Baby quilt done!

I finished this last week, but am just getting around to the photos now.


We love us some gas in Billings. Seriously. There are three refineries.


Back.


Here are the details:

It's 45 inches square
The grey is Quilter's Linen in grey, but the wrong side.
The binding and back strip (dots) are from Momo's It's a Hoot, as are some of the prints in the log-cabin blocks. The binding is by hand and took about 90 minutes.
The elephants are Japanese and the sashing is Essex Linen.
The rest of the fabric came from random fat quarters, but I know the wood grain is Joel Dewberry and the blue herringbone is also Joel Dewberry, one of my favorites.
The blocks are wonky log-cabin style, and finish at 10 inches.
The sashing is Essex Linen in PFD (prepared for dye) 3 inches finished. I used PFD a) because it's what I could find in stock and b) it wasn't as harsh as white or as cream-colored as ivory.
The batting is bamboo.
The quilting is an easy free-motion pattern, and I think technically stippling, since nothing overlaps (except one tiny mistake that only I'll ever notice).


Here's more of the piecing.

And here's a closer shot.






I really loved using the Essex Linen with this quilt and think it'll become a regular for sashing in the future. As long as I can find it in stock.

We snagged those photos right before heading to the horses races.





He almost broke even. Basically.






And, continuing the theme of running animals, we hit up the Reed Point Sheep Drive on Sunday.









It was a very American event.


There was Miller Light, after all. And these pants, which I'll post about next.








So that was a massive amount of photos. Speaking of massive...





This desk. It's in my, ahem, new sewing room!

All I have are cellphone photos right now. But you get the idea.






The desk was Tim's parent's. They bought it in New York a long, long time ago. It's called a partners desk. It's meant to have two people on each side, hence the double drawers. And ridiculous size.


It's solid oak. I can lie diagonally on it, reach my arms over my head as far as I can and still not touch both ends. I love it.


And, to wrap things up , adorable dogs. And a Tim.

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.