Mailing cookies, sled from the 70's, Memory tree, and a belt.

I was trying to find a recipe for gingerbread boys in my grandmother's old Betty Crocker cook book from the late 40's early 50's.  I came across this information for "Packing cookies successfully for mailing."  

Maybe the post office had the time to be more careful with packages back then .  But, I wonder if anyone was able to open a mailed box of cookies without them being in crumbs for the most part.

 

A couple of summers ago my husband was cleaning out the wood lot and came across our old sled.  He was going to take it to the dump but I convinced him to clean it up so it could be use to decorate.  He wanted to paint the runners etc. but I like it just like it is.  I think it could use a mini-quilt hanging.  I've  also thought about putting a wreath on it instead.  But, for right now I'm just enjoying the memories it invokes and it makes me smile.

Our Christmas tree is decorated with memories this year.  There is an ornament I made when I was nine years old.  There is a picture of my deceased sister.  The Christmas tree ornament below and to the right of the mittens is a new memory this year.  It is from our son and his family who have been transferred to Hawaii.  It lists all our children with our little boy who died when he was 3 yrs. as the star.

There are two ornaments that were on our first tree back in 1973.  And there are homemade ornaments from my mother.  

And this is Shane's belt from when he was about 7 yrs.  We went to the mall so the kids could visit Santa one year  There was no line and the minute Shane saw Santa he opened his arms wide and walked down the whole long aisle ready to give Santa a big hug.  When he got on Santa's knee he was asked what he wanted. 

 "A belt" he cheerfully said.  

That's all he asked for and I saved the belt.  It goes on the tree every year.  He is 47 now and looks like Santa with his tummy 😁.

As far as quilting goes, I finished quilting the Flowers quilt by Linda Brannock.  I need to bind it but that will have to wait till after Christmas.

And, my grandson, age 12, is in charge of the family Christmas eve party this year.  He has requested that we tie a quilt as part of the activities.  So that's another quilt top getting done.  I think that takes me down to only 8 unfinished quilt tops.  Wahoo!!!

The quilt we are tying next week.

One of my other sons got a new puppy for Christmas, a golden doodle.  His well beloved dog died in September and now he's starting a new chapter.  I'm happy for him.  Puppies are always an adventure.

I like what Dr. Pol said about getting a new dog.  "You'll never get the same dog back but that doesn't mean that you won't love them just as much and become attached to them."

I think I'm almost prepared for Christmas.  I just need to make Swiss Christmas Bread (Challah), my ancestry is Swiss.  And I need to clean (my least favorite part).  

Love to all,

Robin

Random late autumn

This has been an interesting fall.  The leaves of the  flowering pears across the street usually turn a plum color and have completely fallen by now.  This year they are an orange/bronze hue and when the sun rises and shines on them each morning they send a dazzling golden light into my living room.  It is so so bright and pretty

 

Well, we have turned the corner in to the next holiday.  It's time to change the decor.

We had a little snow this week.  It made everything look so nice.  The mountain got 10" and we got 1".  

Getting ready for Thanksgiving always takes a lot of time.  It's tradition tis to use my grandmother's meat grinder to grind the cranberries for relish.  I had never had relish till I got married.  My family ate jellied cranberry sauce.   My husband's family ate relish and I have say,  I heartily prefer it now.

I decided to use my Apple pattern dishes this year instead of the usual paper plates.  There were only five of us and I don't mind washing these dishes because they shine so brightly when they come out of the sudsy water and are rinsed off.  

The pie was made out of butternut squash this year.  The "garden gnome" AKA my husband, harvested about 15 this fall.  Very tasty!

And then I got sick  

This is a view of the sunshine and shadow from the window near my bed  The sun is shining today and it's cheerful.  

I still need to debone the turkey that is chilled and waiting.   I sure don't feel like it. . . 

It's officially Christmas time and I'll end with this violin tree I saw recently.  It proves that anything can decorate a tree.

Enjoy your day,

Robin

Top is finished

 I finished the Wisconsin quilt top.  That border is just so lovely.  It is from a line called "Riverbanks" by Jeanne Horton.  I have about 1 1/2 yds. left so I can use it in some future project too.  The center unit, bumblebee, and post mark fabric are from Jeanne Horton's Wisconsin line from 2014. The golden fabric that the applique is on is a Kim Diehl fabric.

We had snow yesterday.  It was big heavy wet flakes but it didn't pile up. It melted by sunset.  It cleaned the air and made everything sparkle.

I put on Christmas music this morning.  Tis the season. . . 

Robin

(I keep hearing big booms.  Camp Williams is having it's howitzer shooting practice.)

Happy Hallowe'en

 

Just a quick note to wish you all a Happy Halloween and repeat my love for this season of the year. 

 The sun continues to change it's angle and by so doing I can see my maple tree reflected on my garage side window from the inside of my house.  

If I open the front door, which is just to the right of this round window and look out to see the reflection. . . it isn't there.  

Autumn is such a magic time of year.

Have fun tonight whether you have a gathering to go to or you are repeatedly answering your front door.  

Robin

Exchange, quilt on the floor, autumn

 

I have been working all week on an exchange we are having in my quilt group.  We are exchanging any size (mine are 12") pumpkin blocks.  I made the one on the right and decided it didn't really shout pumpkin so I changed the pattern.  Thank goodness there are only 8 of us participating because it's taking longer than I thought it would (doesn't it always?).  I've got 6 pumpkins shapes appliqued so far, just 2 more and then I'll work on the stems and leaves. (Was just reminded that there are only 7 of us participating so I'll have one extra regular pumpkin as well as the first block I made - Good Grief!)

I thought I'd show some of my progress on the flower quilt.  I call it "Earth with her 10,000 flowers" from the song.

I am enjoying doing the Baptist fan quilting pattern.  It makes it feel like it's going fast.  I'm using white DMC color #712 pearl cotton size 8 thread.  It is so soft and glides right through the fabric.

My #2 daughter has finished all the blocks for her batik quilt but she has no room to lay them all out so here they are in my family room.  She has such little time to sew because she's in the thick of teenagers (four of them to be exact ranging in age from 12 to 18).  She's in the car constantly taking them to school, ballet, friends houses, etc.  Her husband is deployed so she's doing it all by herself.

She comes over one morning a week because that is all the time she has to spare.

So, this quilt might be on my basement floor for a while.  It's just my husband and I so it's not bothering us.  He exercises down there and I quilt at the frames both of which are not hampered by her quilt.

I set up a sewing station down there too so when she comes she can just sit down and sew.

The valley is finally showing some signs of fall.  I've seen the colors on the mountainside for a month now.  This is our maple tree on the south side of the house.

Halloween is next week already, actually one week from today.  September and October have flown by in a dream.  

Robin

What I've been doing

 while I was impatiently waiting for my new phone to work right.  We got new phones on August 21st and I could call and I could text but I couldn't get into my apps.  So my blog has been silent for over 2 months.

It has been raining all day.  It's the first rain we've had since August I think.  And Tuesday was our last day of 80's from 2024  It's been a long summer.  The house was unusually dark (I've been used to the bright sunshine) so it was a perfect day to put out my squirrel lamp.  Doesn't it just glow?

This post is picture heavy so here goes;

I started a new little quilt with my 2 fabric lines by Jeanne Horton.  The first line was a Wisconsin line she designed in 2014 while I was in Wisconsin.  The 2nd line is Riverbanks and it goes with the first line very well.  The center is a little story about the history of Wisconsin.  The border with the postmarks is from cities all over Wisconsin from Green Bay to Rhinelander to Waukesha.  We didn't go to them all but since we were over vehicles and apartments. . . we went to most of them.

I appliqued part of a quote by Joseph Smith Jr. that we would recite every morning while we were on our mission.

I just finished the square in a square border this morning.  The quilt looks quite dark in this picture and the fabric lines are very subdued but it is brighter in person.  I have two more borders planned 

I have been cooking,

                                              Apple tarts and German Chocolate Cake - yum!

and canning

all the produce that my garden gnome keeps bringing in.

                                                                        Tomatoes,

                                                                            apples, 

grapes, and cucumbers, honey dew melon, corn, pumpkins, strawberries, raspberries, and lovely basil

                                                 A great local display of squash and pumpkins.

                     I went to a wedding shower for a grand niece.  (When did I get so old)

                             Wouldn't you know the only picture I took was of the food - ha!

I lost my wedding ring one day.  It has been loose for a long time because I have lost weight and wouldn't you know it some of that weight was in my fingers (?)  I soon found it in the hamper but it put a scare in me and so I have just put it in my jewelry box so I don't loose it again.  It feels kind of weird not to have a ring on that finger after 51 years.

                                                 We had a family campout in the backyard.

                      It was no stress, the kids planned it and everyone brought their own dinner.

Shane is a fabulous story teller and I didn't hear the story because I was taking pictures.  Looks like it was a good one.

                                       Look at his eyes in the picture below.

My grandson came home from his mission in Florida in September thankfully missing both Hurricanes.

And last but certainly not least.  I got a new granddaughter last month.  She's beautiful and healthy.

This is the before picture taken at the family campout.

And this is the after.

Robin

Summer meanderings.

I haven't posted much because I don't really have much to show or much to comment on.  But. here goes.

 I sure haven't done much quilty-wise this summer.  I can't seem to get the momentum going.

I have my son's Christmas quilt on the frames (see picture on the right) and am about 2/3rds of the way through with the hand quilting.  I'm doing 'big stitch' so it is going a little faster than it might.

I've been doing a lot of genealogy.  I spend hours on the computer, sitting at my kitchen table.  It's amazing how the time flies.  I hope I'm not getting hunched shoulders because I find myself bending over the computer without being aware of it.

I started a bears paw quilt in an effort to use up some of my brown fabric stack.  I finished the sixth block this morning.  This isn't going to get done anytime soon as this rate.

I've missed my monthly quilt group, "Bound Together" for about 3 months in a row.  I finally went at the end of July.  One of the ladies was getting rid of  all kinds of stuff.  I wasn't interested in anything until she held up this piece of fabric.  It isn't my usual colors but there was something about it that I just couldn't pass up.  This is a picture of the fabric with the sun shining through.  I just put it up at my back door to get a picture.

And this is a picture of the the truer colors.  You can't believe how soft this fabric is.  I think it is drapery/upholstery fabric that has been washed.  It's just wonderful.

Years ago my grandmother worked in the drapery department of ZCMI.  She would give my mother colorful bright remnants and that is what my summer clothes were made out of.  I remember a particularly bright orange print that she made into capris for me.  It was the 70's so you can imagine the color combinations.

I'm not sure what I will do with this but I'd love to just frame it with wide borders of cloth and do whole cloth quilting.  

So soft. . . . . . . 

I can tell the autumn is just around the corner.  The 'Jack in the Pulpit' are changing color.

The pumpkins are getting big and changing color also.

The cloud dynamics are changing too.  We've had a very hot dry summer and this week alone we've had two deluges (is that a word?) in two days.  Everything is healthy and green again.

I made homemade hot dog buns for a family dinner last night.  They turned out great.  I cooked Brats in the oven.  It was really slick but the flavor sure doesn't compare to the ones cooked on the grill. 

I started a new applique project.  It from a block I saw on Pinterest.  Again, I'm moving like molasses and not get anything done very fast.  

Here is the block.  Isn't it the cutest thing your ever saw?  Those little birds are tiny so I have to be at my best (in the morning when my eyes aren't tired) to do a quality job with the applique.  The original block is small.  I made mine about 20" so I can use it for the center of the quilt.  I'm not sure what is going to surround it but I don't need to make that decision yet.  

One thing I do enjoy about summer is the fresh basil.  I have a tomato, mozzarella, and basil sandwich at least twice a week - yum!

If you are still with me, you are a true friend.  

I hope when the heat backs off I'll have more energy and more interesting things to say.

Robin