Summer Sights and a Finished Quilt

Another free picture slideshow by Smilebox

After our weekly hand quilting group, we decided to drive up the Beartooth Highway, it was such a beautiful day.  There is still quite a bit of snow on the higher peaks and slopes.  The flowers were just beautiful and so thick; they like the extra moisture this year.  It is always fun to drive up to "the top"; the wind is usually blowing and you can see forever.

John finished his Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative challenge quilt and has sent it off.  I am not sure when these little challenge quilts, made and donated by some of the best known names in the quilt industry, will show up on the AAQI website but they will all be shown in Houston this fall.  We are sponsoring the Alzheimer's booth again this year; this is a cause near and dear to us.  Anyway, wow, the little quilt turned out great!


Our neighbor on the north called to tell us to watch outside the window, because we were about to get company!  What a beautiful animal; I know she could hear us running around finding cameras, exclaiming and admiring her.  She hung around a long time.  Then our neighbor on the south told us that she was leaning over their fence, eating apples off their trees.  With those long legs, they can really get around!







Too Sad

We are so sorry, Norway,  that another maniac has turned on his fellow human beings.  What an incredible waste.  God bless all the friends and families who have lost someone.

Brooke and John Flynn

Boarders

Summer is busy, isn't it? John has been quilting, I have been knitting and thinking about quilting and Kate is always busy cutting out kits for quilters.

If you have been to one of John's lectures, you probably heard him joke about "studios". He likes to tell about our ten acre "compound", which is larger than a studio, has a 10' high fence and lots of retired construction supplies, forms and other scary, rusty things in addition to all the fabric. And, this summer, because of all the moisture we have had here in Montana, the weeds are about 4' high.

So we now have a family of goats boarding with us and their job is to eat the weeds. I think they are doing fine but there are a lot of weeds. There are two moms, two sets of triplets and a billy goat who is very protective and has very elaborate horns and an impressive beard. John was out petting one of the babies last week, enjoying how friendly it was, but when he looked down, he saw it was eating his shoelace.

Texas Star Miniature, 15" in diameter



Close up, quilted with King Tut and So Fine threads

 Let's see, two of the quilts on the wall right now are fundraiser quilts and the third is going to a gallery showing "quilts by male artists". One of the fundraising quilts is John's entry in the latest team Challenge to raise funds for the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative and the other will go the the IQA Silent Auction at International Quilt Festival in Houston. So he is keeping busy; the next show is the Association of Pacific West Quilters show in Tacoma, Washington, August 26 - 28, 2011.

Here is a picture of Rock Creek, about halfway between our house and the center of Red Lodge.  You don't want to fall in the creek when it like this; you will end up in North Dakota in short order!

It is hot here in Billings; stay cool, wherever you are!



Rock Creek, Red Lodge, Montana, early July, 2011



Brooke