Due to the great response to the drawing, I will be adding a few more table runners!! Your chances of winning just got better ~~~ much better!! Remember, the only way your name will go into the drawing is if you are a follower of this blog. To become a follower click on the icon that says "Join this Site" - follow publically - and click on "Follow This Blog'. That's all there is to it.
There will not be enough runners of any one category (Christmas, chicken, special email fabric, etc) for 12 winners...so please give me your preference and I will have to make the final call.) Here are a few more runners:
Did you notice the email/forum fabric on the first runner....how cute is that fabric! The two Christmas runners are cute and a little bit country. The striped runner is modern but didn't photograph very well. The chicken with pink is one of my favorites. The purple is made from really nice fabric.
There you go! Good Luck Everyone!!!!
I have three table runners to give away on Monday, December 3rd. All you have to do is be a follower on my blog and your name will automatically go into the drawing. It just takes a click to sign up as a follower. One is a modern Christmas print; one is a girly shoe print and the third is a funky chicken runner.
PLEASE CHECK BACK HERE NEXT MONDAY IF YOU PARTICIPATE IN THE DRAWING AND EMAIL ME YOUR MAILING ADDRESS TO: oakerbarbie@gmail.com if you are a winner! THERE WILL BE THREE WINNERS...THE FIRST WINNER WILL HAVE HER CHOICE OF THE THREE ~ THE SECOND WILL HAVE HER CHOICE OF THE REMAINING TWO RUNNERS AND THE THIRD NAME DRAWN WILL GET THE REMAINING RUNNER (and who knows, it could be her favorite!).
Happy Holidays and Good Luck!
Thanksgiving leftovers are gone ~ not a smidgen of pumpkin pie left for my breakfast today. I have a love/hate relationship with turkey: I love it the day it's cooked and for sandwiches the next day. After that, I think the meat gets an 'off' taste and I don't care for it. So I had my beloved post-Thanksgiving sandwich of turkey breast, mayonnaise and cranberry sauce on white bread. I boiled the turkey carcass and have the broth and meat in the freezer for soup later this winter.
Yesterday we put up the Christmas tree ~ well, it's most of the way up. I'm not thrilled with where we put it this year and think I may try to scoot it across the room without 'undecorating' it. This is one of the perils of downsizing to a smaller home! I will post pictures when I get it settled in the right spot.
Speaking of Christmas trees, do you remember the ceramic trees with little plastic ornaments on the tips? My mother made me one about 20 years ago after she showed me hers and I said it was cute. She made me the large one (about 18 inches tall without the base) and put ever so many ornaments of all shapes on it. Then before she gave it to me she decided to glue the ornaments on (she used a glue gun). Yesterday I unearthed the tree, removed the loose ornaments and gave everything a good bath in the kitchen sink. It wasn't the ordeal I thought it would be and, after replacing the ornaments it looks pretty nice. I think it will sit in our entry way this year as a reminder of how much Mom is missed and her love for everything crafty.
If you are wondering if I've become a non-quilter, no need to worry. Over the weekend I made a stack of half-square triangle blocks large enough for a Queen quilt. It will be a chevron quilt eventually....
I'm not a blue person, but I have a love for blue/white quilts ~ actually I admire two-color quilts in general. After the blue chevron is done I may do a red/white quilt. This is an oriental-inspired print called Harmony.
Today is Cyber Monday - the counterpart to Black Friday. Enjoy the shopping in your jammies!
Wishing you a day filled with Peace & Plenty! Barb
This is a very busy morning in the US. I was wondering how many turkeys are already in the oven in our little town. Right now our oven is filled with pies. As soon as they are done, the turkey will slide right into the oven for a few hours of slow cooking.
Our family is very scattered this year and my husband and I will spend it together quietly. Of course this is a day for remembering our many blessings. We are blessed beyond belief with family, friends, good health, a nice home, our wonderful Scotty girl (Miss Molly), and a steady job for my husband. One of my new blessings this year is this blog. I have such wonderful followers and many of us have become friends. I began this blog as a diary of my life in quilts, but it has morphed into a lot more of a blessing than I imagined.
The kitchen is calling me...so until next time, I wish you blessings too numerous to count!
Barb, Jeff & Miss Molly
Thanksgiving preparations are taking place all over the US and our little town is no exception. Turkeys have been defrosted, pies will be baked today and last minute trips to the local grocer will take place until they close this evening.
Our Thanksgiving day will be small and quiet this year. I'll be making a small version of our traditional Thanksgiving dinner: Turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes and gravy, green bean casserole, fruit salad, cranberry sauce, dinner rolls and pies ~ pumpkin and Dutch apple. Our family is several states away, so we will have to be thankful for phone calls and well wishes.
Wherever you are and however you choose to enjoy your Thanksgiving Day , I wish you a wonderful day filled with Family, Friends and Good Food. Remember to do the math ~~~ Count Your Blessings!
Peace & Blessings, Barb & Jeff
My daughter has been living in New Mexico on a horse ranch for the past few years and has made some wonderful friends from India who own a popular restaurant. The owner and his wife travel back to their homeland often and bring back textiles and clothing, which they offer for sale in the lobby of their restaurant,India Kitchen.
The quilt I'm sharing with you today was made from a hand-printed panel which would be used as a bed sheet in India. My daughter wanted the panel left intact as much as possible, so I added a narrow inner border and the outside marigold yellow print border. The color marigold has special significance in India.
Please forgive the photo being sideways ~ it was rotated but it refuses to stay that way! The quilting was done around the center circles and the designs around the border, with the center area being stippled. The backing matches the black inner border that was added after I trimmed away the original black border that had holes from the printing process. This was the first time I've worked on a panel like this and would love to try a few more.
The best part is my daughter Christina loves the quilt and has been using it. Her taste is very eclectic and colorful, so this fits her to a T.
Until next time, I wish you Peace & Plenty ~~Barb~~
My husband's annual deer hunting trip to northern Missouri ended prematurely due to weather problems.... very warm temperatures and pouring rain with no let-up in sight. After three days of sitting in his hunting blind he decided to pack it in and come home. He had a safe trip - a good three hour drive pulling a trailer loaded to the hilt. Hunting is his passion, as quilting is mine. Although he came home empty handed, he had a good time getting away and visiting with our good friends who host him every year.
Miss Molly, our 13 yo Scottie, and I enjoyed a few days of leisure while Hubby was away. I love the casual meals I put together with no cooking or cleanup....frozen pizza and salad, frozen pot pies, etc. I didn't say they were exactly nutritious, just easy and filling! We also caught up our our naps.
I finally put binding on the Jellyroll Race quilt that I sewed together almost a year ago. Talk about UFO's! The fabric is a Soul Blossoms jellyroll by Amy Butler. The border is a piece of batik I had left over from another project and the backing is a large pink paisley print. I love the 70's retro feel of Soul Blossoms.
One other small project got its binding ~ a Christmas table runner. I made it last year also and think the border is a Kate Spain print (don't hold me to this). The rest of the runner is a fabric purchased at my local fabric store. This will be a gift for a friend.
The backing of the runner is a cute tree print.
I'm continuing to make more of the EZ table runners (see archives) and have several ready to finish. These are a breeze to make and look like they are so much more work than they are. For anyone needing a nice gift, I recommend one of these.
My posts have been sketchy lately. Little has been happening other than the election and watching and praying for those affected by Sandy and the winter blast of last week. I wish it was within my power to make it all go away for those suffering through this disaster.
Until next time I wish you Peace & Plenty, Barb
My Grandma Nan was an incredible Irish lady, 4'10" tall, who never reached 100 pounds in her 90 years of life. She was lively, sweet and sassy and the best Grandma in the world. While my Dad was in the Korean War, Mom had to work in the city and I was left in the care of my grandparents and Grammy Rose. At that time I was still an only child and the first grandchild in the family and all the attention was mine!
Grandma Nan and Grammy were clean ~~ no, they were CLEAN! They were proud to have the house where "you could eat off the floors". I used to wonder why anyone would want to eat off the floor. The windows and screens were washed every week, the floors were mopped every day, there was never a dirty dish to be found and of course there was never any laundry in the hamper. Both Grammy and Nan believed that cleanliness was next to Godliness and they practiced that mission with passion! Everyone had chores to do and mine was to scrub the front porch and steps with a scrub brush and bucket of soapy water. I got this job because I was closer to the floor than the grownups were! I didn't mind because anything that involved water thrilled me and didn't feel like work.
In our house it was the goal to have all the housework, laundry and baking finished by noon. At high noon we would eat a bite of lunch in the sun room, which we washed down with huge glasses of sweet iced tea. Nan and Grammy put a lot of stock in young ladies having good manners and instilled in me the importance of chewing with my mouth closed, using a napkin rather than the back of my hand to wipe my mouth and not talking with my mouth full (this was a big one for me because I was a chatterbox). After lunch we took a 'lady nap' for about an hour. After our naps we would spend the rest of the afternoon sewing, reading, working on puzzles or just listening to the radio. If I was extra good I might get a popsicle ~ which I had to eat outdoors so I wouldn't drip on the clean floors. Life was good, so good!
This looking back makes me wonder why I let myself get so busy and stressed. Tomorrow I think I'll stop working at noon, take myself a 'lady nap' and spend the rest of the afternoon in the sewing room.
By the way, at our house clean enough is good enough!
Wishing you Peace & Plenty!
