Raspberry Picking

No quilting over the weekend.  Saturday was spent with my husband out looking for duck and geese hunting areas for he and my son.  I go occasionally but laying out in freezing weather at 5 am in the morning is not my type of enjoyment.  But I did have a magnificent day with hubby.

We toted our RV to a ranch about 1 1/2 hours east of our home.  He and his wife are so kind to allow us to plant our mobile home on their property during the waterfowl season.  He took us out in his "new to him" polaris for a fantastic field trip.  I learned all about different types of corn ranchers plant and learned how they know when each is ready.  It was quite the education.  And I never new that yearling calves were susceptible to pneumonia.  That is one thing he aggressively avoids.  I guess we are never too old to learn something new!

Before leaving, they filled us in on a treasure not too far away:  a vegetable farm that allows raspberry picking!!!  It was out of this world!  Actually, it was on the border of Wyoming and Nebraska.  They have a strip approximately 300 yards long and four bushes wide of different types of raspberries, including golden raspberries.  Within 15 minutes we had over three pounds of red raspberries!  After casually returning to the main area and picking ripe golden raspberries on the way, we drove off with over four pounds of raspberries and two slices of homemade raspberry pie within an hour.

We stopped on our way home at another potential site for hunting and after relaxing and eating  sandwiches I had brought and filled with salami, honey turkey, gouda cheese and garlic havarti,  we thoroughly enjoyed every bite of those raspberry pie slices.  On the way home, we discussed potential pie recipes for dinner guests.  

So this afternoon hubby and I took this container, which was originally filled to the brim with raspberries,

and made this:

Yes, it was as good as it looks!  We also took about 8 pints of raspberries I had bought at a local grocery store and made raspberry jam.   What a glorious weekend and Lord's Day.  I hope you enjoyed your Sunday and are enjoying this season of harvest!

John Elway (Denver at their Best)

Time for another customer quilt after a wonderful time of personal sewing!

I mentioned this quilt two posts ago when I presented Lime Green and Modern.  This quilt is for the same owner:  she is making a quilt for each of her grandchildren for Christmas!  What a grandma!  I initially named this quilt "John Elway" but after further thought, perhaps "Denver at their Best" is a better name.  The "owner to be" is a Bronco Fan.  This is a wonderfully unique quilt made entirely of flannel:  both front and back.

So what to do in in the center huge negative space that is time efficient and yet workable for a young boy?  

Have you ever watched a coach or broadcaster draw out line plays?  Of course not!  When football is on, you are quilting!  Well, the quilting is a more modern movement of lines with a  circle at each direction change.  It kind of looks like a game play diagram.  Thrown in a few times is a modern border about 2" wide to break up the design and keep it from becoming monotonous.  I also thought it would give a slight look of a field goal area.

In the border beyond the center I started in the triangle area with a similar design but mimicked the shape of the triangle.  The orange zig zag is quilted with straight lines 1/4" from each side and with one line in the middle.  

The blue border between the zig zag is quilted with a loop design and the edge of the quilt is a copy of the center motif.

The back sparks a gorgeous bright orange and looks super with all the quilting.

The weather is bright and sunny and warm here still so I was able to still get a few outside photos.  Hope you enjoyed taking a peek at "Denver at their Best".

Join me as I check out http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.com today and have a great weekend!

Quilting on the road!

Yes, we are on the road with the RV this week in beautiful Lander, Wyoming,  Home of the Wind River Mountains!  This is a view of the area from the RV park, which is situated on a hill top.

Our home for a total of 6 days:

While hubby is in training, I brought my little Nina along and am doing some refreshing sewing.  Yay!

I took a Craftsy class with Kimberly Einmo recently and love her Hunter Star Quilt with jelly roll strips and no set in seams.  In fact, I like all her designs.  So I pulled out a fat quarter bundle of fabric that has been sitting in my stash for a couple of years.  I knew I wanted a Christmas quilt but could not come up with a design.  The hunter star was it.  So, after cutting and prep work, it got stuck in my carrying case and brought to the mountains for a few days of uninterruped sewing.  Actually, I started on this last weekend at a retreat in Cheyenne but most of the time was spent cutting and sewing jelly roll strips.

Here's my sewing room:

That's our Lab, Cowboy, in the background saying hello.  Actually, he's telling me I interrupted his sleep.

I am planning a 4x4 grid and here are my stars in progress:

The finished stars will look like this:

I don't know for sure how everything will fall together as I am planning it as I go but the fabric is stunning; it is Moda Sentiments by Three Sisters.  It is actually the same fabric Kimberly Einmo used for the class.

Well, it's time to get back to my stars.  I am ready to add the background fabric.  I hope you have a wonderful week.  Join me as I take a little break from sewing periodically to see what fun things everyone is doing.  I'll be visiting  http://myquiltinfatuation.blogspot.com today and tomorrow I will check out http://confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.com and http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.com.  

Lime Green & Modern

I took a short break from customer quilts last week and worked on a quilt color class and piecing hunter stars for my Christmas quilt (which may be my NEXT YEAR Christmas quilt).  I have a retreat next weekend so maybe I can get more blocks done then.  

Now I am back to a couple of new customer quilts.  This finished one I call Lime Green & Modern because it definitely looks modern to me and in addition to some blocks on the front, the back is completely lime green.  This quilt was a blast to complete.  Both Lime Green & Modern and the one I have waiting (already nicknamed by me as John Elway, although the soon-to-be owner probably never saw him play) were both completed by the same grandmother who brought me the two quilts for her soon-to-be adopted grandsons from Africa.  You can read about those quilts in several posts from April of this year.  What a grandmother!  Wow!  Those children will have VERY SPECIAL memories.  

So for Lime Green & Modern, a completely flannel quilt, I choose a subtle design for the body of the quilt.  Actually, it is a variation of the swirls I have done but this time it is more constant without such obvious freeform in it.  The goal was for the blocks to still stand out, even with the quilting.  The circles seemed to provide a rest from, and blend with, the mostly straight lines of the quilt.

It was quilted with a medium gray 50 weight Aurifil cotton thread. 

The inside border was completed with squiggles, the middle border with a free form serpentine and the outside border with double loops.  I wanted the quilting on the two gray border to be a bit more obvious.

I think the designs worked perfectly with the back as well which is completely white circles on the lime green.

I was very happy with this customer quilt and have the second one ready to quilt.

Have a great weekend and join me as I spend time today over at Crazy Mom Quilts http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.com