Cream and Sugar? Yes, Please!

This is the Cream & Sugar quilt top, finally together! Hooray!! This was taught at my LQS back in 2023 and I did persevere through the first six months, concentrating on the largest blocks in the layout. I fell away from the project after that, always thinking that "I'd get back to it...". You know how that goes. It took a full retreat weekend for me to sew up the smaller, setting, blocks! 

This was my work area ↑

Yes, organized and neat. But, seriously, ALL WEEKEND!?!! (This was only stopping to eat, someone else fed us and cleaned up) and, still,  all that I accomplished was this 

↓

Groan. I must be slowing down... 😧

Those gathered made these heart pillows as a service project for the NICU at a local hospital, these will be presented to Moms who aren't able to take a baby home with them. Something to fill ther arms and clutch close to their chest. I get weepy just thinking about it.

All those assembled had beautiful projects to work on, I was inspired by each and every one.

This bag of leftover scraps from last year's projects has been weighing on me. I cut up what I could and wanted to keep but just couldn't ever seem to get to the bottom of this bag. I offered it to Lynnleigh, she immediately said "yes, PLEASE"! I was tickled. I'm not sure what she's going to do with it and I look forward to finding out; but, right now, for me, out of sight is out of mind! I can move forward with a clear conscience. 

Now that Cream and Sugar is a full-fledged flimsy I am looking at backing fabrics. 

I think it would make a lovely spread on our bed for the summer...onward and upwards! 

Life is Good!

Picking Strawberries

Yes, I am picking strawberries! You might think that's a stretch since the ground is snow covered and that wouldn't be physically possible; but, yes it is, I am picking strawberries in the sewing room!  First, I am readying this years-old project for retreat weekend. The pattern was one from Westwood Acres.  I have dusted off the bin on the shelf with all the necessary fabrics and, hopefully, will be setting these bright and plump pretties together before the weekend concludes. 

Strawberry Garden  is this year's BOM offering at my LQS. Naturally, I am front and center in the classroom for this one! I have already completed the assignment for the first month and am digging deep into my stash of hoarded strawberry prints for this one.

I'm going to have fun with these! 

When it comes to blocks, I am picking strawberries!

It's perpetually strawberry season around here.

🍓

Life is Good!

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!