Winter Wonders

I finished this cross-stitch pinkeep over this past snowy/icy weekend; I hope and pray that you were spared any dangerous conditions and/or power outage. We are experiencing severe cold today; but thankfully, we only received several inches of sleet which didn't accumulate on the trees or powerlines. I've begun another cross stitch piece, this one is a sampler~ Sarah Barker. 

If you've been a reader here for a while you may recall a post that I did many years back regarding a thimble that my grandmother gave to me. I am including the link here, for context. A friend discovered this sampler pattern and alerted me to it a few years back. I have done some research through my hometown document center to see if this sampler could possibly be one made by the original owner of my thimble. The dates align. There were six nine year old girls named Sarah Elizabeth Barker living in the United States in 1840. Considering the fact that this child had her own gold, monogrammed, thimble; and the high quality of needlework skills exhibited in this piece of work, chances are high that this sampler was made by the same person as the one buried in my hometown. I am going with that. And so, my version of Sarah's sampler has begun, I am switching out the colors of mine from the original, though. Here is the pattern as printed:

This magnificent Amaryllis continues to bloom forth and be a bright spot on the kitchen table against the frozen landscape beyond. 

Patience has received a border! This particular black-on-black print has been in my stash since the late 1990's. I was glad to put it to good use at long last! I hope to add another, wider, border beyond this one but I have stalled out on the decision making process for now; and so, Patience is hanging neatly in the closet while I ponder what's next.  There was supposed to be a quilt retreat this past weekend, it was postponed and rescheduled due to the weather. It's just as well, I have pulled out a mostly completed BOM from a few years ago and am using the time between now and the upcoming retreat weekend to cut pieces for the blocks to finish up this one. All the blanks will soon be filled in with smaller pieced blocks. 

Sew...what's new and exciting at your place?

Stay warm and safe!

Life is Good!

So, It's Been A Year...

Mom died a year ago this morning. There are constant reminders. When I first entered the kitchen this morning a photo of her and Lynnleigh greeted me on our electronic frame. That gave me pause, I drew a deep breath and then smiled. Then there are the cardinals... I saw two yesterday. There are constant God-winks. I miss you, Mom. 

It's all good, the reminders are comforting to me. Life goes on; one day at a time. 

We made another trip up to New England to check on Dad, this one was more challenging, weather wise. He's doing okay, it's a day at a time. He enjoys talking on the phone and visits from old friends. This past year has been hard on him, he's lonely and his health issues have taken a toll. While we were away I needed to keep my hands busy in the evenings. 

This little Primitive Santa slowly took shape.

Once the roads up north were finally cleared a beautiful landscape was revealed. 

This is my favorite building in Laconia, NH; the public library. Isn't it beautiful?

Once back home again, the trees went up...

The house was decorated. (Note: newly cross-stitched pieces were finished and framed~ nothing fancy, DIY, Amazon frames).

...and Christmas sewing is underway. Whatever gets done, gets done. 

There's always next year, right?

So, it's been a year. 

I'm still here and it's Christmastime once again.

Life is Good!

Winter Stitching and other Happenings

I've been as busy in the sewing room this month as an active puppy will allow me to be! Never a dull moment around here. I've begun cutting out all the pieces for "Stars and Snowflakes" by Wendy Sheppard. 

The trial block is shown here, under construction. I hope to have this all cut and prepped to take along for stitching together at an upcoming weekend retreat. While preparing all the pieces for this one I managed to finally gather enough folded triangle leftovers to constitute a 9" block. I can't throw any of these triangles away, even the 1.5" itty-bitties! 

Yet one more block for the bulging, overflowing, orphan block bin. I need to get all of these blocks out and stitch them together soon! Something I keep telling myself. 

This donation quilt for a child received a mini Cloud Stipple quilting design to bring it to life. It's really sweet with the small character panels, and quilted up quickly; I really loved working on it. 

Augie has become quite the little sewing room companion. He sits in my chair with me whenever he can. 

He also has his bed and toys in here, which helps when I'm at the longarm! 

He's grown quite a bit in the past 6.5 weeks!

He thinks that his job is to prune all of our houseplants! The training is going okay; he's slowly learning. We didn't attend puppy class this past week due to a reported case of Giardia; I didn't think it was worth it to risk him being exposed, just in case. So, he's learning new things as a home schooler right now; first lesson: time out for tearing up plants! That's a tough one!

Speaking of plants; this beauty, an Amaryllis bulb Christmas gift, is putting on a show in the kitchen right now... 

... while these forced forsythia branches are brightening up the family room! A harbinger of things to come!

Our youngest grandchild finally had her "official" birthday celebration last week. 

They're all double-digits now. Sigh. I'd better hang on to our Augie baby as long as I can! 😉

Life is Good!

Battening Down

This is what happens when snow is predicted in the south; naturally there's the insanity that occurs as everyone runs for bread and milk at the grocery stores but, then, the conversation turns to anticipated snowfall amounts and, ultimately, how long folks expect to be stranded. I'm not too worried: we have firewood enough to last and I have an adequate supply of books and stitching projects piled up to get me through at least several storms. Yes, finally the weather has cooled seasonably, and those of us lucky enough to live in the south are battening down the hatches in preparation for winter storm Izzy and whatever she brings! 

This tree ꜛ is a trial quilt block. Carrie Nelson is currently hosting a quilt-along for Moda called "Branching Out"; Quiltkeemosabe had tried the block and had difficulty with the directions given for the trunk. She asked me to try it out, as written. I did find it necessary to make an adjustment in the trimming of that pieced trunk unit. If any of you are doing this I might suggest dropping that diagonal cutting line to 1.25" instead of the 1". Once I changed that I had no difficulty at all in constructing this 8.5" block. The current weather forecast undoubtedly impacted my fabric choices for this one!

In other news: I managed to finish up the Wonder Flutters runner, learning to use the Wonder Curve ruler this week. 

I don't usually show customer quilts but I've fallen deeply in love with this scrappy beauty while it's been here under the needle this week. The pattern is Summer Wedding by Black Cat Creations. The quilting is Curls by Beany Girl Quilts. 

Something else that I'm enamored with is that Folded Corner Clipper by Creative Grids. I'm finishing up the outer borders on the Great Granny Squared quilt using it instead of the old stitch-cut-flip method. Those sweet little corner clippings could simply be discarded. Nope, I couldn't bear tossing them!

I trimmed these to 1.75" after stitching. I know, it's craziness; but aren't they adorable?

But, to top it all off: this happened today! We blinked!! Happy birthday, sweet girl. 💗

We can prepare for the onslaught of winter weather, 

but nothing's preparing me for time passing this swiftly!

Life is Good!

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!