Shine on Harvest Moon

Here we are nearly at end of September and trees are changing color. This hillside is behind Nimmonsburg Square and Aldi on Front Street. If there was a bit of rain the colors would be more vibrant. My friend Jean Perry did a lot of photography and said a rainy day is a good time to take foliage pictures. Over the years I've done that and got great pictures.

Hope all of you saw the Harvest Moon earlier this week. It was spectacular. My picture can't begin to do it justice.

This has been a busy week. Off to the VA at Syracuse on Monday a.m. with Bob. Back home, lunch and to library.

We had training on helping visitors to the Local History & Genealogy Center obtain the microfiche of the NYS Health Dept. Index to Vital Records for birth, deaths and marriages. These microfiche are just that, an index. They contain the person's name, date of the event and the political subdivision (city, village or town) where the event took place.

Photo identification will be required for the users. They will consult the book listing the names, like a phone book heading, write down the fiche # and give paper to the volunteer. They will be allowed 5 fiches at a time. We will have 2 microfiche readers. Time will be limited to 1 hour if others are waiting.

Our Go Live date is Monday, October 11. Yes, the library is open on Columbus Day.

I have my personal list of lookups. Hope I can work them into the available time when nobody is wanting to use the machines.

On Thursday our Red Hat group drove out to Candor to Edge of Thyme for tea. The teas and food were delicious. Edge of Thyme is a Bed and Breakfast in a beautiful old home at the edge of Candor. If you live within driving distance you might want to make a reservation for tea someday. I bought a cookbook written by Eva Musgrave, one of the proprietors. Mrs. Musgrave served us cucumber sandwiches, "properly made." The receipe is in the book as well as many other delightful recipes.

After tea Fran and I stopped at Puckey Huddle Delight, a quilt shop on the Rt. 96 truck route around the edge of Candor. Of course I found some fabrics I needed to bring home and several notions I needed. Of course I need that fabric, I don't have it.

In between going places and doing things I started emptying some boxes that haven't been opened since we moved here in February 2008. Off to the dumpster with most of the stuff.

The other day I had an email from Sally Chirlin of Norwich asking about the Mary Ann Tripp and Joseph A. Hamilton genealogy. Jean Perry and myself worked on this about twenty years ago. Of course most of the material isn't here but I remembered quite a bit. Now to get my family group sheets of the Hamiltons and send material to her.

It's been an interesting week. Needless to say, I am never bored. And I did squeeze in some machine quilting.

Chris

House Tour

This house on River Road, Chenango Bridge, was once a dairy barn. It was converted to a house
in the 1930s, with a second renovation done in the 50s. The last owners did another renovation beginning in the late 1980s. The cattle were in the lower part and the upper storeys were hay mows. The hay track remains in the peak of the house, but covered now.

It is now a luxurious home with so many rooms a person could get lost in it. In fact the current owners were living there three months when they found another room.

This barn is a tobacco barn and still smells of tobacco when you step inside. The barn is not far from the river and I believe the tobacco was grown in a field near the river bank. Windows have been put into the openings.

The barn is on the former Thomas property in Chenango Bridge. The house was there when the Thomas family came from Connecticut just before 1832. The house has many of its original features including remains of a cistern in the cellar, wavy window glass, original doors and hardware and a stairway with a newell post.

We visited a house on Shore Acres Drive that was remodeled from a house with cardboard and paper insulation to a modern home with a spiral staircase that the current owner and his father built. The fordway from Chenango Bridge to Port Crane is down the driveway. This was used before the bridge at Chenango Bridge was built. This home is charming and decorated with art work done by the owner's mother and brother and features a beautAiful stone fireplace that was part of the original house.

It was interesting to visit the Birchard home on Kattelville Road. This large house was once the Wagner Rest Home. It was purchased by Endicott Johnson for a rest home for female employees. The women recovered from nervous ailments and surgeries. They slept on a porch dormitory, with beds heated by soapstones in winter. The women spent much time outside with mandatory rest in the afternoons. One of the visitors yesterday was of a woman whose mother was there. She had pictures of her mother at the home.

We enjoyed a visit to the Beach farm on Prentice Road. This farm has barn quilts, which I've shown in a previous blog early in the summer.

Thanks to Chenango Historian Alice Ruby and her deputy Fran Lamb and to Laurel for all the work they put into this tour. I hope they do another one next year.

After the tour I went home and made BLTs using more of those heirloom tomatoes. So good and what a wonderful flavor they have.

Back to machine quilting my Chickens and Roosters wall hanging that I pieced some years ago.

Chris

Dori Hawks Class

Dori Hawks at class for Chenango Piecemakers.

Sue doing Wiggles, Squiggles, Feathers.

Here's Sue's grapes.

We had a wonderful class on Friday with Dori Hawks, learning to free motion quilt. She led us thru wiggles, squiggles, feathers and leaves.

At the end of the session we sat and she discussed ways we could machine quilt the quilts we brought in for help.

It was a truly enlightening day. Afterwards I looked at a table runner top I placed on the back of my love seat and decided how to quilt it. Easy Peasy. Yeah, right. But now I know how to attempt it.

Thanks, Dori and came visit us again. Thanks to Jane Stillman for arranging the class and lecture/trunk show at our dinner.

Did you ever have heirloom tomatoes? Yesterday Nancy, Bob's sister, sent home a bag of them for us. Ron brought lots to her. We got home to find a bag of them on our door from Ron.

Margaret started the plants and they gave 40 plants to her brother David up in Interlaken. Apparently he had good results. Wonderful flavor. We had grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch and BLTs for supper.

Thanks all of you, Chris

Conker Cancer Pillowcases

There, I've made three more Conker Cancer pillowcases. Pillowcases are easy and fun to make.
Yesterday I cut these three out and sewed one. This morning I sewed the other two.
Since July I've made eighteen pillowcases, eight for us, three for Mickey, Eric and Aaron and seven to go to Syracuse for chldren ages one to eighteen.
The background is the Nickel Brick quilt I made last year. The black border on each 3 x 5" piece makes the colors pop. The ugly fabrics are small enough that they look good too.
Chris

Happy Birthday Jeanie & Dawn

Jeanie's birthday is Wednesday the 8th so we surprised her at a cookout at Lois Ann's house yesterday. L to R Jeanie, LoisAnn, June.
Bob went with me (surprise) and had a good time. June's husband Sam Lee is a talker and makes Bob feel comfortable.
Sam can eat. He told me "Your squash dish is good. I'm not eating it to be polite."
We left the cake and ice cream in the kitchen with the men and they polished both off.
Good food, good friends, no rain, what more could we ask for.
Yesterday was Bob's daughter Dawn's 28th birthday. She's moving into a house in Binghamton. Her four children will finally have a lawn where they can play. They've lived in second floor apartments for most of their lives. They have a large backyard to play in. Saturday when we dropped some items off, the kids were clustered on or around the porch. They'll learn fast.
Happy Labor Day to all.
Chris

It was Roberta Horton's Idea

Remember my writing about the guild program of switching FQs with your neighbor while standing in a circle. Here's what I was left with to create a Sawtooth Star. It's cut and laid out, just waiting for me to sew it. Not as ghastly as I'd imagined.

Today we're going to Lois Ann's for a cookout. Weather is sunny and cool this morning. Fall is coming.

I'm making that delicious Calico Squash Casserole recipe that Tonie brought to the reunion and shared the recipe with me.

Triangle Guild is making pillowcases for Conker Cancer. We started at 5 p.m. (some did but I had a short nap so arrived at 6 p.m) on Thursday. I had 2 cases done by 6:45 p.m. Thanks to Judy, Cheryl and Shirley for cutting fabric into kits for us beforehand. Shirley pressed and pinned as we stitched. I didn't get a count but we had a batch for Pam M. to take with her. Pam is the coordinator for a large section of New York State for this project.

She said she recently delivered 350 pillowcses to a Syracuse hospital where children with cancer from this area are usually treated. She will be making a drop there in a few days.

The next day I found fabric in my stash to make more cases. If I use it up I can buy more.

Enjoy the holiday weekend and fly your flag,

Chris

Car Review

When Bobbie was here over a week ago she had a rental car, this little robin's egg blue Nissan Cube. I had just seen my first Cube about a week before. So I was glad of a chance to ride in it.
It was comfortable to ride in, lots of leg and head room. Bobbie said it was easy to see behind and to sides of the car.
We both have Nissans so it was a fun trip both checking out the car and looking for spots we'd been to when we were kids.
As a genealogist I check several out of town newspapers for obits for my family. I was saddened to read in the Syracuse paper of the death of Martha Higgs Ferrens of Zephyrhills, FL, formerly of Phoenix, NY. Her father and mother were Wesley & Roberta Davis Higgs of that area. Martha was very involved with the VFW in her area and was a past president of the state VFW auxillary.
Finally I moved my new sewing machine upstairs. Now to haul some fabric in a laundry basket and miscellaneous tools up here. The upstairs AC cools this room nicely.
Ella Mae loaned me a book 9-Patch Pizzazz by Judy Sisneros. I need a 40" quilt top layered for the workshop with Dori Hawks on the 10th. Sure I can get one made in time.
I've been checking out the supply list and have nearly everything except the extension table for my machine. Hope it arrives in time.

Chris