We had so much fun with the Summer Bow Tie blocks that people are clamoring (well, at least asking) if we’re going to do another block for fall.  Well, of course we are!

What was the Summer Bow Tie Block Challenge all about?  It was about making a quilt block a day.  It was about getting into your sewing room if even for just a few minutes.  It was about using up some scraps!

If you’d made one quilt block each day from the beginning of summer until the end of summer, you would have made 94 blocks!  I’m not sure anyone managed the one-a-day approach, but it still kept many people sewing.  Lots of people are finishing up their quilts now and posting them on the Facebook page.  Here’s Toni’s that she posted today.  There are lots of photos on the Facebook page.  Feel free to check them out.

Ready for the next challenge?  How about Hour Glass blocks for fall?  Did I hear a moan?  Really, they’re easy.  It’s just a twice sewn half-square triangle–kind of like biscotti–twice baked cookies!  If you make one block each day during fall, you will have 91 blocks made before the first day of winter even sets in!  Here’s what an Hour Glass block looks like.

A few minutes ago I decided to make a few blocks and takes photos so I could post this tutorial  Since I have shelves full of fabric bolts, it’s really tempting to just pull a few down and start cutting.  But, I really need to do something with all my scraps.  So, I pulled out one of my scrap bins.

I cut a bunch of 4-1/4″ squares.  These will make a 3″ unfinished Hour Glass block.  Note: You can make any size blocks.  The formula is this–add 1-1/4″ to the finished size you desire.

I cut some cream solid to go with them.  You can get ten 4-1/4″  squares from a strip.  Mark a diagonal line on the solid squares.

Pair a solid square with a print square, right sides together.  I used two matching solids and two matching prints.  This will yield four Hour Glass blocks.

Stitch 1/4″ on each side of the drawn line.

Cut apart on the drawn line.

Press to the print fabric.  (Yes, I have an orange iron!)  You’ve made a half-square triangle–and you’re half way finished!

Now take two of your half-square triangles and put them together, light against dark, dark against light.  Snug up the center seam.

Draw a diagonal line that passes through your stitched seam.

Stitch 1/4″ on either side of the line and cut apart.

Voila!  An Hour Glass block.  Wasn’t that easy?

Here’s a little pressing tip.  Wiggle the intersection a bit to loosen a stitch or two.

Finger press seams in opposite directions.  This really eliminates bulk in you seams.  A teeny tiny four patch will show up in the middle if you do this correctly.  Your seams will press to the light, but that’s okay.

Turn it over and give it a press.  Trim away the dog ears.  There it is–your first Hour Glass block.  Actually, you’ll get two blocks from each pair of fabric.

Since I did two pair, I ended up with four blocks.  This is a very traditional way to put Hour Glass blocks together, but there are lots of possibilities with this block.

Use two different prints when sewing your half-square triangles together.

Much more scrappy.

If you put your four blocks together with all the browns facing in, it forms a pinwheel.  Magic!

Or you can just mix them up for a scrappy effect.

You don’t even have to use a solid if you want to go totally scrappy, like this.

I hope you’ll join in the fun.  Come to the new Facebook Page, A Quilt Block A Day.  Even if you don’t make blocks, it’s fun to watch everyone’s progress.

Our two oldest grandkids, McKenna and Justin, have been here visiting for a week.  Little brother, Jason, wasn’t very happy about being left home!

On our way home, we stopped in Seaside to break up the trip, and took time for a ride on the carousel.

I just love this photo.  We had to stop to watch the Young’s Bay Bridge be raised for a fishing boat to pass under.  Must be a guy thing!  McKenna and I waited in the car.

The favorite and most requested activity during the week was Gator driving.  I use it to water and fertilize around the yard.  As you can see, Justin liked being in charge of the spray nozzle!

While McKenna and I did a lot of Gator driving, Bob and Justin spent a lot of time on the John Deere A, now named Henry.  Bob was trying to fire it up one day and said, “Come on, Henry,” and after that, Justin called it Henry!

We baked Snickerdoodles, Papa’s favorite.  Okay, so I had a few, too!

McKenna made an apron from my Daisy A Day apron panel.

Here she is modeling the finished product.  I was so proud of her.  She did all of the sewing except attaching the waist band.  Her top stitching was lovely!

She chose this fabric for the reverse side, and we added the ric rack.  How fun!

We spent one whole day at Vista Park on the Columbia River.

It’s amazing how kids can spend hours at the water’s edge.  And grandparents can spend hours watching them and enjoying every minute of it!

We had a picnic and used the same plastic picnic plates that I ate off of as a child when we’d go to Chinook Park.

Now this was a bit of a stretch.  I had to put curlers in McKenna’s American Girl Doll’s hair.  Heck, I don’t even put curlers in my hair!  If it takes more than four minutes, then it’s not the hairdo for me!  But, it was in preparation for a very important party.  We invited the dolls and Great Grandma Bette for a tea party in the log cabin.

We spent the morning cleaning the cabin and picking flowers.  Of course picking flowers involved Gator driving.

Melissa and Kerstin wore matching dresses.

We had tea sandwiches and scones.  Our table had a daisy theme–daisy fabric in the table cloth, daisies on our bouquet, and daisies on my 1974 wedding china.

When Grandma Bette arrived, she was chauffeured to the cabin in –what else– the Gator!

She brought hostess gifts for both McKenna and me.  McKenna got a piece of cut glass that Grandma Bette has had for over 40 years.  What a treasure!

We didn’t forget dessert.  We had a strawberry whipped cream cake!

Yesterday, before heading out, we took one last Gator ride.  We went to the neighboring cranberry bog.

We took a little trip down a grassy road into the woods, and guess what we saw–a black bear!  It might have been this one, that son Doug snapped a  phone photo of in our yard last spring!  The bear ran off into the woods, and we turned around real quick!

We met their parents in Portland yesterday for the exchange.  Looks like Jason is happy to have his siblings back!

    As holidays go, Thanksgiving is a favorite in Anna Lena Land.  My parents and my sister’s family all come to celebrate with Bob and me.  We have a routine, or is that called a tradition, after doing it this way for several years–and I like that!  I don’t do a lot of decorating for this holiday, although I should, since I have lots of nice fall decorations.  But I do always manage to get out Rebekah and Eli, my grim faced and stoic Pilgrims.  They probably look like that because they never get anything to eat.

    I love to use special dishes–and I do have a lot of them.  One of my favorites is the special server made for jellied cranberry sauce.  Now, mind you, I don’t really care if I eat jellied cranberry sauce, but I have this cool server, and I like to use it, so we have jellied cranberry sauce!  These servers were made in the Fifties or Sixties by Rogers Silver and they were premium offered by Ocean Spray.  I’m not sure how it worked, but I think you sent in a couple of labels from Ocean Spray cranberry sauce, and probably a buck or two, and you got this pretty server.  There’s a little tray and the prettiest slicer/server with cutouts forming a cranberry and leaf design.  

    My hubby, also known as the Cranman, and I have a small cranberry farm.  I was away at Quilt Market this year during harvest, but my dear sister-friend Monica came over and took wonderful photos.  Her husband Tom even got bogged down with Bob.  Monica did a great Cranberry 101 on her blog.  That girl was really paying attention!  

    If you don’t know how easy it is to make your own cranberry sauce, let me tell you.  If you can boil water, you can make your own cranberry sauce–and you’ll never eat store bought again (sorry Big Brother Ocean Spray, but I’m still drinking your juice!).  Here’s the recipe.  Put these three ingredients in a sauce pan–4 cups cranberries, 2 cups sugar, 1 cup water.  Boil for 15 minutes.  You’re done.  Finished.  Over.  See, I told you you could do it.  While those cranberries are boiling, you’ll hear little pops as the skins burst.  That lets all the natural pectin out, and allows your sauce to set up.  Just refrigerate for a couple of hours and serve.  Oh, soooooo good!  Try it.  Please.  Then start looking for a cool glass turkey dish to serve your cranberry sauce in.  I love mine.  It’s pressed glass and oh-so-pretty.

    My sister Sally is queen of the shoppers.  She loves to shop, and just give her a theme and she’s off.  One year, as a hostess gift, she brought me a perfect butter dish for the Thanksgiving table.

    I love to set a pretty table.  I must admit I have a few sets of dishes to choose from (but not anywhere close to as many as sister Sally).  This year I used my pretty pine cone plates.  They’re a good choice for Thanksgiving-the color’s great and they have the biggest plates!  I used my late mother-in-laws flatware and the vintage Bakelite napkin rings.

    But even more fun than setting the table is the cooking.  Through the years we’ve tried adding a few new things to Thanksgiving dinner, but in the end, we all want the same traditional dishes that we’ve come to consider Thanksgiving staples–turkey, dressing, potatoes, gravy, my mom’s cranberry salad, fruit salad for Bob, Parker House rolls (that come out of the oven just as we sit down to eat), cranberry sauce, olives and pickles, carrots and green beans.  This year the bird was huge–almost 25 pounds, but we like lots of left-overs.

    Of course we have to end with pie–two pumpkin and one apple.  My Grandma Kennedy was famous for her pies.  I remember once, years ago, when my brother brought his future bride home for Thanksgiving.  Grandma had made the pies as usual, and Robin asked her if she had a recipe for her pie crust.  Grandma calmly answered, “Yes.  You take three pounds of Crisco, 16 cups of flour, a handful of salt and enough water.”  That was enough pie crust for nine pies–but Grandma was used to baking a lot of pies at once!  Oh, and I might add that the 16 cups of flour didn’t mean measuring cups.  I remember Grandma just taking a tea cup out of the cupboard and dipping it in the flour bin 16 times.  Now I’m in charge of pie crust.  Thank goodness for the food processor and Martha Stewart for a more manageable recipe.  I made the apple and Mom, Sally and Cole made the two pumpkin pies.  

    Here we all are, almost ready for the first bite!

    Today everyone came back for lunch and turkey sandwiches.  Oh, another chance to set the table and use different dishes!  Actually, these are our everyday dishes, pretty jadeite.  But I did get out my rainbow Bakelite flatware and the Scotty dog napkin rings.  They have wheels.  Wheels on napkin rings!  What a swell invention.  You can have napkin ring races at the table.

    I hope you enjoyed your holiday as much as I enjoyed mine.  And I have to say that this whole blogging thing is totally cool–and not nearly as hard as I thought it would be.  Monica, you were right!  Again!