Housecleaning 101

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Miss Penny’s Turtle Pumpkin Pie

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

This is just one section of delicious things……

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

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

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

The show ‘n tell will knock your socks off:

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

 a Ms. Jean stitchery:

Karen’s quilt:

2 punch needles from Penny’s hands:

A wool bouquet & quilt from Shod:

Wool pumpkin banner quilt– Joyce:

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

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

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

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

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