Timeless

"Timeless" is bordered and ready for a date with Snowbird. I believe that she'll have to wait for "Red Letter Day" to come off the rails first, I'm trying to establish an order for the next to be quilted. One of the criteria for that to occur is having backing fabric in the house and ready to go (those important things)! In the meantime there's been lots going on in and around the house. The joys of home ownership... right?!! Mr. G. decided a long time ago that he wanted to replace all of the drop-in, metal, floor vents with flush-mounted wooden ones. It's not a simple swap out, let me tell you that. 

Although that "before and after" look pretty straight forward let me tell you there was a LOT of noise and DUST!! Home improvement is always happening around here. As we prepare to re-do our kitchen with all new cabinetry and countertops we planned a date to look at new appliances. Our current kitchen is 21 years old and we knew that we were on borrowed time with everything that is plugged in. No sooner had we placed the order (appliances ordered today won't appear until anywhere from January 2023 until a year from now!) than the refrigerator took one final gasp, and died! Seriously, on the very same day.

Here's the view today. Mr. G. has assessed the situation and thinks (fingers crossed) that we can cobble this one back together to last another year! Time will tell. 

I believe in him. Who else would have handcrafted this flush mount floor vent to perfectly match the strip in the floor? He's amazing. I really have no business complaining about the dust and the noise, now do I?

"Timeless" measures 72" X 72"

Life is Good!

Out With The Old...

We're redoing our laundry room, here's the before and after as of now. The picture on the left was taken in February and is representative of how this space has looked since we built the house, almost twenty one years ago. Mr. Goodneedle had always wanted to build the cabinets for the house. All that time ago we were eager to get it done move in and, after designing and building most of our home ourselves (sub-contracting some jobs like shingling and brick work) we contracted to have the cabinets made and installed. And so, here we are today, that burning desire of my husband's to build cabinets has not waned. Last year he said he'd like to re-do the kitchen. He proposed building the cabinets in a lighter wood, we agreed that maple might be a nice change, lighter and brighter (our kitchen cabinets are currently dark cherry). Somehow, the more we talked about it, we decided that a good place to start might be the laundry room, an area to sort of "audition" what we had in mind. I'm well pleased with the appearance (and tickled to pieces to have upper cabinets in there now!), isn't it pretty? Not only did he make the cabinets but added crown moulding at the ceiling and replaced the old fluorescent overhead light fixture too! It's becoming a dream space, I simply can't wait to have this room completed! Mr. G has most of the lower cabinets ready for finishing. The existing oak lower cabinets will be removed and the counter top will be replaced with a lighter colored surface as well. 

The new uppers now hold laundry supplies, good usable rags, lightbulbs, baskets, planters and vases; all those things that I had shoved behind doors and on shelves where they didn't belong. Having this much organized and arranged has brightened my entire outlook on doing laundry, it doesn't get better than that!

You can see from my vantage point here in the kitchen, 

looking back toward the laundry room, what big, big changes are afoot!

Stay tuned, it's all good.

Life is Good!

Can Do!

Happy Birthday today to my wonderful husband. He is the most creative, industrious and capable person that I know. Never have I known him to shy away from any challenge. A few years ago he decided that he would finish the space in our basement that exists between the garage and his workshop. It's always been a "pass through" area where things are dumped off and where the second, back up, refrigerator resides at the bottom of the steps that lead up to our foyer and the rest of the house. He began by replacing the pine stair treads with oak. Right around this time his mother took a decided turn for the worse, health-wise, and ultimately passed away. The project was back-burnered for a good while after that. Late this summer and into the fall, with renewed vigor, the wood working  resumed. He created oak paneling down the steps to the landing, paying homage to his equally creative father who had designed and installed similar paneling in his own home many years ago. Mr. Goodneedle designed the handrail as an integral part of the moulding.

Most recently he designed and installed the banister and balustrades on the opposite side.

He has painted wallboard, installed crown moulding and designed and installed matching cabinetry around that afore-mentioned refrigerator. This cabinetry houses the equipment for his latest obsession: ice-cream making! He's considering now how he will finish that concrete wall in the pictures above; and all the while he's planning on constructing a glass door that will lead into the workshop. I never cease to be amazed at what this gifted man can accomplish when he sets his mind to something. He has the most "can do" attitude of anyone that I know. I am so very proud of him, his positive work ethic and what a great role model he is, and always has been, to me; but especially to our children and grandchildren. 💗

Happy Birthday!

Life is Good!

Best Kept Secret

"Boiler Up!"  60" X 78"

This quilt might just be the very best kept secret of all time!  I made and surprised my husband with it for Christmas. You might not realize how hard it is for me to keep a secret; the very fact that he didn't know a thing about this quilt until he tore off the wrapping paper was an enormous feat on my part. It isn't that I can't keep a secret because I want to spoil anyone's surprise... it's just so very hard for me to keep any kind of happy news bottled up inside of me; it usually finds a way of leaking out. Years ago, when I suspected that our daughter's then boyfriend was going to ask my husband for his blessing before he proposed, I made my husband promise that he wouldn't tell me... I knew I could never keep that kind of news from our daughter and I didn't want to be responsible for spilling any beans.  He promised that he wouldn't tell me. But then, after the two men had spent time together, the suspense was killing me; I begged my husband to tell me what they had talked about. My husband looked me straight in the eye and said to me: " you made me promise", that was true, I had, but when I suspected that he knew something that I didn't I was tormented by suspicion. It's just the way I am... terrible with secrets. Anyway, back to the quilt story. I had planned to make Mr. Goodneedle a Purdue quilt for a very long time. Last February when I was at Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival I selected 18 fat quarters to combine with this Purdue themed fabric in all shades of black and old gold, I hid them away and began making the blocks last August while on a day-long retreat. The pattern that I selected is the 3-6-9 Quilt. I secretly set the blocks together and added the borders when Mr. Goodneedle was away from the house, I was extra careful to make sure that not even the tiniest scrap was in the trash can, I didn't want even a thread to hint at what I might be working on.

As luck would have it, out son invited Mr. Goodneedle for a weekend away in early November... perfect timing! While they were gone I loaded the quilt and easily finished all the quilting in one day.

I added the binding on day number two of their weekend away. I even had enough time to reload and repostion the quilt that I had been quilting on Snowbird when he left; he was none the wiser.

Here's the quilt and a very happy Purdue alumni on Christmas morning. It was worth all the stealth maneuvers just to hear him ask the two-part question: "how did you do this, when did you do this"?

I just smiled; to be perfectly honest, I have no idea how I was able to keep a secret like this one!

Life is Good!