Design Wall Monday - 8/31/15

Last fall my hexie group did a fussy cutting challenge. We each bought a FQ of a fabulous red, white & black fabric and had to make a 3 round rosette using 1" hexies. At our December meeting we played a fun variation of a right-left game to exchange the rosettes and were supposed to make something of them by the March meeting.

Red/White/Black fabric in the center & middle round
 is from our fussy cutting challenge.
I lined the bag with the same fabric.

I just finished mine yesterday. LOL. I suppose being the 'lead troublemaker' gets me some leeway sometimes.

My original plan was to convert a cloth bag from the local grocery store but the project just wasn't calling my name. I recently found a youtube link to make a backpack using 4 FQs and this finally sang to me!

Be sure to print out the free pattern listed in the "more" section of the video.

I modified the size of the bag to finish larger based on another backpack I use often. I also used a half-yard piece of the solid red to eliminate one seam.

I gave my rosette a good last press before removing the papers and then spray basted it to the red. I also spray basted a chunk of batting behind the red before machine stitching the layers together and then trimming away the excess batting. It's a little stiffer than I would like but there was no puckering of the rosette and the final bag looks fab.

I stole the cords from a freebie/smaller backpack but I think they need to be a bit longer...next time I get to Joann's I'll buy a bunch of cord so I can make more. I looked at the local Walmart but it's being reorganized which means it's a mess and there are no other local stores w/in 50 miles. And speaking of Walmart - if you want to use grommets for your backcpack, don't get the cheapies at Walmart. Not. Worth. The. Money.

Feline Friday - 8/28/15

Momma?
Can you run to the loo again so I can have more of your tomato soup??!!

Thanks Momma!!

PS - did you join the Small Town America linky party yet? Time's running out...

An InLinkz Link-up

Wordless Wednesday

The end of Summer...

There are 5 things in my universe that signify the end of summer...

The Fair finished (1) on Saturday. Friday was our third annual hexie demo outside the Home Arts Department and just in front of the booth for the LQS. We had 9 members present, including 3 members who just joined a couple weeks ago!! We had lots of lookers and at least 2 new people stopped long enough for a little lesson and free starter kit thanks to paperpieces.com.

Yes - Zorro helps me hold the boxes in place every year. He's so thoughtful and helpful!
Can you find the photo bomber?

School taxes (2) arrived - now I need to pull out escrowed bills for the banks and combine bills into single envelopes for people who own more than one property by the end of this week. I took on the tax collector job several years ago to *help* pay my own property taxes but it really does cut into my hexie and walking time for the next 2+ months. I think I've figured out a way to get my walks in but I'm still working on finding hexie time. On the upside, I can buy hot school lunches for just $2. It beats bringing a sandwich from home...

This is the LAST rosette to need the inner sashing!!!!

Once taxes arrive that generally means it's my last summer Friday off (3) which is followed closely by Labor Day (4). There wasn't even time for one more camping trip (5) this year. Boooooooo.....

Did you link to the Small Town America post yet?? The linky party closes on 8/31/15.

Feline Friday - 8/21/15

Momma!!!
Why is my dolly bed by the door?

taken 8/8/15

I'm taking it to the fair to show in the antiques division...I'll bring it home after '8 great days at the fair.'

OK Momma! I love you! Good luck on your 5K this morning!!

An InLinkz Link-up

Waffles

Well, it seems that I'm not being very diligent in taking pictures at the fair this week. I think it's a combo of the high heat and humidity after a cool summer. Yes, I lived in Miami for 14 years but no, the heat doesn't agree with me in any way, shape or form.

Sunday/Monday/Tuesday were excessively warm. Of course on Sunday/Monday I demoed open hearth cooking and last night we marched in the fireman's parade (with polyester uniforms!). Tonight and tomorrow there might be scattered thunderstorms with flash floods possible tomorrow and then some kind of cold front is moving in. I guess we are going to cover both extremes this week! It wouldn't be the fair if we didn't have either hot or cold weather - it's never middle of the road weather.

The only picture of the food that I demoed is going to give a few certain people the giggles.

On Sunday I cooked with my SIL for 8 hours and we are both overachievers since it's a once a year gig. I made sea pie(1), herb bread, blackberry cake, ham hock soup, tyler tarts(2) and started corn fritters (too hot to finish). Kristie and her boys made butter, sea pie, herb bread, blueberry coffee cake, peach pie and cherry pie.

On Monday I only cooked for 4 hours and start by making a 1234 (cup) cake(3) and wild blackberry sauce for gingerbread waffles. I had intended to finish the corn fritters but, again, it was too hot to finish. When it came time to choose one of Mom's 3 antique waffle irons, there was no debating which one I was going to use!!!

(1) Sea Pie is the last fresh meal the men would have as they went out to sea. It has a layer of veggies, a layer of 2 kinds of meat, a wine cream sauce and a pastry topped by the same again. I used potatoes, carrots, onions, mushrooms, rotissery chicken and venison sausage but it's really a kitchen sink kind of meal where any meat or veggie would work as long as you can fit it in the dutch oven used to cook it.
(2) Tyler Tarts are a coconut custard named after President Tyler. Funny thing is, my nephew is named Tyler and he thinks they are named after him!
(3) Cup Cake or 1234 Cake is 1 cup butter, 2 cups sugar, 3 cups flour and 4 eggs. A very basic "receipt" and since a lot of people couldn't read in the 1800s a very easy recipe to memorize.

HeLP for Hexie-aholics - 8/17/15

As with all my good intentions just before, during and after the fair... I flunked!! I had hoped to get my Value Proposition into once piece minus the last 4 rosettes for today's post...

...but I'll be happy to continue making slow but steady progress this week by alternating assembling the mothership at home and adding sashing to the remaining rosettes while I "work" at the fair (we run the antiques division and I work in the library and first aid booths, all of which requires a lot of sitting). I am sewwwww close I can taste!

PS - Today is the 3 year anniversary of HeLP!!!! Time flies when you are having fun!!

PPS - Don't forget that our October HeLP will focus on Karen's Value Proposition. Completion is not a prerequisite - we are looking for color schemes and progress!

An InLinkz Link-up

Feline Friday - 8/14/15

Zorro! Where is my dish sponge!!!!

Over here, Momma!!!

PS - did you link up to our Small Town America post yet??

An InLinkz Link-up

Small Town America

When I was preparing to move back home to rural Western NY from the big metropolis of Miami, Florida, some of my acquaintances were quite concerned. The closest mall is nearly 60 miles away and the local pizzeria doesn't deliver. Well shiver me timbers because I can walk to get my pizza and the last place I want to be is at the mall. On the other hand, I would rather spend my time looking for something new to try at the grocery or quilt stores...but that's an entirely different conversation.  LOL.

In trying to put today's post together, I was trying to find a common thread and pretty much realized these are all things that could be considered Small Town America. As an unannounced whim I thought I would add a linky party so that you could share a post (old or new!) regarding something that happened in your town.

And now...Small Town America in and around Wyoming County, NY...

#1
Two weekends ago we had a very momentous occasion...enough for many people to congregate at the local train crossing. One person had a camera drone and some random person driving through town asked if that was why we were congregating. Hah! for a much better reason!

The first weekend in August was to be the very last time a steam train was to go thru the area using the *old* train trestle in Letchworth State Park. The trestle is train worthy but it requires all trains to slow down to 10 mph so they are going to tear down the old bridge and replace it so they can maintain their traveling speed.

The last time we had a steam train come thru was 1985. I already told Denise that I was not going to look up any pictures that might include me in my teenage years :)

I also have a video if anyone wants me to email it...I'm late with this post and have yet to figure out videos on Blogger...

#2
My family runs the Griffith House at our county fair. The early 1800s house is in it's original position and just happens to be on the fair grounds. It houses the antique entries each year and also has an original fireplace where we can do open hearth cooking. Each year, a week or 2 before the fair starts, we offer a cooking class for a small fee. The class is for anyone interested but we do hope to attract newbies to cook during the fair.

Mom moving coals under the dutch oven which contains a steamed brown bread.
The spider (front) contains the bacon for bubble and squeak.
The kettles have beans for ham hock soup and taters for the B&S.
 Maybe you can pick out the "poor man's rotissery" chicken that spins on cotton string?

This year we had 7 students - 4 women, 2 men and a 10-year old boy. It's the most men we've had in class according to my lousy memory! The guys are going to cook together at the fair so maybe I'll remember to take more pictures when I'm not "teaching."

We had a pretty ambitious menu for class but we managed it all and actually finished early thanks to a great group of students!! Yumm! I might even make the ham hock soup when I cook on Sunday...I don't think I've had that before. I was also impressed with the green breans and tomatoes. Both veggies were from mom's garden. I'm not a fan of green beans but the sauce made it wonderful, as did the bacon!

#3
Dad and I attended a car show. It's the 48th year in that location and accepts any age car or truck - there were 25 classes to break down cars and trucks by age and production versus modified. Can you imagine the types of cars at the earlier shows? And that those people couldn't even imagine the types of cars we would drive now?!

"new" cars/trucks covering more than a football field or two

"old" cars/trucks - we were lucky to be in the shade!

Dad and his 1929 International farm truck - the second oldest vehicle present.
It's max speed is 35 but we generally only go 30mph.
It's fun to see people's faces as we drive by on the way to events. Especially when we honk the "hooooga" horn.

Dad won first place in his class!

OK my friends - please join in with any old or new posts that share an activity in your home town here in the USA or any other country. Please list your name and location on the link instead of the post name. I'll leave this linky open until the end of August so maybe there will be time for a lot of people to join in! And keep on your toes - I just might surprise you with another Small Town linky some day...

An InLinkz Link-up

Design Wall Monday - 8/10/15

Not much time for sewing this weekend...It's summer and the activities are multitudinous. LOL!
I'll share pictures of what I was doing later this week.

Yesterday I was able to work on putting some large sections of my Value Proposition quilt together!!! It's tedious in my book but with a nice audio book, an open window, a breeze  and the finches and hummers at the feeders it was a nice late afternoon of stitching. I tried doing this in my lap watching NCIS4, but a certain tiny kitty was wanting to sit in my lap and there just wasn't room for big quilt pieces and tiny kitties.

A week from today is HeLP (my monthly linky party) so I hope to have an updated photo of the quilt in one large piece minus the last 4 hexies that are being sashed this/next week.

For anyone else working on a Value Proposition...I plan to have my finished quilt for our October HeLP (10/17/15) and I am hoping we can have other Value quilts included. As always it won't matter how complete the quilt is - just an update photo to see everyone's color schemes and progress.

Feline Friday - 8/7/15

Hi Momma!! I like hiding in your purple and yellow flowers!!

Hi Zorro! I can still see your big fluffy tail!!

An InLinkz Link-up

Bibliophile Files - 8/4/15

Hello and welcome to another rendition of The Bibliophile Files!!

Now this is what I like - a nice long list of books!! Vacation time increased my list as did adding the OverDrive app to my iPhone so I can "read" while I walk. Yes, it can be a bit dicey reading so many books at once (especially when the same reader is reading 2 different books!) but it does mean I can look forward to walking so I can find out what happens next!

Finished!!
   Mad Women: The other side of life on Madison Avenue
   Every Dead Thing
   Shockwave
   Locked Rooms
   The Funeral Dress
   Blind Descent
   Odd Apocalypse
   The Switch
   Ming Tea Murder
   Don't Blink

Currently:
audiobook on my home stereo  - First to Die
mp3 on my car stereo - Live Bait
mp3 on my iPhone - Deception
paperback on my nightstand - The Other Family

And since I can't pass up a challenge...I decided to do a simple A-Z reading challenge for book titles this year. Without any planning from the last 7 months, I've already finished 16 of 24 and have several books already lined up to fit in. As usual, I can use your help finding book titles that start with U V X Y or Z. Next year I'll do the same challenge, but with author names.

And now it's your turn! What have you been reading?? We want to hear about your latest novel, quilt book, magazine or even the last cereal box you read!!

Design Wall Monday - 8/3/15

Woo Hoo!! Another finish with time to spare before the fair!! And did I mention that for the first time the fair is having a paper piecing category?It doesn't specify EPP or not so I am trying to get all the gals from my hexie club to enter something so the category will be there again next year.

On Friday I quilted my little quilt for the antique dolly bed. I quilted white pebbles over the white hexies, outlined the red flowers in red and traced blue lines in dark blue. Very imaginative, I know!

Gotta love that texture!

There is a slight pucker at each end of the RWB diamond since the white areas are much more densely quilted but I think I can block that out. I'm really only concerned about it for the fair, after that I don't think the cats will mind one way or the other.

And this is my littly Dolly checking out the dolly quilt on her dolly bed! I'm 99% sure after a couple washings, the quilt will loosen up enough to hang over the sides of the "mattress". I love pebble quilting but it is a little stiff...