Happy October

It has been a busy month with auto appointments, pet appointments, people appointments, yard sale weekend, and a long camping weekend.  I still have hardly put up a decoration for Halloween.  I did make another Halloween quilt, however.  This one I actually photographed in October (instead of February or August).

This is the one that I pieced all the blocks while out camping in the woods in July.  My July post has some photos of the quilt in progress.  The light sashing fabric has tiny little black spiders on it.  I got it quilted in September and the binding on in the first part of October.  It was deliberately made for my co-workers' son, who is turning ten on this Halloween.  My dad's birthday was on Halloween, and it never occurred to me to make him a Halloween quilt.  I know this young man will appreciate and enjoy it for many years to come.  He wrote me a thank card in cursive.  I don't know if he has discovered that the bones in the border fabrics glow in the dark.  They do!   

On our camping trip, last week, we went up to Brownlee Reservoir, where I made some skull blocks.  I feel a skull quilt in my future.  These blocks are going into bunting to be hung out on Halloween.

Halloween in August

Did you notice all the 'Christmas in July' events this year?  I noticed several, and some were at quilt shops.  I have completed my 2nd Halloween quilt for this year.  Actually, I made a Halloween quilt top while I was out camping in June/July.  That one still needs the backing constructed and the quilt quilted. After that quilt, I made another quilt top out of those scraps and some other scraps in my Halloween Scrap Stash.  Say that fast four times.  Anyway, I finished the scrappy one and hand-stitched the binding on, so I could enter it in the Western Idaho State Fair.  It has been entered.  All the quilts will be judged on Wednesday, and then on display when The Fair opens on Friday, August 20.  If you understand log-cabin blocks, you will notice that this one is four really big log cabin blocks using varying widths of fabric strips.  It is a liberated log-cabin block quilt.  Officially:  scrappy, wonky, liberated log-cabin Halloween quilt.

I have this overflowing bin of Halloween fabrics, which I have gotten under control.  I can actually get the lid onto the bin. That is why I made two Halloween quilts this summer.  The previous one, I completed in February and posted a photo at that time.  I managed to make that photo look like it was Halloween, but how do I get some spooky fall look in August?  I took advantage of the smoke from all the wildfires that are polluting the air in the valley (and all over the place!).  My husband and I got up early on Sunday morning and drove out toward Caldwell and found a couple of fields to pose in front of.  I had my husband bring his gloves and he was allowed to hold the quilt up with his fingers showing.  How liberated of me, to allow such a thing.  Anyway, it is kind of a scary pose in the fog (smoke) with some eerie orb in the background (the sun).

Here is a shot of the back.  It has a six-inch wide casing across the top, so The Fair folks can hang it up.  The casing covers up the way cool bat fabric that I used at the top of the backing.  Oh, well.  It was long-arm quilted by Virginia at Crab Apple Creek Quilting.  I knew I wanted these spider webs when I took it to her.  She made it happen!

Who knew?

Who knew that the adorable Queen of Skunk Cabbage, would grow up to become the adorable Gluten Free Quilter?  In my younger days, my dad worked for the Forest Service.  This resulted in me spending a great deal of time on the Boise National Forest, exploring, fishing, wading, throwing rocks in the creek or river, picking/eating berries, drinking root beer, and taking naps.  Due to the COVID-19 situation, my husband and I have taken several trips up to my old stomping grounds and 'camped out'.  He bought a couple solar panels, inverter, and a large capacity battery, so we could catch some rays.  Those caught rays powered my sewing machine, iron, and a fan all day long.  There was still enough energy at the end of the day to run our TV so we could watch some murder mysteries after dinner.  Some camping trip!!!  

We went up on June 30 and came back after the 4th of July weekend.  Here is the skunk cabbage!  Oh, you can see a little bit of the creek, behind it (upper right).

Here is our camp site.  This was the first day, and we did not have the awning up yet.  You can see the two solar panels just to the right of the American flag.  We towed our Blazer, so we could go exploring on some days.  We are always looking for a new nice place to camp, but this is our favorite.  About 90 feet on the other side of the Blazer is the creek; an excellent place to cool off.

We had some extraordinarily high temperatures in Idaho during the last six weeks . . . it got pretty warm up here in the late afternoons, so a cold dip was a wonderful thing.

Here I am piecing a Halloween quilt.  I got all the blocks finished and sewed to each other, while using solar power out in the boondocks. I have a braided rug under my table, where I place my peddle and bag of pieces and parts.  There is usually a breeze, so my blocks are under my ruler and pop-up to keep them from blowing away.

These two shots seem a little on the dark side, but you can see my blocks, my bunting, and the evergreens beyond.  This is almost like saying "What's on the Design Wall In July?"

We drove up to Lower Lave Mountain Trail Head, to check out the creek there and see if there were any campers.  The road, in the photo above, is the one we came up to get to Lower Lava Mtn TH.  It is a one-track road with no turn-outs, but this would be a fabulous place to camp out if you do not use an RV to do your camping in.  There was no one camping up there.  The creek was much lower on July 2nd, than it had been last August when we were up there.  Then we checked out Long Gulch Creek, down where Long Gulch Guard Station used to be, and it was as low on July 2nd as it was last August.  There are little fishes in there, and I wonder what will become of them if the creek dries completely up!  I caught my first fish in Long Gulch Creek when I was six years old.  It is beautiful up here, but I think the Forest Service is letting it go.  These hot temperatures are not good for the creeks and their ecosystems.

This tree survived the huge fire that came through here in the early 1990's.  Not much left here to indicate there had been a nice guard station here.  This is where we camped over the 4th of July in 2020 (last year).

Happy Halloween!

Just finished this jack o' lantern quilt at the end of January.   February 3rd was a gray day, here in Idaho, so I gathered up the remaining pumpkins from the front porch and took them out in the back yard.  I took a fabulous photo of this quilt.

You cannot tell that it is not October, in this chilly photo of my favorite Halloween quilt.  I have made another quilt in the same general pattern, that is currently at Phyllis' getting long-arm quilted.  This is good.  I am two quilts for two months in 2021, I doubt that I will keep up this pace, but I am having a good time so far.  I am saving this one for my daughter, who said she definitely wants it.  Sorry, Susan.