Monday, October 4, 2010

Fall-o-ween Blog Hop Day 8

Welcome to Day 8 of the Quilt Designer's Fall-o-ween Blog Hop.
My goodness the days are flying by.
Today's featured designer is Carrie Nelson from Miss Rosie's Quilt Co.




Hop on over to her blog and check out her project.

I'm guessing it will be something pieced.

And I will want to make it.



When the kids were little, every fall we would
take a family trip down to the Community Orchard in Ft. Dodge.
(We really need to have a new Family Portrait taken.)


In the Fall the orchard offered hayrides out to their pumpkin fields.
Once you arrived at the pumpkin patch, you could get
off the hayrack and pick your pumpkin.



Anthony was content to pick his pumpkin right away.
He usually picked a tall skinny one.


But Abby, our dear Abby, she would have to wander

to the far corner of the field to find her pumpkin.
It was always very large and heavy and

her Daddy had to lug it back to the hayrack.



The Orchard has a café, where we would have
apple dumplings with cinnamon ice cream,
before we headed home to carve our pumpkins. Yummy!
They also have Sweet Corn Relish. and Flax chips. Yummy too!



As a child I always had trouble carving the mouth of my Jack-o-lantern.
I almost always inadvertently cut off the teeth.
And if I was trying to do eyeballs I usually ended up
cutting off at least one if not both of the eyeballs.
.
The kids are all grown up now, but every once in a while,
if they come home around Halloween, we will all carve pumpkins.
Can you guess which one is mine?


Tomorrow's featured designer will be Linda from Linda Lum DeBono.
Topic tomorrow will be Haunts.

Now hop on along to the other designer's blog to read about their family traditions.
Comment on all 10 blogs and be eligible for our grand prize.

GE Designs, Pieces of My Heart, Atkinson Designs, Pat Sloan, Anka's Treasures,
New Leaf Stitches, Whimsicals, Miss Rosies,
Rosebud's Cottage, Linda Lum DeBono.

When you finish your projects take a picture.
Use this link to post the pictures on Flickr for all of us to see.

Be a kid today, take time to carve some pumpkins and may none of them be toothless.

From my heart,

Sandy

24 comments :

  1. Pumpkin picking and apple picking are some of our family favorite traditions!

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  2. I loved your "family portrait". Nice to read about your memories of going to the pumpkin patch with your family, and then going to the cafe for apple dumplings with cinnamon ice cream (that really sounds delicious). That relish and chips look pretty good too!

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  3. I think we only carved a pumpkin with our children once! We never had many to choose from here in the south, and they didn't last long once they were cut up :-)

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  4. The pumpkin patch trip is always a fun event for our kids and now we hope to start it with our 4 grandbabies! I have enjoyed all the posts from you ladies and all the great projects, photos and ideas! Thanks again!

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  5. Our daughter always picked the tall, skinny ones too.

    They were here yesterday while the grandkids picked two pumpkins to take home and Kelli, our daughter reminded us about all the tall skinny ones hubby had to carve for her - sort of like Bert's (Sesame St.) head.

    Happy Fall.

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  6. I loved the results of the carving but the process was horrid. How is it that I bought the pumpkin, did the setup for the carving, over-watched the process and then had to CLEAN the mess. I always felt cheated! LOL!

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  7. We really don't have any Thanksgving traditons. My kids are older and when they are not at the in laws they come here for dinner. There is one dessert that I hav to serve...Raspberry Cheescake. It's become a family joke that my son in law won't even think of coming over until I tell him his favourite dessert is on the menu.
    And, just waht's wrong with the family portrait? LOL

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  8. Yours has to be the one on the left? The one with no teeth? My favorite part about pumpkin carving as a kid was the year we had a spontaneous pumpkin patch in our back yard {in the middle of town!!} from where we had thrown the guts from the year before. Since we bought our house 8 years ago I have tried to recreate that for the kids...No such luck. Greedy critters must eat all the seeds here in Florida! ;)

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  9. enjoyed reading your blog today. Cute family portrait for sure.

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  10. I've only been pumpkin picking once and it is a great memory!

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  11. I think your family portrait looks pretty good, though the little pumpkinheads are a bit taller now, as I recall. Fun stories! My kids always complain I wait too long to get the pumpkins. They are getting darn expensive you know!

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  12. Our "pumpkin patches" in south Florida didn't look like that at all.... they were in parking lots on asphalt... sigh...

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  13. My husband has never been to a pumpkin farm before! Well honey, we're going this year!

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  14. LOL!!! I love the family portrait.
    The goodies at the cafe sound sooo good. Do they Ship????

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  15. love the picture and I've cut off many pumkin teeth myself

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  16. Your family portrait is so funny! Love reading about your family. Hope the cold is long gone now. Bonnie Nyquist bonniesline at aol dot com

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  17. Your pumpkin patch memories remind me of a pumpkin patch near our house. We don't go anymore because the admission charge is $10 per person and then you still have to buy the pumpkins!

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  18. We have a local place to go for pumkins and cider also in the fall. It just isn't fall until we visit it. Loved the comment about needing a new family protrait! Jeanne in MI

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  19. I LOVE the family "portrait" on the mantle - how fun is that!

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  20. Family traditions are what make wonderful memories for the kids as they grow older. Thanks for sharing yours. The Fall-O-Ween projects are wonderful and I'm enjoying the blog hop.
    Mary H.

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  21. I love to carve pumpkins. It's amazing at what age our moms gave us knives and let us do it ourselves! There was a lot of slipping (but I still have all my digits!)

    I really enjoy using the little pumpkin carving saws. They make you look like a carving master! The motion is very much like a sewing machine needle--up/down, up/down. And the best part is no more slipping.

    I even gave one of the kits to my dad--he heartily endorses now!

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  22. I usually let my husband help with the pumpkin carving. It always seemed like more of a guy thing. I could never get past the feel of the pumpkin guts. My husband liked to clean and roast the seeds, but they didn't appeal to me either!
    Leslie S. in MN
    esclante[at]comcast[dot]net

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  23. Oh, I love seeing fields of pumpkins!

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