Fisks Moving to Naperville,

Has been a while since I put anything newsy here, but this is news...Jonathan and family are moving to Naperville, Illinois, so will be only a day's drive away - hurrah!! Here they are in front of their new house.

Jon and Mer's new house

Now an assistant pastor at Naperville's Bethany Lutheran Church, his installation is Sunday, November 20 at 4 p.m.

His video blogs - Greek Tuesday and Ask Da Pastor - will continue beginning again with the first week in Advent, so look for a Greek Tuesday on November 22. Sunday, November 27 is the first Sunday in Advent this year - Christmas being on a Sunday!

Mom's (Grandma's) Quilts

Friday, March 12, 2010, I got to help my Mom, known to most of the family as Grandma Ruth or GreatGrandma Baumgarten, with a presentation of some of the quilts she has made for family members to the Clarinda (Iowa) Home and Garden Club. See more in Kristin's online album here.

When I arrived on Thursday, her famous "party room" was set with dainty card tables decked out in St. Patrick's Day green, awaiting the luncheon provided by other ladies. We brought six quilts Mom has made for us for her to include in her talk My sister Kristin came from Spencer, bringing a baker's dozen more. She has more children, so there are more quilts in their home. Kathy joined us for dinner on Thursday evening, bringing even more quilts. Friday morning, before I was out of bed, Mom and Kristin arranged the collection of 33 quilts around the perimeter of the party room - draped on quilt stands, on the rocker, on the stair rail and stacked on the couch.

During Mom's presentation, she worked her way around the room, describing each quilt, explaining who it was for, her inspiration for it or the history behind it.

She had her first quilt, US State Birds made in 1949 before she was married and an unfinished quilt she's still working on. The first State Birds quilt has 48 birds. She made another State Birds quilt later, altering the design to add state birds for Alaska and Hawaii.

This Fishing Boy quilt was made for her first grandson, Jonathan Fisk. She creates quilts for each of her 16 grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren - a baby quilt, a youth quilt and a high school graduation quilt.While some quilt designs have been repeated, no two quilts are alike. She got creative with later grandson, since Kristin's family had five boys and Kristin didn't want identical quilts.

Mom showed the first of the over 30 denim patch quilts she made from old blue jeans. The first ones were made with our Dad's old jeans, later ones made recycling old jeans gathered from various people and thrift stores.

Unfortunately, photos don't exist for ALL the quilts she has made and some she has given away or donated to auctions she has no record of.

In all, the number is well over 100 quilts, not counting simple tied quilts she has done for charities and missions.

Note: Grandma Ruth designs and pieces, embroiders or appliques the quilt tops and has the quilting done by various local quilters or machine quilting businesses.

The Clarinda Herald Journal carried a nice write up and photos (done by Ruth and Kristin) in their March 18, 2010, paper. Kristin is compiling a photo album for Mom with all the pictures she took of the quilts, that day and later. You can view Kristin's photos in an online album here. The ladies of the Garden Club enjoyed the show and the stories told that day.

As a quilting artist, Mom's body of work is amazing, but the tangible evidence of her love is the more important element. Over the years, her family members will continue to be warmed by her embrace as they use quilts she made especially for them.

Winter in KC

Since moving to the Kansas City area over three years ago, I was convinced we had moved too far south - not getting enough snow to suit me. This year has made up for it! Looking out into our backyard is a never ending variety of birds, squirrels, mysterious tracks in the snow and shadows from the woods beyond the fence.

 

The unfortunate fact is that along with snow comes ice and 2 weeks ago I slipped and fell, right in the street at the base of our driveway, injuring my right deltoid muscle. Since then I've really tried to let my arm rest, but given the rather spectacular bruising that has been blooming, perhaps I've overdone it. But I just couldn't resist making Valentine cookies for my first Eclectics Gallery opening last night. And they taste just as good as the ones we always make for Christmas.

 

Here's great tip for frosting. Mix up the standard powdered sugar frosting (1 Tbl melted butter, 1 Tbl milk, 1 tsp vanilla, food color to suit, powdered sugar.) But add sugar gradually and keep the frosting too thin to spread with a knife. Check by drizzling frosting from the spoon - it should flow back into the liquid immediately and not hold its shape. Then, the best part: frost the cookies with a clean pastry brush - the bristle, paint-brushy kind. Paint the frosting all around, over the edges, and put cookies onto a cooling rack set over waxed paper. When dry, cover air tight overnight or stack carefully between layers of parchment inside an air-tight storage box. The next day you can decorate the smooth, hardened surfaces. I used a butter cream mix with my Wilton decorating tips, but it's fragile. If you want permanent, shippable decorations, you need royal icing ....I just don't like the hard, crunchy sugar. But they didn't last long at the Heart Felt Valentine Showcase at Eclectics, so no matter!

  

  

  

  

Okay, enough sugar for one post.

Merry Christmas from Lynette and Dale

Greetings from Lynette and Dale. 

Family Tree Quilt

My glorious Christmas gift from my talented Mother - Ruth Baumgarten. With signatures saved from both sets of grandparents, my parents, siblings (including me), my husband, children and grandchildren, she crafted my personal Family Tree Quilt. She even left 2 blank spots for future grandkids' names! Even though I am not usually a "purple person", when we shopped I chose this romantic lilac print fabric, with coordinating greens and purples. I also got to choose the quilt design - which she found quite challenging - early last fall and voila! She also did one for each of my sisters. A prolific artist, my mother. I can't wait to see the other two, which I''ll post here when I get pictures.

Cookie Day

Whoa. It's time for cookies. I've been procrastinating, knowing the temptation of having too many yummy cookies around. And I've been busy with art guild meetings, doll projects, charm exchanges, and hosting a couple meetings/parties.

But, family packages are (mostly) all sent. Customer orders are filled and shipped. With the exception of handbell and choir rehearsals I'm free to cook and create. So why am I sitting at the computer??

Gotta go!

Cooking Day

 

For me, the day before Thanksgiving is usually PIE DAY. So today I made four pies - 2 pumpkin, Dale's annual Thanksgiving Day cherry pie and a Coconut cream with dark chocolate. (A pumpkin pie and the coconut pie were for friends - they have been receiving a pie-a-month from me all year, my donation to our church's fundraising auction last fall.)

Such a simple task - making a basic pie crust, adding a little sugar, fruit and tapioca or mixing up a batch of pumpkin and baking up a bit of bliss for family and friends. It always seems to be so impressive, at least to the non-cooks, but really the most difficult part is watching the clock and the oven temp so your efforts don't burn up or spill into the oven!

I took my leftover pie crust crumbs and trims, added the crumbs from the nearly empty granola cereal box, some walnuts that have been in the pantry long enough to smell bad, smooshed it all together and voila! Bird feed! So the neighborhood woodpeckers and nuthatches will find a treat on their feeder today.

 

I also sliced and dried out 2 lovely loaves of crusty Italian bread, now awaiting onions, celery, sage and broth. This will make a LOT of dressing, which seems to disappear faster than the turkey in our house. That's tonight's task. Hmmm, now I just need a good wild rice pilaf stuffing recipe for my diabetic guests who don't need lots of white bread stuffing. Can't wait to cook up the hand-harvested wild rice we brought home from Wisconsin last month.

We have been greatly blessed, and tomorrow will be a relaxing day with our friends Liz and Gary from San Diego. Hope your day will be lovely and filled with thankfulness for all the Lord is doing for you.