Antique shopping

   Yesterday David and I decided to go antiqueing.  Not for anything in particular although we were looking for some sturdy chairs for someone else.  Usually I am looking for old American flags, vintage tablecloths and old books. 

  There were lots of old books to choose from.  I found this book and it looked interesting.  I have read all the Jan Karon books about Mitford and Father Tim.  I am reading them through for the fourth time right now.  This book about Miss Read appears to be the same sort of book about a small English village instead of a little mountain town in North Carolina.

  There were several Miss Read books, but I bought only two.  This one looked interesting.  If you have ever read any of the Miss Read books please tell me what you thought of them. 

  Jessamyn West was born in Indiana and has written many books.  She also wrote the screenplay for the wonderful movie, "Friendly Persuasion," about a Quaker family in southern Indiana trying to remain neutral during the Civil War.  It starred Gary Cooper, Dororthy McGuire and Anthony Perkins.  It has alway been one of my favorite movies and I try to watch it when it's on TV.  
 
    This particular book is about an event in 1824 that threatened  massive and bloody Indian reprisals for the murder of some peaceful Indians including women and five children by five white men.   There is little known about this massacre, but Miss West has woven a story from it that I am sure will be interesting and historical.

  Suddenly, I came across this beautiful vintage peach fabric.  There were two yards of it and low and behold, there was a stack of vintage fabric in the same booth.  I wasn't planning on buying fabric that day, really I wasn't, but this was such a find I couldn't resist.

    There were four pieces of this  lovely rose fabric cut in one yard pieces perfect for pillowcases or cut up in pieces for a very girly quilt.

   This is what I ended up with.  Never say I will pass up a good fabric buy when I see one.  Oh, I ended up going to Ady's quilt store in Morgantown and picked up three pieces that are in the picture also.   The yellow flowered fabric on the right are actually four table napkins that I am going to use to make summer pillows for my family room. 

   The last of my purchases was this red, white and blue vintage tablecloth that I will use come fourth of July.  I don't have anything like it and was so happy to purchase this one.  I am pretty selective what tablecloths I buy now as I have quite a collection.  I like changing the tablecloths with the seasons.  They just seem to make the table look a little more dressed up and inviting. 

     When I get new fabric I cannot wait to cut into it and start a project.  I have numerous projects going at any one time and some of them I get done!   There are so many blogs with women who have the same disease I have who can't resist beautiful fabrics and love to make things from it.  Some people think it's crazy to buy a whole piece of  fabric, cut it into pieces and then sew it back together again.  If nothing else, it's theraputic and keeps me off the streets and out of the bars so I will take my vice over someone else's any day.  At the end I have a useful object, a gift or a warm cover for the bed.   What more could one ask.  I have a friend who has been bitten by the fabric bug just lately and I will be  writing about her new venture into quilting and how addictive buying fabric can be. Bye

 

Sewing machines galore

  I am a sewing machine connoisseur of a sort and this is the machine that started it all.  Back in the sixties my mother purchased her new Singer 401.  It was the top of the line Singer at the time and she was so proud of it.  When it was delivered the man who brought it set it up for her and showed her how to use it.  I don't know if sewing machine retailers do that anymore.  My mother loved to sew and I was the glad recipient of many of her creations.  I remember one dress in particular, a red and white dotted swiss dress with a full skirt you could twirl in and a big velvet sash.   She made this dress for me to wear to a television show in Cincinnati.  Some of you reading this may remember the Ruth Lyons 50-50 club that was on WLW. 

   My sister, brother, my mother and I drove down to Cincinnati for the show.  Mother was just sure that Ruth Lyons would notice me.  Her show had just turned to color from black and white so everyone tried to dress as flashily as possible.  Well, I wasn't noticed and prizes were given away and my little five year old brother won a set of gold plated silverware in a fancy box.  I was so jealous.

   Back to sewing machines, I learned how to sew on this Singer and made some of my own clothes while in high school.  When I graduated, my mother and father offered to buy me a new sewing machine and I told them I was never going to sew anymore.  Boy, have I eaten my words and kicked myself several times for refusing their offer.

     Years later in the late eighties my husband and I opened a sewing machine and vacumn cleaner sales and repair shop.  It quickly morphed into a quilt shop, but that's another story.  This was one of the first machines we sold.  This is a Riccar R3600.  Most people have never even heard of the Riccar sewing machine, but I would put it up against any sewing machine made today.  We had this model in our shop and I loved sewing on it.  David had a bad habit of selling the machines I loved right out from under me.  After we sold the last one of these they stopped making this model.  I was so disappointed we hadn't purchased one for ourselves.  This Christmas David was looking for parts to repair another Riccar I had worn out and came across this machine on Ebay.  He bought it and also bought the machine he was trying to buy parts for.  It seems Riccar parts are hard to come by anymore.  I am now the happy owner of one of the best sewing machines in the world in my opinion if you are using it to make quilts and quilt them which I do alot.

     This is a Riccar RE571.  This is the model I completely wore out sewing.  I would not be exaggerating to say I probably made hundreds of quilts and other things on it.  This is not the one I wore out.  David bought me another one on Ebay and it sews like brand new.    Do you see a pattern here?   I do like Riccars and do not want to be without one for a single day!

       This is the Riccar R751 that I am using in my shop right now.  It is a work horse of a machine and sews so smoothly.  I'm not even selling them anymore, but I could sing their praises forever.    Right now I am making a special person a Christmas present on it.  That person shall not be named nor what I am making.  Just suffice it to say I am enjoying making it very much.

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     This is a Singer Featherweight.  It is a quilter's dream machine because it sews so well and is small enough to carry to classes.  David got me this one from an older lady in Bedford.  She advertised it on the radio and he heard it and went to her house and bought it.  It has its own carrying case and attachments and is in mint condition.  Ain't it cute?

   I also have a treadle machine that is dated l913, the same year our house was built.  It is in a beautiful cabinet, but I can't get to it right now because David has one of his old thread cases on it.  Yes, he collects old thread cases.  I will write about them some day.  I have one more Riccar that I have never sewn on and I would show you, but Bonnie is looking at me and saying "Quit all that sewing machine shenanigans and come out and play with me.  So bye for now.  My pup calleth.

What I'm drinking

  For years this was my drink of choice.  I always believed that at least I wasn't adding any calories to my diet if I drank it.  I am not advertising any drinks here, just saying what I always drank and what I drink now.

    A few years back my daughter gained alot of weight after being given steroids in the hospital.  They told her at the time she would not gain weight taking them.  Well, guess what, she did.  I have always been told steroids will cause you to gain weight.  When I had histoplasmosis in my eye many years ago the doctor gave me a choice of taking steroids which he told me would make me gain weight or getting a shot in the eye.  I chose the shot in the eye. What we women will do to keep from gaining weight!  Anyway, my daughter did gain weight on steroids but she took it off using Weight Watchers.  I noticed, though, that she was always drinking regular cokes and asked her how she could lose weight that way.  I have heard through the years that drinking diet drinks do not aide in weight loss.   Now that I have lost alot of weight, I find that is true.  I drink one coke over two days and have not gained any weight back.

   This is David's drink of choice.  I haven't seen him drink anything but this except for sweet tea occasionally since we've been married.  He's the only person I know who drinks this.  I drink it once in a while.  The can reads  0calories, 0carbs, 0caffeine and 0sodium.  I use to say 0 taste too.  When we went to Alaska last summer, my husband loaded the car with Diet Rites so that he would always have them because you can't find it everywhere.  He learned this while we were driving home from Alaska through Canada and he ran out.  There was no Diet Rite to be found anywhere.  He tried to describe it to a store clerk, "It has 0 calories, 0carbs, 0caffeine and 0 sodium."   She replied, "Sounds like water to me."  He had to go without until we hit the border and as soon as he found a store, he bought more.  A very traumatic time for him.

   I try to drink alot of water now and that is truly the best thing anyone can drink for their health.  I still can't believe people buy it in bottles when it comes out of the tap almost free.  Whoever thought of that idea must have known how foolish we people sometimes are and that we will buy almost anything. 

   I hope this has enlightened your day.  If you drink something else almost daily, tell me what it is.  Well, unless it's alcohol and then I don't want to know.   Keep hydrated.  Bye.

Liver and onions and other beastly things

    To day I went to the dentist to get a wisdom tooth pulled.  He said I would eventually have to get the others pulled and I could go ahead and do it today.  Since I didn't want to have to go through it again, I told him to go ahead.  Now I am waiting here for the pain to set in and have my pain pills ready.

   Since this is a crazy day anyway, I will write about liver and onions.  I absolutely, positively love liver and onions.  I have since I was a child.  When I was growing up, you ate what was put in front of you.  None of this picky eater stuff was allowed.  You either ate or went hungry until the next meal.  My mother happened to be the best cook in the county if not the state so eating what she prepared was not a hard thing to do.  She did make good liver and onions and since we butchered our own beef on the farm, we had it quite often. 

   Our farm was pretty self-sustaining.  My dad was proud when we would sit down to a meal and he would say everything on the table came from the farm.  Please don't read the next paragraph if you don't eat meat or are a Peta member because you will not like it.

   There was an old man who went around to farms and butchered your animals for you.  We always had a cow butchered at least once a year and usually when it was cold out.  I was pretty young then but I do remember hearing the gunshot when the cow was dropped and then I got to go out and see the actual butchering.  The cow would be hung up in our corncrib and cut up into the different cuts of meat.  You got alot of meat off one cow.  A family of six eats alot of meat in a year.

    Since we raised our own beef to eat, you didn't want to make a pet of any of the cows.  Unfortunately, one year I helped bucket feed a beautiful little bull calf we named Penny because he was a beautiful copper colored.  He grew into a magnificent bull who bred many calves.  He would buck and kick like a rodeo bull and was a truly gorgeous animal. Our whole family loved him.  But the day came when he was to be made into food for us .  I still feel sad as I write this, but it was a part of life on the farm that our animals were raised to feed us, so one day it was Penny's turn.  That day I couldn't watch the proceedings and didn't think I could ever eat meat again.   When Mom fixed one of her great meals I quickly changed my mind, but I still think of Penny.  I bucket fed many calves after him, but I refused to get attached to them.

   Just recently I saw some liver in the grocery store and decided to try making liver and onions again.  I hadn't made it for years, but it sounded so good.  It turned out so delicious and we will be having it again soon. 

   Now I am going to eat some mashed potatoes and chicken noodle soup David prepared for me as I can't eat anything too chewy today.  Bye for now. 

Coming soon to a blog near you

   Tomorrow I am getting a tooth pulled in preparation to having an implant put in.  This will not be pleasant, but the end results will be spectacular.  I cannot believe a dentist can put a permanent tooth into your mouth that you don't have to remove to clean. 

    Anyway, since I probably won't be feeling like dancing a jig or doing cartwheels(not that I do that anyway,)  I am going to try to post a few blogs in a row.  Some of the topics will be liver and onions, Diet Rite cola, and sewing machines.   Sounds really interesting, doesn't it?   I know you will all be waiting with baited breath to read about these interesting subjects.  Bye for now.

   

    

Here comes the bride

    When I was born, my sister was elated to have a sister.  She already had three brothers at the time and a baby girl was a nice surprise.  She was eleven at the time and I think she thought she was my mother because from that time forward, she told me what to do. 

   We were always close and shared a bedroom at one time.  When she was dating I use to sit at the bedroom window and listen to her and her boyfriend talk and laugh.  I was jealous of her boyfriends for spending so much time with her.  When one day she announced she was going to get married I got very upset. 

    That year on my birthday she gave me a beautiful bride doll.  She was all lace with curly blonde hair and blue eyes.  I loved her so much.  Recently while cleaning out a closet I came across her.  Her white gown had faded to a soft ecru, her face needed cleaning and her bridal clothes needed a good washing.  I bathed her, washed her hair and clothes and dressed her again.  She looked just as beautiful as the first day I got her.  I never gave her a name.  I dreamed that one day I would be like her and wear a beautiful lacy dress.

    The week before my sister got married I cried every day.  I thought I was losing my sister forever.  She kept telling me she wasn't going to live that far away, but I knew I wouldn't see her every day.  She was moving to the "big city."

      By the time my sister married our family had added another boy.  He became my playmate and I believed I was his mother.  I read to him and played with him, but he wasn't like a sister.

  My sister and I are still close.  We talk on the phone and try to get together for lunch a couple of times a year.  We live one hundred miles apart so it isn't easy to get together that often.  I keep the bride doll on a chair in my hallway so that I can see her every day and remind me how much my sister loves me and that really we are never very far apart in spirit.  Bye.

Oops, I did it again

  In my post about chocolate chip applesauce cake I forgot to include the applesauce!  I edited my post to make it correct.  I hope no one started making one right away or they will have a very dry cake.  Sorry.  I do this even when I am making the cake.  I either forget the applesauce until the last minute or the chocolate chips.  Go figure.  Bye