WOPs

Works in progress in both my garden and from my sewing machine.

This cucumber will be on the table tomorrow. There are more on the vines.

These works in progress are providing us with fresh tomatoes lately. We had BLTs last night. Bob said the tomatoes were delicious. They smell so good.

Speaking of works in progress, this yellow squash will be on my table in a couple of days.

Here's my most recent WOP (work in process). It's the Twin Sister block by Bonnie Hunter as featured in Quiltmaker July/August 2010. I had lots of 2 1/2" strips so after I was reminded by
by Maureen this morning in our AOL Quilt Chat about the pattern, I deided to try it. Two blocks completed and more in various stages of completion. This is one I can pick up anytime or use for Leaders and Enders.

Have a great day.

Chris

Campfire & Lavens Girls

Forgot to pack for Show & Tell this table runner top I finished yesterday morning. This one is Game Board, sewn mostly on my new machine. It's going to be a learning process to use this Husqvarna 855 machine. Totally different from the Elna Quilter's Dream and the Featherweight 221 that I've used for so long. But I know already I will like this machine.

The Campfire Girls, left to right: June Lee, Lois Ann Vincent, my cousin Ella Lane, Shirley Jean Marks and myself Chris Gillette.

Darla, Dennise and Donna Lee Lavens.....they all have married names but they'll be forever be known to us as the Lavens Girls. Their sister Darlane stopped by for a few minutes yesterday. We had a pot luck lunch at Donna Lee's home at Hunts Corners. We had planned to eat outside at Darla's camp but the rain stopped that plan.

Later we walked down the road to Darla and Dennise's camps. Checked out the Amish men building a barn down over the hill. They were just starting to put roofboards over the rafters when we went back to Donna Lee's house as it was starting to rain.

When Ella Mae, Jeanie and myself went home they had a tin roof done on one side and were putting the tin on the other side. We counted seven men working on the barn.

The Lavens Girls told us there are nine Amish families who have bought farms or farm land and will be living on this road. In addition there are about six more in the area.

We saw a sign Baked Goods - Fri. & Sat. They also have butter for sale.

We played a rousing game of Pay Me, won by Darla.

Rain stopped in late afternoon.

This morning it's back to hot and muggy.

Chris

Sewing Again

Pillowcases with camping theme made for Mickey, Eric and Aaron.

These two pair of pillowcases were made for my bed.

Here's our little sweetie, Caleb with his Mommy. His eyes are blue gray.

The sewer's block is gone. I sewed yesterday and will sew more today. I have fabrics picked for a table runner.

My shipment came from Amazon.com. Lowcountry Summer by Dorothea Benton Frank and Beachcombers by Nancy Thayer.

When I was at Barnes & Noble (my favorite store next to a quilt shop) I bought Paula Deen's It Ain't All About the Cookin'. Funny, heartwarming and some recipes.

This morning I picked 3 Roma tomatoes and 2 from the patio tomato plant. I smell BLTs for lunch.

Now to go to grocery store and quick head home to sew.

Chris

Hot Chicken Salad recipe

This sign is over the doorway in my kitchen.

Batty/Liz, a quilt chat friend, asked me to put the Hot Chicken Salad recipe on my blog. The recipe comes from Dorothea Benton Frank's book The Christmas Pearl.

Frances Mae's Hot Chicken Salad for Twenty
10 cups cooked chicken breasts, cut into small pieces
10 cups chopped celery
1 #2 can ripe olives, sliced
1 bunch scallions, sliced, including stems
5 cups sharp cheese, grated
8 ounces sour cream (may use low fat type)
8 ounces mayonnaise (don't use low fat type if you used low fat sour cream)
salt & pepper to taste
lemon juice to taste

Combine first 4 ingredients in large bowl, with about half the cheese. Stir the sour cream and mayonnaise together, add lemon juice, then seasonings. Add mixture to other ingredients. Put into 2 greased 2 quart casserole dishes. Top with remaining cheese and some bread crumbs.
Bake uncovered at 375 degrees untill bubbly. (approximately 30 minutes).
This recipe may be made the day before, storing in refrigerator.

I made about a half batch of this, using a 3.8 oz. can of ripe olives, sliced. The Campfire Girls loved it and asked for the recipe. I only used about 2 cups of chopped celery.

Back in May at my granddaughter's baby shower, we were given seeds to plant and watch grow. Mine were doing nicely, thank you, until today. I watered them and then looked again. Some four legged varmit has chewed off some of the snapdragons. Some were just topped so they will come on. Now it is time to plant the small plants in a tall pot and maybe they will bloom before frost. We have squirrels here and I did see a rabbit one time. Do I have to sit on the patio with my shotgun in hand?

I picked two more tomatoes today. BLTs for supper tonight. There are wee little cucumbers on the vines.

Chris

How does your garden grow?

With ripening tomatoes, cutting celery, basil, parsley and rosemary in a pot and cucumbers blossoming all in a row.

Mary, Mary, quite contrary,

How does your garden grow?

With silver bells and cockle shells

And pretty maidens all in a row.

I'm not Mary and there's no silver bells or cockle shells in my garden, but my little garden is doing nicely, thank you.

There is constant watering, several times a day, last week when we had 90+ weather, but my little garden in pots is doing great. The summer squash is budded and nearly ready to flower.

I love to be able to go out my kitchen door and pick lettuce or a spring of rosemary, basil or parsley to season and garnish my food.

We are going to have BLTs for lunch in a couple of days. They are my favorite sandwich and with home grown tomato slices, they will be extra special.

Chris

Aunt Jane Port

Last week after I took the barn quilt pictures I wandered out to Rt. 12 and went north to Kattelville Cemetery. My mission was to look for some very old Kattel graves which I didn't find.

Instead my eyes wandered to the monument of Jane Collins Port. Aunt Jane, as she was called, directed her heirs to place a very larger monument on her gravesite. She wanted the monument to be the largest in the cemetery so people would know 'she was somebody.' It is the tallest in the cemetery.

Jane Collins Port died at the age of 90. She shares her plot with her husband John Port and her daughter and infant grandchild.

As I was taking the pictures I thought about Collins Hall of New York and Arizona who I met when he came back to New York to live several times in the 80s. He would stop at my office and take me to lunch and reminise about his family and people he knew here.

Collins was a descendant of Dennis Hall who died about 1848 in Barker and is reputed to have been buried in the dooryard of what was much later known as Strawberry Valley Farms on Route 79. Dennis was married second to my great great grandmother Permelia Gaylord Lyon.

Dennis and Permelia had two sons John and Charles Hall who both died in Andersonville Prison, Georgia, in 1864, just seven days apart.

My great grandmother Caroline Lyon Young is one of Permelia's children by her first marriage to John Adams Lyon.

Collins was the grandson of 'Old Doc Hall', Collins Hall, who is buried in Riverside Cemetery in Whitney Point.

Kattelville Cemetery is the burial place of many members of the old families of the area, Palmer, Smith, Bishop and Fuller and just to mention a few names.

I hope my readers are able to keep cool and hydrated this week as we endure this sweltering weather. I'm wearing shorts and have both air conditioners turned on. I plan to stay inside.

Chris

Happy Fourth of July

Happy Fourth of July to all of you. Yesterday I watched a program on our local public television channel about the Revolutionary War. Amazing what those men and women went thru to achieve American Independence. Let us never forget and strive to keep this country free.

On July 1 our Triangle Guild had a tour of Cutler Gardens just north of Binghamton. Two of our members Carolyn and Sylvia are in the Master Gardening program there. If you are traveling south on Rt. 81 you can see the gardens on your right, just south of the Cracker Barrel and Applebys. The gardens are on Rt. 11 just north of Exit 4. If you are in the area, stop and walk around. It is an always changing scene.

There is a gazebo that is used for weddings, vegetable gardens, herb gardens, perennials, annuals, bird sanctuary, a heaths and heathers bed, rock garden and a rose walk. There is also a composting area and a propagation area. One area is planted with flowers that humming birds enjoy and also has hummingbird feeders.

The pictures are of a drumstick allium, black hollyhock and one of the many roses.

Carolyn explained the rose pruning process after the roses have stopped blooming. New growth is used to propagate new rose bushes.

The gardeners are now using newspaper and cardboard under wood chips for mulch, cutting back on time spent weeding.