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!

Midnight Munchers and Other Happenings

Yesterday morning I sat down on the front steps to tie up my walking shoes and suddenly stopped... where there had been abundant Geranium blooms only the afternoon before, now there were only chewed-off bare stems!  Groan. The midnight munchers (deer) have been at it again. I use a product that works well in the perennial garden but hadn't even considered our front steps! I've never known them to eat Geraniums before either. I mixed up a batch of "I Must Garden" after our early morning walk was concluded and discovered the Hosta blossoms and the entire Clematis vine climbing up the lampost just behind it had been torn apart as well. Time to be proactive and spray around everything. The product is linked above; I've been using it for a few years now and find it to be highly effective. I just need to remember to be diligent in its use.  

So, while I am trying to repel some living creatures from our yard...

...I'm also determined to bring others back! The Goldfinch had been conspicuously absent this year; until a neighbor told me about feeding Sunflower Hearts & Chips. Well, what do you know? Slowly, a few more each day, they have returned. They absolutely love this seed... maybe a little too much! $$$!! My plan is to switch them back to Thistle seed, which I already have on hand but now I'm worried that they may leave again if I do that. I just don't know.

The Bluebirds have returned to raise a second family already.

And this, from the orchard. Our first ever apple. But, on the entire apple tree, only the one! Why? Maybe it's the same old story as I started with... perhaps it's the midnight munchers; they're particularly fond of our peaches out there too. It's hard to keep up.

Meanwhile, back inside the house... is there a quilter in this country who's not working on a R,W & B quilt in celebration of America 250 this year? Count me in with all the rest. 

Even the trimmings are patriotic!

Work on my version of the Sarah Barker sampler continues in the evenings; seemingly with no end in sight. When I embarked upon this project I had no idea it would take forever; however, it is actually larger than I had envisioned as well as a labor of love; I must say that I am truly enjoying the slow pace and the results. It's a pleasure to return to night after night. Undoubtedly, I will be sad when it's completed, she and I have become a good friends. 

I've got a surprise (WITH ATTITUDE!) loaded onto the longarm right now (speaking of projects that have dragged on for an eternity) and am eager to reveal it soon (I hope)! Someone is keeping an eye on me while I work, it's good to be held accountable. 

SEW... what's new with you?

Life is Good!

Queen B

Let me introduce you to Bernita, seated, in this photo; here she is with her quilting buddies yesterday. Bernita is a resident in a local care facility, a lifelong seamstress and crafter who was bitten by the quilting bug in 1961 when she was gifted a Sunbonnet Sue baby quilt at a baby shower for her soon-to-be-born daughter.  

                                                         The quilt that started it all!

Yesterday Bernita was honored at her residence by presenting a one-woman quilt show; wonderful in absolutely every way! Bernita showcased a body of work through the years that could be rivaled by none. Amazingly, and to her absolute attention to detail and organization, she has documented each work of art with the quilt's name, date, where she was living at the time, who the quilt was made for and what inspired its creation. This documentation is such a gift in itself! I am so happy that she had this opportunity to share her love of quilts with all of her friends and loved ones in such a special way! 

As you can see here, her many quilts are varied and exceptional,both in craftmanship and detail. I asked her if she felt like "Queen For A Day?" She smiled and said "yes, you can call me Queen B"! I will do that, for sure! I'm including the poem that she recited below, maybe some of you are familiar with it. It is precious. I've been bitten by that same bug and am so thankful every day that there is no known cure. Congratulations, Bernita! You are an inspiration!

Life is Good!