Ah, September!

The weather, at long last, has cooled off a bit! Brisk mornings and clear blue-sky afternoons with a slight breeze have been the norm around here this past week; it's a welcome relief~ I'm SO ready! The Dahlias are putting on a colorful show right now. We made another trip north to New England a week ago, a quick back and forth to avoid Labor Day traffic, it's all good. My mother had been hospitalized again and is now residing at a new (to her) rehab facility where she's very happy. Health-wise, she's weak; but she's content. Following that quick visit we continued south from New Hampshire to Massachusetts where we assisted Mr. G's sister with a recent home move. Having lost her husband a year ago she was ready to sell their home and forge a new path on her own. She's settling in nicely, and so is her dog, Monty; although the move was a bit traumatic for him.
Here are Monty and Augie resting after a full day of emptying boxes and wrestling with furniture! 

I read this one, start to finish, on the road trip. Being of a "certain age" I can relate well to the time period of this one, the Viet Nam war era; it's a good read.

The Barn Star quilt, my abbreviated version (56" X 76"), is together and off the design wall.  I needed to make room for the next project, a memory quilt for my SIL made from her dear husband's shirts. I've spent much time deconstructing them this week and getting everything ready to begin. There's a LOT of usable fabric in a shirt!

Stay tuned for progress on this one. I'm deeply grateful to all who've contacted me inquiring as to my whereabouts during the recent blog post blackouts, thank you! I'm fine, we're great and you're all wonderful to check in on me.

Life is Good!

Here to There and Back Again

We've been on a road trip to the Lakes Region of NH. Spent time with Mom and Dad for both Father's Day and my mother's birthday this past Tuesday. This photo is from five years ago. There have been a lot of changes since 2019. Mom can't physically navigate much anymore, she's a good deal weaker than I've ever seen; it's so hard to watch this happen. But, on the bright side, at 91 and 96 they're doing quite well, all things considered. Just two months ago when she was hospitalized, Mom's doctor never expected for her to be at home again. We're rejoicing in the fact that today she is, sleeping in her own bed and spending her days in her favorite recliner alongside Dad; there's much to be thankful for. 

We took Mom out to an ice cream stand for a cone on her birthday, take a look at the cones available to choose from. 😉 We also ate lobster, Mom's favorite; what a special treat! I had lobster rolls two days in a row. It was my duty you understand "when in Rome...".

Arriving home on Thursday other special treats were waiting. 

The garden Phlox and Echinacea are in bloom. 

The Brazilian Verbena is attracting Zebra Swallowtails and Goldfinch in flocks!

I potted up a dish garden for Mom's birthday, found a wide variety of small houseplants at a local nursery before we left. I believe that Mom will enjoy this, they have great big windows that let in loads of light in their family room and kitchen area where this should thrive.

A friend from church shared this. She had gone to prepare the altar for Sunday service and sat down in one of the pews to pray after she'd finished. She looked up to see this reflected on the carpet. Wow.

😊

Smile- God is watching!

Life is Good!

Quiet Time

So, this is a post about Quiet Time. As you can tell from this photo, there's lots of resting and quiet time going on here. This was taken at my parents' home in New Hampshire last week. It was Augie's first road trip and he did extremely well in the car; you would have thought that he was a seasoned road-tripper! He rested nicely on his back seat platform and did what he was supposed to do outside whenever we stopped for breaks. What a great travel companion! It was Mom and Dad's first meeting with Augie and they were thoroughly charmed, of course.  Unfortunately, the day after we arrived, my mother went to the hospital. She was feeling bad and really couldn't express what was wrong. She was subsequently admitted through the E.D. and treated for an electrolyte imbalance; of particular concern was her depleted sodium level. She stayed there the entire duration of our visit and is now getting stronger again in a rehab facility with the goal to return back home. It was a roller-coaster week. 

Both Mom and Dad contracted COVID a couple of months ago. While Mom was hospitalized at that time, Dad recovered at home, albeit s-l-o-w-l-y. The truth is that it really and truly knocked the stuffing out of both of them! My Dad has given the term "Quiet Time" to that period after lunch when he rests his eyes for an hour or so. We all know better than to call it a nap!😉 I took this low volume quilt, just off the longarm, along with me to whip down the binding. I decided to name it "Quiet Time", that just seemed right. There was lots and lots of *QT* while we rested and waited. The quilt was finished up in no time.

Here's Dad and Augie one day after breakfast; they became great friends during our stay. 

               

We're home again now and Quiet Time has been washed and tumbled dry. I love the soft, crinkled effect. Talking to Mom on the phone yesterday, she sounded good and much stronger. Her biggest heartbreak now is not being at home last week for QT with Augie in her lap, she's sad about that. I told her that we'd just have to make a return trip, now that we know what a great little traveler he is! Please remember my Mom in your prayers for her recovery and restored strength. I expect that she'll stay in the rehab for another week and a half to two weeks, at least. Time will tell. 

Augie is seven months old now, has already been to eleven states and completed Beginner 1 Obedience classes yesterday. He'll start Beginner 2 Obedience next month; that's quite the resume for this pint sized pup! You're right if you're thinking that there's no QT for him!

Life is Good!

New Starts

My second new quilt start happened this week with yet another block-of-the-month class. This one is based on a pattern called "Cream and Sugar" by It's Sew Emma. I've decided to adopt the lower-contrast neutral palette as illustrated; I think it will be pretty and a nice way for me to experiment with value, it will be fun. One of the class participants expressed that she thought beige quilts were so "blah". I laughed to myself because I was thinking the exact opposite; I'm looking at this one more as a "palate cleanser", sometimes it's nice to create a little breathing space, color-wise. I find it to be calming and very soothing. 

Here's another new start, or maybe this could be termed a fresh start! When my MIL passed away, almost six years ago, I brought a few of her houseplants back to our home, one of them was this scraggly Christmas Cactus. It survived, over the years (albeit barely). This spring I decided to release it from it's too-small pot prison and replant it, with fresh soil, into a larger pot with room for its roots to spread and grow. The transformation in the plant's vigor and vitality has been amazing after a summer on the porch. I'm super-excited about the prospects for this one come blooming season, fingers crossed.

More new plants, new starts: out with the overgrown geraniums and in with fall Pansies. I've taken those overgrown geraniums inside, trimmed them and boxed them up, bare-root style, for wintering-over. I've done this before but it's always a concern: more crossed fingers and high hopes. We'll see!

Last week Mr. Goodneedle and I hit the road and headed for the mountains, another mental health day. The weather was great and the foliage color on our route didn't disappoint. 

We discovered this winery along the way, a great find and a completely relaxing afternoon; one that's good simply for recharging!

Here's a recent shot of our patio. The leaves aren't the only things falling! You'd need a helmet or a hardhat to sit out here lately. I thought this might be an ominous predictor of what kind of winter we're in for, but, apparently all that this profusion of acorns signifies is a substantial mast crop. Okay, we'll see. 

And sew, here we go again; new starts, new beginnings. I'm excited to see where this goes.

What new starts are your brewing up at your house?

Life is Good!

When In New England...

We made a trip up to New England to visit with family and spend Mother's Day with my mother. As of this morning we're home again and the washing machine is working overtime. Our visit north was blessed by the weather gods; lovel, sunny (albeit chilly) days and crisp, cool nights. It was glorious! My sister and her husband met up with a lobster fisherman on Saturday afternoon and brought back TEN(!) of these beauties. She set up a pot for boiling in the back yard on Sunday afternoon and in they went! It was a full New England experience! 😀

We all (not just the Moms) feasted on tender, sweet and succulent lobster that evening, it was a true Mother's Day treat to remember! We were able to score some delicious fried clams while in the area, as well. It was nice to see the mask mandates loosening up in New Hampshire; while we were there the "masks required" signs were being replaced with "masks recommended" in restaurants and stores, as well as those one way arrows being lifted up from the floors of the grocery store aisles. Progress...

Yesterday was a travel-back-home day, someone took full advantage of his "car time" by sleeping the day away. We didn't encounter any of the gasoline shut-down at all until we entered Virginia, in the evening. With an eye to the possibility of pumps being out we kept our tank filled, stopping to top off wherever we could along the way. That was a good thing! Our daughter loaned me her copy of The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah, this passenger in the car couldn't put it down; it's a compelling read- but brutal! I haven't quite finished it yet, we'll see how it ends. 

Home again, home again, jiggety-jig! 

😉

Life is Good!

Week Two; More Firsts!

A Stop Along the Peak to Peak Highway in CO

Our last day in Colorado saw us traveling the Peak to Peak Highway in the Rocky Mountain National Park, the scenery was breathtaking. Sadly, the entire time we were there we found the views altered by the haze from the wildfires in CA at the time. The highest elevation along this stretch of scenic byway was 9,300 feet and it was very breezy and cool (59 degrees) when we stopped at the Visitor Center. I'm unsure about the reason for the sturdy logs on the roof there-- perhaps to help with snow control, alleviating avalanches off the slope of the roof or maybe to keep the roof on the building during heavy wind; maybe both!  One thing that the Coloradoans are serious about is snow fencing. It, like the log grid on the roof, is sturdy and built to stand up to heavy snow drifting, or at least to help keep it at bay.

Our journey from there took us across Kansas as far as Abilene, our destination for Friday and Saturday nights. 

We stopped along the way at this quilt shop in Hays. I raved about their customer service in a post last week. If this shop is your vicinity or on your travel itinerary please do stop in! You'll be happy.

We ate lunch in Hays too, at Whiskey Creek. Now that I am a horse-woman, naturally, I can't stay off! On Saturday morning in Abilene we were up and ready for our first stop of the day: The Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum.

This was a fascinating stop, I learned so much about Eisenhower, both personally and from the historical perspective. Eisenhower was president when I was born. I recall reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, with my hand over my heart, in my first and second grade classrooms, where we then sang "My Country 'Tis Of Thee", all under an American flag and a framed picture of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, both of which hung prominently in the front of the classroom above the chalk board.

The tour began at Eisenhower's boyhood home. Unbelievably, the Eisenhowers raised six sons in a home that, at the time, was a mere 818 square feet! A family of eight; without indoor plumbing.

Mrs. Eisenhower made the bed quilts that are still displayed on the beds today; this bedroom also contained her original treadle sewing machine, the machine she used to construct them.

This picture was taken in the kitchen. The original "dough box" (lower right of photo) was used for rising bread dough-- she made bread three times a week, nine loaves at a time! Imagine feeding six growing boys! Indoor plumbing and the downstairs bedroom were added in the later years, after the boys were grown and gone.

This was the family in 1902 (l) and a recreation of the same photo (r) in 1926. President Eisenhower is pictured on the far left in both photos.

It was a short walk from the boyhood home to the Library, all are located on the same grounds. The Museum itself is closed due to a massive, ongoing, renovation. We toured the highlights of the Museum which have been temporarily moved to the Library; honestly, I didn't feel as though we missed much, but I guess we'll have to return one day to find out. 

There were so very many artifacts of interest. This one, above, puts perspective to where we are today in terms of communication, comparatively. Both President Eisenhower and Mamie are buried on the grounds. After learning so much about them I now want to go to Gettysburg, PA to visit the farm. It's always a good thing to be planning our next adventure! Also in Abilene, we discovered, is the Greyhound Hall of Fame where we learned all about breeding Greyhounds and the history of racing. We met two retired dogs there, they greeted us in the entry area, Ginger and Gary. One more site of interest, especially to Mr. Goodneedle, was the Russell Stover Outlet Store w/ ice cream shop!

We couldn't buy chocolate candy while traveling by car but that didn't stop us from sampling the chocolate in melted form, over ice cream!

On Sunday we worshiped at Trinity Lutheran Church in Abilene. We have dear friends who have been relocated here, in fact he is the Pastor at Trinity. We enjoyed being together again for the day. I loved this old, historic church and beautiful sanctuary. I'll bet you can't guess what I thought the ceiling looked like. 😉 After a lovely dinner with our friends at an historic hotel in town we headed east, with Missouri in our sights for the night. 

⭐Stay Tuned⭐

We started the next morning off in Hamilton, MO. The home of Missouri Star Quilt Co. I will save my adventure there for another, separate, quilty-post.😀 It will be worth the wait.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

 By afternoon we were in Independence for another stop at yet another Presidential Library. 

I must admit that I had forgotten much from history classes in my past, this stop was full of facts.

 The tour, and accompanying films, were most informative and of great interest. This tour concluded at the point where Eisenhower took office; we were working backwards, time-wise on this trip. This was the first Presidential Library that I have visited that predates me; giving me all the more reason to learn as much as possible.  

From the desk of Harry S. Truman.

Both President Truman and Bess are buried here, at the Library site in Independence. 

We continued our journey east from there, toward St. Louis, we spent our last night on the road in southern Illinois; from there it was a straight shot home. Thank you for allowing me to post this summer wrap-up, it helped me to revisit our trek across this great country of ours and reminded me of two more quilt-related posts to come! Missouri Star, as promised (and teased) and my visit to the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum in Golden, CO. Stay tuned~  

Life is Good!