Putnam County Fair

10 pounds of sugar
5 pounds of white flour
2 pounds of wheat flour
33 bananas
12 quarts of dried apples
2 carrots, 3 zuchinni, salt, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, vanilla
Add approximately 40 hours of measuring, mixing, rolling, baking or frying and you get 231 fried apple pies....44 loaves of banana bread....11 loaves of zuchinni bread and 4 carrot cakes.....and that is just the baking I did. All year long, in my "spare time" I craft kitchen towels, knitted hats and scarves and quilted items to sell.

You see, I belong to a group called FCE (Family, Community, Education). It's kind of an adult version of 4H. I have been busy the last couple weeks baking and volunteering at the "Country Store". For the last 30 years or so, FCE has run "The Country Store" at the Putnam County Fair to raise moneys to fund community service projects... such as school supplies for students and teachers, backpacks for the children of deploying soldiers, layettes for newborns in the hospital maternity ward to wear home and diapers and wipes for the local pregnancy center to name a few.

We begin with 8 hours of cleaning: scrubbing, dusting, sweeping and preparing signs and tables on which to display products. Then for the next fourteen days we open from 9am to noon to accept crafted items or restock baked goods prepared by members of the community. This is an opportunity for people to earn some money selling their crafts and give back to the community at the same time. On weekdays we close for a 2-3 hour break but on weekends we stay open all day and most of the night...several of us spend easily over 100 hours each working in the store to earn a small percentage of sales to fund our service projects.


At 3pm we open our doors to the public and sell our wares.... and we stay open every night until the shows are over and the people go home... even when it's after midnight! Our most popular items are the food... who could go to the fair and not feast on fried apple pies or varieties of fudge, candied apples, cookies, popcorn, cakes, pies, breads, jams and honey! This year we even had fresh fruit popsicles!

There are also plenty of crafts to purchase.... hats and scarves, baby blankets, kitchen towels, birdhouses, dolls, jewelry, hair ribbons and bows, home made soaps and craft books.



Each night the stands fill with spectators for live music, motorcycle races, pagents and the horse shows... Tennessee Walking Horses... I love the way the riders dress up in coattails and hats, but...

these are the funniest horses I have ever seen! The high stepping way they prance around the arena and those big front-foot shoes they wear remind me of the wooden platform heels I wore years ago in high school!

There's also the western style cowboys,

the Mudsling and a BIG favorite is the the demolition derby. Where there's smoke.... there's fire and the crowds gasped in unison when one of the derby cars went up in flames. The driver quickly realized the danger and jumped out of the car to safety as it burst into flames! Then we watched and cheered as the Cookeville Fire Department worked to put out the flames.

During breaks and pauses in the shows spectators visit our store and buy their favorite items to eat or take home.

Then there are the cultural art and baking competitions and ribbons. I won second place for my niece's wedding quilt and third place for the picture of my grandson with his aunt covered in juice after picking and eating his first strawberries!


It's been a long and tiring two weeks of fun and after I take a short break and catch up on my sleep I'll begin planning and working on my crafts and entries for next year's fair!

Quiltfest in Jonesboro

I was lucky enough to get away from my busy schedule and family activities to take some quilting classes and visit Quiltfest in Jonesboro TN.

I signed up for two classes with Pat Sloan... a background class named "Wild and Free" and a machine applique class named "Little Bluebird". I'd met Pat online and drove over to Pigeon Forge for thier quilt show and to meet her in person 2-3 years ago. So I was familiar with her work and looked forward to loads of fun!

One of the class directions was to bring a laundry basket full of fabrics to play with. My problem... I have all my fabrics sorted by color. If I pick some of each and put them in a basket to bring, inevitably I would want the one I left behind. So what choice did I have but to load everything into my trunk!



Pat's background class started with her discussing her quilts and showing us the difference between her light and dark backgrounds. I believe she named this one "Ma-Ma's Garden". It was one of her first experiments into pieced backgrounds and she used mostly light neutrals.




This next quilt, named "Walk in the Moonlight" shows a pieced dark background with light/bright color applique for a unique look.


Then Pat worked with each of us individually, helping us audition and choose the right fabrics that "played well together". I'm sorry to say I can't give credit to the owners as I forgot to take notes, but here is a sampling of backgrounds being auditioned.





First was this purple print with orange... she added other purples, a bit of orange and a black and white for interest. Applique a black/white flower pot and some yellow or orange flowers!




Next up the main fabric was a coral/pink/black white print. Add a variety of black and white and coral prints and Voila!.


I believe that gold and silver print is a fabric she auditioned for the flowerpot applique





This next lady had a variety of Wizzard of Oz fabrics that she wanted to use up. Instead of appliqued flowers, she is going to add a house with the ruby slippers peaking out from underneath and was deciding on how to make a tornado cloud swirling around beside it.









Here are two others. Can you believe I forgot to take a pictue of my own before laying down any applique??


At the end of the day we all had most or all of the background pieced and ready for applique.





The next day's class topic was machine applique. Pat demonstrated different stitches, stitch lengths, and techniques for machine applique. Unfortunately, the gears on my old singer are worn and I couldn't get a decent zig zag stitch much less a blanket stitch. So while the others were playing with their machine applique, I began to pin and hand stitch mine. But that's ok... I'll get mine done a bit slower, but it will get done. I still have to add the leaves and berries, but here is a sneak peak...
and I'll post a picture later when it's done... or come and see it hanging in my living room!


Hugs and smooches to Pat. Thanks for a great time!

Farmers Market Adventures

We have been babysitting our 2-year-old grandson this week while his mom takes a vacation. Satuday, it was my turn to get up early with him so that grandpa could get some much needed extra sleep and I decided to take him to the local farmers market in search of some corn. I don't usually go there since we have our own garden full of vegetables and fruit, but we haven't had much luck with growing our own corn and decided it was time to buy some locally and put it up for the winter. We walked the length of the market hoping for some lettuce for a salad tonight. He was looking intently at each stall... pointing out all the balls! (peaches and tomatoes and anything else round) Didn't find any lettuce, but we did find these eggplants. My grandson decided it was his "kickball game" (his name for a football) and he had to carry one under each arm to the car! I guess I'll be making some eggplant salad and maybe some eggplant parmasian this week!

Next I bought four dozen ears of peaches and cream corn and had to carry them just two car-lengths across the lot from the sellers truck to my car. Of course, I had my eager helper with me. He dragged one of the four bags of corn across the parking lot with all his might... refusing any help.... very loudly claiming "NO Nanna ME do it!" pushing my helping hand away. Several shoppers stopped to watch. He pulled and pulled refusing any help. "NO Nanna ME do it! Traffic stopped. Those plastic shopping bags were not up to the abuse and quickly the corn poked holes through the bag and he left a trail of four ears to my car. An older couple driving through the lot kindly sat there smiling and watching and waving him on! He made it to my car then ran back... twice... gathering up his "breadcrumbs"! So proud of himself! I'll never go to market again without my camera!

Here is some of the the corn shucked and ready for freezing. I was also able to can some jars of green beans from the garden while he napped.


And these orange cherry tomatoes run through the juicer made a nice "wake up" snack later on.


Hope you are enjoying your own garden harvest this year. If not... don't forget your camera when you go to the farmers market!

Kimmie's Wedding Quilt... Done and a Blue Ribbon!

I finished the quilting on Sunday and stayed up late Monday to get the binding done.
With Kimmie's permission I'm keeping the quilt a bit longer. I entered it into the local FCE Cultural Arts program and won a blue ribbon!


It will move on to the regional competiton in September, but first, I'm going to enter it into the county fair.

Pink Cadillac Diner

On the way home from Pennsylvania it was starting to get late and we needed some dinner and a bed for the night. So we started looking for an exit with a hotel and a place to eat. We drove south on route 81 to the Natural Bridge Virgina exit (it was exit 180-something) which advertised a Budge Inn and Pink Cadillac Diner and decided to give it a try.

Kong was guarding the parking lot... he was an advertisement for something down the road.


Humpty Dumpty greeted us at the front door








But the real treasure for us was opening the front door and walking into a room full of Elvis memorabillia! The walls were covered with plates, tapestry, pictures, concert posters and much more!








A must have menu item!....and Yes, he ate the whole thing!












This was a great ending to what had been a somber trip.


We'll be back to visit again someday!


UPDATE:   We recently had an opportunity to stop into this diner again. Apparently the diner was sold in 2012/13 and the new owners completely changed it. While the Pink Cadillac still sits out front, King Kong and Humpty Dumpty are gone.   Most of the memorabilia had been removed.  It was more of a 50's formica/chrome soda shop look.  We were very disappointed!  

Pop

It has been about a month since I last posted here. My dad was diagnosed in 1998 with Alzheimers and has been fading away from us bit by bit as this terrible disease slowly stole him from us. But, early in June he had a massive stroke and the time has been spent being with family and keeping him as comfortable as possible while awaiting his passing. During that time, Mom and I contacted far-away friends and family and we all did lots of reminiscing.

During his career as a hydraulic engineer, among other things, he designed and saw the creation of a system that would supply water to the people of the City of New York for years to come. During his 54 year marriage to Mom, he helped raise four children (trust me, not an easy task!), he held eight grandchildren and one great-grandson. He was always there for us helping us overcome the trials and tribulations of life and encouraged us to be strong and to enjoy life. After retiring he and Mom travelled the world... visiting and exploring all seven continents! He loved to work in the garden and with Mom's help they supplied the local soup kitchen with lots of fresh fruits and vegetables. He was famous for his "dark alley facts" and loved to joke and dance and have a good time. He served in the Korean War. He went to church on Sundays and lived by the Golden Rule.

On June 18th, in a little church cemetary in Gettysburg, we laid Dad to rest. Afterwards we gathered at a nearby diner to celebrate Pop's life. Mom, my siblings and I .... all together for the first time in years. Along with cousins, aunts, and good friends we toasted Pop farewell.

Kimmie's Wedding Quilt... Part 8

Today I will attach the borders to the center of the quilt.

First, this 1 3/4 inch green inner border gets attached to all four sides.



Next comes the pieced border. First the strips of border pieces are attached to each side,











then the triangle pieces are joined and added to form the corners.












Now all that is left is the quilting....

Kimmie's Wedding Quilt... Part 7

I'm almost there! The next step in this process is to attach the borders. The inner border is a narrow green strip, followed by the outer border which is pieced. But the outer border has to be pieced and measured first and then the green border cut to size to make the outer border fit.




To make the outer border I'll need these "threesies".







Then take eightsix 3.25in squares and cut diagonally twice for 344 triangles







I then chain pieced the brown triangles to first one side of the threeseis

and then the other side to make the parallelograms




And here's a little peak at what the pieced border will look like.





I will be working every spare minute this week in order to get this ready for quilting! I am soooo close to being done!