Doll Quilt Swap VII ~ Finally Finished!

Well, this little quilt, "Crazy for Purple", is on its way to its new owner (its a surprise, so i wont mention any names here). It was part of a swap on about.com, and the deadline is the 31st, so i finished just in time. I always get so engrossed in the quilt im making, that i forget about the one coming to me...so when one arrives for me, its always a nice surprise!
The deadline for this quilt almost passed me by, as i have been sick the ENTIRE month of August! Lightheaded, dizzy, chills, fatigued, nausea and other unmentionables...off and on for 3 1/2 weeks and lost about 15 pounds (and no, im not pregnant). All my tests came out clear, which is great, but also frustrating, as they dont know whats wrong with me. I thought maybe it was our well water, but that was tested, and its clean too! I swim in our river a lot, and thought maybe it was giardia, but that test also came back clean. Of course, its common to have that and have clear test results, so i may still have it, but if i do, its almost finished running its course, so there's no point in getting meds now. Let me just say, that whatever it was...it was MISERABLE, and i dont wish that upon anyone! I am slowly feeling better, but need to eat about every two hours or i get lightheaded again...probably from all the weight loss. Anyways, thats why ive been a bit quiet this month, but here's to a fabulous September!!! Cheers~

Teaser #4

Here is another teaser of the quilt im making for the doll quilt swap on about.com. Getting close to finishing with the embroidery, and then its on to buttons and beads :) Wont be long now!

Crazy Quilt, Fabrics and a Ghost Town

Hurrah...my blocks arrived from the second round of the crazy quilt swap on about.com, and i just love them :)
I was trying on different colors for sashing, and i think i like this dark red best...what do you think? I played around with the images in Photoshop to help decide on the color. I love that program! Be sure to click on the picture for a larger image to see all the lovely stitching and details. Some of the squares still have the basted border, so ignore those :) Also, one of the squares was made by me, so naturally it hasnt been decorated at all yet!

Im also participating in an I-spy swap, and these are some of the fabrics i ordered for it. I have some coming from different stores online, so ill post those when they arrive. Ive always wanted to make an I-spy quilt, but i dont have many novelty fabrics, so this should be a fun and easy way to collect a larger variety. I havent decided how i want to set them yet...i was thinking of an attic window pattern or perhaps a snowball pattern...any suggestions?

The weather has been cooling off a bit, but it was gorgeous this weekend, so Jordyn and i went for a drive with our friend Connie. We headed up towards the pass and drove around looking for moose. We spotted a mother and her baby, which was fun and we watched them for quite a while. Then we headed up to the moose center, which is a very neat place.

We were having such a nice time that we decided to continue on our journey. We drove around Gould, and stumbled upon a road to Teller City (which was established in the late 1800's and is now a ghost town).

There isnt much left of the old city, but there is enough to let your imagination fill in the gaps. There were informative plaques throughout the hike, which made it even more fun, and the surrounding area was absolutely beautiful. Unfortunately, the Pine-beetle have really killed off a lot of the trees, but it was still gorgeous.

Sometimes the best adventures are the ones that arent planned! We had a great time, and it was a wonderful weekend!

Life is a Bowl of Cherries!

My trip to Denver, albeit HOT, was wonderful! We enjoyed playing in the sprinkler, visiting with family, and we even went to a car show...a fundraiser for cancer.
I was able to do some embroidery while i was there, and i finished these up when i got home. Im finished with round two of the crazy quilt swap on about.com, so i can relax a bit! :) At least until the second round of the ALQS swap run by Kate. I decided to give it another go, so that will be my next swap project. I dont plan on doing any other swaps for the rest of the year...i want to get started on my Christmas gifts, which probably seems early, but i know how slow i can be :)
Anyways, this first square is for Cris. She wanted pastel embellishments, and i was working with blues, so i thought the watch face would be a fun touch. Its a bit unusual, but goes with the colors and the theme nicely...i hope she likes it.

These are the two Christmas blocks with the hunter green/cranberry color choice for Randi (in Italy) and Rebecca. I liked the way the gold brightened them up, so i threw a lot of that in there. The cherubs were to cute not to put in there, and since one of them is going to Italy, i thought it should definitely have a cherub! :)

And lastly, here is a photo i took of myself out in the yard on Monday. Usually, between the deer, the bear, the squirrel and the birds, we hardly ever get any of the cherries off of our dwarf tree. This year, however, we scored a couple pounds of cherries! Yummy! Anyone have any good sour cherry recipes for me? I need to bake them up or store them in the freezer real soon, so please send soon ;)

104 degrees......ugh!

So im in Denver, with record breaking heat, and ive decided to park my butt on the couch...in this fabulous air conditioning, and crank away on the embroidery. I have three left to work on, so i might just finish them up this weekend! It was nice to work on the Christmas square after all of the B&W and C&W squares. A nice change of scenery, so to speak :)
The red does look gorgeous on the Black and White though!

Hope everyone keeps cool this weekend!

More Crazy Quilting...

Two more blocks completed for the second round of crazy quilt swapping! These are both for Lou...she was brave and signed up for two rounds which means she will have to make twice as many blocks...yikes! Im having a hard time completing one set :) Anyways, i hope she likes them. Im in Denver getting my city fix. I couldnt have picked a hotter weekend...but im inside, with air conditioning, good company, and a cold beer :) I get so used to the secluded mountain life, that when we have an onslaught of guests(which happens every summer), i tend to get burned out and need to escape my own home. Funny that i go to the city to do that :) I plan to keep busy though, as i brought my Wacom tablet and my embroidery. What an unusual combination!
cheers~

Busy Weekend!

We had some folks drop by our house this weekend...they were on a mission to find the Black Bear Cabin, a house they lived in, in the 1940's. Leola, a sweet lady, lived here when she was 10, and she wanted to get a peek at her old stompin' grounds.
She showed me this old black and white photo, from her travels up this way back in 1965, and she was kind enough to let me make a copy of it. When she lived here, the large picture windows had not been added in yet, that was something Justin's Grandfather added later.
I guess the place has changed quite a bit since then :)

Pay no attention to all the junk we have scattered around the yard...its been one of those weeks...er...summers! :)
I worked all weekend at the Resort, so its been a crazy weekend all around! I did manage to get a few more squares embellished for the second crazy quilt swap.

Faye wanted black and white, with black, white but mostly red embellishments...her theme...think 60's! I think i came pretty close to that, especially with the Alexander Henry fabric in the middle :)

Cheryl wanted a cream and white block with pink to burgandy embellishments. Unfortunately, this photo looks rather yellow, and it is much prettier in person. I was going for a bit of a garden theme here...hope she likes it!
Anyways, thats about it up here on the mountain...hope you all had a fabulous weekend!