Welcome, Spring!

After a few false starts it looks as though spring is here to stay! These white Iris are from my childhood home, I dug up a little clump of them before my parents sold the home and moved twelve years ago. Since then, I have divided them at least four times, our daughter in the Capital City has a clump of her own (which may have also been divided by now)! 

These Iris were added more recently, another gift of division from our son-in-law's parents. 

This is my little perennial garden. I started this a few years ago. The delight in this is two-fold: I get SO excited about the reemergence of all of the plantings, and the fact that it's just outside my sewing space! The windows and the door that you can see above, just inside the side porch, are my sewing room; from here I can observe not only the bluebird house, and my feeders, but all of the flowers as they come into season. 

On Friday this past week I met up with a blogging friend, Mama Spark, at Pineapple fabrics. We had such a wonderful reunion there, as did our husbands (who've met previously). We had lunch together and made future plans for the fall. Have you ever met up, in real life, with a blogger friend? If not, I would encourage you to do that if the opportunity presents itself. You already know a lot about them (virtually); for me, it's been like reconnecting with an old friend. I've done this several times and can happily report that it has only deepened what I already considered (through blogworld) to be a lifelong friendship! 

Not only did we have a shopping spree and lunch together, but she brought 25 nap blankets to donate to our annual cause! Twenty-five!! These nap blankets will cover and comfort those enrolled in our local school system's Pre-K program. Mama Spark knew that this was a program embraced by our small group and she was eager to get involved. These nap blankets will be loved and treasured by the recipients. 💗 My heart is overflowing with gratitude. 

We were lucky enough to meet our daughter for lunch, after church, today in a city nearby while our oldest granddaughter attended a swim camp. When we were leaving to drive home we encountered this sight beside us at a traffic light. I don't know how this puppy kept his hat in place but I would say that this is but one more sure sign, that spring is here...

But, just in case there's any doubt... remember that picture on the left from a few weeks ago?

We've got bluebird hatchlings! Yes, for sure, spring has sprung; and I'd say its here to stay!

Life is Good!

Soup's On!

It's Thursday~ that means it's homemade-soup-for-lunch day around here recently. For years I've bookmarked soup recipes and never made them; that all changed this month. As I mentioned in an earlier post, with no parties or open house this year, I find myself with no one else to cook for but us! Capitalizing on that fact I began a new weekly tradition. Two weeks ago it was homemade split pea with ham, last week it was chicken noodle and a rich, thick, hearty beef stew today. So far there have been no complaints. I've got my eye on a potato soup for after the holidays. I'm happy to share these recipes via email if you'd like to try one, or all, of them. 

Soup~ it's what's for lunch!

Life is Good!

Finishing Up

Remember that ongoing porch project? This is how things looked a little over a week ago when I left for Hampton, VA and MidAtlantic Quilt Fest. The scaffolding was still in place and the units were all framed out to receive the screen panels. We had four glass sections installed in the gable end before I left.
Even though the space will be screened in, the screen panels have pull-down vinyl inserts so that we can minimize sweeping and cleaning out here during bad storms and the heaviest pollen in the spring. That's why we decided to glass-in, rather than screen-in, those gable ends. I was in for a big surprise when I arrived back home last Sunday!

Even though they weren't due to arrive until this past week, the screen panels had arrived while I was gone and Mr. Goodneedle already had most of them in place by the time I got home! He finished up installing them last Monday. What a difference; we have a porch!!

We got busy cleaning up our outdoor furniture and moved some of it inside, we cranked up the patio heater and sat down to enjoy our new space. We went to Costco to look for some comfier seating too. 

All Mr. Goodneedle's hard work on that tongue and groove ceiling were worth it, the happiest day for me was the day that the scaffolding came down for good! I could breathe a sigh of relief again. 

The Costco shopping trip paid off; we added a pair of recliners for reading and relaxing and we've ordered a few more pieces to round things out. It's really coming together now and I have no doubt that this new-found space will be utilized fully and frequently. We are already enjoying lunch and cribbage out here every day; we turn on the heater and enjoy the sights and sounds of nature surrounding us!

My latest find: cork-backed William Morris designed placemats; the "Strawberry Thief" pattern. 😊

Here's where we were last spring...

... and today!  What a difference a little less than a year makes. The columns in the foreground are slated for removal soon, but it's all coming together. Finishing up has never looked better. 

Life is Good!

Up next: As Ye Sew, So Shall Ye Rip...

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!

A New Book...

... and a challenge! It all began innocently enough; don't all great adventures?  I saw this book earlier in the summer while visiting a quilt shop out west. I resisted purchasing it; because, really, I didn't need one more book and/or project... right? That's the logical explanation. Tell that to my heart. The more I thought about the book and saw references to it out there in blogland, the more that need to own this book eroded my sense of logic. Then, I did a silly thing: I asked Quiltkeemosabe to talk me out of getting the book.  Her response to my request was the opposite of talking me out of it; instead, thinking she needed one too, she saw to it that we EACH had a copy of this book in our hands within days! Sigh.  What to do? I decided that this action required an equal reaction on my part, if we were going to own the book we were going to OWN the project; I issued a challenge to her, and she accepted! We will work on the blocks together and meet monthly to compare notes and hold each other accountable. We'll each write up cutting directions for ourselves and for each other from our self-assigned blocks and work it out together as we progress... and, we'll have lunch! I'm referring to this as our monthly Bible study; we'll be at it for a while too, there's over 200 blocks! And sew... here we go on a great piecing adventure; because, seriously, who wants to be on any adventure by themselves?

Life is Good!