On Guard Duty

Jack and Bob guarding the cooler and keeping an eye on the food table. Haven't been in much of a mood for writing lately. Had a toothache for days and finally had two teeth extracted. That was last Friday. Yesterday was first day my mouth felt better.
Today the Campfire Girls went to Panera Bread for lunch after a quick stop at the Christmas Tree Shop. Later we went to Sew Many Quilts and to Kohls. After this boost to the economy I went home and took a nap.
Next month I'm taking a class on free motion quilting by Dori Hawks. Looking forward to it as my machine quilting could use a lot of help.
While I was taking a sabatical from sewing last week I read several more of Dana Stabenow's Kate Shugak series. One book arrived from Amazon.com yesterday and another today. Broome County Public Library has the rest of the seventeen books in the series. I finished Breakup yesterday. Spring breakup in Alaska is worse than a full moon is here. Kate is commanded to take her friend Mandy's very proper Boston parents on a short tour of the Park to keep them away from Mandy's boyfriend Chick. They encounter a wife shooting at her drunken husband, two women with guns fighting about and access road, an angry bear attacking the truck, a plane crashing into a truck. Then when they went to the Roadhouse the proper Bostonians got properly snockered. This book is Alaska at its best and worst. Kate keeps mumbling "I hate Breakup."
Chris

Our Family

Our reunion was held on August 15th, which was a chilly and rainy day.

Cousin Bobbie came
from New Mexico to
go to a Webster (her
mother's family)reunion
up in Otsego Co.
Then she drove down
here to join us.

My brother Bruce and

his daughter Tammy,

her husband Mike and

their kids Madison and

Logan.

She said Logan is reason

she has gray hair. We had some great food. Bruce cooked burgers and hot dogs for us. Tonie made a great dish of yellow squash and cheese and some other ingredients. I'm waiting for her to send me the recipe before the yellow squash season is over.

There was a banana pudding that was wonderful, blueberry bread, scalloped potatoes and lots of other great dishes.

Chris

Reunion Time

These are Bob's two youngest grandchildren, Natalia and Jaylynn. They are 4 and 3 now.

Today is our Huntington Reunion at Dorchester Park. We plan to eat at 1 p.m.

I remember the Gaylord reunions at the Grange Hall at the fairgrounds in Whitney Point when I was a kid. So much to eat and such fun with all those other kids. Of course we wore dresses back then in the late forties.

And who were those old people. I remember tall, gaunt old men and hadn't a clue who they were except for their names. After I got interested in genealogy I was able to connect names, faces and how they were related.

Strange but now I'm probably the age those men were back then. I'm not old.

Speaking of families, there is a Thomas Family Cemetery on a knoll on Rt. 12A. Price Chopper is building a supermarket there. There has been some questions about moving the cemetery to allow better visibiliy for vehicles going in and out of the parking lot. Finally the State Supreme Court Judge has approved an order to construct a new Thomas Family Cemetery. The bodies will be removed, temporarily stored and then reburied in a location close to their original resting place.

Chris

Happy Birthday Kohdy

It's Kohdy's 7th birthday. Best wishes Kohdy. He's Bob's second grandchild.

This morning I sewed 2 blocks for Piecemakers for Block of the Month for September. It's the D4P block. Hope the members like it.

Chris

Happy Birthday Michelle Joy

Happy Birthday to my daughter Michelle Joy today August 9th.

Are you a Bonnie Hunter groupie? This pattern was in the latest issue of Quiltmaker (Sept/Oct '10). She calls it 4 - Patch X. The magazine came in the Saturday mail and I had the block made before bedtime. Because I had some 4 patches made using 2 1/2" squares, I used them instead of using 2" squares to make my 4 patches. I changed the size of the triangles accordingly.
Now I think I'll use Insulbrite for batting and make a nice hot pad for the table.
Off to the library this afternoon. I enjoy volunteering at the Local History Center.
Yesterday I finished reading A Night too Dark by Dana Stabenow. It's the seventeenth of her Kate Shugak series. The library has some of the other sixteen. It's an ntriguing Alaskan mystery with some humor.
The coffee's ready and the paper must be at the door.
Chris

Up, Up and Away

Tonight was the final balloon launch from Otseningo Park at the Speidi Fest. Many of them drifted up here and over our home. The last one from Rogers Service Group set down just up the road behind Project Concern. The parking lots and road were full of cars chasing them. There were lots of kids at hand to help roll up the balloon.

Yesterday I came out of Maines on Front Street and found a van with a basket on a trailer parked next to me. I think the sign on his door read Balloons over VT, but he drove off before I could get a picture. So ungracious of him.

It was a perfect weekend for the Balloon Rally & Speidi Fest.

Chris

Mrs. Right turned left...............

Liza Lucy told us in the AOL Quilt Chat about taking a class from Roberta Horton with object being to make colors work that we really don't think go together.

The group stood in a circle, put one Fat Quarter (FQ) on their head and one on each shoulder. Then the quilters exchanged the FQs on their shoulders with the persons next to them. Keeping the FQ on their heads they were given a Sawtooth Star pattern and told to make that block, using the three FQs they had.

We did this and then played a quick game of Left Right, passing the FQs in our hands left and right as the story was read. At the end I passed out the Sawtooth Star pattern and asked members to bring the blocks back to the October meeting. (And I saw Sue exchange one of her FQs with someone. She said her mother told her when she was a kid that if she didn't like game rules she altered them.)

The Sawtooth Star block is one I made for display and the three FQs are what I have to work with.

It's going to be interesting to see the results. We'll put them up on a wall and see how they work together. And then there will be another donation quilt.

Yesterday I finished hand sewing the bindings on the two doll quilts just as Marcos Ambrose crossed the finish line. Bob's littlest granddaughters should like the quilts for their 'babies'.

This is a birthday week for our families. Daughter Mickey's is the 9th. Bob's youngest sister Janice out in CO has her birthday on the 10th. Kohdy, Bob's grandson, has his on the 11th. My grandson in law Mike Dietrich has a birthday this week too.

Sewing Along With NASCAR

This quilt is for Jaylynn to use for her dolls.

This little quilt is for Natalia to use for her dolls.
As we watch the NASCAR Nationwide race from Watkins Glen this afternoon, I'll handsew the bindings. The quilts were made from leaders and enders and from triangles I cut when I demonstrated the Fons & Porter ruler. They went together quickly. I used scraps of 2 1/2" wide fabrics for the binding. I quilted in their names but had to go over Jaylynn's with a marking pen.

Thanks to JoAnne for reminding me of the sale at Creative Threads this morning. As soon as my son in law Eric finished the small repair to Bob's car, at his garage All Points Auto Service on Rt. 12A, I scurried right down to the quilt shop and found sale fabrics much to my liking. In fact, there was one in pink that I loved. I had a small piece of this in lavender a while back.

In my next post I'll tell you about our program at Triangle Guild on Thursday night. It was fun and a bit crazy. One of the members said she hoped nobody was looking in the window.

Chris