Long Time Gone

 That is in reference to my disappearance from blogland, not to the Jen Kingwell quilt of the same name (which I love).

I've had this to share since June, but couldn't seem to disentangle from real life craziness long enough to post on my blog. This was the Barrister's SAL of 2012, sponsored by Randy of Barrister's Block blog. I have posted about the quilting earlier this year, but I finally got it bound.

Made entirely of men's thrift store shirts (except the backing), I am just thrilled to have this one completed! You can find the links to all of the block instructions on Randy's blog on this page.

My daughter-in-law got this shot for me as I held it over the deck railing. 

Don't finishes feel great?? I really should do it more often.

So much has gone on since I last posted on June 7th, I almost don't know where to start.
June was such a busy month, but in the midst of it all we had a couple of little getaways to celebrate hubby's birthday and our anniversary.

We hadn't been back to the Golden Spike National Historic Park since our kids were young, so we paid it a visit on hubby's birthday. I got this shot of him between the trains that reenact the meeting at the spot where the Golden Spike was driven. (I think this looks like a power pose.) 

I am guessing that people who didn't grow up within a couple of hours of this place are not as familiar with the history here. You can learn more about it on their website here.

Then we continued on from there down a dirt road for almost 20 miles to reach the Northeast corner of the Great Salt Lake, where you find land artist Robert Smithson's most famous work, The Spiral Jetty. The photo below on the left shows the Jetty behind us as we stand above, in the parking lot. But we also walked down on and around the Jetty, and then beyond to the Great Salt Lake. The water at this arm of the lake is so high in salinity that it is orange in color. When the Jetty was built, it just crested the surface of the water, but our long drought in Utah has left it fully exposed for years. This year's wet winter and spring brought the water level back to within about a half mile of the Jetty, instead of the mile it had previously been.You can read about the Spiral Jetty here.

On the right in the photo above, we are at Shoshone Falls in Southwestern Idaho. We took our anniversary getaway to that area and enjoyed multiple waterfalls, springs, and gorges in Thousand Springs State Park. It is a beautiful (but windy) area, and we hope to go back later this year to kayak on the Snake River.

Okay, there is more quilty content. One day in a local quilt shop I came across this kit. The pattern caught my eye, thinking it would be a good one when you didn't want to cut fabric up very small. I forgot about it until Nancy at Blogging Near Philadelphia posted about gathering quilts for an orphanage in Romania that had taken in Ukranian orphans. How could I not help? I hadn't sewn a stitch for well over a month, but doing something for others is a great motivator. I signed on, and then looked up this photo so I could find the pattern. It is a free download from Andover, which you can find here. April Showers is the fabric line they used, and the pattern is called Spring is Here.

The top comes together quickly if you don't use quite so many different fabrics as they do in the sample. I simplified the fabric selection and came up with this--unquilted on the left, and as it arrived yesterday from my longarm quilter on the right. So grateful she could squeeze me in.

I had intended to quilt it myself, but knew it wouldn't get finished in time if I tried to fit it into my life right now. I will be gone the last week of July, so the binding will have to wait until August. I will be doing the flange binding method.

Had a great time Zooming with Chooky earlier this month. Always fun to chat and stitch, laughing over so many things. It is therapeutic, and I look forward to every chance to join in.

There were really 16 of us on at the time, but my iPad mini only shows 9 at a time. 

At the end of June, when all of our kids happened to be in the valley at the same time, we had my daughter-in-law get some photos of the family, out on the farm with the mountains as backdrop.Would have loved to get the entire family--spouses, grandkids. But not all of them were here, so we did what we could. I think it was 2018 the last time we got a good photo of the whole clan. 

Next week is the long awaited meeting with Pam Buda for the Village Dry Goods Circa 1880 club. Our video submission of our club won the contest sponsored by Marcus Brothers back in 2019, and the prize was a visit from Pam. It was originally scheduled for April 2020--you know the rest of that story.

She is also doing a one day workshop where we will be working on her new pattern of three small quilts, called Haunted Halloween. It is designed for her new fabric line, Cheddar and Coal 2. When I visited the shop earlier this week, one of the gals was kind enough to hold up her hand near the samples so you could get an idea of the size. Aren't they cute?

If you are still with me, bless you. :)  Way back in May I promised a giveaway to celebrate my dozen years of blogging. Didn't happen. I didn't post again that month. When I posted in June it was only about the doll quilt swap. So it's about time I got to it--over two months late!

Leave a comment if you are interested in either of the kits below. There is also a little dark chocolate and a couple of bars of my herbal soap with each kit. First name drawn (that includes, or is linked to an email address--if you aren't sure,just include it) will get first pick of the kits. Another name will be drawn to get the second kit.

First kit is from Kim Diehl's Simple Whatnots #9. Fabrics in the kit are shown on the right, above.

The second kit is a free pattern from Moda, by Blackbird Designs. The fabrics are from a recent line by 3 Sisters, called Bliss.

I think I've kept you long enough. I hope everyone is having a good summer (or winter, depending on where you are). Here in the USA, we are having some tremendous heat, breaking records right and left. So concerned for everyone--especially the vulnerable, and the fire fighters. Keeping them in my prayers.

Until next time, keep cool, and be kind,

Janet O.

Drawing is now closed.

From two nights ago on my evening walk.