Behind My Picket Fence

It’s all in the definition

2011-09-23T10:15:00.001-05:00

I’m beginning to fear for my sanity. But when you try to pin it down, sanity is a really tough word to define. Everyone’s definition might be different. For instance, I work in the field during sugarbeet harvest and some might say, “what? are you nuts?”. I understand that. My husband, however, would think I was crazy NOT to work in the field. See what I mean? Definition.

On the other hand, when the opportunity arose to join an applique’ group, I did. My husband said, “what? are you nuts?” I understand that too. Definition.

OK, I understand that I probably don’t need another group to join that will have some expectations of me. Still, who wouldn’t want to join a group called “The Bent Needles?” (I’m still saving “Twisted Sisters” for the right group.) I have done very little hand applique’ in my life so this group will give me a good nudge in that direction. Plus part of the group are very accomplished at applique’ so maybe if I sit next to them, some of their knowledge & skill will magically flow over to me. I won’t know unless I try. I just hope no one notices me trying to suck knowledge/skill out of them.

I missed the first meeting but joined them Weds. Frankly, I thought I’d be off the hook for dragging out my needle – bent or otherwise – because there was so much talking to get out of the way. We did finally settle down and got busy. Here are a few pictures of the show & tell:

This group of blocks are all from the talented and prolific hands of JV:

JM (who is “trying” to teach a few of us) is working on this beauty:

A couple more are in the works from LL and Mrs. Farmhouse (Ms. Karen):

Me? I took out an old UFO from many years ago and that I don’t particularly like any more. It will make good practice before tackling something I love. I have big dreams of all the lovely things I will make with applique’.

What? Am I nuts?

Sing along with me -

2011-09-19T22:17:00.000-05:00

Oh, Lord it’s hard to be humble……….when you’re perfect in ev-er-ey way. I just hate to look in the mirror, I get better looking each day.

To know me is to love me, I must be one hell of a man(‘s best friend). Oh Lord, it’s hard to be humble. I’m doing the best that I can.”

---------- Barked by Baxter & plagiarized from a Mac Davis song

I’ve told you so many times that our Brittany, Baxter is almost perfect but that he still had a couple “issues”. Were the issues big or were they small? It all depends on how you look at them. Regardless, the “issues” have apparently gone away. We picked him up from the kennel

after we’d spent a few days out of town and we were on cloud 9 after reading Baxter’s “report card”.

I am so excited, so filled with pride, so bursting with the news. Our Baxter is on the Honor Roll!! Truly. Check it out------

As any proud parent would do, we began calling our “other children” – you know, the ones who have 2 legs and big mouths? They sort of deflated our spirits when they pointed out that of course the kennel will give him a good report card. They want him to come back, don’t they? I’m a little bummed about it now but I know in my heart that he could be an honor dog. Even if no one else thinks so. It isn’t easy being a parent.

Whoa, Nellie, did I say we went out of town? Goodness. When my husband brought that subject up, I felt the earth wobble on it’s axis. I didn’t ask when or where, I just packed my bags and hitched the horse to the wagon. Off to the Amana Colonies in Iowa. It’s probably an 8 or 9 hour drive and we had a great time chatting while driving along. After about the first half an hour, we ran out of chit-chat and we drove the rest of the way in silence. So then the radio gets turned up. That’s fine if it’s tuned to “my” station but generally the driver gets to pick the music and when we’re together, my sweetie is usually driving. Driving me nuts. Hate his choice of music and when it gets so bad that even he can’t stand it, he tunes in to Fox News. Have you ever noticed that when they run out of real news, they bring in a panel of experts to debate meaningless issues? And every member on the panel tries to talk louder than everyone else so you have 6 people shouting at each other. After a little of that, I turn it back to the yuk, ick music that I hate.

I’m going to have to move this along because I have one of the world’s best kept secrets to share with you. We went to the Amana Colonies in Iowa which were settled by German immigrants looking for religious freedom. They arrived in Iowa in 1855. There’s a lot of very interesting history about the Amana’s but I’m not wearing my teacher hat – you’ll have to Google it yourself. (you’ll be glad you did).

Anyhoo - while in the Amana Colonies we discovered the best place in the world to stay. Even tho we NEVER go ANYWHERE, I do know enough to recognize an A #1, 4-star hotel when I see one. The hotel is Zuber’s Hotel in Homestead, Iowa. Don’t let the name “hotel” fool you. This is a home away from home. Only better because I don’t have to make the bed, clean bathrooms or make breakfast! Aren’t ya lovin’ it? Sorry I didn’t get an outside shot, but the building dates back to the 1850’s. It’s been restored & remodeled by (my new best friend) Yana Cutler and her wonderful husband (altho I didn’t meet him), David. I’m gonna just start tossing in some pictures I took of various rooms & suites. And hallways, & gathering rooms and entries. Pretty much everywhere. Except the outside. Sorry.

We stayed in the:

The attention to details was amazing -

Here are a couple other rooms ---

Bill Zuber, Major League Ball Player, former owner of Zuber’s Hotel.

Then there was the golf themed room:

I have a ton more room pictures but frankly, if you’ve seen one lovely, outstanding room you’ve seen them all. No, wait, that saying should be if you’ve seen one football game, you’ve seen them all. Nothing lovely or outstanding about football. And that’s the gospel truth according to Ms. Faye.

So my idea is to show a few public areas such as entry, hallways and sitting areas:

This might be a good place to ask – do you think I loved, loved, loved this place? When we left, I was crying and my Mr. was just a-tugging on my arm and my little heels were digging into the carpet. It was ugly.

Not so ugly was the Wood Shed which is a gathering room and breakfast area.

You know how you might be at a Super 8 (not to pick on any particular hotel, I’m just sayin’, could be any chain) and they have a continental breakfast for you in the a.m.? Like cereal in a box or even worse, one of those big plastic containers where you push the lever at the bottom and cereal comes flowing out into your bowl? Not that I know this first-hand, I’ve just heard people talkin’. You might also get some day-old sweet rolls too. Yum!

So, my new best friend Yana also serves a continental breakfast just like that. Only different - a LOT different. Maybe the coffee is similar. How about a nice, warm egg bake, hot oatmeal with cranberries, 3 kinds of fruit, rhubarb preserves (from Amana) and a yummy – & I’m talking serious yummy – loaf of cinnamon bread still warm from the oven. Oh, mama. I might have helped myself to TWO slices of that. (You don’t need to mention that to Yana, ok? )

This is Yana, our lovely hostess (owner). Shown next to her is RC, a wonderful man to visit with and a great sense of humor. RC’s great-great (I think it was 2 greats) Grandfather was an original settler of Amana.

If you’ve read all of this un-paid commercial message, you deserve a star on your chart. If you didn’t read it all, well, you just won’t know that you could have had a nice star for your chart on the fridge.

I missed Loose Threads last week due to our “big adventure” but I did sew a couple blocks ahead of time that we were all going to sew as a group. It’s called Friendship Chain and measures 4 1/4” finished. I think there were 31 pieces but if you want to count pieces I could get you another star.

Front of Block

Back of Block

Yes, it took more than 10 minutes to sew. And no, I’m not making a queen size quilt of those blocks.

I could show you some garden pics but maybe next time. This is getting SO LONG! Hopefully I will have some interesting pics from a new group that’s interested in doing appliqué – we’ll be called the Bent Needles. Lordy, Lordy. Who came up with that one? I think it should be Bent Needles and Twisted Sisters. But what do I know? I do know that a winter retreat in Iowa is looking VERY attractive. Are you listening – Loose Threads – Woolies – The Sisterhood aka WooPees – and The Bent Needles?? I’ve heard that Iowa in March is lovely……………….

Ms. Faye

Kind, thoughtful and loving..

2011-07-31T22:02:00.001-05:00

Every time I post I tell myself that now I’m going to post more often and keep them short & sweet. (like me) Hmmm. Not working out. I tell myself other stuff too. Like I’m going to stop eating things that are not healthy. I love that one! In fact, I tell myself that one nearly every day – especially when I try to button my pants.

Lots been happenin’ here girls. Oh, ya, in my last post I told you how my great-niece was going to win the Little Miss county fair pageant. Turns out that I was just a tiny tish off as she was the first runner up. You’re a doll Miss R and we’re proud of you.

After having to skip the June gathering, The Woolies met last week at JM’s beautiful lake retreat. It was a beautiful day that was a tad on the cool side which was heaven to us as we’d had some of the worst weather possible. We’d had a stretch of days that were in the 90’s. Not so bad, right? Well, add to that the horrible humidity of around 90% and you have a sauna. The weather man called it sub-tropical. Yikes. My glasses fogged up when I went out.

Ok, I got side tracked. Back to Woolies. I’ll skip the parts that Karen over at My Yellow Farmhouse wrote about. Mostly we’re just popping our buttons over the fact that a member of our group has a big accomplishment

(sorry girls, but you gotta admit that the rest of us are deficient in the achievement category. Oh, wait, I guess that’s just me/deficient/achievement. Dang. Carry on Woolie Girls)

OK, Kari Carr, Big Achievement. Her book was released July 11th. Check it out:

You can find out more about Kari’s book at New Leaf Stitches.

So, long story short (not) we wanted to help Kari in writing her next book. We presented her with “A Survival Kit for Authors”:

First of all, I apologize for, #1 poor picture quality as it’s hard to stabilize a camera when you’re laughing, and #2 for the disgustingly wrapped package which happened because it was late the night before that I did this and my patience will only go so far.

To get the ball rolling so to speak, was the “Bad Idea File”

The file was actually the largest item in her kit. Hmmmm. Think about it.

But just in case Kari were to have a big idea, she should have the proper pen to record it:

As we all know, good ideas are hard to come by but a person should have a notebook around just in case of a “big idea”

Again, you might want to think about the fact that the Bad Idea File is so large while the Big Idea Book is so small…………..get it?

However we know it’s possible that Kari might not be sure it’s a great idea and would not want to use her big idea pen. Then she should really have a pencil handy……

or even 20 pencils and a sharpener and a box of erasers.

You know what they say about writers – you have to write when your muse is hot. That could even be late, late at night. When a person is sleepy, tired. And in need of:

COFFEE! (I’d like to remind you at this point that I did warn you and apologized in advance for these poorly done pictures. It was hard for Faye.)

If the coffee isn’t doing the trick, we thoughtfully tucked in a bottle of high-powered energy drink.

That started us off on the topic of “have you ever tried this stuff”? None of us have and after much discussion, it was decided that due to our ages and without an ambulance standing by, it is probably best that we leave that experience to others.

We’re still being helpful here – & I know I mentioned something about age – we tucked in a pair of cheaters -

which were supposed to be hilariously funny ‘cuz I got them at the dollar store. But danged if they weren’t cute on Kari!

While at the aforementioned dollar store, this little item just jumped into my cart:

Can you see it? It’s a gi-normous eraser that says “for BIG mistakes”.

After all this stuff, we felt there was only one more thing she might need:

unfortunately, I didn’t get a picture of it but it was another notebook. This one was the “Big Book of Woolie Wisdom”. The pages were sadly all blank……………(think about it)

Yes, it’s true, we are a kind & loving group………even tho that’s not an exact quote from our Ms. Kari. I’m a little afraid tho. You know what they say about pay-back.

After all the silliness, we broke down and gave her a nice pen – altho smaller than the one above – for her to use at book signings. AND, even better, Kari still liked us enough to sign a book for each of us! Thank you girlfriend!

Queen for a Day

2011-07-15T19:28:00.001-05:00

Did you ever know anyone that you thought should be “queen for a day”? Do you remember that show? As I recall it (& this is my story), it was someone down on her luck and when she won, it was things like a new washer or refrigerator. Useful stuff. Stuff that would make her life better. But, “useful” is such an ugly word. It’s only “useful” if you actually “use” it. Do you see where this is going? So I’m wondering how “useful” is my vacuum cleaner or my dust cloth or my window-washing tool? Or my stove. Especially my stove. See what I mean?

My idea of “useful” would be a sewing machine, a good tank steam iron, garden tools, a Gator (little 4-wheel drive thingey) for hauling compost, etc. around the yard. Oh, and one of the most “useful” things on my list would be my rocking chair. You know, for rocking baby Henry. Did I say I wasn’t going to mention Henry ever again? Did you believe that? Goodness.

So, tell me. What’s on your “useful” list?

I got side tracked there on the Queen for a Day thing. I really had it in my mind to talk about being a princess. No. Not Catherine the Great across the pond in merry old England. Not that she isn’t great. But I know a better princess. Well, she isn’t a princess yet, but if she doesn’t become one, I’ll suspect someone of bribing a judge. My granddaughter, the Divine Miss O is the most beautiful girl in the land, but running a close 2nd is my niece’s little girl who will be in the princess pageant this weekend at our county fair. I know she’ll win. She’s a shoe-in! There’s really no reason for other little sweetpeas to enter. I really, really, really want to put a picture of her here, but I worry about putting a little girl’s picture on the internet. There are a lot of sick people out there altho I can’t imagine why some sick-o would be reading this. He’d be awfully bored and terribly out-numbered by all the wonderful people who do read this.

You must be “royally” sick of this topic by now so maybe I’ll just throw in a few snapshots of my & God’s gardening efforts.

Gardening is a wonderful hobby and I can hardly make myself stay indoors on a nice day. But it’s not all sun-shiney, tip-toeing thru the tulips. There are things about it that I hate. For instance, I HATE IT when we have an early morning thunderstorm and it leaves the yard looking like this the rest of today. Hope it’s gone tomorrow.

Hope I’m still here tomorrow and hope you are too.

Wet hugs,

Faye

Playing 1st Base & Batting 4th…

2011-07-07T22:06:00.001-05:00

If you’re a regular reader of mine you might recall that in many of my previous posts I focused (obsessed) on my favorite baseball player, Joe Mauer. (Minnesota Twins). But then I decided that if I couldn’t adopt Joe, I should switch to another player. I’ve had several in the line-up but none of them worked out either. Apparently they are all satisfied with the parents they already have. (I just want good tickets to the game!!) Whatever. Their loss, I’m sure.

I’m very excited about the perfect solution to my heartbreak----------------our very own, brand-spanking-new GRANDSON!!!

We are so excited to welcome our little Henry to our family. Doesn’t it look like he’s saying I want my Nana???

You know how it is when there is that invisible line in the sand? That you know you shouldn’t cross? Well, I crossed it. I knew my son was not a fan of having “stuff” in the window of his clinic. So I snuck in – not in the dead of night but I needed the staff to let me in when he wasn’t there.

I knew he’d be there the following Monday, so I was planning my funeral for Wednesday (you know, after he killed me for messing with his window). It all turned out fine. In fact, here’s what I did:

That’s my handsome son in the window holding Henry.

OK, I KNOW I’ve bored you to tears. I’m a new grandma – I’m entitled. I will never mention Henry again. Hardly ever. Sometimes. Well, probably a lot. Get over it.

Nana Faye

What’s Up with That?

2011-02-17T20:59:00.001-06:00

I’ve always found it very enjoyable to sit down and write a post for my blog. From that statement you might then ask the question: why don’t you write more often??? You might also ask, which came first, the chicken or the egg?? Well, boys & girls, the answer is simple and the same for each question – I DON’T KNOW!!!! Of course you also have to realize that there is very little in my life worth writing about. Altho now that I think about it, most of my posts are about nothing at all. Obviously, this will never be turned into an autobiographical book. Or any kind of book. Oh, geez, ya, I’d really LOVE to write a book. I sat down with pen in hand one day to begin. I was like Snoopy sitting on top of his doghouse typing out – “it was a dark & stormy night.” After that I was stuck. I couldn’t think of a darn thing and gave it up as a lost cause. If you want to send me a story idea………I could add at least a paragraph to it!

Now that I’ve explained my long absence……ahem, we’ll move right along. :)

Let me begin by sharing our winter house project. Known affectionately (or not) as the “shower from hell”. Pardon my language. Our bathroom had a bathtub with a shower. It had tile surrounding it. Some tiles began to come loose – and then more & more. The cause was a handicap bar we’d installed when I was recovering from “the incident”. Long story short, we needed to re-do. As all good projects go we decided to make it all BETTER. Are you loving it so far? Me too. Since we don’t use the tub, we might as well remove it and it will become a nice, large shower. YEAH!

I’ll skip thru a whole bunch of really interesting stuff here that would bore you (huh?). We got out our tool belts and hammers, screwdrivers, hand saws, power saws, chop saws, drills, sanders, squares, tape measures, and well, nearly every tool we own. We do this because whenever we tackle a building project we call in “Close Enough Construction”. That’s us. In addition to that we run to town at least once a day until project completion for something we don’t have. Can anyone relate? So once the dust has settled, it looks like this:

Left side:

Right side:

One of the sad/funny things about it is in the instructions it says that this can be completed in a weekend. HA! Someone should call the better business bureau for false advertising. Well, it’s done and we love it! If I host a “shower open-house”, do you think it’s ok to ask people to bring their own towel?

Last Saturday was our monthly Prairie Women’s Sewing Circle group, sponsored by Farmhouse Woolens. Per usual, a good time was had by all. I cannot imagine a group of ladies who would be more fun to work with. It’s sorta like having a 2-year old around and if there’s a moment of silence, you get real nervous. I am not saying they act like 2-year olds! Sheesh. But there are no moments of silence! Here’s what they made last month:

They are the sweetest little table runners called Seneca Falls.

Oh – Oh – Oh. Miracles do happen. I got something for Valentines day:

Wasn’t that nice? I gave him a card. Yes, I talking about my husband!

OK, what else? I belong to an organization that provides services to help mainly senior citizens stay in their homes instead of needing assisted living or a nursing home. It’s a great organization and well worth supporting. They’ve had an annual Tour of Tables event for their main fundraiser for a number of years. This year we are using Alice in Wonderland as our theme and have asked each table hostess to decorate to represent a children’s book or nursery rhyme.

I had to go to eBay but I found vintage-looking Alice in Wonderland fabric ---

So I ordered a yard. Then I wondered what to do with it. Here’s what I did:

I really need to tell you that the quilt is straight & square. It looks like it’s curved at the top but it’s just the way I pinned it to the wall. Honest. It really is straight. I promise. Really.

And, of course, minkee on the back so it’s snuggly soft for baby. I also had a couple motif leftovers so will sew up a simple pillow to go with it using the green border fabric and minkee.

We’ll announce the raffle winner on April 9th at the Tour of Tables.

I missed going to Loose Threads this week but I’m hoping to be able to share pictures with you (if someone shares with me) as I know there was some good show & tell.

I do have a full-time job now so I may have less time than ever to write.

What? I need to clarify full-time? Ya, ya, ok then. I work 1 day a week. But that’s a LOT, don’t you think? My lovely and talented boss is none other than Kari Carr – New Leaf Stitches. You can check out her patterns & notions on her website. I’m trying very hard to be on my very best behavior while I’m at work. It’s hard to be Faye.

Bad Hair Day

2011-01-12T21:37:00.001-06:00

Apparently my husband has been using MY computer. I only know this because he must have been reading the local newspaper on-line and every section he read opened a new window. So I was going through closing windows and discovered he’d read the page that shows who has been arrested and thrown in the clink. (Small town. Big news. You know.) So I’m trying to think of a reason why he would be interested. Was he afraid he’d see himself there? Well that’s a big NO, unless you can be arrested because you haven’t kept up with the times and don’t know how to fire up a computer. It wouldn’t be to check on the children because ours are obviously above average (grin) as well as kind to small animals. Well, they are!

So I’m scrolling down the page and the more I see, the more frightened I’m getting. Had there been children in the room, I’d have covered their eyes. I didn’t even have to read the charges against some of them. They deserved to be arrested for their bad hair. Seriously, if I know someone is pointing a camera at me, I at least TRY to fluff my hair a little. Don’t you? Some of the “clients” look sad or mad or sleepy or, or, or, drunk! Yes, indeed. Some of them even look startled. Like they are surprised to be there? But the best picture of all was a young man with a mile-wide smile (not smirk) on his face. I mean even his eyes look happy. It’s like he just won the lottery or something, and frankly, if you’re in jail I don’t think lottery is what I’d be thinking. But I really am happy that he’s happy. It’s always good to have a positive attitude, don’t you think?

Well then. Onward and upward. Let’s see. I dedicate this first set of pictures to all my friends who feel deprived because they don’t have all that beautiful snow to look at. I’ve heard of such places such as Texas, Florida, Australia and many, many more who have bleak, snow-less yet sun-filled winters. Enjoy! But you’d better not be laughing!

I needed a path to the birdfeeders so my Mr. is making me one with the walk-behind snow blower. Isn’t that a nice, clean trail?

You might notice that he’s pushing down on the handles so the front end goes up to reach the snow. It didn’t work, the snow was too deep for the snow blower. He did later go in with the tractor & blower and made a path. Which is not to say that I can feed the birds without getting my boots full of snow.

If you park at my DIL’s clinic in town (or anywhere else in town), you might see the above as you park…….

or you might see the below from my living room window……

Let me repeat myself. If I hear any of you laughing at our snow pictures, I’m going to truck it on over to your yard! Don’t think I won’t.

The next couple pictures are Crap I’ve Made:

A cedar wood birdhouse with a side handle for cleaning and a pile of pillows – wool of course!

Now it’s Prairie Woman’s Sewing Circle…the first quilt is called at Mama’s Knee by Ms. Gail, Ms. Joan and Ms. Denise (smaller of course)

Dueling Quilters (below)

You know, Ms. Gail & Ms. Denise are normally very reserved in their demeanor. I just happened to catch them when they were both talking at the same time. It’s probably never happened before. And the sun probably rises in the west! I’m just sayin’.

Isn’t this a great quilt? Mary Ellen whipped this up one evening. I would think it would take longer than that to make. Maybe it was one month. Oh, heck, I don’t know how long it took. I do know that it was a stunner.

Speaking of stunners, Ms. Joan showed this awesome little number. For as much as she heckles the teacher in class, perhaps this would make a nice gift to the teacher as a show of genuine, heartfelt appreciation? Think about it Joan.

Moving on to Loose Threads. This month we decided to make a Cancer quilt. Quilts don’t get cancer but people do and if a quilt that we’ve made will help someone fighting cancer feel the love & prayers we sewed into the quilt, we’ll be very, very happy. This quilt already has a home waiting for it so it’s ready to go to the quilter.

Work, work, work.

These are 4 of the 8 suspects making the quilt. Pretty good for a one day effort.

A little Show & Tell – Denise’s T Blocks, 2 of the 5 pair of slippers Jean made before Christmas. These are for a mother & daughter.

Jean had previously knit some cute little kids caps so she is trying her hand at miniaturizing it to fit an American Girl doll. Dang cute!

I suppose I’d better go out to the garage and polish the shovels. It’s supposed to snow again tomorrow & the next day also. Then for fun, the stupid weatherman said we may enjoy minus 30 degree weather for a bit. Someone should take out a contract on the weatherman.

WHOA! STOP! DO NOT CONTACT THE FBI, THE CIA OR THE ELCA. THAT WAS NOT A THREAT AGAINST THE WEATHERMAN. IT WAS A JOKE. SHEESH!

Blessings only come to those who notice……………

2010-12-24T10:30:00.001-06:00

Isn’t that a wonderful thought?

Do you know how hard it is to come up with something profound to say? Especially when one is not particularly known for profound statements? But even I have to say that “blessings only come to those who notice” is a good one.

But how did I come up with it? Good question. One day (ok there have been more than one of those days, but I’m not admitting it here), I grabbed a “cup of Joe” – an old-fashioned expression for coffee that my mother used. Even I am not old enough to have personally used “cup of Joe” but it somehow popped into my brain. Things popping into brains, hmmmm, that could be another story.

Well, back to “blessings”. Sipping my cup of Joe, not doing housework, bookwork or really any work, I put my thinking cap on and I thought. And I thought. Then I thought some more. Nothing was really happening in the thinking up profound statements part of my brain. So I did what I always do when I’m stumped. I grabbed a piece of chocolate. I’m partial to Dove dark chocolate so I opened one of those suckers up, popped the little piece of heaven into my waiting mouth. Ummm, I can taste it now. Wait a sec.

OK, anyway, I’m still thinking while drinking coffee and salivating over a piece of chocolate when I notice that I still have the candy wrapper in my hand. Well, dang. The Dove people have done it again because this one said “blessings only come to those who notice”!!!! Ta Da!! There you have it – my very own profound statement. So for now and forever after when you think of blessings you will also think of chocolate – sorry about that.

But even better is the fact that when you think (meaning eat) chocolate, you will always think of your blessings. You’re welcome.

(Kinda makes you wonder tho what’s happening in my brain that I can take a candy wrapper and turn it into a thousand word essay.)

I was reading someone’s blog the other day that mentioned she’d like to see snow for Christmas. Be careful what you wish for girl. It seems we get some snow a couple times a week and while it’s beautiful when the world is covered in glistening white, it is not a happy, gleeful, awe-struck feeling you get when you have to go out in it or shovel it. Then it’s just a pain in the patooty. Here’s last night’s offering:

That’s a bench in front of the tree. Care to sit?

Still want snow? Come & get it. Free. I might even pay you.

I thought I’d show a few pictures of my Christmas decorating attempts. Don’t try this at home, you can do better!

Merry Christmas with hugs to all my friends – both old and new!

Promises, promises

2010-11-01T17:11:00.000-05:00

I would love to say that I just stepped outside my door today and snapped this picture. Minnesota just doesn’t work that way. It was taken on Halloween. No tricks involved.

Aren’t the colors yummy? Now continue on to the next picture which is a closer version of the same tree taken today. The colors are gone – honestly I didn’t make it black & white, it really is that color. But isn’t it pretty anyway? Love the hoar frost when it sits heavy on the trees. Apparently, the birdies are loving it too.

How’s this for another before & after? Only one month apart.

How long ago was it that I promised you a really, totally, yummy recipe? No need to answer that – I know it has been a long time. There is only one catch to it – it uses 2 products from the Tastefully Simple company. My daughter who is a senior consultant with this company lives in Denver. Which, as you all know, is NOT next door to Minnesota. I don’t think. Anyway, since she couldn’t bake me a cake for my birthday, she sent me the cake mix and caramel sauce and the recipe. I know you could get a caramel sauce somewhere else (but I know people who, when asked what they put this caramel sauce on, reply “a spoon”. It’s that good.) The pound cake mix might be pretty exclusive to them, I don’t know. Luckily, I have connections…………..which I could share if you beg. Here ‘tis:

Absolutely Almond Toffee Pound Cake

*Absolutely Almond Pound Cake Mix

*1 cup water

*3/4 cup melted butter

Prepare cake as directed on pkg. with water & butter.

Stir in:

*3/4 cup toffee bits

Spray 9x9 pan with cooking spray

Arrange:

*3/4 cup whole pecans on bottom of pan

Pour batter over pecans. Bake at 325 for 45-50 min.

When cool, serve with:

*Creamy Caramel Sauce

I would have liked to show a photo but it was gone too fast for me to snap a pic. (caramel lovers in the family, don’t ya know). I’m telling you – your taste buds will be doing the happy dance with this cake on your lips. I did say lips – not hips – didn’t I?

Speaking of hips, some of the folk at my house needed to rest theirs after our Thanksgiving feast. How many homes across America that day had people & dogs on couches with football on the TV?

And really, football? If I had known the person/fiend/psycho who invented the game, I would have said “go back to the drawing board honey, ‘cuz this game isn’t going to catch on”. And the “outfits”? Whoa, momma. Those are strange. Remember when Linda Evans was on TV? On “Dallas” I think. Anyway, she started that whole fad of padded shoulders so that we’d look smaller in the hips in comparison. Hasn’t anyone told the football fashion people that that style is so last year? And their little outfits are kinda shiny looking polyester. Who wears polyester? By choice? And knee-high socks? No, wait, they’re wearing TIGHTS! OMG, I used to wear tights when I was a little girl and had to wear a dress when it was cold out. And what’s the deal with tucking a towel in your waistband? When the Indians wore that it was called a breechclout. I suppose there’s a purpose but I’m not sure I want to know what it is. It could be kinky. And I’m not even going to bring up what those helmets do to their hair. There’s a reason there are no women playing professional football. I’m just sayin’. Maybe I’ll start a grassroots anti-football-on-holidays movement. We could substitute a good quilting program or a fun gardening show. Let’s think about it, ok?

My real motivation to write today was because I want a friend, MJ, to see some of these pictures. The Loose Threads were at my house yesterday but MJ is on some sort of 2-week vacation at the Mayo Clinic. Next time you feel the need to “get away from it all”, I’m suggesting you think warm, sunny & tropical. Whatever your excuse, everyone missed you MJ. So here are some of the happenings:

A little light brunch – Swiss & ham crepes, Waldorf fruit salad, cinnamon streusel coffee cake and sunny sunshine OJ. I suppose we could have eaten more but we needed to save ourselves for afternoon coffee. Seriously. Lori brought little individual cheesecakes. Wow, were they good. A few Christmas goodies needed to be sampled too. So much to do, so little time.

Our mini- T blocks we worked on last month at Denise’s.. Lori’s 4-square and Karen’s done in Christmas red & white.

These next 4 were from the month before that. Same block – all different. The black bordered one is Connie’s and next to it is Judy’s. The bottom 2 are mine.

Judy was busily working on some American Girl doll clothes for her granddaughter. She will be thrilled!

A new knitted hat from Jean:

Carole finished one that has been waiting in the wings – for about 5 years. I totally understand and it IS a great quilt!

Karen made these table toppers from the same pattern (New Leaf Stitches).

She also made this angel wallhanging from a Buggy Barn pattern in Batiks!

Pictures really are worth a 1,000 words so I’m just gonna let these pictures speak to you while I sign off………

Happy Fall Y’All

2010-10-31T21:26:00.001-05:00

There are certain things in my life that I can take for granted. One of them is that since we farm, tools are always fair game. It’s sort of like they are free since we can deduct tools on our taxes. I never said that this was very logical, but I’m trying to explain that this concept is a constant in my life. It has worked well for me too since I am the proud owner of undoubtedly too many tools for making things with wood that I don’t know how to or take time to make. It could still happen but someone also said that pigs can fly. Still, the tools were deductible and that’s important.

Another thing I can take for granted is that trucks are almost the same as tools in that they can be depreciated out on taxes. See, again, they’re almost free. This is all legal stuff I’m telling you so don’t be trying to turn me in to ANYONE! Especially not the IRS – they are Halloween Scary!!!! BOO!!

Moving on, I was on a little road trip with Ms. Denise who is the holder of the knowledge of all good places to shop. I did not buy any tools – altho I had my hands on a few pieces of tin which accidentally got left behind but that’s another story I suppose. The dishes got left behind too altho that might not have been an accident…………Regardless of the lack of tool purchases, I found myself a doozy of a truck. It’s that faded out blue one above. It doesn’t show very well but there’s a black roof, wheels and welding marks. He got added to my front door display and his job is to haul a load of cracked and tippy pumpkins.

This is my freshly fluffed entry – just waiting for some little trick-or-treaters. Since it’s 9 p.m., it looks like 5 are all I’m going to get this year tho. What happens to all the left-over candy? I’m pretty sure you know the answer to that. Look out hips – here comes some more chocolate!

There is so much awesome technology now and yet some of the most important things are left un-invented. Where is the chocolate flavored broccoli? Truly, I do love broccoli but I’ve noticed that I never crave it for little between meal treats. Why don’t cars have auto-steer like my tractor? We could punch in the coordinates of where we are and where we want to go, then just sit back and wait until we get there. Just think how much safer we’d be. What about a grocery conveyor belt running from the garage to the kitchen cupboards? What about a puppy that comes pre-trained? And where are the robotic house cleaners like those we watched on the Jetson’s so many years ago? What do you think needs to be invented?

I would also be in favor of an invention that would cause the MN Twins to win the World Series. It has now officially become a tradition for the Twins to fall apart AFTER they win the division thus preventing them from (obviously) beginning and winning the world series. I’m sure this whole situation is not JOE’S fault but come on Joe, we’re paying you $28 million – A YEAR!!!!! (it’s ok Joe, we still love you – just maybe not quite as much…)

I’m watching the series now but I’m (again) not a happy camper as Texas is my favored team and it’s not looking real promising for them. (Sorry San Francisco, but I can only pick one favorite). I’m still hopeful tho because we all know it’s not over ‘till the fat lady sings. God I hate that expression. And I don’t even SING!!

Ms. Faye

Talkin’ Dirty (G-rated)

2010-10-30T20:45:00.001-05:00

Romance? Passion? Fantasies? No.

FARMING? YES!!!!

Dirty? Absolutely!

The past 2 years I’ve been whining about how wet it was for harvest. This year was as close to perfect as it’s gonna get and this year we actually saw “dust”!!!

Apparently, someone else noticed a tiny bit of whining. How do I know? She gave me a bottle of this for my birthday-----

What’s so great about a bottle of wine? Read the label a little closer:

What’s your point?????

So here’s what I spent about 100 hours looking at:

Sugarbeets in the front

Sugar-beets in the back

Sugarbeets under my wheels:

Here are some action shots of me steering the tractor:

Look Ma, no hands!!!

Oh gosh! I need to move an inch to the left!

Honestly. My tractor was equipped with a satellite system called Auto Steer. When the field is planted, Mr. Farmer enters the latitude & longitude & his height & weight and what he had for dinner. Or something. Wa-la, straight rows. So when I start the harvest rolling, all I need are the coordinate numbers, pull into the row, push a couple buttons and we’re off. On a mile-long field, I can really read a lot of pages in my favorite novel. It beeps once at the end of the row so I know to put down the book and make the turn. The stress is HORRIBLE!!!

Sugarbeets are planted in rows 22” apart. The tires are about 20”. The GPS is accurate to about 3”. So you see, SOMETIMES, the wheels would be a tish off and the picture above shows me pushing the button to move the tractor over 1”. Again, STRESS! It’s a wonder I survived.

This is what’s called a buddy seat for when you need to bring your child along? It’s also where our dog Baxter sometimes sat.

Unfortunately he also sometimes wanted to sit on my lap. I had to banish him from my tractor because he kept hitting the controls.

I sat in this Captain Kirk type ergonomic, swivel chair that had many of the controls right on the arm rest.

Here is a picture of hubby loading one of the trucks.

And here is hubby and Baxter – taking a nap? what the heck? No, I’m sure they were working. Don’t you think?

After reading all that, don’t you feel dirty?

Prairie Women’s Sewing Circle – This monthly club is one that I lead for Karen at Farmhouse Woolens and Dry Goods. I would like to say that I teach it but there’s very little teaching going on but there sure is a lot of laughter.

Here’s a picture of me with part of the group. I’m standing toward the right side in white not teaching:

I have cleverly put them all to work with needle & thread which cuts down on the amount of grief they can throw my way. To tell you the truth, I can’t imagine a better and more fun group of women. How lucky I am!!

We’ve just had our 2nd club meeting with 4 more to go. Mostly we’ll do miniatures and this is the 1st month project that they all brought back finished. They all turned out different and that makes it so fun…..

Isn’t that Ms. Neecie showing us how to turn a miniature into a super-miniature?

Now this is a gal who is always marching to the beat of a different drummer. And I’m so glad because it’s absolutely wonderful Neecie! You inspire us to challenge ourselves…….

What were some of your favorite Halloween costumes from your youth (5 years ago)? Or from your kids? I remember one year when my daughter was about 9 or 10 and our son was about 2 or 3. I turned them into Raggedy Ann and Andy. OMG, they were so cute! I think Ann’s hair was a mop head dyed red. Apparently it was hot & hard to keep on her head. She had a high-waisted skirt & blouse, big red circles on her cheeks and freckles on her nose. Little “Andy” had pants and suspenders and I don’t remember the rest of his costume. One year our 2 boys were the Lone Ranger & Tonto. This involved them each wearing boxes with horse-like spots on them and reins toward the horse’s head. Cowboy boots & hats and I think that also involved 6-shooters….Oh, yeah, remember being a pair of dice? Well there are a lot of really cute costumes that you can buy now – not the plastic masks of my youth – but I still like the ones we made at home the very best. I got to thinking about costumes because Raggedy Andy aka the Lone Ranger aka one dice aka out oldest son and his lovely wife stopped here just now on their way to a Halloween party. I totally CANNOT believe he was convinced to dress in costume but here they are as Paul Bunyon and Babe (the blue ox):

If Fleet Farm doesn’t have it, you don’t need it – right RJ? Even the cowbell around “Babe’s” neck came from Fleet Farm. Too bad all you town ladies don’t have access to Fleet Farm. It’s the Niemen Marcus for farm folk!! LOL

And check out what “Babe” (the blue ox) brought me:

Happy Fall y’all -

Time Flies

2010-09-26T14:50:00.001-05:00

Tick, tock says the little old clock on the wall. I wonder if time has flown by for this clock or if it drags a little sometimes?

The Loose Threads – including myself - saw this great clock in Ruby’s Cafe in Ashby last week. The clock hasn’t moved from the wall for years & years. The bottom part has an ad for the local bank from years ago that rolled to a new message every few seconds. Awesome! And check out the retro sign below:

We Threads decided to start our day at Ruby’s for a bit of a bite of breakfast. As a quilt group we are strangely all about the food. :) We were all terribly upset to learn that the homemade caramel rolls weren’t ready. You sophisticated folk won’t understand this, you gotta be country – but the gal who was making the rolls used to be the person making those very same rolls at the Rothsay Truck Stop. “Truck stop” doesn’t sound exactly like haute cuisine but I’m here to say that those rolls were famous for miles around. People would get up dag-blame early on Sunday mornings just to get their hands on some rolls to take home. Sometimes a person would be too late and was scared to go home empty handed. I’ve heard. I’m sorry if you never got a chance to enjoy one but I’m telling you it’s not too late – go to Ruby’s. (unpaid advertisement- altho maybe if I show this to Ruby, I could get a free roll?)

OK, I’M SORRY! I know I haven’t written. I’m just like a kid at camp – I’ve been too busy enjoying summer to write. Picture me laying on the grass under the old oak tree – just like Huck Finn - with knees bent and one leg crossed over the other while one foot swings up & down with the steady beat of an invisible metronome. There’s a gentle breeze blowing while I’m reading “To Kill a Mockingbird” on my Kindle and sipping a cold lemonade with a handful of raspberries resting in it and condensation just dripping down the side. It’s obviously 90 degrees and very humid (Minnesota), making it too hot for the flies to be serious about flying around annoying us – much. Now & then I doze off until one of those flies works up the energy to fly over & tickle my nose. My faithful dog is relaxing at my side, too hot to chase a stick and being almost perfect as always.

I almost never stretch the truth so you can be sure that’s how it is.

Now picture me in the garden, bent over at the waist until I say “Oh, my aching back” causing me to kneel on the ground until I say “Oh, my aching knees” - all the while sweat is dripping off my brow, down between “the girls”, gathering around the waistband of my too-tight pants and swatting mosquitoes. (again, it’s Minnesota). My faithful dog is running around chasing birds – STOP THAT – and taking a dip in the standing water in the ditch – STOP THAT - and tramping through my flowers – STOP THAT!!! He’s being less than perfect as usual……….Go with whatever version of my story you prefer.

How much can I share today without you dozing off? We’ll see.

L.T. (Loose Threads) met last week at CD’s house on the lake to sew & eat. Yes, even after breakfast at Ruby’s. We were to make miniature quilts for ourselves – assembly line fashion. I told everyone the size of fabric to cut and how many to bring. Time flew as we talked, laughed, talked, laughed, ate & sewed. At the end of the day we had a “few” 4” blocks:

There were four 2” half-square triangles in each block. Stay tuned as somebody should find time to put their blocks together. Since I knew the plan, I made my quilt earlier with 2” blocks (four 1” half-squares):

You know I sew but am I good at it? Not so much. I may have gotten a little excited at finishing it up and forgot to notice if everything was going in the right direction. Humility block.

Altho, now that I think about it, I was also pretty excited while watching the Twin’s baseball game in which “my Joe” got his 1,000th hit. Now, if I had a prize I’d send it winging on it’s way to Donna in Texas who also happens to know about hit #1,000. How did you know that & write to congratulate me? I’ll be sure to pass that on to Joe. Mr. Picket Fence & I were talking the other day – I’ll pause while you think about that --- but we’re just wondering if our youngest son who is good at baseball, but not THAT good, could have been switched with Joe, thereby making him really “my Joe”. The hospitals would have been about 200 miles apart but still….it coulda happened I think. And then the woman Joe calls “Mom” would be just a nobody and I’d hit the jackpot on Mother’s Day. I love it! Plus, think of the good seats we’d have at the ball games. I suppose one might say I inhabit some sort of dream world, but it feels real to me. I’m just sayin’.

Speaking of baseball, hubs and I ran into Dave Goltz the other day. (He was honored a week or so ago as one of the 50 greatest Twins. Way to go, Dave!!! We so loved to watch him pitch back in the day.) We had a nice visit and as we were walking away, I just had to slap myself upside my head. WHY didn’t I tell him to say Hi to “my Joe”????? AAAARRRGH!!!!!!!!

Back to business. A couple show & tells:

And this one has absolutely nothing to do with sewing – Jean does woodturning and this bowl is what she made with an ash burl:

Absolutely, positively beautiful!

Into every life a little rain must fall and if we’re lucky, after the rain we see the rainbow. 2 months shy of 2 years ago, my upper leg (femur) broke. Now, after 3 surgeries and almost a month total of rehab, my wonderful surgeon in Minneapolis – who fixed the first surgical mess and who I believe is a surgical genius and really nice guy to boot– has told me that my bone has made a “solid” heal. He was also the one who figured out why this bone broke and why my hip broke 5 years earlier. I was taking Fosamax to PREVENT osteoporosis! Yep. An unnecessary drug which caused 2 broken bones. Bones that just snapped without any trauma involved. OK, that’s all I’m gonna say about that except that if you’re taking Fosamax, please speak to your Dr. about it. Oh, and before you ask, I have normal bone density and I’m not yet 60. Altho I won’t tell you how close I am……

A little of this and a little of that -

By my front door :

“The Sisterhood” gathered at Mrs. Farmhouse’s this summer. I don’t want to let the cat out of the bag, but Karen doesn’t really live in a farm house. She lives on the lake in a beautiful house with a “farmhouse feel”? It has absolutely nothing whatsoever in common with the farmhouse I grew up in…….I’m just sayin’.

Karen has wonderful taste and there’s always things at her house that we wish were at our own homes. In fact, GB told us to distract Karen so she could sneak off with this:

Just because it didn’t work out, doesn’t mean that we don’t admire your initiative Gail!

Karen asked us to bring along “a golden oldie” that we still like. Here are some:

Karen’s Bulls-eye

Kari Carr’s (New Leaf Stitches) fairly new design

Penny’s cross stitch. Many hours in the awesome little piece of art.

If I recall correctly, I think this one belonged to Gail (the cabinet thief). Hand embroidered blocks, each one different. It was so pretty.

This is a new one made from flannel that looks like wool. A hand embroidered design between all the blocks. Very, very nice. A real he-man quilt.

This star quilt (Buggy Barn I think) is one that LL is making for a wedding gift.

This is an oldie from Neecie. I recall her making it to use on the table for a daughter's graduation. I’ve always loved that one too!

I’m pretty sure that this one belongs to Ms. Neecie too. This one goes way back…..

My SIL and I spent a week driving to Colorado. Her son (all 6’5” of him) is going to college there.

It’s long way from home Mike BUT, you’re only 1 1/2 hrs. from my daughter’s family. Of course we stopped to visit them for a few days. Here’s my granddaughter Miss O, dressed as The Black Widow! Boo.o.o.

Sorry, Ms. O, you’re too cute to be scary!

Auntie Jean knit

this cap for

Miss O while we were on the road:

Am I right? She’s the cutest, smartest, kindest to animals girl in the world. Unless you have grandkids then they can be the best in the world! OK?

Are you a member of the Prairie Women’s Sewing Circle? Farmhouse Woolens and Dry Goods is hosting this monthly club. We had our 1st “circle” 2 weeks ago – and what fun we had! I’m trying to lead the group, but honestly, the ladies are being unreasonable about wanting to “follow”! I’ve tried bribes – threats – pouting – nothing works with this group. It doesn’t help that I know most of these gals pretty well and they know what a ditz I am in real life. What’s a girl gonna do? I am what I am.

This is the 1st project in the club – the little red quilt - and they will ALL come back next month with their finished project! Right, girls? This is how Karen displayed it in the store.

So Mrs. Farmhouse says, why don’t we throw in a couple of our own designs as extra projects for them? Good idea Karen. But she felt I should come up with the ideas. Sheesh.

Idea #1 was in keeping with Prairie Women who had to be really, really careful not to lose their thimble. We made thimble keepers that have a coneflower stitched on the front with a button for the flower center. I told you that in case you couldn’t figure out what it is.

Idea #2 was to offer a pattern for a journal cover to fit a 3-ring binder. It’s made of wool with a little prairie cloth for stitchin’.

And on the inside are pockets on both front and back covers.

I have a very good recipe I want to share. But I think I’ll save it for next time. That’ll motivate me to write – maybe. So, that’s all for today. What do you mean, “that’s ALL? - either the woman disappears from the face of the earth or else she won’t SHUT UP!” Sorry on both counts. I vow to try to be more like my dog – almost perfect……….

Hugs to all from

Ms. Faye

Can you Stand It?

2010-07-28T22:54:00.001-05:00

Don’t you love it when a friend (who also loves gardening) calls you up and says that she saw in the paper that there is a garden tour about an hour from here. Do you want to go?

Whoa. Back up the bus and let me get on!!! And so it was that we made the sacrifice to love the hubs – ok that’s funny. I actually wrote “love the hubs”. ROFLOL! I meant to say, “leave the hubs” at home and go enjoy ourselves. Listen, if we don’t do it, maybe NOBODY will? Think about it.

So I said to myself, self – why don’t you share some of the wonderful photos of the tour? Think you can stand it? Here goes:

House #1 was in town. This lady did a lot with potted plants but her landscaped gardens were also wonderful.

Ready for a cup of tea? Inside a cool rusty metal gazebo.

Same home – a front corner of her yard with another sitting spot.

House #2 was also in town. This arbor was built using 2 old barn windows. Honest. That’s what she said. I have never in my life seen a barn with windows like that. If you have a set, please send them my way.

A beautiful day lily.

Home #3 was in the country on what had been a piece of ground covered with pine trees, etc. They took out enough to make a yard. Well there was more to it than that. This is the pond that was at the bottom of a waterfall & stream.

This is the waterfall. Keep in mind that Mother Nature did not do the work on this.

They also had this way cool birdhouse garden. I want to get me one of those.

House #4 was by a lake and you’d be greeted by this bed of day lilies and other flowery stuff. Sometimes things just get too technical for me so I just call them flowers.

They had lots of shade. So guess what? About a million hostas and every one different. (and every one labeled) Plus, they had an entire bed of mini-hostas. Do you see how tiny this one is?

Here we are at Home #5. This was also on a lake but it had formerly been a farm and many of the flowers were on an old cow yard. And you know what we get from cows? Milk. And other good stuff for gardens. How’s that? The G-rated version.

Don’t you absolutely love this gate to no-where?

And this out-house? Truly. It’s a 2-seater and if you don’t know what that is, look it up. I’m not responsible for educating you young folk.

Home #6. Words fail me. (shocker). It was like a park and every direction you looked, you saw more.

So, that was my Saturday of “SHOCK & AWE”!!!

It’s kinda hard to come home and not feel inadequate in the garden department and yet it was VERY inspiring and sometimes at this time of year it’s good to get pumped again. Maybe if you’re interested – and maybe even if you’re not – I will post pictures of some of the flowers God put in my yard, just blooming their heads off.

Ms. Faye

If you’d like to see more garden photos, click the link below for Tootsie Time:

Dog Tired

2010-07-15T22:02:00.001-05:00

Just so you know, I’m watching the Twins play baseball as I write this. MY JOE JUST HIT A 3-RUN DOUBLE!!!!! That’s my boy! (i wish i had a son like that. not that my boys aren’t wonderful but still - they don’t earn $23,000,000 a year. I’ll bet Joe buys his mother lots of good stuff. Not that I’m materialistic but what’s wrong with a couple more pieces of fabric or a new perennial flower or 2?) BTW, did you know that “my Joe” Mauer got more votes than any other player in both American & National leagues for the All-Star Game? More than you wanted to know I’m sure. I have lots of other useless info running around my brain. I could be like your “go to” source for advice. The phone lines are open…………………….

A week or so ago me & hubs were hard at work laying a brick landing at the bottom of our deck stairs. Naturally it was the hottest day of the summer, like in the 90’s and about 90% humidity. Let me tell you I wasn’t just “glowing”, I was truly sweating! When our little Baxter gets all hot & sweaty from running in the fields, he looks like I felt:

He’s ok – thanks for asking.

It was a grand day today. AND it was baby Woolie Penny’s birthday (#50). Yes, she’s the last of us to pass the 1/2 century mark. How’s that Penny? Half-century? HA, HA, HA. In my mind I’m younger than Penny but apparently that isn’t how we keep score. Well it should be!

We met at JV’s lovely home on the lake and weather was perfect in the 70’s and very small breeze. Ah.h.h.h. But before we get outside, we were greeted at the door by Tiny -------

JV’s hubby brought down that big guy on a hunting trip to Alaska last year. Wowser. Glad he had a gun with a great big bullet!

I didn’t take a lot of pictures – I get so distracted – but this little footstool JV made just makes me think of Little Miss Muffet. Don’t you think?

After a great salad and warm, fresh bread we headed out to the patio for a little show & tell.

Kari, New Leaf Stitches, showed us a couple things that will be in her book that comes out next summer. Wish I could show those pictures, but you’ll have to wait for the book!

Jean & a friend whipped this up at the lake last weekend. I thought the fabric choices were really fun. In case you don’t recognize her, that’s Jean behind the quilt………..

Jean always has show & tell – apparently she uses her time wisely…..This one just came back from the quilter. It’s going to a baby in the South Pacific. Lucky baby, I’d say.

Jean (again!!) inherited some grandmother’s flower garden blocks from her great-grandmother. 157 blocks. Every single one is pretty and unusual fabrics which were no doubt scraps. If I know Jean, she’ll have it put together next month! Naw, not even Jean could do it that fast.

JV showed us a quilt that she’s worked on now & then and has a bit of hand-quilting left to do. VERY NICE, don’t you agree?

Let the Party Begin ------------

No, no, no, no, we did not drink that beer. Someone fished it out of a waste receptacle behind a bar in a very dark & scary alley. The beer bottle was there so that we could play spin the bottle! Not a kissing game, not a drinking game. When the bottle pointed at you, you had to read a piece of wisdom for how to know when you’re past your prime. And just in case Penny didn’t realize it, we made this handy little reminder for her to wear. (can you say, “how fast did that come off as soon as she got away from us”????)

We also played “button, button, who’s got the button”. I really think the less I say about that the better. There was some confusion (unrelated to that empty beer bottle) about rules. It may have been a matter of untrained actors. It’s currently under investigation.

The first gift is the gift that keeps on giving. It’s the gift you receive when you turn 50 and can’t wait for one of your friends to turn 50 so you can unload it on her. Sweet! Penny looks thrilled, doesn’t she? Tee hee, hee.

The rule was that we should each make a small (under 6”) pillow for Penny. The 1st rule of this group was that there would be no rules, so Jean made a table mat with “pennies”. Huh. It really worked out perfectly when we gave her a jar full of penny candy. We really, really wanted to find some wax lips. Remember those? Also wanted bubble gum cigars or candy cigarettes. Which are probably against the law. As they should be.

The “conformists” of the group tossed all their pillows in an old metal colander. Penny had to guess who’d made each one. Nothing like putting a girl on the spot.

I don’t know if it’s because I’ve been working on this and not watching the game closely, but the Twins are behind the White Sox 8-6 in the 8th. I suppose I’d better go pay attention and try to will that score to change. We’ll see how that works……………

More Market Mayhem

2010-07-09T19:51:00.001-05:00

So I was sitting there today amongst a few of my friends just minding my own business and not bothering anybody when all of a sudden they decided to give me “the talk”. NOT the birds & bees talk. Criminy, I’m older than God. I think I already know as much about that as I want to, thank you very much. “the talk” was more along the lines of “WHY HAVEN’T YOU WRITTEN ON YOUR BLOG?” Yikes. All I can say is they put the fear of the Lord into me and I shall commence writing. Amen, sisters.

I’ve got a lot to say today so to help keep things interesting, I might just throw in a picture now & then of something that has nothing to do with anything but might help keep you awake. OK?

1st Bloom on my Peony Tree

Peony Bush

I could be wrong (but I’m not as I looked it up), but I promised a few stories of intrigue from Spring Quilt Market while I was helping Kari Carr of New Leaf Stitches My exact words were: Treachery & betrayal, con artists, altercations and just plain too strange to be believed. (Just ask #37). I’ll take them in order.

Treachery & betrayal. When Kari signed up for market, she signed an agreement for the size/shape of booth she wanted. That made it so much easier for us to plan – I could draw it all out on graph paper and move things around on the paper to see what we liked best. It was an odd shape but usually they are more interesting. A little back & forth talking and pretty soon, wal-la, we have a design we both are happy with. This is great. We know ahead of time where everything will go. We’ll walk in with our stuff, set it up and then go out for a nice, leisurely lunch. Right? Ya, sure. You guessed it sweet-cheeks. There was a fly in the ointment. Basically, when we saw the booth, it was not the size they told Kari it would be. Well, actually, the square footage was the same but the shape was so different, there was no way we could use our plan. Kari tried to work with them to straighten this out, but frankly, they didn’t work back. And we were back to square one. So that was the treachery & betrayal.

Not happy with the bathtub planter this year. Purple isn’t showy enuf and the geraniums are more red than orange.

Con-artists & altercations. After a very long & hot day working on the booth, it was finally time for a MEAL. I’m just sayin’, there wasn’t that meal in the center part of the day that I’m used to having. Now that I think about it tho, I should probably be skipping it all the time. Maybe I’ll think about that tomorrow. We had a strong need to simplify our lives so we headed for the restaurant in the hotel we were staying at. There was Kari & myself, the wonderful Ms. Karen aka Mrs. Farmhouse Woolens, (the “other Kari”), Carrie T and Ms. Jolene. We stopped at the hostess stand by the door waiting to be seated. Two gentlemen in suits (I’m using the term gentlemen loosely here….) walked up behind us, politely asked how we were doing and if we were enjoying our stay. They asked if we’d been helped or were we waiting to be seated. We’re waiting we naively replied. Let us seat you he said. He took menus from the stand and said to follow him. He took us to a round table toward the back, and said Oh, I see it hasn’t been cleared yet. He asked his friend to see to it. Things just sort of disintegrated from there and the 2 men sorta disappeared and we were left standing in the middle of the restaurant by a dirty table. I can almost hear you chuckling now but lets be clear on this -- IT WAS NOT FUNNY! (well, it was funny but maybe that came later?) oh, wait, there’s more.

A real waiter comes over, clears the table, seats us, gives us menus and takes drink orders. What a relief! So we were like, chat, chat, snore – oops, that was me taking a power nap. We’re dying of thirst here. After a bit, a young waitress comes over to take our drink orders. HUH? We patiently explained that the waiter already took our order. She patiently explained that our table WAS NOT his table but it was HERS. Ohhhh, a little sensitive, aren’t we? Well, we all still remembered what we wanted to drink and ordered again from the young gal. Now the waiter came back & asked if we were still waiting for our drinks. Well, yes, but that young person said she’d bring them. Evidentially, they went somewhere & settled their fight/altercation over the table assignments because, Hallelujah and praise the Lord, our drinks finally arrived. We also PLANNED to order our food from the young gal at this time ‘cuz frankly, we’re starving. But, dang, she said that’s the wrong menu and she went & got the evening menus for us. Now if you’ve read my blog before, you have every reason to believe I could be telling a tall tale, but I AM NOT MAKING THIS STUFF UP!

So we ordered. There was plenty of time here for us to do the whole chat, chat, snore thing as it was taking a long time. Oh, wait, here’s our food………already. Except Carrie T. didn’t get her soup while the others did. Oh, sorry the waitress said, it’s my first day. Soup arrived. Soon our entree’s arrived. Now there’s total silence at our table as we pay homage to the food. Except for Ms. Kari. Well I mean to say that she was her nice, polite, sweet self as usual but she did say she wished she’d gotten the chicken that she ordered on her salad. At that point we couldn’t face asking the waitress to correct it and have to go thru the whole, I’m so sorry, it’s my first day, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I just took some of my chicken and threw it on Kari’s plate & told her to eat. A girl’s gotta have some protein after a day like that! (alcohol is optional)

Jackmanii Clematis

Can you stand one more story? I know this is really long but I’m not going to hold a gun to your head & make you read it. It’s an optional activity but you could take a break here and grab a cup of coffee/tea/water/alcohol. Whatever turns your crank.

Too strange to be believed or ASK #37!

I hardly know how to even tell this one. It’s Carrie T’s story about what happened that very same day when she went to JoAnn’s fabrics to pick up some supplies for Kari’s booth. It went something like this:

Carrie chose the fabric she wanted and carried it to the cutting counter. The store was pretty quiet and in fact she was the only person waiting to have fabric cut. That’s kinda nice isn’t it when you can zip right up to the counter and zip right out again to head to the cashier. There were 2 employees behind the counter. Even better, right? Carrie waited patiently for a while and finally asked if someone could cut some fabric for her. She was told she’d have to take a number.

I’m trying to paint a picture here for you. 2 clerks, 1 customer, no one else. Take a number? Is there a hidden camera here? Apparently they weren’t on a bonus program to see who could serve the most customers in the shortest amount of time. Here’s where if you know Carrie it really becomes fun. Carrie is a very calm, reserved lady but she decided to play their game to see how far it would go. So she calmly went to the little machine and took a number, went back to the counter with the fabric thinking they would now cut for her. Not so. They were having a conversation. A lengthy conversation even. Not only that but since Carrie was so close she felt a part of the conversation as she heard every word. Not that they included her of course. I’m just saying that Carrie told us the entire conversation because she heard every word. Nothing special, just an ordinary conversation.

OK, here it comes….

Wait for it…..

Conversation over….

One of the clerks picks up the microphone and makes this announcement over the store loudspeakers:

now serving #37!

You can take this entire story as the gospel truth. You couldn’t make up stuff this good. I’ve tried and it ain’t that easy. I just hope the store captured this Kodak moment on their store security tapes. They could use it as a training video or maybe send it in to funniest home videos, make a million dollars and then hire some REAL employees!

Pansies

Cosmos

Sorry I’m so short on pictures this time but I had all these stories I had to tell or I was gonna explode!

Come chat with me any time over the picket fence!

Ms. Faye

Latin and Greek - Translated

2010-06-12T20:46:00.001-05:00

Don’t tell me it’s been a month since I’ve written. Mercy me, how that time flies by.

Not knowing where I left off telling the story of my life, I read my last post. Ah, it was a humorous story (not to me) of how men and women appear to think just a tad differently. I wanted hubby-help on a yard project. He wanted to help me. (so he said). Now let me tell you “the rest of the story”.

It had been an early spring here in my Minnesota meadow. After a long winter and an even longer recuperation from a leg situation, I was able to get outside and enjoy planting and just getting moving again. Remember how I said in my last post that I don’t understand men? I think I understand a bit better now…..So just how did my porch turn out? You be the judge:

What’s that? You don’t see it? You’re right – you don’t need new glasses – IT ISN’T THERE! Huh. Now to be fair, snookums “might” have gotten the porch built, but there was still a sniggle of doubt in my mind. I had spent a fair amount of dollars on some very nice plants and was afraid if I waited for the porch to be built, I would by then have killed the plants. So, I just went ahead with Plan B and planted those little suckers. They love it there and so do I. Snookums is also happy – like that’s high on my priority list – but I do what I can.

Probably a porch would have just been an eyesore anyway. Right?

The lilac bushes were planted last year but I dug up and planted the rest of the flower bed this spring – instead of a porch.

I filled this bed with 8 daylilies all different colors. The back of the bed is delphiniums, tossed in a couple Russian sage and some Icelandic poppies. Hurry up & grow darn it!!!!

And just in case the other side of the shed door felt left out, I added a couple chairs. Except not to sit on……….

I have a friend – oh don’t act so surprised! – who’s becoming a better friend the more I know her. Anyway, this friend designs quilt patterns and is a sewing/quilting tool inventor. People with talent always just amaze me to pieces and Kari is no exception. Geez, I should tell you who she is. Kari Carr is the very successful owner of New Leaf Stitches. Kari is a recycled home-ec teacher who has turned over a New Leaf. Get it?? In case you’re wondering, Kari has some of the most well written pattern instructions you’ll find anywhere. Very clear, concise & easy to follow.

Any Who. Spring quilt market was in Mpls. this year so a couple months ago, Kari asked if I’d help her beautify her market booth in a new way. (This market is where quilt shop owners buy the products they sell in their stores.) So, she said, how about a home ec room from the 50’s? Oh, yum, count me in. Kari was a home ec teacher as was her Mom so it was very appropriate. The whole thing started with this awesomely cool picture:

From there we added a chrome kitchen table, a sewing machine & cabinet that Kari’s mom had used, a little 4-burner gas stove. Along with the stove there was also pink cookware as well as a pot holder that had a nasty burn hole. Wonder how that could have happened in a home ec room? An old apron on Dee Dee the dress form and an imitation Motorola TV cabinet where an instructional video loop was played. The walls were of course aqua, the demo table had an aqua gingham check skirt with a really wide hem – in case the table grew I guess. In the sewing department, we had a yellow table with a yellow shirt (again a wide hem) that had black dots. The chairs were also from the 50’s and were yellow & red. The colors worked out great and were just a perfect “neutral” background to show off her quilts. Here’s a couple shots of the finished booth ----

Sorry for the bad focus……..it says:

New Leaf Stitches High School Home Economics Department, Room 3025 Spring Semester – 1955

Almost done setting up the booth:

Notice the blackboard on the front of the teacher’s desk with their assignments:

Mr. Carr, the younger, is busy filling an order. What an awesome help he was:

Here’s the sewing department where shoppers were able to test drive the tool Kari invented:

This is our Miss Kari being interviewed. I haven’t seen the tape but I know Kari did a wonderful job!

Anyway, if you’d like to read more about Kari, about Market or especially about New Leaf Stitches, visit her New Leaf Stitches blog.

Considering all the things that went wrong the day we set up the booth, I think it turned out pretty good. Are you wondering just a little bit what some of the things were that went wrong? Treachery & betrayal, con artists, altercations and just plain too strange to be believed. (Just ask #37)

TO BE CONTINUED……………

Latin and Greek

2010-05-02T22:20:00.001-05:00

Does anyone understand men? If you do, let me know. Sometimes I feel like I’m talking to thin air, or I’m spinning my wheels, or I’m beating my head against a rock. Sometimes I swear to God above, we don’t even speak the same language. You know? Now before I go any further, I want you to know that we are happily married and my husband is a great guy and has many sterling qualities…………….

Well, I was wanting hubs to help me tackle some yard projects. Nothing life or death of course but the type of thing where I have an idea in my head that I think would be cool. You know? We have some leftover decking materials and I said to myself, Self, wouldn’t it be cool to build a veranda on the front of my wood shed? Doesn’t that sound cool? I love it. I could put a couple cool chairs on it and maybe some flower pots or some old crap or something. Are you getting a picture here? I ran it by hubs. Sure, he said. Hmmmm, that was a little too easy, wasn’t it? I wonder if he was listening? I sweetly mentioned it again and again he replied that he would build it. At this point, I’m still nervous because he generally doesn’t like doing “little projects” for me and frankly, we don’t work all that well together. We both want to be Chiefs and then there are no Indians. It’s a problem. Anyway, back to my project. Hubs, I purred, I need a firm commitment one way or another. Either tell me yes or tell me no, but I need an answer because I bought some plants and I need to know where to plant them. He replied, “if you want it, I will build it”. That seems like it should be a happy ending, but for the past 2 weekends, it has rained and I’m afraid that by the time the weather straightens out and he has time again, he’ll have forgotten his promise. AAAAAAARGH.

Then we move on to phase 2 of this unbelievable scenario. I am envisioning a lovely park-like setting in our back yard. Well, a lot smaller than a park but it would involve a couple split rail fence sections, some tree & shrub planting, etc. I proudly showed darling hubs a sketch of my idea and told him I’d like to do this. Sure, that’s fine, he said. Now I should explain that he really doesn’t care what I do with the yard and that when I want to do something like that he just hands me the shovel and tells me to have at it. But, honey, I said, I have a bad leg and can no longer do a project like this without help. OK, he said. No, you don’t understand sweetie pie. When I say I need help I actually mean I need YOUR help. Well my snookums, he said, or words to that effect, if you want to do that in the backyard, that’ll be ok, I like to help you do stuff. At this point, after the shock of THAT statement hit me, I was laughing so hard I couldn’t catch my breath. Oh, man, this is so not gonna happen. Of course, I will let you know if it does, but it’s like I said – 2 languages!!

Well, that got a little long, didn’t it? I shall leave it up to you to decide how much is fact and how much is fiction…….or how much is in another language. HA.

I’m going to slip in a few pictures from an event I attended a couple weeks ago. It was a fund raiser for “Partners” which is a community organization dedicated to keeping people with a medical problem or the elderly in their own homes by providing services to them. It was a Tour of Tables and there were some very fun ones. Take a look:

The table above was sponsored by our quilt group, The Loose Threads. Guess what? We had a quilting theme! Scary, isn’t it? The extra table was a serving table off to the side. And this is a picture of our group – except for Carole who couldn’t be there.

This silver and white was WAY COOL even if it doesn’t show up well in the photo.

Notice the red dishes? Loved ‘em!

ANNOUNCING – BIG NEWS – NEW BLOG

The most important reason I’m blogging tonight is to let you know about a blog that you’ll want to follow daily for a week or so. 3 local Quilts of Valor groups are headed for Fort Knox, Kentucky on a bus with – get this – 600 quilts!!! They plan to blog daily or maybe even more often to tell us about the journey and about personally delivering some of those 600 quilts to some of our service men and women. Be sure to bookmark this site: http://qovmission.blogspot.com

May God be with you on your journey ladies.

Hugs,

Ms. Faye

Truth or Consequences

2010-04-28T22:02:00.001-05:00

Hello? knock, knock, knock.

Can you hear me?

I’ve had laryngitis - can you hear me now? Actually, that’s a big, fat lie. I don’t have laryngitis. So why haven’t I been talking to you? Sadly, I broke all 10 of my fingers and have been unable to type. Oops, another big, fat lie. I am on a roll. How about this one – Joe Mauer FINALLY called and I’ve had front row seats to all the baseball games. You’re not believing that one either are you? Whatever. I’m just trying to share with you and all I get is disbelief!

Life has been busy down on the farm. Do you remember how much whining I did last fall because it wouldn’t quit raining and we were digging machinery out of the fields on a daily basis? OK, that’s another sorta lie because when I say “we”, I don’t mean that I, myself, actually had anything to do with the digging. Ya see? I did the watching and they did the digging in the mud. That translates into “we”.

OK, moving on, it’s now Spring in farm country and aren’t we happy about that? Not only because we are happy to say goodbye to Mr. Winter, but because maybe all my previous whining has done some good. It’s been an early spring and a dry one which makes all the Mr. & Mrs. Farmer’s around here happy little farmers. And believe me, farmers are almost never happy. It’s either too wet, too dry, too hot or too cold. And then there’s the price of wheat – which is what hubs will mention when I want to buy a new pair of shoes…………………But many of the crops are in the ground and some are peeking up making the black fields look kinda fuzzy green. It’s a good thing.

So, on to the good stuff. Pictures. It’s been so long that I can barely remember what I’ve done or who I’ve done it with. (get your mind out of the gutter, it sounded better in my head than it did after I wrote it. Honestly, I have neither done anything nor done anything with anyone. Huh?) I’m talking about Loose Threads and Woolies. See, that’s part of the problem – there are 2 groups of really wonderful, talented women that I hang with (I am so BLESSED) and there are a couple gals who are in both groups. This causes me to get all confused about which group I did what with. I can’t help it, I’m really old (please don’t tell Joe! Ok, this “Joe business” is getting really old. I’m going to quit it now ‘cuz it’s not funny any more. You knew it was funny, right?)

Did I mention pictures? We had Loose Threads at Marlene’s house. We had arranged to have some Quilts of Valor quilts on hand that needed to have bindings sewn on. Here are some of the finished ones:

This one above with the flags was designed by one of those talented friends I mentioned – Ms. Denise.

Oh, silly me the one above is a Ms. Denise pattern too. It was the striped fabric that made it really cute and my picture doesn’t do it justice.

Ms. D “might have” designed the above also but on the other hand, maybe not. Sorry, senior moment.

Aren’t these great? These are quilts that go to emotionally or physically wounded veterans. It’s a wonderful story chock-full of wonderful people on both ends of the giving/receiving process. Our local group leaves on Monday for Ft. Knox and I will give you their blog address then so you can read all about it. I’m so proud of all the QOV women – 600 quilts are headed for Kentucky! Just AMAZING!!

We had some great show & tell at Threads too so let me share some of that too:

Carole made a darling quilt from a children’s panel. Have any of you noticed that when working with those panels that they are not square nor do they leave any extra space so that you have room for a seam allowance? Ah, just a little pet peeve. It was really cute Carole:

Connie was gone part of the winter but just look at what she finished. Well, kind of……these 2 little miniature tops are done & ready to quilt. Don’t you love em? Did you notice the binding-stitcher in the background just furiously working? (Ms. Judy)

Little quilts are very labor intensive, but take a gander at this “little labor intensive labor of love”……

Yes, it’s the dreaded king-sized quilt! Was it 9 yards of fabric for the back, Connie? It was gorgeous and again, my picture does not do it justice.

Well, lookee-see. More bindings being sewn down – Carole & Lori.

This is the last one. Judy’s mother is doing the embroidery for a quilt hanging that Judy will put together. Her mother is well into her 80’s and look what a wonderful job she does with a needle. I want to be like her when I grow up!

By the way, did you notice the new picture I put up on the blog header? I told you it’s been an early spring – don’t my flowers look great?

Oh, you caught me, that’s another big, fat lie. Those flowers are from last summer.

This is now:

Well, I’m off to look for my bottle of “truth serum”. Not that I have a problem…………….

Ms. Faye

2010-04-27T14:19:00.001-05:00

A Child of 5

2010-03-29T20:05:00.001-05:00

Last week I was finishing up a quilt top at home for Quilts of Valor. It is their tradition that a matching pillowcase is made that will hold the finished quilt. It makes a great presentation.

I have been a sewer all my life. I got my 1st sewing machine at age 9.

It was a Singer, made to attach to a table with a clamp and it made a simple chain stitch by turning the crank. It was a great machine even tho it was pretty hard to go fast – you needed to make one revolution of the crank for every stitch made. That was a LOT of little circles. Maybe I should use that machine more – good exercise for the arms that want to flap in the breeze. Ahem. Anyway, my 1st project was an apron. By the time I was a teenager, I was sewing most of my clothes then sewed for my home and for our children. I’m just sayin’. This old gal has been around the block when it comes to sewing.

But I couldn’t figure out the directions for how to sew the pillowcase. I read it, re-read it and read it again. I tried doing it step by step and still I couldn’t make it work for me. Now of course I could sew a pillowcase, but I did want to make it like their others have been made.

IT WAS ONLY A STUPID PILLOWCASE!!! A child of 5 could plainly understand this. I needed to send for a child of 5. I couldn’t find one. So, I had to bite the bullet and ask Ms. Penny to show me how it’s done. (I told her my friend wanted to know…………can’t let her know I’m that stupid……) Well, the light bulb came on and it could hardly have been easier. Obviously I wasn’t reading the directions in the same language in which they were written!

I have a winner for the little spring pillow:

I asked Mr. Picket Fence to choose a number between 1 and 19 and he came up with #9 and that’s Marie in North Carolina. If you email me your address Marie, I will put the pillow right in the mail to you.

Happy Spring to All!

Ms. Faye

Good Plan goes Awry

2010-03-23T11:43:00.001-05:00

It’s been so long since I’ve written on my blog that I almost feel like I need to re-introduce myself. You must remember me? I’m the one that had a good hair day last summer? Truly. That one day was the BEST!

(last September I told the whole good hair saga so if you’re interested, that’s where you’ll find it.) I’m still waiting for a repeat BTW. Life is so not fair.

Moving on. Let me show you what the Woolies were up to at my house:

We spent the day making quilts for Quilts of Valor – for our wounded veterans. I believe we finished 3 tops and had good starts on 3 more. Plus binding sewn on one. A good day. I finished another top myself last night and the Woolies will gather again this week for a repeat.

Now for this part you might need to refer to my last post where I outlined my “plan” regarding Florida/Spring Training/Joe Mauer/drunkenness. I’ll pause for a minute here while you look that up………………….

Ready? Ok. The thing is, the plan didn’t go according to plan. I did my part. I was in Florida, at the Spring Training stadium, nice and early so we could watch the warm-ups. Did I talk to Joe? NO. There were so many cute, screaming chickee-poos hanging around trying to propose marriage to him that he just didn’t have time for a couple words with his old friend. Hello? I mean ME!! No, I’ve never met him but I have watched him play baseball so that’s practically like we know each other, isn’t it? It isn’t? Well anyway, I wasn’t able to sneak in a chance to get him drunk either so that didn’t work out. If you’re a non-Minnesotan you might not know “my Joe” so here’s a picture from training camp:

He is a bit of a cutie, isn’t he? Yep, 26 years old. My 2 sons are about his age. I would have invited him over for a tall, cold one but if he’s not going to talk to me, I’ll drink it myself. There are by the way, a number of other really good players on the team – none of whom talked to me either. Sheesh. Their loss.

The point I’m trying to make tho is that Joe really is a very, very, very good ball player. He is so good that he just signed a new contract with the Twins to play for them for the next 8 years for a cool $185 million!!! So even if he wasn’t cute, he’d be cute now, right? You can’t possibly feel sorry for him – young, playing ball, making a fortune. And yet. How strange his life is/will be. Even non-baseball fans in Minnesota know him. He’s the guy that made sideburns popular! When you’re famous and wealthy, how do you go out in public? Make friends? Have a girlfriend? Do you have to spend all your non-baseball hours figuring out what to do with and how to keep all that money? How many “friends”will he now have who’d like to “help” him by spending some of his money for him? How do you trust anyone? He appears to be a genuinely nice guy but how will this change him? Poor Joe. And I’m not sure how I mean that.

Well, I guess my questions will remain unanswered as apparently Joe & I aren’t speaking………….

Enuf. I really don’t obsess about handsome, young, rich men. You know I’m just being silly but I did kinda get off on a rant on the money thing there. Sorry about that. Musta misplaced my delete button.

Moving on. Referring back to all the earlier drooling over “My Joe”, I need to explain that Mr. Picket Fence and I just returned from 10 wonderful days in Florida. Our main purpose was to watch some spring training games. We’ve never been there before but I sure hope we go again. It was cooler than normal there but of course we thought it was wonderful. Mid 70’s in March? Twice it was over 80. Hallelujah! We even managed a little sunburn. Heavenly. We watched ball games, went sightseeing, dipped our toes in the Gulf and in the sand & watched dolphins play, (we don’t see a lot of that in Minnesota). We took a boat – not the kind with oars, the kind that holds 500 passengers and goes really fast – to Key West. Some passengers really should have taken seasickness pills before boarding and that’s enuf said about that. (We were fine.)

I thought Key West was an amazing place. The water really is that beautiful aqua green you see in pictures. They have made a very strong effort to keep and restore old buildings which were absolutely amazing. We saw Hemmingway’s house and Trumann’s white house and many other famous places. I even got to see a rooster strolling down the street. I’m telling ya, it was the coolest place. I’m going to throw in a bunch of pictures from Florida:

Oops, how did I get another pic of Joe in here? tee hee.

Hammond Stadium, Ft. Myers, Florida, night game. We got rained out in the 8th inning and that was before we figured out how to park in the handicap lot. We were VERY WET. It took 2 days for my sweatshirt jacket to dry out….

My tootsies on the beach of Sanibel Island

These next photos are all Key West shots:

Chickens/roosters roam free and are protected. How fun is that?

What’s this??? When in Rome, do as the Romans. When at Key West, eat Key Lime Pie! Delish..

It’s not spring here in Minnesota, it’s mud season. And you know that Baxter is almost perfect now but we still have an issue with muddy feet. My poor floors…

I almost forgot – in honor of the fact that I’ve had over 25,000 visitors here I want to give away a little pillow I stitched up for spring.

If you leave a comment on this blog, your name will be entered in the drawing. I will announce the winner next Monday, the 29th.

Ms. Faye

Do YOU have a plan???

2010-02-20T11:16:00.001-06:00

I plan to discuss the Wooly Girls “meeting”. As I’ve told you before, I use the term “meeting” very, very loosely. When people get together and talk, it’s a meeting, isn’t it? Let’s go with that.

We had a productive Wooly meeting yesterday. We’re not always productive but we have made a resolution to become more so. We sewed bindings yesterday for QOV. Let me give you some background.

QOV is Quilts of Valor. It is a national organization committed to presenting our wounded soldiers with a quilt upon their return from war. One of the 3 organizers of our local chapter is one of the Wooly Girls! Miss Penny is our hero (as are non-Wooly Girls Ms. Gail and Ms. Paulette). They meet once a month at the local mall where they have been given space to set up shop and leave their equipment all the time. Ladies just drop in as they wish and can cut or sew or press or sew bindings – whatever. But those 3 gals keep everything organized.

Grab a Kleenex ‘cuz this will touch you – one of our friends has a son who returned from the war and was given a quilt. A short time later, our friend asked him where his quilt was. Well, a soldier buddy of his had also returned and not yet received a quilt so he gave him his quilt “because, Mom, he needed it more than I do.” This is the part where we all grabbed the Kleenex – we were all bawling like babies. (He will be receiving another quilt!!!)

Continuing with the story – our local chapter of QOV as well as a neighboring town have been invited to take a bus in May along with 400 of their finished quilts to Ft. Knox where they will have the opportunity to present some of those quilts to wounded soldiers on an individual basis. Do you think there will be any dry eyes?

So now you know the QOV story (condensed version) and now it should make sense to you why we were sewing bindings yesterday at Wooly Girls. We were able to finish up 3 quilt bindings. In order to help the gals reach their goal of 400, we’ll be sewing at my house in 2 weeks for an all-day session. I can’t wait.

A little show & tell to report – darn little really. We (some of us anyway) are in a slump. But Mrs. Farmhouse was working on a couple stitcheries that are just too dang cute!!

And our ever versatile Ms. Jean showed us a really darling sweater vest with a hood that she knit for a niece. How cute is that?

Ms. Penny put us to shame with a quilt she made just because she wanted to. Didn’t know we could make & keep! Or, wait, maybe she’ll be giving it to me for some reason. No???

This morning the trees in our yard looked like this:

Once the sun came out, it was a great day. We went over 20 degrees F. and you could just feel spring in the air. I’m not kidding you southern people – it felt balmy. It’ll be quite a while before spring actually arrives but at least we now have HOPE.

Just had to throw in a shot of Mr. Baxter helping Mr. Picket Fence blow snow from the driveway. He’s awfully good help – & I’m awfully glad to get them both out of the house.

Now I’m going to tell you my “plan”. The Mr. & I will pop over to Florida next Month to watch some spring training baseball games featuring “our” team, the Minnesota Twins. In a previous blog, I told you about the (non)relationship I have with my favorite player on the Twins roster – Joe Mauer. Here’s a picture of Joe’s reaction last summer when I waved my hanky and hello’d him.

What do you mean, you can’t see his reaction? Well, you weren’t there and I saw what I saw. Maybe it was, I saw what I wanted to see. In any case, the stadium in Florida only seats 7,500. Very intimate. So I’m hoping to resume my relationship with Joe. I did mention to Mr. Picket Fence that maybe I have a couple too many years and a couple too many pounds on me to do a good job of attracting Joe’s attention or any of the other ball players. How am I going to make this work, I asked him? He solemnly replied, “get him drunk”. Well, dang. Why didn’t I think of that? Now I have a plan.

Wish me luck.

Ms. Faye

You can pick your friends……..

2010-02-13T17:55:00.001-06:00

When someone says “I just want to pick your brain”, do you ever say to yourself, “Huh”?

Seriously, if I had information in there, don’t you think I’d be using it myself? What if I had a really good idea – I mean a REALLY GOOD IDEA? Do you expect me to share that too? Or can I keep that one and give you idea #2 on my top 10 list? (usually my list never gets as far as 10. Maybe 3) Or is that just plain selfish? The reason I ask is because a darn good friend asked yours truly and a few other great gals to come over for brunch and by the way, she said she’d like to pick our brains a little. Here’s where the “huh”? comes in.

Should I have warned her that I only had about 3 minutes left on my brain function meter? Well, I didn’t tell her for 2 reasons. First, because she was serving brunch (& she’s a great cook) and second, because all the others in this impromptu “think tank” are so darn much fun to socialize with that I’d be crazy to say no. So my plan was to distract them from catching on to the state of my brain function by A: laughing a lot – altho everyone was doing that – or by B: talking intently with someone – which was hard to do because of the loudness of A, or even by C: taking the dog out for a “business” meeting if you get my drift. Of course it wasn’t my dog but she never did bite me so that turned out to be the best distraction but that caused me to miss out on some of A and B. Sigh. My plan still needs a little work.

I can’t be sure but I think I got away with my plan and am hoping like heck that I’ll get invited back sometime. Maybe I could start thinking about stuff right now in case I ever need to share a thought again……

Last Thursday we had a wonderful day at Jean’s house for our monthly gathering of the Loose Threads. We actually tied some of those threads together to make a quilt for charity.

The reason this picture is blurry is because the gals were working so fast & furious, I couldn’t get focused…

Who said it’s all work and no play? We do try to have a dash of fun….BTW, that is not a cigarette in Judy’s mouth!!! (seam ripper!!)

Our assignment was to bring 14 to 20, 5” hourglass blocks. There were 6 players to this game and 5 workers. (One stayed home to babysit) We mixed all the blocks together and then sewed them into a quilt top.

I’ve just finished sewing one of the borders. We had 2 sewers, and 3 people standing around doing nothing. NOT!!!!! Those 3 were kept very busy trimming, pinning, pressing and of course a little seam un-sewing……

There were a few left-over blocks which we cut down to the same size as the outer border of 3”. Ta da. This is a really simple scrap quilt that goes together so fast.

Our plan is to give it to the new Cancer center in town. We were so excited about this project that we are hoping to do more of it in the future. It didn’t cost us ANYTHING because the fabric came out of our stashes. (Stash fabric is free. If you have to go to the quilt store, it costs money. Right?) We’ll all contribute to the cost of the back, batt & quilting. Thanks Jean for coming up with this plan. That girl is always so full of it. Oops, meant to say that she’s always so full of GOOD IDEAS. Ya, that’s it.

My wish for you for Valentine’s Day is to be able to spend time with your sweetie (or sweeties. however many you have!!)

Ms. Faye

Middle Names

2010-02-09T15:33:00.001-06:00

Let me begin by saying that this post should come with a warning. Danger! Proceed at your own risk! This ol’ gal has nothing much to say and you just might be sleeping before you get to the end! If it’s nap time anyway, I guess you’ll be ok. I just don’t want you reading this at work and then blame me when your boss fires you ‘cuz she’s caught you napping! Just trying to cover my _ _ _, ah bases.

Seriously boys & girls, it has been a quiet month for me. I had surgery on my leg (#3. O, God, surgery #3, not LEG #3!!!! H.e.l.l.o) so that took up a good bit of time. I’m doing very well even tho I still need a little support from my good friend Mr. cane. Thanks so much to everyone that wished me well. I really appreciated it. If you didn’t wish me well, you had the manners not to tell me, so thanks for that too…..tee hee.

If it was early December, I’d probably think this was just great……….

Apparently, Mother Nature didn’t get the memo that we’re tired of snow. Consequently, she did that to us over the course of a couple days. I know there are lots of snow storms across the country right now so there are a lot of us in the same boat. But it’s time to row that boat ashore!! Just a couple shots here

Front Door

Back Patio Door

The round circle in the bird bath is from the heater that keeps open water for our fine feathered friends.

Snow is close to the top of the fence…….an easy jump for Mr. Squirrel……but a bad plan if Baxter is outside.

Evergreens are so pretty with snow on them…….

I started a quilt for son #2 a couple years ago, somehow got distracted – hard to believe! – and stuck it in a basket. Hey, at least it was all in one place even if it wasn’t getting worked on. I felt that the fabrics had aged perfectly by now so I dug it out & started working on it again. There are 3 basic elements in the block and since it’s scrappy, I dumped each type in a pile to be assembled at random. Unless of course I didn’t like the randomness. Here are the piles:

All those seams are going to make things bulky, so I’m pressing all seams open. A very time consuming activity.

Here are 5 elements put together which makes up 1/4 of the block.

Here are 9 blocks. Only a gazillion more to make.

What else have I been up to? A little stitchery that I’ve almost finished:

I little wool-work that seems to have a ways to go:

My mother-in-law just celebrated her 90th birthday with family & friends over the weekend. She’d absolutely kill me (& I’m not kidding) if I showed you her picture. Here’s a table:

I decided at the last minute to make a “memories” book for her that she could look back on after the fun day was over.

I used a small photo album book, had everyone write down a memory they shared with Helen. I put each of those on a decorative 4x6 photo to put in the book. For example:

I still have a few more that were turned in later that I will add to the book. (unless I get distracted!!)

Just for the heck of it, I should tell you about our doggy, Baxter. To be precise, his name is really Baxter Maynard (insert our last name here). Does your dog have a middle name? And just like with our kids, we basically only use his middle name when he’s naughty. Which really is so seldom as he’s almost perfect you know. Just a couple little issues maybe. Anyway, I suppose you might wonder, “why Maynard”? There’s a perfectly logical reason and my SIL in particular will understand this. When I was just a young pup myself (that’s just an expression. And I certainly hope no one has ever called me a dog. If you hear what I’m saying..), we went to a small country church. You know the kind in the Norman Rockwell paintings? It was exactly like that only most of the people were like the spin cycle on a washing machine – a little unbalanced. Where was I? Oh, yes, Maynard. Maynard was an older gentleman – & I use the term gentleman VERY loosely – who was married to his long-suffering wife Anne. They had been married about a 100 years or so and hadn’t had children so I’m assuming that over the years they may have had a touch too much quality time. You know? Well, Maynard was a fun-loving sort of guy and Anne was as straight-laced as a shoestring and when Maynard would do something questionable, Anne would say “now, Maynard, you don’t want to do that, do you?” Well, obviously, he did want to but it tended to suck the fun out of the current entertainment when she said that. But it sure didn’t stop all of us young pups from loving Maynard.

So, like I said, we really love Baxter cuz he’s a ton of fun but sometimes you just gotta say, “now Baxter Maynard, you don’t want to do that, do you”? Which is what I said (or would have said if I hadn’t been cursing) when he chewed this:

Miss Faye

Take a “Look”

2010-01-16T21:49:00.001-06:00

Every quilter I know has a look. Like clothing designers have a look or an artist has a look. Some might even say that quilters ARE artists. AMEN, SISTERS! Wait a minute – wouldn’t gardeners also be artists? AMEN, SISTERS! What about woodcrafters? AMEN, SISTERS! Homemakers? (Nah. How to be creative with dust???)

Back to the “look”. My look has evolved and yet has never strayed very from my beginning. I could say that my eyes are so sensitive to color that I cannot deal with the bright ones. Or I could just say I like “dull”. More precisely muted colors and even more specifically the antique reproductions from the civil war era. I love the quirky, off-beat tones and the unusual little patterns in them. And with the antique-look fabric it’s best to use the old classic quilt block patterns. And partly because Jo Morton started us down the miniature trail and partly because I already have too many bed sized quilts that don’t see the light of day – I love making miniatures. All of that is part of the explanation of why I need to collect small bits of the “really good stuff” that is really too awesome to cut into and yet needs to be admired. SO.O.O.O……I filled a wagon with “some” of my “look”.

Looky See:

Well, it’s just handy to have my toy wagon that I can take with me from room to room when I feel the need.

Actually, I filled the wagon because I needed to clean my sewing cave (as Karen would say) because the Loose Threads were coming to my house for a sew-sew day. We were naturally planning to sew some mini-blocks which we could then turn into “Uncle Frank’s Socks”. Truly. That’s the name of it. It’s double 4-patches set on point which then sort of resemble argyle socks. It’s an old pattern – but it’s classic. It should end up looking like this:

But, before we get it finished, we had to do this:

And before we got to sew, my sewing room looked like this:

And before it looked like this, I had to build this cabinet with wire basket storage for my cutting table like this:

And BTW, before I did that, I had to build a couple of these handy-dandy portable ironing boards. One as a gift and one of course for myself:

So, back to Loose Threads day, we started about 9:30 (in the morning) and wrapped it all up about 6:00 (in the evening). In-between those times, we had a wonderful brunch provided by our own Threads version of Julia Childs, Ms. Karen (not the Mrs. Farmhouse Karen). The menu was Peaches & Cream French Toast with Sugared Bacon-Wrapped Smokies and I contributed Hot Apple Pie but Without the Crust, Sorta. (I made it up but it was dang tasty if I do say so myself..) We really need to work harder to get Karen to write a cookbook – or an entertaining book. She has served an annual Christmas brunch to a good-size group of neighbor ladies for about the past 30 years. AND, she has kept the menus and recipes from each year. AND, Karen is a great cook. AND a good friend. Let’s hear it for Karen!!! Yeah!!

OK, let’s get back to me shall we? Well, not me exactly. Loose Threads business, namely, show & tell. Whoo-hoo! First up is JT with a finished quilt made from a kit bought several years ago. The border fabric is all about coffee and the pattern had something about coffee or latte’s in the title. (we can’t exactly remember. You know?)

These next 2 quilts were made by JT’s mother who is I believe well into her 80’s. A terrific lady who in fact does a lot of sewing and handwork with a great sense of humor. I want to grow up to be like her.

This next quilt was also made by JT. Glad someone gets something finished! I don’t recall the name of this one either – hey, I didn’t make it, I shouldn’t have to know it’s name. I know my own name. Usually. Well. It’s a great quilt that has an unusual feature. The flower stems are raw edges and sewn with 1 seam down the middle so they fray. Very cool JT.

Neecie brought a top to show because it would probably be quilted & given away before our meeting. It’s for her granddaughter who is 3 (or maybe she’s 4. could be 5. I don’t think she’s 6. Let’s just say she’s not a baby anymore, ok?) It’s really a wonderful quilt and I am positive any young girl would love it. It’s just not “my” look, nor is it Neecie’s “look”. Always harder to work on something you don’t love and I know that Neecie has started and stopped working on this several times. But it is really cute. Don’t you agree? I know it is a Buggy Barn pattern.

I only had wood stuff to show and I think I’ve already shown all that to you. (lucky you!! LOL)

OK, I’m stalling. I have a lot of things I should be doing and I can’t concentrate very well so I thought I’d write here. My hubs & I are leaving tomorrow for Minneapolis and the Univ. of Minnesota. On Monday morning I will have surgery #3 on my leg that broke in 2008. While I don’t know all of the things that can go wrong, I do know quite a few of them. And most of them were bad. To say I’m nervous is an understatement. But when I get back home I’m just positive I will be on the right road to recovery. And on the bright side, I already own my own canes, crutches, walker and shower stool. Threw away the compression socks. Damm. Bet they give me new ones!! Do they come in plaid? (I don’t look good in stripes)

I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas…

2010-01-01T21:24:00.004-06:00

Our Christmas was so white in fact, that most people had to stay home. As in NOT gathering ‘round the piano singing carols with guests that were invited for the day. Or even gathering around the piano at all which is hard for me to do anyway because we gave the piano to our daughter several years ago and even if we still had it, I don’t know how to play it and even if I could play it, who would be left to sing? Mr. Picket Fence? Mr. Baxter? Na-uh. Not gonna happen. We could string popcorn I guess, but Baxter just LOVES popcorn and well, you can see where THAT would end up. (in his tummy!!) LOL!!

Of course, there is always the old ‘roasting chestnuts by the fire’ but we have no chestnuts and our fireplace is gas anyway so we’d have to take the glass panel off but, hey, it really should be washed anyway, but hey, it’s Christmas and I shouldn’t have to do housework ON CHRISTMAS!! H-e-l-l-o….

And speaking of gas fireplaces, why do we have one? Sure, it throws off some nice heat, but come on, that’s only ONE POSITIVE THING. Let’s see, it’s romantic but we are WAY TOO OLD for that crap. I mean it sisters. It also doesn’t have that beautiful burning wood smell – it smells kinda, well, gas-ey. Not like husband gas-ey, more like gas gas-ey. We can’t roast our nuts (CHESTNUTS! Come on you people, pay attention!) in the fire. We can’t use it to roast marshmallows or weenies or popcorn or a whole pig with an apple in it’s mouth or even a rabbit. (not that I would eat the Easter Bunny. Sheesh. I’m not THAT sick.)

One thing you CAN do with a gas or wood fireplace is curl up in front of it with a favorite quilt wrapped around yourself and just stare dreamily into the flames. Alcohol is not required but it sure doesn’t hurt. Ya hearin’ what I’m sayin’? Plus it’s better than staring out the window at the snow that keeps falling and falling like it’s never going to end – until next spring. Then it will melt. On top of the current “ice rinks” which by next spring will be small ponds thus increasing the ponds to small lakes. As if Minnesota doesn’t already have 10,000 lakes. More is better. HUH?????? NOT. NOT. NOT. NO MORE WATER IN ANY FORM. Who’s got a cell number for Mother Nature? And I’m not giving you a Farm Report today. Not that’s there’s nothing to report as there are STILL crops in the fields, nose deep in snow. BUT I’M NOT GOING TO TALK ABOUT FARMING. EVER.

BTW, we built a new deck last summer. Do you love it? Isn’t it beautiful? Just picture it without a couple ton of snow and you’ll see what I mean. I am especially loving the wood we used. What do you think?

As a mature, sensitive, empathetic and caring woman, I have always taught my children that Christmas is about the birth of Jesus. The giving of gifts is just a reflection of the gift God gave us. Really, I do feel that Christmas has been so commercialized that most people don’t give a second thought to why we are doing what we do to celebrate.

Girl, did you get some good stuff under the tree? Let me think. Oh yeah I did. Too many good things plus Mr. Picket Fence gave me a Kindle. Gonna seriously love that little gadget. But the most fun gift went to Baxter:

And of course he got the hat so he could look just like his “dad”. (sick, sick, sick. but you gotta take your laughs where you can find them and you know it was snowing HARD that day….I’m just saying)

Oh. Oh. Oh. Gotta show you this one. I kept telling the gals about this clock I was going to make out of some really awesome wood, blah, blah, blah. Well, you know as well as I do that “going to do something” is not the same as “doing something”. I had my doubts about my ability to actually build it, but I kept telling everyone about it so I kinda boxed myself into a corner on that one. And really, once I figured out the cost of that darn little clock, I kinda wished I hadn’t started it. First we had to build the dang shop. Then we had to fill it with tools and if you know anything about tools you will recognize that sometimes you need duplicates. Or sometimes you just have to upgrade. Then of course you can’t forget that I flew to Denver to buy the wood. (The week’s visit with my daughter, her hubs and The Divine Miss O (granddaughter) was just a bonus. (lol) What I’m saying then is that this clock cost many thousands of dollars. And it’s TINY. It’s really the only nice thing to come out of that sawdust bin. Maybe it’ll be the last. Dunno. Anyway, it was a gift for son #1 for his office and it appears that he likes it:

I’m sure you know what kind of wood I used, but just in case you don’t, it’s Lacewood from South America (thank God I didn’t have to go there to get it.), and the bottom part is Curly Maple. Do you see the sweat rolling off my brow? I done my best.

I made a couple other gifts in the ‘ol woodshop but I can’t show them because for gift #l, I haven’t given it yet and for gift #2, son #1’s big, old, lead-footed dog stepped on it and I guess I didn’t quite use enough nails and glue to withstand 2,000 lbs of pressure!! Oh, now, I love the little canine – all 80lbs of his adorable little German wire-haired self. (you gotta be nice to an animal that big. In case they turn ugly on ya :-) Don’t worry about it. It’s nothing I can’t fix. I’d better put glue (the big can) and nails on my list.

The Threads are coming over on the 14th for a sewing day so I really should pick out a miniature block for them to sew. I’ve got a couple of ideas – nothing too hard mind you. The last one was just a tish tricky and my those were some cranky old gals. Like “lock up the guns” cranky. I’m just saying. Of course, chocolate fixes anything. Plus, as one of my old friends used to say, “it’ll quilt out”.

Mega wishes for a wild & crazy 2010!

That’s All Folks

2009-12-17T22:29:00.002-06:00

When it’s been so long since I’ve posted, I almost feel like I should apologize for my absence. Of course that’s ridiculous – isn’t it? I write this for me – don’t I? No one says you have to read it – do they? I enjoy putting words to paper – and sometimes my words are funny and sometimes I just “report the news”. Either way, writing a post tends to make me stop & focus on what’s in my life that “might” be interesting to others. That said – I’ve got nothing. THE END.

OK, I’m kidding. I just got back from a visit with my daughter’s family in Denver. Perfect timing on that. It was seriously below zero here while I was gone and it was in the 50’s in Denver & I never wore a coat. I LOVE IT!! Did you know that when it snows in Denver, they only plow the major streets/highways? Residential streets are pretty much forgotten about. Of course they know that the white stuff will disappear in a couple days anyway so they just put up with it. Too bad for you if you have to get to work. Unless of course, you ENJOY shoveling. Not so much myself. You know? This ol’ gal ain’t as young as she used to be.

Moving on. My one & only granddaughter is 7 and is quite a doll if I do say so myself. We decorated a tree in her room. It’s very pink and very pretty. We had to take all the stuffed animals out which was rather traumatic but we over-came that trauma.

Winter wear in Denver…

If you like classic but subtle outdoor Christmas displays, you may as well skip these photos. I’m certainly not saying there’s anything wrong with them, I’m just saying the style is probably not for everyone. But my absolute favorite part of this neighbor’s yard in Denver is the inflatable snowman with a orange hunter’s cap and a rifle. I’m not sure of the statement it makes or what the connection is to Christmas. I just know it was never part of my nativity scene. Ok, enuf said.

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There is a truly beautiful shopping area 5 min. from Kristi’s house called Southlands. It’s built like a little old-fashioned city with gorgeous streetlights and buildings, etc. It has very well known retail stores, restaurants of every kind, a large cinema, carolers at Christmas and an ice skating rink rimmed with the decorated trees. It’s exactly like Rockefeller Center – only different. LOL. It was all decked out for Christmas and I could not get any pictures to live up to the real thing but this is a peek at it anyway:

Speaking of Christmas trees (we were?) – well here’s one for you. DD and I went to the outlet shopping center in Castle Rock. This was their main tree. I can pretty much guarantee that it didn’t grow anywhere near my house!! Again, it was so much prettier in real life. Hey, a photographer I’m not.

This is my garden shot for this week – Well, it is in my bird garden and they love the heated birdbath for a little bit of open water.

We had Woolies today at Mrs. Farmhouse’s. If you read her blog – and I’m sure you do – you know that her house is decorated “to the 9’s”. Whatever that means – I assume it means it was the BEST. AND I forgot to bring my camera. AGAIN. Bad Faye, Bad Faye.

So let me just tell you that we started with a touch of grape juice – or a variation thereof, if you know what I mean and a hot artichoke dip. Seriously good. And the food just went downhill from there – from a diet, let’s lose some weight point of view. Otherwise, it was delish! A little cherry/chocolate cake mid afternoon and just in case, some Christmas cookies, fudge, etc. THEN I had to go home and fix supper for my Mr. I’m telling you – it’s not easy being me. Sigh.

IF I’D HAD MY CAMERA, I could show you the snowman exchange we had. Or I could show you what people brought to show as one of their favorite Christmas ornaments. Or I could show the show & tell stuff. Not that any of that was the least bit interesting or anything. Still, I would have shown you if I could. Just in case you wanted to see. You hear what I’m sayin? (I feel like such a failure…sob)

Just because I know how to insert pictures, I thought I’d add a few of my own decorations. Why don’t you just hum a favorite Christmas Carole while you scroll down…..

My plan is to spend tomorrow in my woodshop. I went wood shopping in Denver and had to bring it home in my suitcase. And let me tell you – it is heavy!

Welcome

2009-11-26T10:22:00.001-06:00

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

To all my friends – Happy Thanksgiving!

Housecleaning 101

2009-11-22T22:50:00.001-06:00

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

2009-11-02T19:05:00.001-06:00

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:

GE Designs
Pieces from my Heart
Atkinson Designs
Pat Sloan & Co.
Anka’s Treasures
Pam Kitty Morning
New Leaf Stitches
Whimsicals
This ‘N’ That
Miss Rosie’s Quilt Co.
Rosebud’s Cottage
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

2009-10-30T14:56:00.001-05:00

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 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”

2009-10-09T21:52:00.001-05:00

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

2009-10-09T18:03:00.001-05:00

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.