Seeds of Kindness Progress Report

Here is my Seeds of Kindness progress picture. It doesn't look like much, but it is growing. I added on the left and bottom rows. It now measures 21" x 23" now. With the addition of my new pieces...

It will be five times this large. Here are the 205 pieces cut out and ready to add on. The adding on will take lots of time. I hope none of you are bored to tears hearing about this for the foreseeable future. I will only post a picture of the quilt once a week as an update.

If you just started reading my blog and wonder what in the world is going on, several ladies have donated 4" x 5" pieces to further my Thimbleberries charm quilt. It is an apple core quilt that I'm calling Seeds of Kindness.

Have a great day!

~Joan

More Kindness Pouring In

These packets are popping up like my gray hairs. Every time I turn around, there's another one...or two... Two more envelopes in today's mail. The letter carrier is starting to be suspicious about why I'm so happy to see him daily.

These are from Deb. Some Thimbleberries, and a few extras.

Jeanne graciously shared these from her stash. Am I blessed, or what?

I am going to cut out today's arrivals, then I hope to get an idea of how large the quilt (Seeds of Kindness) will be after all these additions. It takes a long time to cut pieces by hand. My hat is off to those ladies so long ago who never saw a rotary cutter!

~Joan

Rip It?

Above are more Seeds of Kindness from Paula. I only had ONE of these...isn't that incredible? This is my 3rd batch of over 40 pieces. These are some vintage pieces...I'm not even sure Lynette would remember them, LOL! But they are so pretty.

Paula even sent me a couple I Spy prints as a bonus. She's been reading my blog and knows about our I Spy quilt fetish around here. Thanks, Paula!

The frog fabric on the left inspired my "rip it?" title. Just wanted to make you curious.

~Joan, off for a little hand quilting on my string quilt

Scrappy Stars Quarter

This is approximately one quarter of Rachel's Scrappy Stars quilt. I think it should be called Kitchen Sink, because there's every fabric in there but.

Rachel webbed the top then was tired of sewing. She asked me to finish it. So here's where we are so far. I was eager to see what the border would look like on it, so I put together enough blocks to get a good idea.

I used the same fabric for all the stars to give it a little cohesiveness. Scraps rule!

Got another Seed packet in the mail today. Picture tomorrow. Thanks, Pauline.

~Joan

More Seeds of Kindness

Another new b-friend, Karen, graciously sent me 42 pieces of Thimbleberries (with only ONE repeat from my previous collection--isn't that amazing?) for my Seeds of Kindness quilt and some extras. She included a recipe for chocolate chip apple cake, the travel-sized Kleenex cover (front right--made from TB, how thoughtful!), and six flower-topped spool/bobbin organizers (and daisies are my favorite flower!). She sells on eBay as "sewmanyways". Back to more commercial-free reading.

I have been overwhelmed with the first 4 contributions towards my Seeds of Kindness quilt. I have cut every single piece from the template. So now all I lack is lots of time. I am slowly making progress on it. Keep in mind that it's all hand-cut and hand-pieced.

Have a great quilty day, and cheer someone up!

~Joan

Bacon Rolls, Anyone?

It all started when I got a phone call after supper last night..."Hello? is this Elisabeth's Home Baked Goodies?" In the fraction of a second, I deducted that this here was a desperate person, a former customer of my eldest daughter's baking business, that said daughter who just recently started working full-time would be unavailable to bake anything quickly, that my next oldest daughter wouldn't be home until Wednesday PM, and did I want to earn a few dollars? "Yes," I answered. "How can I help you?"

The correctly-diagnosed-frantic-woman just remembered that she had agreed to bring 3 dozen "breakfast-type appetizers" for her son's teachers for this AM. Did we have anything we sold like that? Well, there's no dignity here--everything's for sale!

Early this AM she came by and picked up 3 dozen bacon rolls, with 3 extras for her to sample on her drive to the school.

Here are the stars of the show today...

You will need 3 cans of crescent rolls (one has been prepared and appears stage left), one 8-ounce cream cheese (softened), 1/2 cup sour cream, and bacon bits. We buy the economy-size bacon bits package. Well, we buy the economy-sized everything.
Use a mixer to cream the cream cheese, then add in the sour cream until well mixed. Open up the crescent rolls into a rectangle and seal all the seams. Spread 1/3 of the white stuff over the crescent rolls, up to 1/2" from the edge all the way around. Sprinkle lightly with bacon bits.
Starting on the long side of the rectangle, roll up tightly. Place on greased baking sheet, about 20 to a sheet (I can fit 4 rows of 5). Bake per crescent roll directions (375* for 11 minutes for us). Remove from backing sheets and place on cooling rack.

Ahhh (deep appreciative sigh), the finished product. Susanna made these, but had to leave for a babysitting job, so I did the last half and clean up.

Enjoy this calorie-free picture!

These are even good (possibly better) completely cool, so you can make them ahead for a brunch or a portable snack.

This batch makes 48 (if you get 16 rolls from each can of crescent rolls).

~Joan

Snail Mail Treat

I got these goodies from Kairle yesterday. As with Eileen and Ruth's donations, I could hardly wait to cut my apple core piece from them. They are all marked and trimmed and in the "waiting room" for this quilt. I'm not sure how large the quilt will be when it's finished, but it will be a large happy memory for me, and aren't those the best kind of all?

Kairle added the Daffodil Principle book, a packet of fall decor buttons (I love pumpkins), and a beautiful note card along with over 40 pieces of Thimbleberries. Only ONE was a repeat! Incredible!

~Joan

Three Narcissus Occurences? Narcissuses, Narcissi?

The word Narcissus came up not once, not twice, but THREE times today. Kairle sent me a beautifully illustrated copy of the Daffodil Principle. I had never read it, but I did find a copy of it here (with musical accompaniment). The story is inspiring. Read it!

It moved me to go dig up and replant some of my very crowded daffodils (second sighting of the word). Spread the joy, you know! Daffodils and narcissus are the same thing. I couldn't find the correct form of the plural anywhere. Maybe narcissus, moose, and sheep are all in that black hole of non-changing plural words. I am sore all over from the digging, bending, etc. Not a pretty sight. And there's not enough Absorbine Junior in the world to make me feel better. I can barely wait to wake up in the morning! NOT!

Daffodils are the flowers that symbolize friendship. So stick a daffodil in your hat and be happy!

The third instance this word came up? During our family's devotional time, the apostle Paul, in the book of Romans (chapter 16:11) was thanking and naming many people. One of them (one of the few I could pronounce easily, BTW) was Narcissus. Ironically, we go around the room and each read a couple verses. We all sit in different places every night, but that was one of MY verses!

I wonder what type of person he was. Narcissism is "inordinate fascination with oneself; excessive self-love; vanity" from dictionary.com, where I found out that my title does contain the 2 acceptable forms of plural narcissus. His mother must not have been aware of the meaning, because Paul's admonition was to "Greet those in the Lord who belong to the family of Narcissus". I'm quite sure he didn't mean the daffodil family!

Well, there's your friendship, gardening, and Bible lessons for tonight. You're welcome.

~Joan

Seed Packets of Kindness

Today I received three seed packets of kindness in the mail. Above is the contents of the first one. I didn't have any of these. Many thanks to Ruth. Check out her blog.

I'll wait until tomorrow to show you another one. Thank you again for your generosity.

~Joan, off to hand quilt on old faithful until our PM devotional time

Joanie Appleseed Strikes Again

One of my new blogger friends has dubbed me Joanie Appleseed. That cracks me up. My childhood acquaintances all call me Joanie. Kind of takes me back...

I am sewing less and less. There are other things that need my attention. I am trying to do the right thing. I will have quilty projects to share here and there, but the volume will no doubt be greatly decreasing.

I'm teaching Rachel (10) how to piece. I do all the cutting, but she is doing all the sewing and pressing. She is an eager student, to put it mildly. She is making a Scrappy Stars quilt.




Also on the sewing/quilting front, I'm going to make a template for my apple seeds (isn't that what Joanie Appleseed should do?) for my apple quilt that I showed you a couple days ago. I am going to quilt seeds in the apples and apples in the triangles in the border. I made this exact quilt years ago, but it lives at our pastor's house now. That one was all hand-quilted. I still have the paper apple that I used for a template, so I'll reuse that.

I have the binding prepared, so I'll at least sew the sleeve and binding on today. The hand work will wait until later.

~Joan