Stories of family, creativity, and diverse distractions.

Author: Michelle Page 31 of 34

Creating a quilt for a challenge project: Book to fabric

Every other year, my local quilt guild has a show, and there is always a challenge project.  It encourages people to create something special in a theme to share with the visitors.  It often has restrictions as to size and other details.

Eternity

Michelle’s Uncle Paul: A birthday remembered a little late

My uncle Paul was born on April 1, 1939. He always seems to me to have the right sense of humor for someone born on April Fool’s Day. 

At my Grandma’s 75th birthday party with all her kids – Mardell, Chuck, Claudette, Paul, Linda, Mom, Grandma James and Delores.

Preparing meals for easy week night dinners: Chicken Broccoli Casserole

When Walt or I are home during the day, we enjoy cooking dinner.  When both of us have to work, we like to choose something that is quick and easy so that we are not eating dinner at 8 pm.  One of my methods of dealing with quick, weekday meals is to make bigger batches of meals when I am home and freeze the extras for later.

Dinner is ready!

Soups, chile, and spaghetti sauce are all easy ones to make big batches of and freeze, and we usually have several of these on hand.  I also do casserole dishes and lasagna.  When I make dishes like this, I prepare them in smaller pans. For example, I make lasagna in loaf pans, then freeze it before baking. 

Elizabeth Wellman Link: Happy Birthday!

Elizabeth Wellman was born April 2, 1890 to Gerhard and Maria Wellman in West Point, Iowa. 

She was born to German immigrants. Gerhard had come to America from Germany in 1884.  Maria Kruempelmann had arrived in 1885. 

George, Bernard, Gerhard, Elizabeth, Anthony, and Aloyius Wellman. This picture was taken in 1905.

Michelle’s Homemade Bagels

Ready to eat!

No one who knows me is surprised by the fact that I love to cook and bake.  I am not only interested in the end product but the ‘why things work as they do’. One of my favorite books is Cookwise by Shirley O. Corriher.  It is subtitled “The Hows and Whys of Successful Cooking.”

Storekeeper’s daughter to high school mathematics teacher: Remembering Grandma Kellogg

Hazel Anna Durfee was born February 26, 1917 in Morristown, South Dakota.  Her parents, Aaron Bradford “Bud” and Anna Durfee ran the general store there.  They moved to Reeder, North Dakota in 1921 and had a store there as well. 

This photo was probably taken in Wyoming, where Bud’s parents and some of his siblings lived. I’m not sure yet which cousin Sonny was. Ella was Hazel’s aunt.

Barmaids and Gunslingers: Designing an art quilt

For my parents 50th anniversary, I decided to make them a small quilt.  Many of my quilts are wall hangings, instead of bed quilts.  I like to create designs that are unique.  This one was based off a photograph my parents had had taken while they were on vacation in Wyoming some years ago.  They had used it as a Christmas card a few years later and I had my copy of that.

Barmaids and Gunslingers

Remembering Kempker’s Family Store: Then and Now

John and Catherine were married in Cincinnati Ohio in 1853. Sometime before 1859, they moved to Iowa and opened Kempker’s Family Store in West Point, Iowa.

Image show the Kempker Family store building in the late 1800s with wagons out front.
The store in the late 1800s

Grand Tour of The West: Day 27

March 15, 1946

February 1946. World War II is over and wartime production jobs were ending. During the war, Carl and Georgie worked a number of jobs in several places, finishing the war in Pocatello, Idaho. They elected to return to Iowa, where they both had family, but opted to make a grand tour of the west on the way. Georgie wrote a journal of the trip. The story starts here.

After we left Hannibal, we came straight home. Arrived March 15, 1946.

The last line of the story.

Grand Tour of the West: Day 26

March 14, 1946

February 1946. World War II is over and wartime production jobs were ending. During the war, Carl and Georgie worked a number of jobs in several places, finishing the war in Pocatello, Idaho. They elected to return to Iowa, where they both had family, but opted to make a grand tour of the west on the way. Georgie wrote a journal of the trip. The story starts here.

A local tourist map of Hannibal from the trip.

The next morning, we drove to Hannibal and stopped there to see the Mark Twain Museum. It was very interesting.

March 14, 1946

February 1946. World War II is over and wartime production jobs were ending. During the war, Carl and Georgie worked a number of jobs in several places, finishing the war in Pocatello, Idaho. They elected to return to Iowa, where they both had family, but opted to make a grand tour of the west on the way. Georgie wrote a journal of the trip. The story starts here.

A local tourist map of Hannibal from the trip.

The next morning, we drove to Hannibal and stopped there to see the Mark Twain Museum. It was very interesting.

Page 31 of 34

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