Surprise!

The Wandering Flowers have arrived at their destination so click here to read my co-conspirator’s blog post. Such a fun activity to travel with my Dad’s flowers. Lady Tron looks like she appreciated the visit 😆.

I finished the Friendship Star blocks for my 250th quilt. 

Not only that but I’ve got the pinwheel and Ohio Star blocks underway so go me! It is lovely to spend time in the quilt studio again….so good for my well being!

Cheers, Cherie

Wandering Flowers

Harken back to earlier this year when we traveled home with The Traveling Flowers (also seen on the bottom of this post). The Traveling Flowers traveled with five companion flowers that included one for Quilt Diva Julie seen here.  We had six rock flowers traveling home on this trip as well, including The Wandering Flowers which you can read about on MaryAnn’s blog here, here, here and here.  

Spend some time wandering 😉 MaryAnn’s blog if you haven’t before as something is sure to bring you joy. Anyway, I boxed up The Wandering Flowers and sent them on their way…in a camouflaged wine box, hahahaha!

Enough of the flowers, on to quilt stuff! I started a new project.

You’ll notice it’s a pattern designed in honor of those touched by the 9-11 tragedy…….so for 15 years I’ve been “going to make this quilt”. It is my quilt to honor America’s 250th anniversary. Using something coming out of a tragedy for our country’s 250 anniversary may seem counterintuitive but my view is that I’m honoring America in all its history. 

Cherie

About Time……

…..I got back into the swing of things! I have a couple of roadside attractions to catch you up on and a bit of quilting action too. 

First up is the silver lady Liberty in Aurora, CO. She’s in the middle of nowhere. We attempted to find Liberty last March by following instructions on the Roadeside Attractions website but ended up in a new subdivision with half built houses!  I was pretty determined to find her on the way home……turns out there’s a link on the website that opens the coordinates in Google Maps. 

The attraction for our Kansas leg was fun as it was in the middle of farmland and, while not too far off the freeway, it felt like going to a secret place. 

And I learned a new term, concretions. 

It is the smallest Kansas state park but a lovely stop on a beautiful day.

Our final attraction was another fabulous one at Lady Tron’s diner in New Albany, Indiana. A tiny diner with 10 stools at the counter, space related decorations and fabulous food.

And then we made it home! I wanted to jump right on the September BOM but couldn’t find it. Before we left, I cut the pieces needed for the final four BOM’s and Oct, Nov & Dec were in the box. After several days of looking, I finally located it in a project bag I’d just been gifted. 🙄🙄 Once I found it, I remembered I was going to take it with me but decided at the last minute not to. 

That wasn’t the end of the roadblocks either. I was missing a set of background pieces so first I looked for the background fabric which is no where to be found….not even any in the scrap drawers. So then I found a similar enough fabric I could use but thankfully I thought to double check all the months. I found the missing pieces in the Dec stack. Whew! Here’s Sept’s block.

And here’s all the blocks I’ve finished so far.

Whew! I didn’t intend this post to be so long so if you’ve read the whole thing, you deserve a gold star ⭐️.

Cherie 

It’s Been a Bit

No stitch-y things to share but we are traveling home so I have a couple roadside attractions to show 😃. We stopped at what has to be the least expensive thing to do Las Vegas, the Pinball Hall of Fame! We spent $20 between us and had a ton of fun playing vintage pinball machines for way over an hour. It was a blast!

Next we stopped in Cedar City, Utah to see the Old Sorrel, Hero Horse Monument on the Southern Utah University campus. The story (here) is Old Sorrel saved the university’s Cedar City location by pulling lumber through an impressive snow storm. It’s a large statue created by the artist Jerry Anderson. It’s quite impressive. Evidently this trip has a statue heavy roadside attraction bent 😉.

We are traveling with the Wandering Flower (center below) plus two traveling companions MaryAnn blogged about here…….we had so much fun with the Traveling Flowers last trip we are doing it again!

Cheers, Cherie

Or Not Friday

For Finished (or not) Friday I have fabric acquisitions 😃.  Lisa & I went to Sew Special Maui where I purchased some material to make a top with the Hawaii panel I have. 

I bought the panel to use on the back of a quilt I was gifting but it didn’t work out. Now that I’ve made it to Hawaii, I can make myself a quilt! Here’s what I bought.

The flower print on the bottom right is a pack of 5” squares, all Hawaii prints and the red print was a freebie. 

Aloha, Cherie

Handwork

I pulled out this fall table topper and started hand quilting in the ditch. There’s a lot of ditches for such a small piece due to the HST’s that make a subtle zigzag in the background.

I think it will look nice on our coffee table at the cabin so I’ll try to finish it up while we’re here.

We are leaving our cabin for a trip to Maui for a week so I may be silent for a bit, but who knows, there might be some roadside attractions 😄

Cheers, Cherie 

Roadside Attractions

Next on our trip was to depart Red Lodge Montana. We took the Beartooth Highway and were wowed by the beautiful vistas as it climbs to 10,947 feet. It has plenty of pull-offs with many having places you can wonder or hike. Rock Creek Vista Point pull-off has a trail out to a point with amazing views (and bathrooms). There are lakes, glacial ice and waterfalls which made for a spectacular drive.

Then we traveled to the northeast entrance into Yellowstone National Park and through the Lamar Valley which did not disappoint! We saw hundreds of bison and some antelope. The bison were in multiple locations both off in the distance and close to or on the road. We spent quite a bit of time watching these magnificent beasts.  

Highly recommend the Beartooth Highway and Lamar Valley. No roadside attractions can compare so we didn’t even try 😂

Our drive ended in Idaho to visit friends for a few days (Lisa & Greg👋🏼). Both Lisa & her mom are quilters and Lisa’s mom is the one taking the 3 1/2” squares off my hands. She is also taking several yards of baby fabric. I asked about those two things. I did not ask about the rest of things in the picture below 😁😆🤣.

 

Included is the broken dishes quilt I’ve been trying to get myself to finish. I’ve made two large throws and a baby quilt from these blocks already and I just am not interested in one more. Lisa said she will take a stab at it 😁😁. I use leftover blocks/units when I can for pieced backings. I LOVE and sew with scraps but most leftover blocks/units are not my jam.  

Cheers, Cherie

Catching Up and a Finish

As we departed Rapid City, I just had to get a picture of this old sign as it is cool. It looks like it had neon lights at one time. Hope the building renovation behind it doesn’t spell the sign’s demise.

On the way to Red Lodge, Montana, we made a stop in Billings for our scheduled roadside attraction……an installation celebrating The Great Montana Centennial Cattle Drive that happened in 1989.

But then we drove past this installation……and had to turn around!

On the way I finished the Quadrangle quilt!

Linking up with Finished (or Not) Friday.

Cheers, Cherie

Monday Miscellaneo

We stayed in Rapid City two nights. On our last drive through there was a storm that brought dense fog to the area and we weren’t able to see the Crazy Horse Monument. This time we wanted to catch the Wind Cave National Park and Crazy Horse. 

I love that so many of the CCC projects are still benefiting us today. The elevator at wind cave is one of those projects. Isn’t the floor indicator way cool???

I learned so much at the Crazy Horse Monument. The fact that it will take so long to complete makes it feel epic. I would like to return in 10 years. They had two pictures, one from 2020 and one from 2023 that clearly showed the progress on the extended hand. It is such a monumental project, it’s hard to take in the scale. This is a photo of the plaster sculpture that, if I remember correctly, is 16 tons itself!

The letters on the poem are slated to be three feet high. Just an incredible, monumental project.

Lastly, just like our trip before, our timing just happened to coincide with the Sturgis motorcycle rally. We saw motorcyclists everywhere and I’m sure the economic benefits to all the surrounding areas helps sustain many businesses. This trip, we actually drove into Sturgis and the number of motorcycles in Sturgis itself was incredible!! They have a platform that, for $5, you can climb to for pictures with the proceeds going to that day’s charity organization. Nice touch, Sturgis!

It was easy to drive in to Sturgis and park our car on a side street. Interestingly, there were several locations offering their yard to pitch your tent.

And that is our roadside attraction!

Cherie

Sunday’s Attraction

Yesterday’s roadside attraction is located in Sioux City, IA in Trinity Heights/Queen of Peace park. A 33 foot high metal statue of Jesus and a 30 foot high one of Mary. 

I love the flowing robes and had to capture the reflection of Mary once my DH pointed it out.

We also stopped at the Chamberlain, SD rest stop and visited a previous roadside attraction: Dignity of Earth and Sky. Metal statues day for us, lol.

I did a fair amount of the driving but fully turned the third binding corner and am closing in on the fourth. 

Cheers, Cherie 

Saturday Aug 8

On the road again! Yesterday we were in St Louis, MO and went to Turtle Park and here’s our roadside attraction.

Today we headed out to Council Bluffs, Iowa but our roadside attraction occurred at the end of our drive across the Missouri River in Omaha, Nebraska.

In the Italian section….15’ fork and pasta….with a Bocce ball court behind it 😃. I wasn’t sure if the weather would allow for a visit….it was looking a bit scary but it moved east before we got to where it was worst.

I got some sewing in……2 and a half corners turned.

Happy Trails, Cherie

August BOM

Monday, amid packing, I finished the August BOM which means I will only be behind the month of September when we return home in October. 

I finalized my stitching to go bag……

..….and elected to sew the binding on the Quadrangle quilt first. 

The roadside attraction for our first day of driving was in Zanesville, OH - Cottrill’s sidewalk of sculptures.

There are two blocks of sculptures and they are amazing!

Check out what this sheep is wearing…..

Ice skates 😂😂.

Fun times! Cherie