One On One... Again

Another weekend, another grandchild. This time it was the youngest; this newly-turned-six year old really keeps us on our toes! The activities included, but weren't limited to: homemade ice cream making with Paw Paw, practicing hand sewing skills with lacing cards, sewing skirts for her American Girl dolls, making a necklace hanging rack for her room and, of course, a tea party! The tea party table was set with a tea pot and cups from two of her great, great, grandmothers! In between all of those fun things lots of pictures were colored, crafts created, jokes told, stories read and memories made. 

We ate at Cracker Barrel on Friday night. She ordered a pancake and had a biscuit along with a side order of broccoli. Eating out with grandparents is a special time, she can order whatever she would like. We've already been broken in and worn down by picky eaters over the years, we weren't fazed.

Meet "Reese's Cup" and "Ice Cream"; these two "worm" creations kept her occupied for hours on end. Our "art box" filled with all sorts of odds and ends along with markers, scissors and glue is her treasure trove. 

All in all it was a great weekend that flew by much too quickly. She and I are already making plans for what we'll do "next time". 

Life is Good!

Spelling It Out!

There were some questions after yesterday's blog post about the name ornaments that the grandchildren made while they were visiting over Thanksgiving; I decided to show you through a series of photos here today how they were constructed, there were a few errors made along the way (mine) as I developed a prototype for this fun Christmas craft. First, you will need to gather the following supplies: 7/8" wide ribbon for the ornament base, 5/8" coordinating "accent" ribbon for the bow at the top, silver cord for the hanging loop (I found 2mm on a spool), jingle bells, heavyweight silver thread (and a needle), regular cellophane tape, Scrabble tiles (I found mine on Amazon.com, they are sold in packs of 100 letters) and a hot glue gun.

I measured the silver cord into 4 inch lengths and wrapped that mark with a piece of cellophane tape and cut through the tape to eliminate the cord fraying and coming undone. I made a ring of the cord, matching end-to-end and wrapped it together to hold it with another piece of cellophane tape.

The backing ribbons (7/8" width) I cut into 15 inch lengths to accommodate any size name and to give myself plenty of room for the layout. I folded down an inch at the top and slid the loop inside the fold, covering the tape, and hot glued it down on the back.

Then, I flipped the ribbon to the right side and placed a tied bow (made from 12" lengths of the accent color ribbons, 5/8" in width) in position on the top. Don't glue it down yet, simply placing it in position gives you a good visual of where to start placing your letters without crowding the pieces.

Scrabble tiles! Find whatever letters you will be needing for a name or a greeting and place them on the backing ribbon until they're just the way you want them.

Put a glob of hot glue on the back of each tile, carefully, and place it down on the ribbon into position. Don't put the glue on the ribbon (trust me!). When the letters are all firmly in place go ahead and glue down the bow on top.

Adding the jingle bell: my first attempts at this had me trying to attach the jingle bell with the silver cord used for the top loop. I failed at that, the cord was way too bulky. I found that by pulling a length of heavy duty silver thread through the center of the ribbon, and threading the bell on the needle at the same time I could then cut off the needle from the thread, right near the eye, and have long enough "tails" to tie a square knot firmly, anchoring the bell smack-dab in the center of the ribbon. I then tied a knot again, going around the back and then back to the front to gather the sides and after tying once more, tightly, I snipped off the excess thread length. 

Voila! Trim the ribbon off at the bottom, below the bell. I cut on angles toward the center to prevent the grosgrain ribbon from fraying.  These are quick and adorable personalized ornaments, I think I may use these as name tags for Christmas gifts. Have fun!

Life is Good!

Daytrippin'

Quiltdivajulie and me

It took some doing; but, at long last, I can now say (with photo proof) that Quiltdivajulie and I are in-person friends! We've shared a LOT over the past ten years or so, all online, as blogging buddies. Over the years we discovered many similarities that we have in common: our birthdays are within days of each other (day and year!), our wedding anniversaries are too. We share likes and dislikes in an uncanny way and have kindred personality quirks characteristics.😉 When the opportunity presented itself (Julie was teaching her amazing Build-A-Barn quilt class last week at the John C. Campbell Folk School in the far-western part of North Carolina) Mr. Goodneedle and I discussed taking off for the day; there is still ongoing work cleaning out my in-law's home, but he knew how much fun this would be for all of us (he has long admired Julie's husband's incredible wood-turning abilities and he was going to be there too), as well the value of a much-needed break in our own work schedule.  Last Friday we hit the road early and drove west. It was a gorgeous day.

We arrived at Keith House, on campus, around 11 AM and easily found the JCCFS office, and our lunch tickets, before settling in to experience the class "show and tell" and end of week wrap up. I fell in love with this quilt, by Mary Lou Weidman, on permanent display at the folk school. Read the story behind the quilt linked here, you'll be in love with the quilt, and the Folk School too! This is an amazing place. Soon the assembly hall was filled with talented craftsmen-students and instructors all eager to show what they had done all week. Julie and I quickly found each other and the conversation flowed easily and non-stop,  it was much more like a much-anticipated reunion than an initial meeting! Our husbands, too, had plenty in common to discuss. We had barely all gotten our seats when the dulcimer class serenaded the crowd to start things off, they were followed by a steady stream of blacksmiths, wood carvers, jewelry makers, wood turners, print makers, quilters, wood workers, painters, enamelers and story tellers. I am sure I am forgetting other folk crafts that were learned and displayed. After the wrap-up show we adjourned to the dining hall for a delicious family-style lunch in the dining hall. From there it was a quick walk to the Pittman Fiber Arts building and the quilt studio!

Julie still had a few things to pack up and get ready for the car and her drive back home. Take a look at this space, and the LIGHT; who wouldn't want to take a week-long quilting class here?

Another view. These classrooms are well-stocked with all the needed supplies, it really is a dream come true. (Notice the power cords suspended from the ceiling over each work space-- no cords on the floor to worry about tripping over!) I also peeked into the adjacent weaving studio; I am not a weaver, but after seeing that space I could become one! Mr. Goodneedle had the same feeling about the woodturning studio; the facilities are quite enticing and hard to resist. We are both destined to be JCCFS students sooner rather than later! We came home with an armload of catalogs listing all of the class offerings to pore over.

Julie's husband and Mr. Goodneedle

We had a few moments for photos in front of, what else, but a barn; before hitting the road, each of us heading our own direction back home. We will definitely meet up again, hopefully for a longer visit, next time! In my memory book of "day trips" this one may just go down as the best ever!

Life is Good!

Inside The Strawberry Patch

It might be HOT outside but there are cool things going on inside The Strawberry Patch. Our DIL (and Gregory and Lynnleigh) came over bright and early this morning with a lovely baby quilt top that she made for a friend last month; today was quilting day! Snowbird was ready. She attached a pretty sheet music print for the outer borders (the recipient's daddy is a musician) and used the same fabric for the back. She quilted a simple Loopdeloop pantograph with white thread, it was perfect! The crowning touch is the pieced, rainbow-hued scrappy binding. 

While Mama quilted Gregory stitched squares together into a tiny quilt with Nana's antique hand-crank machine. It performed beautifully. 

Lynnleigh chose to create a collage with fabric squares, paper and a glue stick. At noon Mr. Goodneedle grilled hamburgers outside for our lunch; a treat for everyone. By 3:00 PM the quilt was done and the young ones were packed up and on their way back home: "a good time was had by all"!

Life is Good!

Sparkle!

When I visited my daughter last month she was making these sparkle/time-out/relax bottles for her two children, they love them; in fact, so do I! I came home and gathered the few supplies (she graciously provided me with her left-over glitter) and made one to take to Gregory. This first photo was taken after thoroughly shaking the bottle to distribute the contents the night before, and this photo, below is how it looked when it had settled out the next morning. I had Mr. Goodneedle super-glue the lid on good and tight.

As I suspected, he was captivated and shook it up right away!

He loved it; who wouldn't?

Here's the surprising part... he actually sat, still, and watched it settle;
it does so ever-so-slowly due the viscosity provided by the clear glue solution.
That's a tall order for any active three year old boy!
This relaxation bottle truly is a wondrous thing;
I'll bet you know someone who could use a little sparkle in their life!
Life is Good!