So, here is the moose wallhanging that DH referred to in his comment.

I made this wallhanging in 2002, after a visit to Alaska, before we moved here. I found this gorgeous northern light fabric and this cute moose pattern. So I made this after we got home to remember our visit. However, there is a big problem with this scene. You can't see the norther lights when there is grass and fireweed, because it doesn't get dark!!! But, oh well.

Ok, so I'm almost done with this picture when my then 4 y.o. looks at it. Before I can stop her, she grabs a pen and puts on an eye. "What did you do?!!!" "But, Mama, he had to have an eye!"
At least she put it in the right place, sorta. It is right between the antlers. So, now I have two memories for one wallhanging. :)

Vacation Photos!!!

More vacation photos!!!

Vacation photos!!!

We drove around Alaska for a week, going from Glennallen (home) to Fairbanks, to Denali, to Anchorage, to Cooper Landing, to Anchorage, to Glennallen, to Valdez, to Glennallen. In total, 1362 miles. And we never left the state. I have lots of photos, they are all of mountains. We saw lots of trees, lots of mountains, lots of streams, lots of sky, a couple eagles, a couple moose, and lots of rabbits.

Here is my 1000 Pyramids at the 500 mark! Wa-hooooooo! 13 rows of 40, yeee-ha!!!

Most of this is hand pieced but I am joining the rows by machine. Not too much trouble with bias edges, some are pretty wonky but I wrestle them back into shape. Of course, not all the points meet but can you tell from here? And isn't that how most people will see this quilt? :) This will be a queen size quilt when it is done. The triangles are cut 5 inches per side. After adding a few more rows tonight I decided to stay stitch around the edges so that it will not stretch any more. I might hand quilt this because my long armer won't quilt hand pieced quilts. But maybe I will just run it thru my janome, and quilt 1/4 inch inside the triangles.

I started this quilt in January maybe. No rush on this one. I hand piece the units while riding in the car, waiting at the doctors office, waiting for AWANA to get done, watching TV, etc. I usually piece units of eight triangles, then I can put them together as 5 groups of eight to make a 40 piece strip. I have about another 100 pieced already, but not ready to be set into the quilt.

I just finished this top, it took about a week. It is about 93 x 66. I got the four patches from an internet friend (Thanks Eileen!!) and added some same color family strips to make the big (13 inch) blocks. Then added white sashing and the teal border and here it is.

It feels like summer here. The weather is beautiful, there are no bugs (yet), and the ground is dried out. I walked the dog today and really enjoyed it.

Last weekend I went to "town" 187 miles away, and turned in a gift certificate for $20 worth of fabric. I got two yards of a light pink batik, and two yards and some of a white print. I also bought Judy Martin's new books, Scraps. What a great book! In another quilt store I saw a quilt made from red, white and blue fabric called Stars and Hourglasses from More Nickel Quilts. That made me want to come home and pull the patriotic fabrics. (Haven't done it yet).

The day before I went to town, I pulled some strips and started sewing. I sewed the strips together and cut 4 1/2 inch by 8 1/2 inch rectangles. Then I pieced those together one above the other and added a rectangle on the end. The block does not turn out to be square so it is kind of hard to make out, as our eyes look for squares. I finished this crib size top in about 4 hours. I have no plans for it, just wanted to make something quick.

And this is a quilt I forgot I made! I made this one in 2001 from a strip swap. I had only been quilting a few years and now when I look at this I think, Wow! Those blocks are big. I cut them to be 9 1/2 inches because that was the size of my ruler. There are quite a few things I would do differently today, but my mom loves this quilt. It is in her summer apartment and since the building has all brick walls, it dampens the sound. The quilting is all swirly.