Another pretty sky day.

Several days last week the sky was so incredibly beautiful and dynamic.  I could not keep from stopping to look.  One of those days, Charlie and Baxter and I went for a walk on Rolinco Road.  Please indulge me as I share a few more sky photos.

Walking down Rolinco Road

Baxter and Charlie love to go on walks.

Of course there are distractions along the way!

Charlie is such a terrier!

Not sure Reynald is going to like Charlie digging up the wheat.  But, he was in pursuit of a rodent of some sort.

Look at this sky!

Stormy looking clouds over the house.

By the time we returned there were just pretty clouds over the house!

Farming in the snow

This past Saturday Reynald and I were both on the tractor, in the same field, which is kind of fun!  We finished the piece we were working on in the late afternoon, just as it started to snow.  It was so pretty.

We have one field of 480 acres left to do.  We have a little break from tractor work this week while we let the snow melt and the cold front move through.  Warmer days are predicted for the first part of next week so we will be able to finish.

It was pretty foggy in the morning when we started.

This is our low disturbance sub-soil operation.  It's the last field work that we do for the season.

Because of satellite guidance we are able to skip pass.  This allows for a wider turn at the end row so that you don't chew up the ground when you turn.  We go one way with a skip pass, then come back and fill in the skip on the return.

This is a slow and tedious project, but we believe it gives our crop benefit.

Here's my favorite farmer, working in the same field.

Finished with this field, implement folded up and ready to move, and snow falling!

Driving home near dark with a snowy lane.

Halloween Sunset

The sun set with quite a show on all Hallow's eve.  It just got prettier and prettier.  Here are a few images.  It makes one pause and reflect on the good things in life, and there are many indeed.

And then the next day, November 1st, the late afternoon sky was so beautiful.

I never get tired of the wide open sky here.  Each season yields its own beauty.  Each day there is something different.  How lucky we are to live in this space.  We need to take special care in tending our unique environment, no matter where we live.

More Fall Quilt retreat

Fall quilt retreat wasn't just about making the four queen size quilts for the Down the Stretch Foundation.  Other creative things took place.  Following is just a smattering of the creativity that continues to define our wonderful group.  Looking forward to Spring retreat already!!!

My cousin Margaret re-lined her husband Rob's flight jacket.  He's retired Navy, having served our country for well over 20 years.  The lining of his jacket was tattered and torn.  Why the orange?  It's a safety feature.  If you are ever stranded or lost, you turn the jacket inside out so that you may be more easily spotted and rescued.  

Cousin Therese re-worked this delightful hat for Beth.  Beth found it at the Opera House yard sale.  Again, tattered and torn, but seemingly able to salvaged, as Therese demonstrated!

Another look at the hat.  Enlarge this photo and you will see the ever present sage bug.  The barn was crawling with them all weekend.  At first we tried to suck them up with the shop vac, but soon gave up and just learned to live with them.

Nina is working on this wonderful Sue Spargo wool piece.  

Nina and her charming piece.

JoAnn with her ever present smile!

Cousin Therese again, working her magic to create yet another stunning pencil drawing.  Her talent is beyond words.

She was in the beginning stages of this piece.  Can't wait to see the finished product.

We had an amazing treat Sunday morning.  Alicia and her friends Clara and Jennifer did some sight reading for our listening enjoyment.  Only at a quilt retreat will you find an ironing board and a bag of fabric used as a music stand!

These gals are giving a recital in the barn on December 10th.  More details to follow.  It's going to be super fun!!

Down The Home Stretch Foundation

This past weekend was the fall Stichin' Chicks quilt retreat in our barn.  22 women, plus Baxter, Charlie and Reynald were on site most of the weekend!  Reynald is our maintenance man, always available for minor emergencies, like helping to open the high barn windows when the pull cords break.

This retreat we all spent time working on piecing four queen size bed quilts for a charity called "Down the Home Stretch".  It's a foundation that pairs retired race horses with veterans.  It is located on a ranch outside Creston WA.  Here's the link to their website if you are interested.   http://www.downthestretch.org/ 

We managed to finish all four quilt tops, plus a Christmas themed throw for the back of a couch or chair.  Before the retreat started, Beth made two throws out of flannel scraps that both she and I had in our stash, and Brenda, who has just learned to crochet, made a small afghan that was her practice piece, that definitely doesn't look like a practice piece!

All the fabric for our projects was donated by a friend of Beth's.  Audrey is a generous woman, aged to 90 years plus, who has decided that she has had enough sewing.  She donated her stash to our group, to be used for charity quilts, and use it we did!

Before retreat weekend, I spent some time cutting three of the four quilts that we were planning to piece. 

Cutting kits for charity quilts before retreat begins.

Quite a pile of scraps!

Re-organized scrap pieces for the next project.  

This quilt block is called Double Four Patch.  I really love how it turned out.

Double four patch assembly.

More double four patch.  This is a block that had to be carefully laid out as you sewed.  One twist and it throws off the whole block!

Beth and I had a good system.  Of all the blocks that we made, there were only three mistakes, that were easily fixed!

Lynnie pressing double four patch blocks.

Alicia laid out the blocks so that we knew how to put them together in to rows.

The finished top!

This one is called Snowball. Martha and Cheryl were the main construction engineers on this quilt.

This top went together fairly quickly.  

And this is the quilt top that we all contributed to by bringing a piece of plaid fabric from our own collection. It's a Nine Patch with an alternate background block.  Everyone made a block and then  Lynnie and Nina worked on row assembly.

Margaret working on a nine patch block.

My mom making a plaid nine patch block.

Kathy and Betty making sure the nine patch blocks are going together in the correct order.

Emily pressing a nine patch block.

And a finished nine patch block.....

Finished nine patch quilt top.

And finally the charm pack quilt.  Both Beth and I had charm packs that we donated to this quilt top.  We just had to buy a little bit of background fabric and the borders came from Audrey's stash.

The charm pack quilt top.  Very simple but striking.  

I forgot to take a photo of the darling Christmas theme throw that JoAnn made.  Perhaps I will remember to take photos of the finished products?  They always look different once the quilting if finished.