Amish quilt pattern

I bought this vintage quilt pattern, amoungst others, at the Spokane Quilt Show a few weeks ago. Little did I know then that I would be using it on my own family quilt. But that we did. It was the perfect size to fit on some plain blocks that needed some decoation. So we used it four times on the quilt. I do not know if the pattern has some meaning or just someones design, but I do like it.
I liked that this pattern was used and made by Pennsylvania Amish quilters. I bought four patterns from the same vendor. They were made from cardboard and still have the advertising on them, which I loved. They are hanging in my studio on the wire that goes across the room.

Dining room ready for feasting

Here is where we had our Thanksgiving dinner yesterday. Had a couple of extra guests at the last minute so I added the little card table you can barely see to the right. I usually am so busy getting the food ready that I get all the way through the dinner and do not get any pictures. So I am proud of myself for getting these before shots. I do wish I had gotten more of us at the table and of the food table...had planned to do this, but the food was getting cold so we needed to get to prayin' and eatin.' Well, I forgot to get a picture of the food table.

A bunch of Turkey's!

Here is me with my gang making crazy faces after indulging in a Thanksgiving feast fit for a king. How blessed we are. I love to have someone take a bunch of photos at the same time as we make faces and then go through them real fast on my laptop...it is like looking at one of those flip books. So fun when it is our own family making the pictures funny. Hey that's a good idea...making a flip book with my own gang...have to ponder how to do that. Anywhooo...this is one of the funny photos we took yesterday.

Two Quilters

Here is my momma and I working on the Cunningham Family Quilt. This block is the last one to be completed. I do not appear in photos very often wearing my reading glasses, kinda nerdy looking! But I am glad to have them as I could not see to do any fine work if I did not. We worked on this quilt for most of the ten days she was here for a 10 day visit. But it was good bonding time. I am glad we did this together...making memories!

Cunningham Family Quilt

Here it is nearly complete...the hand quilting is done. My momma gave this quilt to my son, Zach. He asked for it so he got it! How cute. This quilt was a project started 20 years ago and mom is finally getting hers done. She left it with me to hem, so this will be done after the holidays. She picked these colors, likely to match the colors in her home. The fan designs are the blocks I made. Mom made the one with the black cross on it. It also has a bible, with our names on it. Now, I have to get mine sewn together.

My Mamma & My Baby Boy

Here are two sweet loves of mine. My dear mother, Wanda Juna, and my fun loving son, Zach. Mom has gone back home to California now, sadly. But Zach lives one block from me...a momma loves that!

Old Wood Bobbins from Grandma Verla Pearl's sewing basket

My came up to visit us from California about ten days ago bringing with her a suitcase of goodies for me. She knows how I love anything old from the family as keepsakes. So these wooden spools were part of the 'loot' this visit. They had belonged to my Grandmother, Verla Pearl Ogden Cunningham, and mom gave them to me. Two of them are wooden actually needle boxes. I love the big one the mostest! These will find a home in my studio and I will cherish them forever. I will label them as well, so when my memory is gone or I am gone my kiddles will know where they came from. Hopefully they will treasure them as well.

Americana Quilt

This quilt was mine and Brenda's favorite of the Quilt Show this past weekend.
We do love that Americana look! Isn't it grand?

Quilt Show

Here is Brenda and I at the Spokane Quilt Show. The booth we are in here had the best vintage textiles. I bought some old quilt patterns made from advertising cardboard by the Mennonites. They are oh so quaint and will go up in my studio.
We had a fun day checking out the quilts and the vendors. One big dissappointment...most of the quilts are now quilted by machine. We both agreed that hand quilting may be a dissappearing art. Very sad. After the quilt show we hit an antiques store and found a few bargains to take home.

Chicken Little

This little chicken seems to be keeping watch over the bowl of corn, nuts, little pumpkins. And a good job he is doing.
This is on display on my much loved hoosier. As you can see I do appreciate bowls.

Some kitchen goodies

Here are a few goodies that sit on my hoosier. I love crockery, it is so homey and warm. The old crock with the black wooden handle is missing the lid, but that does not matter, it works fine to hold some candles. I also love and collect the more rustic kitchenware. So the chopper spoke to me and I had to buy it. I think I got it at the Past Blessings Antique Show last spring. I have had the nut chopper forever and use it sometimes. I collect these two, but they are stored away. As for chopping nuts I usually just dump them out on a cutting board and chop with a knife, this controls how chopped they get. I like the bigger chunks, so this is better.

Cutie pie!

Isn't this little girl a cutie pie? She was found on a shelf at Michael's and seemed like she wanted to come home with me. So here she is. I love her costume and the black and white color scheme. I thought of painting her hair to be a brunette like me, so I may do this yet.

Harvest Mantel

This is a closeup of one area of the mantel. Love the old pic...I collect these, can't help myself...they intrigue me. The glitter letters you can see part of says "Dream." It has turned a nice tarnished silvery gold.

HARVEST BLESSINGS!!

Here is my mantel all decorated up foir the harvest season. The walls which were once white were recently painted this warm gold. The fireplace was white and is now cream.
I made the "Harvest Blessings" last fall. The ovals have copies of old family photos. This makes it more special to me. Too see what's on the mantel better, zoom in and check it out. I do care about the little details, so there is care taken to make sure it flows.
So Harvest Blessings to you all!

Me on my Ice Cream Truck

This photo was taken on my last day of selling ice cream for this year...about 3 weeks ago. It turned cold faster than I was prepared for, so my season ended sooner than normal this year. Here I am handing some popsicles out of my selling window to two patrons. So the truck is resting until next summer.

Gold Metal Flour

One more picture of my Bunco Babes Mom's Recipe Book. This is on the inside of my back page. Flour seemed appropiate since it s recipe book. Cute bag o' flour, huh? I cut this out of a catalog.

Long time journey come to an end

What is this journey? My time and energy for years now has been put into proving my lineage to becoming a member the Daughter's of the American Revolution (DAR). So today my application and papers got the final signature and were sent off in the mail.
So now the wait to see if they will be verified and rectified...which will not be until at least February of 2008.
For some people it is an easy task for several resaons. Some ladies have family members before them who were members and so all they need is their own birth certificate and proof of linage to those before them. For others, well, their ancestors kept better records or they did not live where court houses were burned in the Civil War. But for me...no such luck...it was a hard road all the way! So this is why I have spent so much time working on it and why it means so much to me to have it done.
So in this photo I am holding up the signed papers. They are now on their way to Washington D.C.
I will take a bit of a break and then begin working on other lines...yes, you can do this. It is called supplemental patriots.
So Hip Hip Hurray!

My page in the Bunco Mom's Recipes Book

Here is my mom dressed up for church (she was a preacher's wife) wearing her rhinestone pin and all.
Then I am on the bottom page on my first day of Kindergarten in Cottonwood, California.
One of the recipes I used is for a kidney bean salad. I still love this salad and make it regularly. It is so quick to put together. Here it is:

1 can kidney beans, do not drain
1/2 cup chopped onion, red, white or yellow
1 cup cheddar cheese, chopped into little cubes
Dill pickles, about 2 to 3 large, more if they are small
Add 1/3 cup of mayonnaise, or more if you like
Mix up and eat. I like it better at room temp, so I eat it before refrigerating.


So I hope you have enjoyed reading about my recipe book. I am not that great of a cook, so normally a recipe book would not be my thing...but what is my thing is the "creating using old family photos." So this project appealed to me.

Thanks to those of you have taken the time to post comments. I love them! Watch for my next entry that will explain why I have not been bloggin much lately...it is very exciting to me!

Grandma, Aunt, and Mom in Aprons!

I love this pictures of my grandma, Verla Pearl at her kitchen sink making Sunday dinner or maybe it was a holiday meal. Helping in the kitchen are my Aunt Alda and my sweet Momma (on the right). I used this picture as the inside front cover of my Bunco Babes Recipe book. Aprons and kitchen goodies were my theme.

Bunco Babe Recipe Book

This book was put together as a project of our Bunco group a few years back. I got the idea from an article in an issue of Mary Englebreit's Home Companion magazine. There was a spread on a vintage kitchen and the gal featured in the article had made a recipe book for her friends. So I thought "Hummm...maybe we could do this as a Bunco craft." So when it was my turn to hostess Bunco the next time I had everyone bring me (the month ahead) a picture of themselves as a youngster, their mom when she was younger, and a couple of their mom's recipes, or family recipes.
Then when they got to my house, I had pages already cut and put together in spiral books. I went to my local copy store to have the spirals done on the booklets. I had already cut out lots of little pictures to decorate the pages. I used my expired catalogs from Gooseberry Patch for the little pictures. Yes, I spent hours cutting out these little pictures. One could also use stickers to decorate them with, as there are some vintage style stickers out there.
On the front cover I made apron shapes and they could decorate them any way they wanted. I made the books with different color themes so the ladies could pick what they wanted to match their tastes or kitchens.
I chose sage green and beige. On my apron I put some vintage lace across the front, used lace for the straps, and vintage buttons at the corners.
I made labels for the front for each persons book. Then I typed up the recipes and made copies for everyone. I also made copies of all of the pictures so each person got a pictures of everyone else and their mother.
Each book had enough pages for each of the 12 Bunco Babes to have a page for themselves and a page for theri mother. The next post will show what my page looks like.