Iron Circles, Spirals and More!

We have a deck outside of a sliding glass door that leads from our kitchen area. There was no way off of the deck and being somewhat claustrophobic I wanted a way DOWN! One day inspiration hit and I called our "favorite" son-in-law and asked him to figure out how we could do a spiral staircase off of the deck. In the wee hours of the morning while he was calving maybe he could come up with an idea!! His wife said he really liked the idea and did some research. He got catalogs and we poured over one when they came to visit.

Before the stair case idea he wanted to reinforce the deck railing with iron work as any little person could fall through so easily!
Before we had a chance to order a staircase, his Dad saw one behind a business in Miles City that had taken it out and it was laying outside. Wayland called them up to find out the price and before he was done, he offered them half of what they had asked in the first place!! Eureka!! We were on our way!

He built the platform at the top of the stairs, reinforced it with the iron with circles to match the iron in the deck railing, reinforced it in other areas that I can't remember, BUT he would know. All I do know is that I love it and the kids LOVE it even more. They race up and down the thing and the pets think it was put there just for them!! Besides, it makes putting the hammock on the deck MUCH EASIER!

The bird bath brings enjoyment as I watch out the window over the sink while doing dishes or preparing meals. It was under the deck and I finally moved it last year so I could keep it full and enjoy the birds. They use it and Tiggy likes it too!! She has been seen sitting near it waiting...

This is a flower that goes in the brick planter. That Wayland is a wonder!!

The bird is another creation of Wayland's. He bought part of the bird, but I can't tell you which part. All I know is I like it and so far the kids haven't impaled themselves. I put it low and out of the way somewhat of their many treks through the yard and around the house!

BJ made two lamps for the bunk house and he made them out of rasps. For those not in the know, it is a type of rough file.

They fit perfectly in the bunk house. Horse shoes make up the bottom. BJ did a wine rack for one of the girls. He is like everyone else, he likes to do it, not a lot of time and money also.

There are other items in our home that were BK (before Karen) that Wayland has made and a snow man. There is a standing lamp and also a telephone stand. All I know is that he has good ideas. He told me once he didn't want to mass produce anything. He liked making something and maybe never make that again. That is how I feel about some of the things I make in quilting...that was fun, now what else can I do. So I understand completely. He wants me to make him a Mariner's Compass wall hanging or quilt. I am still waiting for his material or ideas...
I am thinking I could teach him to quilt. There are some men that are making really BIG bucks with their quilting inventions and patterns. One is a engineer and his patterns show it!!! But I digress...

I think that our pieces of iron are much more valuable than the cost of them...they have such meaning and thoughts of the giver is always close. How blessed we are...

Iron Man or Iron Men!!!

This is about my "favorite" son-in-law. But, alas, as I was pondering my post, I realize I really have four "iron men" in my life: my Dad, my Cowboy, my son, AND our son-in-law!! They all do and/or have done iron work at one time or another. Cowboy tells me that "really, I could do that for you if I had time..."

I have to take a side trip about "favorite" anyone. I heard a story once about a grandmother who told all of her grandchildren (each in private, of course!) that they were her "favorite." She said, "I know you will do great things in your life." I loved that story. Lo and behold, one day Cowboy and I had a message on our machine from "our favorite" daughter and on it goes.

Now back to my story...I have always liked iron "stuff" and started taking pictures of the things Wayland has made. I didn't realize how many things I had brought with me that have significance. This blog is probably going to be two as I have so many pictures!!
Meghan found the sewing machine on the ranch at Melstone. Who would know how long it had been throw away. I put it in a flower bed there and I have taken it with me when I moved, as well as the iron wheel. A friend was trying to find my house north of Billings and her son told her that they were in the RIGHT place as there was Karen's sewing machine!

The intricate iron work is the arm from a church pew, the tea kettle is iron and works well for flowers or whatever I decide for the summer. The "squatty" piece is the bottom off of an old heater and flower pots fit it nicely! I have put them in their winter spot so I can shovel the snow from the cement pad when the snow flys.

The angel I bought when I was in Billings and it has a place in one of my flower barrels.

The bucking bull with cowboy also adds to one of my flower barrels.

This particular item was at Lemonade Springs south of Melstone, up in the sand rocks. Meghan took a picture of it many years ago. Cowboy was kind enough to get it gathered out of the rocks and hauled to our ranch. It leaned again the fence three years (maybe more, as the years seem to be whirling by!). I tried to get "favorite" son-in-law to do something with it. He is meeting himself coming and going so I knew that he really didn't have time...but I did ask anyway.

I took it to Bobi In Steel and asked her to make a potter's bench out of it. She had it done late summer and Cowboy said..."I could have done that...and for a lot less money...!"


This is one of the first gifts from our "favorite." Maybe the bird bath was first, but it will be on the second part. It is a quilt stand. I love it! I love the thoughtfulness of having it made for me. Wayland decided it might be too big as he had never made one before. I have used it for flowers during the summer and am trying to figure out how to put more flowers on it.

To be continued...

Weddings, Mountains, Flowers

We just attended a wedding this weekend in Red Lodge at the Wild Flower Gardens. It was a beautiful setting, BUT the chairs were facing into the sun and the wedding was at 4 p.m. It was a little warm. The bride and groom didn't mind and we were happy to celebrate this exciting day with Scott and Kristen.

I just had to take this picture before the wedding started. The rows were all decorated with mason jars with flowers, lots of sunflowers, in them. The iron work looks like Wayland's! What a cute idea. If it had not been at a "wedding" garden, the cost might not have been too much. I just loved the idea!

I wanted to get a picture of the altar and flowers and with the sun in a better position. The wedding party is taking some more pictures after the ceremony. Beautiful grounds...

Bridges, I love bridges--just ask Cowboy! I have all kinds of places I would like one or two or more foot bridges!! Well, I would settle for just ONE! Anyway, the man was hurrying to get the chairs picked up to put in the tent. I wanted to get just the right picture without him motoring right in the way!

This is the last picture I took. I thought the table decorations were beautiful with the sunflowers, table cloths, and tan napkins. See the tent to the right. We decided to sit at this table, it was cooler than the tent looked. We ate a scrumptious meal at 6 p.m. and by 6:30 p.m. I was hunting our jackets! Never satisfied are we??

Back to the ceremony. It was good and I wonder how many really listen? The minister tells the woman to RESPECT her husband and of course we women want to be CHERISHED, with lots of communication in between. We pray for God's blessing on their marriage.

This morning we ate breakfast at the Regis which is an out of the way cafe in Red Lodge. How could I not eat something special? I had a crumpet with my eggs and Canadian bacon and fruit bowl. The crumpet was homemade which made it taste that much better with the butter!

The drive home was beautiful...fall colors are starting!

TO KNOT OR NOT

At our ranch Cowboy is particular about knots. Does this remind you of anyone you possibly know? Little did I know that "granny" knots were out and square knots are in for the simple reason the granny knots pull out. When I thought I was making square knots, sometimes they weren't and I was really trying to go right over left and left over right...

I have been known to stomp away from a gate that "might not" be tied right and was re-tied. I keep trying because I am not THAT blonde!
This one is not tied as the horses seem to leave it alone.
This gate is tied. The last time Bill was gone to Roscoe I was in charge of "horse" chores. I asked about the gate and Cowboy said it would be fine they were leaving it alone... I always seem to have "here is the rest of the story" story, don't I? I went down to the barn one morning and sure enough, the horses that were to be out were " in" eating hay and the horse that was keep his knee from getting too much activity, and his buddy were "out" in the pasture. It took several deep breaths and swinging gates and they were back where they belonged and I managed to tie a square knot!
My Joe is the culprit! He can open gates and he looks so innocent! And what a charmer he is!

They get a few oats, cake or whatever Cowboy has on hand. So they are always at the gate for an easy catch as was the case this morning!

One more special knot is making sure the end of the rope on the halter itself is tied so it goes back toward the back of the horse and not in the eye as demonstrated! Ace is a cupcake.

I just had to throw in this picture. Amy and Tiggy always go to the barn with Bill. Tiggy thinks she is a horse kitty and she can water with the horses too! She likes to walk the top rail and make sure things are just right.

Shop Hop Craze for 2009

Every September is the Trail of Fabric Shop Hop. This is the eighth year and it runs from one Saturday until the next Saturday. There are four quilting shops: The Plaid Square in Glasgow, The Bent Pin in Williston, ND, Quilts & More in Sidney, and the The Enchanted Room in Glendive. This year some of the girls are going on Tuesday and I was unable to go that day. I asked a couple of friends if they wanted to go to Glendive and on to Sidney on Saturday afternoon. So...five of us made a quick trip.

I have only gone twice and it is a LONG DRIVE. It is a 490 mile round trip for me to all four shops starting at Glasgow and ending in Glendive. By the time we get to Glendive who wants to spend any money or look at any more fabric!! I have done three of the shop hop quilts (I sent money one year!). They do NOT post the quilts as the draw is to get you there!! It works, I think it makes money for these shops!!! Quilts & More told us that they had over 100 women come on Saturday and that is just the first day!!
This year's blocks to buy (we buy three at each shop) are the Bear Paw blocks. All the blocks will be Bear Paws in different variations. The completed one quilt with all twelve blocks at The Enchanted Room is beautiful and the completed one at Quilts & More is striking. One of the girls is picking up the other blocks from the other two stores for me on Tuesday.

I try to at least get the blocks completed fairly soon because sometimes there is not enough material in the packets or (heaven forbid, I don't measure twice and cut once!), so it best to get them done ASAP.
I am always on the lookout for flannel as it is my standard gift for baby showers. They get a double sided large flannel receiving blanket. The two pieces on the left are for one of those and the pieces on the right are for a small flannel baby blanket (girly!!).

Naturally, since I didn't go on the Shop Hop last year or make the quilt blocks I had to buy SOMETHING! I have an envelope that I write on the front "Fabric Stash" and when I get a little money I put it inside so I have some for fabric. Last year I tried not to buy much other than backing as I have several projects to complete FIRST!!! I had a little money in the envelope and it was burning a hole! Ha! I think I am going to quit getting quilt magazines as there are so many beautiful quilts...so little time...

Anyway, the fabric above caught my eye. It is just out and hasn't been posted on the website for The Enchanted Room. It is a Moda fabric line. I love the colors!!! I saw the pattern made up in different fabric which was pretty but wasn't for me. The big squares are called "Layer Cakes" so I am off and running with a new quilt running around in my head. I may not get to it for several months...I have aprons to make but that is a different blog altogether!!

Speaking of aprons, there are oodles of patterns out there and I saw the cutest aprons on our adventure.

There is so much to see that it does become brain overload. You simply can't take in all the quilts, runners, purses, wall hangings, etc. that are made up.

One thing that sells are kits!!! One of the ladies said they just didn't have time to make up some of the newer fabrics into something fun. I forgot my camera or there would have been more pics.

Ice Cream "Sew"cial

This is a quilt top to be given to an injured Montana soldier. Our quilt group, the Cross Country Piece Makers, are giving these quilts to our injured Montana soldiers. It is one of our projects. One of our members quilts them on her long-arm machine as her donation. Someone else binds them and puts on a label. They are lap quilt size and we have donated about 35-40 so far. Of all the things we have done, this is very special.


This is our yearly quilt retreat and this year we went to Colstrip. We stopped in Forsyth and shopped at the fabric store there (that is soon to close). The Ace Hardware store in Colstrip has a wonderful fabric section and we left a few coins there as well. There were 25 of us that made the retreat and that included guests. The retreat starts Friday at noon and usually ends Sunday at noon.

Our theme for this year's retreat was Ice Cream "Sew"cial. We made ice cream cone blocks to be given to the lucky winner. We had a brown bag with a fat quarter (that is 1/2 yd. of material cut in half widthwise), of our favorite ice cream flavor and a story telling why and then we had to guess each person's flavor. That was difficult. The winner guessed seven of the flavors!
The ladies in the background are at the cutting table cutting and visiting. As you can see it isn't all head bent over the sewing machine! You can see projects in the background that came for show and tell.
These lighthouse blocks are for Jo as she chose lighthouses for her theme for a share-a-square block. After one has joined the club, the other members will make a block of her choice for a quilt top to be put together by that member. It is a special quilt as we sign our name to our block.
This is the Jordan bunch...
This caught my eye. Roma took a class for this wall hanging. Stunning!
Wyna's internet quilt. I can't remember how many little blocks. She had to figure out how to do each one. Not my cup of tea! It is beautiful!


This is one of two games that we played. Of course our name tags were ice cream cones with different colored ice cream buttons sewed on them. The color of my button was green so there were three others with green topped cones! That was our team! We had to come up with a name and we called ourselves the "Tutti-Frutti Pedal Pushers!! Did I tell you it was hard to get any sewing done in long stretches?! This GAME was to toss the cotton ball off of the ice cream spoon into ice cream bowls set at a distance. Of course we had to keep our toe behind the tape! I couldn't get my cotton ball in the bowl and "close" didn't count!! But our team one as two of the members were hot shot cotton throwers!!

Our other game was a dice game that we played with five fat quarters as the "bootie", is that the right word, gambler that I am?? Anyway, there are three dice and they can say R for right, L for left, and C for center. We just followed the directions on the dice and if it said R that person on our right got a fat quarter or it went left or the the center. The one left with material won the material in the center of the table! I didn't win, but I got rid of some fat quarters...
Brenda won the ice cream blocks. She was very excited and it will be fun to see what she does with them.

We were given material to trace and ice cream cone (the size of the ones we did) and we got everyone's signature that attended. We were given a fat quarter of the yellowed coned material hanging on the bulletin board to complete this little wall hanging.

We also had a show and tell with the Colstrip quilting ladies. They provided lunch of salads and more on Saturday noon and that was a fun interlude. See, not much sewing, but lots of looking and getting new ideas...

Saturday afternoon after the showing, we had ice cream and toppings with Colstrip ladies. Thankfully the kitchen kept all the goodies and fruit that we brought, so one had to make a decision to walk down the hall to the kitchen to munch! Many times it has been in the sewing area and it is so had to resist as we have some REALLY good COOKS!

Cowboy Shipping Yearlings

Bill went to Roscoe to help ship yearlings. Since I bought the digital camera for him for an anniversary present a few years ago, (that is another story! To say he was surprised is an understatement! Sort of like buying your wife a rifle!) I thought he should take it with him and take some pictures. So all the pictures are from the back of a horse. There are mountains up there and it is just beautiful country.
Gathering...

Getting closer... As I was looking at the pictures I was glad we don't have to ride over those rocks all of the time. Rock garden anyone?
The buyer and two hands...

Jerome and Allison conferring...
A closer view. The mountains in the background are beautiful. I thought he took good pictures from the back of Ace.