It's County Fair week and life is crazy...

Saturday was checking in the antiques (my family runs this division) and getting the open hearth cooking demo area situated.

Sunday was judging the antique displays in the morning and cooking with my SIL and nephews from 1-9pm. Thankfully my brother is a pyro (fireman!) and keeps the fires burning so we can concentrate on getting all the food cooked.

Just 6 more days to go!

I've had some time for hexies between the other chores but that's about it in the quilting department.

Sorry - I know the photo is dark but we're lucky I remembered at all as I was running to work today. Luckily, tonight is a "rest" day so I'm home from the fair but need to get the lawn mowed and pick blackberries. That is if the projected T-Storms hold off...

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.

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.

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 - 8/3/15

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...

Fair Thursday

I've been a lazy photographer at the Fair this year...partly cuz I haven't yet had time to wander and partly cuz I'm having fun doing what I'm doing and not thinking about taking pictures. Yesterday I did my hexies at the LQS booth and then The Boys wanted me to ride the rides with them. It's good to be loved!

Ryan and Tyler

As far as my Home Arts entries, I got a red on my chickadee quilt. The judges comments read along the line of great fabric, nicely quilted and good binding but wavy edges. I think the real issue is the outer border has less quilting (feather) than the inner border (~ribbon candy) and when I washed the quilt it became a little wavy. Of course that is just my translation of the vague comment.

I also got a blue on my hexified jean jacket, doll quilt, table runner and beaded soap dispenser.

As for my Antique entries, I got a blue on everything: salt dips, cheese knife, tea cup, iron bank, tatted hankies and tatting shuttles.

I always help Mom with the antique judging (we run the department) and this year we had a new judge. She was very knowledgeable and willing to answer questions. Awesome, since I know little to nothing about glass/china. She told me that one of my salt dips can be placed in a sunny window for the next 2 or 3 years and depending on what is in the glass, it will change colors and stay that way forever. If there is cobalt it will turn purple. If there is cyanide it will turn yellow. I think I am going to put them all in the window and see what happens.

And my new fav fair food?

Fried Ravioli!!!! Not overly greasy or crunchy but crisp and warm in the center. Yummo!!!

Design Wall Monday - 8/4/14

Thanks to a Friday off work I was able to get enough of my quilt quilted for next week's county fair that I could attach the binding and take it with me over the weekend.

My quality control officer was always ready to lend a paw while I was quilting the black squares.

Between duties at the golf tournament on Saturday, some leisure time enjoying the music at the Pioneer Picnic Sunday and a Lord of the Rings marathon, I have all but part of one (short) side bound!!

Of course, I stalled quilting this quilt. I didn't want to "ruin" the quilt but finally it was do or die. And don't you know I had the border done in 90 minutes. Good Grief - what was I stalling for? Can you make out the feathers?

I still want to add a simple quilting design to the outer black border and I have no idea if or what I will add to the sashing. All the major seams were ditch stitched so the quilt is stable if I run out of time to keep adding more...


Cya back here tomorrow for The Bibliophile Files!!

Design Wall Monday - 7/7/14

I finally started quilting my chosen quilt for this summers county fair and with just 32 days left I guess I'm just in time.

I left it on the sewing machine table over night and it appears that someone used it for a bed last night.

 

I'm sure we don't have a Goldilocks in the house so the question of the day becomes...was it Poppa Bear?

or Momma Bear?

or maybe Baby Bear?

One more Fair post

I know this is loooong overdue but things got off schedule with the hexie hop. We'll get back to quilting and current events next week :^)

Make sure you start with the Antiques Division. Mom and Dad run the building and apparently in just a few more years it's mine to take over. Yikes! Dad also helps with the antique engines outside. This is a restored sawmill.

4-H is a very large part of our local county and the Fair - the kids can enter exhibits in a wide variety of categories and have their own building for those exhibits, including a special area for exhibits being sent to the State Fair. On the day I took pictures it was Dairy Day and there was free ice cream!

Animals are also a large part of the 4-H program and there are plenty to look at: rabbits, pigs, chickens, goats, sheep, horses and cows. We are a dairy county with more cows than people!

Don't forget to check the produce section since we like our veggie gardens and canned goods!

After looking at exhibits, it's time to cruise the midway. Take advantage of a ride or two with the kiddos (they can buy a pay-one-price wrist band and supervising adults ride free!) and then find something to eat. If you can't find *something* to eat you didn't look very hard :) My personal favorite? Elephant ears and black and white milkshakes!

Design Wall Monday - at the Fair! - 8/19/13

When it rains, it pours!

We survived the fair, there are meetings a plenty this week, vacation schedules have been re-adjusted and school taxes will arrive soon. I could certainly use a break but let me tell you that Sunday afternoon on the porch with hexies, a good audio book, 1 cat in the lap and another on the grass was absolutely divine!

Since I need to get this posted rather quickly, I'll just share hexie night and the ribbons I won at the fair and leave the rest of the fair pictures until tomorrow. Don't forget that the Be a Hexie Queen Hop starts in just 2 1 days!!!!! Yikes - I guess I should pay better attention because I have an old graphic and the hop starts tomorrow - we'll finish the fair next week. Cya at the hop tomorrow!


My LQS hosts a monthly hexie night but we decided to live it up and had a second night at the fair near the Home Arts Division and the LQS booth. 7 of us chatted, ate fair food, hexied and shared our obsession with fair-goers. I know *I* had a blast!



2nd Place - the judge thought quilting in the center would be interesting and thought the edge stitching should have been more even. I agree it could have been a little more even but given the construction method it was nearly impossible to do...



2nd Place - judge liked the quilting and said it was nice piecing (not sure they realized it was hexies versus machine pieced) but found the flange "distracting." I agree it was not 100% what I had hoped it would be but I liked the extra pop of color.

1st Place - my only first place was in their new category of covers. This is my kindle case. The judge liked the color transition (it's green hexies on one side and purple on the other. The lining is yellow = my 3 fav colors)

2nd Place - Judge commented great quilting and excellent binding. No idea why it didn't get a first. Sadly most quilts were displayed in this manner - folded in to little bits and not showing the quilt design or quilting. There was room to hang at least 8 large quilts in their entirety but they only chose to hang 2 - 1 wool applique (a judge fav) and another gorgeous applique. There were lots of complaints about displays this year.

Pike Fair...contd...

Today's photos are brought to you by my cell phone...in other words, not quality technology!

What matters is fun at the fair!



Entrance from Main Street - this section of the fair has tractors of all sizes for sale. There are also car deals, personal sized windmills and coal distributers.



I told you tractors of all sizes - the tires are taller than I am.
 Remember we are in Wyoming County, which has more cows than people.
This is a true agriculture fair



This is the Project Read Story House. I was taking my shift at the booth selling books to support the project. Each Library in the county takes turns running the booth and I am on the board for the Castile library. In the pink is Marie Elana, one of the founders of the project which promotes early reading skills. Kids are encouraged to read 15 minutes a day and record it on a calendar - they receive prizes for reading alone or with their family.
I am a bookworm and part of it was due to Project Read!

All right - time to run off to the fair - today I sit in The Griffith House (antiques) and then a shift at the First Aid booth.




Pike Fair...contd...

Three days this week I was supposed to only work half days and then run to the fair for my various volunteer positions. It wasn't until after I had already left work 45 minutes late yesterday that I realized I hadn't posted anything on my blog. Sorry gang :(

I'm clearly not a food blogger but this is my blackberry cake from Sunday. It's a very dense cake that can be eaten by hand.



Blackberry Cake (150+ year old receipt from Kentucky)
Cream 1 cup butter, 2 cups sugar
Add 3 eggs – 1 at a time
Add 2 cups berries w/ juice
Sift 3 cups flour and 2 t soda
Combine wet and dry ingredients
Add 3/8 t nutmeg, 2/8 t cloves, 1/8 t allspice, 1 t cinnamon

Bake 35-40 minutes in a well greased pan at 350F

Yes...recipes used to be known as receipts!

I'll post more fair photos tomorrow, then comes Feline Friday and Saturday is HeLP for hexie-aholics. Next week I'll share more fair photos and then on 8/21/13 we begin the Be a Hexie Queen blog hop - be sure to check my hop post on Friday 8/23/13!!!

Wyoming County Fair - open hearth cooking

Yeah, I know, today is normally Design Wall Monday but it's Fair Week and I haven't been home much to work on anything. My family runs The Griffith House and antiques division so there is work to be done. Now that the weekend is over I'll have time for hexies while I "work" but Saturday was check in day and yesterday my SIL and I cooked over an open hearth after I was gofer during judging.

As usual we were both ambitious in our menus but since I had total technology failure between both my watch and phone batteries dying and I hadn't brought a camera thinking I could take pictures with my phone, there is no documentation. I made:
Sea Pie (like a chicken pot pie and the last fresh meat men had as they went out to sea),
sausage cornbread(really this was a camping recipe but it works for the early 1800s too),
blueberry pudding (steamed in a water bath),
rye bread (nephew Ryan thinks this was for him cuz we call him Ry),
tyler tarts (coconut custard named after President Tyler, altho my other nephew thinks it's for him) and
blackberry spice cake (I know some people have asked for the recipe...hopefully tomorrow).

I never made the corn fritters or joe froggers (huge molasses and rum cookies)...it was too hot and I was wooped.

The cell phone and camera are both charged up...let's hope I have some decent pictures to share the rest of the week!

"Walkabout" is finished!!!

Well jiminey crickets this is a bad picture but I wanted to tell you that the binding is done and it's done two whole days before entries are due!!!! I'll throw it in the washer tonight for that crinkly look.

I pieced the back using leftover bits of the various blacks used on the front. No idea if the burlap-undie wearing judges at our fair will like it or not but it was fun to piece it and I think it's even fairly straight.

HeLP for Hexie-aholics - June 2013

Howdy and welcome to our monthly Hexie Linky Party**!!

Squeaky and her fav toy - the purple fishy.
She carries it around the house and even talks to it!

First - please know that I've been recovering quite nicely from my surgery last Monday. I guess this is my reward for being delayed?! I'm still not sure when I'll be back to work/blogging but I have a followup visit tomorrow and will figure it out then...

This is the piecedHexie pansy pillow that I finally finished last weekend. Ain't it gorgeous? I don't seem to have a good connection or laptop charge today so I'll need to save the other pictures on the quilting, etc and my next piecedHexie project for another day. I hope y'all will come back and check them out.

I'm looking forward to seeing your projects so bring them on!!

Please remember the following:

•  **HeLP is open to any kind of English Paper Piecing of any shape and size!
• You must link to a specific hexie related post and not your blog in general. Let me know if you need help doing so.  Links not to specific blog posts will be deleted. Sorry, but them's the rules...

I've left the linky party open longer since I won't have ready access to the internet until who knows when...

PS - I almost forgot - I am hoping to have a tutorial for next month's HeLP. I was planning on a basic how to do EPP type  tute but I can add others as well. Is there anything you wish to learn? Other shapes, maybe?

Design Wall Monday - 8/20/12

Our county fair ended on a good note Saturday with the second half of the tractor pull. I think overall the weather was good with the rain keeping the temps down...it just makes for a long week. Only 51 weeks until the next fair and only 6 more years until Mom says I am taking over as Superintendent of the Antiques Division. It's a long time away but it's not...

Yesterday was spent doing the chores I have ignored both inside and outside of the house. It was a good work day but I was whooped by 9:30 and didn't touch my machine so you guys get to see the next rose star that I am basting.

This project is just making me more and more gaga over stripes. The pile in the upper left are background sets and since there are so many you are safe in assuming I decided to make this bigger than the original project which only had 8 rose stars. How big I am not sure yet but I am enjoying it too much to quit yet as this is the 5th star so far.

I hope to have the last 2 camping posts this week or next.

Don't forget to check out both of the linky parties from last Friday: Feline Friday and our very first monthly Hexie Party. Both have prizes that I am still assembling. Parties are open until this Thursday at midnight but you can comment to win until the end of the month.  Good Luck!

Hexie Update

Blogging will be sporadic this week as it's Fair week and I won't be home (quilting) very much.

Saturday I wore Mom's Civil War dress while I worked in the Griffith House, which is the 1806 building on the fair grounds where the historical exhibits are housed. The front room is decorated in a different theme every year and this year, to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the CW, it's decorated to represent the US Christian Commission. The USCC was started by the YMCA as a religious group but they soon realized the soldiers needed supplies. The ladies made bandages, pillowcases, socks and quilts to be sent along with eggs, potatoes, apples and other foods. Everything was sent in wooden boxes with letters the ladies had written. Does this sound familiar at all to anything modern? The USCC eventually evolved into the Red Cross. I'll try to get a picture of the room this week.

This picture of me was taken with my cell in the evening. I'll be in the dress again Friday so I'll try for a better photo. This is the front of the Griffith House and a repro-CW flag.

While I was working (making sure nothing is stolen and people sign the guest book) I was working on my hexies. I explained that EPP is an old technique but my fabrics were too modern. Since I was stitching large sections together, people often saw the back side and thought it was beautiful. It's even better from the front. Oh and I think I have 2 new converts!!!

Nothing to show

Ok - I'll be honest - I've got absolutely nothing for you today...

• I'm still working on the same quilt.
• I haven't worked on my gardens in a while - I am 99% sure the peppers are ripe but what about the tomaters? Do the flowers need watering?
• I've got my menu planned for what I'll be cooking at the fair (18th Century, open hearth style cooking). It will be easier to show pictures after the fact than to explain it now.

And that's it. Nothing else. Nada. Sorry.

Design Wall Monday - 8/8/11

Today's post will be brief as I need to spend my lunch hour working on binding.

I have completed quilting the arrowhead blocks and machine sewn on the binding. As of this morning I have half the binding hand sewn. I still need to quilt the firemen in the center but my goal this weekend was to make it "portable" since I can do binding during lunches and before meetings the next 2 nights. I worked on it for several hours yesterday at an outdoor event called "The Pioneer Picnic" - it was quite warm to have a huge quilt in my lap but the music was great. I am not really enjoying stitching the black binding as I knew I wouldn't, but it looks great with the inner black border.

I neglected to take a picture of the quilt opened up this morning so you'll need to accept this picture of the Quality Control Officer, Pepper, checking it out. And yes, he also sat one end WHILE I was binding the other :)

Quilting continues

I've managed to get quite a bit of quilting done in the past 2 days thanks to a couple late nights and plenty of time after an early rescue call this morning. I think it's coming along nicely but flipping the quilt back and forth to stitch the straight yet diagonal lines is getting old. Thankfully I have the 2 drawers to provide extra work space and the surface is smooth and slippery. There is only one deterrant but you will need to wait until tomorrow to see her that...

I think this is nice shot of how the quilting looks at each intersection

Can you pick out how the quilt is "puddled" around my work area - to the right and left as well as in front of me (the fuzzy part)? It's important to have a puddle so that there is somewhere for the fabric to easily move to while you manuever the quilt. If it's all laying flat on the table there is too much resistance and it takes more effort on your part to keep the quilt moving smoothly, especially important if you are free motion quilting.

This was actually what I saw as I was getting up to go get ready for work this morning - I had flipped the quilt up so I could close the drawers and get out of my chair. I like how it shows the RWB backing but it also shows the intersecting rows of quilting.