Reflections 2006

I thought it time to do some reflecting, this will accomplish several things. It will first help my readers get to know me better, secondly it will remind me how far we have come, thirdly it will help me move into the new year with these things recorded and tucked away.

I am going to start in June of 05 and briefly fill you all in on the very beginnings of our move to Wyoming. It all began of course 5 years ago when we decided we wanted to make this change from Ca.

** In June of 05 things started happening fast, (some things came to a head and forced us to move things up 6 months) we began packing and moving making 6 trips, 1,000 miles one way to our new home. The stress was high, hauling a large box trailer on the back of our truck. We completed the move in Oct 05.
** Living in a 5th wheel, that we had brought up summer 05 we began building our small house on the side of our shelled in shop. Kirk and I did this ourselves, every aspect. We were able to move into our bedroom on Thanksgiving. To read more about this, with pictures and details go to my Wyoming blog
** Set up a water system, where we still need to haul water. More details on the ups and downs are on the Wyoming blog. We get our phone and internet connection in late October.
** Up to the mountain to cut fire wood, twice. We heat wood only.
** Kirk mills wood for local rancher.
** Returned to California for Christmas.

New Year 06
**January - Our first dealing with subzero weather.
Kirk begins finishing the inside of his shop, no heat in there so it was slow going. I finish unpacking and finding places for 1500 sq feet of things into 800 sq feet.
** February - we get a cabinet job, (realizing that since our move Kirk has not had a "job", we will be working for ourselves now). Susan and Paul confirm they are coming in June, we will do some cabinets for their 5th wheel. Susan and I also make plans to attend retreat for our online quilt group in Montana. I begin my Wyoming blog.
** March - I acquire my longarm machine, after several months of figuring where I will put it, a friend offers a space. We make the 3 hour trip to get it. Wahoo. I start work on quilts for 4 grandchildren, and find fabric for quilt for friend.
Kirk finishes up the cabinets. My mom has a heart attack.
We get a job for a kitchen and laundry room remodel in a town 25 miles away.
** April - Spring is here. I am learning my machine. We are working 3 days a week on the remodel. We begin to plan for further improvements here at home.
** May - We take a trip to Ca. for youngest daughters graduation from college. Work continues on the remodel and will until November.
Kirk buys a skid stear for doing dirt work.
Kirk mills more wood for rancher
Kirk builds a custom dresser for a gal in town.
We put a patio on the house and bring in some gravel, move the 5th wheel to a better place to house guests, add some steps and a fire pit. My swings go up.
We got TV.
I get talked into joining in on the group garden, this requires alot of work and away from home. I have 3 rows....what was I thinking.
** June - Paul and Susan come, we go off to retreat while the guys build cabinets. We had a grand time. Continued work on remodel. I begin work on quilt for niece for graduation. We do a plumbing job for a family in a near by town.
** July - Samantha, Andy and boys come to visit, from OK. We then made another trip to Ca. so Kirk can work with his Dad on a big cabinet job. The garden is a wash, I just do not have time to put into it. Started my CQ blog.
** August - We make our first wood cutting trip up the mountain. Kirk begins the cabinets for the remodel we have been doing. I take my first client quilt. Kirk is offered a job with a friend on a new house (weekends). He is offered another job on a couple in town and begins work on that, this is only a few weeks. We get a new puppy, Rusty.
** Sept. - Josh, Michele and kids come for a visit. Kirk's parents come a few days later for a visit. My mom has surgery for lung cancer. I do several more client quilts and begin quilting for American Hero quilts. We find out we are going to be grandparents again.
** October -- we get our first snow. We bid on a job to replace all doors in a clients home. Hunting season begins, I work at the restaurant for a few days doing dishes.
** November - We finish up remodel job. Do a counter top for a girls home, a small wall unit for another client, as Kirk continues working weekends on the new house with friend. I am finishing up grandkids quilts. Kirks, Grandma passes away. Started my Esty shop.
** December -- We bid on 2 cabinet jobs and get them. We bid on another cabinet job and are awaiting word. My uncle and a cousin pass away. We make a trip to OK to spend Christmas with Samantha, Andy and the boys.

I think that is it, close enough anyway. I completed about 15 quilts this year, some from start to finish some only the quilting for others. Was involved in 3 RR, and several other swaps. Made soap and lotions and even learned to make mineral make up. Decorated our house, and began a rock garden, grew some lettuce and tomatoes. Went for some hikes/walks and for outing into the 'outback' with DH. Attended a craft group and library group off and on.

I suppose I have bored you all long enough, if your still with me. I thank you for hanging in and getting to know me a bit. I look forward to this next year and hope it will be a little bit slower and I won't have to juggle things quite so much.

New year blessings to each and every one.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

More... I Spy

Here are some details to the
quilts for Brandyn and
Konner's, I Spy quilts.






I wanted to show a couple of close ups, perhaps you can pick out
some words. We (DD helped collect the differant fabrics)
tried to keep the fabrics more grown up so
that the boys would not grow out of their quilts to quickly.











Here is one of the finished quilts, I really need to find a better way
of taking pictures, but at least you can see it's size compared to my
queen size bed.

Flowers and Leaves

Hi everyone, I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas.
Ours was great, the drive to OK was good, thought I was
really worried, because of course our route took us right
thru the closed roads because of the storm around Denver.
I got up at 3 am on the 23rd to check conditions on the
internet and decided (based on internet web cams of the roads)
that we would head out. The roads were great except about
60 miles on Neb. highway 26 that were slushy, losing us several
hours, but after 20 hours we arrived at DD's house at 3 in the
morning. Yep, I was up 24 hours and of course it was several hours
before we went to bed. LOL.

What a wonderful time of family and celebration we had.

I was hoping to post these quilt pictures before Christmas, but of course
Blogger was acting up (now I see why people are moving). So now that
things are back to normal, I have added a picture for you.

Enjoy.

Below is a picture of the quilt I made for Destiny, my granddaughter
who is 8. This is pattern came from one Fons and Portor magazines.
It is a quilt as you go type. There are 88 circle/squares in it and I can
say I won't do it again, though I love the way it turned out.....moving it
around under my small machine was very frustrating to me. I ended up
finishing it by hand. Now perhaps in a small version, which would be
just fine to do.














The back is just as pretty as the front with all the different
fabrics. Destiny loves pinks so I thought I'd make it with the
thought of pink flowers wrapped in lovely green leaves.

Merry Christmas

Well gang, I wanted to wish you all a Merry Christmas. Kirk and I are suppose to leave for our trip in the morning but it looks like that won't happen, since all the roads we are taking are closed because of the snow storm in and around Denver. Sigh.

So, I wanted to get my wishes in to each of you for a Blessed Christmas, filled with family, friends, love and Jesus.

Since I am having picture loading problems with blogger, I can't do anything pertty.

Hugs to you all.

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The West Your accent is the lowest common denominator of American speech. Unless you're a SoCal surfer, no one thinks you have an accent. And really, you may not even be from the West at all, you could easily be from Florida or one of those big Southern cities like Dallas or Atlanta.
The Midland
Boston
North Central
The Inland North
Philadelphia
The South
The Northeast
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

Well, since I can't post a picture I thought I would add this interesting quiz.....BTW.....it is right on. I am a born and raise......Southern California girl.

Blogger won't upload

Well, gang I have tried to upload pictures for several days now, to no avail. I was hoping to share with you the quilts I did for the grandkids, but..............sigh.

So I shall try again,

Which of Santa's Reindeer are you? Cupid Like Cupid you know how to spread love. You have a place in your heart for everyone and are always there with a hug or a kiss Find out which of Santa's Reindeer you are at Quizopolis.com

I SPY

Here is a posting of one of the I Spy quilts for
my grandsons...this one is Bryce's, can you find
his name?









A close up of some of the quilting, can you read it?










Another close up. Bryce's is a bit different in that I put sashing.


Here is the back of the quilt which is flannel, and the label.









The whole quilt (on a queen). I really like the way it turned out.
I just took it out of the washer and dryer, it is so soft and ready
for use.

Threads, Beads & Eagles

In the mail today, my order from Evening Star Designs arrived
Carolyn is still having her big clearance sale and she is a delight
to talk with (I phoned in my order, I think I need to do this
more often). Above are beautiful threads by Charleston,
Watercolours by Caron, and then their Wildflowers threads in the
3rd bunch, Artsilk floss all in the Empress colors, and the spools
are metallics by Kreinik. This is so fun for me as I expand my
thread knowledge, only having DMC floss up until a few months
ago. The colors are so pretty, and by the way that skein of deep blue
Wildflower was a gift from Carolyn with my order along with a pattern
for a Great Blue Heron to stitch.














These are the beads and buttons in my order. Mixed teardrops,
tiny ovals, tiny 3 sided ovals (2 bags), 2 buttons - they are so,
so pretty, and the two bags of beads in the middle, one a mix of
beads and the seed beads, also a gift from Carolyn.
She has a lovely site and is a joy to deal with, my order reached
me in 2 (yes, I said 2) days. Now how is that for service!















Now for this panel, I am thinking on embellishing this, I just
love it, a gift from one of the gals who has sent quilt tops
for me to quilt up for American Hero Quilts. I think he will
be beautiful decked out with beads and treads.......what do you
think?

Well, back to working on Destiny's quilt, I will post the finished
quilt in a day or two. Should I post the boys I spy quilts?

A tree?

I thought I would share these pictures
with my blog readers. We were not
going to decorate, because we are going out
of town for Christmas. Our friend found
out about it and decided I needed a
tree, so this morning they went to get
theirs and brought one for us, too.

So, I did decorate after all and here is
the result. It was fun to do and I am
glad for it as I have been rather
humbug.
Since our move all of our things have been packed away, and
the ornaments are still MIA, so I used what I could find.

I also fixed up the top of my display case, and added a few items
inside.

I like snow people and this is
a little display of them, over
my computer.







And over the top of the
cabinets, lights and
garland.

Tomorrow we will put up
the lights outside.

It feels alot more like Christmas.

Thank you for sharing my day of decorating.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL

Butterfly RR

The paisley in the tail of the butterfly are done. The very center of the eye is done in a silk thread that Susan sent, as well as the outline of the paisley, the french knots are a soft rose in DMC floss. Now to decide what to do on the big wings, perhaps nothing.....NA.

Butterfly RR & Etsy

A couple weeks ago I was sharing with you my block that had returned home from a RR trip.
I have begun to do some work on it and here you can see the yellow rose vine I have added to the body of the main butterfly. Also in view is the beginning of the paisley being stitched to the
bottom set of wings, that is complete now and I will share it with you in the next day or so.

I have spent the day on the computer, making labels for shower gel and for Bryce's I Spy quilt. Not only that but I have added some new and beautiful soaps (if I do say so myself) to my
Etsy Shop, yes an unabashed advertisement. I hope you will go and check things out. Shower gel is next to be added. There is still time to get them for Christmas. My next assignment is to print pictures and make an album for Kirk so he can show people his cabinets.

I hope to get the binding on Bryce's quilt in the next day or so and then complete Destiny's quilt.

I think this next year I am going to make stockings (did I already tell you this?) for everyone in the family, much smaller projects that hopefully I can complete quicker. We'll see. With all the stocking I have been seeing it makes me want to do this.

Ok, back to putting items on Etsy.

Thank You

I wanted to take just a moment to thank everyone who takes the time to leave a comment, as you all know from your own blogs, it is encouraging to know that others are visiting and enjoying what you have done.

Gail

No Stitching today

Here are some more of the soaps I like to make















A friend requested a gift set, so I have been playing
the last couple of days in the kitchen with shower gel,
soaps and will probably make some milk bath tomorrow.

All are goats milk soap, with some soap painting.
I also cut up some beautiful colors and created the
stained glass soaps below. I will be adding some of these
to my Esty shop.















Here are the snowflakes, packages and acorn designs.

Ya know how some days are.....................

Ya, know how some days are just really special.........full of little surprises. Today was one of those days.

First thing when I get up I like to open up the curtains and see the day, I looked up the hill from us and what did I see..............8, yes 8 deer grazing on the hill above our little house. The hill belongs to us so it is fun to see these beautiful creatures on our place. I took this picture thru the window of our bedroom. Three of the deer are young bucks. That is the town water tank up there.

Our little dog Rusty thinks he is pretty bad and goes running up there barking, I think one of the deer must have charged him, cause he stopped barking and they ignored him. One of the doe, came within about 30 feet of this window a bit later and I did not have the camera ready.

Though I do have this one of two doe a bit closer.


















Just a few minutes ago (3:30 pm) the deer were back up there feeding. Yesterday on our way back from town we saw no less then 300 deer while we drove down the highway, had to stop for a small herd of about 10 crossing the road, including a big beautiful buck.

Another blessing today, though it did not start out being one.......or so I thought. I wanted to go to the post office, and with the snow covered hill I needed to use my jeep, which has a flat..the car wouldn't start and though I got the quad started it would not stay that way. So I decided to walk to the P.O., which is 1/4 mile away. What a beautiful day to bundle up and go for a walk. Just yesterday I said I needed more exercise and I got it today. The sun was shining brightly, the snow glistening, the air cold but still, the creeks flowing under their ice covers. Wonderful.

Yep, it has been a day of small blessings. The sun is getting ready to set already, the day goes so fast. I am working on some additions for my Etsy shop, I will post those in a bit.

Butterfly RR - Cher's block

Cher's butterfly RR block with additions of others.

I love the large butterfly here, it is so enchanting and just kept drawing
my attention.






My additions
include a handdyed
butterfly motif.
Lazy dasiy butterfly
and bead seam
treatments. A
beautiful block for sure.

You Are Strawberry Ice Cream

A bit shy and sensitive, you are sweet to the core. You often find yourself on the outside looking in. Insightful and pensive, you really understand how the world works. You are most compatible with chocolate chip ice cream.

What Flavor Ice Cream Are You?

This is interesting, I don't even like strawberry ice cream, well not store bought strawberry ice cream, I do like homemade strawberry ice cream........LOL.

Welcome to my new Etsy Shop

I have decided to open an Etsy shop. My shop BigHornMountainCreations will feature my soaps and bath creations, quilts, crazy quilting and other items. I will also feature work my husband Kirk does.

I only have 2 items up right now and hope you'll go check it out. I will keep you informed when I add new items. I will add more items shortly.

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday.
Gail

Happy Thanksgiving

A Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.

May your day be filled with the closeness of family and friends, what else is there really, that IS what life is about. May you find your heart overflowing with thankfulness.

My list of things I am thankful for

My Lord and my faith
My husband
My children, grandchildren, family and friends.
Our health, home and life comforts
Our country, soldiers and their families.
Blue skies, sunshine, rain, snow,
trees, flowers, gardens and God's gentle creatures.
Fabric, thread, beads, and all things pretty and soft.
Food.............except liver.
Water,
and the list can go on and on but I don't want to lose you.

I praise God and am thankful for all the good/beautiful things in this life and even for the bad/ugly things as it helps me appreciate the good things even more.


God Bless you all,
Gail

Pink and Green Block

This is the final part for this block. I took my cue from the fabric and added beads to the center.
I have decided not to add anything to the smaller patches around the edge. I also added a button butterfly to the stem of flowers on the right.

Here is the whole block.

Circles squared X88 = ??

Here is the quilt I was telling you about. This is from Fon's & Porter's Magazine
September/October 2006 issue page 62 and is called Peek-a-boo, designed by
Liz Porter.

I decided to do mine in all shades of pinks and greens, for my only granddaughter,
Destiny, she is all about pink. Below is a view of the back of the quilt.














Here is the front. Now this is only half done. It has not been a hard quilt, but I don't think I will do it again, because I don't like alot of repetition and this has definitely been that and only about 40 more circles to go, sigh................

I would like to thank everyone for the kind comments on my work, I love working with fabric and thread.

This morning I did some playing with soap again, this time I am trying to make a opal jem. Once it sets up and I cut it into a shape if it is what I think it should be I'll post it.

I am thinking on opening an Etsy shop for my soaps.

Ok, I have rattled on long enough for one setting, let me know what you think of this quilt.

Happy Sunday.

Flight of Fancy - RR

This is Lillian's work, pretty SR flowers and a butterfly.

Here is the block with all the lovely works. Isn't it a beauty? I am beginning work on the remainder of the block and will update you as I go along. Next I will finish up the fan RR block an then I think I need to explore some different colors.....LOL, everything lately has been pink and green.


I got back to sewing today, working on my granddaughters Christmas quilt. It is approaching half done. It starts with 2 circles of fabric and a circle of batting, squared X 88.........any ideas what it might look like?

Today & Flight of Fancy RR

Well, I managed another day without stitching or fabric, I think I am a bit burnt out.

The soap looks really good and you know the friendship bread is good, LOL. It is a beautiful day
wonderful blue skies, spent 2 hour + on the phone with my DIL, Michele. The baby is quit active now, just a few more months (March). We are having a boy and they are thinking of naming him
Codey Hayden, our 6th grandchild. Also played ball with Lady and Rusty 3 times, Lady lives to play ball and Rusty does not understand the game yet, he is only 4 months old.

I am sharing another picture from the work on my Butterfly RR. Here we see, work done by Debbie R. she has done a lovely SRE butterfly, flitting around a lovely pussy willow branch along with two silver butterfly charms. She also chain-stitched around the large center butterfly with Japanese silk twist thread, adding antennae with pearl beads. Thank you Debbie.

Well, off to get dinner on the table and ready for Dancing with the Stars. Oh, yes I was asked about whom I thought would win. Both men are so very talented, but I have to say that Mario has been my favorite from the first show. We shall see.

Gail

Got Milk?

I didn't do any stitching today, nor any sewing....never even touched my machine, a needle or thread.

After waking up to $1 size snowflakes that filled the air, floating down sideways, I took to the kitchen. Cooking up some soap....Goats Milk, oatmeal, honey and almond. Then I got out the powdered goats milk, oatmeal, salts, honey powder and vanilla musk fragrance oil and put together some lovely milk bath.

Then as if that were not enough messin up the kitchen, it was time to make some friendship bread, it has been awhile since we had any and with the colder weather today, snow and wind...this is the perfect treat.

Needless to say.................we went out to dinner.

Now after watching Dancing with the Stars, it is time for night, night.

See you all tomorrow.

Flight of Fancy - RR

Here is the pink and gold butterfly that Zandra added to the block.
I love both of the hand stitched butterflies, wonderful colors and beautiful
needle work.

Well I am off to make some soap, we had snow this morning but it is
gone now and the wind is woopin it up. LOL.

More RR details tomorrow.

Flight of Fancy - RR

Today we see the rest of Cher's work. The Chevron stitch with 3 lazy daisy on each point, beads to highlight and 5 pewter butterflies.

Zandra's additions feature a vine of blackberries, and a pink and gold butterfly (tomorrow's post). I am not sure who put the purple beaded butterflies on the seam.

The work is so lovely and it is wonderful to touch.

Flight of Fancy - RR

First to work on my block is Cher, from KY. Cher added a lovely vine of SR roses.
She also embroidered the beautiful butterfly to the left and added some small acrylic
butterflies who are all enjoying the sweet nector of the roses.

Another element that Cher added will be featured tomorrow along with Zandra's work.

Flight of Fancy - RR

Here is the undressed block I submitted to the Flight of Fancy round robbin.
The block has made it rounds and the additions are beautiful.

Over the next couple of days I will share the work of the ladies on my block.

This is the first block that I have pieced completey by hand, it is an enjoyable
process. The background of the block is done all in cottons, and the butterfly is
all of fancy fabrics.

I have 2 other blocks, one is the Pink and Green block I have been featuring
the other is the fan block I share in an earlier post. My plan is to combine these
into a wall hanging.

I also have another block from this RR, belonging to Cher that I will also post
for you to enjoy the wonderful works from the ladies of this RR group.

Until tomorrow.

Pink and Green Block

The lattice is done. I didn't want it to overwelm the surrounding seams so decided to keep it simple with soft pink french knots in the openings.

Now I am trying to decide what to do in the next space, the one in the lower left. Hummmm.

Block Change Out

OK, here is the change I made with the sequined flowers and glass
leaves...............So, from this to

















This,

Since the block has a garden theme I decided the garden needed
a spider to keep an eye on all the plants. This is a good spider, she is a
pink lady, and is queen over the garden making sure that all the
bad bugs keep their distance.
















I am much happier with this addition to the block, I do need to
work on my web design, this one is a bit funky, but will do.

What do you think?????

I am thinking of removing the sequine flowers posted on Oct 27, I can't decide if it is the leaves that I don't like because the color is kind of wrong or if it is the whole composition.

I need suggestions on what to do?

Pink and Green Block

Ok here is the preview of the next section of
the pink and green block. I am using a darker
green DMC floss. Now I have not decided what
I shall do in the open spaces created by the
X's......beads......french knots....??

It does detract from the upper seam treatment which is not making me happy, but I do like the
trellis effect.

So we will see.

Pink and Green Block

It took me awhile to decide what to do in the
open spaces of this block, let me rephrase that, what to do in this space, there are still about 6 to go. LOL.

I decided on a branch of lazy daisy flowers, the stem is DMC floss (3 strands), the flowers are single strand of Wildflowers by Caron. The
side view flowers have french knot centers, full flowers have gold beads for the center.

It has been a busy week, thus the lack of posts. Susan asked for a tutorial on making the pin cushions, I will work on that to post soon. With Christmas around the quilts are flying off the long arm machine, #3 of the I spy's for our grandsons is due off tomorrow. Today 3 American Hero quilts arrived for quilting. I also received a RR block in the mail today, this is the last one for this RR so mine will be coming home soon. I have also started a quilt for our granddaughter, I will share these quilts soon.

I am working on a new section to this block and will post it as soon as it is done, or should I give a sneak preview?

Helping our American Heros

I am working with a group of quilters who make and give out quilts for our returning wounded soldiers, help is needed. So today I would like to ask each person who visits this blog to consider helping our wounded American Hero's, children of American Hero's and families of American Hero's.

Sue at American Hero quilts American Hero Quilts - Our Story is asking for help,


-----------------
This is from Sue Nebeker <http://www.american heroquilts. com> -
"there are so many wounded and so few quilts or tops coming in at the
moment. If you have the time to make a top, it would be greatly
loved and appreciated.

In addition I have sent out seven quilts in the last two weeks to
families who have young men who came back and killed themselves. I
have two military bases who have sent requests for quilts for
children and the numbers increase as I get them. I got a spread
sheet from Alaska of all the children and when I asked for
clarification of spelling on one of them she added three more names!

Even if you can just make a baby quilt, that would be fabulous."
------------------------------

Also;
If you can only make a block or two, feel
free to and they will be added to other blocks and put into tops. If you can make blocks let me know at ...galynn92347@yahoo.com..... I will give you the address to send them to so they can be combine with other blocks into a top.

Please, please help if you can. If you can't make blocks or tops, but can donate money toward batting, Sue's address is on the website above. Sue is buying most of the batting with her own money, so even if you can send $10.00 to help with that what a wonderful help that would be.

Thank you in advance for any help that the Lord lays upon your heart.

Hugs
Gail

Pincushions

Pincushions, do we ever have enough?

One day as I was eyeing an Altoides tin, I had a light bulb moment, the three pincushions here are made using the tins.

The top two made for exchanges. The green one is mine (it is green and pink that should be a dead give away, LOL).

The blue one was my first attempt, of this I made two, one went to my MIL and another to Connie on my CQI list. The black one also for a swap on CQI list. The crochet laces were done by my MIL and given to me because she had to many. These are fun and easy to make and a good way to reuse the tins.