Time Marches On...

...and waits for no one. We spent this past weekend in a lovely setting, securely nestled in the mountains of North Carolina. It was idyllic. We celebrated 50 years of marriage on Saturday!

It all hardly seems possible and yet here we are; blessed beyond measure and truly grateful for each and every day. In case we needed any further reminders of how fleeting time can be, earlier last week both Gregory and Lucy Ann received eighth grade diplomas; high school is next, how can that be?!

Time: fleeting, finite and precious. Someone once said, while describing raising children; "the days are long but the years are short". This is true in every aspect. We look back today with thankfulness, all the while keeping our eyes focused on what is yet to come; thanking God for each and every beautiful day!

Life is Good!

Fit To Be Tied

Graduation quilts; stitched, layered and awaiting tying.

It's that time of year again... graduation is just around the corner.  Our Quilt Ministry has been bestowing quilts upon our church's high school graduates every year since 2009. This year it is a smaller-than-average class, only six graduates. We've fine-tuned the process over the years, and have settled on creating quilts that reflect the school colors of their intended college destinations, whenever possible. Because those decisions aren't always made early, we (the quilters) are typically scrambling at the last minute to get them ready before Youth Sunday and the beautiful service of presentation. It's always worth the effort. Our quilts are unique, based solely on the inventory in our closet. Seven years ago we were gifted with a truckload of solid broadcloth fabric samples, I'm not certain of the origin of the samples; they're all rectangular and sorted by color name and number. We determined, early on, that we could trim each sample piece to a consistent 23" X 13" rectangle, and, using twelve rectangles, we could assemble a generous sized throw (50" X 66"). The quilts today still reflect that original stitch, slash and shuffle  method; each one is backed with polar fleece and machine embroidered with our church logo. They are gifts we're proud to offer; and, I dare say, that our graduates are happy to receive as a token of love from their congregation. May these quilts offer warmth and comfort to this year's graduates as they venture out and make their own way in the world, always remembering their church family back home.

Life is Good!

May Milestones

I can hardly believe that Memorial Day has happened, summer is already upon us, and I haven't had time to catch my breath! May has been a whirlwind month marking a few momentous milestones. Mother's Day weekend was a special one, I had my own mother to here to celebrate the occasion with this year.  We drove to the Capital City the day before and had a wonderful lunch at our daughter and son-in-law's home surrounded with lots of love, laughter and the little ones, it was a perfect day!

The following weekend we traveled that same road back and forth again; this time for a different occasion, Mason's preschool graduation. It's ironic that I mentioned a time slipping away in the first paragraph; wasn't it just yesterday that I was posting Mason's newborn photo from the hospital room? Sigh.

Here's Mason today, ready for Kindergarten in the fall. His preschool director called the names of the graduates and they walked to receive their diploma; as they proceeded across the front the director read what their future aspirations are. Mason stated that he wants to be a "space guy" and study rocks and moisture and Pluto. He'll be great at whatever he sets his mind to do!

On the 24th of this month we celebrated thirty-nine years
of marriage. It's so hard to believe; even though we may have
changed, physically, over the years we don't feel any older and are still
enjoying each and every day together as much as our first as husband and wife. 
I couldn't have chosen anyone better to share my life and my heart with.
Life is Good!

Bye-bye, Sundance!

Sundance has left the building; not to worry, it's all good! There are changes afoot at The Strawberry Patch, stay tuned for further updates. Sundance has served me faithfully and well for the last six years; I had the unique opportunity to sell her, locally, to a phenomenal sit-down quilter who is ready to take to her feet and expand her own quilting horizons, I am so happy for Laura. I hope Sundance is enjoying the rest today, even though disassambled, she won't be collecting one bit of dust at her new home... she'll be busier than ever!

 I've been busily preparing graduation quilts for tying by the Quilt Ministry. Working in small batches, four were ready this past week. My part of readying them is to cut the fleece backs to size, embroider the church logo onto the backing and then layer them with the batting. I stitch through all three layers (envelope style) before turning them right side out and top-stitching the edges all around. There's a lot of crawling around on the floor during these various stages, I like to think of this as my new daily work-out. Whew! We did some recent calculations and figured that, counting this year, we've sewn up eighty of these quilts to present to our congregation's high school graduates; we began with the class of 2009, what a meaningful tradition this has become!

I'm happy today... as happy as if I had just opened a case full

 of "Christmas Morning"!  Oh wait, that's exactly what I did...

Life is Good!

Twelve, And Counting...

It's that time of year again.  As graduations approach our Quilt Ministry gets busy assembling quilt tops for our high school graduates, fourteen in this graduating class; which means, I have twelve more to go. We've done the same style over the last six years: twelve large, solid color, rectangles pieced together and then recut and sewn back together in a fashion that yields a quilt top measuring 50" X 66", looking like this:

We back each one of the quilts with fleece, in a coordinating color, onto which I embroider our church logo, (see how important it was for me to locate that dongle?!) before they're returned to church for tying and tagging; these will  be presented on Youth Sunday in mid-May. When we know of a student's college of choice, with enough lead time, we make every attempt to match their quilt with that school's colors. The reason for the use of solid colors and this piecing scheme is no accident. Right before we began the graduation quilt project a small truckload of fabric samples was donated to our Quilt Ministry, these samples consisted entirely of heavyweight broadcloth in every color and shade imaginable; they were roughly cut into rectangles approximately 14" X 24" inches. We began using those, trimming them to an even 13" X 23" for consistency, and went from there; our pattern was developed based on what we had available. On this, the sixth year of using up these sample pieces, we are making a dent in that stash but it continues to yield what we need, with leftovers, certainly this has proved to be a "loaves and fishes" donation!  Working on quilt tops of that dimension with only twenty four pieces is the exact opposite of my current WIP*. As I plug away on "Mountain Day" (Twelve pieces in each six inch block) I have discovered this to be the perfect Leader-Ender project as I stitch on other projects, with deadlines, that rank a bit higher on the priority list.

"Mountain Day" (currently measuring 60" X 60", to be 60" X 84" at completion)
Right now, at this stage, there are twelve hundred pieces in the top.

Twelve is the word of the day, which reminds me of a cute story that I heard from a friend: she was buying eggs in the grocery store and had opened the carton to wiggle each one as a way of determining if any were cracked and stuck to the bottom of the carton. She noticed a young boy quietly watching her as she fingered each egg in it's little individual compartment; when she paused and looked up at him in acknowledgement, he said: "there are twelve" she smiled, and he added: "in each box!"

Life is Good!

*WIP- Work In Progress

The Tie That Binds

Here are two quilts that have been stitched together and are ready to take to church for tying today by our Quilt Ministry. Each year we make quilts to bestow upon our high school graduates for them to take along to college or wherever life leads them. They are made from solid color squares*, backed with fleece and embroidered in the lower corner with our church's logo. I do the final sandwiching assembly and embroidery at home, it is a joy-filled privilege; the graduates love their church quilts! Whenever they wrap up, for the rest of their lives, they can remember their church family that loves them, and will always be there to welcome them back home!

Life is Good!
*  Six years ago a trunk load of fabric samples were donated to the quilt ministry; all solid colors of every
 shade and hue. We refer to them as the loaves and fishes fabrics as our supply seemingly never runs low!

Graduation Day

Kyle's graduating this afternoon, but he won't be in attendance at the ceremony; no, he has a seat elsewhere today. We are grateful for a wonderful employment opportunity that has come his way, he's flown to Texas to explore his options there. I do admit to being disappointed about the cap and gown thing, and the celebration party here afterwards. I wanted those photos to frame, but the larger picture is so much more important, my head knows that and my heart will surely follow. I need to get used to something else now too; our son, and eventually our daughter-in-law, living over 1300 miles away! That will be hard for us, but good for them in the long run. We've never traveled to, or researched, the treasures of the Texas "hill country", there are new adventures awaiting all of us! Congratulations, Kyle, Happy Graduation Day; we love you and wish you all the best as you begin this new chapter of your life!

Life is Good!