Summer, Life, Quilts and Chairs....

My gosh how fast this summer has been going! We were talking last night and realized school starts here in 17 Days..... I am not ready for that!....but then I guess I never am. I enjoy having the boys home, but know it's once again almost time to get use to the quiet of them being gone most of the day. The we will be running to this and that (football..cross country..basketball..track.....eek help!.....LOL.......
Our Summer has been filled with comings and goings, whether to Sturgis taking the boys to weight lifting 4 days a week or down to the ranch or as the following couple of pictures show to Hot Springs. The twins are enjoying a few minutes of cooling off time...... (We had been to Edgemont to the quilt store and were going to the Guild Meeting in HS) These pictures were taken at the park up behind Evans Plunge.

Carl and Casey "toe cooling"... checking out the swings

C & C again

Back..............................................Front

I have also been keeping busy with quilting some more Project warmth quilt these two are my 67 and 68th ones....

Back..............................................Front

Then I believe I mentioned before I started working at a LQS Quilt Connection in Rapid. I have been piecing and quilting some store samples, this one is a Christmas Holiday present, which I quilted with a Christmas Cookie design.

Earlier this Spring I had received a call from a gal wanting to know how to make lone stars with the individual diamonds. In fact she wanted to eventually make about 21 of them for the kids in her class. So I agreed to "try" an attempt to learn how these are done. Now

Many of you will say "But you have done 3 lonestars that should be a piece of cake".... and this is where I will remind "myself and you" that my stars were all STRIP Pieced and sooooooo much simpler that this one little guy will ever be!

My results....

But I did make one and figure it out! Yes, Was it Easy? absolutely NOT! This little star after much unsewing was this far after 3 1/2 hours.....

So the next day I thought hmmmm." let's try one of these again and put the set in in and see how it goes"..... This one did get this far and after a "Whole" day it made it to a 18" block. It has since been donated to the Rapid City Police Department as we are making a Quilt for rememberance of the 2 Police Officers that just recently lost their life in the line of duty here.

Then on one of our not so busy days the twins decided they need a room color change.... Casey had picked out Orange and Carl Blue so off to paint they went.......

And yep! It is as Orange as it looks.....( this is where I will add "I am so glad that someday it will recover"....LOL.... I inadvertently didn't get Carl's color loaded so will do that on another post......

Our lives are never Dull as I am sure you are figuring out if you already haven't....lol

One day while I was at work I received a call from the boys with "mom, how do you cook a pie crust? --Me: "Excuse me what pie crust" --boys: "Well we are making an apple pie and have it ready to go in the oven and can't remember how long or hot to cook it?" --Me: "telling myself to remain calm they CAN do this"!

So I went on to let them know the "important information" and the following picture is what awaited me when I arrived home....... Isn't it BEAUTIFUL!

It was scrumptious and like hubby said "wow they even did a lattice top....

This is a Friendship block that I made for Janet N for the BHQG group I am in. She requested any type of star, with the strip of fabric at the top being her color choices.

This is a Kit from QC that I pieced to gether and then quilted small little bats all over as a Sample for the store. I loved making the little 4 patch border strip and such fun to do.

As if I didn't have enough going on... I found these lovely chairs up in Sturgis at a second hand store..(actually I had taken the boys up there for their weight lifting and I had an hour to bum while waiting for them). These pictures are suppose to be from beginning to end but I can't get them to change around so you will see the end result before the begining... of the stripping... A couple of the chairs had set outside so needed a little more "loving care". I found this Set of 6 for a total of $125.00. They are very heavy and Birch which will go beautifully with my oak table..

Here are two of the chairs after being stripped and restained. I have stained them with a Watco medium walnut stain and am now ready to start varnishing them. (The Sturgis rally is in town though, so am putting off making a trip to town to buy some sponge brushes)

The set of 6 all stripped and restained waiting for Varnish
At the begining of this project.....Before Stripping the Captain chair....

What they looked like before they were stripped...... If the finish wasn't so bad on a couple of them I would of probably not refinished them...... But am Loving them now.....

Well I am not sure how many more they will let me post so I will stop here and be back again when time allows.... Our Anniversary was yesterday so will have to load cake pictures that my boy's made us...

May you all have a Wonderful day, May your week be full and bright and Drive safe........and May your Month be full of excitement and happiness.

til then.....

Judy

My Entrant in the Quilt Show

Back towards the end of May after many days of (actually a year) of trying to decide how to quilt I finally took my McCommas Beauty (Pattern designed by Karen Stone)which I have fittingly named mine"Feathers and Scribbles" and put on the Longarm. I had practiced and practiced feathers since that is what I wanted to have some on this quilt. Well, I finally put away all that tablets and dry erase markers and "Just did it". Now I know it's not perfect but it is done and it does have feathers. It is my FIRST totally freehand and though I would do a couple of things different I do LOVE how it came together.

laid out on our bed
"Feathers and Scribbles"
another front view

Close up of the blocks

The back close up

And to to My total excitement! it received a 2nd Place Viewer's Choice Ribbon at the Black Hills Guild Quilt Show in June.

I wasn't going to enter it and a few people (Rosa Lea (my inspiration)and Joan) really pushed me to do so, so let this be a reminder to all Do it you just never know..........

It is on it's way to the Pierre Quilt Show and Phillip Quit Show along with the ULS2 that I made a couple of years ago.

I really do enjoy Paperpiecing and definetly recommend you try it. Give me a call and we can get you started!!

Have a Wonderful Week!!

Judy

I'm Back........

Wow! When life goes CRAZY it goes with a Zippity Do Dah!!

It has been way back forever it seems since I have last blogged and I have definetly missed it!!
Life has had many twist and turns and continues to do so and we just keep taking it in stride and are feeling blessed that we continue to keep going forward.....
The boys are doing well and keep me running with their school activities and driving from here to there, but I have decided that I will enjoy this days as I hear words of pending driving test and know it will be just a matter of moments before I will be "old news" in the driving department. We have gone thru everything from the Peurisy episodes this last fall to the most recent rabie scare this week. It is with relief that we have found out that Roscoe did NOT have Rabies, but we are left with what happened??
..............................................Our Rasco..aka..Rascal
As near as the Vet, after much research and studying of a similar case is that the German Shepherd breed can (though rarely and hard to diagnose) can get a neurological condition that renders them unable to swallow, which in turn causes them to aspirate into the lungs, and basically what happened to Rosco. We are missing him dearly as is his momma Sierra.

I have managed to get some pictures of the few things I have worked on when time permits and I have managed to get wayyyyyyy behind in them but figure I will just do a few each day and get them under contol... After all It's all for me and what the heck there isn't a real time crunch for me.

FWS 62 Windmill...FWS #63 Ozark Maple Leaf

FWS #64 Peace and Plenty

These two are the Friendship Blocks that Margret requested from the MQG Guild she requested 2 -4 1/2" blocks done in 30's prints.

I back in March started working at the Quilt Connection in Rapid City and we have started a group that will be doing the Quilted Diamond Sampler designed by Linda Franz. Our 2nd meeting is this next Saturday so if you're interested be sure and drop in. There are to be I believe 18o diamond blocks for the main part and then mini's in the borders and interior main block. Some of us are doing it hand pieced (NO not me) I am doing mine paperpieced and believe I will be doing it with the background color of Blue and then white.

QD Block #1

Quilted Diamond Blocks #2 and #4

This is one of my rose bushes just swamped with blooms and buds that have now since open, I love flowers can you tell??

We had a couple of warm days here a couple of weeks ago and the twins were cooling off in their own way...... (lol the spray must be pretty strong since we're sporting helmets)

Enzy's Friend ship blocks for the BHQG

This is the Professional Tote that my sister made for me, do you recognize the fabric? Yep more of my favorite!!

These are the Friendship blocks that Bonnie F requested from the BHQG

My red Peonies.........................and the White Peonies

I have decided to end this post here and will be getting more pictures together. I plan to be more frequent in my blogging though as we all know "life" can happen quickly and frequently may you have a Beautiful Day and Be sure and STOP and SMELL the Roses on the way!

I must admitt that is something Rosco taught me to remember, he loved the Red ones and I will definetly miss his bringing me one quite frequently.....