I Hate Doing It!!

I finally admitted to myself that I hate something about quilting - I HATE basting the backing, batting and quilt top together! First, I don't have a big enough table - I am working on my dining room table. Second, I only have two hands. Thank goodness John helped me last night or I would still be trying to pin this together.

I wanted to put together the String Quilt I made as a gift. I got the 108 inch backing from Quilt In A Day and the batting and got the top. I had a multitude of pins. I was ready to go. John and I almost had the whole thing pinned together when John said, "Look Mom, there is a whole bunch of fabric here!". The backing had bunched up and the only way to fix it was to unpin most of the quilt and re-pin. What a pain in the tush!! Finally at 11:30 last night we got it done. Now tonight I need to draw the quilting lines on it and start. I am going to use a CD as template and draw random circles all over the quilt. I want to make sure this gets done by Christmas.

I am also working on another Christmas gift quilt and am waiting for the backing to come. Then I will try to do this all over again!

The school did decide to promote Jim to the 8th grade - although he had a scare - the school sent a letter with information home and the first thing we pulled out was an invitation to the 6th grade orientation! He thought he had been demoted! Robbyn and Jim both have school supplies and are almost ready. I bought Robbyn a new dress because "every girl needs a new school outfit".

The eating frenzy was not very frenzied at all - we had milk at the Dairy Barn, a baked potato at the Potato Booth and then had dinner - Marty, Jim and Robbyn had fish sandwiches, I had fried clams and John had a Buffalo chicken sandwich that made by eyes water from across the table! Oh, and I had a bottle of blueberry wine while watching the parade. No fried dough, no fried oreos, nothing too bad.

We are coming to the Labor Day weekend. We will be BBQing chicken halves on Sunday. We cook 24 halves and freeze most so we can have chicken in the winter! Here is the recipe we use for the sauce. It is called the Cornell Chicken Sauce because a professor at Cornell University invented it.

Cornell Barbeque Chicken:

2 cups vinegar
1 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
3 tablespoons salt
1 tablespoon poultry seasoning
Pepper to taste
6 to 8 Chicken halves

Put all ingredients into a bowl and mix until smooth. Marinade chicken in sauce for at least 1 - 2 hours (we allowed the chicken to marinate overnight). Cook chicken over charcoal grill until done. Baste often while cooking.

Note: I basted the chicken almost continuously during the cooking process. The recipe makes plenty of marinade so be generous with your basting. I would cook the chicken for a few minutes after the last dose of basting, however, since there is raw egg in the marinade.

Hope you all enjoy!

It's Friday!!

What a week! It seems like I have been running full speed, full time! Work was busy, the kids were busy, Marty was busy - all of which means I am busy!

John, our 15 year old is working on his Eagle Scout project. He is helping to educate people about the need for organ, eye and tissue donors. He has done a bang up job on publicity so far. Next Wednesday he is appearing on the local drive time talk radio show. Then on September 8 he will have a display booth set up at the Pulaski, NY Salmon Festival. Now, if only I could get him to be more enthusiastic about school work.

Poor Jimmy passed his summer school Science class, but failed Math. I don't know yet if this means he will have to repeat the grade or what will happen. I feel terrible because I have a hard time with anything math related except the normal adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing. When you get letters involved, forget it! And I don't even want to hear about formulas and angles! I tried to help him with his homework and it was far beyond my comprehension.

It is time for the NYS Fair! I grew up "downstate" in the Catskill Mountains of NY and never knew about the State Fair until I moved to Central NY and married my husband. I absolutely love it! On the other hand, Marty hates the fair as he had to go for band competitions all through school. I have been anxiously waiting for Saturday so of course the week seems to have dragged on. It is one of only a couple days in the year when all diets are off and the eating frenzy begins. Bring on the sausage and peppers, fried dough, fried oreos and beer!

I did manage to finish a string quilt top that will be a Christmas present and ordered the backing and batting from Quilt In A Day. I am just 5 quick rows from finishing a flannel quilt called Bricks (Fons & Porter) for another Christmas gift. I ordered the 108 inch flannel backing yesterday so it will be here when I finish. Then all I have to do is put them together and quilt away!

Summer Gone?

Jimmy, my 13 year old just finished summer school. He had to take Math 7 and Science 7 in summer school in order to pass. We are now keeping our fingers crossed that he actually made it through.

Then the NYS Fair is just 8 days away. This is really the end of summer! We usually go at least once - the kids like all the "trappings", I love the quilts and free concerts and Marty loves the antique tractor display and the agricultural musuem. And we all love the food. It is amazing that I can cook the same identical food items at home, but it tastes so much better at the fair.

Before you know it school starts! YEAHHH!!! But where has summer gone? We had so many plans for things to do this summer and I don't think we have had the time to do any of it. Time went by way too fast.

I wanted to share with you a blog from (as my kids say) a most excellent person - Terry Crawford. She is the moderator for Quilting With A Passion and is a write of a blog for Quilting By Design. Here is the link: http://www.quiltingbydesign.net/terry-crawford. Check her out!

Hang in there and enjoy what is left of summer!

Grandmother's Flower Garden

This weekend will be the second anniversary of my starting a Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt. I am using 1 1/4 inch hexagons from Paper Pieces. The quilt measures approximately 97 inches by 97 inches. All of this is done by hand. I added the last flowers last night and then began working on the filling in so that I can make straight edges. This will take another year!! I was going to give this to my niece for her wedding, but Marty questioned whether after all this work, I would want to give it away!

But remember, I am still working on just the top! I still have to layer it, baste it and then quilt it! My kids may get this as part of their inheritance at this rate.

I have found working with the Paper Pieces hexagons fantastic! The technique is English paper piecing. You wrap the fabric around the paper piece, baste it and then sew the hexagons together. Once you have quite a bit sewen together, you take out the basting and pull the paper out of the backs and reuse it. The link for the company is: http://www.paperpieces.com

I will post a picture of what I have done thus far later.

Deb

My First Blog Entry!

OK, I was told I needed a blog - everyone is doing it after all! So here I am. I am not sure what I am doing, but we will give it a try.

I hope to share my passions - my family, my friends, quilting, greyhounds, Nascar and a lot of everything else. As soon as I learn how, I will post pictures.

In the meantime, enjoy! Contact me if you wish and let's see where this goes!

Deb