Upper Cumberland Quilt Show - Algood

I spent the weekend in Algood at the quilt show drooling over these awesome works of art.



I just love these older traditional quilt patterns.







I hope to some day complete my Dear Jane quilt... I have only three of the over 200 blocks in this quilt completed so far! I better live a very long life! LOL!


These two are versions of The Underground Railroad pattern by Elinor Burns. On the left is a brightly colored version by Judy Helnick and on the left is mine made with civil war reproduction fabrics. I can't decide which one I like better!

And here are a few more from the show






I found this one made by Lynn Dycus and quilted by me.


And this one was pieced and hand quilted by the ladies from the senior center to raffle off. Unfortunately I was not the lucky winner!

Sew Sweet Quilt Guild, Jamestown, TN

I was invited to be a vendor at the quilt show in Jamestown, TN sponsored by the Sew Sweet Quilt Guild. Here I am with the Best of Show applique'd by Justine Upchurch and quilted by this lady, Becky Stowers.

Here is a fellow vendor, Margret Young with some of the bags she makes, including these awesome thread catchers and microwave hot bowl holders.


Becky and friend found they also make great beanies! Hanging to left of her friend's shouder is Becky's postage stamp quilt. I didn't get a good picture of Becky's, but this folded quilt was one I judged at the Cumberland County fair a few weeks ago and was the inspiration for Becky's.




Summer Daisies by Faye Daily, quilted by Cathy at Spring Creek
Irises Around My Cabin by Patsy Littrell quilted by Becky Stowers

Sugar Plum Christmas
Crazy Piecing by Justine Upchurch

I admire the feathers on this 1930s reproduction fabric quilt!
I was pleasantly surprised to find this one, Teacups and saucers by Susan Copley and quilted by me! Hillsdale Quilts!

There were plenty more to see, but I didn't take pictures of them all.
Maybe next time!

Farmers Market Revisited

It's another early Saturday morning and once again I'm heading to the local farmers market. This time I am better prepared. I brought a little basket (yes it's a sock monkey!) for CJ to put his treasure in. I also made him an egg and cheese bisquit to eat as he walked along... no biting into any fresh fruit this time :<} He has become quite the talker and I had to name each item he pointed to and he would repeat it back to me. Today, we were looking for more peaches to dehydrate, but he was fascinated with these little yellow squash..so of course, they came home with us.
And we had a nice veggie omlette for lunch!



Along with the normal yelllow peaches, I found some white peaches, my husband's favorite. So they, too, came home with me to be dried to snack on all winter long.

Bottle of Peanut butter

I belong to a chapter of the Daughters of Isabella at my church. We are a group of ladies who meet monthly and participate in an assortment of activities to promote our faith by example, holding retreats and supporting pro-life activities like the local pregnancy center and supporting those in need in the community through collections and donations to the local food bank and women's shelter. One of our fundraisers is a quarterly bake sale held after each of the four masses. The ladies bake and donate their favorite treats and we sell them to support our work.

Kathy and I volunteer to "man" the table after the 12:30 Spanish mass. It has proved to be both challenging and rewarding as neither of us speak Spanish and many of the adult parishioners do not speak English. Cookies are the biggest seller at this mass and we have had no problems selling easily recognizable sugar or chocolate chip cookies or sugar cookies with m&m's. But oatmeal raisin cookies were a challenge. The little ones didn't recognize what they were and the adults didn't appear to understand what oatmeal was. We eventually found a teenager willing to sample one and then explain it to the crowd and they all disappeared!

This weekend, however, Saturday evening I made M&M peanut butter cookies, packaged them up and went to sleep. However, in the middle of the night I realized my mistake. OMG!!! I made PEANUT BUTTER cookies that look like chocolate M&Ms! What if one of the little ones was allergic to peanut butter!

When my kids were little their school had "Peanut butter Days" and "NO Peanut butter Days". Because several kids in the school were highly allergic to peanut butter and couldn't even be in the room with it, we were only allowed to send PBJs or peanut butter cookies on certain days of the week.... the allergic kids would sit with a teacher in a separate room on "Peanut butter days" and be able to eat and socialize with everyone else on "NO Peanut butter Days". It was a great compromise to keep everyone healthy and happy.

With this in mind, I am now in a panic. I couldn't get in touch with either of the two bi-lingual people I know... and I didn't have time to bake an alternative... What to do? What to do?

I could hope that someone bi-lingual will come by and translate for me but I couldn't count on that.

I know... I'll bring my jar of peanut butter with me and point to it and the cookies and pray they understand.

Ok, I had a plan. So we set up our table and displayed our goods and waited for mass to end and the little ones to come. Luckily, while we were waiting an adult came by who spoke SOME English and although I don't think he got my concern over allergies, he did help us translate.

So here I sit at the table... peanut butter cookies... and my bottle of peanut butter just in case... and parents and little ones come up with their change to buy cookies.

I point to the cookies and say "Bo te ya de caca watay" in the closest phonetic approximation of what the gentleman told me.
I point to the jar of peanut butter and point to the cookies... shake my head ... not cocoa..not chocolate... bo te ya de caca watay... and point back and forth between the cookies and the jar of peanut butter.
The kids look at me and smile they look at mom or dad standing behind them who in turn look at me and smile then shake their head yes they understand and they buy the cookies.
I'm going through this routine what seems like a hundred times and I'm down to the last package or two of cookies when this young mom comes up with her little ones. Once more, I go through my routine... and they buy the cookies.

But before she turns away and leaves... the mom smiles and says to me ... in perfect English.. You know... you only have to say "caca watay" which is peanut butter.
The rest... what I've been telling everyone... is bottle of peanut butter.

LOL! No wonder they were all looking at me smiling... They must have thought I was loco telling them about my bottle of peanut butter!

Mondays

It's Monday again... and for me, that means it's time to work on cleaning off as much clutter as possible from the dining room table. You see, I don't have an office, so the dining room table has become my dumping ground for mail, papers, bank statements and bills... plus anything else I don't have time to deal with during the week.

This Monday is particularly painful since I haven't tackled most of this job for the last month.... I've been busy with the county fair and a JOB and... well, just life in general! I just grabbed and paid the bills and hoped there was enough in the checking account to cover it! LOL!

Today, I've made the job more palatable by taking a handful of papers at a time to the kitchen table and worked there in front of my nice sunny bay window. On this particular sunny Monday I had the added distraction of watching the humming birds. We have one male and four females.
I've seen the four ladies get along just fine... each eating from a different port of the feeder at the same time. BUT... as soon as the male is near all heck breaks out. He is chasing everyone away... defending his food source! They fly straight up or down or zoom left or right! They are difficult to photgraph, but a real pleasure to watch. It almost makes paying bills fun!..... almost!

hm

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!