Saturday Snapshot

'Ghostly Figurehead' - 10/30/15

I went to the Custom House Maritime Museum in Newburyport, MA yesterday to meet up with a friend, have some walk and talk time, and have lunch. This is the only shot I took in the museum. the statue is a wooden model of Lady Justice, but it looked like a figurehead to me. It was positioned by the window overlooking the harbor and beside a glass case with a gorgeous model of a clipper ship. The photo inspired me to make a Halloween card for you all!

Happy Halloween!

shared at Saturday Snapshot

Saturday Snapshot - Pinwheels Finally Finished!

The Mill Girls' Pinwheels quilt is finally done, folks! I started this quilt two years ago at a quilt retreat. The top was finally finished this spring, but I couldn't find a backing fabric that I liked, so I set it aside for other projects.

On my way home from THIS year's quilt guild retreat, I stopped at a fabric store in Henniker, NH and came upon this beautiful brick colored backing fabric. Super wide (and super expensive - eek!), but just perfect for this quilt.

I snapped up the yardage, wrote the check, and didn't look back! My friend Susan Bowles put the quilt on her long-arm machine and did a simple  all over lattice stitch. It continues the ultra-traditional nature of the quilt pattern. No fancy border, just a big old utilitarian quilt for a full-sized bed. Final measurement - 80 x 86 inches.

It's my new favorite ... but aren't all the new ones faves?

... shared at Saturday Snapshot ...

Click on the link to see what others are sharing this week!

Saturday Snapshot ... Farewell Summer!

The last weekend of summer and I have been lucky enough to have one last dip in the pond near my home ... so farewell, summer!

Check out other snapshots ... HERE !

Saturday Snapshot ... This I Believe

It's Saturday morning and it's starting to feel like summertime. The gardens are coming on. While the comfrey draws hoards of fat bumbling bees and the chive plants draw me out to cut long spears for snipping over mashed taters or tearing and adding to the garden green salads that are plentiful now, the finest of early June flowers fade in the porch bouquet. The white bleeding heart has crisped its hearts on the stem and the deep purple columbine has dropped its delicate petals in a perfect circle beneath the flowers. Their time was glorious, but gone and it reminds me that time is fleeting.

Our time is short in the scheme of things and we'd best chew the chives, enjoy the greens, dig in the soil to set the basil and move on to other good garden deeds. Sharing the strawberries with the neighbors and the chipmunks, dividing the perennials and passing some on to friends, scrubbing the watering can and sprinkling the rose bushes with some insecticidal soap so they come to bloom, rising in a sweat from weeding chores to wave a neighbor on their way down the dirt road, making time to sit in the garden and sip coffee on sunny mornings, and marveling at the seasonal splendor seems crucial these days. These flowers, these berries, these opportunities for connection, this sunrise will never be again. They're to be appreciated now and wondered on ...

Indeed, time is fleeting. It's never too early to realize that we are a speck in the grander scheme of things. We have very little chance of making a difference in the grand scheme of God's plan, but we can surely make great things happen in our little 'back yard'. So my thought is to care for plants, animals, and friends - new, old, and unknown. If I can live this premise, I can't go wrong.

This, I believe.

shared at Saturday Snapshot

Hands2Help Quilt - Tra-La!

This small quilt has been a labor of love on a couple of levels. 

Saturday Snapshot ... Lilacs !!!

My bank account may say I'm poor as a church mouse, but during lilac season I feel as rich as a queen!

... shared at Melinda Ott's Saturday Snapshot photoshare because everyone should experience springtime lilacs ...

Saturday Snapshot ...

This past week, I went away with some friends from my quilting guild. We had a retreat in Waterville Valley, New Hampshire. For three days, we shared sewing tips, worked on our individual projects and a few community service sewing projects, yakked about all things sewing, drank good wine, walked in the sunshine when we needed a break from the sewing studio, and ate really well.

There were thousands of fabric pieces worked with over the course of three days. 

There was a lot of cutting going on too !

Of course, there was a ton of ironing to be done ... some would say too much!

In the end, though, it's all about the finished quilt tops ...

... and there were some beauties!

We had a couple fun raffles too ... I ended up winning an Ott light for mounting on my sewing machine. We old lady quilters need all the light we can get!

On the way home, I stopped at a huge quilt shop in Center Harbor, New Hampshire and bought a palette of batiks to use in my next big quilt project. I'm in hog heaven with all these colors ...

shared at Saturday Snapshot 

Check out the other snapshot posts at Melinda Ott's website. Just hit the link above!

Saturday Snapshot - Spring!

Here I go again! This time, I'm making a quilt for a cause. Spring has arrived here in New Hampshire, but the winter cold just holds on. It snowed yesterday and is flurrying today, the second day of Spring. I am in need  of color, so I've pre-washed and ironed the colors of sunshine and warm summertime skies and am starting a quilt that will be donated to a child in foster care who needs some love and care.

The borders, backing and edging are purchased and waiting for a pre-wash and ironing, before I begin cutting the pieces. As long as this cold weather continues, I'll keep on piecing quilts. For all my friends out there in cyberspace that like sewing, this quilt is being made as part of an on-line project called Hands2Help. If you're curious, you can click on the image in my sidebar here at Buch Handling and it will take you to Sarah Craig's site, Confessions of a Fabric Addict. Sarah is organizing the project and has a great introductory post that explains the charities and deadlines for completing the quilts.

I lamented the lack of crocuses and daffodils this week. Instead of moping too much, SB and I hosted a St Patrick's Day dinner party and bought a big bouquet of Easter color flowers. Spring colors are perking me up! The real deal out in the yard can't be too far off! Happy Spring!

... shared at Saturday Snapshot, Melinda's weekly photoshare at West Metro Mommy Reads

Saturday Snapshots ...

There's still a great deal of snow in the Northeast... let that be said.

So much snow leads to indoor activities that become obsessive...

One has to fortify oneself with tempting foods ...

There always seems to be just ONE MORE snowfall to clean up after ...

It takes a lot of carbs to keep one's energy level stoked for snow shovelling.

Even Mimi looks forward to extra doggie treats after a snowy Frisbee romp.

Me? I look for color in a white world ...

... and dream of summertime flowers.

... shared at SaturdaySnapshots

Saturday Snapshot - Christmas Sewing Complete!

This little elf was a busy one in the days right before Christmas! By Christmas Eve, the final binding was being sewn onto the quilt that I gifted to my friend who lives next door.

Jenna's favorite color is purple, so I used a pattern from the 'block of the month' challenge that is a routine in my little quilt guild to make her the most randomly purple quilt that I could. I think she liked it!

It will fit on her twin-sized bed and can be a wall hanging down the line or a couch coverlet. It really came out nicely. Merry Christmas, Jenna! Thanks for all your good company and all the love you give to the kitties and Corgis here in the grey cottage!

shared with other photographers at Melinda's photoshare 

Saturday Snapshot

Saturday Snapshot - Hello Snow!

Hope everyone's Thanksgiving was wonderful ... ours was ushered in on a million and a half snowflakes! By Thanksgiving morning, there was about a foot of new snow to make everything lovely! Thankfully, the power remained on so that I could roast the Thanksgiving turkey and make the pie! Our daughter, Sara got all excited after dinner and bundled up to go with her Dad to cut ' the Christmas branch' for her tiny Boston apartment! Such excitement!

Too bad the whole family didn't get in on this photo ... could have been the holiday card! Oh well. Happy Christmas from the grey cottage on the hill !!! Now, let's have some eggnog!

shared with other photographers at Saturday Snapshot ... check out the other contributions!

First Snow - Saturday Snapshot

The change of seasons is coming on here in my rural backwater. This week brought us the first snow.

The early morning view from the kitchen was all pink and grey and white ... a lovely start to the day.

The Halloween pumpkins looked positively garish under their snowy caps ... poor Jacks. They'll soon be food for the chipmunks and squirrels.

The terrace bricks had nice snowy borders ... a strange phenomenon that has me wondering.

Little Bee was content to sit in the sun and let the rays shine pink through his ears ... and wrestle with a boot lace.

... shared with others at Melinda Ott's weekly photo share called Saturday Snapshot ...

Saturday Snapshot --- Little Bee

...  Little Bee turned 5 weeks old on Thursday. He's got some growing to do if he's ever to fit into those double front paws. They are like snowboots on him right now. He walks and trots like a Clydesdale  ...

... Bee can't go far yet, as we worry about the dogs' pestering, so Opey and the baby gate keep him confined to the upstairs bedroom ...

... Bee is not amused and would like the gate to go away so further exploration could be accomplished ...

shared at Saturday Snapshot, hosted by Melinda Ott over at West Metro Mommy Reads

Saturday Snapshot

... the view from my back door ...

The sugar maples are peaking here in New England. Fall is definitely here and the first  of the fall rains have moved in for the weekend. The rain and gloomy skies only make those reds seem more brilliant, though. This is the tree that I wake up to every morning and each morning over the past week it's become more and more beautiful.

... a leafy mosaic ...

Its leaves cover our little gravel walkway out to the mailbox and nestle down amongst the fall plantings. It's such a pretty time of year.

shared at Saturday Snapshot