Back from a break

I took a couple week break from blogging. Sometimes there is nothing to say and the last couple of weeks there was nothing I wanted to say.

This week I have some photographs from the Springville Art Museum's annual quilt show.

Yellow Tulips

First up is a lovely hand appliqued quilt by my good friend, Florence Evans. Her applique is exquisite! And her machine quilting wonderfully enhances the quilt!

Ruth Ewers

Next up is a small piece by my substitute mom and dear friend Ruth Ewers. I forgot the title. She started this in a Gloria Loughman class.

Path to Inspiration

This piece is by another good friend, Anne Munoz. She batiked and dyed the fabric and added machine quilting.

Lisa and Carol

For some reason they chose to squeeze these two pieces together in a too small space. The piece on the right is by another good friend (can you see the theme of my blog post ;) ?) Lisa Chin. It is made of silk. The piece on the right is made by Carol Johnson. It looks to be hanging crooked, but it is just the slope of Lisa's piece that gives that illusion.

Me on the left, Lisa on the right

I made "Yellow" for a monthly online art group challenge. The background is free form pieced and the appliques are bits of quilted leftovers from another piece. They were applied by machine.  Lisa Chin's piece was made for the "Threads of Resistance" challenge and was not accepted into the traveling show.

Embrace the Curve

And the last of my little Springville slide show," Embrace the Curve". I have posted about this piece previously here. I am very happy with the way it turned out. 

The show is very good this year. We stopped on the way back from the lake and I didn't not have time to linger, but went through very quickly. I did not go through the red and white quilts since I had seen that collection on display at the quilt show in St. George earlier this year. 

Stage 3

I have been knitting on my Tour De Sock socks. I set aside Stage 2 to try and get Stage 3 finished by the deadline. I didn't finish on time. But I chose to continue with 3's because I was really moving along and the pattern was in my memory. I finished last night and will cast on stage 4 today. I will eventually go back to my stage 2's, but probably after the Tour is finished.

Challenging Kane

Detail

One of the local guilds is named "Raising Kane". We live in Kane County. This year there is a challenge. We bought a fat quarter of the challenge fabric and need to make a quilt using it in a recognizable amount in at least 2 places on the quilt. It needs to be at least 24" square and less than 36"square (does not have to be square, but within that size range) I completed my piece early since we are packing up for another month long trip and I won't be here for the reveal. I am pretty sure that the locals don't know my blog, so I hope it is safe to show today.  The challenge fabric is the multi colored print. I used free form piecing and then tried to put the "blocks" together so it didn't look like blocks. I machine quilted an off center X and then filled in each quadrant with V's. The edges really waved and I aggressively blocked it before trimming. I am pleased with the result.

I am linking to Nina-Marie
,Sarah
Julie
Quarter inch
Myra
Tweety
Beth
Judy
Beth

Still Lazing at the Lake

We are still at the lake. And then knitting is not going well. I tried the texture pattern from the first stage of Tour De Sock on a dishrag. It didn't work very well, the design is charted for knitting in the round and did not translate well to flat knitting. So after a few rows I ripped it out. Oh well. It was worth a try.

Folded Cuff

The second stage pattern was released on the 25th. I couldn't print it out until the next day, the small local library isn't opened on Tuesdays. And then we were trimming a tree on Wednesday so I didn't get to cast on until Thursday. I had trouble with the provisional cast on. It should not have been that hard. I think that the folded cuff would have worked just as well with a regular cast on edge. It took me way longer than it should have to get to this point.

First chart of colorwork

The next section is a Latvian Braid. I had never done that before and expected it to be difficult. I followed the directions and it knit up easily! Then on to the next 3 sections of colorwork. I was able to finish the first section. Love how it is turning out. My colors are a bit Circus-ish.

Apple Pie

On the 24th Utah celebrates Pioneer Day. About 10 years ago someone came up with the idea of "Pie and Beer" day for those who are not of the dominant religion. It has grown in popularity. I made an apple pie and my sorta new mom made a pineapple cake for a coffee and cake with our German friends that we consider family. Our own little Pie and Beer Day celebration! All of the older generation emigrated to the USA from Germany in the late 1950's and so are our Pioneers!

Bloomington Lake

Sweetie and I took the dogs for a drive up Bloominton Canyon. At the top is this lovely little lake! It is a lovely drive, although sections of the dirt road are a bit tricky.

Moose

On the way down we spotted this moose! I always feel lucky to see wildlife in the wild!

Wildflower

I love wildflowers! And this week we had access to quite a few in the upper elevations!

Wildflower

Sego Lily

Clouds

We have had off and on cloudy days. Which is ok. I love the puffy white clouds and this one was especially interesting to me!

I am linking to Nina-Marie, Amanda-Jean, Sarah, Myra Celtic Beth,
Emily, Beth, Judy Nicole Lorna

Lazy Summer Days

We are having a wonderful, relaxing time at the lake. We have a wonderful shade tree where we have set up some lounge chairs. We have spent quite a bit of time there while watching the clouds and the lake. Yeah, it doesn't suck.

My view from the lounge chair

The lake is Bear Lake on the border of Utah and Idaho. We are on the Utah side. My parents bought the lot over 50 years ago. I grew up here, spending most of the summer at the lake. I am lucky that the property is still in the family. I remember when my Dad and the neighbors constructed the flag pole and we have been flying the flag since. Love the view of the flag and the clouds.

Eddy

My boys love it at the lake. This is Eddy, our "little" guy. Loves to be right next to his dad.

Peaty

This is Peaty, our big boy. He loves to be next to his mama. Peaty is getting older and has some health issues. But still loves to come to the lake, just doesn't like the 8 hour drive to get there.

Lazy summer Dish Rag knitting

I failed on my socks for the Tour De Sock, stage one. So I picked up my dishrag knitting bag. Perfect, mindless summer knitting when enjoying the view is the most important thing to accomplish.

Failed sock

I did not take a photograph before ripping out the knitting on the sock. I had hoped to give the socks to my daughter. She said the pattern was ok, but she was not enthused about the design. And when she said that the yarn was too pretty to waste on that design, it sealed the fate of this project. I do like the texture design and hope to use it on a dish rag. It would be a wonderful scrubby texture. After I complete the green dish rag I will try it out.

Trouble maker shawl

Not quite a fail, but just giving me trouble. Since I am using a very fine yarn I am using small beads. And my normal crochet hook method of adding the beads isn't working, my smallest hook doesn't fit in the bead. So I was trying various dental floss methods, but had the wrong kind. I bought the floss of choice yesterday when I went to the big city to shop. So hope to get caught up on this guy.

Alternate project.

I did not have room to pack a sewing machine with a machine project, so I brought this ongoing hand sewing project. It has only come out of the bag for the photo op. I hope to finish the last light flower and get him sewn into the center so that I can start planning what comes next. This is a design and build as you go project. I have a lot of hexagons wrapped. But didn't have the right one to finish the center portion. I think I will do a dark round next. Who knows?

I am linking to Amanda Jean, Nina-Marie, Myra
Beth, Emily, Judy, Beth, Nicole, Lorna

A Week at the Lake

We are spending the week at the family cabin at Bear Lake. It has been lovely! The weather is nice, the water is up and we are missing the record hot temps back home. I brought along a couple of knitting projects to work on this week.

Baby Hat

First up is a baby hat for our nephew and his wife. They are expecting a little girl in October. I think every baby needs a hand knit hat to wear when coming home for the first time.

Warm up pattern

Next up is the warm up pattern for this year's Tour de Sock. Although it says it is a speed knitting competition, it is very relaxed. You can race for speed or just for fun. There are teams and for a donation to a worthwhile charity, Doctors without Borders, you get 6 patterns and a lot of fun. This year the competition starts a bit late, so there is a bonus 7th pattern to warm up for the race.

colorwork

I am not very big on colorwork on a sock. But I decided to try it out on the warm up sock. I think it looks good! But it is a struggle for me to get the tension correct.

One sock finished!

I finished the first sock last night. I left off the colorwork on the foot since that is in the shoe and won't be seen. Since this pattern doesn't count for points, I don't have to worry about altering the pattern.

Crafting space

My studio space this week! Along with the appropriate beverage for a summer day at the lake.

White Columbine

My Dad planted columbine all over the yard. There are a lot of color combinations, I love the all white version.

Snow in Summer

Another perennial that shows up this time of year is Snow in Summer. It has a very small blossom and grey foliage.

Daisy

There are also a lot of Daisy plants that come back every year! So cheerful!

Another Columbine

Another lovely color combination on a columbine!

Bear Lake

I love this lake! My parents bought our lot in 1965. My Dad built the cabin the next year. I grew up here! We spent almost every weekend at the lake. Along with at least 2 full weeks during the summer.

Peaty swimming

My dog loves to swim! Even though the water is a bit too cold for me, he still has to do a quick swim. The water is usually warm enough about the 4th of July.

Classic Lake View

I love watching the sailboats on the lake! There were only a few this week, but by July there will be a lot more.

Geese

In recent years the water level has been way down. It is close to the high water mark and so the view of the water is very close. I enjoy watching the water fowl. Here are some geese. We also saw ducks and pelicans. Sometimes there are swans as well.

I am linking to Nina-Marie, Amanda Jean, Julie, Sarah Emily,Beth, Judy, Beth Nicole, Lorna

Making a tiny bit of progress, better than none at all.

This time of year the 3 quilts on our bed has dwindled to just one. I still like this quilt, I made it over 15 years ago. I date things by where we were living and we were still in Salt Lake when it was made. I use it quite a bit. I do rotate what quilts are on the bed and this one is there frequently.

My Bed

It is starting to show some wear. I made this using my Dice N' Splice technique.

Repair needed

There are several sections that look like the photograph above. Nice thing is that it is an easy repair. Stupid thing is I don't think about it except when I am under the quilt and this is in my face.

Binding issue

There is one small section of the binding coming loose. Again, a very simple repair.  Just need to think of it during the day and not after I get into bed.

Bunny by Grandma

In the late 80's and early 90's my parents were living in Friday Harbor, Washington. A friend of hers had a pattern for the bunny and my mother made one for each of the grandchildren. I believe this is the only one left. It was made for my son who just turned 35!

Charlotte

Why does blogger rotate my photographs? UGH! Anyway this is Charlotte. When we were getting our house in Salt Lake ready to put on the market, I found an old doll crib that my dad had made for me when I was very young. My daughters were then young adults and it had been stashed away to store. I had told my walking buddy, Sandy, about the crib and how I was disappointed that I did not have a single doll from my child hood. So a few weeks later she shows up to my door to go walking and from behind her back she pulls out Charlotte! She made me a doll for my crib!  The doll crib has been passed on to my granddaughter.

Sheep

A good friend was teaching a class on this sheep doll. I thought it was fun! The "sheepskin" is batting.

July

August

October

Still working on my block of the month samples. I did skip September because the floral I had out worked better for the October block. Just trying to get ahead of the game. There is no guild meeting in July, conflicts with the 4th of July, so I am caught up for the August meeting.

I am linking to Amanda Jean, Nina-Marie, Myra, Abigail, Sarah, Tweety, Emily, Beth, Small Quilts
Lorna

Getting Caught Up

Yesterday I drove up to Panguitch, Utah with a friend to see the Quilt Walk festival. I am not teaching at this event this year, but it was fun to just go for the day and see the show, shop at the vendors and take in the noon time trunk show by Christa Watson. I ran into quite a few friends. It is a small town show in conjunction with the town's festival. I only took a few photographs.

Plaid raw edge applique

I love homespun plaids! I like quilts that look like they belong in a log cabin.

Bright Chevron

I am not usually a pink person, but for some reason this Chevron made me smile.

Daddy's shirts

This piece was made using cut up plaid shirts. I love log cabin blocks and like this variation.

Family reunion

I love quilts made to celebrate family! This was a family reunion quilt. And it features one of my favorite blocks, the Nine-patch.

Memory quilt

Another family quilt! The description did not really tell the story of this family, but I loved the collection of photographs.

My Star Block of the Month

I am in charge of the Block of the Month for one of the local guilds. I am reusing my star block of the month patterns that I made for another group a couple of years ago. I decided to make another set of the blocks in a different theme. Since I missed the last 2 meetings I was behind on my blocks. So this week I was able to get caught up. I am hoping to spend some time this weekend and try to get the rest of the sampler blocks sewn and be ahead of the game.

I am linking to Nina-Marie, Myra, Amanda Jean, Sarah, Anja, Tweety Beth
Emily  Design Wall Monday Beth Nicole Lorna