Beautiful Day in the Bitterroot

There's a sign of just how dry the summer was. Water levels at Lake Como have receded so much the Forest Service removed the lake's boat dock for the season in early August. My kids and I went out to see the fall leaves and the lake, we were surprised how low it actually was. I guess I really have not taken the time to walk down to the lake in the fall. It was very quiet and peaceful, just a beautiful day! 

Lake Como is an agricultural reservoir for the Bitterroot Irrigation District, which draws water down for irrigators all over the valley.  

Finishing Sunflower Gatherings

I have finally attached the outer border. I have the border applique to cut out and sew on then I am ready to quilt! There are 106 leaves to cut out and sew on so this will be an ongoing project. Below are the photos I took today.

The photo below on the right is another project I started long ago, I am going to try to get the hand quilting finished this month. It will go in one of the newly painted rooms!

 A little candy corn helps any project! 

                                                        

Prairie Sisters Vintage Market

I went to the Prairie Sisters Vintage Market last weekend at Fort Missoula. They had several vendors with vintage goods, antiques, collectibles, retro finds, salvaged goods, vintage clothing and handcrafted items. It was a fun way to spend a beautiful day outdoors.   

I included photos of my purchases for the day. I found this vintage wrought iron magazine rack. A beautiful vintage hand embroidered and crocheted edged table cloth. A crocheted table runner with two matching pieces and a small braided rug. I am looking forward to their next event! 

Time to Decorate for Fall

Do you change things around in your house for fall? I have been looking forward to getting all of my fall decorations out, so to me when school starts...it’s fall. I have a lot of fun decorations and I like to add one new thing every year. I just love the fall colors, leaves, weather, football, cozy cardigans, pumpkin spice lattes, extra blankets and apple everything!

I love the fall colors it makes my house feel warm and happy.

Wow! How Time Flies

It has been a very long time since I updated this blog! I created this blog to get more things done and I did, but I didn’t keep the blog up to date. Last spring my daughter graduated with her Pharm D! We are very proud of her; she is now part of a residency program and has started a very busy life. I was lucky enough to have my youngest daughter home this summer while she was working on an internship. We painted 6 rooms in my house and I am very grateful for her help! It was a very productive summer and I have a new upstairs!

Below are some of the photos of our summer:

I also included a current photo of our beautiful valley – we are currently under hazardous air quality due to the fires in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. Sadly, for the last 10 years we have ended every summer with a smoke filled valley.   

Since the air is so bad outside I am ready to start my sewing and knitting projects again. Here is where I left off last February – on the Sunflower Gatherings quilts inner border. I will sew that on now and then proceed to the outer border. 

I am excited to finish this project since I have a newly painted wall to hang this quilt, I can’t wait!

Thankful for My Knitting

Knitting Daily® had this on their Thankgiving newsletter last year, it has several points that I agree with and it made me smile!  

Five years ago I took an Adult Education class at our local high school with some of my friends from work. I have enjoyed knitting ever since. I would encourage anyone who likes to learn new things to take a class and learn this fun hobby.

Finished! Wisteria Shawl Collar Pullover Sweater

I created this blog so I would finish projects, this sweater has been sitting in my craft room just waiting to be sewn together! The sweater really didn't take long to knit, the procrastination of sewing it together was the delay- it really is not my favorite part of knitting. The pattern is free and can be found on the Lion Brand Website, I used the yarn below for my sweater with the color called Olympia.

Lion Brand® Amazing^®

Pattern #: L0033AD

Photos of the project just waiting to be sewn together. 

Here is my daughter modeling the completed sweater!

This was my first attempt at knitting a sweater, the pattern was easy and I thought it turned out great. I would highly recommend this pattern and yarn - just don't procrastinate as long as I did in sewing it together! 

Sunflower Gatherings Inner Borders

It has been a long time since I updated my blog! I have been busy finishing each of the 13 blocks with embroidery. Today I got out the inner border and began to cut and sew all of the patches together.

With what I have left over from the previous blocks and what I cut out today I have the following: 80 of the 4 patch; 52 brown squares; 16 tan squares; plus the 20 tan pieces cut to size. I am happy this part is done, next is sewing it all together!