April is Flying By!

Where has the month gone?  I haven't a clue.  My daughter and grandkids visited for 8 days and the next weekend my other daughter and husband were here.  I went to two quilt shows and did yard work.  Now I am getting ready for a quilt retreat this weekend!  It's taking me awhile to cut out my project, the 6" blocks for Farm Girl Vintage.  I have 3 blocks made and will take the other 45 blocks with me to sew up.  It is time consuming to cut out sampler blocks!   

My big finish for the month was my Fire Island Hosta.  Below are photos of it with closeups of the quilting.  I had fun with free motion.  It's hard to stuff a 100 X 100 quilt through my Pfaff Grand Quilter, but I did it!  I set up extra tables around me to hold the bulk.

 I had pre-entered the quilt in the Palouse Patchers quilt show in Moscow, ID.  I am not a member of the guild due to distance but this is the third time I have entered in their show.  I am glad I had the deadline or I wouldn't have gotten it finished!  The photo below is a bit blurry, but you can see my ribbons I shockingly won!  All voting is done by members before the show and viewer's choice is voted on Saturday by quilt show attendees.  Since I had company I didn't get to the show until Sunday and I also needed to pick up my quilt that afternoon.  I won Viewer's Choice - Large quilts and First in Machine Piecing!

Below is my favorite quilt in the show.  I loved all the detail and I didn't get the name of the quilt!  I like to take pictures of the tags so I can remember these things and I didn't do it.

detail of the above quilt.  I loved the rivet accents.

I got this old UFO quilted in March and finished the binding in April.  It was from 2000-2001 and was a row robin with the Pat Sloan Yahoo group back then.

This is also the last picture of our cat I accidentally  took.  I had him put down last week at age 17 1/2.
We got him at 5 weeks old.

quilting detail in the border

I also finished my Folk Art Album quilt in memory of my friend Debi.  She gave me the kit.  I started it in 2009!  I hand stitched all the wool applique onto flannel.  I just stippled the backfround for some dimension.

Folk Art Album

quilting and stitching closeup

an outdoor shot of the quilt

I went to the Seaport Quilters show last weekend in Clarkston, WA.  It was fun to meet up with my friend Mary from Washington!  I was also with three local friends, and had a great day.  

Now to some non-quilting pictures!  My husband loves to take our grandson on adventures with a neighbor and his grandson.  They were dressed as Daniel Boone and went looking for treasure with maps and yes, that is a pretend hatchet!   They walked a long way through fields, woods, crossed a creek and there was a clearing where they somehow found the makings for grilled cheese sandwiches, Jared's favorite food!  The boys found a treasure box with chocolate coins and real coins and thought it was great fun.

My daughter and I drove to Sandpoint, ID, my second trip that week, seven hour round trip!  We picked up sandwiches and ate them on Lake Pend Oreille. Nicole went with us, and was a pretty traveler.  She loved the sand and the play equipment at this park.

Nicole at Lake Pend Oreille

Jared was a Fireman for Halloween last year and brought his costume so he could go to the volunteer firefighters meeting with Grandpa.  He loves to be with Grandpa and we were doing some farming during the time he was here which thrilled him.  He rode in trucks and tractors.    

Doug, Jared and Nicole.  She was actually dressed for bed but loves being outside.

When our younger daughter was here the next weekend we went for a walk. This windmill was originally put up by Doug's father and grandfather in the early 30's.  They sold the property in the 40's and we acquired it in 2010.  There is a house on the property we rent out and we farm the fields.   Doug rebuilt the base for the windmill and all the blades are in good shape.  It doesn't actually pump water now, but it's a great keepsake.  In the field behind it we have the first release of Huffman wheat planted, named after our son Brad.  Here is the link to the blog post I wrote about the wheat. 

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