This, That, and Three Other Things...

While we were gone away this Moth Orchid which has lived as a foliage-only plant in our bathroom for the past few years sent up a flower stalk! I was shocked and amazed. Maybe we need to leave home more often! I don't do anything special except water it every week; once a month I sprinkle a few crystals of orchid food into the watering solution but that's it. I had NO  very little hope of it ever blooming again. This was a wonderful surprise. Do any of you have tips for growing orchids? I really don't know what I'm doing. This was a Christmas gift four years ago, it came in bloom and those original blossoms lasted for a long, long time. 

           

We recently upgraded our cell phones. Thankfully, everything transferred without a hiccup and the best part of the new device (other than the fact that the battery lasts tons longer than my old one) is the "portrait mode" on the camera. Isn't Hannes' little friend cute? I really don't get my 35mm out of its case much anymore, there's little need, these phone cameras only get better and better. 

We've repurposed this ketchup bottle. Can you guess for what purpose?

For honey! I use honey both in my tea and over my yogurt and have found this to be the best-ever dispenser for this purpose- NO DRIPS, NONE! Next time you toss an empty ketchup bottle remember this recycling tip. 

We woke up Sunday morning to a taste of winter. My kind of snow, too; it was long gone by noon.

Star Flowers is now a top, it measures 56" X 81". I haven't decided if I'll leave the points or not. I will quilt it this way and then decide if I want to tackle binding the peaks and valleys or not. I love the look. Quilting will take a back seat for a bit, though, I have a few other quilting commitments right now.

I was lucky enough to get my first COVID dose yesterday. The process was completely painless. 

The hospital group has allocated the old Sears store at the mall where they can process thousands of people through a day, as long as the vaccine supply is available. It is done by appointment and the process was fast, organized and incredibly efficient. I have my second dose scheduled in three weeks. 

Life is Good!

New Year, New Quilter

Gregory and his Star Wars quilt top

Our two local grandchildren have had an extra week off from school this week. Gregory (and his sister) spent the day with us yesterday and helped us to un-decorate the house. There's something about packing away the trees and all the decorations that makes everything look so bare and wide-open; it's sort of a clean sweep and re-examination of spaces that, just days before, were filled with greenery and treasured mementos. I love Christmas; but I love packing it away for next year all over again, too! 

Especially when I have such great helpers!

After lunch both of the grandchildren got to work! Gregory settled to a routine of sewing four-patches until he had completed his own 48" X 48" quilt top made up entirely of inherited Star Wars scraps. He loved moving his blocks around on the design wall and finally coming up with his final layout (above, left). He's learned a LOT during the process; he's a proficient ironer now and understands the importance of a consistent seam allowance. We'll load this top onto the longarm in the coming weeks and he'll quilt it himself, following a simple pantograph. 

While her brother was sewing Lynnleigh transformed our Christmas card fronts into gift tags for next year's Christmas presents! This is a great recycling project made even more fun by involving a young and eager crafter. The card backs and photo cards are stacked and bound together with a ring for our morning devotions. Each day a new family or individual comes to the top of the pile and they're prayed for specifically by name. This is a tradition that I've blogged about before here. The dear friend who started this tradition for us has long ago now joined the Church Triumphant but lives on through her shining example. The gift tags from the card fronts has sort of evolved over time. Lynnleigh did a great job! With this New Year firmly underway I am focusing on that chosen guiding word: "mindful". Stay tuned. In the meantime, help me to welcome another new quiltmaker into the fold. 

Way to go, Gregory!

Sometimes, when the house seems to be chaotic and full of boxes,

 and there's kids running around here and there, 

it might just be time to cuddle up, all warm and cozy-like, in front of the fire with a  good friend. 

Life is Good!

New Year, New Purpose!

I have two traditions for New Year's Day: The first is to gather all the Christmas cards and disassemble them. Fronts are carefully removed from the backs, unless they're photo cards, and neatly stacked. The insides, with the card sender's name(s), are punched and threaded onto a ring where they will reside with our Bible and devotional material at the kitchen table. 
Each morning, after breakfast, we have our devotions and then pray for the person or family on the top of the stack. We rotate through the stack throughout the year, flipping the card on top to the bottom and so forth. For us, this keeps the senders close all year long. This is not an original idea, I have blogged about this before. The idea came from friends years ago, Helen and Marv. They have both gone to their Heavenly home now, but we carry on in their spirit; we don't have cards in the stack from them anymore but they are always on our minds and in our hearts as we keep this tradition alive. So, what becomes of those stacked card fronts?

They are re-purposed into gift tags! I trim them into shapes, punch a hole and tie a ribbon for attaching to next year's gifts. I realized as I was doing this that this is a great activity for children. I should have done it over the weekend when the grands were here. Little ones love cutting, punching and threading the ribbon ties. I will remember that for next year, but I was on a mission to finish up the project up yesterday.

The second New Year's tradition is to transfer all dates and data from last year's calendar/planner into the new one. For the last five years I have given our daughter a planner for Christmas and she gives me mine. We let each other know in the fall which one we would like to receive and how we would like the cover to be personalized. Now, we both realize that we could order our own planners, but where's the fun in that?  It's exciting to unwrap our planners together each year! One year we both chose the same design; this year our daughter suggested three different designs and asked me to choose for her. 

These planners are big and roomy with pockets and folders too. I use mine incessantly, all in an effort to keep my life orderly and organized.  Some days I'm better at that than others. But, hey, it's a new year and I'm ready for it now; I'm always up for doing better than before and I can dream big too! 

Life is Good!

Out With The Old...

... Scraps, that is! What to do with a pile of leftover low-volume scraps and and ever growing pile of thank-you notes that need to be written at year's end? Combine the two! I had seen some lovely notecards hand-crafted by Quiltdivajulie here, it was all the inspiration I needed. Using 1.5" scraps, some cardstock, a glue stick and my sewing machine I have amassed a stack of cards and hope to catch up on my "gratitude" correspondence today. This is recycling at its creative best. Speaking of recycling: my husband and I learned (after unloading our car's trunk at the recycling center) that giftwrap isn't recyclable! Why, I ask? I'm going to be using brown kraft paper from now on, learning a lesson on that one from my children.

And in with the NEW! My first (almost) finish of the New Year.
(I needed to order binding fabric from an online source, so it's not quite done yet.)

This was a self-recycling project, I used almost every teeny, tiny scrap I had of this collection!
Note the quilted strawberries, the pantograph "Strawberry Patch" was begging to be used here.

"Strawberry Lemonade"

60" X 60"

Happy New Year!

Life is Good!

Someday Came Today!

Whenever I cut batting for a project I stash away those leftover strips and sections to use for small projects, the ones I think I will get to... someday. The problem is that someday never arrives! The cabinet with batting bits was getting so full it was hard to shut the door; and, at the same time, my big batting roll was getting skinny and near empty. Before I placed an order for a new roll I decided to lay out those batting trimmings and see exactly what I had saved, and what I might be able to join together and actually use. I have a couple of Christmas table toppers in the queue to be quilted and thought that maybe some small, pieced batts would be possible if I could join them by machine. I have hand whipped some high-loft polyester batting together, (not fun!) but never had tried joining batting by machine. All the scraps were the same, Quilter's Dream Blend; a needlepunched, low-loft, 70%- 30% cotton polyester blend batt with a light scrim, it's sturdy. Making some straight cuts on the sides to be joined I carefully fed the pieces, butted up precisely one next to the other, (not overlapping) beneath the presser foot. I used a large, long, zig-zag stitch. It worked beautifully. In no time I had a 60" square piece ready to load, with the table topper, and it's back, onto Sundance for quilting. I can't feel the joins at all now that I have the layers together and ready to go, I'm certain that it will be impossible to find the joins once it's quilted. Happily, I will soon have a cabinet with room available to stash other goodies, and I have recycled some batting strips and sections that were otherwise worthless. What do you know, that nebulous someday did arrive after all, today was the day!

Life is Good!

Decision Deferred

This was the view inside the trunk of my car on Saturday morning, what you see here is just a portion of twenty years' (plus) worth of accumulated quilt magazines on their way to the recycling center. I have wrestled with the ever-growing magazine monster for a very long time. I had great intentions... I thought that one day I would go through each issue and keep the patterns and articles that were important, or caught my eye, I planned to scan them into computer files. I even began that process and then wondered "why?". It was time consuming and I sincerely doubted that I would ever come back to these, after all I hadn't honestly looked back in all those years. As long as I can remember I have been putting off making the decision about "what to do with the quilt magazines". I have organized them. I have moved them. I have moved them again. I finally convinced myself that the time was right to move on, to get rid of them and lighten the load; I felt genuinely good about my decision; this deferral was only getting larger and growing heavier. Second thoughts crept back in on my short drive to the bin. Was I doing the right thing? I began to feel uneasy and strangely connected to my "collection" all over again. I knew it was time to be strong. I pulled up beside the enormous steel recycling container and popped the trunk release. I took a deep breath and started emptying the trunk with a renewed strength and determination. It felt good, but I have to admit I was confused by my conflicting emotions. When it was done I literally felt lighter, free-er. My husband reminded me that by recycling these magazines I was providing the necessary resources for printing new ones! Good point. I drove home feeling proud of myself, I realized then that I hadn't been 100% convinced that I even possessed the courage to make such a clean break. Well, almost clean... I kept one!

Life is Good!