Wonderful World of Color*

It's a beautiful time of year right now, there's color everywhere. . .

and the quilt blocks under the needle in the sewing room are no exception! I'm still plugging away on the Barn Star Sampler, playing catch up for time missed.

I'm back at it again today, stitching blocks. It's hard, though, when I'm distracted by the wonderful world of color that surrounds me just outside the door. What distracts you?

As for Augie, he's enjoying the warmer days and time spent out on the porch.

We won't get into what distracts him: a leaf blowing by, a reflection in the window, 

a dog barking on television, a fly buzzing by, a stick on the ground... the list goes on! 😄

Life is Good!

*Being of a certain age, this phrase conjures up images of Tinkerbell 

flying over Cinderella's Castle and turning the black and white images

to technicolor on the Sunday evening broadcasts of Walt Disney's TV show.

I recall being ten years old or so and allowed to watch it at a friend's

 home down the street; she had a color TV! Such a sweet memory.

Simple Beauty

The simple beauty of an afternoon in June~

Life is Good!

I'm Still Here...

Don't send out the bloodhounds yet, I'm still here! It's been a busy, busy week. Isn't that great to think about? A busy, busy week! Yes!! After months on end of nowhere to go and nothing to do, life is ratcheting up again, my calendar is filling every day and it feels so good! This past week Lynnleigh and I made a trip to Pineapple Fabrics to get her supplies for Quilt Camp with Nana! She will make a quilt next week, from start to finish, a camping-theme quilt (a camping quilt at quilt camp!) with her very own special curated collection of fabrics.  

It's going to be great! They're all washed and pressed and patiently waiting to be cut and assembled starting bright and early on Monday morning. Stay tuned! 

The hydrangea are blooming again. This is nothing short of miraculous (to me) after the butchering that happened to them last year when we added the screen porch. This spring, each time they sent out new growth it was promptly halted by killing frosts. That happened three times and they really didn't look good. I wasn't expecting much... and then, this! Joy!

So, speaking of that screen porch: Mr. Goodneedle added a planter wall across the back of the adjoining patio during the construction process. I transplanted some straggly daylilies that had been neglected. These were a gift from Quiltkeemosabe, years ago. I didn't have the heart to tell her that I had let them go. Little did I know, they were far from "done"; but were simply looking for a sunnier location to spread and grow. 

They're thriving in their new location!

In three separate locations I have Easter lilies blooming in the perennial garden right now. These have been re-plants after Easter Sunday services for years. This is a portrait of resurrection right here! Aren't we all experiencing our own resurrections right now? Those filling calendar pages are a testament.

Lynnleigh wanted an outdoor, mask-free pic with her fabric purchase. She hasn't yet been vaccinated, her young age prohibits that for now. But we're all emerging, one day at a time. There's life again, and it is GOOD !!

Life is Good!

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!

And So It Grows...

Last year was the first year for the perennial garden just outside my sewing room. Some of you might who've been reading along for awhile might remember that we made stepping stones to place in the garden while it was being laid out and that four of them were personalized for the grandchildren. Here's Gregory a year ago with a side-by-side shot from the same spot today for comparison; things are beginning to fill in nicely. 

This snapshot is from the back side, looking toward the side porch which enters into my sewing room.

This view is from the walkway that leads onto that side porch, another view. I don't remember when I've enjoyed another pastime more (when I'm not sewing); working in the garden is such special and looked-forward-to time.

These are Easter Lilies planted from our church service a year ago, I have two other groupings of these too, elsewhere in the same garden; I cannot believe how they've spread and multiplied~ Alleluia!

Not only is this spot a treat for us, but it's become a haven for birds and butterflies too. 

I find that I simply cannot watch the news anymore. The garden has become my spot for cultivating peace and beauty, for communing with nature; there's no labeling, divisive language or attacks. This has become my sanctuary: serenaded by birdsong and buzzing insects I find peace here. Where do you go for your peace of heart and mind?

"For the Lord comforts Zion; 

he comforts all her waste places and makes her wilderness like Eden,

    her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness will be found in her,

  thanksgiving and the voice of song." - Isaiah 51:3

Life is Good!

'Tis the Season

With the month of May come big changes, seasonal ones!
Yep, the strawberries are ripe at our local U-pick farm, each and every berry is absolutely as delicious as it looks. The porch quilt has been updated to reflect this full-fledged launch into spring and sunny days ahead. Much more time has been spent lately out-of-doors than inside. It feels so good to get out and to get dirt under my fingernails!

Year two of my perennial garden has yielded great returns: plants coming in vigorous, hale and hearty! I'm encouraged by that. As time goes by these will fill in more, I'm working to ensure color throughout the seasons, early spring through fall, through the selection of plants. So far, so good.

These two False Indigo plants have been such a nice surprise, they did nothing last year! I honestly had almost forgotten about them until they emerged and began to bloom. They'll get better and better from here. 

Mr. Goodneedle finished the brick retaining/planter wall in the back behind the patio; we transplanted some Day Lilies and Liriope into this spot. I also planted a cabbage, it's circled. The cabbage was a school project of Gregory's that he left here after a stay in mid-March; before the quarantine. I told him that I would take good care of it. I'm hoping that it will grow to maturity in this spot and he might enjoy some coleslaw later on this summer. Fingers crossed on that one. 

Inside the house: I completed the quilting on "You're A Grand Old Flag" for the back of the sofa on the porch. I had already prepared the binding but, after considering the options, decided to pipe the binding with red to set off the navy edge. It took a bit more time-- but, hey, what else do we have right now?

Here is is, piped, bound and hand-basted into position for finishing in the evenings in front of TV.

Adapting in a upside-down 🙃 world: I went on a scavenger hunt yesterday, I used to call that grocery shopping! Three stores, multiple experiences of waiting in lines at properly distanced intervals, just to return home with basics (flour!). A few stores had restrictions in place for meat purchases. This reminds me of the ration tokens that my grandmother told me about during the Great Depression; she gave me some as "souvenirs": red for meat, blue for milk, cheese and eggs. I'll have to go looking for those. Our state will begin phasing in the new directives for openings and gatherings at the end of this week. Keep the faith! Be safe, my friends, 🧼 wash your hands!

"It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord." - Lamentations 3:26

Life is Good!

Watch Your Step

"So, we had this idea"; isn't that the first thing you usually hear when you're about to learn of someone's latest undertaking, their vision and all the details of what they endured and learned along the way?  This post is no exception! Like all great adventures, it started off innocently. We had "inherited" (translates to: found when cleaning out my MIL's house) a large number of hand-fabricated aluminum rings that my FIL had made for one of his long-ago ideas. We thought that they would be perfect forms from which to make stepping stones for the perennial garden. There are two sizes: 15" and 27". We kicked around some ideas for how to pattern them. I found a link to someone's blog on Pinterest where the maker had used a decorative rubber doormat to make some really pretty stones from concrete, she explained the process in detail and it seemed to be exactly the thing that we had in mind. We gathered the supplies: a doormat, Crisco, non-stick aerosol cooking spray and tons and tons of concrete mix! We were able to cut enough motifs from the original door mat to emboss four stones at a time (three small and one large). This cuts down on productivity and, considering that each "batch" takes twenty-four hours to dry, plus the fact that we figure we will require approximately fifty stones, our days are now consumed with stepping stone production! Every morning, at the crack of dawn (before it gets too hot), we've been up and mixing up wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow of concrete and making our "daily four". We're in a rhythm now. The following photos will serve chronicle the process.

Inside each ring we laid out the motifs, initially, to make sure that they would fit properly for embossing. There is a layer of chicken wire inside each stone: concrete, wire, more concrete and then the rubber mat on top. 

Crucial for release is a liberal coating of non-stick cooking oil before placing in the form.

A days' full batch, drying in the sun. 

Close-up of a stone with the rubber form removed, next it will be gently tapped out of the ring form.

And so it goes, one day at a time and four more stones added for a path through the garden. 

There are four special stones for the grandchildren to discover placed randomly along the paths. 

We're all enjoying the garden project, even if we're not strolling through step by step; we have a quiet, tranquil place to rest and observe the birds and the emerging flowers at the end of each day.

Life is Good!