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!

Birthday Boy!

Happy 3rd birthday today, Augie!

You're one great pup! 🐾

Life is Good!

Happy Birthday!

Dad celebrated his 97th birthday with us in North Carolina, 

surrounded by his grandchildren and great-grandchildren. 

Life is Good!

Reflections on January

I don't know where this month has gone. It's been filled with activity, not the least of which is keeping up with breadmaking from two different sourdough starters! What have I gotten myself into? Loaves are being gifted continually. I've branched out into English muffins, cinnamon buns and multi-grain breads too.
Without a lot of words or explanation I'm going to catch up with a post  resembling a photo journal; a look back at this month and what's been finished, what I'm working on and what's been started (there's always something new). 

Driving Age has become a full-fledged flimsy...

...borders have been added...

...quilts have been quilted...

...bulbs have bloomed...

...new starts have made it to the design wall...

...someone has turned ELEVEN, we made our annual pilgrimage to the AG store... 

...sacred stitches have been sewn...

...new recipes have been tried (Pear Pie using Bosc pears)...

...and new perches have been explored!

It's been a snow-less January here, that's not a complaint; we've had some serious cold weather that, hopefully, helps to keep the bug population down come spring. Thank you to those friends who've reached out to check on me in light of my sparse blog posts; I'm  here, all is well... 

 Life is GOOD! 

💗

From Here To There And Back Again

We've taken another road trip, albeit a quick one. Augie continues to excel as a traveler, we never could have asked for a better car companion. Since last Sunday was both Father's Day and my mother's 90th birthday we drove up to New Hampshire to celebrate the joyous, double event with my parents. It was a beautiful day.  Mom and Dad live in what is known as the Lakes Region of New Hampshire, as we drove north and got closer to their home last Sunday we experienced the mass exodus of motorcycles headed south on the highways and by-ways, having only just concluded the 100th anniversary of Laconia "Bike Week" that day. (another reason that we chose not to arrive any earlier, the traffic is crazy during this event!).  Time spent with Mom and Dad this past week was laid back and easy, they've established a new normal routine since my mother has returned from her rehab stay. Physical therapists and/or Occupational therapists come in to their home daily to work with her and assist her in growing stronger and more independent again. We helped out as we could with repairs, yardwork and household chores.

As you can see, above, Augie did his part too: offering pet therapy in the form of "lap time", as often as needed! We did take advantage of the location to eat some fried clams while we were there and made a trip (or two 😉) to the local ice cream stand for a cone. Ah, summer evenings in New England.

Augie celebrated "National Dachshund Day" on Wednesday, the Summer Solstice, (the longest day for the longest dog)! 

I didn't take many pictures this trip (other than of the pup) but was happy to receive this one yesterday, as we were in the car again, traveling back home. Mom goes every Friday to the beauty shop to have her hair done and, following that, she and Dad have lunch at the diner next door; it's their weekly custom. Yesterday, when they entered the restaurant they were greeted with all this at "their" table: a party tablecloth, balloons, gifts and even a birthday hat! Isn't that just the sweetest gesture? My parents are dearly loved. 💗

Back home again, someone has dragged out all of his toys and settled right back in. I've tackled the laundry mountain, watered the plants and baked a loaf of bread already. 

It's good to be home again; there's no place like it, Dorothy was right!

Life is Good! 

Winter Stitching and other Happenings

I've been as busy in the sewing room this month as an active puppy will allow me to be! Never a dull moment around here. I've begun cutting out all the pieces for "Stars and Snowflakes" by Wendy Sheppard. 

The trial block is shown here, under construction. I hope to have this all cut and prepped to take along for stitching together at an upcoming weekend retreat. While preparing all the pieces for this one I managed to finally gather enough folded triangle leftovers to constitute a 9" block. I can't throw any of these triangles away, even the 1.5" itty-bitties! 

Yet one more block for the bulging, overflowing, orphan block bin. I need to get all of these blocks out and stitch them together soon! Something I keep telling myself. 

This donation quilt for a child received a mini Cloud Stipple quilting design to bring it to life. It's really sweet with the small character panels, and quilted up quickly; I really loved working on it. 

Augie has become quite the little sewing room companion. He sits in my chair with me whenever he can. 

He also has his bed and toys in here, which helps when I'm at the longarm! 

He's grown quite a bit in the past 6.5 weeks!

He thinks that his job is to prune all of our houseplants! The training is going okay; he's slowly learning. We didn't attend puppy class this past week due to a reported case of Giardia; I didn't think it was worth it to risk him being exposed, just in case. So, he's learning new things as a home schooler right now; first lesson: time out for tearing up plants! That's a tough one!

Speaking of plants; this beauty, an Amaryllis bulb Christmas gift, is putting on a show in the kitchen right now... 

... while these forced forsythia branches are brightening up the family room! A harbinger of things to come!

Our youngest grandchild finally had her "official" birthday celebration last week. 

They're all double-digits now. Sigh. I'd better hang on to our Augie baby as long as I can! 😉

Life is Good!

It's All Good!

I've been catching up on the two block-of-the-month programs that I signed up for at the LQS. Being gone for just a little over two weeks seems more like two months when it comes to catching up on what I missed while we were away! The Cream and Sugar class (left) required two more identical blocks for November and the Aspiring Stars class offered another block this month which I was able to explore making up in varying sizes.

I'm still not sure what I'll do with the extra blocks when I actually settle on a size for the quilt! Oh, well, I'm having fun experimenting in the meantime. My "orphan blocks" box is currently full-to-overflowing. I'm going to have to get creative with its contents before I feed it any more! 

We needed to catch up with this birthday boy who turned 12 while we were traveling; yes, twelve!! 😲 We asked him to choose where he's like to go for his birthday dinner. That was easy! 

My sister in law belongs to a farm cooperative sharing program; we went with her to the barn while we were visiting her home, she shared with us some of the root vegetables that were part of her take this month. Carrots, potatoes, onions and beets that were all perfect. I cooked the beets in the Instant Pot when I returned home and made the most delicious salad. I'm linking here to the recipe that I used if you love beets the way I do and you'd like to try it. Mr. G doesn't share my affection for this vegetable, I didn't even need to share even a bite! 😉

I've been spending the evenings in front of the TV working on this Vintage Christmas Sampler. It's so cute. A few more weeks and it will be ready for a finish, just in time!

Sew, that's what's been going on around here; and, at long last, the weather has taken a decided turn toward winter.

What's going on where you are?

It's all good!

Life is Good!

Birthday Shopping Through The Years

It's been an annual excursion for the birthday girl through the years, a trip to the American Girl store. Yesterday was the day. Even though she is fully nine years old (and sixteen days, but who's counting), this year illness and other commitments had delayed our trip for a few weeks. She was so excited that she awakened yesterday morning at 2:15 AM in anticipation of our day!

This was the first time that we went, she was three. She is every bit as a discriminating shopper now as she was back in 2016. We looked at everything every. single. thing(!), but she kept circling back around to the Ski and Snack Shop as well as the bench and fire pit.

She had birthday money and a gift card to spend, she was seriously careful and deliberate with her calculations and told me, at long last, that she had made her final selections; it was a joyful time! 

She's grown, through the years, and so has her "wish list". That's okay, you're only a little girl once!

Time. Slow. Down! She'll only be nine for such a brief, fleeting, time; 

these are, truly, golden days for making memories to last a lifetime.

This rascal may have hitchhiked a ride home with us too. 😉 Every ski shop needs a rescue pup.

Life is Good!