Welcome

As you enter my home you are greeted with my message to you.  GIVE THANKS.

To all my friends – Happy Thanksgiving!

Housecleaning 101

I have discovered that the best way to get myself to sit down and write is to start some serious housecleaning.  Which is some serious un-fun stuff.  So when I work at it for a little while, then I’ve earned the right to work on a blog post.  Ta Dah – here I am.  Floors are vacuumed.  Good enuf for this minute. 

Mrs. Farmhouse told me that it’s easier to write if you don’t wait so long in-between because now I have so much to show/tell that I hardly know where to start.  Since I last wrote, I’ve gone to Loose Threads, then to Woolies and throw in a trip to Minneapolis besides. Lordy, girls, there’s some good stuff happening.

Firstly (is that a word?), just a quick farm report.  It’s been a horrible fall for farming.  The sugarbeet harvest that started Sept. 29th and should have taken about 10 days – is still going!  This is unheard of – it’s been over 7 weeks now and still counting.  Our own sugarbeets are mostly harvested but there are many acres still waiting in our area. The soybeans are still being worked on.  Enuf.  Enuf.  I’m so.o.o.o.o bored with farming, aren’t you?

When the Loose Threads met this month, we were working on continuing our project from last month.  We had each cut out fabric for 12 blocks, then sewed them as a group.  We’d all go home with different blocks than we started with, making for lots of variety.  The scrappy look is good, you know?  Did I mention that the blocks are 4 1/2”?  Just cuter than a bug’s ear.  Which, when I think about it: are bug’s ears cute?  Do bugs even have ears?  If you have the answer, I guess you can let me know.  But in the meantime, here’s what I’m saying about cute:

Carole showed us the baby quilt she’d made with an adorable fabric set in an attic window pattern.

Karen brought a couple things to show.  One, an old top that she & others hand-quilted and two, a quilt she started at our retreat last winter:

   In this group, we are very, very health conscious.  For instance, we arrived at 9:30.  At 10:00, we had coffee and shortbread.  At 12:00 Denise served us a delish chicken casserole a salad and some wonderful bread still warm from the oven. Then a tasty apple bar from Carole to top off our meal.  Denise also served us each a little fat 1/8th bundle as table favors. 

Back to our health – at about 3:00, we decided to stop for a coffee break – along with, yep, you guessed it – PIE!  Jean brought the pie which was a recipe that Ms. Penny served us last month at Woolies!!  (another health-conscious group)

I wish I had a picture, but really, it is so very delicious and actually it is about as low cal as a pie can get:

Miss Penny’s Turtle Pumpkin Pie

• 1/4 C plus 2 Tbsp. caramel ice cream topping, divided
• 1 graham cracker pie crust
• 1/2 C. plus 2 Tbsp. pecan pieces, divided
• 1 C. cold milk
• 2 pkg. (3/4 oz) vanilla instant pudding
• 1 C. canned pumpkin
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1 tub (8 oz) Cool Whip

Pour 1/4 C. caramel topping into crust; sprinkle with 1/2 C. nuts.

Beat milk, pudding, pumpkin and spices with whisk 2 min.  Stir in 1 1/2 C. cool whip.  Pour into pan.

Refrigerate 1 hour.  Top with remaining wool whip, caramel & nuts just before serving.

 

As I said, we are a very health conscious group.  It’s all about the quilting – not about the food.  Ya, uh-huh.

I had a few days rest after the excitement of Threads before making a quick trip to Minneapolis with Karen, aka Mrs. Farmhouse, aka Farmhouse Woolens.  I know, this is confusing, but trust me, if you don’t know Karen, you want to. 

This is where we went first – our favorite woolen store filled with hand-dyed wools and hooked rugs:  L J Fibers at the Wooly Red Rug.

Yes, I know there’s a reflection of me in the window but I was in a hurry to get inside.  I mean, look who got to the door first…………..(Ms. Karen)

Well, not to worry, there’s wool a-plenty for all.  Well, maybe there’s enuf – Denise & Kari were also shopping with us.  Oh dear.  Oh, don’t worry about me – I did just fine.

Farmhouse Woolens was considering adding a “couple” greens to her inventory.  Yes, she made some excellent choices.  How could she not when she had such helpful and knowledgeable assistants?????

This is just one section of delicious things……

And this awesome hooked rug (hooked by LJ herself) is just one of many, many more.  Well, I’m telling you that rug hooking is calling my name.  Denise has already jumped in with both feet and I think she’ll have several more joining her real soon.

We headed over to gift market from there to “help” Karen buy some things for her store that will be opening in February.  Obviously, since we were such good help with the wool, she knew that we would continue to help her with “top notch” advice.  That is what you were thinking, isn’t it Karen?  Whatever.  She was stuck with us and she did very well in spite of it.

SO THEN, on Thursday, we had Woolies.  More good stuff.  Oh yeah, we ate well too.  Let’s see. Arrive at 11:00.  Eat appetizers and iced tea.  12:30, eat lunch of 2 different casseroles, to-die-for bread and other assorted good things.  Topping it off with 2 kinds of bars.  A really rich pecan bar and a pumpkin bar with cream cheese frosting.  Don’t worry tho – we had a little snackey-poo mid-afternoon.  Whew.  Anyway, it’s not about the food!!!!

The show ‘n tell will knock your socks off:

 A sample of a kit Karen will have in her store:

 a Ms. Jean stitchery:

Karen’s quilt:

2 punch needles from Penny’s hands:

A wool bouquet & quilt from Shod:

Wool pumpkin banner quilt– Joyce:

Denise gave us a great rug hooking demo but I must have lost my camera but we all learned a lot from this advanced beginner and we can’t wait to try it ourselves.

A couple things I just finished in my wood shop, a tray and a chalkboard:

 One more thing.  Our hostess, Ms. J, had the most awesome Christmas Cactus I have ever seen.  What do you think?

Holy Samoley, girls, do you think this got a little long?   If you’ve only got a minute, just look at the pictures.  They’re worth a thousand (of my) words!

To all the Americans, if I don’t get back to you before then, have a wonderful Thanksgiving Day on Thursday.  To all my other friends, I wish a great week and the time to reflect on everything in your life you are thankful for.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Faye’s Fables

It’s perfectly obvious to me that summer is over. Not that we ever really had summer this year. It seems as tho we struggled to get the old thermometer over 70 degrees. The lakes still had ice on them in July. Oh, I’m kidding. You can’t believe most of the stuff I write. Anyway, time to put away the shorts and sleeveless tops and the bikini. (ahem). See, now, that bikini is another of those items you might want to question the accuracy of.  I’m just sayin’.

A little side note here. A ½ hour ago I asked my hubs what he was making for supper (dinner to you people who think you’re so darn sophisticated) ‘cuz I was busy. He got a look on his face like he was actually thinking about it and said, do you want to go to town to eat? No, that’s all right I said. I’ll whip up a salad or something. So I headed back here to my best friend the computer and am typing away. The best thing about having a computer for a BFF is that you can ramble on forever with nary a complaint. (all my other BFF’s are depressed about the whole weather thing which I promised you I wouldn’t talk about anymore. So I’m looking for someone “normal” to talk to. Let me know if you think you fit in that category….) Well, after I said I’d make a salad, hubs came in the room and said “I thought you said you had work to do”!! Well, no, actually I said I was busy. Then the air turned blue and there was a whole bunch of stuff I couldn’t hear. OK, I’ll be back soon. How long can it take to whip up a salad? Never mind, I’m back. He’s washing lettuce! Who knew? God, this internet is great!

Now I can’t remember what I was talking about. Oh yeah, lack of summer and now it’s fall or maybe it’s even winter but I don’t know for sure.  Doesn’t matter. I don’t have any fall clothes. I’ll just pretend it’s winter, ok? With the change of seasons, it’s time to purge the old closet. There’s a key word in that sentence, but I’m getting there. As I’m pulling out clothes, I’m thinking vintage is good. Vintage sets a style. Vintage makes a statement. Sadly, vintage it’s not. This stuff is just plain OLD. Suppose I’d better check the shoes too. I’m busy rooting around on the floor and I feel a little nibble on my ankle – and no, my husband is making salad, remember? Sheesh. It’s little Baxter. “No, Baxter sweetie, mommy doesn’t want her little munchkin to chew on the shoes.” Wait. That’s the pair of hooker boots with the ghillie laces from --I was gonna say another century. Shoot, it WAS another century. Those boots haven’t fit me since I was sporting the Twiggy look. And if you don’t know who Twiggy was, you’re too young to be reading this. But, hey, that was another century too. OK, Baxter, have at ‘em. And BTW, speaking of shoes, have you looked at any lately? I wanted to buy some new shoes to fix the old “October Depression” which I’m sure is an actual disease written up by the USDA (United States Dept. of Agriculture. You didn’t know that?) In our nearby shopping Mecca, we do have a (as in ONE) shoe department. I searched high and low and I’ll be darned if I could come up with a cute pair. Is it just me or are they all ugly this year? A lot of them have the rounded toes and the strap across the instep. Seriously, those are vintage Mary Jane’s. I think they’re cute until I put them on and then I decide I liked them better on the display rack. And what does one wear for socks with those? I’m afraid I’d wear the wrong ones and make a fashion faux pas. (and I don’t want to hear any snide comments about farm women and fashion work boots. Don’t even go there.) And then there are the slutty shoes with 4” stiletto heels. If you wear shoes like that, I apologize for my remarks but if I wore them, I’d probably fall & break a hip! (some of you are laughing harder than others at that, but let’s just move along here. I don’t want to talk about it). And then there are all the athletic shoes and the earth shoe wannabees. But let me tell you girl, I saw the CUTEST pair of boots in a catalog the other day (which I’ve since misplaced. Or maybe the hubs had something to do with it’s disappearance?) How cute were they? $265.00 worth of cute!! Boy, I’d love to find those in my Christmas stocking. Or my stockings in those…..

Getting back to closet purging. I was really getting into it. Old, throw. Old, throw. Ugly, throw. Oops, too small, throw. You getting the picture? Stuff was flying and little Baxter was running around and jumping in the clothes pile like it was a pile of leaves. At this point, I know you can just feel where this story is going. And you’d be right. Just like good old Mother Hubbard, the cupboard/closet was bare. Nary a stitch of clothing left and on the floor it was only work boots and flip-flops. I thought cleaning would make me feel better. Sigh. You might remember me mentioning our 2^nd annual harvest from hell? Maybe I should watch the old budget and NOT buy a closet full of new clothes. Hubs might, maybe & accidentally  happen to notice that. What could I do? I had to start putting things back in. There, now my closet is full and when someone says to me (which they won’t) “you look so nice today”, I can honestly say, “what? This old thing?”

I made this dress back about 1966.  (Another century, right?)

I gotta get some new clothes!!

I’m just doing my happy dance here because I get to pass along information about a Quilt Designer Blog Hop called Cross Country Christmas This link will take you to the blog of my friend Kari at New Leaf Stitches and she will have the full scoop. 

The hop will run from Nov. 9th – 20th and you won’t want to miss a single day.  Seriously, this is one of my rare “truthful moments”…..

There will be a different designer featured each day with a free project or themed story or recipe from each.  Let me tease you with names:

1. GE Designs
2. Pieces from my Heart
3. Atkinson Designs
4. Pat Sloan & Co.
5. Anka’s Treasures
6. Pam Kitty Morning
7. New Leaf Stitches
8. Whimsicals
9. This ‘N’ That
10. Miss Rosie’s Quilt Co.
11. Rosebud’s Cottage
12. Linda Lum Debono

Even if you’re not a quilter, you just might want to tune into this awesome hop.  It’ll be a blast.

 

 

Leave of Absence

Where have I been?  Mostly just here “down on the farm” but definitely NOT in my happy place.  As farmers, the last thing we want is rain in October.  Murphy’s Law (in which anything that can go wrong, will) would require us then to have almost 6” for the month.  And the next 2 days look rainy.  Color us unhappy.  Are you feeling my pain sisters?  Here’s a little lookee-loo: 

  I know this is out of focus but I was a long way away and I blew this up so you could see the truck badly stuck in the mud.  It doesn’t even look bad from this distance, but I would have wanted my TALL BOOTS to get up close & personal to that one.  I worry about the men when the conditions are bad but I worry even more when they put 2 tractors on a truck.  There’s just too much horsepower & opportunity for an accident.  We had none, thank the Lord.  The truck however, stayed in the mud that day. 

These 2 trucks were moving under their own power.  But it didn’t last very long:

This was a full time job.  Always one tractor but often 2 like this to pull trucks from the moment they enter the field until they leave it:

Those guys WILL NOT be getting stuck.  But he’s my contact with anyone in the field as I’m not excited about driving out there and sometimes someone needs lunch sent  out.  (I’m not naming names Mr. Picket Fence, I’m just sayin…….)  He’s so far off the ground that he has to come part way down so I can hand something up.  Sheesh.  Those are some major mud pies on those steps too. 

And can you imagine how long it takes us (us? what, do you think I help?  Do you see the word “stupid” on my forehead?) to wash up the equipment before it gets stored for the winter? 

There now, don’t you just wish you were a farmer?  Are you bored yet?  Well, I am so lets move along.  And I promise, no more farm tales – even if you beg.  Ya, uh-huh.  Just like I’d beg for a root canal.

Moving on.  I’ve always enjoyed Fertilizer Fridays and especially love when Tootsie gives us little lessons about all things gardening.  I enjoy gardening as much as the next guy – and quite often more – but I’m stumped on what is wrong here.  The nasturtiums are drooping.  The black-eyed Susan's look terrible.   Am I using the wrong fertilizer?  Too much water?  Too little water?  Wrong light conditions?  Help me out here Tootsie!

Wait.

Wait.

Wait a little more.

OK, here – these two definitely look funky:

 

A prize to the 1st one who answers correctly.  Perhaps a bucket of snow????  Or maybe a dead leaf?  It’ll be to-die-for.  Get it?  die-for?  dead leaves?  Well, if I’ve got to explain everything, what’s the point, I ask you?  Anyway, the prize is nothing you’d want so I guess I won’t send it.  (got out of that, didn’t I?)

Now this dogwood and monkshood don’t look too bad for being snowed on:

I’ve been raking leaves and shredding them to use as mulch both now (when everything freezes) and also in the spring as a soil additive.  The container plants have all been cleaned out and pots put away.  Garden decorations have been put away.  If it ever dries up I may mow one more time to chop up any remaining leaves.  Or not.  We’ll see.  I’m not going to drive thru water to mow.  You with me?   I’ve put all my tools in one spot so I can clean, sharpen & oil them for the winter.  (talk is cheap)  A gardener’s work is never done! 

Loose threads didn’t meet this month because of harvest.  We’re all farm women in that group and we all get October-depression.  It’s always cured by wrapping up harvest.  Unresolved issues this year!  Maybe there’s a Dr. Phil show in our group.  Oh, I can hear you now.  You’re saying, “you mean he hasn’t already done a show on you wacko’s?”  Or you might say, “go rob a drug train and take a pill”.  Or, I know.  Get together with the Woolies!  So I did.  Thank God--other females to talk to. About non-mud topics.  Woo-hoo.

I was so excited about going to Woolies,  I forgot my camera – can you believe it?  So I’ll need to beg, borrow or steal pictures from Karen.  When I get pictures, I will post them.  We had lots & lots of eye candy this month too.  Karen is off to Des Moines, Iowa to vend at an AQS show this week along with her friend Kari at New Leaf Stitches.    Those 2 will make friends where-ever, so I’m not worried about them being bored!  Hope it’s a great show girls!

Since I wrote this yesterday, we’ve added another inch of rain and now it’s snowing.  October just isn’t as much fun as it used to be if you hear what I’m sayin’.

I’ve gotten really behind with reading & writing blogs this month.  I want to say thanks to all you dedicated people who stop by and leave a comment.  I truly appreciate you!  :)

What are you dressing up as for Halloween?

 

 

Farmhouse Woolens “Wool Garden”

Can you believe it?  The Wool Garden block of the month from Farmhouse Woolens is complete.  Woo-Hoo!!!  I can hardly believe that over the course of a year I never lost any of the blocks.  I got them finished in a timely manner (deadlines are a good thing!)  And even better is the fact that Baxter, our almost perfect Brittany never ate ANY of it.  If  you don’t believe that Baxter could do such a thing, check this out:

  

I kid you not, I didn’t get to enjoy this one for even 24 hours.  In his defense, he was still a puppy when that happened – last year – and I was silly enough to think I could put a cute pillow on the couch.  What was I thinking?  How long does puppy-ness last on a Brittany?  Be gentle with me & tell me it’ll only be another week or so.  I’m just sayin….

Back to our story: we started this a year ago and we’re ready to finish it up. I’m sure EVERYONE is totally up-to-date on doing their blocks – right?  :-)  I made the sample for Mrs. Farmhouse that she has shown on her Farmhouse Woolens site and it finishes a bit differently than most quilts.  I thought I’d attempt to go more in-depth than the pattern instructions and maybe add a tip or two I have from having done it myself.

Ready? 

One little tip on the rick rack.  Look at blocks 1-2-3.  Apply the rick rack between 1 & 2 – leave raw edges.  Now when you apply it between the 1 & 2 and the #3, lay out the rick rack to find a good place for it to fall on the intersection of those 3 blocks.  Then pin at that intersection and then toward the edges of the blocks.  Match your thread to the rick rack or use invisible thread on top with regular cotton thread in the bobbin.

The first section.  Blocks 1 – 2 –3.

The 2nd section.  Blocks 4 – 5 – 6.

The 3rd section.  Blocks 7 – 8 – 9.

And Section 4.  Blocks 10 – 11 – 12.

If you are applying the scalloped wool border, you’ll want to follow the pattern through the “Finishing” section, #4.   

The pattern didn’t specify how wide to cut the binding.  I cut mine 2” wide – on the bias.

VERY IMPORTANT – DO NOT SKIP

Check the scallop pattern against your quilt.  It may or may not fit.  If it doesn’t, you’ll need to re-draw it.  It’ll be well worth any time you spend on this step.  Once the size is perfect, trace pattern onto freezer paper.  Iron it to the wool (no steam).  I like to leave just a bit above the scallop and I will trim the bottom with a rotary cutter so it’s straight.  A nice sharp scissors will make you happy when cutting this out. 

On the back side, mark a line 1” from all edges.  I like to use “Miracle Chalk” to make the line.  Why?  It’s easy to make a line – it feels sorta like soap.  But the best part is that if you want to erase the line, just touch the iron to it and it’s gone.  I LOVE IT! 

Pin the straight edge of wool along the line you just drew on the back of the quilt.  The scallop will stick out beyond the quilt edge in front.  Since wool will stretch, I recommend pinning the wool at the edge of each side first, then working toward the center with pinning.

  

Now, turn the quilt over so you’re looking at the front.  With right sides together, pin binding all the way around the quilt, matching the edge to the quilt.  Now remove the pins on the back side so you don’t hit them with your sewing machine…..When you sew the binding on, you will be sewing through the wool scallop, the quilt, and the binding all at once.  Ready, set, SEW.

Your binding is on so now press the binding edges together, wrong sides together.  Raw edges even.

   

Then fold binding in half again and press away from the seam.

 

 

I always sew binding down by hand but in this case I felt that sewing it to the wool would distort the wool so it wouldn’t lay flat.  I machine sewed it using invisible thread and a small zig zag stitch. 

I should add that the round dots could be added before you apply the scallop to the quilt or you can do it now after it is finished.

 

That’s it.  I’ve read it over and it makes sense to me.  Now, I hope it makes sense to YOU!  I always hope that more information is better than less but if I wasn’t clear on something, please leave a comment and I will get back to you.

A Miniature Quilt

 

I stumbled upon the Blogger’s Quilt Festival.  Yes, it could be that I’m clumsy but this was a happy stumble…..Join in on the fun:

There were no size requirements in the rules so this little guy is one of my favorites. 

I had become friends through the internet with a book author by the name of Toni McGee Causey.  She has a series of 3 books and as a thank you for sending me an advance copy of her 2nd book, I decided to make this sampler for her.  Each block represents the theme of each book.  The first block is Queen’s Crown.  The 2nd is Diamonds and the 3rd is an old version of Lover’s Knot. 

Oh, by the way,  the blocks finish at 3 3/4”.  So in the 1st block, the little squares in the 9-patches are 1/4”.  I did not use paper piecing.  It was an enjoyable challenge.

 

 

Mud Pies and why I hate them….

I’ve been debating if I should write about harvest because why would anyone be interested?  But like I’ve said before, it’s my blog and if it makes me feel better, why not? 

Farming is so different from other occupations.  We don’t “do” farming like someone might “do” mechanical work.  We “live” farming.  It’s always here staring us in the face.  You can do all the things right with the seed choices, the fertilizers and chemicals needed, the cultivation and a hundred other things and in the end we still are at the mercy of Mother Nature.  Harvest is the time that a year’s worth of work is realized.  Payday if you will.

Here in the Valley, we grow a very large  percentage of the beet sugar grown in the U.S.  It’s a very big deal in terms of our area economy as well as for individuals.  If you ever buy Crystal Sugar, it might have come from our farm.

Once beet harvest starts in October it continues 24 hours a day until done.  EXCEPT, when we get temps below freezing or when the ground temp is above 50-some degrees.  Then we have to wait until those conditions change.  OR, when we’ve had too much rain for the equipment to move.  In the past week, we’ve had over 3” of rain. 

We are working today – I helped move equipment to a field that “might” have less mud.  But let me show a few pics taken before the last 1” of rain….

Approach to the field: 

Water stands in various parts of the fields:

  

 

On the left is the tractor that lifts the beets from the ground putting them into the truck which is pulled by a large 4-wheel drive tractor.  The truck would be stuck in minutes without the tractor towing:

 

 

Being pulled out of the field……

Onto the road……..

We’re on the road and being un-hooked from the tractor.

 

The county does it’s best to clean the roads for everyone’s safety:

And our almost- perfect Baxter.  You cannot imagine how he struggles with harvest.  He very badly wants to be with Mr.... Farmer.  But look at all that mud.  Do you think Mrs.... Picket Fence will be upset if I run thru all that?????????  (yes, I WAS!!)  Maybe he’ll be perfect tomorrow.

I am so over all that farming in the  mud story, aren’t you?  I have a couple things I’m working on but I can only show you one today.  I was out in my woodshop and look what I found:

It’s a primitive candle box that I made as a surface on which to mount this punch needle embroidery project. 

What I will show you in a day or 2 is the Wool Garden sample that I made for Mrs.... Farmhouse over at Farmhouse Woolens.  I’ll post the finished picture plus a tutorial on how to finish it.

I’d best go check on the farm progress.  It’s been quiet so that should mean it’s moving along. 

Singing in the Rain

The last thing I have time for today is this.  I have things to do, places to go and people to see.  Sorta.  I need to GO to my sewing room, I need to DO some sewing and I plan to SEE my family this evening.  Most of them.  You see there are those in my family who are rebels and moved many, many miles away therefore depriving me of daily contact with my granddaughter.  Well, you know I miss my daughter too.  If you’ve had one or more kids move away, you know how I’m feeling about that….and she’s my ONLY daughter.  We have 2 sons who are really, really good sons by living less than an hour from their loving parental units.  Are you reading this Kristi?  hint, hint. 

Anyway, as I was saying, they all should really be here because our boys don’t sing.  They couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket - if you hear what I’m saying?  I remember when they were in a college fraternity and it was the annual parents night.  Before we could dig into the wonderful meal in front of us, the “brothers” all stood at their respective tables to sing some song that I never did quite figure out -- only because not a single one of them could sing.  I couldn’t understand the words.  It’s not like opera where it’s in another language.  It was in English.  I think.  It sounded like a dirge, like their best friend had just died or their girlfriend had just run off with the milkman or something.  It was a low monotone with no expression or enthusiasm.  I just sat back and ENJOYED.  Man, that was fun.  That made the years of tuition worth it!  I’m just sayin’.  Well, that and the fact that they did graduate!

Back to why I’m lamenting their lack of singing abilities.  It’s gonna be real tough without Kristi for the boys to sing Happy Birthday to dear old Mom.  (me)  I had to throw the word “old” in there, didn’t I?  Shall I tell you how old I am?

NO. 

What set me off on this post today was a conversation with a friend this morning.  She called to wish me a Happy and said she was sorry but my gift would be late.  Mainly because she hadn’t been anywhere to buy it.  You’d have to know how we operate.  We’re usually about a month late with gifts so if she’d had a gift for me today, it would have been like she was early.  But I got to thinking (unusual, but it happens).  She had gone on a hunting/camping trip with her hubs & son-in-law to Medora last month.  She doesn’t hunt but she had a nice restful vacation.  They were pretty much out in the middle of nowhere’sville.  Not a lot of shopping there.  But I know she went for daily walks and a couple of times she walked up a big hill to a really old cemetery.  She loved that cemetery and went back several times. Aha.  The perfect gift for her “old friend”.  She should have brought me a tombstone.  It would have been a useful, original gift.  I’ll need it sooner or later.  I’m  hoping later but you never know.  And since life is so very uncertain, when we go out for dinner tonight, I’m having dessert first.

So that pretty much exhausts the singing portion of my blog title today.  But the  singing “in the rain” part is not as much fun.  We are definitely NOT.  We had only 2 days of sugar beet harvest under our belts when BAM, we got 2” of rain.  That’s ok in the summer but not in October.  It’s too cool for the water to disappear quickly – if at all and the forecast looks damp.  Last year many farmers had to leave most or all of their sugar beets in the ground because of mud.  So, as we are fond of saying around here – this looks to become the 2nd annual harvest from hell.  (sorry for the language).  IF we get back in the field, I will post pictures of humungous tractors dragging trucks filled with many tons of beets through the mud.  It will not be pretty.  You may want to cover your eyes.

Let’s see, so far I’ve written about my birthday.  Depressing.  I’ve written about farming.  Depressing.  Let’s lighten up a second.  I’m gonna put in some fall decorating at my house.  The first one is my fireplace mantle:

And remember that basket/box with a handle I built a bit ago?  This is what I did with it:

One of my pumpkins.  I’ve got 2 more I’m making and then that’s it for pumpkins.  Tired of that game.

That’s it for today.  Like I said, I’ve got places to go and things to do.

Ms. Faye.

 

Poetic License

Long, long ago in a land far, far away, lived a number of beautiful, intelligent and talented women.

You may want to take a moment for a reality check here.  This is after all my blog and I can say pretty much whatever I want and call it “Poetic License”.  I don’t think there are blog police out there evaluating the accuracy of my statements.  My own sainted Mother was not always accurate in assessing my truthfulness.  I leave it to you to decide where I’m invoking “Poetic License”.

Now, where was I?  Oh ya, blah, blah, beautiful women, blah, blah.  Also known as the Woolies.  This is not a quilt group altho all of us quilt.  This is not a garden group altho all of us have gardens (I’m sure you’ll soon have one Karen) nor is it even a woodworking group even tho we all have wood in our homes.  It did take us a while to determine a plausible excuse er, reason to be together.  Well, we all like wool so that was to be our common denominator.  Obviously then, we would be The Woolies.  We did draw up a lengthy list of rules & goals for the group.  The final rule was that we would have no rules.  This works very well for us as we are morally opposed to rules and goals & deadlines.  We did briefly consider naming our group the Dull Needles but we felt it might have a negative connotation and tend to lead us into depression thereby causing us to have no fun when we got together to do nothing.  I know you’re with me on this.

We met this month at the  home of yours truly.  Since it had been about a year since I’d cleaned my house, it did take many weeks of effort to be ready.  Thankfully, I have now done that little cleaning chore for this year.  Whew! 

September means back to school here in MN/ND land so that was my theme.  Do y’all remember the Fischer Price School Bus?  I found our old one and it was the centerpiece and that kinda got the ball rolling on this party.  First of all I wanted to make sure everyone knew they were at the right party so I made it easy for ‘em:

I realized of course that the set up of the scene was terribly wrong.  I quickly moved the Weebles from the FRONT of the bus to BEHIND the bus.  We don’t want anyone to think I’d intentionally run over the wee ones.  Goodness gracious.  Now, you might notice the little chalkboard – I made one for each of my guests that day.  JM actually USED hers to take a couple notes!  Way to go JM!

Whoa, back up the truck – that was NOT what JM was writing.  I wrote that.  She wrote other important stuff.

Keeping with the school theme, I served an apple cake with hot caramel sauce.  It is super easy to make and let me warn you that you’ll want seconds of this one…….

Fresh Apple Cake

4 C. chopped apples

2 eggs

2 C. sugar

2 tsp. cinnomon

2/3 C. oil

1/2 C. chopped nuts

2 C. flour

1 tsp. salt

2 tsp. baking soda

Put apples in bowl & break eggs over them.  Stir.  Add sugar, oil, cinnamon & nuts.  Combine flour, salt & baking soda and add to mixture.  Stir well.  Bake in 9X13 pan at 350 for about 45 min.

There now, wasn’t that easy??

Caramel Sauce

1/2 C. sugar

1/2 C. brown sugar

1/2 C. butter

1/2 C. cream (half & half)

1 heaping Tbsp. flour

1 tsp. vanilla

Combine all ingredients, except vanilla.  Bring to a boil & cook for 1 to 2 minutes, until thickened, stirring as necessary.  Add vanilla.  Serve over cake.  Top with whipped cream.  If you want this to be a diet recipe, leave off the whipped cream.  Ya, like that’s going to help……….

Now hang with me here ‘cuz I’ve got some serious show & tell for you today:

A couple embroidery on linen projects by Jean plus a small stitchery she made and then made a frame for:

This cutie is Jean’s too:

Ms. JM has finished her wool garden.  It is so awesome!

And this adorable mini – those little blocks are 2 1/2”.  Too cute for words.

And this little stitchery she’s working on:

Now here’s our favorite machine quilter girl with all kinds of wonderful goodies:

 

Penny, did I ever tell you how much I  LOVE RED QUILTS?  It would look so great in my home.  Hint.

Criminy, I almost forgot Ms. D’s show & tell:

I know, it looks like I’m hurting the little darling, but I assure you she was very happy.  There was a set of 2, but I didn’t get a picture of her other granddaughter.

One more thing.  On my last post, something happened to son #2 and his body was removed.  You can’t really tell from just seeing his arm how handsome he really is so I’m giving you all one more chance to be amazed & astounded at the perfectness of son #2.

You’ll have to refer back to my last post to get a gander at son #1.  He doesn’t usually wear a beard but has just returned from a fishing & camping  trip in the boundary waters.

You’ll be happy to know that I’ll talk about our daughter & granddaughter – the Divine Miss O – another time.

OK, that’s it.  I’m done.  This post got really, really long so I don’t expect anyone to read the whole thing.  But the pictures are good.  Probably.

Ms. Faye

My blog is broken – it’s still stuck on Brad Pitt

I cannot believe how long it’s been since I was here.  You know, when you’re on vacation with Brad Pitt or George Clooney, you just lose all sense of time.  Not that I was, I’m just sayin………You’ll hear no more about that from these lips.

I’ve got so much to share, I don’t know what to say – yes and the sun rises in the west…..I’ll find the words, ok?

There are two groups that I have infiltrated – well truthfully, I may have helped form the groups but that is only because then they have to include me.  Just a little tip for y’all.  One is a quilt group.  We are the Loose Threads – previously the Peacemakers and came close to being the Noxious Needles or the Ladies Thursday Afternoon Bowling League (we don’t bowl) or LSD - Ladies in Support of the Downtrodden. (this was meant to be a cover for the fact that this was another social not humanitarian group)   We are a group of 9 that have been together for I think 12 years.  Good friends all.  And oh, how we’ve grown in taste, ability and friendship in that time.  We’ve always a lot of laughs and sometimes a few tears AND great show & tell. 

The threads met this month at CD’s house on the lake for a sewing day.  Usually we just gather for a good time but this month we added a sewing day to the schedule.  Each person brought fabric already cut to make 12 blocks of the same pattern.  The blocks will finish at 4 1/2” and will look like this:

There are only 2 colors and we are using the civil war type repro fabrics.

Now, if you do the math, there are 8 flying geese per block.  Times 12 blocks per person and that is 96 geese.  Next, take 96 geese times the number of people – of which there were only 6 that day and you come up with 576 geese.  Now,  let’s just carry that one step further and consider that all 576 geese need to be checked for size/trimmed on all 4 sides and now we have 2,304 cuts to make.  That was only for making the flying geese and does not include making the rest of the block.  So, try as we might, we didn’t complete our task.  But, undaunted, we stacked up our piles and will continue making our blocks by planning another sewing day ASAP.  This is what it looks like to tackle this job:

We started out with 3 sewers, 1 presser and 2 cutters.  The cutters had a tough job so we did rotate duties.  Then 2 sewers, 1 presser & 3 cutters…….

 

Where are the sewers?

 

 

 

Where are the cutters?

 

 

 

They must be walking toward this lovely work station on the porch…….

 

Yes indeed, we couldn’t string 3 nice days together all summer long and when it turns into September, BAM, we get a string of 80+ degree days.  It was so beautiful.  But, I’m losing the thread (hence “Loose Threads”) of my story.  Lunch is always important to us and I doubt that we’ve ever had the same thing twice in all those years.  This day our afternoon “snack” was a great Weight Watchers Peach Pie.  Sorry I don’t have a picture but I do have the recipe:

Pie was only a minor highlight of our lunch break tho.  You see, one of our group is going thru chemo treatments.  She’s the 2nd of our group to go thru this.  We don’t want them to go thru it alone tho.  It almost could have been scripted, it was so perfect.  Ms. Jean was taking a quilt out of a bag for show & tell.  Our special gal, KL, asked if this was a quilt for someone special.  Ms. Jean replied that it was for someone very special.  You see we have a friend who is going thru chemo and we made this for her.  There was a second of silence before KL got it:  OMG, you made it for me????  Yes, KL, it’s a wellness quilt and we want you to take it to chemo with you and use it at home so you can wrap our love around yourself anytime you need us. 

 

Is this quilt for someone special?

 

 

 

 

You made this for ME?????

 

 

 

 

Oh you girls – I love it!

And we love you KL

The yellow shirt gal received the “wellness quilt” and the black shirt gal lost her husband to cancer I think it was 2 years ago now.  (her shirt says “cancer sucks.”  Guess we’d all agree with that!!!)

I think I’ll save “Woolie Day” for the next post ‘cuz there’s a lot of eye candy in that story, girl. 

Some of you gals were taking pictures of textures in  your homes and they were so much fun to look at.  It got me thinking a little about textures so yesterday I took this shot.  See if you can tell me what it is….

If you guessed the ceiling of the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome In Minneapolis – you’re right!!!!  (no prizes)  The roof is held up with air pressure and it is so very weird when you leave the building – you get literally blown out the doors.  Hang on to your hats and  your kids and grandma!  I kid you not. 

See if you can tell by our travel companion’s clothing what we were doing there:

Son #1 and wife.

 

Son #2 and friend.

Minnesota Twins Baseball.  The Boys of Summer.  The young men who get paid a lot of money to do what they love to do anyway.  Scratch & Spit.  Did I say that? 

Anyway, it was another 80 degree day and we drove 3 hours to go INSIDE to a ball game.  But I wasn’t alone.  Me & 42,999 others were there to watch the game.  And a few more besides.

Only 4 games left to be played in this stadium before using a new outdoor stadium next year.  Now, I’m all for watching baseball on a beautiful day but come on, this is Minnesota.  Do you know how cold it can still be in April?  Or October?  Or any month in-between?  Can we say Rain?  Sleet?  Snow? 

And this?  This is Mr. Baseball, Joe Mauer, the face of baseball for the Twins.  A catcher who is a power hitter.  (and a cutie).  We were in row 7 & he was warming up just below us.  I waved & said Hi Joe!  He never even looked.  But I really wasn’t having a “good hair day”.  You hear what I’m sayin?  In any case, Joe won the game.  I mean, the Twins won the game.

Our little precious (sick) Baxter went to the Bed & Biscuit again and had a sleep-over because it was late when we got home.  He loves it there.  As soon as the Mr. dropped him off, he took off like a rocket to play with the others and forgot all about his “master”.  AND he brought home a very good report card.  It was almost perfect in fact – just like Baxter.

 

BRAD PITT

I might have mentioned the other day that I was having a Good Hair Day?  And it hasn’t, to my deepest sorrow, happened again.  After all, lightening doesn’t strike twice and all that.  But here’s the “rest of the story”.  (I shoulda been Paul-ette Harvey.  Get it? Oh, Botheration.)  Anyway.

I only mentioned Brad Pitt in the title because you know I was expecting him to come a callin’ during my Good Hair episode.  What actually happened was that I did go to town – stricly because we were out of milk.  While in the store, I did not run into anyone I knew.  Neither friend, nor foe nor Pastor.  Walked up & down every aisle (looking for milk).  No one took a 2nd look.  When I got to the check-out I figured that now for sure the checkout person would be struck with the perfect-ness of my “do”.  The only thing she said was:  “paper or plastic”?  The whole experience was kind of a downer and yet on a Good Hair Day it is impossible to have a Bad Day.  You hear me Sister?

I rather dejectedly headed for home.  But of course I still had the visit from Brad or Cameron to look forward to, right?  Cheerfully now, the miles just flew by as I thought about what I’d say when I opened the door.  (it’s easy to get tongue-tied by their total handsomeness if you’re not prepared.)  I had any number of clever & witty things I could say but I didn’t have a paper & pen to jot them down.  (mental-pause you know). 

But wait.  Lo & behold who’s in that car leaving my yard just as I’m pulling in?  Brad/Cameron is here already?  What if a hair has shifted out of place?  OMG.  What to do, what to do?  No, wait, I just remembered the electrical inspector intended to stop in today.  Oh, great, this’ll be fun…….some old guy with a bald head, and beer belly. 

Never assume ladies.  As we stopped our cars for a little chatty-poo, I realized that Mr. Baldy had morphed into Mr. Hunk.  Lean, angular face, nice tan, 5 o’clock shadow and (Brad Pitt) sunglasses.  To tell you the truth, on a scale of 1 to 10, he was a 12 on my hunk-o-meter.  As we chatted, I turned my head slightly so he would get the full effect of my hair.  Possibly he was looking for someone 20 years younger, 150,000 pounds lighter and SINGLE, or maybe he just didn’t notice my hair.  Whatever.  Conversation over.  He drove away.  Brad/Cameron never showed and I didn’t see anyone the rest of the day. 

I can only say that the whole experience has been very unsettling.  So unsettling in fact that I’ve decided not to even TRY to have another Good Hair Day until I recover from this one…………….I’d better not shampoo my hair for a few days just to be safe, huh?

This story is true.  The names have been changed to protect the innocent.

Ms. Faye

One of Life’s Connundrums…….

OK you caught me.  I’m having a good hair day. 

BUT, why is it that when you’re having a good hair day (and it doesn’t happen to me all that often!), you have nowhere to go and no one sees you?  Except your husband and lord knows he’s not likely to notice.    I mentioned this question to Mr. Picket Fence at lunch today and he said, “actually I did notice you hair was nice today”.  To which I replied “thanks for not sharing that thought with me”……

Has this ever happened to you?  Well, of course it has.  What do I do now?  If I go outside, I’ll ruin my hair in the breeze.  If I stay in the house I’m taking a big risk that no one will pop in.  I don’t know Brad Pitt, Cameron Mathison or any other hunky movie star.  And Lord knows, I don’t want to be a home wrecker but I gotta tell you that if one of those guys stops at my house today, he’ll take one look at my hair and say, hey sweetie, wanna go out for an adult beverage?  And it will snowball from there & pretty soon you’ll read in the tabloids about this old woman in Minnesota who’s short, fat, ugly and well, old……..who has broken up (fill in name here)’s marriage. 

There’s only so much pressure I can handle.  You hearing me sister? 

Now I don’t want any of you people that I know personally to stop over today.  ‘Cuz I’m thinking YOU’D be thinking:  HUH?  That’s nice?  Well, I think it’s nice and that’s all that counts. 

I think I’ll go to town which is only a quick 25 mile round trip.  We’re out of milk…………….

Green Acres is the place to be…..

Just like in the military, there is a whole lot of hurry up & wait here on the farm during harvest.  Oh, and I have good news and bad news.  The good news is that we FINALLY started wheat harvest and the bad news is that the wet wheat I couldn’t even give away is now dry and you’d have to pay dearly to get your hands on it.  You snooze, you lose!  We’re bringing wheat in about 6 weeks late.  That’s a record and one we don’t care to repeat thank you very much. 

What’s my job you wonder?  I am the head go-fer, the ride giver, truck mover, food person and any other stupid job they can think up.  Oh, I’m kidding.  There’s nothing hard that I do but it’s important that I’m here.  As in not out having fun.  But there are many perks that go along with my job.  All the wheat dust I care to breathe, the opportunity to travel (back & forth from the field) and best of all is my salary.  My employer (Mr. Picket Fence) is so generous – he doubles my salary every year!  (zero X zero = double zero!!!  WaHoo!)  Wait, there’s more.  I get to drive the really old farm pickup.  It does have 4 wheels but the radio doesn’t work, there is no air conditioning except for the model 2/55.  That’s the kind where you have 2 open windows and go 55 MPH.   Power windows were invented about 100 years after this pickup was built.  Truly, I don’t mind rolling up/down the windows.  But  picture me in the pickup alone with the air conditioning on (2 windows open) .  Then picture the combine coming up on the passenger side of the pickup.  Yep, I now have lungs full of wheat dust because I couldn’t reach the window crank.  Not that I’m complaining.  I LOVE FARMING!  :-)

This is Baxter’s 1st year as a farmer and he totally loves it – even more than I do.  My farmer guy can hardly take a step without the little darling right there.  But when it’s time to get in the truck, this is what you see:

So, what do you do when you’re too short to get in the truck by yourself?

HELP!!!!

(I get by with a little help from my friends!!!!!!!)

And then there’s the bliss of being in the truck:

And this is WHY we’re in the truck:

I wish I’d taken a good picture of the huge cloud of dust behind the combine but I guess you’ll have to take my word for that.

That’s enough of the farm report for today.  Stay tuned tho – soybeans are next and then sugarbeets.  I bet you can hardly stand to wait.  Not.

I found a fun place to shop the other day that is just full of interesting things – mostly old things – like myself – I mean, like my mother.  (Whew, almost let that cat out of the bag!).  A few things hopped in my car for a ride to my home:

I love, love, love that window.  I have a couple plans for it which will be so awesome – IF I get ‘er done!  You know what I’m saying sister?  The step ladder is in front of my house with flowers  and the bench immediately went in front of my woodshed.  It’s a very plain bench and of course it looked very lonesome.  It needed some friends to sit with.  Hmmmm.  Fall is coming.  Why, I asked myself, don’t I build some pumpkins since I didn’t grow any.  Here’s how it looked:

  

 

These pumpkins measure 9 X 17 and are 2 1/2” deep.  I will make these for any orders I get for $25.00.  Shipping would be extra but I gotta warn you that they weigh about 3 lbs. so shipping from Minnesota could be – well, more than a postage stamp.  If you hear what I’m sayin’?  If you live in my neighborhood you would of course save shipping.  Just leave a comment on my blog if you are interested. 

I also made these other pumpkins last year using 2” lumber and added gouges around the edges.  They are plain pumpkins but Mrs. Farmhouse showed them with a punch needle project attached.  Like this:

These pumpkins are 7” X 14” and 1 1/2” thick and sell for $12.00.  (Does not include the punch needle.)

Just thought I’d try this to see if there’s any interest. 

Have a great week!

Ms. Faye

I Tried to Be Nice……………

I gave Karen aka Mrs. Farmhouse, 3 days to post a story about our gathering at her house last week.  I am not responsible for the fact that I am able to post before she does.  Ya hear what I’m saying?  I done my best.  Sorry Karen – I WON!!!!!

The gathering was the first annual (and maybe the last annual but we won’t know until next year) combination of the Woolies and the Peeps.  Not all the Peeps could be there – some of them have JOBS.  What’s with that?  Wouldn’t that interfere with a girl’s social life?  Well, anyway, most of the gang was there.  NOW, we needed a name for this combined group – just to SIMPLIFY things.  It’s important that we name things.  It then becomes “official” and we can tell our husbands we are going to a “meeting”.    We shall forever after be call “The Sisterhood”.  Possibly “Sisters in the ‘hood” but it would be a very large neighborhood!  We felt that The Sisterhood sounded very community-minded and would be good for having “meetings”.  tee hee.

Ms. Karen made us a wonderful lunch.  It was a cold day – no sitting outside,darn it but we were served a wonderful white chili with cornbread & honey-butter.  And our afternoon “snack” was a melt-in-your-mouth slice (large slice!) of pumpkin cheesecake.  I can still taste it and let me be the first to mention it would be worth falling off the diet wagon for!!!  Karen had a fall theme – the best decorating time of the year!

 

Helping ourselves to lunch.

 

 

 

One of the tables with a fall theme.  Notice the little goodie bags Karen left at each plate!  Inside – a fall scented candle.  How nice was that???

 

 

After lunch we retired to the Sun Room – it’s cozy and has a wonderful view.  (I will leave Karen to show her house pics…..)  Show ‘n Tell Time!!! 

First up is  Shod with a project from Jo’s Little Women.  Awesome!!  Everyone wanted to take this baby home!

L.L. with one of the many beautiful bags she’s made.  That’s kinda my color, isn’t it?

 

 

Another L.L. project from several years ago.  It’s a table- runner from a Thimbleberry pattern.  Did I mention that Karen MADE us bring a fall project for show 'n tell?  (What a meanie!  NOT.)

 

Gail showed us a sweet runner made from a charm pack (I’m pretty sure.)  It’s just darling for a July runner!

 

Caro showed us an awesome 4-season design.  Each quarterly design will fit into the same frame – which her husband just whipped up for his sweetie!!!!

  Neecie is our resident punch needle expert.  She brought this great fall design that she mounted on a wool pillow.  Sweet!

If you’re getting tired and need a break, this would be a good time.  I’ll wait a minute for you to get back here ‘cuz I’ve got lots more to show and you don’t want to miss any…….hmm-de-hmm-de-hmm.  Ready?

 

  Neecie’s adorable little bag.  A zipper around the top makes it perfect for lots of little things.

 

When Neecie made this several years ago, I begged and begged her to gift it to me.  Do you see it behind my picket fence?  No.o.o.o.  What do we call that?  Selfish!!  Hey, maybe she forgot I wanted it.  Let’s ask: Is it my turn to have it now Neecie?

OK, KC, I’m not seeing Fall in this project but we are so proud of you for expanding your horizons.  She did a little knitting while traveling in a car.  These make the BEST dishcloths.  I’m not kidding. 

To be continued………….read on to posts II and III – PLEASE.

Ms. Faye

I Tried to Be Nice……..Part II

JF has been doing quite a bit of embroidery on linen.  This is a darling little pincushion and below is a really, really great sampler.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

‘Tis a time consuming deal.   Every 2 threads is a stitch.  Good light and a good magnifier are required!

This picture doesn’t even come close to doing justice to this piece.  This is a block of the month (I think) that JV has completed.  The flowers are 3-dimensional and have some bead work.  The colored frames around each flower are hand embroidered.  All done in wool and the workmanship is outstanding!  It’s beautiful JV!

Naturally, JM hand-appliqued this cutie. Say, I remember doing the quilting on that..

And THIS ONE ------------

It’s just amazing.  Made by JM a few years back but it is awesome.  It’s called “Scrap Soup”.  Guess that’s appropriate, huh?

 

 

 

And here’s the lovely Ms. Karen.  This was a punch needle pattern that she converted to a stitchery design.  I didn’t know you could do that!  You are so clever and talented Mrs. Farmhouse.

Hang in there, I’m almost done…..

Major Problem Here

I’m really frustrated with Blogger.  I had a blog that wouldn’t publish so I split it into 3 parts, thinking it was too long.  I first published part 3 so that they would be in order for you to read them.  Now blogger won’t let me publish parts 1 & 2.  AARGH!!!  The story would be better if you could read the whole thing at once.  Will keep trying but I’m not hopeful.

I Tried to Be Nice………Part III

 

 

Neecie and Cami having a little bonding time!

 

 

Mrs. Farmhouse prepared a wool & stitchery project for all of us to work on.  I call it “Karen’s Sweat Shop”!!

 

Now then.  Do you ever wonder how people react when they see Mrs. Farmhouse’s sewing room for the very first time?

I’m here to tell you that it is such an awesome space.  Maybe that’s why she gets so much accomplished? 

Well, that’s the show for today.  Aren’t they a great bunch of women?  Everyone needs a Sisterhood in their lives.

Mr. Picket Fence tried to harvest wheat yesterday.  Nope, too wet.  He tried again today.  Nope, too wet.  Will he try again tomorrow?  Nope, it’s supposed to rain.  Sigh.  If any of you want some wet wheat, I know where you can get some.

Ms. Faye

What’s Going On??????

This is a post about absolutely nothing.  I know I always say I have nothing to say, but this time I really mean it!  I wrote an outstandinly lovely post (IMHO) and I can’t get it to publish.  So, I thought I would try sending this short little blurb and see if that works. 

It’s an error 400 and says there is a server error.  Huh?  I’m clueless.  Can you help???