Happy Thanksgiving

Photo credit

Thanksgiving Checklist

Celery diced
Onions chopped
Oysters shucked and stock pot stocked

Fresh herbs minced
Bread cubes toasted
Turkey stuffed, trussed up, and roasted

Giblets gravied
Salads tossed
Cranberries jellied, relished, sauced

Yams marshmallowed
Carrots glazed
Pearl onions and turnips braised

Brussels sprouted
Green beans steamed
Kerneled corn and spinach creamed

Biscuits baked
Fritters fried
Apples, pecans, pumpkins pied

Potatoes mashed
Squashes squished
Dinner plattered, plated, dished

Butter patted
Jello molded
Linens pressed and napkins folded

Candles lit
Wine poured
Grace said, “Thank you, Lord!”

Turkey carved,
I take a seat
But find that I’m too tired to eat!

© Diane Burdin, 2008

It's In The Bag

I really enjoyed reading all the comments on my giveaway post. Several of your names are new to me and I look forward to visiting your blogs soon. Almost to a person, you raved about the cornmeal sack I used to back my little quilt. So, in addition to a packet of fabric, I’ve added a Graue Mill feedsack to the prize. The winner will also receive a souvenir bag of cornmeal and a pamphlet of recipes.

Before we draw the winning name, let me tell you a bit about the mill itself. Graue Mill is the only operating waterwheel gristmill in Illinois. German immigrant Frederick Graue built it in 1852, on a scenic bank of Salt Creek in Oak Brook, Illinois, where its waterwheel continues to power the huge burrstones which grind wheat and corn.

The mill is operational April through early November. I managed to get a hold of them just as they were grinding the last corn for the season. For those of you interested in purchasing cornmeal, they sell bags throughout the winter and also ship. Check their website or call (630) 920-9720 for prices or to arrange for a winter pickup or mail delivery. I did ask if they would sell me an empty feedsack. The price would have been the same as a sack full of meal (which is why I now have a lifetime supply in my freezer).

And now, for the drawing… your names have been placed in the feedsack, jumbled, shuffled, and tossed about… and the winner is…

Jan, now that you're a resident of the Chicago suburbs, you can visit the mill when they reopen next spring. You might enjoy seeing spinning and weaving demonstrations in the museum itself, or enjoy a nature hike along Salt Creek through Fullersburg Woods. Send me your address and I'll get your prize on its way.

Photos of Graue Mill are courtesy of Lyle Hatch, Lisle, Illinois and used with his permission. Check out more of Lyle’s beautiful photography at his flickr site here.

Testing, 1-2-3 Testing

Many thanks to my tech savvy cyber friends for their guidance in how to download photos to Blogger. The problem was my photos wouldn't enlarge when clicked. Apparently, when you compose a draft in Blogger, you mustn't move or drag the photos within a post. If you need to reposition them, cut and paste instead. It's still gobbledegook to me, but I'm starting to get the hang of it.

Let’s give it a try. Click on the photos in this post. If they both enlarge, leave me a comment telling me so. I’ll enter your name in a drawing to celebrate my newfound blogging skills.

The prize will be a collection of red, white and blue reproduction fabric squares. I’ll keep the drawing open for two weeks (November 20).

I almost forgot to tell you about this little quilt. It’s a One Patch pattern, made of 1” squares (don’t worry, the prize pieces will be bigger) of Harriet Hargrave fabric. It's backed with a corn meal sack from our local grist mill.

Good luck!

Trick or Treat

In spite of great weather for Halloween, we were well into the witching hour last night, before anyone rang the bell. Very few trick-or-treaters showed up, so we have loads of candy left. It's fine with me; that’s why we buy our favorites. I’ve paired my morning cup of coffee with a couple Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and think an Almond Joy might go well with cup number two.

Here’s your Halloween treat, a “liberated” log cabin quilt, one of the first things I made after reading Gwen Marston's book, Liberated Quiltmaking. 

It loosely follows the traditional log cabin format of light and dark strips, surrounding a center square, but the trick to "liberating" it is...

-the “squares” are irregular in shape,

-the surrounding strips vary in width, and aren't necessarily cut straight. 

-the strips don’t follow the traditional sequence of lights on one side and darks on the other.

The hand quilted cable design in the sashing, brings a little order to the chaotic blocks.

Oh, and the sashing is that color!

Liberated Log Cabin

20" x 27"

machine pieced, hand quilted

 Diane Burdin,1996