Kate's Choice

Kate loves the miniatures and here is a pinwheel block she cut and pieced last week. Each little section is 1 1/2" so it is small and cute. She will be working up a pre-cut kit soon; it looks like fun!

Well, it wasn't rabbits or a raccoon that ate our onion sets, it was two baby skunks. And, like all babies, they are very, very cute. I'm not too happy about baby skunks camping out under the table next to our house; no sign of Mother.

Have a wonderful Fourth of July. We're going to try to get to the Rodeo, Red Lodge's famous Home of Champions Rodeo, July 2, 3 and 4 in it's 80th year!

Brooke

Summer Things

John was contemplating cutting down this old honeysuckle bush - it has seen better days. Then we saw this big beautiful Tiger Swallowtail having lunch at the bush. The butterfly has seen better days too; his wings were pretty beat up. But the bush and the butterfly were beautiful together and we are going to do some thoughtful pruning to see if we can't preserve the bush for more butterflies to enjoy.

Then there is the square foot garden, put together out of leftovers and recycled etc. The soil is a mix of peat moss, vermiculite and compost. This late in the year, we just planted onion sets. Here is the link for the square foot gardening website; it is an interesting approach to gardening and probably the best for me and John.

I think the deer will leave onions alone. Sunday morning, however, we discovered that the raccoons or rabbits some such creature thought onion sets were fine eating. There are plenty left.

Stay cool, wherever you are!

Brooke

From the Bottom Up

You have to start somewhere. We replaced the old stove last summer and now want to replace the 30 year old linoleum in the kitchen, hall, laundry, bathroom. I'm sure it won't be much of a job (!!). These are the ceramic tiles we chose. John is going to do it himself with help from our son.

I am kind of stunned by the size of the project, now that the 21 boxes of tile, the 15 underlaying boards, the two bags of grout etc. are all in the garage. I hope it doesn't end up being a project that causes John a lot of stress.

In a way, it's kind of like patchwork...

Brooke

Reality Check

Well, it finally happened after 20+ years of teaching - John got very sick in Columbus and couldn't teach two of his classes.

He is better now and drove himself home but we are both sad that 40 students didn't get the class they planned to take. John is making up some kits for them and I hope it helps make up for some of the inconvenience.

These viruses, no respect for a working fella and his plans.

Brooke

Scrapbook of "Crazy Horse" Project

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Indigo Storm at Sea

Kate and I just had an update from John who is driving to the NQA show in Columbus, Ohio. Yesterday he was lost in Iowa; today is a better day.

This little Storm at Sea wall hanging is John's latest project. It is made with our 9" Storm at Sea templates and is made from beautiful genuine indigo from our friends at Cotton in the Cabin Loring and Sandy are part of our vending "family" and John made this for Sandy's booth. He is hoping they will be in Columbus so he can leave the quilt at it's new home.

Our two antique ribbon cases came from Loring and Sandy also - right now our ribbon cases are full to overflowing with machine embroidery thread, beautiful! Sometimes I imagine a little girl in an old country store, pressing her nose up against the cases, admiring the ribbons and hoping her mother will buy her some ribbon for her hair. Oh, and a peppermint stick, too.

Brooke

Signs of Spring

We had a hectic Friday, followed by a very peaceful weekend. John leaves Monday for the NQA show in Columbus, Ohio. After his last unpleasant airplane flights, I know he is glad to be driving. He is teaching Braided Borders, Arabic Lattice and, his old standby, Double Wedding Ring. Kate made pre-cut kits for all the classes; it makes the class a lot easier for both John and the students.

Rock Creek has come down a little and we had fish for breakfast again. John dug up an old and nasty gooseberry bush and some wild roses that were taking over by the foundation. I washed an indigo wall hanging John made for a vendor friend of ours. It still needs to have the binding finished but I will take a picture of it for the blog tomorrow before he leaves.

These are some of the flowers that are blooming right now. The deer have been eating the lilies of the valley we transplanted about 3 weeks ago. Silly deer, don't you know they are poisonous?

Brooke