August UFO #5

This is a top I have had completed for several years.  I really should quilt it sometime as I LOVE it!  The pattern is Fossil Fern Fantasy and was in Australian Patchwork and Quilting in about 2004.  The magazine says volume 12 no 10, no dates anywhere.  I'm going by an ad I found inside for something happening in Feb. 2005.  My friend Deb had the magazine and gave it to me.  I made the quilt top at a retreat a few years ago and used Fossil Fern fabrics.  I love the colors and patterns of Fossil Fern, really dislike the feel and weight of them.  They weren't inexpensive fabrics but the they have no body.  Nowadays I would use Best Press to add body for cutting.  I used the leftovers at retreat and made a Sudoku quilt for charity.  Of course I still have more leftovers...

Fossil Fern Fantasy 64" square

New Wheat Variety Honoring My Son Brad

On July 8, 2014 my family was honored at the University of Idaho field day at Kambitsch Farms near Genesee, ID.  A new wheat variety was being released in honor of our son Brad.  Both girls were able to be here along with their husbands and Amy's two kids.  This is what I wrote regarding Brad's death.  His last college advisor turned boss, Jack Brown, worked hard on the release of this wheat that Brad had identified as having good disease resistance and good yield.  The new wheat is called UI/WSU Huffman and will be marketed by Limagrain and all proceeds from royalties that would normally go to the breeder are going into the Bradley Huffman Memorial Scholarship at U of I.  It is quite an honor and goes to show the respect the industry had for Brad, although he was only 22.  We miss him every single day and will forever and will always wonder at the how someone so healthy could die so suddenly.  Worse things happen to families but it's been a tough year.  Here are some links to articles and newscasts written about the event.

Capital Press

Western Farmer Stockman

KLEW TV video

Lewiston Morning Tribune - subscription needed so here is the text of the article.

New wheat honors UI graduate

Bradley Huffman, an enthusiastic student of plant breeding, died unexpectedly this past year at 22

Tribune/Steve Hanks

University of Idaho plant breeder Jack Brown talks with Julie and Doug Huffman as they look over the new soft white winter wheat that will be named UI-WSU Huffman in honor of their son, UI College of Agricultural and Life Sciences alumnus Bradley Huffman, who died last year at age 22.

Posted: Wednesday, July 9, 2014 12:00 am | Updated: 8:24 am, Wed Jul 9, 2014.

By ELIZABETH RUDD of the Tribune |

GENESEE - Bradley Huffman's interest in plant breeding began at an early age - and to some, he was a natural. That's why Jack Brown felt it was fitting for the new wheat variety released jointly from the University of Idaho and Washington State University to be named after the recent UI graduate, who unexpectedly died in June 2013 at age 22.

"Brad Huffman, to many people, is a name you're not familiar with, but to the people at UI, it's a name you've been familiar with for quite a long time," said Brown, a UI plant breeder.

Brown announced the new soft white winter wheat variety named UI-WSU Huffman during a field day Tuesday at UI's Kambitsch Farm off of U.S. Highway 95 near Genesee. The field day also had updates on wheat variety trials, as well as discussion about the collaborative research and breeding efforts by UI and Limagrain Cereal Seeds, including an agreement to license and market the Huffman variety exclusively. Limagrain Cereal Seeds is a joint venture among the French Farmers Cooperative, Limagrain through Vilmorin and Co., and Arcadia Biosciences in Davis, Calif.

Brown told a crowd of farmers, researchers, students and community members that he sincerely thought the Huffman variety was one of the best-looking wheats because of its disease resistance, high quality and high yields capability. He said he anticipated seeing high production numbers of the variety in the next couple years once the wheat becomes commercialized.

Huffman grew up on his family's farm near Cavendish and graduated from high school in 2009, before attending UI, where he graduated from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

Huffman's parents, Julie and Doug Huffman, said their son expressed interest in plant breeding as early as junior high. The couple said Tuesday they were honored to have their son remembered with the wheat naming, though it was an emotional day.

"It's certainly mixed feelings," Doug Huffman said. "It's a tremendous honor. At the same time it's because of his death, so it's mixed feelings."

Doug Huffman told those in attendance Tuesday that he and his family were able to gain insight into his son's life through the photos Bradley took. Some of the last images he snapped included this particular wheat variety.

"It's been a really tough year for us," Doug Huffman said.

Brown said Bradley Huffman was actively involved in UI's wheat breeding program, even before he started college.

"He was extremely enthusiastic and knowledgeable," Brown said, crediting Huffman's farming background.

Huffman was in the wheat breeding program for five years and his involvement continued after his graduation. Brown said he's confident that in different circumstances, Huffman would have been a great plant breeder.

"He took to it very well," Brown said. "He was a natural."

The seed royalties from the UI-WSU Huffman, which would typically go to the breeder and College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, will instead go toward the Bradley Huffman Scholarship for Plant Breeding and Plant Sciences to help support students studying in the Department of Plant, Soil and Entomological Sciences, said John Foltz, dean of the college.

---

Rudd may be contacted at erudd@lmtribune.com or (208) 791-8465. Follow her on Twitter @elizabeth_rudd.

Design Wall Monday, August UFO #4

On my design wall is the quilt I put up yesterday for my August UFO#3. It's going to stay there until it's finished and the story behind it is on yesterday's post.  I also have some leftover bits of the two quilt tops I finished last week.  I put them up to see how they would look and I like it.  However I think my brain really needs graph paper to plot and plan after I finish sewing some more 4 patches and count all the pieces I have available.  I think it's the anal math part of me coming out instead of trying to just wing it. Below these two pics is my August UFO #4.  I grabbed a top out of the cupboard of MANY quilt tops to be quilted and laid it on the floor.  I LOVE this quilt top, now I need to quilt it, yeah along with my daughter's wedding quilt and all the other quilt tops I have! 

Linking up to Judy L.'s Design wall Monday here.

Folk Art Album - wool applique on flannel

Bits and Pieces of Mocha Meringue leftovers

Sand Castles - UFO #4  this is an OLD quilt top and I forgot how much I loved these florals!

August UFO #3

UFO #3 is a goal I have to finish before the end of August.  I hope I can make it!  The pattern is called Folk Art Album by Primitive Gatherings/Lisa Hoefler Bongean.  My late friend Deb bought this as a BOM before she died but never got it started.  She gave it to me and passed away Feb. 10, 2010.  It's wool applique on flannel and stitched with Valdani variegated pearl cotton.  When I finish stitching the borders I will attach them and then fix the corners.  I'm getting there, two of the borders are done!  Excuse the threads and such, I just threw this up on my design wall.

August UFO #2

We had a horrific storm last night and my computer was shut down so I didn't post my UFO for August 2nd.  Here it is.  This quilt has been in the works for YEARS!  I actually made 13 blocks and planned an on point setting but didn't plan ahead on needing extra fabric and couldn't find any anywhere years later, imagine that!  Plus it was still an awkward size and will be a nice wallhanging and the others a tablerunner.  These are all needle turn appliqued.  I will definitely be machine quilting this some time.

Unfinished Project a Day for August

I have a goal for August, to show a picture a day of an unfinished quilt project.  I am hoping I can do this, I will have to learn dating posts ahead for times I am gone.  The first thing to show is just fabric.  It's actually almost a completed top but since it's a wedding present for my daughter and husband I am not showing it until they receive it.  Their wedding was July 12th and I have simply procrastinated.  These are the three fabrics. 

Huckleberries

I grew up eating and picking huckleberries.  They are a small, tart berry and grow in the woods.  It's a tedious process to pick them properly (there are ways to comb them off the bushes, but that is not the way my family does it).  The University of Idaho sells huckleberry bushes and my late son Brad bought me 10 of them his last Christmas (2012).  Half of them are still living and it would be awesome to have my own patch in my woods!  This year I have gone picking twice.  In mid July I met my sisters in McCall and this past week with my mom outside Pierce, ID (the patch is secret of course!).  Here are a few pics of my adventures!

Driving east on Hwy 12 to Kamiah

My sister Lori

My sister Sue

Me with some of my berries, I picked two gallons

Payette Lake from the Point - our cousin Pattie took us on a driving tour after a great dinner.

Left to right oldest to youngest - Julie, Sue, Lori

Berries in MCall

My mom picking near Pierce

taller bushes but much steeper hillside

There is a lookout in the center of the photo.

Looking down the road we need to travel to get back home!

Neutral Twin Quilts

Two posts in one week, I'm on a roll!  My birthday was yesterday, July 29th.  I am trying to set some fitness goals, but I personally really dislike exercise.  With my foot issue I can't run, but I have been walking so I I did my morning walk.  I got to spend quite a bit of the day in my quilt room.  It is so much cooler in my basement room than the rest of the house.  Harvest started Monday so Doug had a long day in the field cutting wheat.  I LOVE to go out to dinner, but that won't happen until there is a break so I made potato salad and BBQ chicken.  Can I say food allergies are the pits?  I would love to eat dairy and eggs, but they are not good on my sinuses.  I ended up sewing the last borders on one quilt today. Both quilts were supposedly cut out for my retreat last weekend, but I didn't have all the pieces nor the extra fabric!  Both quilts are twin size and will go in my basement rec room, aka old sewing room.  I need to liven up that room a bit.

Mocha Meringue Fabric, pattern was free from Marcus Fabrics to go with the line.

Pattern is "It's Good to be Square" but I made double the amount of blocks.

Scattered Thoughts and Quilts

I had good intentions of getting back to blogging after posting about my son but the best laid plans get interrupted by just simply being too busy or too lazy!  I am going to try this for the first time linking up to Judy L.'s blog for "Design Wall Monday".  These are blocks I worked on at a quilt retreat I went on this past weekend at Rather Be's Quilt Shop near Pomeroy, WA.  Eight of us had a great time quilting, eating and laughing. I made half of these blocks, but didn't have the rest of the pieces cut so I finished them today.  It will have two borders.  I am making another quilt of these "Mocha Meringue" fabrics and they will go on the twin beds in my basement.  They are WAY different than my usual colorways.

I had these two quilts already pin basted for quilting and I got them quilted at the retreat and bound.  The 30's one has a story.  A couple of weeks ago I stopped in at Material Girls Quilt Shop in Orofino, ID and they had 20 luscious new 30's prints.  I have a bin of 30's and they aren't my favorite fabric choice, but they were so soft and lovely and other women were making dresden plate quilts out of them.  I bought all 20 prints and background and came home and used my Dresden ruler (I can't find that style available online, it was on clearance years ago) and made 20 pointed dresden blocks.  I was contacted by someone wanted to buy a wall quilt and she loves 30's.  I sent her a picture of a couple blocks and 2 other quilts and she wanted the dresden.  So I set together 9 of them and have that quilt ready to go as shown. I made one more block so I now have 12 to go in to a twin size quilt the way I designed the next one.

I bought this quilt kit at Wild Hare Quilt Shop in Orofino, ID (yes, there are two great quilt shops in one little town).  I purchased the kit on a shop hop and got it pieced together at a retreat in April.  It's all finished, yes another UFO bites the dust!

Finished quilts

On August 11, 2013 I went through my two cupboards of unquilted tops and took photos and measured all of them.  There was a whopping 53 tops, from mini to king!  About half had backings with them.  I started in machine quilting some of the smaller one and was surprised when I counted them this week and found out how many I have completed since then.  I have finished 16 of them!  I have only added one top to the collection, but it is the big one that is the background photo on my blog.  These are some of those quilts, some have already been donated without getting finished photos.

throw size using Quick Curve ruler

Full size Crazy Stars 

Foundation paper pieced flowers

Half Yard Challenge Mystery wallhanging

Kaffe Hexagons wallhanging

Mini Sampler

Oak leaves made by my friend Vicki, given to me after her death

Picket Fences throw

Scrappy Trips lap/throw

String pieced donation quilt

Table topper or wallhanging

Favorite Quilt Tops of 2013

These are my two favorite tops finished in 2013, neither of them quilted yet!  I started off 2013 by finishing a Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt called Easy Street.  I love the colors!  I started it after Thanksgiving 2012 and it was a finished top in January 2013.  I am not a green fan but I do love this quilt!  It's huge! 

 I ended the year finishing a log cabin quilt from a book by Judy Martin.  I started sewing it at a retreat at Palouse Divide Lodge in November and finished the top in December, 5,206 pieces.  It's 94 X 94.

Starting Anew in 2014

I skipped all of 2013 and half of 2012 in blogging.  I am motivated to blog again.  I will slowly be working on updating my sidebar and all that fun stuff.

I am going to start by saying that June 14, 2013 was a day that changed my life forever.  My son, Brad age 22, had come for the night of the 13th from Moscow in time for dinner.  My daughter Amy, SIL Nathan and grandson Jared were there for the week and we were all going to take off Friday, the 14th for Boise.  My nephew Brett had just graduated from the USMA at West Point and my sister was hosting a party.

Brad had just graduated from U of Idaho and was working for the U of I in plant breeding.  He was hired for canola, mustard seed, etc. but was still working in wheat breeding that he had kept going through undergraduate studies.  He was going to go out that morning and check wheat test plots on our property which was standard for the weekends he came home.  We all thought he was out and about and finally realized he wasn't around and his pickup was there and I went into his room and found him dead.  Doug was right behind me and pronounced him and called the sheriff.  I called Lisa who was on the road from Seattle to meet us in Boise so she and Kevin made a turn and came here instead.

All tests were inconclusive, tox screen showed nothing, forensic autopsy showed nothing and eventually the forensic pathologist for the state declared "probable dis-arrhythmia of unknown etiology".  Basically his heart stopped in his sleep for no known reason.  In researching this, it happens to young adult men more often than women and usually in their early 20's.

It's been an emotional struggle to understand and accept.  He was physically fit and had a brilliant future.  I guess God needed him elsewhere, that's about as religious as I am going to get.

Future posts will be related to quilting and other adventures, but I needed to start out by getting this one off my chest.

My daughter Amy is doing a photo challenge in June.  I decided to try to partake and take a photo a day but I rarely have my camera with me!  She listed what to take photos of for each day of the month.  I read it at 9:30 PM last night and the choice for June 1 was "your choice" so I took a photo of the list on my computer monitor.  Today was clouds, but I forgot until just a bit ago as it was getting late.  I got a shot of the moon in a cloud though!

First 50 mile goal completed

I did it, completed over 50 miles on my first week on my exercise bike.  The last three days have been tough time wise with lots of things going on but I took time tonight to complete my goal for the week.  I am slowly upping the levels as well.

This quilt was one I made at a quilt retreat in last fall and gave it to my friend Valerie for Christmas.  It was from the book Scrap Basket Surprises by Kim Brackett. 

45 miles in 5 days

• This is a wallhanging made from swap blocks from a small group a couple years ago.  I made the top right away but just got it quilted earlier this year.  I used lots of scrappy florals in the border.

I only got five miles in on the bike tonight.  I did ten miles yesterday, but a migraine, work, and a birthday dinner threw things off today.  Fortunately I am ahead of schedule!  I am thankful this wasn't as bad of a migraine as some and it went away at work.

Day Three of 10 miles and a quilt top

I did it, not as energetically as I wanted, but I pedaled another 10 miles on the bike.  30 miles in 3 days and I increased the level for a bit and used hand weights for awhile also.  I do love reading on my Kindle while biking, although it covers the display.  That is actually a good thing!

The quilt top consists of 12 blocks from a BOM with a small group last year and birthday blocks from the same group the year before.  Red and white is not my usual style but I love the quilt top!

March Exercise Day 2 and a Quilt

This is a quilt started as an internet round robin in 1999.  I finished it in January 2012!  I don't knoiw why it took so long, I love it!

Red, White and Black Row Robin

Today I accomplished 10 miles on the exercise bike again.  5 miles this morning, then a trip to Orofino and Lewiston and errands with Doug, then back home and 5 more miles.  48 minutes total of pedaling.   We had an interesting lunch at Red Lobster.  We didn't get waited on for quite some time, servers were going back and forth, other people were getting waited on so I went up front and told the hostess.  Next thing I knew the manager was waiting on us and we got a free dessert!  Chocolate Wave is spectacular!  Not a diet food for sure but I had ordered broccoli instead of potato or rice! 

I did get another shot in my foot.  Not being able to take anti-inflammatories is slowing my recovery progress.

Exercise Commitment

I really don't have excuses for not blogging.  Just got out of the habit, then fell so behind.  I'm starting fresh with an exercise commitment.  I will get to quilting photos later.  I am suffering from a bad case of plantar fascitis and had to give up walking for exercise.  I recently purchased an exercise bike and I am starting a goal of riding 50 miles a week or 200 miles for the month of March.   My friend Jeanne made a walking commitment and I decided to join her in a different way.  Today I did 10 miles on the bike.  It's so quiet and nice and I can watch TV or read on my Kindle!  I hope it helps with my weight loss goals.

It just needed binding

I've had this wallhanging done and just needing binding for quite a while. We watched Casa Blanca for the first time Friday night so I was able to do the binding. We have been trying to watch some classics but in most cases we aren't impressed! Thankfully they go back in the mail to Netflix.

I stitched the blocks last year from Alex Anderson's site and added colored pencil to them. I had a bunch of 2.5" squares of 30's fabrics so that was the setting squares.
block closeup


I received the blocks for these American Hero quilts last July and August and set them together into tops and finally got the borders on. One of my yahoo groups hosted a sew-in New Years weekend to work on blocks and quilts for the project. I mailed three tops off Friday.

Finished a quilt top!

Finally, I got my act together and got my guild's fundraiser quilt together. A member had donated the center panel, but it was just fused so I did lots of threadwork. Other blocks were handed in fused but not stitched so I had to do some of them as well. I had the floral fabric in my stash and it worked wonderfully! Now to hand it off to someone else to quilt hopefully!