Wow, August is Almost Over!

 This has been a super busy summer.  I don't even know where to begin!  So I will be random.  Quilts will be in the post!  I had more company and also met my daughter halfway to pick up my two oldest grandkids so they could have a bit of harvest.  Our weather has been so dry harvest was very early, and the yields were down quite a bit.  While the kids were here and because of the super dry summer, fires have been rampant in the norhwest.  On Wednesday, August 11 a fire started several miles from here and quite a bit lower in elevation.  It quickly went out of control and into the wooded canyons.  My husband is a volunteer fire fighter and had already plowed fire breaks around our house and fields.  By Friday night we were in danger, but I didn't realize how much!  The fire traveled 8.7 miles up the canyon and was stopped by a backfire .7 miles from our house!  It did not cross the highway thankfully.  My husband was out fighting fire and the biggest danger was flying embers with the dry ground and lots of trees.  These pictures are from one of our fields on the edge of the canyon.  Thanks to hundreds of firefighters, including farmers and loggers the fire was contained at 11,205 acres.

I have gotten several shop sample tops done and have actually worked on some of my own projects, but not too much!  I helped my 7 year old granddaughter sew an apron when she was here.  She was very proud and wanted to bake.  Only it was so hot and we don't have air conditioning so I was avoiding the oven!  She did enjoy setting the table in her apron!

The pictures below are all shop sample quilt tops!

The fabrics glow in the dark!

Ending 2019 with Quilting and Family

Time flew from Thanksgiving on!  After traveling for Thanksgiving I quilted 3 small quilts for a friend.  I am trying not to overload this post with too many photos, but there are quite a few!

Two of them were You are My Sunshine quilts that I did thread painting on.  It was a lot of fun.

detail of quilting

 The backing for the Santa quilt was a minkie/velour type fabric.  The dimension of the quilting on the backing was amazing!

I participated in a Secret Santa Swap and made this tree wallhanging for my assigned person.  I used an Improv tree tutorial.  It was fun to make and I would love to make another one with bigger blocks for myself.  Unfortunately I have yet to receive a gift so that is sad.  The person keeps saying she will mail it but she had "forgotten" who I was!

 Every year at my school we make these paint filled glass ornaments.  They are so interesting to see the color combos and how they turn out.  Next year I think I am going to leave black out of the options of paint bottles. 

 I also organized these lighted snowman ornaments. 

My oldest daughter and husband and 3 kids came to visit for Christmas.  We hosted some of my husband's family for Christmas Eve.  It was fun to have kids here!

This is Kathryn - age 5 months.  The quilt is an old one on the back of the couch.

 My grandson Jared is 8 and loves machines of all types.  Since it was not farming season he saw my Brother Innovis BQ 350 machine and it has a touch screen.  He loves to figure out how things work and he taught me things about my machine!  He wanted to sew so I got out my pile of pre-cut 6" scrap squares.  Some of the fabrics are less than pretty and are an accumulation from several sources.  He was very diligent and we ended up with three machines set up and Nicole was in charge of putting squares together for others to sew.  The first top was quite interesting and my daughter Amy sewed it in offset rows as the corners would not have matched well!  It needs squared up and borders added and then finished and donated!

 After Christmas my husband and I were scheduled to fly to Kentucky to visit our younger daughter and her family.  Unfortunately my husband woke up very ill and couldn't make the trip.  I was a bit paranoid during my all day trip (3 planes) that I was going to get sick, but did not.  Several people from our Christmas Day dinner with relatives (not at my house!) got the stomach bug. 

On the first full day there we walked across the river to Indiana!  I have added two states to my collection of those traveled in.  We did get to visit with a niece who lives about an hour and a half from my daughter.

Finn loves slides!

Remy is a lefty and loves coloring

Look for another post soon with my first finish of 2020!

Happy Veteran's Day

Thanks to all those who have served and protected our great country.  This picture is of  my BIL and my two nephews.  My BIL was college ROTC and retired after serving for over 20 years.  He never saw conflict however.  He spent one tour as Director of Curriculum at West Point.  Both nephews are West Point graduates and one served in Afghanistan and currently based at Fort Knox and the other is currently in Europe "somewhere" and is based at Fort Hood.

I have had a lot going on.  I went to a quilt show in Spokane., WA and had a weekend getaway there with a friend from western Washington.  We set up our machines in the hotel and had a mini retreat.  I saw an amazing number of quilts at the show. 

My oldest daughter and 3 kids came to visit for a weekend and another weekend we went to Boise to say goodbye to our younger daughter, husband and the twins.  They arrived safely in Louisville, Ky and moved into their new house over the weekend.  The twins traveled beautifully, spending 4 days in the car with my daughter while her husband drove the U-Haul.

This past weekend I was at a quilt retreat sponsored by Your Best Friend's Quilt Shop, the shop I made samples for.  I finished several more samples and have one left.  I didn't get pictures of two of them, I kept staring at my phone willing the pictures to be there. 

John Wayne quilt kit - twin size - shop sample

block closeup

calculator wallhanging shop sample

pillow tops shop sample to go with the calculator

snowman bed runner - forgot to rotate the photo!

Nest Stop North Pole flannel quilt top - shop sample

Next Stop North Pole shop sample in flannel

 Linking up with Design Wall Monday.

Baby Quilts

I recently made some baby quilts and the recipients have them so I can post pictures!  There are seven more days of school left this school year and I have lots of great quilting plans for the summer.  I usually do all my outside work/house chores in the mornings so I can quilt in my basement in the afternoons where it is cooler.

This is the first quilt.  I made it for my new great niece, Evelyn Rose born in April.  I had struggled with what to make and finally saw the raw edge bullseye rose pattern and knew that was it.  Then I had to acquire pinks.  I wanted to stay a bit more on the pastel side.  I finally got it made and quilted.  I gave it a wash to fluff it up.

Roses for Evelyn Rose

embossed rose minkie backing showing the rose quilting

Evelyn Rose on her baby quilt

I have a new granddaughter scheduled to arrive in early July.  My daughter Amy sent me a palette of colors she would like and wanted flowers.  She made a mobile of fake flowers in these colors.  We found the floral fabric online from the Butterfly Haven line.  She suggested triangles or hearts.  This is what I came up with.  It is quilted with hearts!  I delivered it to her this weekend.

This next one isn't a baby quilt, more of a lap/recliner quilt for a dear friend.  She is so giving and I decided to make her a quilt for her birthday.  The only problem was her birthday was May 16th and I decided to do this on Mother's Day!  Since my husband was busy working all day in the fields I had a free day.  I didn't take a picture of the backing, it is Care Bears.  She loves Care Bears and I knew it would be perfect for her as she is so caring of others.  I found a floral fabric in my stash (she sent me flowers for Mother's Day) and a couple coordinates and this is what I came up with.  I made the entire quilt start to finish that day.  I quilted flowers in the floral fabrics and a very wiggly line through the other fabrics.  I delivered it to her on her birthday and she was thrilled.

This past week I was on a two day overnight field trip with the 5th and 6th graders.  I think we put on about 500 miles on the bus!  We traveled to Central Washington and a town along the Columbia River in Oregon studying agriculture.  We had a great guide and some interesting tours at dairies and feed lots and potato processing plant along with the Sage Center in Boardman, OR.

I barely had time to do a load of laundry and pack up before we headed out 12 hours later for Boise to visit our daughters and grandkids.  It's hard to get 4 kids to all look at you with good expressions at the same time.  The twins, Finn and Remy, are 18 months old now, Nicole is 5 and Jared will be 8 in August.  Jared and Nicole are the ones having a new baby sister!

 Linking up with Design Wall Monday.