Cabin Fever

Well.  I've fixed the aforesaid problem, so if you'd like to see the other half of the pictures we've been missing this summer, scroll down to take a look at past posts.  I need to go out and turn off the water on the baby Fuji apple tree, but I'm hoping someone else is feeling a little like branching out and will look at my equilt cabin project.  At least be willing to be amused!  This isn't the Cabin Fever that hits in Alaska or Montana in February.  This is my summer cabin fever.

So, here's why I'm making log cabins in the  late evening: When I was a small child, my family lived in Grand Teton National Park in the summer.  I grew up expecting that when the school year was over in late May or June, we would pack up and go to the mountains.

Even when my parents were finished with graduate school and we settled in one place, there were still aunts and cousins to visit who lived in the hills and plenty of trips to the mountains and lakes.  A few years after we moved back to Idaho to stay, my family bought a small place with a tiny cabin and built The Big House next door.  The ground floor of the house is 1200 square feet of log construction; beginning with an old house a friend wanted moved. My brothers numbered and lettered all the logs and took it apart.  Reassembled on a new foundation and basement, and with a full upper story added of recycled lumber and windows, my mother's house is a Big log cabin.  When I stay there, the nights are always cool, and it seems we can hear the river.  (The Henry's Fork of the Snake, which is about a quarter mile away.) It really isn't the river, but only irrigation water falling over the check in the canal, but between the sound of rushing water and the wind in the trees, it seems a lot like Heaven.

So, here are today's Log Cabin Quilt designs.  The complex one is queen size.  The critter under the tree in the upper left corner is a deer.  The single block is a 16" pillow.  Guess which one will be made tomorrow.

Can't decide if this is Escher slept here or Big Bear Big Bed Sampler Quilt.

Cut off?

I just discovered the problem with pictures and text not being fully displayed.  Will figure it out and fix it!.

High Mountains

High Mountains Strip from White Grass Sampler

August.  Who would have believed that July would burn past so fast?  This image is from my White grass Sampler block of the month (well, strip) quilt which is almost quilted.  It will be grand to have it done, since my brain is full of other quilts I want to make.

Fishing for Compliments

 Yellowstone Cutthroat Trout

 Yes, there are a few pins in the picture, and I still need to do the gill slits, but I am so excited I wanted to share the work-in-progress now.  The wedding season is winding down, and the new babies are nearly three months old.  Must be time to quilt like crazy, between trips outside to move the water and weed the flower beds and tomato pots.

 2# 18" Fish, Over the Limit pillow, and RGA designs Catch Me If You Can quilt

Renae Allen's RGA Designs fish quilt and patterns along with my fish pillow and small wall quilt, all together with Village Dry Goods racks of batiks for the Wasatch Shop Hop.  The overall theme was games, and Village Dry Goods was assigned "Go Fish."

My fish quilts will be in the shop in Brigham City along with the patterns for all three for at least a few more weeks.

Catch Me If You Can (RGA designs)

A better view of Renae's quilt.  

Grampa Says I''m a Keeper

My first fish quilt, definitely the most fun I've ever had with fish.  

I've been looking over old posts and discovered several comments I never responded too.  If you're still out there, I'm back in the swim of things and would love to chat.  

Flax

Flax, dianthus, and Ohio field daisies

This doesn't do the flax flowers justice.  I'm trying to figure out a way to represent these flowers in applique. The long, strong, slender (but we knew that.  It's flax) stems droop slightly with the weight of the very light flowers.  I may have to settle for using the color but not the plant itself.  Otherwise I see a lot of stem stitch embroidery in my future. FYI, when pioneers of European descent came to my part of the West in the mid 19th century, there was wild flax growing in the meadows. Wild flax still grows on the hills and even along state highways.  The plants in my flower plot are domesticated; the smaller ones are seedlings.   

The flower applique project is part of a projected plants and animals quilt.  The sort of project which can spend years moseying around in the far reaches of my brain for months or even years.  Is there a web icon for "I'll keep you posted?"

"2 Pounds  18 Inches" 

The legend:  In 1915, AFW pulled a rainbow trout out of Huntington Lake in California.  He weighed and measured it, and laid it on a board and traced around it.  Later he took the board and hung it up in his cabin with a note on the back with the information.

This fish applique was created by tracing the fish outline from a raisin paper pattern taken from the original wooden fish, then back-basting and needle turn appliqueing.  We added the stream-bed mosaic of one inch squares and the random width stream bank panel.  The batting is wool, which gives great dimension to the quilting.  All of the piecing and quilting was done by hand, as was the binding.

You can see this quilt during the Utah Shop Hop in June.  It will be at Village Dry Goods www.villagedrygoods.com in Brigham City.  After Shop Hop, all of my fish quilts will be in West Yellowstone for the summer at the Send-It-Home shop.  We'll be doing drop in classes at the shop in June and sign-up in advance classes later in the summer.www.send-it-home.com

Pinecone Playhouse has moved to the Mack's Inn Dinner Theater in Island Park for Summer 2013.  The Heritage Quilt Workshop will continue, with locations and classes to be announced.

Spring Gardens

Peonies in my garden

After a long winter of chipping ice and shoveling snow, it is wonderful to have Spring in full bloom.  I'm back, and I have no excuses.  Here's a little of what I've been doing.

During the winter, I had the pleasure of making lots of  soft flannel blankets, knitted caps, and tiny zippered sleepers in expectation of our new grandson.  Fox arrived a bit late, but he and his mom are doing well and his big brother is as happy as a kid can be.

One of my more recent projects was piecing the center of another Christmas Quilt for one of my mother's grandchildren.  The tradition she started with giving each grandchild a quilt block for Christmas each year has resulted in 14 finished quilts made as the grandchildren married.  Here's the center of Elise's quilt for her June wedding:

Elise Christmas quilt center

The outer borders and quilting I passed off to my mom and sisters in Idaho.  The variations in the finished quilts never cease to amaze me.   The concept is simple, just one block a year per child.  When the project was started, no one knew just how many blocks would be needed over the years.  When the per year count went over thirty, Mom decided that nine blocks was enough for a good quilt and since then she's only make blocks for the younger grandchildren.   The blocks are 16 inches square and are in mostly Christmas greens and reds with some blue and gold accents.