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