Here is the finished quilt I teased you all with in last week's blog.  I was given about 50 ties to make this quilt with.   I was told that I could do whatever I wanted as long as it was masculine and large enough to fit on a bed top.  I settled on the Windmill patter which is a variation of the pinwheel.  Do you see the signed Cal Ripkin Jr tie in the lower corner hiding behind the aloe plant?  I choose to showcase several of the ties with character or importance.
In order to get it large enough for a bed spread, I went to my silk stash.  This is a bag of silk fabrics I inherited when I was a teenager from a rather famous Taos,NM artist.  So, 20 years later, some gorgeous brown silks from the bag made their way into this quilt as sashing.  The windmills were actually kind of static so I arranged the sashing in step-ladder style to move the eye across the quilt.  
Once it was all quilted with free motion pinwheels and ribbon-cable sashing, it looked better than I had envisioned.  This is pretty rare for me.  I love this quilt!  Now comes the time I hope the client loves what I did too.
It's another windy day here in the mountains.  The boys are out blacksmithing anyway.  They haven't built a shop yet so last time I looked, they had hooked up a steel plate in the vice on several logs to create a wind block for the forge.  Hmmmm, those boys.  I suppose I should make them stew for lunch if I want to be really nice.  At the moment, I should be doing my sales taxes for the year.  I might just enjoy a day off in between quilt projects though.  COOKING AND CLEANING, HERE I COME!
HAVE A QUILTERIFIC AND CRAFTASTIC WEEK!

Winter Begins for Me

We have only had one snowstorm so far and even it was late. The weather has been beautiful and warm for the most part. We believe it all balances out, so this just means the third week of January is going to be colder and windier than ever. If anyone wants to whisk me away for that week, I'll gladly brave the rest of winter up here at over 9000'. Okay, winter has begun for me this week as my seasonal farm job ended. I am home now quilting full time! And cleaning too! I spent the last four days doing some Fall cleaning in the house. You should see the herd of dust yaks, gnus, and wildebeests I came up with. Wait, on second thought, it's best not to disclose such things.
I will be quilting and cooking today. Baking actually. I'm going to make bread and either apple pie or apple spice cake. There is also dinner to contend with, pizza or leftover steaks?
Sid will be busy today too. Sundays have become the Blacksmith Day. He has assembled his forge and set up in the driveway. Two friends also come by and they all have a great time making things and practicing their skills. They are planning on having me set up an Etsy.com store today in which they can sell their wares to buy more coal to keep this whole operation going. Work has been scarce for a few years for these guys. I am beyond words to express how they feel when they come over and make stuff. It's not just that we could all use a little food money. It's that they get to create something unique. The fact that they pounded it out of hot metal also seems to please them. It is quite an interesting thing that has sprung up in Mountainjoy's driveway. Many more people (male and female) would love to come over and do some smithing as well. They have all been invited and I'm sure this will become quite a regular thing. I just hope they all build a shop over the stuff before winter sets in! I'm sure that if you look for it soon, you will find Sid'sSmiths@Etsy.com. Give me a week or so though, getting these guys organized is not the easiest thing to do.

Mid-Evil Mountainjoy

We had a weekend straight out of the Renaissance days. My husband set up his forge and started to blacksmith. He had a friend over and the two of them were so happy, I couldn't believe it. There is nothing like seeing 2 angry, bitter men have a good time pounding at heated metal to force into new shapes/tools. They were off to a slow start until I told them to break up the coal a bit more to start the fire. You are given special inborn knowledge if you are a blacksmith's daughter, you know. I don't know how to smith, but I do know more than your average bear on the subject.
While the boys were smithing, I was working on a coat-of-arms for a friend of ours. He does a form of combat that starts with swords and ends up using some ju-jitsu forms. Anyway, I am currently decorating his quilted and padded jacket to resemble his chosen family coat-of-arms. It felt like all we needed yesterday was some horses, dragons, and a few more serving women here to complete the picturesque mid-evil Mountainjoy.
As for summer, it may come to a quick close for us. We saw a lone aspen yesterday that had taken on that beautiful orange/yellow. The hummingbirds are still around and the wild flowers are still in bloom. Yet, I do expect our first snow storm any day now. Traditionally, it likes to snow the first weekend of September most years. Let's see what this one brings.