More photos from Montana

It might not seem so, but I didn't get nearly as many photos while on our trip as I would have liked. And one photo opportunity that we ALL missed was taking any shots of the family when everyone was all together (I think there ended up being 12 of us in all). Do any of you all have a similar story of getting a group together after many years and getting so caught up in the moment forgetting to document?

However, the next day I did manage to get one people shot

(From right to left: J making one of his "I'm on the wrong side of the camera" faces, J's brother Ned, Ned's girlfriend Addie, and Laura - J and Ned's awesomely sweet mom!)

And then back to shots around "town"...
On a visit to Missoula's carousel, which I'm told is made from all hand-carved and hand-painted wood for the horses. It's my understanding (though I could be wrong on this one) that they were each done by local artists.

So, can you see what I saw in this sign, which put a smile on my face and my camera to my eye?? (and I'll say it's pretty true, from our assessment)

The giant chess set on the patio of Bayern brewery - one of Ned's hobbies.

And back to the scenery shots:
First thing in the morning from the back door of the neighbors' garage apartment where J and I were staying

As the light begins to change...

Becoming a gorgeous day!

The still partially frozen Seeley Lake

And I'll end this post with the few shots I got of the herd of elk we saw on our way back to the homestead. Being the city girl that I am, I apparently scared them off before we got a good shot, but maybe I'll know for next time (and thankfully the only things with which we were shooting were cameras... if it had been hunting season the response to my scaring them off would have been VERY DIFFERENT, I am sure)!

Finding my way back

The trip was excellent, and I'll be posting more photos in the coming days, but now it's time to get back to the sewing room.

I spent my first day back in the studio catching up on all of my April bee blocks — and redoing the one I had actually put together before the road trip.

Friends + Fabric [AMSB]
April is Karen's month, and she wrote a stellar tutorial for making up a variation on a quilt she made previously, seen here.

My first try... at a glance looks good, but I put the rectangles together backwards. That'll teach me to follow a tutorial after only printing out the first 2 pages, preparing for sewing without access to my computer, but wanting to save paper!

So, I began my work today picking out stitches while re-watching an episode of Greek through Netflix.

Hopefully with the right orientation this time!

Block #2

Seeing the two side by side gives a great view of the value contrasts (which is something Karen was looking for in these blocks and will make a stunning, stunning finished quilt!)

Design Camp [think outside the block]
This is an improv swap with a relatively loose format, but this month Mary gave us some guidelines within which to work. She sent out packets with strips of yummy autumnal Kaffe Fassett and Philip Jacobs prints along with some Kona Butter solid and a strip of one other solid. She shared a tutorial for making up chevrons (or french braids) to be encorporated into the blocks, but left the overall layout up to each of us.

do. Good Stitches - Bliss Circle
This year seems to be starting off with the representational blocks for this group! Marian pointed a tutorial by Heather of Olive and Ollie for these sweet little house blocks.

I was going for a little mid-century masonry and an ivy covered roof on this one!

I love how the pattern on this Joel Dewberry fabric looks like we're peering through a beautiful ironwork fence!
Unfortunately, these blocks didn't end up exactly the target size, but thankfully Marian is being super flexible about it! And on these guys my problems with pressing all of these seam allowances open is much more evident than in the other bee blocks for the month. I can certainly understand the benefit of that technique in bee blocks, but it's not always the most efficient method.

All in all I think today went pretty well, and as an added bonus, I got to finish it off by meeting a friend for dinner at Ya Hala, a spectacular Lebanese restaurant in SE. And now I am {enjoying?} a pretty intense film that keeps drawing my attention away from this post, "The Bang Bang Club," about a group of photojournalists in South Africa in the mid-'90s. Holy _ _ _ _! Worth watching, to be sure!

A Change of Scenery

Takin' a little time away. Y'all know how that goes!

J and I are spending the better part of the week outside Missoula, Montana visiting with his folks and other family.

We headed out of Portland Tuesday morning, amidst slightly grey skies and moderate temperatures. After several hours along the Columbia River Gorge and on through eastern Washington we hit the Idaho panhandle and crossed into Montana. The weather was on our side, let me tell you! Though the pass looked something like this:

we were driving with the windows open, short-sleeved shirts, and the on-board thermometer wavered between 61° and 75°! I think I even got some sun on my ankles while J was taking us through! Ah, sunshine!

Our first day was a mellow one, where the big activities were a long walk with the Swofford dogs, followed by a big family dinner (I think there were 13 or 14 of us in all). I took some photos on the walk (tried to use the Hassleblad but there's always so much time between uses it takes me too long to reacquaint myself, so I stuck with the little point-and-shoot digi).

Scout, Muttly and Obie

Muttly found a treat along the way!

the sheep down the road

Making new friends

a little dubious

gettin' a little closer

Moving up from Muttly's Little Lamb to the big guys!

From there it was a little jaunt in the creek before heading back to the homestead.

Liebster What??

No photos to share today :-(

This post is kind of a combination / culmination of an honor that was handed to me earlier this week and a really nice day spent with the Portland Modern Quilt Guild members sewing away at Fabric Depot.

A new Flickr friend, Karen, whose work I've admired over the past year or so since becoming more active on that site recently started her own blog: CapitolaQuilter. We've been members of the same online bee since the beginning of the year (Friends+Fabric=A Modern Stash Bee) and it's been such a pleasure so far! And inspiring. Very, very inspiring, which is also a word I would use to describe Karen's energy and gusto in getting her blog off the ground. Apparently I was not alone in that assessment, as another of her friends bestowed upon her something called "The Liebster Blog Award," something I had not heard of before Karen passed this on to me.

But according to what she posted in her blog, here's the scoop:
“The origins of the Liebster Blog Award are somewhat unclear but the general consensus is that it means favourite or dearest to showcase bloggers with fewer than 200 followers.”

And here are the rules:
1. Thank my Liebster Blog Award presenters.
2. Link back to my presenters' blogs.
3. Copy & paste the blog award on my blog.
4. Present the Liebster Blog Award to five blogs with 200 or fewer followers that I feel deserve to be noticed and post links to their blogs on my blog.
5. Let the recipients know they have been given the Liebster Blog Award by posting a comment on their blog.

For some reason this caused me some stress. I can't say why. I'm weird like that.
And then today I spent the better part of the day hanging out with other members of PMQG, working on our respective sewing projects, chatting about all sorts of things, and I was reminded that this is a pretty cool group of ladies and I'm fortunate to have found a place among them (though I still feel kind of like a wallflower much of the time!). And I was reminded of Karen's generous compliments. It's time to pass that on, though I might be changing course ever-so-slightly. So, here is my list of artists and creators to keep your eye open for, and maybe check out what they have to share, because I know that I get something from each of these folks!

Connie at Oui Chef: a Journal. I'm going in a different direction to begin with. Connie is not a quilter, in fact she doesn't sew at all. She's a talented chef and just as talented a photographer, as can be seen on her blog or her flickr page. Unfortunately she's slowed down on the blogging this year as I believe her professional life has been taking up the majority of her time and energy, but all it takes is reading a few sentences and you KNOW how passionate she is about the dishes she makes and the tools that she uses (illustrated so well in one of my favorite posts, found here).

Jenn at jenn of all trades. I first came across her drawing and illustration work on flickr before I even realized that she is a quilter and seamstress too. And as I came across more of her work, the more intrigued and inspired I became. She seems to have an amazing outlook on life and I so appreciate many of the general encouragements I come across while reading her blog. Just check it out and you'll see what I mean!

Gail at I Think Sew. Gail has become like a beacon of sunshine and light in grey ol' Portland. She's been a welcoming presence both at local guild meetings and events as well as in the flickrverse and blogland. She has a vision that seems to be truly and uniquely her own (which I find so refreshing!) and always kind words for other's work. Think: positive karma.

Rebecca at Sew Festive Handmade. It isn't hard to get a sense of just how interesting, well-rounded and humble this young woman is by reading her blog posts. She seems to be someone who takes things as they come, sees the beauty in all sorts of things and enjoys creating more. I admittedly am not the most frequent blog-browser, but usually when I see that Rebecca has a new post, I'm interested to see what her day has brought her.

Michelle at Design Camp. Another PMQG member, I've enjoyed not only seeing her dedication to quilting develop over the last year or so, but love her innate ability for instruction and aid. My understanding is that she's been sewing and in textiles for years, and set up the blog moniker for teaching sewing to youths, but I feel that in almost every conversation I have with her regarding sewing I learn something new, or at the very least see a perspective I might not otherwise have seen. That's awesome. I think she has a lot of great ideas and experience to share as well as a sense of adventure and curiosity to try new things that I admire greatly.

I hope you all will give these ladies a nod, and get a little something from your visits.

WIP Wed - Some recaps

This is getting to be an "every other week" thing for me (I guess one could say fortnightly, as opposed to weekly). But I was still over at Lee's blog Freshly Pieced last week checking out what other people had posted, and I suggest anyone here do the same! And today I will be linking up with the goings on.


New Projects
PMQG improv quilt
Well, new to me anyhow.

Blogged a bit more in this post.

PMQG-MM cotton couture block challenge

I'm still thinking about other possibilities, but have come to a bit more peace with this block than I maybe showed in this post (in no small part thanks to the lovely comments folks have made over on Flickr).

custom napkins

Working with someone to hopefully supply her wedding reception... fingers crossed it pans out!

more potholders

up on etsy!

Completed
table runner

I just don't have a table in my house clean enough to properly photograph! Going to try and do it while at work today at the quilt shop... Marie has those gorgeous wood cutting tables over at Cool Cottons!!

Almost Completed

Finished quilting my yellow scrappy yesterday, just have to select and apply binding. Thinking this might travel with me to Montana next week. (Can you see I've been craving sunshine lately??)

Some Progress
Nothing really new or exciting to write about.
backing for my Nubees sampler

Still haven't basted this puppy... heading into the studio after spending the previous afternoon weeding does not inspire one to spend another hour or two squatting on the ground. At least my back and legs felt that way!

borders on curved-piecing top

Both of these projects are blogged about a bit more here.

No Progress
Flannel Throw
Medallion quilt
Could be a Quilt...
Purple/Green Asian sampler
Seams Perfect Sampler
Batik Warm/Cool QAL
Lee & Glenn's quilt
red/brown/green I-Spy
girly hourglass
Judy Neimeyer double wedding ring
broken dishes
Trip Around the 9-Patch
Halloween Stack 'n Whack
leftover I-spys from Hopman quilt
tote bags
blue/green place mats

So, where does that leave me?
New - 4
Completed - 2
In Progress - 21 (yikes!)
Unquilted tops - I think about 14 (added one and took one off the pile since last post)

Friends + Fabric Bee = Something Stunning!

This is what has arrived so far from the very talented ladies in the Friends + Fabric (A Modern Stash Bee). In late February I posted a tutorial for these wonky diamond blocks, and not only have my bee-mates taken a running leap with it, but their selections of fabrics blow me away! ISN'T THIS LOOKING FABULOUS??

There are a few more blocks that have popped up on the group pool in Flickr which are yet to arrive, but I think that once they are all accounted for, I will be super eager to jump right in and start putting them together!! If all goes well, and the various creators have no objection, I might even try and get this in our guild's portion of the Sister's Outdoor Quilt Show this summer... Oh the possibilities!

Plugging Away

First of all, I have to say that we got lucky with the weather today. It is a beautiful, dry, mostly sunny day here in Portland, and my boyfriend and I had the day off, so after a morning errand (which included a filling breakfast out), we returned to the house to do some yard prep. He took the hoe to the veggie garden area while I was working on weeding around the flower beds, so we should be ready for a trip to the nursery in the next couple of weeks!

That said, it's supposed to return to the usual rain by tonight, so back to the sewing studio tomorrow. The week to come is going to be one of those "just get things done" sort of weeks. No surprises (hopefully!), no special projects, just finishing tops and working on quilting.

Last week I basted and started quilting another of my "monochromatic" (or more accurately "analogous color") quilts.

Planning to finish this guy up in the next couple of days, hopefully... I'm so confident of that, I'm about to baste another quilt:

I don't know if this will be next in the quilting queue, but I also managed to get borders on the green and aqua curved-piecing quilt this Sunday. I didn't expect to put borders on it, but after adding sashing

it just felt unfinished. I definitely feel this brings it more completion:

Next week I'll be heading out to Montana with J to visit with his family... which means staying in the room just next to his mom's long-arm! Trying to decide which quilt to take with me just in case I get some practice time in. I'll keep y'all posted!