to Chenango Forks, including Simeon Rogers and his wife Mary Barker, the daughter of John Barker, for whom the town was named.
Our afternoon speaker was David Cleutz, speaking on the 137th Regiment's battles during the Civil War. My great grandfather John W. Young was a member of the 137th. He was injured 'before Gettysburg' and discharged. He was shot through the back of the ankle, severing probably tendons so Uncle Harry told me. He said his foot flopped when he walked. I have pictures of John showing him to be a portly man with white hair, a white beard and that broad 'Young forehead.' My Dad, the youngest of his family, remembered his grandfather when he was very small.
Did I ever tell you that at the Local History and Genealogy Center at the Broome County Public Library where I volunteer, that the cash register receipts read "We See Dead People." Our County Historian Gerald Smith has a wierd sense of humor.
Broome County Public Library. Local History and Genealogy Center is the site in case you'd like to see what is available there. Be sure to look at St. George's page.
Chris

Tops Are Us

Here's the

latest top.

This is one

that uses up

lots of scraps.

But there are

always more

scraps.

I found half a laundry basket of scraps under a table in the sewing room. I knew they multiplied in the night. As I looked at the scraps I decided they have been there about a year.

The blocks in the above quilt are sometimes called Mile a Minute or Crumbs and Chaos. In fact, I found a tutorial on how to make them.

Quilting is My Passion: Crumb Chaos blocks - a photo tutorial

I trim my blocks to 6 1/2" squares. I've made tote bags, table runners and table toppers from these blocks.

Today this quilter has to leave her sewing machine and drive to Owego for a historians meeting. I've been the Barker Town Historian since 1988. This is a fun job that enables me to meet people from around the country as they pass thru the town looking for its history or to find information on their ancestors.

Last fall a couple from California were here. We met at Rogers Cemetery where the man visited the grave of his 2x great grandfather.

Happy stitching,

Chris

A Sale, A Sale...gotta go, gotta go

My purchases

at Beyond the

Needle.

Yardage,

fat quarters,

book and a

kit.

Beyond the Needle, Rt. 11, Kirkwood, nearly to the PA border, sent a postcard saying they would hold a sale on March 7th to clean out old stock to get ready for spring fabrics. I even received an email from friend Sue who is wintering in FL to mention the sale. It was a beautiful warm sunny day, the type we haven't had many of this winter. Needless to say, I was not the only person who wanted to get to the sale. I arrived an hour after the shop opened to find the parking lot jammed full, cars parked along the road and quilters scurrying into the store. A lady pulled out of the parking lot and I quickly pulled into her spot. At $3. a yard there were many bargains to be had. As I waited in line at the cutting table, one of three in the store, I heard the conversation, "If you aren't going to take all of that, I'd like some when you are finished." Many bolts were finished and many were handed to others waiting in line. Then there was the wait to pay. I felt like I knew some of the ladies well by the time I paid and left. What a great way to spend a sunny day.

We have a new amusement. We are playing Mexican Train Dominos. I hadn't played dominos since I was a kid. Seven of us played on Tuesday at Ella Mae's. On Friday Len and Ella Mae came down here and we played.

Oops, I forgot to turn the clocks ahead before I went to bed. Guess I'd better do that now.

Happy Quilting, Chris