Quilting in the mountains

I am just back from 4 days in the mountains doing nothing but sewing - well almost nothing - we did eat and sleep and we went on a short shopping trip and a few of us went hiking but mostly we sewed and talked. My hiking partner A is a dangerous woman from Venezuela (not Argentina) who wrestles alligators and eats piranha. On finding fresh moose tracks she said 'lets go further on-we might see it'. Now I had been told to avoid the moose at all costs since they can be nasty - still I would really like to have seen one. Nevertheless we safely led 5 other quilters up the hillside and back to their sewing machines without incident. The lodge we stayed in was just beautifully situated on a bluff overlooking a creek and mountains on all sides. Here it is.

And did I get anything made? Well most of the blocks for an Oriental theme quilt featuring geisha in odd poses. I would post a picture but blogger is not letting me upload it. Perhaps next time.

Garden

In the spring this year we started a garden. Good thing we did because it inspired all our neighbors to smarten up their little patch beside the front door. Just now it is looking its best ever. DH has taken a series of photos of it as it has matured. We challenged ourselves to do it as cheaply as possible - we did have a budget but I am sure we exceeded it and, anyway, I don't remember what it was. The roses were $3.50 from K Mart. They didn't like the heat but are thriving now it is cooler. The large leaves are 'Elephant's Ears' and were a $3 bulb put in in the spring. The irises at the back we were given, but had to go and dig up the corms ourselves. All the geraniums were at WalMart marked down to $1.50 - with a lot of watering and some feeding they quickly came back to life. All our friends now find our house in the road as the one with the 'English style' front garden. We have daytime temps in the 70s now but colder weather is coming soon and frost is predicted for next week. It can't last much longer so I am putting up some photos for you to see - just to prove we did it. Oh ! - and we have some magnificent sunflowers in the back garden with some pretty cosmos and a really spreading yellow squash below them.

Whitewater

It is Labour day today and everyone gets a holiday. It is still very hot but not as settled, we have had some spectacular thunderstorms. Probably not much of the summer left really. To celebrate the end of summer we took a trip on a 15man raft through the rapids on the Snake River. These rapids are class 111 and pretty fierce - we all got really, really wet. When I get some photos I will post them up, in the meantime take a look here

http://snakeriver.elevationimaging.com/cgi-bin/category.cgi?&category=472449

Yes, That really is us up front, D and G paddling and me huddled in the middle.

Golfing again

After a gap of 14 years I have played a whole round - 9 holes- of golf. Golfing is really reasonable here in Idaho Falls and several nice courses to choose from. I have been able to indulge in a course of 4 one-to-one lessons and this was my first whole round. I decided that it was now or never; if I couldn't do it here when I had plenty of time, I never would.

I played with a quilting friend and her old friend, who were both very kind and patient with me. The biggest problem for me was that it was very busy - even at 8am - and I had to tee off from the first tee with a pretty large audience. Thankfully I managed a very respectable drive straight down the fairway even if not very long. Hopefully I can improve on that - roll on the next time.

July journal quilts

Here is my journal quilt for July and the smaller postcard version. The theme for this month is 'computer images'. I used a picture taken in Yellowstone, printed onto white fabric and added to it and embellished it for the final version. I am a bit behind with all this - I am still working on June, which is 'you are what you eat'. It includes a lot of hand stitching and is taking me some time to do. Never mind I already have some ideas for August.

It's finished!

At last I have finished the Kaffe Fassett quilt. The one with the Y seams I was ranting on about early in my blogs. I call it 'Kaffe's puzzle' because I changed the proportions from the original design to make it more usable as a bed quilt. This resulted in some challenging piecing at the corners. I showed it off at the Quilt Guild last week and heard an audible gasp from the audience as it was held up - I am not sure if it was shock or admiration - very gratifying either way. I am hoping to enter it in the Bonneville County show next week, if I can arrange for someone to collect it for me when the show finishes - we will be in California then - more of that anon. Here are some pictures.

4th of July

Last week saw the Independence Day celebrations here in Idaho Falls and the red, white and blue was out in force all over the town, still is - even we are sporting a stars and stripes flying from our mailbox post, thanks to our patriotic neighbors. Idaho Falls claims to have the best firework display in the western USA. It was certainly spectacular - we camped out beside the river at least 3 hours before it happened to ensure a good spot and were beaten to it by at least half the town. The rest of the population had joined us by the time 10pm came round. We also enjoyed the parade in the morning - with a theme of 'Patriotism through the ages' it was awash with red, white and blue. Here are a couple of pictures - enjoy!

We are back

G and I are back from a trip home to the UK. We have been back over a week now but we are slow getting over the jet lag and adjusting to the unaccustomed heat. In Britain it was raining the whole time with flash floods and gales - most unlike June. Never mind the roses smell better after the rain. It was great to spend some time with our friends in Wotton and Devon - now we are back - trying to coax the garden to grow - learning how to keep the house cool without AC and planning some more trips.

Las Vegas

We are back from a week at Las Vegas and we survived! Vegas is full on the whole time and a sensory assault, but it was wonderful. We stayed at the MGM Grand - reputedly the largest hotel in the world at the moment, soon to be toppled by another Las Vegas hotel - we were told. Neither DH or I are gamblers and we had G with us as well who was not allowed to 'loiter' in the gambling areas but we could spectate and enjoy visiting some of the fantastic hotels - each lobby area more spectacular than the last. My personal favourite is the Baccarat glass ceiling decorations at the Bellagio. We also took a side trip to the Grand Canyon - this was a tad grueling, being a 5 hour journey by tour bus - but worth it. The Grand Canyon is never disappointing. The highlight of our trip was definitely a performance of 'The Phantom of the Opera' - wonderfully Gothic - in a specially built theatre with a spectacular chandelier, which at one point hurtled dramatically down towards the audience.

Here are a couple of pictures of The Grand Canyon and one of 'The Strip' - Las Vegas Boulevard.

Shop Hopping

It has been the 3rd annual The Quilters Trail Shop Hop here for the past 2 weeks. I have just turned in my passport, having covered 12 of the 14 shops over Idaho, Wyoming and Utah. The trail finishes tomorrow. I had thought when I started on this that with 4 shops here in Idaho Falls, another 2 in nearby Rigby and 3 in Pocatello, I could cover a respectable number without too much trouble. I reckoned without my friend K who took to shop hopping with a will. Everywhere we went was planned with shop hopping in mind so together we covered 10 - I did 2 before she got here. This means I have a very pretty charm bracelet made up of the shop hop charms we collected plus a substantial increase in my fabric stash - thanks K!

Yellowstone again and Grand Tetons too

After staying one night at the beautiful Lake Hotel K and I decided to head on down through the Grand Tetons towards Jackson and some more 'shop hopping" (more of that anon). Here are a couple of pictures from that area, starting with one of the hotel.

It is just amazing how different the Grand Teton National Park is to Yellowstone and yet the two just abut one another - one ticket covers both - and you just drive straight from one to the other.

Yellowstone again

It has been a really busy 3 weeks for us with visitors but, for me at least, it has meant 2 trips to Yellowstone and I am always up for that. The first trip we stayed at the Snow Lodge at Old Faithfull with our old friends M & P from Great Britain. P is a keen photographer so with DH and his new DSLR as well we have many beautiful pictures. I can't put up many here (stop, I can hear the cheering from here!) but I will choose a couple.

Last weekend I spent one night at The Lake Hotel with my friend K from Illinois. K is not so keen on getting out of the car and walking around and spending ages getting the best photos so we were able to cover some more miles and went down into the Tetons as well. Look for those photos on the next blog - or not - depending how you feel.

Quilt show 3

And here is the 'best in show'. Just take a look at the intricate hand quilting on this one.

Quilt show 2

Here is a second batch

Quilt Show

The quilt show is all done and dusted, the inquest held and we are all recovering. It was several days of really hard work but a really fun weekend. I am putting some pictures here for you to see and I will do a second (maybe a third) post for some more.

UndertheEdge quilters held their show last weekend - Hope it went really well, I am waiting to see the pictures girls.

Better late than never

Here is my Journal quilt for March which shows the wind generators on the hillside to the east of us. For this quilt we were encouraged to work in series and this is my interpretation of 4 little windmills. There were 6 - one was turned into a postcard for UndertheEdge Quilters and the last one I used to experiment with. Sorry - I forgot to photograph it before I sent it. Beside the March quilt is the postcard size April quilt, which is a celebration of April birthdays. 5 generations of my Mother's family had their birthdays in April and this little quilt shows them all. It includes G on April 26th and me on April 5th.



As well as the journal quilts I am putting up pictures of the 2 quilts I have entered in the Quilt Show this week. The blue one with tulips was made especially for the show and is based on a design by Charles Rennie Macintosh. The snowman I started ages ago and just finished it in time for last Christmas. I was persuaded to enter it when a couple of weeks ago there were only about 50 quilts entered in the show. Now there are over 200. I am going to be helping to receive all those quilts and get them hung up this week as well as helping at the show on Friday and Saturday. I might have some good pictures for you afterwards though.

Driving Test

Yipee I did it! Yesterday I passed my US driving test. I did the written test (well pushing buttons in front of a computer screen actually) a couple of weeks ago and I have been screwing up the courage to do the driving test ever since. Well, who would willingly take their driving test again after nearly 40 years driving? I finally took the plunge - 4 right turns - 4 left turns - 8 intersections - business and residential driving - freeway or highway driving - lane changes - all that! and I passed! Now I have that all important card with the daft mug shot on it that makes me a real person.
Idaho Falls look out - Betty is on the road. Actually the examiner said I was a good, safe driver - something like that and was amazed that I thought I might fail. Well anything can happen - right!

In case you were wondering about the rats - no? - Oh!! They are growing fast and Rat#2 is getting more tame, though she will always be the shyer one of the two. Here is a picture of her.

Rat #1 and Rat #2

Last weekend we got 2 baby rats for G. She says they are not a replacement for Fluffy the white rabbit, but indoor pets, like the hamster we had which died just before DH left for the US. They have complicated names from characters in the fantasy games she plays on her PC but DH and I can't cope with that, so we refer to them as Rat #1 and Rat #2. Rat #1 is cream with pale fawn markings, she is very sociable and inquisitive and likes to come out of the cage and ride around on your shoulder or inside your jumper. Rat #2 is also cream but with a lot of darker brown markings. She is very shy and doesn't like to come out of the cage at all. They are sisters from the same litter so, hopefully, they will get along OK. They kept G awake for the first couple of nights, fighting and squeaking and generally running around. She is still suffering from sleep deprivation and I have had to drive her to school for the last few mornings. Someone here remarked "now she knows what motherhood is like".
The picture I am posting up is Rat#1 in typical inquisitive mode.

For all you quilters out there - I am posting up a link to the Snake River Quilt Guild website. From there you can take a look at the fantastic quilt which is being raffled at the upcoming exhibition. 'Quilting by the Falls - it's music to my soul', April 20-21. It is just gorgeous - all hand appliquéd and hand quilted - take a look at the detail pictures. How many raffle tickets shall I put you down for?

Yellowstone

We spent the weekend at Yellowstone National Park. Ever since I first saw Yellowstone, 10 years ago, I have wanted to see it with snow on the ground. The park is closed to wheeled vehicles at the moment- they don't plough the roads - so we took the snow coach for a tour into the park as far as old Faithful - getting there in time to see the geyser erupt. Actually that was kind of disappointing as there was so much steam coming out that we could hardly see the water and the sky behind was kind of grey as well which didn't help. The eruption was about 125'- not as tall as it is sometimes. We'll go back and see it in the summer when the sky is blue. The park looked beautiful and I am putting up some pictures for you to see. One of the most amazing sights was all the snowmobiles - literally hundreds of them gathered at every rest stop and major attraction. I was getting worried that all the snow would be gone before we got to Yellowstone - not at all it has been coming down in buckets and travel up there was quite difficult. The snow is back here in Idaho Falls with about 4" coming down in the last couple of days.

Journal quilts

I am taking a set of classes at the quilt store 'The Quilted Daisy' on journal quilts. The idea is that you make a small quilt - no bigger than A4 - a month and it records what you were thinking about or looking at that month. The classes are aimed at teaching the techniques to be used for this and we are encouraged to get away from traditional quilting and use any materials that suggest themselves and any form of stitching. You can read more about this here

http://www.quiltart.com/

Here are my first efforts for February.
The small one is a postcard version to send to my quilting friends, Under the Edge Quilters, back home.

The trouble with all this is that I don't think of this as quilting at all but rather as free machine embroidery. I have to keep quiet about this when I am in class and it really doesn't matter as long as I enjoy doing it and I am learning and being inspired. I have been playing with a lot of these techniques for some time but have never really had a focus for my efforts. So here goes - one a month for the next year!

where did the snow go

It has been pretty warm here for the last few days. Well above freezing during the day, and all the snow has been gradually melting. The ground has been getting soggier and soggier and then, today it rained hard and the snow is nearly all gone. We have been hearing about significant snow falls, traffic chaos and schools closed, back in Great Britain - seems to me it could be warmer here just at the moment. Where did all the snow go?

Big birthday

DH had his 60th birthday yesterday. Maybe a few more wrinkles, but not much to suggest he is 60. Nothing much happened. He took some home-made biscotti to work and they had a celebratory coffee break. I cooked his favourite meal when he got home and G and I made a wild cake with lots of sprinkles and candles on it. An interesting parcel came today from Amazon.com which will be the DSLR camera I am giving him for his birthday. Maybe the blogspot pictures will improve from now on.

First quilt

I finished my first quilt - here it is. OK so it is pretty small but we needed a table runner for the coffee table so I adapted this pattern from a magazine. It was a good try out for my new sewing machine as it includes piecing, machine applique and machine quilting. I have to say it handled all those things pretty well.

I am going to 'quilt till you wilt' at the quilt shop this afternoon - 4pm until - well, until you wilt. So expect better things.

First quilt guild meeting last night. It was good but the standard of the 'show and tell' left me breathless. Don't expect anything that good from me. It is a pretty busy group with lots going on, including a quilt show for April. Will I finish anything in time - doubtful!

Snow

We had about 4" of snow overnight. So far this has been the mildest winter on record here in Idaho Falls. I don't think 4'" is that unusual most winters but we were pretty impressed. I didn't know if the school buses would be running so I rang round a couple of people. Idahoans are much too polite to laugh but I think they thought we were pretty feeble. We trudged out into the snow and sure enough along came the big yellow bus. I bravely took out the Ford Focus later on - the only real danger was those big pick-up trucks sliding all over the road. Once they start to slip, they've gone! It looks pretty though and it is probably going to stay - it is definitely getting colder - Brrr.

Walking the Mall

OK so I finally did it and went for a walk round and round the Mall. I felt extremely silly but it is the only way to escape the ice and the biting wind and there are dozens of people doing it. 2 rounds of the Mall = 1 mile and I did 3. I will build up to 4. It is not the stamina - I could walk 4 easily but the embarassment factor that gets me. G missed the bus this morning and I had to drive her - neither of us really felt like negotiating the ice and the traffic to cross the road to where the big yellow bus stops. She came home on the bus, but I have to meet her because she can't find her way home. I have told her there are only 2 directions here in Idaho Falls - towards the mountains or away from - so she should get off the bus and walk away from the mountains. She still isn't getting it though. I think the embarassment factor (having Mum meet her) will soon get to her too.

quilting again

OK - so those pesky Y seams are driving me crazy. I have made 5 blocks so far - only another 10 or so to go - oh and then the border blocks. Here are a few for you to see - aren't they really wild. I am going to take a break from them though. We need a new table runner for our coffee table so we can take off the christmassy one. It needs to be heat proof and big enough to cover a couple of scratches ( it was a cheap mark down table but pretty smart if we cover the scratches.) A long quilt would be ideal and give me a chance to try out a few things like applique and quilting with my new machine - here goes.

School

It is G's first day at school today. I bravely drove her there, it was OK really the traffic was pretty light. We want to get her onto the big yellow bus as soon as possible though. We were both nervous but she really needs to go. She misses her friends and is finding it hard to get over the jet lag. She needs a shape to her day. This is the first time I have been completely alone in the house and I am find it hard to settle to anything. The house is really quiet and I don't really know how to use the CD player or the TV - I hope I haven't broken anything while trying. Back to the sewing, of course and those pesky Y seams.