Stenciled Daisy Potholders

These pretty blue hot pads were a prize at a recent bridal shower. Seeing the possibility to add to the daisy kitchen set, Miss Abigail stenciled a large white daisy in the corner of each and then used a black fine-tip Sharpie permanent marker to embellish the flower with squiggly black lines around the edges of the petals. Dots circling the yellow center finished them off. Quick and easy! Stenciling is so handy.

Link - Gingham Embroidery Booklet

I love vintage needlework books! I recently found a link to a small booklet by Coats and Clark on gingham embroidery. The booklet gives directions for four embroidery stitches: cross-stitch, herringbone stitch, lazy-daisy stitch, and the french knot stitch. There are pages of project ideas for each stitch as well. The booklet was written for youth, but everyone can benefit from the simple instructions and fun project ideas. Renee, on her blog at My Vintage Mending, has saved each page of the booklet as a jpg image. I just recreated and printed out the little booklet as a resource for Abigail’s hope chest. Here is a second leaflet by Coats and Clark with patterns for cross-stitch on gingham embroidery.

If you haven’t tried gingham embroidery, I hope you will. It is so fun, especially for beginning stitchers! The woven checked gingham provides a natural guide for working the cross-stitch and many other embroidery stitches. Sometimes I have a hard time making a nice, straight feather stitch, for instance. The herringbone stitch, likewise, is difficult to make even and straight. On gingham, however, these stitches are easy! All the designs and stitches will be larger or smaller depending on the size of the gingham squares. Almost anything that can be made from checked gingham fabric can be embroidered with a suitable cross stitch design. An easy hope chest project might be a set of hot pads or snack napkins, a bread cloth or bun warmer, curtains, an apron, or a pretty band to trim a towel.

A Peek Inside - Tea Set

Last week, Miss Abigail was very happily surprised with a wonderful gift for her hope chest. In honor of many happy days spent together enjoying tea and company, Pat Humme, one of Abigail's special Stanley Ladies, presented her with a full china tea set, including several serving pieces and cups for eight. "Every young lady needs a tea set," Pat said, "especially Abigail." Pat also included a lovely cutwork tablecloth and eight matching embroidered napkins. It is a magnificent gift and much appreciated. Abigail is now cheerfully planning tea parties and will be a most elegant hostess, thanks to Pat.

Of course Pat knows that neither Miss Abigail nor I drink traditional green tea. Our Mormon friends might well blink their eyes. But the ladies have taught us that having tea together is more about enjoying company (and chocolate and biscuits) anyway. Hot cocoa, herbal tea, mulled cider, tart lemonade or memorable root beer floats are usually on the table for us. Pat is moving to Missouri to be close to her family there and we will miss her painfully, especially on Tuesdays and always at tea time.

My Father

This is my father. I just returned from Idaho, where I attended his funeral. This just leaves such a hole in my heart and in my life. But it was a good thing for him. He was 88 years old and he died doing what he loved, tending the water in the irrigation canal. I will miss him in my life more than I can express. But he had a firm belief in the ministry of angels and that many of these angels are family members who have gone ahead of us. To the extent that he is able and allowed, I know he will work to influence my circumstances and bring me comfort. I am thankful to be his daughter. He was proud of me...for many reasons...I'll be back to post, just not immediately.

BTW, I treasure this photo and want to give credit to my daughter-in-law, Kate Mower. She is very talented.

A Peek Inside - Golden Books

Hi all! I wanted to show some of the books that I've saved in Miss Abigail's hopechest. Books are on my mind, I guess. We're ready to start school and I've been sorting and planning and organizing.  I know, I know - I promised to be more regular about posting after the county fair. But, remember - I am an "old momma"! I needed just a bit of a vacation. Abigail is starting high school work this year and the logistics of planning and organizing are more complicated. I've been through it before and I know it will be okay, but for some reason, I'm fussing about it. I will mention that this year marks 21 years of homeschooling for me. Just so you know that I'm a pro at fussing...

Anyway - these are a couple of Abigail's favorite Golden Books. You can tell she loved them!

Abigail's daddy read her the Good Night Little Bear book almost every night for a long time. Every time he got to this page, Abby would be stiff with anticipation over the mouse in the wood box and when Kerry would read "EEEEK!" Abigail would giggle and giggle. Every night. And then the whole family would laugh. Fun memories. I hope she will enjoy sharing these books with her own children.

County Fair

Miss Abigail did very well at the Santa Fe County Fair this last week. In fact, she can hardly contain her happiness at winning a coveted buckle for all her work on her indoor exhibits. Reserve High Point winner! She took 47 exhibits this year, including many arts and crafts projects. Seventeen of her 4-H exhibits were recommended for our State Fair next month. Usually fair officials provide a plaque for the indoor high point awards, but this year they awarded buckles and she is so excited to have one, maybe you can tell from the picture. ;o) Here are some other highlights of the fair...

Abigail was very brave to take one of our Shetland rams to the sheep show this year. This guy is named Romeo and is tame enough (and old enough...) to attempt the show. She also showed two Finns in the ewe class. The judge was very complimentary. She was the only exhibitor in the breeding classes. We continue to work on increasing the interest in this project.

Now that the fair is finished, I should be able to return to posting a little more regularly - hopefully! Thanks for being patient.

Pickles! and Cherries!

Miss Abigail did her fair canning yesterday. I was personally glad that she was willing to repeat the 4-H canning project this year. (If Abigail were a Border Collie I would describe her as "biddable." She is so good to go along with all I ask her to do!) I felt that repeating the project would help solidify the skills that she learned last summer and help her feel confident that she could preserve food this way. She canned regular quick pickles and two kinds of pickled fruit. The pickled cantaloupe recipe was a repeat from last year. We tried pickling cherries just because we had cherries ready to can. The cantaloupe looks so pretty in the jar that she will exhibit that one. Here is the recipe for pickled cantaloupe, in case you want to try it.

Cut one just barely ripe cantaloupe into 1" pieces, as evenly square as possible. 7 cups of cantaloupe will fill three or four pint jars. (Abigail used a melon ball tool, just so that the fruit would look pretty in the jar. Because the judge doesn't open the jar, about the only way to gain points in a judging situation is to be exact on the headspace and to make things as pretty as you can!)

Combine 1 1/2 cups white vinegar and 1 cup water in a medium saucepan. Make a spice bag with 1 stick cinnamon, 1 teaspoon whole cloves, and 1/2 teaspoon whole allspice. Bring liquid to a boil. Reduce heat and let it simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and add melon. Let stand about 2 hours. Add 2 1/4 cups sugar to the melon. Bring to a boil, stirring until sugar dissolves. Reduce heat; simmer until cantaloupe become slightly transparent. (Don't let this go on too long or the cantaloupe will become mushy!)

Begin to heat the water in the water bath canner. Prepare clean jars and heat these in the water canner. Heat the lids in a small saucepan to soften rings. Working quickly, one at a time, remove the jars from the canner and drain briefly. Pack the hot melon into the jars, leaving 1/4-inch headspace. Ladle hot pickling liquid over melon, again leaving 1/4-inch headspace. Remove any air bubbles. Clean the rims and adjust the two piece lids.

Once all the jars are in the canner, make sure there is about 2 inches of water over top of the jars and bring the water to a full boil. Process the jars for 15 minutes, keeping the water boiling the whole time.

Allow the jars to cool and listen for the "pings" that tell you the jar has sealed. BTW, sometimes you won't hear the ping, but when the lid is fully concave, the jar is sealed. Wash the jars and clean the rings before storing in the cupboard (and certainly before exhibiting in the fair!)

On to the other pickles...

and cherries...