It's Quilted

My Nickel Brick quilt has been quilted and I brought it home yesterday. Now to trim and apply the bindings. It's 85" x 85" and has a narrow black border and a piano key border. The backing is purple. This is the top before it went off to the Quilted Crow to have Peg work her magic on it.

It has been a cool morning here in NY, 56 degrees. It's feeling more and more like fall. We've had fog in the valley nearly every morning. But the sun is out and it's going to be a good day.

For the past week or so I've been putting donation quilts from blocks the guild members made. Two were completed but when I laid out the third it only had eight blocks. I needed a boat pattern. I sat leafing thru a magazine and found just what I needed. So from McCall's Quilting, August 2009 I found Li'l Skipper. I used the sailboat pattern which was an 8 1/2" block, added 2 1/2" borders to each side and was very happy about the results. Some little boy will love this quilt with its jaunty sailboats in two patterns.

I've finished donation blocks for both guilds and made more blocks for Triangle Guild's raffle quilt in blue and yellow.

This morning I sewed a Wizards and Worriors (that's the spelling on the selvege edge) pillowcase for Bob's grandson Kohdy who just turned six. He saw his sisters' birthday pillowcases a while back and wondered where his was.

Now to trimming and binding. I'll resurface in a while. Will have to come up for air and cook too. Wonder if I could get takeout til they are finished.

Chris

Where We Came From

This church was in North Pittsfield, WI. It was built by my great grandfather Clark E. Huntington. He was married to Mary Tellor in that church in 1884. This picture must have been taken about 1954. From left to right Bobbie, Von, Uncle Orval who died April 2008 just before his 90th birthday and my great uncle Frank Huntington and his wife Vera. Thanks Bobbie for sending me this picture.
The church was torn down a few years before I visited the cemetery behind it in 1997. Three generations of my Huntington great grandparents and many other family members are buried there.
Cousin Ella Mae gave me her 7 Minute Pickles recipe last week. I made them and gave Bruce, my brother, a taste. He had to have the recipe as he liked them and has lots of cukes this year.

7 Minute Pickles
2 cucumbers
1 medium onion
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup white vinegar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon mustard seed
1/4 teaspoon celery seed
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
Slice cukes and onion and put in glass bowl, at least 4 cup size. Prepare remaining ingredients in separate bowl. Pour over cukes and onions.
Microwave 7 to 8 minutes, stirring twice.
Chill and enjoy. Keeps at least a month or two in refrigerator.

Now off to slice up some fabric for borders. One donation quilt top is done and two need borders today.
Chris

One Horse Town - Not

Just to show that my town, Chenango Forks was not a one horse town. The two buildings in foreground are now an antique shop Extra Buttons. The next building was demolished in the 1980s, next is apartments and the last one burned in the late 1970s.

Chris

The Whole Darn Family.........

That was not a tornado late Sunday afternoon in the Southern Tier of NY. That was Belva going back to Ohio. She's in the bottom picture wearing green. From the top: my old brother Bruce, then cousin Lois from Spencerport, then Belva from Ohio.

If I counted correctly we had 25 descendants of Clark Ray Huntington and Pirlie Dorcie Blondheim (our grandparents) attending this reunion. I'm the oldest of the 20 cousins.

We met at Chenango Valley State Park on a slightly overcast day. The rain held off for quite a while but around 3:30 p.m. we had a hard storm, thunder, lightning and heavy rain. That didn't drive us away. We finally broke up around 5 p.m. with plans to meet someplace next year.

Yesterday Bobbie (from New Mexico) and I drove around to several cemeteries, one out in a field off Page Brook Road where the gnats and flies were thick. Some of our Johnson family are buried there. Jesse Johnson and his wife Rhoda Baker (4x great grandparents) and some of their children are buried a few miles back down the road in the Lower Page Brok Cemetery. My connection to this family, their daughter Dorothy and her husband Richard Laskey went to Wisconsin in 1844 with their 12 children.

Today Bobbie is driving to Albany and flying home tomorrow. Email is wonderful for us to keep in touch thru the year.

We stopped in Greene for lunch yesterday and I was surprised to see my oldest grandaughter Nikki & her husband Mike come in. They had water in their cellar the night before. Mike had cut his foot and went for stitches. They planned to go to the village board meeting last night to see what could be done about the drainage problem as this is the third time they have had to pump their cellar.

In November 2006 during the flash flood they had well over 5 feet of water in that cellar. They had to replace the water heater and furnace motor.

Time to fix supper.

Chris

Happy Birthday Michelle

Here's most of my family at last year's Huntington reunion. Aaron, Michelle, Eric, Jack, Bruce and myself. I was just looking at last year's pictures and thinking 'how many will be there this year'. I'm hosting the reunion (my Mom's family) at Chenango Valley State Park tomorrow. We have 1/4 of Pine Plains Pavilion. Cousin Bobbie is already here from New Mexico and Belva is driving in from Ohio tomorrow. It will be wonderful to see both of them.
Tomorrow is Michelle's birthday. Guess I'd better not say which one. She's bigger than me.
I've been sewing strips, pressing, cutting into triangles and sewing into half hexs this morning. As I was pressing the half hexs I found a big bubble in one. So I did the stitch I am so proficient in, the frog stitch. Ripit, ripit, ripit. This Merry Go Round quilt is definitely going to be larger than the 61 x 68 inch one in the magazine. I think I have not repeated a fabric in the strips.
Thursday night's game of Strip Poker at guild gave me some additional fabric strips to work with.
Now I had better make breakfast before I hear the voice from below. Then off to do the Saturday errands.
Chris

The Fair is Over

This is the Elliott family of Chenango Forks at the Broome County Fair in the early 1900s. Oldest son Fred was a photographer from his teens on. He chronicled the history of the hamlet in pictures for a number of years.

Last night I went to the fair and picked up my Christmas quilt and a red ribbon. I made this quilt last winter and finished it in time to use as a snuggle quilt around the holidays.

My summer reading list includes The Mighty Queens of Freeville by Amy Dickinson and Haven by Ruth Gruber. This was an intense book about the refugees Ruth Gruber accompanied back from Italy in 1944 to Oswego, NY. I just finished the latest Dorothea Benton Frank book Return to Sullivan Island. I've been a fan of Ms. Frank for about five years now.

Now I need to read the latest Janet Evanovich story of Stephanie Plum who lives in the hood, Grandma Mazur who lives to go to wakes and Lula, a former ho.

Today my list is short but time consuming. We plan to watch the NASCAR race at noon from Pocono. The race was rained out yesterday.

Stitchinjoy went to the Quilt Odessy at Hersey, PA and told us today about the flooding enroute home. She had beautiful pictures, including one of a long arm quilted wedding gown.

Off to fix breakfast before I hear the pathetic voice from downstairs "Is the diner closed?"

Chris

New Quilt in the Works

Today I'm cutting 2 1/2" strips for the Merry Go Round that was featured on cover of the October 2009 McCall's Quilting magazine. Merry-Go-Round September/October 2008 McCall's Quilting I have the fabrics pulled and have over half of the 82 strips cut. I sewed 6 hexagons to see if I like the pattern. I'm using the Super 60 ruler to cut my triangles.

Yesterday for Bob's Goodrich reunion I made two grocery bags and a set of place mats. The family has an auction after the dinner to raise money for the next year's reunion. I really enjoyed the food. Bob's niece Breanne made cookies of all kinds so it was hard to resist those tables.

I finally found the site for the pattern for the grocery bags. Here it is in case anyone wants to make some. The Creative Thimble Just scroll down to grocery bag and print it out. After I get the fabric cut it takes about 1 1/4 hours to sew. It's a good way to use up that "Why did I buy that?" fabric or the one that no longer speaks your language.

Next Sunday we'll have the Huntington (my Mom's family) reunion at Chenango Valley State Park. Cousins Bobbie and Belva are coming from NM & OH.