Things that aren't lame

It's been a major week or two. Or three. With some nasty and lame stuff. But none of it is the permanent kind of nasty. And I'm tired of thinking about it. So, I present a list of things that are the opposite of lame. Like so far away from lame you couldn't even drive there in a week.

1) When my mom was here, she taught me how to hand-bind a quilt. I thought it was something I'd never do or have much interest in. But, I've got to say, I love it. I've been finding excuses to use the technique. It looks so clean, or like magic is keeping it on. Seriously. You can't see any stitches.



2) The sun is out. For real. It's been hot, too. In the 80s. I don't have to remember to bring a jacket to the second part of my work night. I love it.



3) This guy



4) And this girl



5) And all of these guys

Quilt to donate

So Eastern Montana has been nailed by flooding. It rained a lot, almost the average annual amount of rainfall by May.

One small town has been hit hard twice. And the mountains are still holding on to a snowpack that's 800 percent of normal for this time of year in some places.

I searched out an outlet that will accept quilt donations, and am making two to give to flood victims. It's a good thing to do, and I'll take all the practice opportunity I can get.

I'm almost done assembling the top for the first. It'll be about 50 by 50 inches, a good baby quilt. It's a wonky piano key sort of thing.

It's made with all (I think) 1930's reproduction fabric. Minus the white, which is Kona Snow. I'd finish the top tonight, but my iron is super dirty for some reason and I can't get it clean. And that doesn't work well for ironing white fabric. Or any fabric, really.

So no night sewing.

I got in some good rambilng this weekend.

The bar at Reed Point:






























 A good campfire after loads of rain:























Tom in his element:































I'll leave you with this scene from our balcony today:

Ramblings

It is my aim to have many Montana ramblings this summer. It's not a goal, because that seems like the wrong feeling entirely for something that's about wandering without much of a schedule or intent. Sure, there will be an end event to be worked toward: camping on the Boulder, the Big Timber rodeo, weekend at Chico, seeing the Crazies. But I hope none of it will be direct, and that there will be many back roads and tiny bars. With good beer.

I got off to a good start, with the best rambler I know: Chowder. We walked around Columbus for an hour.



We swung through Reed Point.



Camped on the Yellowstone.



Found snow in Pony.



Saw good friends (the people, dog and favorite trail kinds) in Butte.



Ran through rain in Missoula.



Here's looking forward to more.

Busy

Oh geez, I'm awful at this. I've been sewing like crazy, but not so much for the posting. Eh.

So, this will just be photos. A lot of them.

The quilt for Tim's sister happened, and fast:

;

To this:



Followed by this:



Which became this:



And then I tried something new:



Things got a little crazy:



And then fell back into (wonky) line(s):





And got all bound up:



With a buddy:















And now I'm moving on to a quilt for flood victims in Eastern Montana. I'm using 1930's reproduction prints from Quilter's Corner Etc. in Deer Lodge and Fiberworks
here in town. The goal is a quilt that looks modern made with old-style fabric. It's not fabric I would normally use, but I like it!