27

Gulp. I don't qualify as in my mid-20s anymore, do I?

But being 27 means I now have, courtesy of the most wonderful boyfriend, a design wall!



I love it, love it, love it, love it. So much.

And look at this!



It is a HUGE Moleskine notebook. Just massive. With new colored and drawing pencils, too.

It was even wrapped by a kid at his office.



The best. He is.

So now I'm just here, at my desk (at work, shhhh) waiting to go home and play with all my new toys. For the first time since we've lived here, I'm excited to do laundry. Because once my fabric is washed, I can assemble my blocks and USE the design wall.



Blocks are coming from these. After some Googling, I learned that I'm making a Roman Stripe block. Who knew?

And...

I'll REALLY need the design wall when I start on this quilt.



It's for someone I love who has: had a pet squirrel, loves Christmas, used to take me and my brother to her trailer at the beach to watch wales, took me to the county fair to see the piglets and planted roses like my grandma.

Hence the fabric choices. I've also made about 15,145 chocolate chip cookies with this person,, and there's one more fabric coming to represent that. And maybe some stars, if I can find a print I like. We watched shooting stars from her backyard every august.

It's for my Aunt Donna, who made for and gave to me what is probably one of the most-loved quilts ever made and given.



The quilt that's topped every bed I've had since 2002. See the roses?

My goal/plan is to get both of these quilts pieced and quilted so I can bind them during our drive to Oregon at the end of the month. The recipients will be in Oregon, so the pressure is on.

And, finally, I think the yellow:blue:white quilt is ready for its debut. Again, TOTALLY NOT MY OWN DESIGN. Total ripoff.



As you can see, I ran out of fabric. I need to add a yellow-white strip on the end of the yellow-white square rows. But here's the terrifying part: I also need to add a whole two more rows. This thing is already huge. And it will only get huger.

Little sewing projects

For a friend's baby. My first attempt at appliqué on a onesie.

I used a very lightweight interfacing on the back of the appliqué piece and also on the inside of the onesie. No fusible though.

I'm gifting these with the disclaimer that they're also my way of testing appliqué methods and may fall apart in a day.









And a burp cloth.

New quilt, and some kitchen stuff

I did something this week. I started on a new quilt before finishing the last one.

It happened because I don't need to get the first one done before any set time. And I'm really excited about the second one. So excited I don't want to show much of it yet.

I don't name my quilts, but everything has to be called something. There was "Henry's quilt," "Mom's quilt," "bandanna quilt" and "Birthday Cake quilt" (a real, official name given by the pattern maker). This one is currently stuck with the cheesy "sunny quilt."

The reason for that will be obvious.


Love these colors


It is in NO WAY my own idea. Total rip-off of something I saw on Flickr. And since it's just for us, it doesn't matter. Plus, I came across the Ira Glass beginners pep talk and I feel like it's OK to just have good taste and copy what others create for a while.

I can be all improv and stuff with things I know. Like the baking/cooking world.

Good summer-ish produce is arriving. Not from our garden, and not from the farmers market. That starts at the END of July here. Really. In the last place we lived, at the top of the Divide, it started in May. But here, in the farm belt of Montana, it's basically August. Whatever.

But there are good, new meals to be had. I love eating something I never have before. Like these garlic sprigs.

This + two cups of Parmesan + some olive = wonderful pesto




We ate it with homemade egg noodles, and it didn't last long enough to take a photo


Also in the kitchen, there were lemon cupcakes with blueberry frosting.

Just a basic cupcake recipe with lemon juice and zest. Frosting was a tub of blueberries, minus a few for decoration, cooked down, smashed and mixed with butter and powdered sugar.

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!