It's A "Wild" Life - Finish

It is with great excitement and a little sprinkle of sadness to say that my It's A "Wild" Life block of the month quilt is complete.

When I started it last year I was unsure and uncomfortable of the whole fusible applique process but as the months passed by with a little more applique included with each block my confidence grew.  

I enjoyed all of the blocks and the memories and stories that I recalled as I worked on the blocks...

From our "close encounters" with bear, to watching deer graze in our yard, and enjoying some mountain picnics... fishing as a child, our house with a view of the mountain range... enjoying a morning watching some fox at a state park, remembering how far we have come in our camping accommodations... stories of skunks and raccoons.  They included a few very hearty laughs, but all very good memories.  






I had fun creating the detail and movement in each block... every pine tree received stitching kinda like a Christmas tree...

 I added detail of a carving that Dave left behind on an aspen tree a few years ago, as shown in the photo below...

His carving actually shows '63 (his year of birth) but I put '83... the year he left the carving as well as the year we met. 💕

 I created detail for the parking pad of the truck and trailer... 

(it is a little hard to see...) >>>







... and grass was placed in all of the blocks that had grassy areas.

 Again, it is a little hard to see, but there are leaves offering detail in the large trees in the Moose go camping block... 

and loops and swirls in all of the sky areas of the quilt.

And now these memories get to travel with us this year as we begin thinking of camping!

We are getting antsy! We are at the time of year that the temps can easily be 60 to 70 degrees during the day, but as soon as the sun goes down, they drop drastically... and there is a chance for a snow storm or blizzard every few days.  

Mother Nature is teasing us!  Spring is around the corner, but she can quickly remind us... NOT YET!  Like the day the sun was shining... and it was snowing and blowing and the highway shut down!

A few places on our wish list of places to travel to include Palo Duro Canyon near Amarillo, TX, The Great Sand Dunes and some remote places in the San Isabel National Forest.  

I am certain we will find many more great locations that are just a few hours from us and we can enjoy a few days of fun hiking or biking and unplugging and getting back in touch with nature.  

Where do you like to go to "get away"?

Leave a comment... I love to hear from my readers.

Quilt Happy!

Melva

Melva Loves Scraps - Home of the Quilters Through The Generations series

Linking with:

BOMs Away! at What Hoot Quilts
Wednesday Wait Loss at The Inquiring Quilter
Midweek Makers at Quilt Fabrication
Let's Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts
Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation
TGIFFriday at Kathy's Kwilts & More
Can I Get A Whoop Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict
Finished Or Not Friday at Busy Hands Quilts

It's A "Wild Life - Midnight Picnic

The December block of the month for the It's A "Wild" Life from Amy at Sew Incredibly Crazy features a rascally raccoon munching on a cookie from a picnic basket... so cute!



I am a lover of "Little House on the Prairie" and remember the episode of when Mary "rescued" a raccoon in the woods and gave it to her sister Laura... and she was going to make a pet out it.  Pa was NOT happy about it...  It happened in Season 1, episode 10.

I had great fun as I was pulled fabric for the block, the woven look for the basket was a given, the sky fabric was left over from the curtains and bed ruffle that my daughter used in her youngest daughter's room.  And I have to admit that I did a silly little dance when I uncovered the tiger print and decided to use it for the jeep!  lol...

Sadly the fate of that little raccoon that Laura had as a pet was not a happy one.  Pa had good reason to be concerned because the little guy was suspected to have rabies and Laura hid the fact that she had been bitten by him.  Fortunately, Dr. Baker was able to prescribe some gumdrops.  I think we all know how it really turns out... Laura went on to live a long life.  

We didn't have raccoons where I grew up... good thing!  I didn't want to risk the the chance of getting rabies.

I have 11 months worth of blocks sewn together and waiting for the January block to be completed and attached to the bottom of the quilt top.  Even though the block was released early, I am simply going to have to wait until January to get it done.  I have baby quilts that need to be completed for two upcoming showers of some young ladies I have had the honor of watching grow into beautiful soon-to-be Moms.

"Little House" was one of my favorite shows in my childhood...  

What was your favorite childhood show?  

Leave a comment... I'd love to hear from you!

Quilt Happy!

Melva

Melva Loves Scraps - Home of the Quilters Through The Generations

Linking with:

Christmas Linky Party at Freemotion by the River
Let's Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts
Midweek Makers at Quilt Fabrication
Wednesday Wait Loss at The Inquiring Quilter
Can I Get A Whoop Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Wishful Thinking - It's A "Wild" Life

I giggled when I saw this block designed by Carol at Just Let Me Quilt... Then I looked at it to try to figure out how to avoid aaaaaaaaaaaaaall that applique.  I considered paper piecing the trees but then told myself "just do the applique"! 


As I pulled fabric for the block I remembered that as a child we had an old hay wagon where my dad stored old lumber from various projects.  My brother once discovered a whole family of skunks living under it.  The babies were sooooooo cute!  We begged mom to be able to capture one and have the "stinker" removed and keep it as a pet.  My parents refused, even though they thought they were cute as well.  

We wanted to name it "Flower" just like in the Disney movie, Bambi.  But as with all "babies" they don't remain babies.  My brother was assigned the task of "removing" the family.  That is all I am going to say about that.  Well, I will add, that he never ended up smelling of skunk, to my recollection!

Once I got the sky, ground and trees done, I was less than enthused to begin the truck & trailer... and then I saw the "love" fabric sitting on the cutting table in the midst of the other black and white fabric I had pulled as options for the block.  It was at that moment that I decided that it was exactly what I needed for the truck and camp trailer!

Love was in the air!!!  I, for one, am grateful that the stench of a skunk is NOT in the air.


While Dave and I were still living in Illinois, one evening as Dave was returning home from work and our Yellow Lab, Samantha, ran across the yard to greet what she thought was our cat, Dotty.  Dave quickly realized that it was NOT Dotty. 😞  Rather, it was... you guessed it... a skunk!  I imagine that the look on the skunk's face was one of surprise... just like this one >>>



It was the middle of the winter so we couldn't simply leave her outside.  Though she really did love her dog house and kennel and would often prefer to "go to bed" outside rather than stay in the house.  


We took her into the basement where there was a bathroom with a shower.  We proceeded to use tomato juice and strawberry scented shampoo to try to neutralize the awful odor... it didn't really work, but it was certainly better than doing nothing!  I think...

For months afterwards (until she shed her winter coat) whenever she went hunting and retrieving in the Fox River or on the private pond where Dave hunted ducks and geese, she smelled the odd combination of tomato and strawberry.  It was a little gross...

This was before our knowledge of using baking soda, hydrogen peroxide and dish soap to remove the odor.  

More recently our Chocolate Lab-mix, Shelby, dashed across the yard after a cat... Dave thought it was a cat, anyway.  (We have never allowed her to chase after rabbits or cats in our yard.)  As soon as Dave realized what she was doing he yelled for her to stop.  And for once she listened!  We managed to coerce her into the house while he grabbed something to "manage" the situation.  

(I know, I know... this is not kosher to do in town, but we don't live in town and who really wants to worry that such a stinky creature is roaming in your neighborhood?  Animal control doesn't respond to such calls in the county... you just take care of it.)  He was able to handle the situation without setting off a 'stink bomb'... My Hero!  We actually believe that the animal was sick and could have been a threat to the pets in the area.

Well, there you have it.  My skunk stories... 

Have you had a close encounter with a skunk?  

Leave a comment... I'd love to hear from you!

Keep calm and quilt on,

Melva

Melva Loves Scraps - home of the Quilters Through The Generations series

Linking with:

Linky Tuesday at Free-motion By the River
Fiber Tuesday at The Quilting Room with Mel
Main Crush Monday at Cooking Up Quilts
BOMs Away at What a Hoot Quilts
It's A Wild Life BOM at Sew Incredibly Crazy

Moose Go Camping!

When Joan, at MooseStash Quilting, created this block "Moose Go Camping"  she had no idea how true of a statement that was for me!


It has been over two months since we had been camping with our daughter and her family!  How did this happen???

With deadlines for my husband in finishing a project he had been working on, unfortunate timing of poor weather and other events and trips, time just did not allow it. 

We were finally faced with, take a few days and go, or take the camper off of the truck.  As luck would have it... we had an appointment to get a new windshield in our jeep, as well as a need to get to Pueblo to see our daughters and grands, along with some errands (ie., shopping for a few items we cannot get locally).  

The weather was predicting cool temps and overnight rain, but we have a heater in our tiny, tiny home and it does not leak.  We enjoyed time watching a football game and spending time with the grands and then lunch at a local brewery and a nice visit with our daughter and her husband as we caught up on life and the progress of their new house being built.

But, NO!!! we are not taking the camper off.  We have plans to go south into New Mexico and Texas to enjoy some great bike trails.  

So... We. Must. Go. Camping.

We Moose Go Camping!

Camping is what we did... 

Upon our return home I finished the tent and moose... I noticed that as I appliqued this block my mood was improving as I progressed.  

I had started out a bit grumpy... okay, a lot grumpy, despite the recent night away.  

But as I enjoyed a cup of tea on a cloudy, drizzly afternoon, my mood was changing... 

As I shared on instagram... "There is nothing that a little faith, a cup of tea and some quilting cannot fix!" 

One "Moose Have Faith!"

What do you do to turn you mood around?

Leave a comment... I'd love to hear from you. :)

Quilt happy!

Melva

Melva Loves Scraps - Home of the Quilters Through The Generations series

Linking with:

It's A Wild Life BOM at Sew Incredibly Crazy

BOMs Away at What A Hoot Quilts

Let's Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts

Mid-Week Makers at Quilt Fabrication

Wednesday Wait Loss at The Inquiring Quilter

Fiber Tuesday at The Quilting Room with Mel

Linky Tuesday at Freemotion by the River

Needle & Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation

Whoop Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Finished Or Not Friday at Busy Hands Quilt

It's A "Wild" Life :: He's So Foxy

Carole over at Just Let Me Quilt has created another super cute block for the It's A Wild Life Block of the Month...

Again, it is so cute foxy, I hardly minded the applique!

At the beginning of the summer Dave and I headed just a mere 80 miles to our north to Pueblo Lake State Park for a few days.  We enjoyed some time with our kiddos since they all live in Pueblo.  How convenient for them... and fun for us!

On our last morning at the park we followed a paved path that winds its way from near the camp ground and visitor's center to the Arkansas River.  It actually goes all the way into downtown Pueblo... (we want to enjoy the trail again soon, now that the hot summer temps are going away soon.)  

As we rode our bikes and enjoyed the view and the quiet Dave noticed some activity not far from the fish hatchery.  We both stopped and watched a Momma fox with two kits romp and play.  

Shortly after our return home my photographer friend, Cindy,  shared some great shots she captured of a family of foxes that were in her backyard.

  

Be sure to show her some love over on instagram...

And one final one...  This one just makes me laugh!

Now you may have noticed that I wandered from the original pattern (I simply cannot follow a pattern.  I mean, maybe if my life was dependent upon it, but even then... )  I just HAD to sneak in some piecing... Using another orphan log cabin block from my Farmland quilt, I created the grass (similar to what I did in the Lunchtime block in July.

I then paper pieced my tree and then basically "filled in" the sky area.  I used a short cut on the flowers by using some sunflowers from my stash.

I was told by a little birdie that the October block likely includes applique... I am not surprised!  I am over it.  The whining and complaining that is.  I will find a way around or through it.  

Watching wildlife can be quite entertaining.  We have been lucky enough to have turkey, deer, elk, bear and mountain lions in our yard - most without any damage or harm.  (The mountain lion was trapped and removed...)  I once saw a bobcat cross our yard!

My husband used to do lots of hunting... I know not everyone is a fan, but bear with me - he is a wise and moral hunter, though he doesn't hunt much anymore.  

He favorite was bow season for deer.  In the early hours of the morning he would watch deer come into the area.  He liked it best when does would come in with their fawns.  He would never draw to shoot in such a case, rather, he would drop acorns, twigs or leaves from the stand and watch them.  He had many stories of the young deer looking around (but never up) to see where they were coming from... and he would never startle them in such situations, but chose to wait for them to quietly leave the area before exiting his stand. 

Last fall we had five to six deer in our yard that would frequently cause both of us to pause our work and watch them as they wandered in our yard. 

What is your favorite wildlife creature to watch?

I'd love to hear from you!  Leave a comment below to let me know...  

Piece Peacefully...

Melva

Melva Loves Scraps - Home of the Quilters Through The Generations series

Linking with:
It's A Wild Life BOM at Sew Incredibly Crazy
BOMs Away at What a Hoot Quilts
Main Crush Monday at Cooking Up Quilts
Linky Tuesday at Freemotion by the River

It's A Wild Life - Home at the Cabin

This month's block of It's A "Wild" Life, hosted by Amy Warner at Sew Incredibly Crazy is Home At The Cabin.  

It involved applique again, but bigger pieces... I hardly complained because the block was sooooo cute!  

I opted out of the logs for the log cabin but think that the house is still cute.  It could be our house! (please excuse the unkept look of the house... we are currently doing some repair work on the stucco finish.)

And those two snow peaked mountains could easily be the Spanish Peaks - also known as the Twin Peaks - that can be viewed as you crest the the hill behind our house!

The story of how we came to live in South-Eastern Colorado is quite the story!

We had been living in the Chicagoland area for 9+ years and had long desired to return to Colorado to raise our children.  An opening for an instructor at the college where Dave and I met was announced and he applied.  He interviewed on November 15th and received a job offer on November 23rd... the day before Thanksgiving.  The job would begin January 3rd.  

We called my parents who lived 80 miles from where we would be living and asked them if they would go locate a house for us to purchase... sight-unseen!

We immediately started packing and purging... We loaded the truck on December 26th and pulled out of IL on December 27th.  We arrived in Trinidad, CO  on December 31st and unloaded our belongings into this...







It was clean inside, thanks to my parents and brother since they spent three days cleaning and removing household contents that had been left behind.











We got settled in and continued cleaning the yard and removing miles of fences, replaced the roof and painted it in the first 5 months.  

It made a world of difference!

What an adventure we have had!  Our families must have thought we were crazy... but we had the Peace That Passes All Understanding prevail and we walked through it as though it was no big deal.  **sigh** CrAzY!!! 

Nearly as crazy as the wild ride we were on that started six years ago... but that is a different story.

In the layout of the finished quilt, this 24" block is the center of the quilt and the blocks are coming together nicely!

When complete it will be the perfect size for our bed in our camper... Next year.

Have you had a crazy adventurous move in life?  

Leave a comment... I'd love to hear your story. :)

Stay calm and keep quilting!

Melva

Melva Loves Scraps - home of the Quilters Through The Generations series

Linking with:

It's A Wild Life August Block at Sew Incredibly Crazy
BOMs Away at What a Hoot Quilts
Fiber Tuesday at the Quilting Room with Mel
Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation
Let's Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts
Midweek Makers at Quilt Fabrication
Wednesday Wait Loss at The Inquiring Quilter

It's A Wild Life - Lunchtime!

The It's A Wild Life block this month is called "Lunchtime" and I had great fun making it!  Amy over at Sew Incredibly Crazy did a great job with this block >>>.  


I found several ways to personalize it...

As a lover of the scrappy look I had planned on using a variety of blues and greens for the pieced block.  

I'll be honest... while the block is really cute, it involved a lot of applique.  I am beginning to sound like a broken record... I don't like the technique.  I considered skipping the block...  

And then another member of the fb group shared her block with a scrappy look.  I was sold!  

But rather than scrappy I took an improv block that was made of blues and cut it up to make the pieces for the water areas and then used a left over log cabin block from my Farmland quilt and used it for the green background pieces.  It was together in less than an hour... AND I re-purposed the leftover blocks - Bonus!

I was still on the fence about doing the applique...  **sigh**

And then the idea came to me that I could use rainbow fabric for the fish and call it a "rainbow trout".  SOLD!  😂  I crack myself up! There was no turning back! 

I love it! Oh, and I actually didn't grumble and gripe my way through the applique process.  Improvement!

I already shared my bear stories... so I don't have anything new to add to that... 

But this reminded me of a time in 1972 when our family traveled to the San Luis Valley to visit some cousins that lived there.  While there we went fishing at La Jara.  It was my first time fishing... I didn't really care much about it.  But my brother was really excited for it - I have no clue as to why, but he was.




Before making the trip my parents had purchased me some new cowboy boots.  Now those boots?... that was something I was excited about. 

<<<  I insisted on wearing them with my shorts.  I think my Dad would have preferred me not to, but I wore them anyway.

I don't remember how long we stayed there fishing... But as I recall, Kelvin was the first to get help with the bait and learning how to cast.  

I remember having some help to cast as well... Maybe from my dad, but he was never much of a fisherman, so maybe it was my cousin...

Here's the exciting part...  I made my first cast by myself... it didn't go out very far... but I caught a fish!  It could have been a rainbow trout! Yes, yes. I am certain it was a Rainbow Trout! 

And that is where the memory ends.  As I said, I have no idea if we were there 1/2 an hour or all day... but the important thing is, is that I remember wearing my boots with my shorts and that I caught a fish!

I still don't get excited about fishing... If you catch something, you have to clean it...  And it interrupts my reading time!  Now this may seem a little odd, with my love for camping and all, but what can I say?  

Do you love fishing???  

Or are you a little more like me, and find it interrupts the quiet time?

Leave a comment for me!  I love to hear from my readers...  

Remember, It's a wild life out there...
Don't let it disrupt your "piece-filled" time...

Piece Out,
Melva

Melva loves Scraps - home of the Quilters Through The Generations series

Linking with:
It's a Wild Life July block at Sew Incredibly Crazy 
Linky Tuesday at Freemotion By the River
Main Crush Monday at Cookin' Up Quilts
Movin' It Forward Monday at Em's Scrapbag
Monday Making at Love, Laugh, Quilt
BOMs Away Monday at What a Hoot Quilts
Fiber Tuesday at The Quilting Room with Mel
Chameleon's Colour Party at The Clever Chameleon

It's A Wild Life - Aspen Tree

This month's block is another fun mixed technique block that includes piecing and applique.  You can find the pattern from Pat over at Life in the Scrapatch.  The block below is by Carla at Creatin' in the Sticks.

I still don't love applique, but am coming to accept the technique... enough to include some a special feature in my block, that you will see in just a bit. 





Join me as I journey back in time, once again, to a time when our family was on a mountain outing on Cordova Pass... it is an unpaved road that has a unique landmark that was created in the early 1930's by the Civilian Conservation Corps. (Photo by Lars Leber)








It was 1982 when my dad decided that he needed to leave his mark behind...

My dad was quite proud of his brand.  And all of our camping gear, hunting gear, etc. was marked  with his brand.  And because we camped with my grandparents and my Aunt & Uncle quite often and the cookware, silverware and cups and coolers were all the same... and my parents were sticklers for accounting for "their" stuff - the identifying mark made it easy to distinguish their items from the others.



You can see from the picture above that many others had left their marks on the tree as well... It isn't a practice that I recommend personally.  I am more of the mind-set of leave no trace/evidence... However, placing my dad's brand on my quilt block did seem the right thing to do... After all, Father's Day is just around the corner, and he influenced my love for camping and mountain outings...



It was years later that our little family of four made our own journey over Cordova Pass and actually found the tree that Dad had marked... still alive and well.  I felt better knowing that the tree didn't suffer too badly from the damage!


You probably noticed that I used one of the little birds from a previous block rather than the owl... I figured since I was using a lighter sky background that didn't reflect "night-time" I needed something that indicated it was day-time... thus my little bird.  

Early morning while camping is my favorite time... I am a morning person anyway, but snuggled down in the sleeping bag or bedding and listening to the sounds of the birds and woodland creatures as the world begins to wake up is a treasure to me... a little piece of heaven... quiet and serene... Well, except for that time last fall when some coyotes or some other predator startled a donkey in a nearby pasture.  Oh!  My!  Goodness!  What a racket it made!   It was hee-ing and it was haw-ing something terrible!  And all Dave and I could do was giggle!  

What is your favorite time of day?  Are you a morning person? Or a night person?  Or??? more like the middle-of-the-day- kind of person???

Leave a comment to let me know what your favorite time of day is and why... I love to hear from my readers!

Quilt Happy!

Melva

Melva Loves Scraps - home of the Quilters Through The Generations series

Linking with:

BOMS Away at What A Hoot Quilts
Fiber Tuesday at the Quilting Room with Mel
Wait Loss Wednesday at the Inquiring Quilter
Amy at Sew Incredibly Crazy