What's New?

I'm piecing pumpkins and couldn't decide which background color to go with; tan or black. I've been weighing my options and have gone back and forth, I really liked them both, I couldn't decide. The setting will be sashed with that same background color, the pumpkins will float over that background. 

Here's the setting and the pattern name and source; it's a simple block and a cute, seasonal, quilt. Mr. Goodneedle asked where this pumpkin quilt was going to end up. I told him that it would eventually hang, as a wall quilt, out on the porch (although likely it will be a fall addition for next year). He suggested putting the blocks out there, against the brick wall for perspective. Brilliant!

That did it! Black background it is! 

In other news: meet Buddy! Our daughter and her family have adopted a new family member.

I'd say that he's settling in nicely-- to their home and into their hearts. 💗

What's new at your house this week?

Life is Good!

Decisions, Decisions...

It won't come as any surprise to you reading this that Mr. Goodneedle and I are huge DIY'ers. If there's a way to do it ourselves, we'll check it out and much more likely than not, we'll go for it. There's a need to replace the sling backs/seats in out formerly outdoor (now porch) dining set. The current fabric on there has seen way too much weather over the past ten years or so, it had always been out in the elements until now. I found an online rehab company for this purpose and ordered some samples, they arrived last week. The hardest part for us is making decisions; I don't know why. We could see the pros and cons of each sample and went back and forth.

I was looking for something to blend with the cushioned furniture in the same space, ultimately, we chose this one and we're NOT looking back. 😉

Once replaced, these new chair slings will appear lighter, brighter, and hopefully will work to coordinate the entire space; that's our thinking. The whole truth, however, is that we're not replacing them only for aesthetic reasons. 

No, we're replacing them for safety reasons! 😲 Wish us luck, we've never tried this before.

I received the most glorious Mother's Day bouquet from my daughter in the Capital City, I forgot to share this photo earlier.

Equally pretty: fresh, local farm-picked strawberries are still abundant and incredibly sweet and delicious!

We're not the only one faced with decisions these days. We've begun eating dinner every evening on the screened porch. Hannes hangs out there with us for a short while and then, he gets up and sits in the doorway; he can't decide where he wants to be! I've brought his bed out so that he'll be comfortable but he barely even touches down in it before he's up, pacing, and ends up cak in the doorway, staring at us! Changes are hard, especially as we get older, I just know that he's thinking: "Mom, Dad- we never did this before, why don't you come inside and eat in the kitchen the way we always did before?!?"

Adapting in an upside-down🙃 world: Following along with the decision-making theme today, it's not easy for any of us to know what's right and what isn't as far as getting back out in the world, there's no manual for this, it's uncharted territory. The "new normal" for you might look completely different than it looks for me, there are simply too many variables depending on where you live, your age, your health and so on. Today I am going to the dentist to have stitches removed from my mouth that have been in place since the oral surgery that I had on March 12! Up until now I haven't felt comfortable submitting to this simple, 5-minute, procedure. Faith has to triumph over fear, and today I'm ready! I have faith in the dentist's office and all of their practices and procedures to keep me safe, it will be a relief to have these removed; they've seemingly grown disproportionately larger each and every day, lurking back in the recesses of my mouth! I will be supremely cautious, staying safe and vigilant about germs and surfaces; that's my new normal. I cannot, nor will I, become a prisoner to fear! And so, I've decided what's right for me, given all of the information that I have. Let's all keep each other in mind too, everyone is on their own sliding-scale for comfort. That's perfectly okay, we can't decide what's right for anyone other than ourselves; but, we can decide to be kind and understanding to each other, we're all walking this path together, figuring it out for ourselves one step at a time! 

How can you cultivate peace 

and put your own faith ahead of fear?

"But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep,

that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope."  -1 Thessalonians 4:13

Life is Good!

By Wisdom...

Check out this Clover hoop; my new favorite!
With the clamp covered there are no more tangles.

This past summer I finished all the hand embroidery on twelve quilt blocks that I have been working on for a VERY long time. Well, I haven't actually been working on them, which accounts for the number of years that it has taken to get this project moving forward! I believe that I began on these around 2001 and picked them up sporadically. The patterns are by Indygo Junction: "By Wisdom A House Is Built". 

I strayed from the pattern, making mine less primitive. Instead of fraying the edges and using applique I set my blocks into sashed borders. I changed the text font too. After all these many years, and thousands upon thousands of miles in the car (which is where I do my most productive handwork), I had the top set together last month. Each pattern can be finished and bound separately. I liked that look and decided to mimic it with one pieced quilt; inserting 3/4" strips of black (finishing to 1/4") between the blocks. Binding it with black will finish it off nicely and add continuity.

By Wisdom A House Is Built ~ 60" X 64"

It has hung on the design wall ever since; challenging me! How to quilt this? Machine embroidered elements aside, however would I quilt over all that hand embroidery? The patterns suggest very minimal quilting, by hand, in a primitive big-stitch manner. Okay, that wasn't going to happen. Each and every day I studied the quilt and considered options. I considered a panto; maybe I would load it onto Snowbird and thread it up with a monofilament and just go to town. Nah. Then I thought about cross-hatching the entire piece. Nah. A friend suggested channel-quilting it, long parallel lines of quilting over the entire piece. I considered that but rejected that too. I was stumped-- and yet, my mind kept working.

The other night I grabbed a marker and auditioned some quilting lines in the background. I liked what I saw with the whimsical, free flowing shapes. I decided that this might look good with cross-hatched borders. After that, things began to happen! I loaded up the quilt and got to work. Yes, this time I really did begin working in earnest, these blocks have languished long enough! 

Here we go! "By wisdom a house is built", 

by a little determination and some dedicated time-- a quilt is finished!

Life is Good!

 

Blue, Blue and Blue(bird)

The quilting is done, this quilt's been a long time in the making. I suppose the label should reflect the fact that this one was begun in 1997 and took nineteen years to complete! I've decided to name this one "Out of the Blue"; not because it is anything that came about suddenly, far from it! But, rather, because this already vintage quilt came out of a blue storage bin and into the light of day; and, ultimately, onto the longarm! The darker blue ombre backing fabric is just the same age as the top, purchased when I began the piecing; medium blue sashing and quilting thread help carry through with the theme.

"Out of the Blue" ~ 115" X 79.5" ~ Jessie's Swirls pantograph

Thanks to everyone who helped my decision making process for the sashing choice between The Quilt Block Bible blocks-- blue it is!

And lastly. the bluebird (not of happiness, at least for me) who has a wife and five eggs in the nesting box just outside the sewing room window has taken to attacking the omnipresent predator (his own reflection) in the windows of our house! This goes on constantly; the windows and sills are disgusting with droppings, we can hardly keep things cleaned up. Hopefully, when the babies fledge, this will be done and they will move on. I don't know how much more we (or Hannes!) can take. I certainly hope this weird character trait of the father isn't passed down to his babies.

Life is Good!

One More Time

This photo represents some randomly chosen The Quilt Block Bible blocks laid out on two different background fabrics as possible sashing choices. I am coming to you one more time. Thoughts? I promise you, this won't go on forever. I would love your opinion on this but I believe I'm closing in on a favorite. What say YOU?

Life is Good!

Now, That's Better!

121 blocks made from Rosemary Youngs':  The Quilt Block Bible

So, as you might imagine, it was a lot of work just putting all of these blocks up on the wall! My intention in getting them all up there was exactly as you might imagine: to view them all together. The effort paid off, there's reward in simply looking at them. That's when I noticed it-- there, smack dab in the center of the layout, the block named "Twin Sisters" just wasn't doing it for me, the contrast was too low. Can you find it? I remade it and replaced it in the arrangement. Now, that's better! It was time to start thinking about sashing, as I indicated last week. You all made marvelous suggestions and I am carefully considering my options. The photo below shows the layout with a dark indigo sashing mock-up as well as a red. Thoughts?

I'm going to leave the blocks up a while longer while I mull over the decision. Who knows, I may just remake another block or two before these are returned to their rightful places (for now) in the burgeoning binders! After all, I still have eighty-one more blocks to make. I need a larger wall!

Life is Good!

Challenging Myself... Reaching New Heights!

I spent this past weekend in the mountains of North Carolina with our daughter and approximately 120 other women, sisters in faith. We studied God's word together, prayed together, ate together, played games and explored nature together and, above all, learned to trust in God's promise together, as women have done since Old Testamant times.  The recurring theme of the weekend was trust; how we can apply that trust to our decision making processes, to the risks we face and to the challenges we rise up to meet... our own, personal, leaps of faith! The building where we met is equipped with a climbing wall. We were offered the opportunity on Saturday afternoon to sign up for a climbing session, to challenge ourselves and trust in what was being provided for us. I like a challenge. And yet... I wasn't entirely sure if this was something I could do. I weighed my options, all the while reflecting on what we were learning through the decision making process based on the teaching of St. Ignatius. I identified my fears and opened myself up to what was new, what challenged me as a child of God to look beyond my own personal agenda and desires. I decided to leap... to reach beyond self-imposed limits and open myself up to trust. I said a prayer and donned a climbing helmet.
The climb was hard work, strenuous (for me); it's difficult to know where to step and where to grab for pulling up. I was totally reliant on my belayer below to give me cues: "reach up with your right hand for the yellow", even though I was right there on the wall my focus was fully about holding on! Isn't this how our God operates when we place our trust in Him? He will guide our steps, our every hand-hold, if only we will open our ears to listen for, and have faith in, His word.

Even though I  broke loose from the hand holds and swung free numerous times, I didn't give up; I did come close though. The good news is that I was continually encouraged to keep on... to grab again, to pull up, to "frog up" with my legs, to keep going. Here I am reaching out for the topmost grab on the wall. This was an exhilerating experience! I will think about this challenge for a long time to come. How much easier it would have been to give up and how happy I am that I didn't. God continues to place challenges before me... how much easier is it to stay within my own comfort zone? What do I risk, how much do I miss, by setting limitations? A lot! This climbing wall showed me the way to rethink the choices before me. "Every choice we make, no matter how small, is an opportunity to align ourselves with God's will."  What new heights are awaiting you?

Life is Good!

From My Heart

There is someting on my mind today, something I want to bring forth to you from my heart. I've shared a lot here over the last (almost) ten years: the courtship and eventual wedding of our youngest, the births of our grandchildren, illnesses, injuries, crises, childhood memories, family, home improvements, travel journals, the adventures of Hannes, celebrations, nature, victories, failures, books, movies, friends and faith to name a few; oh, and quilts... so many quilts! If you think that this post is going to be more of the same, you would be wrong. Today I am going to share something new, something that is deeply personal, the subject of which is likely to appear in upcoming posts and I want you to hear the back-story here first and not be confused. When I was growing up my mother taught me never to discuss two subjects in mixed company: politics and religion. I have never touched either one of those here, until today; and it won't be politics!

Our family has been a member of the same church since 1975. My husband even longer, he was a member as a child, in the mid 1960's. We moved away for job relocations and returned, as he had when he was a boy, always to the same church. Our children grew up there; were baptized, confirmed, married and their babies were baptized there... at the same font where their parents were welcomed into God's family. Our friends are there, relationships developed over decades of raising children together, fellowship activities and serving God on a myriad of committees together. We have strong relationships with our Pastors there, and the staff. And yet, given all of that, I felt strongly this past summer that God was calling me away from that place. It is hard to write, even now, how painful that realization was. I rationalized, I bargained, I struggled, I cried, I even tried to ignore God's nudge. It was impossible. My husband felt the same calling, his response was the same. We prayed; separately, and together, for clear discernment. What is this type of discernment we prayed for, you might ask. Well, one of the best definitions of it, in the Biblical sense, is found here:

From Grace To You by John MacArthur:

The key to living an uncompromising life lies in one's ability to exercise discernment in every area of his or her life. For example, failure to distinguish between truth and error leaves the Christian subject to all manner of false teaching. False teaching then leads to an unbiblical mindset, which results in unfruitful and disobedient living-a certain recipe for compromise. 

Unfortunately, discernment is an area where most Christians stumble. They exhibit little ability to measure the things they are taught against the infallible standard of God's Word, and they unwittingly engage in all kinds of unbiblical decision-making and behavior. In short, they are not armed to take a decidedly biblical stand against the onslaught of unbiblical thinking and attitudes that face them throughout their day.

Discernment intersects the Christian life at every point. And God's Word provides us with the needed discernment about every issue of life. According to Peter, God "has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence" (2 Peter 1:3). You see, it is through the "true knowledge of Him," that we have been given everything we need to live a Christian life in this fallen world. And how else do we have true knowledge of God but through the pages of His Word, the Bible? In fact, Peter goes on to say that such knowledge comes through God's granting "to us His precious and magnificent promises" (2 Peter 1:4).

I don't believe it was a coincidence that my husband and I felt led away at the same time. There are no coinidences with God. And yet, at the time, I didn't recognize that. After counsel with church leaders, crying gallons of tears and feeling as though we were being physically torn in two, we did leave our beloved church. "What now, God? This is scary!"

Through God's grace a new mission church has begun. It's not been easy, but God has been there directing every step; support has been supplied generously at each turn. Tomorrow will be the fourth scheduled worship service. We are in a temporary location right now and have had our share of hiccups along the way. At the inaugural worship service the organ decided to die near the conclusion of the first hymn. And yet, God's faithful people rose and sang, unaccompanied. On the second Sunday it began snowing about an hour before worship began. And yet, God's faithful people came. Last Sunday the service had to be cancelled due to snow and icy road conditions. And yet, God's people move forward; with His help and guidance, He is there with us in the Sunday School program and at Women's Bible Study. I share all of this with you today because I feel led to do so. This blog chronicles my life and faith and represents who Mrs. Goodneedle is, this new chapter is simply just too big, too good, not to share! Has the road thus far been easy? Absolutely not. From a personal standpoint, I still grieve the loss of what was, as does my husband. Has this move been worth the pain? Yes!, there is nothing but joy and excitement in our hearts and souls over what is!  God has richly blessed this new mission church. There is no doubt in my mind that stepping out in faith was exactly the right thing to do at this time. God had already chosen the path. Please join us in prayer for the future of Grace Lutheran Church. We give thanks for all that He has done and all that is to come.

Life is Good!

The Decision Making Process

My decision has been made, I chose to add border #3 on my challenge quilt for the next round of "Head For The Border".  I appreciate everyone's vote and value the opinions and rationale given by all of you, thanks SEW much for that. The process for making my final decision was based, ultimately, on two things: 1. my ability to realistically piece the next border with precise accuracy and, 2. the opportunity to continue the corner block chain-effect. As you can see in the photo I have begun piecing the three inch on-point squares and, for comparison, there is a one inch on-point square below. I'm going to need 32 of the larger blocks to go all the way around; if I had gone with the one inch border ( choice #2) I would have needed 100 teeny-tiny blocks! The chances for piecing mistakes and distortion would have been multiplied over three times by going with that narrow border option. I might be a little bit crazy but I am not insane; #3 it is! When it's all said and done I do enjoy the visual effect that occurs with the black and white corner squares moving outward. I still have no idea where this one is going, but I am enjoying this process immensely!

Life is Good!

I Need Your Help!

This is a follow up to my last post, the one where I admitted to being directionally challenged. Yesterday was the third meeting of our "Head For The Border" group where we enjoyed an inspirational show and tell as well as learned our next "assignment" based on the random choice of a design element and a color. The element selected from the envelope was squares. Easy enough, right? The color chosen: brown. Hmmm. Well, I decided that if I needed to add one more color I would add four; so, along with brown I am incorporating orange, blue and purple into this next round. Now, for a design plan. Squares, as is, were too boring. Squares set on point, however, intrigue me and continue the movement outward. I have placed three design possibilities up for consideration and for voting.

 Let me know what you think: #1, #2, or #3.

#1 & #3 are almost identical, except for the corner blocks. (Pretend there's purple thrown in there too).

#2 is comprised of teeny, tiny squares, that border measures 1", finished.

Thanks, in advance, for your help... and your vote!
Life is Good!

What Says You?

An excerpt from

The Strangest Secret

by Earl Nightingale

George Bernard Shaw said, "People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can't find them, they make them."

Well, it's pretty apparent, isn't it? And every person who discovered this believed (for a while) that he was the first one to work it out. We become what we think about.

Conversely, the person who has no goal, who doesn't know where he's going, and whose thoughts must therefore be thoughts of confusion, anxiety and worry - his life becomes one of frustration, fear, anxiety and worry. And if he thinks about nothing... he becomes nothing.

How does it work? Why do we become what we think about? Well, I'll tell you how it works, as far as we know. To do this, I want to tell you about a situation that parallels the human mind.

Suppose a farmer has some land, and it's good, fertile land. The land gives the farmer a choice; he may plant in that land whatever he chooses. The land doesn't care. It's up to the farmer to make the decision.

We're comparing the human mind with the land because the mind, like the land, doesn't care what you plant in it. It will return what you plant, but it doesn't care what you plant.

Now, let's say that the farmer has two seeds in his hand- one is a seed of corn, the other is nightshade, a deadly poison. He digs two little holes in the earth and he plants both seeds-one corn, the other nightshade. He covers up the holes, waters and takes care of the land...and what will happen? Invariably, the land will return what was planted.

As it's written in the Bible, "As ye sow, so shall ye reap."

Remember the land doesn't care. It will return poison in just as wonderful abundance as it will corn. So up come the two plants - one corn, one poison.

The human mind is far more fertile, far more incredible and mysterious than the land, but it works the same way. It doesn't care what we plant...success...or failure. A concrete, worthwhile goal...or confusion, misunderstanding, fear, anxiety and so on. But what we plant it must return to us.

You see, the human mind is the last great unexplored continent on earth. It contains riches beyond our wildest dreams. It will return anything we want to plant.

Life is Good!

A Big Decision

We make hundreds of decisions every day, some are small and some are not. Our son, Kyle, and his wife of one year have made a big decision, a not-so-easy one. Kyle has taken a job in the hill country of Texas, (a great opportunity for him) our daughter in law has decided to stay here for one more school year (she's a kindergarten teacher) before she packs up and moves west to join him. They'll travel back and forth for the next twelve months as often as they are able; we understand their reasons, are proud of their decision, and support it, full well knowing it won't be easy. My father in law once told me that anything worthwhile wasn't easy, there's so much truth in that. Join me in prayer, if you will, for this precious couple as they endure a roller-coaster year of lonely days and happy reunions. Prayers for strength and support through these days, weeks and months of transition are deeply appreciated, let's wrap them up tightly in love through our prayers and good wishes and the time will fly by before they even know it!

Life is Good!

I snapped this photo on Saturday morning in the WalMart parking lot; there is the most amazing sculptured brick art wall there, of all places. What beauty there is, lying all around us, if we only just stop and take the time to look!