America 250 Quilt Project

 This quilt 

has been on my list since I first saw it in this book

And I thought it would be fitting to make it in patriotic colors as America celebrates 250 years so I pulled out this bin. 

There are a lot of cutting instructions and I'm starting with scraps and small pieces of well seasoned yardage so this is going to be a labor of love

I'm also going to leave the stars 1/2 blue, leave the low volumes, and make the rest in scrappy reds so there will be a bit more to sort than if I were just making it completely scrappy.

I'm off to a slow start, but I'm hoping I can find a good rythm once I get a few pieces under my belt. After 2 days, I had 3 blocks made

I've still got a lot of cutting to do, but I like where this is headed. Unless I drop everything, this is not going to be finished in July...maybe Labor Day, if I don't get sidetracked. Don't hold your breath. 😉

Love You S'more x 2 Quilt Finish

 Raising our family, we never had much money. We had enough and we were richly blessed in so many ways, but we never had extra and we were pretty frugal with what we DID have. Plus it was almost impossible to leave the ranch as it was just us taking care of things and we couldn't leave everything unattended. So we didn't take vacations, but we fished on the ranch

We swam on the ranch

And we camped on the ranch

Now that we recently 'retired' from ranch management and moved to the mountains, we want to continue those traditions with the grandkids.

When I stumbled upon a crazy deal for Love You S'more Layer Cakes for $10 and FQ bundles for $30, I knew I needed camping quilts. LOL

Last year I made this one as I thought the little hst flying geese looked like tents

And then, in January, the FQS posted about this Scattered Stars pattern and I knew that would be my 2nd camping quilt.

I down-sized the blocks to 10 1/2" in order to make the best use of the fabric I had and made 1 test block

I loved it and stitched every chance I got for a week. I reached a point where I began to second guess my decision to down-size the blocks. SO many little flippy corners!

I had cut too many of the little black squares and figured I'd use them in the star centers to make them more prevalent. I like the original design and will make it at some point, but for this project, I liked the variation.

42 blocks gave me a 60" x 70" quilt. Enough room to grow into, but not too big to haul on a camping trip. I'm tickled with how this one turned out

Sandy quilted a design called One Cloudy Day on it

I backed it with a print from the collection that I found on a good sale and bound it with a green Grunge from my stash.

I'm looking forward to breaking them both in this summer.

Why Isn't the Fire Out?

 With 1100+ folks working the fire that began on May 14th, I am getting this question a lot. Along with, why wasn't it put out then it started?

The short answer is that these mountains are rough. There are no trails. Yes, folks who climb mountains can navigate them, but putting out a fire is a different story. They pretty much have to wait for the fire to move to an area that allows them to engage with it.

I think a lot of people are asking the same questions because the incident command team put out a short video a few weeks ago that explains the nature of this fire in this very rugged terrain, along with some of the challenges they encounter.

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1DeUeUVMPM/

So, it'll be some time before it's really all out, but we've had some rain and they've downsized the crew to less than 500.

No homes or structures have burned and they have been able to keep the fire contained to the national forest and national wilderness area. Very little private property, if any, has burned and we haven't seen or smelled smoke in a week. The fire currently sits at 31,860 acres, but it is 94% contained.

So thank you for your prayers and for checking in on is. We're so greatful for your kindness. We are safe and well and we continue to keep the team working the fire and the families of those who lost their lives in the Medi-vac accident in our prayers.

Our rainy season is generally July and August and our average rainfall here is supposed to be 11", but those 'average' years are rare. Many years we get half of that...or less. That's why you get so many celebratory rain posts and pictures of rain gauges through the years. 😂

Here's hoping this will be one of those over-average years!

Branding Our Calves

Our cows were temporarily in pens at a friend's feed yard and last Monday we headed out well before dawn to brand the calves before hauling mamas and babies to grass across the state line in Texas where they would join our heifers. 

We just had 66 calves to brand

So we called up some friends for the crew

It'd been 16 years since our son had been on the crew

But he fell right back into his flanking position...66 times so he was probably a little sore the next day.

Good horses

Good help

They are handy when it comes to swinging a rope

It takes just 30 seconds for the calf to be cut (if he's a bull calf), vaccinated, and branded

The crew has been doing this for a long time

Cows and calves were loaded on the truck and headed for green pasture

With a little ingenuity, I managed to set up a spot to keep the queso warm in the crockpot. 

I hauled a table and chairs and we had a good, shady dinner spot

It was a good way to spend the day