In Between?

Yes, it's still summer. I know that. The kiddos have gone back to school here this week, school buses are out and about. It's not yet fall but somehow it seems like we're in an in-between season. Even as I say that though, ninety degree temperatures are forecast here all week; yanking me back to reality. My zeal for finishing projects remains high. "Amarillo Skies, Revised" has had the binding applied and is awaiting hand finishing. "Strawberry Jam" has resurfaced and made it to the design wall; I hope to continue piecing the sashing strips and nine-patch cornerstones to get this one together. It's cool and comfortable inside. What's grabbing my attention though? Fall quilts and designs popping up all over social media. Who doesn't love a good Maple Leaf quilt? Pumpkin blocks galore and Halloween quilts. Sigh. 🎃🍁 These all threaten to divert my forward path! I need to gird myself and keep my resolve.

"Sew Berry Sweet" is fully quilted and coming off the rails today (Augie approved!). I'm thinking about finishing this one off with a scrappy, multi-colored binding. What do you think?

I've done a bit of reading this summer. Two books that I can highly recommend. Grisham's The Widow. Another legal thriller from an author that we know; one with twists and turns that are well worth hanging in there for, I thoroughly enjoyed this book clear through to the last page.

And this one, an historical novel

with excellent character development that slowly pulled me into the plot and kept me guessing. It's been a while since I have made any reading suggestions, I loved these two.

That's it from here. 

Sew, what's new with you?

Does anyone else feel that they’re at an "in between" season or is it just me?

Life is Good!

Finishes!

Is there any better word than "finish"? (And by "finish" I mean quilted, bound and labeled!) For a quiltmaker it's a word that brings extreme  joy and a song to the heart! I've not only had one recent finish, I've had three!

Yes, strike up the band!! This tiny quilt-let has twelve hand embroidered month of the year blocks. It's an ancient pattern by Bareroots (I think), it's no longer in print that I can find. I stitched and set these little three inch blocks in 1996; thirty years ago! 

This quilt, my version of the Be-Attitudes, from an Art to Heart book by Nancy Halvorsen was begun in 2008. (Compared to the quilt above it's a relative newcomer to the "now finished" team!) This is now hanging in our eating area in the kitchen where "Mealtime Mantra" has hung for the past fifteen years. I plan to switch the two out from time to time, they're the exact same size.

And now the baby of the bunch, coming in over the "finish" line at only two years of age, "Lemoynes Revisited" is the result of a 2024 BOM at my LQS. This finish deserves a standing  O! These finishes are all credited to much "down time" while our granddaughter napped between events at the recent TYR Futures Swimming Championships in Madison, WI! I probably need to attend more of these if only to get more handwork done! Ha!!

Speaking of handwork... Patriotic Tweet by Teresa Kogut is currently under my embroidery needle in the evenings these days, it's a sweet little design, I'm working it on 30 ct Legacy Linen, the color is Victoria Sponge Cake. 

Since the subject is finishing, please indulge me: two more photos of Lucy Ann from the recent meet. The first one, above shows the level of intensity and focus that she displays before she enters the pool for each event. The second pic I simply adore, it captures the instant when she looked up at the board and realized that she had just finished second overall in the mile (1500 m), I am so happy to see this and relive that perfect water-slapping moment! 

Life is Good!

Milestones and Miles

I had posted about this Sparkler quilt a while ago, It finshed up to be a generous twin-sized quilt. It's the result of a R,W & B online fabric swap through White Shanty Quilts, the pattern is available there too. Julia Davis is the person behind White Shanty, she offers the swaps several times a year if you're interested, always color-themed. When this one was offered I knew that I wanted a patriotic quilt to celebrate our daughter's milestone birthday. She was born in July 1976, a bicentennial baby, and she needed a semiquincenntenial quilt to mark the occasion. I backed it with a sweet picnic print; it is a perfect quilt to use as such. 

I'd been working on completing another surprise for her too. She has taken to needlepoint and turns out beautiful ornaments and small items, her finishing techniques are impeccable. She had come to me well over a year ago to see if I could turn one of her needlepoint canvases, cute Christmas reindeer, into a pillow for her, something that she'd never done. I was honest with her and confessed that this is an area of uncharted waters for me as well!

After months of consternation, I took the bull by the horns and worked up my courage. There were many things that worried me: cutting and stitching into the canvas, I was afraid of damaging the needlepoint piece that she had worked so beautifully. Finally, determined, I set to the job at hand armed with the necessary materials and a dozen YouTube videos under my belt. I used a sturdy upholstery fabic and even set a zipper into the lapped back. It was ready in time for her birthday!

I believe that she was pleased; it was a great day!

The following day she and our granddaughter flew to Madison, WI for the TYR Futures Championships Swim Meet at the Soderholm Aquatic Center there on the U of W campus. Mr. Goodneedle and I left out for the same destination, in a car, we turned ours into a roadtrip!  There were many miles to travel and I took three quilts with me to finish by hand stitching the binding in place. There was plenty of time to do that, too. Lucy Ann's schedule each day consisted of swimming prelims in the morning and qualifying for finals in the evening. That meant getting her fed between events and long, afternoon naps to prepare. 

This was on the final day, Lucy Ann (L) came in 2nd overall in the mile! It was truly amazing to watch; and considering that the girl who finished ahead of her, in first, is 20 years old and a collegiate swimmer says a LOT about the determination of our 15 year old granddaughter! We're very proud. Her teammate is pictured here, too, she also placed in the mile event. 

Lucy Ann and her coach. Smiles all around; what a wonderful week! 

I'll share the finished quilts in my next post. 

Thanks for letting this Nana brag a bit. 

Life is Good!

Good Morning!

Good morning! 

Catching up after a long road trip, finishing up a few old quilts (👏),

playing with Chat GPT and welcoming August (how can that be already?).

I'll be back very soon with all the details and loads of pics. 

Life is Good!

A Baby Shower, Popcorn and a Handy Tip

We hosted a baby shower for our Pastor's wife here at the house on Saturday. It was a glorious occasion, well-attended and the Mom-to-be was showered indeed! Their little one will be warm, cozy and well dressed for the foreseeable future!

Naturally, I was especially touched to see her receive three handmade quilts! A beautiful string quilt that is meant to serve as a play mat for tummy-time and dragging around, as directed by its maker.

A sweet flannel quilt; oh, so warm and cozy.

I made her a pinwheel quilt from the scraps left over from their wedding quilt four years ago. That quilt had some rose-tones and pinks in it, which I pulled out since the baby is a boy. If they have a girl sometime in the future I can make her a pillow, perhaps a small one, as that bin of leftovers is almost depleted now! There were so many lovely gifts; handmade bibs which I need to see if I can get the pattern for and a gorgeous hand-knitted blanket.

Sew, what else have I been up to? I will report back as there are a few surprises that I can't reveal right now but "Sew Berry Sweet" is loaded on the longarm. This top was made using the Hex N More ruler back in 2018, it was offered as a block-of-the-month at our LQS. It's been hanging in the stash closet for the last eight years and I finally got around to getting a backing fabric and moving it to the the front of the TBQ* line. I deliberated for days on end as to how I would quilt it. I drew up elaborate custom quilting designs and finally decided to ditch those plans and quilt it with the Popcorn pantograph from Willow Leaf Designs. I'm happy with the results, I believe that this is a whimsical and fun design and the popcorn only adds to the fun!

This is my Bernina 125 Activa machine that I take on quilting retreats. It's a perfect portable machine,but as you can see the "case" that it came with is nothing more than a glorified dust cover. It has pockets on either end for the power cord and foot pedal. Very basic and it isn't protected all that well for travel. 

So, I  had seen on Instagram that Trader Joe's had these insulated cooler bags in for the summer months at the almost unheard of price of $8.99. They were being touted as the perfect size to hold, and protect, a sewing machine. I ran by there to today to check it out.

Yes, one followed me home. Does it fit? Like. A. Glove.

Perfection!

I don't know how they can make these and sell them for $8.99

(it seems like I'd have that much invested after buying just the zipper)!

You're welcome. 

Life is Good!

*TBQ = to be quilted

Stitch by Stitch...

Stitch by stitch, evening after evening, my own version of Sarah Barker's sampler is finally complete 186 years after Sarah finished hers. I began this piece in January. Everything about working on this sampler has delighted me. If you've been a reader here for a while you may recall a post that I did many years back regarding a thimble that my grandmother gave to me. I am including the link here, for context. A friend discovered this sampler pattern and alerted me to it a few years back. I have done some research through my hometown document center to see if this sampler could possibly be one made by the original owner of my thimble. The dates align. There were six nine year old girls named Sarah Elizabeth Barker living in the United States in 1840. Considering the fact that this child had her own gold, monogrammed, thimble; and the high quality of needlework skills exhibited in this piece of work, chances are high that this sampler was made by the same person as the one buried in my hometown. I am going with that. I have switched out the colors of mine from the original. Now to look at framing options. Here is the pattern as printed:

Moving on from handwork to the longarm~ "America 250"  is finally quilted and the binding has been prepared. I ran into a huge obstacle on this one! Somehow my upper thread path became undone somewhere along the line and while advancing the quilt to do the next row I discovered a huge tangled mess of threads on the backside. That one single row that took, maybe, 15 minutes to stich took me 2 days to pick out!  Lesson learned~ slow down, pay attention! Groan. This quilt will be the ultimate patriotic picnic quilt, take a look at the backing fabric; isn't it just great? Just add fried chicken and lemonade!

"America 250" ~ pantograph is "Becker's Shooting Star" from Urban Elementz.

God bless America!

SEW, what's under your needle these days?

Life is Good!

From Our Home to Yours

Life is Good!