Put the Pedal To The Medal and Keep On Sewing

A couple of years ago Stitchinjoy organized an online sew-in one Saturday and I made this red, white and blue quilt. Last week this was one of three quilts I sent to be machine quilted.
Has anyone else noticed the Pick Blueberries signs out. I have to get out there and pick some for a pie for SweetOldBob and for the freezer. We enjoy Banana Blueberry bread and muffins but my blueberries are all gone. I saw the sign out today when I went to my hairdresser.
After all the scraps I used for the Nickel Brick and Scrappy Bargello quilts I still can count six baskets of small pieces of fabric. I bought more fabric a couple of weeks ago. The secret is out. I had Bob help me fold them when they came out of the dryer.
He looked at my shelves of fabric about a year ago and innocently said "You aren't going to buy anymore until this is used up, are you?" With fingers crossed behind my back I replied "No dear."
Today I am making two place mats for the auction at the Goodrich Reunion on Saturday. I'm using nearly the last of the Vintage Violet fabric I bought about five years ago. Most of it went into granddaughter Becki's shower quilt. I bet I can find enough left to make a couple of potholders too. And I know who likes lavender and purple in the Goodrich family. Wonder if she will bid and buy them?
Today I took my Christmas Quilt made from the Disappearing 9 Patch pattern and cut on the diagonal to our Broome County Fair. Our guild had to promise to exhibit more quilts so we could use the frames Sue's brother made. I recognized a couple of quilts when I went there today. Looks like we can borrow the frames in October.
Now to get the place mats finished (down to last border on second one), then the layering and quilting. Then I need to make a couple of those handy grocery bags Jane showed me how to do last year. I have some wild brown, red, gold and lime green huge flowered fabric that wants to go shopping. I think a subdued lime green for the handles would work.
Back to the sewing machine.
Chris

New computer is my only excuse!

How easy is it for my fingers to get confused. Just give me a different computer & I can do mysterious things.

The site for my interview last week is this one, not the site for the Broome County Fair.

FOX 40 WICZ TV - News, Sports, Weather, Contests and More - Binghamton, NY

Hopefully you will find me there after the ad. The old pictures shown are those of my grandparents Charles and Ella Young Gaylord, a 1900 family reunion, my Uncle Harry Gaylord in WWI doughboy uniform. He served in France during that war.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I don't usually blink like that. Had gotten something in my eye earlier that night.

Now to get a quilt out for exhibiting at the fair.

Just me, fat & sassy,
Chris

Busy, Busy

My computer acquired a Trojan Horse virus last week. It is in the shop being fixed. I bought a laptop and was unable to set it up. Grandson Aaron came by on Sunday and had it done in a few minutes. He went to the modem from the cable and said a few magic words and came in here and plugged it it. Hocus pocus....or whatever. I have never had a computer I could not set up before. He is a handy young man to have around.
Judy, Sue, JoAnne and myself enjoyed the Broome County Sleigh Ride, Christmas in July Shop Hop last Friday. It is an inspiration to see all the quilts on display in the shops, see the new fabrics and gadgets that we can't live without and those patterns.
On Monday and Tuesday I pressed three tops and backings. Yesterday they all went to Quilted Crow in Sanitaria Springs to be machine quilted.
Then I took a bag of small scraps to Chenango Valley State Park to be used in their crafts programs.
Interestingly, my great grandparents settled in Sanitaria Springs in 1920 when they came from Wisconsin with their family.
I have declared today a sewing day. Think I'll work on something small after pressing those big tops. Maybe a potholder.
We have picked some Sweet 100 tomatoes and some cukes from my patio garden.
Last week a TV reporter was at the Local History & Genealogy Center at the Broome County Public Library when I was there volunteering. After she interviewed Gerald Smith, the County Historian, she came back to us and said she wanted someone with family pictures to talk with. I told her I had family pictures and a family history that had been bound and put on the shelves there. She interviewed me and took a lot of footage of the book and some of my pictures.
That night my pictures appeared along with her story and my hand was shown holding the book.
Viewers were promised that on Thursday night the story of a Chenango Bridge woman would be shown.
On Thursday night they saw a Chenango Forks woman would tell her story of tracing ancestors.
I do know where I live even if the TV people don't.
The interview was shown and my daughter found a blog with the interview.

http://www.broomecountyfairny.com/

Hopefully this will get you to the site. I was blinking so much that night because I had gotten something in my eye as I drove out onto the street leaving here. A tiny piece of leaf came out after a few applications of eye drops the next morning. If I'd taken my glasses off I could have fanned the reporter.

Chris

In the Works

This is my latest work in progress, the Scrappy Bargello from Quiltville.com. As soon as I finish writing this I'm going to dice up the tunnel and sew together the third quarter. The strips for the fourth quarter are awaiting my pleasure. This is a fun way to use up those scraps that have been around for ages. (And they keep multiplying at a rapid rate. What do they do when the lights go out?)

Here's the recipe for the Spice Cake I made for our guild picnic. I found the recipe in the May 1979 Yankee Magazine.

Spice Cake

Mix in a saucepan (at least 4 quart one)

2 cups sugar

2 teasp. cinnamon
2 teasp. nutmeg (I grind mine)
2 teasp. ground cloves
2 teasp. baking soda
1 teasp. salt
Add:
2 cups raisins
2 cups cold water
2 sticks butter
Cook until bubbles appear on top. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature.
Add all at once:
4 cups sifted flour
1 cup nut meats, if desired
Mix and pour into 13" x 9" pan.
Bake at 350 degrees for 40 to 50 minutes.

I like a cream cheese frosting on top.

Enjoy!
Chris

Chenango Piecemakers Challenge

This was my entry in the Piecemakers Challenge at our guild picnic tonight. It wasn't a winner but it did look pretty good. The first place winner was Martha O'Keefe with a large chicken bag complete with beak and feet.

We had lots of good food and plenty of desserts. It was good to see everyone tonight.

With our guild show coming up in October members are scurrying to finish projects. Entries have to be submitted no later than the August meeting. I plan to enter the Nickel Brick Quilt, just trying to find a proper name for it.

Four of us are going on a shop hop on the 17th. There are six shops here in Broome County participating.

Back to the scrappy bargello tomorrow. Time to slice up the strips for the third quarter and sew them together.

Chris

Grandmother's Flower Garden

My second granddaughter Becki was given this lovely old quilt by her Aunt Donna when she was getting married last year to Jeremy. It was made by someone in her grandfather's WEST family.

It is made of 30s fabrics, a generous full size summer quilt, tied with varigated yellow threads. There is no batting. The second picture shows the edges of the quilt. All four sides have been whip stitched to the backing along the yellow border.

When I did a bed turning last week for the Campfire Girls there were a lot of Ohs and Ahs when this beauty appeared.

On my bed I layered my baby quilt, made by Grandma Gaylord, a Basket quilt also made by Grandma (that is on an early page of this blog), two of my first quilts, my Christmas Disappearing 9 Patch and this Grandmother's Flower Garden.
Now back to sewing on my Scrappy Bargello. I have it half done and the third quarter is ready to be cut into strips and sewn together. I'm debating whether or not to make the braided border.
Yesterday I took a day off and sewed a bag for the Bags, Purses and Totes Challenge for Chenango Piecemakers Guild's annual picnic challenge tonight.

Now to decide dish to make for the picnic.

Decisions, decisions,

Chris

School Days

We don't know what year this school house, located on Rt. 12 about where the fire station is now, was built but it was torn down after the new school was built in 1928 on Rt. 79, later known as the Chenango Forks Central School. The children played behind the school. When the new school was ready for occupancy the children packed their books and carried them down Rt. 12 and around the corner and up Rt. 79 to their new classrooms. Ruth Wiktorek, an 87 year old resident of Chenango Forks was a student there and told me about moving day.
In the late 1930s the school was centralized and the first addition was built. This was the school I attended from first grade in 1943 to graduation in 1955. We had no kindergarten back when I started school.
In first grade I wrote with both hands. My teacher was newly out of college and told me to write with whichever hand worked the best for me. I chose my left hand. My friend Bertha (Bert) was a lefty and her first grade teacher made her write with her right hand.
Then there was Charlotte Kenyon who lived two houses from the school. Her husband LaVerne was one of the two janitors. They lived in a Montgomery Ward catalog house. I found a reference in the Whitney Point Reporter to the house materials arriving at the railroad station where it was hauled to the building site and put together by Mr. Kenyon. Charlotte was my second and third grade teacher. An excellent teacher, Charlotte was dismayed because I couldn't read to her specifications. In a short time I was reading ahead in my books and couldn't find my place when called on because I had no idea where the class was reading. Thank you Charlotte for teaching me to read. Every Wednesday night I go to the library with a bag of books and return home with another bag full.
Charlotte had no children. She took needy children under her wing and bought clothing for them. After she finally retired, she went back to school every morning nearly until the end of her life to tutor children who needed special help.
When we got to high school at the end of the year we had a picnic at Chenango Valley State Park. The school buses took the entire high school to the park in the morning and back to school in the afternoon. I can remember looking across Lily Lake and wondering what those couples were doing wandering off into the woods. Some of us girls rented boats and rowed around the lake.
My family lived on a large farm about five miles out of town. The school bus picked us up every morning and took us home in the afternoon. So obviously I couldn't tell my children I walked five miles to school and back home again, both ways uphill.
The administrators at ChenangoForks really trusted the seniors. We went on a senior trip to New York City. We went to the Hayden Planetarium, saw a baseball game and went to a Broadway play. Right now I'm listening to a CD of the music from that play The Pajama Game.
Can you imagine there's a new project underway in the sewing room. At Triangle Guild last Thursday night President Judy hung a top she made. It was a beautiful scrappy bargello with a pioneer braid border. I sat sketching the layout when she came by and whispered in my ear Quiltville.com.
Scrappy Bargello
Of course you know the next morning I started cutting 16" strips 2 1/2" wide. Now I have four strips sewn in their final order. This will be a small quilt, just lap size.
Happy stitching,
Chris

Where's the Pot of Gold?

Tuesday night we had a double rainbow. I wanted Bob to walk down to the golf course and bring bring the pot of gold. He said the leprechan would grab him and refused to go.

Yes, that's Fluffy at the table. The Campfire Girls were at Jeanie's house in Lisle. That is a glass swan she found in her top cupboard. Jeanie's getting a new kitchen and is cleaning out all her cupboards. Her family is installing the new cupboards and doing the work for her. It will be so nice when it is finished.

We sat there and watched the birds and a squirrel feeding.

The Campfire Girls are coming here today. We were going to Cutler Gardens for the Rose Walk but it is raining right now. "Rain by 7, clear by 11" is what Dad used to say. Maybe we'll just play cards or dominos and have lunch. We can change plans. Just getting together is fun.

Chris