Mountain Musings

Secret Quilt Project Revealed!

Yes, the secret project I've been working on this spring/summer was gifted this week, and I can finally tell you about it!

Last week I met up with my long-arm quilter in Mrs. Rowe's parking lot. I wrote about Snowbird Quilts earlier this year and how she travels over from West Virginia every Thursday to pick up and drop off quilts. See that post here.

This is what the back of her car looked like when I arrived! Full of quilts to return to folks. That's my bag on the far left ready to be picked up. It is thrilling to have a quilt returned which so much work has gone into!

Once home, I immediately got busy binding the quilt:

After taking this 96"x96" queen to the laundromat to make sure it had all the crinkly goodness of a newly cleaned quilt, I wrote the label:

"Made by mom especially for Jonathan and for his new bed made by dad."  And I included this new label I just purchased from Sweetwater:

Life is better with a Quilt....Agree? I am going to love putting these labels on every future quilt!

We told Jonathan we were going down to his house (while he was at work) to do a couple of projects for him.

One of the projects was to secretly launder all his bedding and then make up his bed with this new quilt for him to find when he went upstairs that evening after work.

Jonathan texted as soon as he saw his room that he loved the quilt! And he was truly surprised! The secret project was a big success!

So...brand new queen bed for his house! And now brand new quilt!  Now...on to the next sewing project! What will it be?

For quilters who are interested: Pattern is Candy Mountain #819, from Country Threads Quilt Shop (which has been closed for ten years...but you can still get patterns on Mary's blog, Chicken Scratch/Country Threads by emailing her).

Read the post about Tom making the bed here. Or you can also see more photos on Tom's woodworking blog here.

~Deb

Birthday Week Activities! Part 2

For my birthday celebration, we headed over to Jonathan's after lunch for the annual birthday Peter Paul Mounds cake I've had every year since I was a little girl...

Bring on the birthday cake...but let's not burn down the house! 72 big ones!

"Make a wish, Granny!"

After the cake and ice cream, the kids were ready for some slip-n-slide water fun and some practice shooting for the dads....

This little one was part of the water fun for the first time. How cute is he in his little swim suit...it says Captain Adorable...yep, he definitely is!

After the kids had their water fun, the guys congregated on the shady front porch out of the sun and safely did some practice shooting:

All the ladies and children were inside during this time...and I enjoyed being with these two guys:

And these cousins got reacquainted with each other:

The girls in the kitchen....what a wonderful welcome sight! They were in charge of my birthday dinner, Snow on the Mountain with all the toppings. Delicious! Thank you Hannah and Sarah!!

And, of course, backyard Fireworks ended the day's celebrations:

The next day we went over to Gypsy Hill Park, our local very popular playground:

After lunch, Grampa took all the kids on a tractor/wagon ride. They love this every summer that they come. But hot days call for umbrellas being attached:

Other random pics caught during the week around the house:

Well, this final morning had to arrive sometime....the day folks have to leave. Some guests had already left the day before. So this picture only tells part of the story of our time together.

But we had a wonderful birthday celebration week! Y'all come back to see us!

~Deb

Birthday Week Activities! Part 1

Yes, the title is correct....birthday week! Since my birthday falls on a holiday week each year, we've always celebrated, not just one day, but all week long! And with family here for several days, what's not to enjoy and celebrate!

The grandchildren arrived last Saturday...which is the only birthday gift I needed!

We've had a wonderful few days celebrating, touring Jonathan's workplace, handcrafting a special treasure box in the workshop with Grampa, picking vegetables in the garden, going to the playground, and setting off fireworks...oh, and enjoying Peter Paul Mounds birthday cake that Sarah made.

This little 6-month old punkin' visited Granny's house for the very first time. It was fun introducing him to everyone at church:

Jonathan thought the boys would enjoy a tour of his airport, and they sure did!

Lots of excitement for these kids and lots of different planes awaiting exploration!

They were allowed to climb into this plane and sit in the cockpit:

They could sit in actual airplane seats in this plane and experience what a real flight would be like:
And then some kiddie planes just their size!

Very thankful for Uncle Jonathan taking time out of his workday to give everyone a tour:

The next exciting adventure for the kids (and for the adults helping them) was held in Grampa's Workshop!

Tom had worked for days prepping Shaker Candle Boxes...renamed Special Treasure Boxes for all the kids to glue and hammer together:

All the kids did great, and every adult did a wonderful job assisting!

Gluing the sides:

And sanding the box:

 

Even the youngest got in on the action!

I was the photographer for the project:

There are more photos over on Tom's instagram account. What a great project, Grampa!!  Thank you for the fun time!

We picked veggies in the garden, and the kids could hardly wait to see what was ready to pick! This grandson loves gardening:

Sisters together again in the garden:

I absolutely loved picking veggies with the kids:

I wish this could be an every day occurrence!

The kids enjoyed finding the blackberries that were ready to eat:

Visitors at 237 Garden Plaza...Uncle Ed and Aunt Ellen (Tom's sister):

More visitors...Hannah and Christopher, taking a garden tour:

I had been working extra hard in the garden this year mulching and pulling weeds and making the garden presentable so it would look good for Hannah, since she was always our garden girl. I think it was a success because she said she was "pleasantly surprised." LOL!

Jonathan helped carry the vegetables back to the house...cucumbers and yellow zucchini:

Love seeing Hannah in the garden again...this time toting a baby instead of garden produce!

Aunt Bet (my sister) took advantage of my garden chair to rest a bit before making the trek back to the house:

And...who wouldn't like to find this munchkin in the garden (Sarah's youngest):

This post has gotten quite long...so I'll post the rest of the celebration in Part 2.

~ Deb

Surrounded By Wood Projects!

This has been a very relaxing and pleasant Sunday evening. I'm sitting here in my recliner with my laptop; and when I glance up, this is my view (insert emoticon of big round eyes):

Tom has brought his woodworking activities inside! Turns out he's out of space in his workshop, so the living room is the obvious option.

Or the sitting area of our bedroom works too (Ditto):

If you follow Tom over on his woodworking account on Instagram, you might already know about the bed he's making for Jonathan.

And if you've followed this blog for awhile, you know about everyone in the family's penchant over the years for making the living room a hubbub of activity for whatever project we're working on.

I really don't mind (truly) because I love crossing things off long to-do lists!

This is what Tom's shop looks like....he has started the process of finishing the headboard:

And....the footboard:

Recently, he did a trial run setup of the bed just to make sure the rails fit before he took everything apart again to start finishing these pieces:

Certainly seems like it's going to be another masterpiece! Looks like ol' Mom better get busy making a quilt to go on it!

~Deb

Celebrating in South Carolina at Brick Street Cafe

We just returned home this Easter weekend after a visit to South Carolina to celebrate my sister's birthday. Yay for birthdays and celebrations!!

One of our very special outings during the week was going to Brick Street Cafe for lunch. Tom was the dog sitter that day, so it was just us two sisters out on the town!

Just before going in we snapped a selfie at the top of that flight of steps:

The restaurant is quite eclectic inside:

And this unique bench greets customers. I learned that the cafe is famous for its Sweet Potato Cake. Hence, "Eat Da Cake" plaques were in various locations in the restaurant:

My sister Bet and I picked a table and proceeded to check out the menu:

The waitress recommended their famous chicken salad, fruit, and love muffin platter, so that's what I picked:

Here's my plate, and it was absolutely delicious! The love muffin lived up to the hype. It was filled with a dollop of raspberry jam and cream cheese and was served warm from the oven! I would definitely order this again:

And Bet's selection was a grilled cheese sandwich and tomato dill soup:

Normally, I never order dessert at a restaurant...but this time my sister had been treated to a gift card from her retirement party last year. So we were splurging to use it up!

Let's pick what flavor of cake we will order. What would you pick? We settled on the Sweet Potato, of course, and the Coconut Cake...we took them home...the slices were HUGE!

The chef who is famous for making the sweet potato cake was in the restaurant and allowed me to take her photo...her name is Miss Sue, and she told me she had been baking at the restaurant for 28 years. She's 92 and not thinking of retiring!

Here's a very interesting two-minute news clip that was made about her last year, and she tells the reporter no one likes to cook these days. But she loves to cook! And, I tell you, she's good at it!

We had a very nice birthday week all around...perusing a few unique gift shops, driving around the local area sightseeing after enjoying a birthday lunch at a Mexican Restaurant with Tom, and visiting Country Boys Greenhouse:

I hope everyone had a very enjoyable and beautiful Easter weekend! We are settling back into the normal routine back here at home and ready for some beautiful April weather to do some work outside.

~Deb

Guests Arrive at our B & B

Our recent guests are now settled into their own homes back in Connecticut and Massachusetts...but it sure was fun to have them here in Virginia for just a bit!

Have I ever mentioned that long ago I had a romantic dream that we could own a bed and breakfast and offer guests a place to stay here in our beautiful Valley...until I realized what that might mean to have various strangers appear on our doorstep.

A friend told me once that we already have a bed and breakfast...our home, not a business...and we could freely pick whom we wanted to host. Good advice!

Tom's sister Ellen and her husband Ed stopped by here for a couple of nights after their vacation in Florida. It was good to have them!  They introduced us to pickle ball in the driveway...a first for us!

Here's Tom with his look-alike sister Ellen:

After a morning of activities, we grabbed a pizza at Bella Luna's in Harrisonburg (I recommend the Ring of Fire).

And all too soon, it was time for them to head back to Connecticut. Come again, y'all!

Earlier this week, we hosted our friends, Tim and Donna. They've appeared on the blog before, and we always enjoy when they come. They were also headed back from Florida and stayed with us a couple of nights. What is this with everyone getting to go to Florida...without me???

On a side note: I've been to Florida only once in my life back in 2010. You can read about one part of the trip here. Who was reading the blog back then...14 years ago...and knew I won that trip? Leave a comment if you were one of the original blog readers back then. (I always respond back by email to every comment!)

Tim is a history buff and suggested Montpelier as a place to adventure to one day they were here. Montpelier is the home of James Madison, located about an hour and a quarter from us in Orange, Virginia.

Here we are having a little fun with the statues:

The tour inside the house was interesting...here are a few scenes. James Madison, bottom left, and his favorite picture he had painted of his wife Dolley, bottom right:

Some famous statues in the ornate sitting room:

Check out the dining room below with cutouts showing how they usually sat around the table...Dolley is at the head of the table because James didn't like to be in the spotlight. He enjoyed conversing with those men around him at the table, James Monroe and others.

In the far corner is James Madison's man-servant, Paul Jennings...a name I'd never heard before but one that our tour guide mentioned frequently in his lecture: The gardens and grounds were beautiful, too. Here we are with stunning flowering shrubs around us:

All the daffodils were in bloom. The day was absolutely gorgeous:

I loved reading these facts about the gardens..."a paradise of roses and flowers."

Click on the info plaque below to zoom up to read:

Just lovely!

This was the vegetable garden in winter below, partitioned off from the formal, landscaped gardens by a hand-crafted wooden fence. I would love to go back in the summer and see how they plant and tend the vegetable garden each year, if they actually do.

Heading out at the end of our tour, we were able to snap this photo that we missed when coming onto the property:
I thought the day was great...seeing new sights and being with friends!  Tom had never been to Montpelier before, but the kids and I had gone 30 years ago on a home school field trip. We still remember eating llama chili on the grounds at a festival, and the Montpelier mansion was then pink, yes pink brick!

Well, that catches you up on our recent excursions. We always thoroughly enjoy our B & B guests!

~Deb

Up Next: Celebrating my sister's birthday in South Carolina!

When UFOs Are Discovered Years Later...

Our 43rd wedding anniversary was this past August. That's 13 years past our 30th anniversary when I wrote this post - 30 Stars for 30 Years. It was a post about a wall quilt I planned to make to commemorate our 30th.

Beautiful quilt! But it never happened, even though I remember collecting the fabric for it.

Only recently, Annie...a stranger to me...someone who ran across my blog post, out of the blue commented and asked if I knew how to find a copy of the pattern 30 Stars for 30 Years. To be honest, I didn't even know where my pattern was!

Last week we were having some snow days...cozy inside sewing days...I set about looking for that pattern in earnest, in every bin full of scraps, batting, and fabric stashes that I had! Bins on the shelves, tubs of fabric under the sewing tables, bins piled full in the sewing closet. You get the idea...

So...what I did find is the subject of this post--UFOs...Un-Finished Objects in my sewing room. Who knew I had these??

This is the first one...totally complete and just needing to be taken to the quilter once I find appropriate backing. I don't know the pattern name or what Sew-Along it was..although it might be a variation of an Orange Slice quilt. Does anyone know? It's many years old!

And this one from back in 2010 (Rachel at P.S. I Quilt blog, now inactive). This quilt just needed a green border added...and again, I need to find some appropriate backing and give it a good steam pressing:

This one was done back in my early days of sewing...so it doesn't have accuracy in piecing...so not sure I want to invest quilting $$ in it:

This leaf wall hanging is the result of a class I took probably ten years ago from Patchwork Plus in Dayton. It's finished except for the quilting, and this one is small enough for me to sew on my machine...three sandwiched layers already pinned:

The backing matches perfectly:

Next up...4" Siggy Blocks (Signature Blocks). Any quilters out there remember those? Quilters from all across the country would trade blocks with other quilters with their signatures on them. These are dated 2009 and include the name and location of the quilter. I have a stack of siggy blocks to sew!

And there was also another stack of 6" Siggy Blocks (below, from 15 years ago!!) from not only quilters from across the United States, but lots of blocks were from Germany, England, Canada, and Australia! Any quilters have any ideas to share for how to sew up these blocks?

Most of these blocks have the name of the quilter and their blog address....the majority of which are no longer active. My block in this stack is the navy/muted floral one on the far right...I included a scripture (John 3:16, zoom to see closer) on the tons of blocks I made and sent to all these swappers across the globe.

These 16 blocks are finished for this quilt...sashings/borders only thing needed. This fabric is Central Park by Kate Spain and Moda (out of print):

The backing fabric is already purchased and is in the foreground of this photo:

And yet another quilt with 12 blocks finished. I guess I'm wondering WHY I stopped completing the projects with almost all of these quilts sewn. This fabric is Posh by Chez Moi, by Moda (sold out):

And lastly, these Simple Squares blocks....still need to sew 7 more (block within a block) with this Figgy Pudding (Basic Grey fabric) quilt. I started this in 2009 and followed the quilt along on the Sew Inspired blog (inactive):

This is the backing by Basic Grey and the blue grunge background. You can see the finished quilt example here. It's a Christmas-y/winter quilt:

Soooo, as you can see, I have my work cut out for me to finish some UFOs..before the Red & White Sew-Along starts!

And you ask...did I ever find the 30 Stars for 30 Years Pattern that I was searching for? 

Success! I did! The pattern was put in the mail today and is now winging its way to Annie, all the way across the country. I hope she has a fun time making this pattern.....it's one I'm going to Start and Finish so it will no longer be a UFO!

How about that? Who knows what one comment will bring forth?!!

~Deb

Meeting Our New Grandson in Michigan!

Happy January, 2024, Everyone!  It certainly has been a busy and happy year for us so far!

We just returned from faraway Michigan (an 11.5 hour drive plus stops from Virginia!) where we visited Hannah and Christopher and their new baby boy! He was two weeks and two days old when we arrived, and it was wonderful to see him at this newborn stage!

While we were there, we settled in for several days of some cuddling, cooking, cleaning, and celebrating!

Here's Grandpa in the nursery with Psalm 1:3 calligraphed by Hannah on his wall:

"And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper."

Hannah seemed so excited to be a mom! So very thankful for a healthy baby!

I love being a Granny! This is grandchild #9, eighth boy!

The very grateful and proud parents--such a delightful family of three:

One of the days we were there, we celebrated Hannah's 40th birthday!! We planned to take her out on a lunch date, even though the roads were icy and snowy; and we weren't sure we wanted to tackle taking a newborn out on such a messy day!

But...we decided to think (and drive!) like a Michigander and headed out to the pizza restaurant she had chosen.

Here's the birthday girl with baby tucked away in a corner, sleeping the entire time! Success!

Hannah and I shared a Chicago Deep Dish--a masterpiece! Chicken BBQ:

We enjoyed the outing very much and were so happy that we could celebrate with Hannah on her special day!

Once we returned home (praise the Lord for safety on the roads and no accidents!), I started making Hannah's birthday meal for that evening. Here are her choices:

I had never made Chicken Tikka Masala before, but it turned out to be a very easy recipe to prepare and was delicious:

One of Hannah's favorite cakes is Hummingbird Cake...but since that's quite involved, she picked an easier substitute that was quite tasty...Easy Moist Pineapple Cake.

She's ready to blow out her birthday candles--the baby stayed content and was nursing away:

Both Hannah and Sarah decorate their homes with seasonal quilts, and Hannah had long ago asked for a Valentine's quilt. After supper, she opened her birthday gifts...and tada...I can finally post what I worked on last February now that it's gifted:

I think she was quite surprised actually and loved it! Success!

This quilt pattern is called Woven Hearts by The Pattern Basket.

 

Since I haven't posted since Christmas, I need to post a photo of the seasonal quilt I also gifted to Sarah when they visited for the holidays. She had asked for a patriotic quilt. This one is called Stars and Stripes by Thimble Blossoms.

Since I forgot to take a photo while they were here, here's Sarah in her home displaying her quilt:

While we were visiting in Michigan, we grabbed a chance to see Christopher's family. They invited us over for a very delicious meal and a sweet time of fellowship. Here are the Michigan Grandaddy and the Virginia Grandpa during the hymn singing time:

The baby's first outing over to the grandparents' house:

The Aunties:

The Uncles:

The Michigan Grandma and the Virginia Granny....hot chocolate and hymn time:

What a wonderful trip...seeing Hannah and Christopher again...and especially our newest grandson, the best gift this Christmas!

It was a privilege to be able to pitch in and help with taking down the Christmas decorations, various household tasks, and treating Hannah to some at-home girly spa activities. 

Celebrating Hannah's birthday was also a great highlight of the trip! And renewing our friendship with the in-laws was, as usual, a fun, fun time!

One last snuggling session before leaving:

Thankfully, we made it safely home before this happened the next day! That's just windblown drifts against the glass door...but still!

Thank you Hannah and Christopher! We loved being there!

~Deb

Over the River and Up the Mountain to Granny's House We Go....

We are eagerly awaiting the arrival of these five balls of energy! Are they not the most adorable all dressed up for church?!

So, of course, we've been busy getting things ready, prepping the foods they like, and all the things grannies do to make Granny and Grampa's house a place they want to come visit more often!

For those of you awaiting news of the newest grandson's arrival...Hannah and Christopher had their baby on Wednesday evening! It was a very long laborious all night and all day for them, but the end result of a healthy baby boy was worth it!  Hannah is doing well!

We are praising the Lord for such a special gift this Christmas! We'll be going to see the little one in person sometime soon and will post pictures then.

Merry Christmas from our home to yours! 

~Deb

Christmas Prepping on Old Greenville Road

Over the River and Through the Woods...to Jonathan's house we go!

We always love being invited over to Jonathan's place and enjoy riding on the country roads to get there:

We were greeted with his house on the hill being all lit up for Christmas! Side Note: It's still pumpkins and Thanksgiving decor at our house!

Saturday morning was buying-a-tree and decorating-it day for him. So he invited us over for our traditional tree trimming party afterwards of orange danish rolls and hot apple cider.

When we arrived, we spied two gifts already under the tree...for us, he said...trim the tree party gifts! What?! Now...is this a new tradition he's starting?  :)

The wrapping paper he picked was quite perfect for him!

And we found him busy in the kitchen with food prep:

We enjoyed putting on the ornaments while Christmas music played in the background:

One of his special ornaments from childhood from his Aunt Ellen:

And this one he received as a celebration of him moving into his new home last December from his Aunt Toots: The taco soup I brought over as the supper offering hit the spot on a rainy evening:

And, of course, the celebratory orange danish rolls were the dessert--always delish!

We concluded the fun evening by playing the Double Six Dominoes game Jonathan had placed under the tree for me:

All around it was a very enjoyable time and a great start to the Christmas season!

Looking forward to enjoying a meal with extended family at Jonathan's after Christmas!

~Deb