It Takes Time

For Easter this past spring we gave our granddaughters both a "Learn to Embroider" kit. I'd seen the ads for them, they were so cute; all packaged in a darling box with the instructions, floss, a hoop, a needle and two projects: one to learn the basic stitches and a floral design. I told the girls that we'd make time and I'd help them get started. Well, time flies, as we all know, and it hasn't happened. Our youngest stopped by this past week with her kit in hand and asked if this would be a good time to work on her embroidery, she's very eager. We didn't get very far. "It takes time", I told her. 

    Today I attended a memorial service for a church member. Her granddaughter got up and spoke about the times that she spent with her Nana; not the big holidays or special trips, but the ordinary times, those everyday moments that they'd shared, those are the ones that will live on in her heart forever. That made me think. We don't need elaborate plans but simply shared time. Even if Lynnleigh doesn't take to hand embroidery or "slow stitching" as I call  it, that's not as important as simply spending time together. This might not be a lifetime skill that is being passed on as much as it's cultivating a lifetime relationship; that takes time. She's coming back this next week to spend a few days, I'm already looking forward to the ordinary, every day tasks that we can do here together; we'll be making memories as well as doing some slow stitching while sitting together at the kitchen table. I'll see to that.

This "slow stitching" took a little longer than I had planned when I called it my July project, but it's completed now. Like everything that's worthwhile, it takes time (just plain, old, ordinary time) and I'm okay with that.  

        Life is Good!

Mother's Day and Beyond...

This will give you an idea of how I spent my Mother's Day! There won't be any meals in the dining room for a while. "Why"? You might ask. We're tearing out the old cherry kitchen cabinets and replacing them with hard maple ones, handcrafted by Mr. G in the basement workshop. 

We've gone from what it looked like in the top photo to the bottom view in a weeks' time...

...with a whole lot of this in between! 

The tile backsplash had to be cut out and the wall sections re-sheetrocked and tied back in. 

Augie sought refuge under the sofa table when the big, noisy tools arrived upstairs!

Can you tell that I have an affection for tea sets? 

Here we are today. ↑ Cabinet doors and hardware are being installed as I type! This week is full of more of the same; another week, another wall of cabinets are out of here... and so it goes. I'm excited about the new look, it will be so different: lighter and brighter. 

Our slabs were selected a couple of weeks ago for the future countertops. 

Meanwhile, last week, we were temporarily "trapped" in our neighborhood by a downed pine tree! A damaging storm tore through the last Tuesday evening, leaving us and two of our neighbors with no way out! Thank goodness Mr G. and his trusty chainsaw responded as soon as the sun came up. As you can see, this wasn't any small tree, either! 

The weekend was capped off with a cheer and tumble exhibition by our youngest grandchild. Now 10, Lynnleigh's every bit as cute and spunky as this snapshot indicates! 

Our old cabinets are being donated; those removed last week are being picked up this afternoon. I'm continuing to put things away: with full and easy access before the countertops are installed!😉

Life is Good!

Growing

I've been trying to keep up with the Cream and Sugar block of the month at my LQS, class meets again this week and my stack of blocks is growing. We've been stitching two a month. These, eventually, will each be "framed" by a larger star block as shown on the pattern below. This is the book that we're using, by "It's Sew Emma". I chose very similar colors; the effect is soft and calming.

Someone else is growing too! Our youngest granddaughter turns ten years old today! We celebrated with her annual shopping trip to the American Girl store, it's become a tradition. Lynnleigh was so excited when we picked her up, she'd been waiting "all year"  she said. 😉

She's three in this first photo, either she's getting bigger 

or her Bitty Baby has shrunk quite a lot in the past seven years!

After shopping and lunch; Lynnleigh entertained us, and Augie, all the way back home!

Augie was celebrating a milestone, too; he turned 100 days old on Saturday!

Time marches on...

Life is Good!

Battening Down

This is what happens when snow is predicted in the south; naturally there's the insanity that occurs as everyone runs for bread and milk at the grocery stores but, then, the conversation turns to anticipated snowfall amounts and, ultimately, how long folks expect to be stranded. I'm not too worried: we have firewood enough to last and I have an adequate supply of books and stitching projects piled up to get me through at least several storms. Yes, finally the weather has cooled seasonably, and those of us lucky enough to live in the south are battening down the hatches in preparation for winter storm Izzy and whatever she brings! 

This tree ꜛ is a trial quilt block. Carrie Nelson is currently hosting a quilt-along for Moda called "Branching Out"; Quiltkeemosabe had tried the block and had difficulty with the directions given for the trunk. She asked me to try it out, as written. I did find it necessary to make an adjustment in the trimming of that pieced trunk unit. If any of you are doing this I might suggest dropping that diagonal cutting line to 1.25" instead of the 1". Once I changed that I had no difficulty at all in constructing this 8.5" block. The current weather forecast undoubtedly impacted my fabric choices for this one!

In other news: I managed to finish up the Wonder Flutters runner, learning to use the Wonder Curve ruler this week. 

I don't usually show customer quilts but I've fallen deeply in love with this scrappy beauty while it's been here under the needle this week. The pattern is Summer Wedding by Black Cat Creations. The quilting is Curls by Beany Girl Quilts. 

Something else that I'm enamored with is that Folded Corner Clipper by Creative Grids. I'm finishing up the outer borders on the Great Granny Squared quilt using it instead of the old stitch-cut-flip method. Those sweet little corner clippings could simply be discarded. Nope, I couldn't bear tossing them!

I trimmed these to 1.75" after stitching. I know, it's craziness; but aren't they adorable?

But, to top it all off: this happened today! We blinked!! Happy birthday, sweet girl. 💗

We can prepare for the onslaught of winter weather, 

but nothing's preparing me for time passing this swiftly!

Life is Good!

Quilt Camp, Day #1

Quilt Camp for our youngest grandchild began here this morning. Lynnleigh's been so eager to start her own quilt! At eight, having only just completed the second grade, she's the youngest Quilt Camper that I've had; but, probably, the most enthusiastic by a mile!  (And by no means does that imply that the others haven't been excited, not at all!) Lynnleigh is artistic by nature, she's all about color, value and contrast. Sometimes it's easy to forget that she's eight years old! She knows what she likes. For her pattern we chose a Nine Patch, she's webbing the blocks as she goes. All of her energy and interest in color and design was thwarted, in the beginning, by her reluctance to have a hand at the machine. She's not really sewn on the machine before, that took some time and practice. "I'd prefer to do these by hand" she said. I encouraged her, "I know that you can do this", I assured her.  I told her that I would be right here with her, there was nothing to worry about. She was willing, but still a bit timid and doubtful and, I suppose, intimidated by the machine itself. 

She started out without thread or bobbin, learning to stitch on paper and how to follow a straight line. She learned how to stop with the needle down, raise the presser foot, and pivot. She was ready to go after that!

From there it was an easy jump from the paper to the fabric and she was on her way!

Block #1, done!

And... how she spent the rest of the afternoon! 

She is so proud of her accomplishments after day one; and so is this Nana! For the once-reluctant machinist I have to say that she's the most precise and deliberately conscientious stitcher that seen in quite some time. We kept the sewing sessions short today, had snacks and lunch at the appropriate times and our "breaks" consisted of a rousing game of Uno and story time. She'll be back in the morning for day number two. I hope that she's just as excited as she was today; because I, for one, can not wait! 

Life is Good!

A Day To Catch Up

I needed a catch-up day, not to be confused with a ketchup day- see yesterday's post and below; but I digress- things have been piling up around here and it was high time to get back to basic tasks that had been put off for one reason or another.  Hannes joined me in the sewing room for a good stretch of time yesterday, something that he hasn't done in months. Mr. Goodneedle was using a big woodchipper out back and I believe that the noise and the vibration of that piece of machinery drove him to seek a location far from that, where he felt safe. Years ago he always stayed with me in here, back then he would jump up and sleep on the back of the sofa while I quilted. It was wonderful to have his company again  (apparently he needed a catch up day too, one that included napping 😉) it felt like old times. 

I got "Elephant Love" quilted and off the rails. How to quilt elephants? With a heavy duty needle, their hides are very tough! 😂 Sorry, I couldn't resist. I used the "African Samba" pantograph on this one, it seemed like a perfect match. This one is for Lynneigh, because she loves elephants and I love her. 💗

While I was catching up I started watching a new series on Discovery+ entitled "The Laundry Guy". Here's a still photo from the first episode, wouldn't you just know that the first laundry challenge to come his way would be an antique quilt? The premise of the show is this: individuals with particular laundry/stain concerns take them to Patric Richardson, also known as "the laundry evangelist",  for him to tackle. He demonstrates and explains how to remove them and, then, further care for the item.  I love this show, check it out!

An update, or "catch-up" on the ketchup "shortage". Mr. G and I were out running errands last evening and we stopped for a quick bite at a drive-thru on our way back home. I noticed a sign at the pick up window that stated "ketchup available upon request", that's new. My husband asked for ketchup to which the restaurant employee manning the window asked: "you'd like a little bit of ketchup?" "Yes", Mr. G responded. She readied the order and passed the sack out to our car. When we pulled our food from the bag to eat, here is what we discovered. Again, NINE(!) packets- for an order of fries! Maybe nine is the default setting, maybe nine packets is a "little bit", OR, maybe, there really is no shortage after all! I didn't toss these packets but, rather,  put them in the "bank" when we got home, our new rainy day fund!

Life is Good! 

Meet the Happy Dressmaker

I received a recorded voice text from our youngest granddaughter, Lynnleigh, this morning as we were eating our breakfast. "Nana, I made a dress" she said; it was accompanied by this photograph. Doesn't she look proud of herself? She should be! She subsequently sent three more little videos explaining how she accomplished this dressmaking feat. It was all her own idea; she used two T-shirts, cut one apart and used the bottom portion to form the skirt, she attached it, by hand, and was quick to point out how she pinned it together and that she switched from a running stitch to a whip stitch somewhere in the construction process. 😉 She had taken her sewing kit home with her after her last sewing lesson here, (it's a good thing that she did!) she's putting all of her sewing supplies to good use! Her enthusiasm was contagious, it was a great way to start the day! I was surprised to see how long her hair had grown in these last weeks, but we're all in the same boat there (see below for more on that hairy subject!).

I did a screen shot from one of her video clips and came away with this "model" shot:

Can you believe this? Seven years old going on seventeen!

I haven't seen any of our grands in what seems like forever, 

I hope it's not ten years before we're reunited!

Adapting to changes in this upside down🙃 world: Our governor has announced a three phase plan for opening the state back up. To begin with the stay-at-home order remains in place through May 8. After that, the phases will allow the systematic opening of more businesses with strict restrictions in place; slowly, as the weeks pass more restrictions will be relaxed one by one if the numbers of virus cases don't escalate. During the governor's speech yesterday I received a text from my hair stylist asking if we could move my already rescheduled (April 16 to May 5) appointment to May 20th. She was responding to the phases as they were being announced. "Yes", I replied, "but I'll be in a ponytail by then!"  As the details of the phases became increasingly apparent the May 20th appointment was ultimately moved to June 2! That's twelve weeks between trims, normally I go in every five weeks. I can certainly learn to live with longer hair, we'll see how it turns out!  Stay safe, 🧼wash your hands!

I ordered this bracelet, it's my new motto.

"For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control." -2 Timothy 1:7

Life is Good!

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