Mountain Musings

Early Fall Activities and Munchkin Visitors

All of a sudden, the season that we all love has arrived. We've had a few chilly mornings here in Virginia, and the gorgeous 70's temps are telling us the calendar page has turned to delightful October.

Hannah has been in the garden picking the last of the black-eyed peas, and we've been enjoying them for lunch...just today, in fact!

Someone told us last week that we hadn't posted many garden pictures this season, so here you go...a photo of Trinidad Scorpion peppers growing in our garden:

There's a story behind this particular peck of peppers...my fault, actually. Hannah sent me to the nursery for some hot pepper plants...I unknowingly went to the extreme, heh, heh.

So she planted them anyway, and Jonathan has a co-worker who wanted to take them off our hands and dry them into chili powder. Interesting how many peppers those four plants produced....dozens and dozens! This is just one small batch.

With the garden winding down, Hannah has been knee-deep in soap making, labeling, packaging, and boxing up hundreds of soaps lately for a big order. Here she is meticulously adding toppings to the soaps:

Granny likes to watch her work, and here's Hannah showing her one of her boxed gift sets:

Hannah often packages her soaps in Granny's room to keep Granny company:

Speaking of Granny...continue to pray, please. Most days are very hard for her. Here's Tom sitting and talking with her a few nights ago:

This summer Tom has been quite occupied in his workshop building a dining room table:

He's staining the legs now, and next up is staining the top and apron. A big project finally nearing completion!

In other news, part of our family joined other adventurous ones in our church group recently and hiked the Blue Ridge Tunnel Trail near Afton Mountain one Saturday morning. I thought this was an interesting photo of the dark tunnel:

Munchkin Time!  Eric, Sarah, and children came to visit a couple of weekends ago on their way back home to Georgia from another trip.

It was a short stopover here, but these grandparents will take anything they can get! Always love having them visit, even when this Little Miss was scared of us at first!

Jonathan made sure to get in a brotherly hug with Sarah:

Here are the four cuties all ready to travel back home. Bye Bye, kiddies: 

Well, we sent them off and started prepping for our next guest to arrive a few days later....my friend, Carol from Texas, whom I've known for over 40 years. She was headed home after traveling for a few weeks and stopped by the Mountain Musings B & B.

Carol is an avid hymnologist and was here years ago to teach a class to friends who gathered in our living room.

She brought a bag of favorite hymnals with her, and we sang around the dining table that evening. Very entertaining and enjoyable:

It was fun to catch up with each other's lives.Thanks, Carol, for coming to visit!

So she wrote in our guest book, we took a final photo, and she was on her way back to Texas.

I'll close up this post with something for you to think about:

~Deb

Back-to-back Soapmaking Classes

This month has been full for me with getting our garden in and planning for hosting a few soapmaking classes. Our first set of ladies came on a Friday afternoon, after trying to coordinate a visit for over a year! With windy weather in the forecast, I held this smaller class indoors in our cozy kitchen once we got to know each other over lunch.

They donned their aprons, and we got to work! Each person took turns weighing and mixing the ingredients for our batch of soap.

Blending the soap batter and personalizing our individual molds with scents and botanical decorations was everyone's favorite part of the process. I enjoyed showing these ladies how I make soap and helping them make their very own to take home with them.

Granny was happy to show off her handmade baskets, too!

The following day, I had 4 more ladies arrive for a morning and afternoon set of classes, beginner and advanced soap-making. This mother and daughter trio took time out of their busy schedules to rendezvous for a Saturday of soaping together!

My additional participant drove all the way from NC to join us for the all-day class. She was an eager learner and helped with setup and cleanup, too!

Another windy day made for an interesting time dealing with our lye mixtures outdoors. Everyone was a good sport, and any fears about dealing with this caustic substance were calmed as we handled it with caution.

Our table of molds, scents, colors, and tools was a busy location of much creativity...

..and lovely aromas!

A finished recipe of soap:

Last weekend an 11 year-old girl came with her family for a private soap-making lesson. It was a beautiful day for spreading out on our back deck for our soaping fun!

She was one of my youngest students so far, but she jumped right in and carefully completed each step as it was explained.

Her mom was also an excellent pupil, and they even brought their own goat's milk from their animals to use in their batch of soap.

Her little brothers looked on with interest as she mixed up her scented soap:

They will need to have patience until their finished molds of soap are ready to use in 4-6 weeks!

Meanwhile, they got to try cutting some finished soap I had made in advance. It looked good enough to eat!

The classes were an overall success, and I'm grateful for each person who came from a distance to take part!

~Hannah

Galentine's Virtual February Sew-Along!

Happy First Day of February everyone! Happy Hearts Month!

What a great day to stay inside and get cozy with 5 inches of snow on the ground! Plus, it's a Monday, and there's no place to go, so let's sew!

February is normally when the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Show is held in Hampton,Virginia, and my friend, Chris, and I usually attend the show each year. Afterwards, she hosts a girlfriends' sew-along at her home the same weekend.

In fact, here's a photo of us at our last Quilty Girls' Weekend in 2019 ready to enjoy the fun. Sadly, we missed the 2020 show last year, and this year it's an online event only:

Sew...what to do?  Chris came up with the idea of a virtual Galentine's 2021 Sew-Along, and I quickly agreed that it would be a fun thing to do.

We will check in with each other and text progress pictures throughout the month. She's an organizing, coordinating, prize-giving type of hostess!

Per her hilarious video texted to me this morning with all the instructions, this is already shaping up to be an enjoyable fun-filled month of sewing!

I'm holding red and pink fabrics from "my stash" and the pattern I will use--the Infinite Hearts quilt pattern--which you can purchase over at Quilty Love.

There's an Infinite Hearts Quilt Along going on hosted by Emily Dennis...her instagram account shows her progress updates with blue hearts, very pretty! I am just getting started with that Quilt Along, so I will use it to coincide with our virtual girlfriends' activity. This also coordinates with #SEW365Project...sewing at least 5 minutes every day this year!

And here's the pattern Chris will use--Kiss Me by Fig Tree and a Candy Kisses jelly roll by Sandy Gervais. As you can see, she has her Valentine M&Ms all ready for the sew-along to start, a necessity for any serious quilter! I also have a Moda boxed quilt kit by Deb Strain called Love Grows, which will be fun to work on, although it may need to be put on hold while the Infinite Hearts quilt gets done:

In addition, I found such a cute pattern on Instagram by Simply Eilene for a Valentine's mug rug. This would be a perfect small project to use up any of my red and pink scraps from the sew-alongs! Eilene's Etsy shop is here.

Today, before I even get started on the Galentine's 1st Week of Fun, I need to work on my last blocks for Moda Blockheads 3! This is what I'm doing today:

This year-long 56-block project is coming to a close with this week being the last block posted. I'm trying to get all caught up by the end of this week.

I'm copying Joanna over at Fig Tree with sewing all red and white blocks, and my design wall is absolutely overloaded!!  I'm running out of room! I will have to post a finished photo when it's all sewn together, and you'll be able to tell what it truly looks like!

Looks like a red, white, and pink Valentine-y kind of sewing month for sure!

~Deb

Yet Another Quilty Christmas ~ 2020!

Here we are at the end of an unusual 2020! We haven't posted as much this year...so if you're still coming around to check out what's happening around Mountain Musings, yes, we're still here and so far, staying healthy. We hope you are well, too!

Last Christmas, all the kids and their families were here at home with us to celebrate together. I wrote a blog post last December and commented that it was one of my favorite Christmases ever...all together, home for Christmas!

This year was different.

Because the long-distance kids couldn’t be here on Christmas Day this year…we’ve celebrated with them already earlier this month.

Round #1…Sarah and her family in Georgia traveled to Virginia in early December, and that was such a wonderful time with those four grandchildren! It's a blessing they came to visit for both Sarah's birthday and celebrating Christmas when they did!

 Round #2...Last week our oldest son Micah and his family visited for a few days, and we celebrated with them. The boys were a joy to have around. The time just doesn’t last long enough! But we’re thankful we could see them all and also celebrate a grandson's 12th birthday! Is there anything better than children and grandchildren visiting? Nope.

So it's been a fun-kind-of-busy time, working these past months on quilts for Christmas. And I couldn't show you here on the blog until they were gifted!

I made dinosaur quilts for both the 3-year old and the 1-year old. I think the quilts were a big hit for the little boys! This is Elizabeth Hartman's dinosaur pattern. Quilt #1:

And this little guy below posed in front of his dinosaur quilt...Quilt #2:

Our first granddaughter, this 7-month old little lady, seems to have fallen in love with her ladybug quilt already! Yay, another success!  Quilt #3...plus Quilt #3a because I made a mini-ladybug wall hanging for her room, too:

Quilt #4...I made this Daisy Quilt back in the spring for Sarah. I'm trying to make each of my daughters a quilt to display for each season, so check another one off the list...yay: Quilt #5...our grandson loves the color green...especially if it's neon green! So I thought I'd make him a quilt using a variety of greens (plus some blacks added in here and there).

The pattern is one I used years ago for a manly quilt for Jonathan in my very first quilt-along with Randi over at I Have To Say. This one is called The Road to Spring...quite appropriate using all the greens!

I also appliqued an E on the quilt for added interest:

Here's the label for this quilt:


Round #3 of celebrating Christmas...my sister, Betty, arrived from South Carolina this week to spend Christmas with us. After all the grandchildren and their festivities, it definitely seemed a change of pace! But we've had a very good day with family together:

Quilt #6...Back in the fall, Fig Tree Quilts started a quilt-along with a pattern called Trick or Treat. I switched the colors to oranges and browns instead of the typical orange and black....and I absolutely loved this pattern! I'd love to make it again in Christmas colors!

This quilt was made for Hannah for her fall seasonal quilt, and here she is after opening it this morning. Flying Geese is my favorite pattern, and this quilt includes quite the number of flying geese:

She knew I was making this fall quilt, but she had no idea that I'd had it long-arm quilted and that I was gifting it to her! Fun to surprise her!

Well, that about wraps up our three rounds of Christmas and the six quilts gifted this year. What do I start sewing on next? Maybe the ongoing Blockheads 3 quilt-along, which I'm very far behind on!

We are very thankful for you, our faithful blog readers. Leave a comment just to say hello and let us know how you're faring through it all.

From our family to yours...we want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a happy and healthy New Year.

"Thanks be to God for His unspeakable gift!" ~ 2 Corinthians 9:15

~Deb

Welcome, November!

In our last post I wrote about traveling to Raphine, Virginia, for the Open House at Season's Yield Farm.

This weekend my sister was visiting us from South Carolina, and she wanted to go to their Saturday Bread Barn Day and experience all the action first hand after reading on the blog about our excursion! The vendors were set up again in the field...a variety of different and interesting offerings from the previous visit: Hannah was one of the vendors this weekend and introduced her goats' milk soaps to the farm visitors. Tom took along some of his cutting boards, and they also brought a few of Granny's baskets. Successful day of selling for all parties! Yay!

It was a chilly morning and in the 30's when they left to set up! Brrrr!

Since I didn't get inside the Bread Barn on the last visit, I really hoped to this time! The crowds and lines were more manageable this weekend. Here's the front of the Bread Barn with no long line at this moment:

We made it inside...

...but, sadly, all the morning buns were gone, and the shelves were getting emptier and emptier! This was a popular place all morning, I guess! But I did place an order this time for one of their wood-fired pizzas...it was delicious and worth the wait! Here I am browsing the vendors while our pizza order bakes:

This lady made some beautiful cakes for sale: It's funny...I didn't grow up on a farm; I've never lived on a farm...basically, I don't think I could ever pick up a chicken if you paid me; and yet, I always love the atmosphere of being on a farm out in the country.
Love this display!

We've had a good visit here at the farm with Aunt Bet this weekend, and Granny sure loved having her come see her. Bye-bye Season's Yield Farm.

~Deb

Fresh, Crisp October Morning ~ Welcome Fall!

iStockphoto/Ralf Liebhold

The month of September passed by in a blur with, alas, no blog post to update you on all the happenings around Mountain Musings! Be assured, lots was going on around here this past month!

With beautiful garden pumpkins everywhere for inspiration, I've been in the sewing room...creating pumpkin table runners, of course! One runner was for daughter Sarah, so I dropped one in the mail so she could decorate her fall table in Georgia and give her a little taste of home: My sewing room needed some fall decorations too, so I switched out the quilted American flag and put up the pumpkin block my friend Chris made...I love being reminded of her sweet creativity as I work: Remember in an earlier post I showed you a photo of a neighbor's barn quilts she painted for passersby to enjoy? She's been changing them with the seasons! Here's the newest one up for fall. I love seeing these quilt blocks outside every time I go out! Nothing says Fall like going to craft fairs and fall festivals...if you can find any open this year!

Our beloved Dayton Days which I usually write about was postponed until October, 2021. Last year Tom debuted his fine woodworking there, along with Hannah's soaps. You can read about their experience here. They will surely miss going this fall.

So, this year we heard about a local farm's Open House we wanted to attend....Seasons' Yield Farm! Isn't the farm house and grounds beautiful? I loved strolling around just observing and taking pictures: On the recent Open House weekend, which introduced their new Air B&B, lots of folks came to check it out and explore the Bread Barn and its wares. They sell loaves of wood-fired bread, pastries, and on this Open House weekend...pizza!

Here's the Bread Barn and part of the long line I waited in for almost an hour...and then, sadly, I gave up, and didn't sample their morning buns which had been highly recommended: The thought of a delicious wood-fired pizza, though, was almost enough to entice me to stand in line longer...maybe next time! Plenty of wood piled up and pizza boxes waiting for customers:There were a good variety of vendors spread out on the property from alpaca goods to just-picked apples, maple syrup, decorated cakes, and honey: Jonathan enjoyed talking to this vendor, because he and Hannah own a herd share at Creambrook Farm, and we pick up raw milk from them every week: This vendor sold a variety of apples, some unusual kinds I'd never heard of: Sarah, our beloved former resident cake baker :), should have been here to see this lady's decorated cakes for sale: An old truck, a pumpkin, a country flower garden...and sheep in the distance..this farm was right up my alley! I loved the flower beds...and there was a sign that said, "Pick yourself a free bouquet!" Soon it was time for the two of us to leave...Jonathan was headed in to work, and I was headed to the quilt shop. Bye-bye Seasons' Yield Farm...it was a beautiful Saturday for riding out and exploring the countryside! Well, of course, there's lots more fun that happened in September, including a visit on Labor Day from the grandsons who live north of us!

Always a special time to have this game-loving grandson come visit...we know all the game boards will be set up for sure! Count me in when Ticket to Ride gets pulled out!  But there's got to be some fresh air after all those games...here's Uncle Jonathan showing off his pear tree loaded with pears: Let's make sure we get a picture with Great-Granny! After they were headed back home, I realized I could have gotten in there for a 4-generation picture. Awww...

And last but not least, Hannah and I went out for National Daughter's Day last week to a local cafe we'd been wanting to try...Sugar & Bean. Fun outing with an absolutely wonderful daughter! I am blessed!

Looking ahead to October, Tom and I are looking forward to a Virginia fall getaway, compliments of the kids for our 40th! Hope I can get some great pictures of the fall scenery.

~Deb

None of Your Beeswax

Here in the soap studio lately, I've been experimenting with honeycomb from the hives at Monticello's gardens. If you get a chance to visit Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's home in Charlottesville, VA, stop by their gift shop and find Pleasant View Soaps products created using their herbs and flowers...and soon, beeswax. 

 

Keep reading if you want to know about the process of including beeswax in soap! I was sent a sizable amount of raw honeycomb to render into wax. It was my first attempt at doing so, but it worked out just fine after a little bit of research. This is what the fresh jumbled honeycomb off the hives looks like before processing:

 

 

Bundled up tightly in cheesecloth (or a clean threadbare dishtowel, haha), the honeycomb is placed in simmering water to allow the wax to melt and to filter out any unwanted debris, such as bee parts or honey.

 

 

The wax melts and floats to the brim of the pot of water, leaving the "gunk" below and in the cheesecloth.

After leaving the wax to cool and harden, I could lift a disk of filtered beeswax off the top to then trim and use. I will likely take it through a second melting to further purify the wax. I thought the below round of beeswax looked like some kind of flan dessert with cinnamon sugar sprinkled on top - not quite!

 

 

I then chopped and melted the pure beeswax to stir into a new soap recipe. Beeswax provides some hardness to a bar of soap when used in certain amounts.

 

I even swirled some Monticello honey into this test batch and created a honeycomb pattern on the top of the soaps....using bubble-wrap. It will be named Honeycomb soap and will be sold exclusively in the Monticello catalog, coming out next year!

 

 

If you're interested in a similar soap, visit my website for the Oatmeal, Milk, and Honey soap, an unscented and mild treat.

 

~Hannah

Garden Tour at Mountain Musings

Gar-den (gahr'den) noun. A piece of cultivated land, often near a home, used for growing ornamental flowers, shrubs, and vegetables; paradise.

Did you catch the last word of that definition?  Paradise. Yep, that's pretty much the way I feel about gardens!

Welcome to 237 Garden Lane! This is where you'll find me and Hannah working just about every day.  In fact, the first thing I do every morning as soon as my feet hit the floor is peek out the upstairs curtains and look down toward the gardens...mainly to take in the view but also to see if there are any naughty rabbits nibbling or pesky deer foraging: After last year's total garden massacre by the deer, Tom installed an electric fence this spring. So far, so good! The electric fence involved a lot of work! Tom's job was digging a trench for the main feeder cable that goes to each garden's fence wires...and then attaching and running all the wires around the two gardens. The deer will be shocked to know they aren't welcome visitors!

This project really involved tons of unexpected work for me because there are flowers growing all around the garden fences...much too close and brushing onto the electric wires, which hindered the charge. So lots of well-established plants had to be transplanted and moved at least 6 inches away from the fence...or placed elsewhere...or either staked and pulled heavily away from the fence. Oh my! I have to admit that I wasn't too excited about all that work!

I just finished staking the last plant yesterday after a couple of months of digging and deciding where these plants would be put, moving them early in the mornings when the bees weren't buzzing, and then mulching all the beds. Finally, the bottom wire could be energized. So glad that project is D.O.N.E.! Here's hoping it will be well worth it!

This Russian sage is beautiful but has been very persnickety and wants to sway in the wind and touch that wire no matter how much I stake it back! The faux birdhouse vegetable markers attached to the fence posts were a gift from Jonathan....love them! Carrots, Squash, Herbs! And don't forget to plant the hot peppers!
My sister came to visit last month, and I took her on this same garden tour I'm taking you on. While she was here, she crafted me the cutest little artsy garden book! I love it, and it's so true!

Here we both are in the kitchen during her visit. Since Granny can't travel a long distance now, Bet came to us this summer: Okay, back to the tour!

This vegetable garden picture below was taken in early June showing tomatoes staked on the left, black-eyed peas just emerging in the foreground, and asparagus, back right. That large plant in the center is the spent rhubarb: And this photo below is of the same raised bed (looking the opposite direction) and was taken yesterday of my favorite vegetable growing...black-eyed peas! What a difference a month makes!

Hannah planted, I watered, but God gave the increase.  (as taken from I Cor. 3:6)

Here's our prepared climbing area for raspberries, blackberries, and blueberry bushes, along with hollyhocks and fennel growing in this same bed. I planted 4 new raspberry plants this year; they are further down the row and not as visible in this picture: The new hollyhocks coming up here are seeds from my sister-in-law in Connecticut, so I'm very happy that they are thriving. I planted her pink hollyhock seeds on one side of the salvaged wrought-iron fence section and my collected burgundy hollyhock seeds on the other side, so hopefully they will beautifully intermingle!

I recently added the antique rake attached in the center of the fence section. I'm planning on staining the handle and spray painting the metal part of the rake as my next project:

Decorated garden picket fence for the Fourth of July: The entrance to the lower garden begins with a flower bed featuring old brick that say Chives, Basil, and Mint given to me by a long-ago blogging friend, Lisa, and an obelisk that hopefully will have hyacinth bean twining up the posts soon: And this photo looks back towards the garden gate and features the opposite end of the flower bed which introduces the vegetable garden:

Poppies have literally "popped" up everywhere in the garden from wind-blown seeds! We leave them where they land for the bright red flowers and are just now starting to pull up all the faded remains:

 

This Mama Bird has been so busy with her babies that she didn't take time for housekeeping! Hmmm...about like me after spending all day in the garden!

And here's another birdhouse at the opposite garden corner accented with tiger lilies:

Inside the picket fence garden are (top) green beans, oregano, and tomatoes (they need tying!). (Bottom) cukes, oregano, and peppers.

This is also where the okra is growing. Yay for okra season!

This healthy comfrey plant, passed along from Hannah's friend Kate, also resides here:

Just outside the picket fence garden is one of the first flowers I planted when we moved here 18 years ago...yarrow from Andre Viette's Nursery. It's a very strong and healthy stand of flowers that I didn't want to chance losing. So they are pulled away from the electric fence as much as possible:

Leaving the garden area, we are touring the driveway flower bed, which include hydrangea (pinks, blues, and purples, all colors growing on the same bush), irises, daisies, phlox, daylilies (passed along from my friend Jean), and butterfly bush:

Last fall I painted the "he shed" and "she shed" doors yellow. Here are the flowers this year in front of the "he shed." Left side of shed: spider wort and daylilies:

Right side of "he shed" are columbine, autumn joy sedum, coreopsis, and spider wort with trailing petunias in the window boxes:

The last flower area I'll show you is under the big oak tree by the driveway. It's our only shade on the property and includes Lenten roses, primrose, columbine, daylilies around the border, lily of the valley, Solomon's seal, and irises...and this has become the area for any extra plants I needed to find a spot for when I was moving them.

This is the next bed to clean out and work on. I have a shed full of saved cardboard boxes, newspapers, and magazines to use under the mulch for control of weeds.

I just laid all the brick border defining this bed after asking for free brick on Craigslist. And I need more...so if anyone local is reading this and knows of anyone who has a stack of unwanted bricks...let me know! This wraps up the garden and yard tour...hope you've enjoyed traveling along!

Well, another new load of mulch was delivered on Friday, so you know what I'll be doing this coming week! Now...I'd really love to have some help...so bring an extra pitchfork when you stop by! I'm sure we could social distance acceptably...you on one side of the mulch pile, and I'll be on the tractor! Let's get this load cleared away quickly so I can do some sewing!

(Thanks again to my sister, Bet, for my delightful gardening quote art book!)

~Deb

The Simple Woman's Daybook ~ April

(Photo Credit: Sharon Virts, Selma Mansion)

For Today, Tuesday, April 21

Looking out my window...

 

Yes, a few days ago, the Allegheny Mountains out my window looked like this! Glad the snow stayed up there instead of coming down into the Valley! Pretty though!

I am hoping...

That I can keep up with the Spring 100! We joined this year with Shiloh Photography's annual Spring 100 Challenge...which means walking 100 miles this season. Tom, Hannah, and I are walking a mile a day around our property, social distancing from the rest of the neighborhood, ha!

 

 

And when the weather has been too chilly and windy....Granny's bedroom treadmill comes in quite handy!

 

 

I am thinking...

That our living room is ever and always continuing to live up to it's nickname of All-Purpose Room. Tom recently finished building a dining room table for friends, and part of the set up was in the living room!

 

 

Here are some of the photos in progress below, and there are more photos over at Pleasant View Woodworks here, and you can also see the final delivery and installation at our friends' home over on Tom's woodworking blog.

 

 

I am thankful...

That Granny is doing so much better! You'll remember that she fell and broke her shoulder exactly 8 weeks ago today. She has had a rough couple of months for sure! Nurses, Occupational Therapists, and Physical Therapists have been coming and going three times a week, along with us conducting tele-health phone calls with her doctor.

 

Here's Granny with one of the therapists out on the sunny deck doing some arm exercises. This photo was taken a month ago before masks became the protocol. Now all the therapists wear masks every time they enter the house, which is a good thing!

 

Yesterday her arm felt so much better that she asked if she could peel apples for supper last night! Yay, Granny! That's more like it! She's getting back to normal, and her fried apples were delicious! Thank you ALL for all the prayers and well wishes for her. Please continue praying for complete recuperation.

 

Granny enjoys the interaction of all her therapists! Here they are practicing side-stepping for balance:

 

I am wearing...

What else but a mask these days?!  I'm loving the floral...as long as it's best to wear them!

 

Hannah has been sewing face masks for family and friends (check these links for men / women).

She made the one above for me. Check her Etsy and let her know if you'd like one.

 

One of my favorite things...

Barn quilts! I've written about them before, but imagine my surprise when I was driving through our neighborhood recently and spotted this display of 5 small barn quilts on a neighbor's property! I love the bright visual quilt patterns I see whenever we pass by:

 

 

I am creating...

Quilts and more quilts! Right now the Daisy Quilt I finished for the Daisy Sew-Along is at the quilter's shop.  I'm not sure when it will be long-armed quilted. It's a gift, so I hope I receive it back soon!

 

So while I wait to put on the final Daisy Quilt binding...I'm working on a red and white Moda Blockheads 3 quilt, following along with Joanna over at Fig Tree Quilts. Here are the blocks so far:

 

 

Beginning in May, my sewing friend Chris and I will be doing a virtual sew-along using the HomeBody mini-pattern by Camille over at Thimble Blossoms. She's sewing the blue/green, and I'm sewing the red/green:

 

Hannah is creating...

..a new shampoo scent (think tropical hibiscus) for a local store which carries her soaps.

 

 

In my kitchen...

 

No new recipes in the kitchen today, but Tom has been working hard stripping kitchen wallpaper...it's a bear of a job when it's been stuck solid for 18 years!! But I'm getting new paint, and I'm quite excited!

 

It feels like we're moving with so much stuff in disarray, but with no one traveling and visiting these days with the virus restrictions, it's the perfect timing!

 

In my garden...

We haven't started putting in vegetables quite yet because we're still having freeze warnings...but there is something else going on in the garden.

 

In fact, today's the day a vinyl picket fence is going in, and the old dilapidated, paint-peeled fence has been removed (and sold on Craigslist as vintage pieces! Yay!). This new installation will be great....I love a white picket fence that will never need painting!

 

 

I am learning...

To be content with not traveling during this crazy virus season! I haven't seen grandsons little Jack in Maryland or Ethan in Michigan since Christmas. One of my little grandsons in Georgia recently turned 4, and we weren't able to be with his family on his special day. But Sarah sent me this picture of precious Andrew on his birthday.

 

Do you remember how all of you prayed for him when he was born at 24 weeks and in the NICU for months? He is doing well, and the Lord has blessed his little life. He is our miracle baby! Happy 4th Birthday, Andrew!

 

 

A moment from my day

Also a sign of the times...using Zoom and/or Duo for church services each week, connecting with far-away family members, and, in the case below, even connecting with members in the same household!

 

Here we are...Hannah, Jonathan, Tom, and Deb....connecting with each other in the same house! Jonathan has been quarantined in his room when he comes home from work each evening for the past month or more! He's exposed to so many folks at work (and Harrisonburg has lots of cases!), so we're trying to keep Granny especially (and the rest of us, too!) protected as much as possible.

 

We miss him, so Duo has come in handy to catch up on news.

 

 

 

Closing Notes

 

 

For more Simple Woman Daybook posts, check here.

 

~Deb

Missing in Action

Well, hello long-lost blog! Hello, faithful blog readers!

Yes, missing in action applies to me. Here's my lonely sewing room....everything is in the exact same spot as it was over two weeks ago when a family emergency happened.

Unfortunately, Granny fell and broke her shoulder...oh no! I was actually sitting at my sewing table when I heard her scream and Hannah calling for me to come quickly!

The local rescue squad arrived and took her to the hospital where we learned the humeral head of her shoulder was broken, a break on which surgery is not normally done.

She was in the hospital a few days in quite a bit of pain, before being transferred to a rehab facility for a week until we could bring her home for more comfortable accommodations, definitely better food, and her family's loving care.

This week a home health nurse, physical therapist, and occupational therapist arrived to begin twice weekly care to get her mobile again. They'll be in and out for the next two months before more range-of-motion outpatient physical therapy starts.

Here's Granny, still smiling and glad to be home after all her hospital and rehab escapades:

We were able to get outside on the deck one warmer day this week to get some fresh air and sun. She's still quite weak, and we need to be oh, so careful with that arm/shoulder:

Before this accident happened, long-time friends were scheduled to stop by for an overnight visit on their way to Florida. We definitely wanted to see them and didn't want to cancel even with Granny in the hospital. So...with a little maneuvering, I was able to be in both places at just the right times. :)

They have fond memories of Granny and were so sad they didn't get to see her this visit. Here we are with Tim and Donna from Connecticut. Tim was Tom's best man in our wedding...40 years ago this summer.

Needless to say, we ask for your prayers for Granny as she recuperates and especially that her shoulder will heal quickly and properly...and for us as we care for her.

Tomorrow we go to the orthopedic surgeon for new x-rays; he's performed all her previous back surgeries and, I'm sure, will be so sorry she's having to go through this.

And for those friends who have already sent cards and flowers, she appreciates them all.

Hopefully, I'll be back making daisies this week...or soon.

"Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice."  ~ Psalm 51:8

Thank you for your prayers!

~Deb