Land of Cotton?

Nope, look again, they're not cotton bolls; it's snow. Winter has arrived with a vengeance in the south. The weekend before last it was all ice, this past weekend it was all snow. Eight inches plus at Chez Goodneedle. That will teach me to make statements like "it's been so long since we've seen snow"! This snow was light and fluffy, due to the temperature being brutally cold, it is very pretty. (The tracks in this photo leading up from the lower right corner and traversing back and forth are from deer.)  We dodged the bullet again, power-wise; sadly, so many other southerners weren't as lucky. 

In anticipation of the storm, Augie got a coat. He was more than happy to stay cozy and warm! I'm content to stay in and work on projects, and as long as there's power I can do that for weeks on end!

Sarah Barker is coming right along...

...and I was able to get all the remaining blocks cut and kitted to complete the Cream and Sugar quilt. 

This magnificent Amaryllis continues to be a bright spot in the kitchen...

...and with plenty of time (and sourdough discard) on my hands I've even been baking crackers! I'm attaching the link here. I added a pinch of rosemary, these really are yummy. 

Most likely there will be more DIY clean up happening today. Our nighborhood is very low on the priority list, so far no state vehicles with a plow attached have ventured into our neighborhood at all. It's difficult for some to get in and out as we do have some significant hills in here which are heard to traverse with the remaining hard-packed ice underneath.  The public schools have been out for six days straight now and tomorrow isn't looking much better. I received and email this morning that our LQS is closed until further notice. The mail hasn't been delivered to our mailbox since a week ago last Friday, there's been no trash pick up and, for the second week in a row, church services have been canceled. Yesterday it was especially sad to miss worship as it was to be the celebration of the 500th service for our little mission congregation. Sigh. 

Snow... in the land of cotton, 

 days like these won't be forgotten!

Life is Good!

Measuring Up?

Apparently there’s a lot to learn about Pyrex. Specifically, PYREX (all caps) vs. pyrex (lower case). The former is vintage and made with borosilicate which makes it a lot sturdier as far as withstanding temperature variations, i.e., "freezer to oven". The latter, pyrex, is newer and now made with soda lime ash which has higher impact resistance (they no longer claim to have freezer to oven capability).  None of this mattered to me last week when all I wanted to buy was a 2 cup Pyrex measuring cup. My "old trusty" had broken when I accidentally dropped something else on top of it.  I figured I could cruise into my local WalMart easy enough and grab one off the shelf. Nope. Think again. WalMart, Ace Hardware, Target... nope, nope, nope. I could find plastic measuring cups everywhere but that's not what I wanted. For fifty+ years I have kept 1 cup, 2 cup and 4 cup Pyrex measuring vessels in my kitchen cabinet; not sure I could prepare meals without them. The girl that I asked in Target said that they stocked Anchor brand to avoid the controversy. Huh? That's what sent me to the Internet to research what was up with Pyrex. A quick check of our baking dishes on hand here at the house revealed a pretty even split between PYREX and pyrex. ( I even have a few PYREX "Flameware" dishes which belonged to my in-laws, they can be used on the stovetop, but that's an entirely different matter.) Whatever. I like to use a Pyrex measuring cup for measuring liquids, reheating gravy, sauces or melting butter in the microwave and for cooking in general. I found one on Amazon. I'd better hang on to it. You know, with all that controversy and so forth. There might be a lot that I'm missing here, and that's okay with me; I found my measuring cup and that's all that I was looking for.  

    Life is Good!

Winter Wonders

I finished this cross-stitch pinkeep over this past snowy/icy weekend; I hope and pray that you were spared any dangerous conditions and/or power outage. We are experiencing severe cold today; but thankfully, we only received several inches of sleet which didn't accumulate on the trees or powerlines. I've begun another cross stitch piece, this one is a sampler~ Sarah Barker. 

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. And so, my version of Sarah's sampler has begun, I am switching out the colors of mine from the original, though. Here is the pattern as printed:

This magnificent Amaryllis continues to bloom forth and be a bright spot on the kitchen table against the frozen landscape beyond. 

Patience has received a border! This particular black-on-black print has been in my stash since the late 1990's. I was glad to put it to good use at long last! I hope to add another, wider, border beyond this one but I have stalled out on the decision making process for now; and so, Patience is hanging neatly in the closet while I ponder what's next.  There was supposed to be a quilt retreat this past weekend, it was postponed and rescheduled due to the weather. It's just as well, I have pulled out a mostly completed BOM from a few years ago and am using the time between now and the upcoming retreat weekend to cut pieces for the blocks to finish up this one. All the blanks will soon be filled in with smaller pieced blocks. 

Sew...what's new and exciting at your place?

Stay warm and safe!

Life is Good!

Patience and Prudence

←This is Patience she measures in right now, before borders, at 64" X 78". She has all but emptied out my bin of 3.5" square scraps. Hallelujah! This was a great stash/scrap buster! Fifty 8" squares of every shade and hue. Im glad that I stuck with this one, it makes me happy. Patience has a baby sister, too:

This is Prudence↑. She's made with the leftover HSTs from her big sister; she measures 25" X 38". (Since one definition of "prudence" is: "skill and good judgement in the management and use of resources" it seemed to be the perfect name.) Isn't she cute? I do plan to add borders to Patience this week. But, you know how it is... things keep coming up, we'll see. I used to keep up with this blog, it's a wonder to me now how I ever did it. I'm not making any more promises to get better about posting. Speaking of things coming up:

Ta-da! Quiltdivajulie has been posting pics of her glorious Amaryllis bulbs. Here's ours... it's always fun to watch these emerge and climb high before bursting into glorious blooms to brighten the otherwise bleak winter days. Every day there's a visible display of progress and growth!

Dad had this photo sent to me. I told him that I wanted to see his smiling face but he told me to "get over it". Even in his current situation he's kept a great attitude and sense of humor. That's a blessing. The pillow that he is holding here was presented to him by his nursing team last week. It is made from a jacket that belonged to my mother. 💖 As sad as I am that Dad is no longer at home I am comforted by the fact that this facility is staffed by such loving and compassionate individuals that they would do something like this for him!  Acts of kindness such as these make a huge difference in the lives of those that they're caring for!

I'll close today with this picture of Lynnleigh, we spent the day shopping with her today to celebrate her 13th birthday! Yes, THIRTEEN! I know. sigh.  We're no strangers to birthday shopping trips throughout the years but they're no longer to the American Girl store. Sigh. So, what did the birthday girl choose for her outing? We shopped for books, craft supplies, accessories, a pullover, skin care items and, naturally, we just had to end our special day out with an ice cream sundae! It just doesn't get any better than that!

Life is Good!

Row By Row, and Sew It Goes...

"Quiet Time" is coming together; slowly, methodically, a row at a time. There's no rush, this one has been waiting, patiently, as I begin, and complete, other projects. Maybe I should reassign "QT" the name of "Patience" instead. This one was inspired by a quilt show that I attended in the Fall in New Hampshire. It's made entirely from scraps that I had  on hand from my precut 3.5" bin. The triangles are stacked in pairs, right sides together, and sliced corner to corner using Creative Grids Folded Corner Clipper. The squares used to round out this block are all 2" squares, also from my precut scrap bins of that size, I have two of those: one of lights and one of darks. 

Here's a sample block, they vary in appearance significantly based on the light/dark placement. What do I do with the discarded triangle pairs that I didn't use after slicing with the afore-mentioned tool? They're not discarded at all! 

Nope! I've been stitching up these bonus triangles, leader-ender style, into 4-patches; eventually joining them together into 12" blocks. I have no idea where these blocks will end up but aren't they pretty... and fun? I  think so!

And, just in case you were worried that those precut bins were all going to be emptied out... fear not; the 2025 scrap basket sneaks into view! Ha! For the past several years I have spent New Year's Day with my die cutter and all of the accumulated scraps from the previous year, cutting away. This year I have more of that same activity planned, why break with tradition, right? You may celebrate differently but, c'mon, there's no doubt that I know how to party! 😉

Happy New Year!

Life is Good!

2025 Holiday Wrap-Up

Consider this a post-Christmas, end of year, holiday wrap-up post. You might remember my initial foray into needlepoint, my birthday plaid. Our daughter took it back for finishing and surprised me by attaching it to the lid of this sweet little basket. I absolutely love it! It will hold my treasures and be a constant reminder of a wonderful weekend that we shared together. 

I don't know how many of you work the daily Wordle puzzles, I've been doing them for years. Imagine what a big surprise two of last week's puzzles were for me: QUILT was the answer a week ago on Sunday, and a few days later the word SPOOL solved the puzzle. A needleworker's delight!

Cocoa Quaker by Primrose Cottage was a Christmas cross-stitch start for me. 

This tea, from Metropolitan Tea Company, a brand that is new to me, was included in a Christmas gift basket from friends. It is absolutely wonderful! The tag reads : "Good Tea tastes better", that's certainly the truth! I can highly recommend this one. It's the perfect accompaniment for cold winter evenings as I work on my stitching. 

These were four of my favorite movies watched while I was hand-stitching binding on the Christmas quilts this year. The first three were movies that I hadn't seen before but the last one shown here, Emmett Otter's Jug Band Christmas is one that I must watch each and every year; I adore it and probably can recite the entire dialog of each Muppet by heart! I will never tire of the sweet story, the songs and the precious characters.

I finished this book earlier in December, it was one of those that I couldn't put down. 

The character development and the historical references were rich additions to this one,   definitely a story to remember!

I'm back to piecing a scrap quilt that had been set aside temporarily while working on the Santa's Puzzle quilts. I have my sidekick perched in a chair right alongside of me as I am piecing. It's always great to have company in the sewing room. 

And I'll finish up today's wrap-up post with the birthday boy (and Augie again, he's Mr. G's companion too!) My sweet husband, today is his birthday. Since we have been married 50+ years and we each have a birthday, that makes 100 birthdays that we've celebrated together!

Holy Cow!! How can that be? 😮

Life is Good!

Ready Or Not...

Every day crept one day closer to Christmas. I hadn't baked even one cookie or wrapped a single gift. But, the house was decorated, the tree was up, there were candles in the windows and a wreath on the door; ready or not, Christmas was coming.  No one felt that stronger than I did, I was working on a super-secret double surprise; had I left enough time? Ta-da!! I made it!  I'm so excited for the big Christmas reveal!

Not one, but two, Santa's Puzzle quilts! One for our daughter and her family...

...and the second one for our son and his. 

Is there any better feeling than covering the ones that you love with 💕Christmas love? I hope that they'll enjoy them for many years to come. And, the happy PS to this "rush to the finish" tale: the cookies DID get baked, and the gifts did, indeed get wrapped after all! It was the happiest of endings. Just like a Hallmark movie.

Merry Christmas!

Life is Good!

Big thanks to Julia @ Red Rainboots Handmade for hosting her Christmas Fabric Swap and this pattern.