A Little More Americana is Added

I think I mentioned a post or two ago that I was working on a new project for summer decorating.  A table runner using a "honeybun" (1 1/2" strips) of Primitive Gatherings patriotic fabrics for 2019. The design has three large blocks utilizing lots of tiny 1 1/2" squares and as I worked on it I hoped it would turn out square. Even when I finished the piecing I wasn't sure, but it quilted out beautifully and when folded in half, all parts lined up!!  

The colors are brighter than other Primitive Gatherings patriotic lines that I've used for our living room, so I decided this would probably be a good addition to the dining room table.  

The glass star dish of red, white and blue peanut M&Ms is a perfect accompaniment.  This year I actually found a pantry-sized bag of the seasonal M&Ms at Safeway and it's been so nice not have to use white ones saved from the Valentine's bag and blue and red ones from a regular bag.  ♥

It's Dan's Birthday!

Yup, today is my honey's birthday.  Most of the world has been concentrating on the fiftieth anniversary of the moon walk, but here at the Resort, it's a birth-day! Dan remembers well the day of the moon walk and he says that while the rest of the world thinks it heard Neil Armstrong say, "That's one small step for man and one giant leap for mankind," Dan says he really said, "That's one small step for Dan..."  to honor his birthday.  LOL!!  

Anyway. . .

Dan had a fun day in the woods with his buddy Dennis exploring and picking a few huckleberries. While they were gone I decided I would go for broke and make him a totally from scratch cake and even use round cake pans to make it a layer cake.  Several times this year a message from King Arthur flour has popped up either in my email or on Facebook with a link to their recipe of the year--a birthday cake.  I looked it up and printed it and decided to give it a whirl.  It did not disappoint!

I didn't take a picture of mine and now it's all wrapped up for tomorrow, so I borrowed this photo from the KA website.

Believe it or not, mine looked just like that except it's on a pink depression glass cake stand that belonged to my Grandma Hansen (of the picnic photo in my last post). We both loved the cake and if you'd like to give it a try, click here for the recipe.  (In full disclosure, I used my usual recipe for the frosting--from the back of the box of C&H powdered sugar, chocolate version.)  ♥

Of Picnics. . .

My long-time pal, Kathy, recently did a post recalling her family's Fourth of July picnics when she was a child.  I don't remember my family having picnics on the Fourth, and actually only remember a few lunches which could possibly be called picnics because we ate them while taking drives for the day (people used to do that back in the day, take drives just to drive).  

In my pondering, I remembered a picture I have of my mother's family taken at a picnic with friends.  The year would be circa 1927.

First, notice how dressed up the men are--suits and hats!  Mom told me some years ago when I asked her about the photo that the car was her family's.  Grandpa Hansen is the tall man in the center.  The man standing next to him in the straw hat was his older brother, Lawrence, and he is holding my mom who looks to be about two.  Grandma Hansen is peeking around beside Mom, and that's Mom's brother, Richard standing in the front with his hand on the watermelon.  The other people were family friends.  

Apparently going on a picnic was a big deal, worthy of dressing up!  Was this the Fourth of July?  Grandpa and his brother had both emigrated to the United States from Norway in the early years of the 20th century and became citizens as soon as possible.  The U.S. was good to them and perhaps they were celebrating the birthday of their new country.  We'll never know; Mom is gone now and was too young to remember the details anyway.  Looks like watermelons have been an integral part picnics for a long time though!  ♥

Happy 4th of July!

It's a beautiful, warm but not hot day here at the resort and we are enjoying a relaxing afternoon after some work here and there earlier in the day.  I just took a lemon cheesecake out of my InstantPot and it will be a cool, tasty treat this evening.  

I've started a new Americana table runner and it's well on its way.  I may even get some stitching done on it today!  The pattern is based on a Moda "Honeybun" pack which means width of fabric strips that are 1 1/2" wide. There are a lot of 1 1/2" squares in the design!  Stay tuned for a post with pictures, hopefully in the next few days.  ♥ 

End of June?!?

Hmmm, how did June fly by so quickly?  Here it is the last day, and so in a valiant effort to improve my blogging I'm going to see if I can come up with a few coherent things to share.  

I haven't made any new dresses for my dolls, but I did make an effort to take Ann Estelle's blue dress and make it suitable for Easter.  I was thinking I would add lace and ribbons, but when I searched among my findings, I found a wire-edged dusty blue organdy ribbon that just seemed to say use me.  So I did.  

I loved using it to tie around her head and then just cut a piece to tie around her waist.  It's not stitched on, so I can still make changes to the dress if I get inspired later on.  Meanwhile, AE felt quite stylish for Easter.  

Another thing I forgot to share was Ann's Mother's Day gift.  

A plethora of new cloth napkins, which she knows I love, and my new favorite mug filled with lemoncello almonds from Costco.  I had never tasted the almonds before and let me tell you, it was love at first bite!  Mmmm...

And that's it for now!!  ♥

A Couple of Completions

My first project to share is actually a year old, made last summer when I was in a blogging drought.  Years ago I purchased a booklet of patterns for banners for each month of the year by Pat Sloan.  I used it as inspiration for two banners for our front porch, one for fall and one for the summer.  I made the original summer one with machine embroidery and sadly lost the design somewhere over the years.  The sun had done a number on the fabrics and for several years I pondered making a new banner but never quite got to it.  Last summer, it looked so sad and washed out I knew I had to do something. 

I dug around in my piles of quilt books and found the booklet and decided to make a new banner using the July pattern with no alternations.  It graced the porch for the rest of last summer and I was happy to hang it out again a few weeks ago. 

I just love having the brightness of it hanging there!  I was befuddled about how to quilt the star section but then came up with the idea to trace the star shapes on freezer paper, iron them here and there, and then stitch around their edges with my walking foot.  It worked! 

My other completion is current.  Remember the Snowy Day quilt I began last winter?  I finally finished it!! 

Dan is just crazy about it and I have to say I'm pretty smitten myself.  It was a very different project for me and I'm kinda proud of myself for giving it a try.  It boosted my quilting confidence and I think I'll try some other projects that I probably would have passed on before.  Guess I'm not too old to learn some new things!  ♥

My Kitchen and Me

If you've read my blog for very long, you know I'm a kitchen person.  Notice that I did not say that I'm a wannabe chef, or even a cook.  I do cook, and I do bake, but I claim no expertise in either area.  But I do love my kitchen and all the things a kitchen holds--tools for the job so to speak.  

When we bought this house almost twenty years ago, I was thrilled that it had a pantry.  I'm not certain that it was originally meant to be a pantry, in fact, I think it was meant to be a utility closet for brooms, vacuum, etc.  There's even a light in the ceiling, or at least there was until we took the bulb out and taped cardboard over the hole.  Some other owner installed shelves and of course, that made the light useless as the only part it illuminated was the top shelf.  

Collector of kitchen tools that I am, a good portion of the pantry is dedicated to hold them.  Waffle iron, Instant Pot, toaster (not enough room on my counters to leave it out), snackster sandwich maker, and so on.  Then of course there's the actual food storage including containers of different kinds of beans and pastas. (Have I ever mentioned that I'm a total lover of different shapes of pasta??  Hopeless addiction.)  

Several weeks ago I decided it was time to clean out the pantry and once again find out just what lurked behind those closed doors.  Here I begin to take things out. 

And I began to fill up a counter with the goods.

Maybe more than one counter.  And the floor...

And here we are after careful sorting, consolidation, and judicious replacement.

I don't think I threw away anything but some empty containers after consolidation, but that just shows that I do use what I have.  Which was a relief.