SkyWatch Friday: Tricks & Treats!

After waiting in vain all week for a hauntingly beautiful Halloween sunrise to share, I had a sky-less Halloween post ready to go… until just a few minutes ago! As my finger hovered over the "publish" button, BW called to me with eerie timing, "Come see the sunrise!" Sure enough, it was a colorful, luminous beauty that seemed to mimic a glowing jack-o-lantern…

Oh those trickster Wyoming sunrises! Now you don't see 'em, now you do! :-)

So here's my originally planned post with more Halloween fun from (mostly) ground level…

Above-ground level, that is. ;-)

First, a sneak-peek at one of this year's quilts in the annual Fiber Arts show at the library. The lone Halloween quilt in the exhibit and one of my top three favorites in the show, I thought it would be better appreciated here than on my upcoming quilt show post...

"Who's Watching?"

Technique: Pieced

Artist: Tammy Johnson

From a kit designed by Heidi Pridemore

Quilted by: Karen Van Houten

On the day of our visit to the cemetery and picnic among the "Roman Ruins" last week, we also drove by this old home in Sheridan's historic "Residence Hill" neighborhood. It was for sale when BW and I were looking for a place and we made an offer on it, but it was not to be (just as well - ideal location, but way too big and in need of too much work, it would have meant delaying BW's retirement and thank goodness that didn't need to happen!)

A spooky spider, pretty pumpkins, and comely crow await trick-or-treaters

I didn't have to wander far from the home we did end up living in to get these next photos. Our neighbors a few doors down have their place very festively decorated for fall and Halloween, but I especially love these gossamer ghosts gamboling around the festooned spruce...

And up the street in the opposite direction one is greeted by these gregarious ghouls and their hauntingly hospitable howdies! :-)

Remember our friend the Red-tailed hawk? He showed up again at dusk last Friday, perched on our next door neighbors' roof. I took some more photos of him (of course) despite the bad lighting, and really liked this one of his eyes reflecting my camera's flash. By darkening the original a little I ended up with this great silhouette ~ add a few spooky elements courtesy of PicMonkey and our red-tailed friend becomes The Haunted Hawk of Halloween! :-)

It's predicted to be sunny and 71º here today (and tomorrow) with no wind. Combine the balmy weather with the fact it's a Friday night and we're expecting a record turnout of monstrous moochers Trick-or-Treaters, though we "only" bought enough vegan goodies for the first 250 or so. Wish us (and our poor doorbell) luck, and enjoy a safe and happy Halloween! 

SkyWatch Friday: The Mysterious Skies of Halloween

I know, I'm a week late with these. I've been working on quilt show posts instead of SkyWatch posts (those of you waiting for the quilt show finale, despair not - it'll be next, promise!)

Anyway, we had lovely weather the weekend before Halloween, and took advantage of it by taking the dogs on some wonderful walks around a new park area north of town, even enjoying a picnic lunch by the creek. Here are a few sky photos from our adventures…

Though admittedly not much of a sky photo, 

I wanted to share our pretty picnic spot by the sparkling creek 

(the picnic table is to the right out of the frame) :-)

What is Halloween without a leafless tree? 

The moon in the upper left helps set the mood as well. :-)

This piece of modern art is part of this inexplicable, mysterious "gate to nothingness"...

Someone went to a lot of trouble and expense to put up this front entrance!

Guess they must have depleted their funds and had nothing left for the house.

Appropriately, our lovely weather ended on Halloween, when rain, cold temps, and very gusty winds arrived along with the goblins and ghosties… and this rainbow! It barely lasted long enough for me to grab the camera and had already faded a lot by the time I snapped this, but since we never get rainbows at this time of year I was grateful to have captured the mysterious moment at all…

Though another Halloween is past, may you continue to enjoy hauntingly beautiful and bewitching skies! (And those of you in the Philippines, please stay safe!)

Quilt Show 2013, Part 1

Image from Shelterness

When the pumpkins appear in my neck of the woods, it's time for quilts! And this year's 16th annual October Fiber Arts exhibit at our public library was special, since my friend (and quilter extraordinaire) Jo got to attend it with me during her visit earlier this month! That was fun for us both, as I got the benefit of her insights and expertise while viewing the quilts, and she got to see them up close and in person instead of having to press her nose to her computer screen in Michigan to try to study some of the quilt details. :-)
Unfortunately, though there were many beautiful exhibits, we didn't think they were shown to their best effect because of how they were displayed. In past shows, the quilts were usually hung unfolded from the mezzanine railing from as close to their top edge as possible to make nearly the entire quilt visible from below or from across the mezzanine. This time many of them were folded over width-wise before being draped halfway over the railing, so that in many cases just 1/4 of the quilt was visible from any particular vantage point. To show you what I mean, here's an overview photo from a past year's show...

and here are this year's overview photos... 

In some cases you could still see enough of the quilt to get a good idea of its pattern and design, but in several cases hiding that much of the quilt made a big difference. I think were a lot more quilts in this year's show - which was great - but they also looked crammed together (often overlapping) with no thought to color or design placement, so some of the colors or designs clashed with each other. I don't know why they didn't use the stair railing to display some of them like they have in years past, and I wouldn't have wanted to be the person who labored on a quilt for months only to have it folded up and scrunched in a corner. And most annoying of all, several of them were hung very crookedly. I had Jo straighten out one of our favorites as much as she could before I photographed her with it, ignoring the "don't touch" signs because it was listing so badly! Anyway, I was disappointed since they've always been displayed so beautifully in the past, and I wanted Jo to enjoy our quilt show at its best! But we still had fun. I mean, just look at all those colors and patterns! So yummy!...

I'll start with the above section, since I took closeups of four of the five quilts displayed on the wall  (and you'll see more of that red and purple eye-catcher on the railing in Part 3!) As always, I've included, in quotes and italics, the exhibitor's personal note from the quilt's info card whenever I thought it was interesting or informative. And also as always, click on any photo for more detail. And enjoy! :-)

I thought this quilt was quite elegant...

Magical Medallions

Technique: Needleturn Quilting, Appliqué

Artist: Judy Peck

Pattern By: Karen Kay Buckley

"Begun January 2012, completed November 2012"

And this one was cheerful and summery...

Jane's Flower Garden

Technique: Machine Appliqué

Artist: Jane Rader

Quilter: Janis Farr

"Patterns for the appliqué came from the Kansas City Star in the 1930's.

The fabrics are all 1930's reproductions."

I'm always a sucker for dark backgrounds and bright colors, so you know I loved this one...

Garden Nouveau

Technique: Needleturn Appliqué

Artist: Judy Peck

Pattern By: Vicky Lawrence

"Begun August 2012, completed Februrary 2013"

It's a shame they hung this next beauty behind one of the display cases; Jo and I both admired it and I'd have loved to have captured it in its luscious entirety...

Aunt Grace's Circle of Friends

Technique: Machine Pieces, Hand Appliqué, English Paper Piecing

Artist: Maureen Humphrys

Quilter: Virginia Ohr

Jo and I also were really drawn to the reddish one to the left of the mitten tree... 

Its background color was quite unusual - a sort of rich, rusty burgundy - but it gave us both fits trying to capture it accurately with our cameras! No matter how many lighting or angle permutations we tried, it kept turning out too light, too orange, or too red. This was my most accurate attempt in a closeup, which still turned out too light and orangey-red, but which I wanted to include so you could see the details. Because the quilting technique - just vertical lines - was also pretty unusual, and the combination of the quilting and the color made it look like warm, cozy corduroy...

Falling Stars

Technique: Machine Piecing

Artist & Quilter: Susan Baggett

"Pattern is from Kim Diehl's Simple Charm book"

These next three quilts were made by three quilting friends named Jamie, Marcia, and Mary Jane ("JMMJ"). One of them picks a fairly simple pattern and challenges the other two to do it too. Here is the result of their latest "MJJM Quilt Challenge" trio...

L-R: Jamie Leupold's quilt, Mary Jane Collins' quilt, Marcia Suranyi's quilt

I thought they were all lovely and fun, but my favorite was Jamie's, I think because of the unusual colors and the fact it made me feel like I was looking out through the port holes on a ship, embarking on some grand adventure...

JMMJ Quilt Challenge

Technique: Machine Pieced/Raw Edge Appliqué

Artist: Jamie Leupold

Quilter: Becky Stednitz

Some more I admired...

Imperial Diamonds

Technique: Pieced

Artist: Peggy Gable

Quilter: Becky Stednitz

"I make each grandchild a special quilt for his or her 21st birthday. 

This one lives in Texas."

The quilt on the right, though not the main one I was photographing, deserves a mention too, especially since it's a quilt pattern that Joanne has also made!...

Tree's Up, Lights On

Technique: Machine Pieced

Artist & Quilter: Jennifer Golden

Another that appealed to my love of bright colors and whimsy...

Irish-Chained Pin Wheels

Technique: Machine Pieced & Quilted

Artist: Pamela Rapp

Quilter: Virginia Ohr

"Part of a Friendship Block Exhange"

And since tomorrow is Halloween (my favorite holiday!), I'll end this post with this delightfully festive pumpkin quilt!...

Primitive Pumpkins

Technique: Machine Pieced

Artist: Margaret Prout

Quilter: Becky Stednitz

In Part 2 I'll share some favorite non-quilt fiber art pieces from the show, and then will wrap up with Jo and my VERY favorite quilts in the show (and some post-show quilt goodies) in Part 3. But for now, click on the quilt-patterned pumpkin picture at the top of this post for DIY instructions on decoupaging your own if you'd like, and enjoy a happy (and bewitchingly healthy) Halloween! :-)

Click here for Part 2 (non-quilt fiber arts)

Click here for Part 3

SkyWatch Friday: Altas Aftermath: The Beauty

As anyone who visited my last post, "Atlas Aftermath: The Destruction" knows,  we experienced an unusually early, heavy snowstorm last Thursday night and Friday that devastated trees, knocked out power, and was responsible for a fair bit of property damage. (And as anyone who viewed this startling slideshow knows, it was even worse in places just east of here, especially in western South Dakota where they got four FEET of snow and 70mph winds, killing tens of thousands of cows. :'-( And as it continued to travel east this same weather system spawned tornados, record-breaking rains and flooding, and more destructive winds. So our town was relatively lucky!) 

Despite the tragic loss of so many trees (not to mention all the still-blooming flowers), I have to admit the altered scenery wasn't also without its beauty, which I did my best to capture during Friday's storm and Saturday's warm sunshine. It also wasn't without its humor and resourcefulness, as these two photos taken by our friend Jackie illustrate! (Some of you may remember Jackie and Al's beautiful property from my "Accidental Garden" post last summer). They lost a lot of limbs and branches from their many mature trees, and though they're consulting with a tree service to see if a couple of their larger trees can be saved, they took matters into their own hands when it came to the mortally wounded maple by their patio...

Photo by Jackie 

As Jackie said, "We figure duct tape can fix anything!" Especially when it's inventively paired with rebar and twine...

Photo by Jackie 

Jackie also said Al thought her idea was crazy but has been married to her long enough to go along with it (smart man!) :-) And who could argue with her logic that they have nothing to lose by trying? I hope it works! (Thanks for letting me share these, Jackie!)

Meanwhile, back in our neck of the snowy woods, this was the view out our front door early Friday morning before they cancelled school...

Looks like two out of three ghosts were as dismayed by the weather as we were! :-)

Cemetery snowscape

While photographing some of the destruction to Sheridan's trees during the storm Friday afternoon, I drove to the cemetery which has a lot of big old trees (and no traffic or downed power lines to contend with!) Fortunately, most of the trees there are spruces, which are better designed than the poor fully leafed-out deciduous trees to handle the heavy, wet snow and ice...

Snowy cemetery spruce

Early Saturday morning I took photos of the storm's aftermath from our front porch...

One of our garage lights transformed into an avant garde snow and ice sculpture

While photographing the snow from the front porch, this noisy and chaotic flock of Canada geese and smaller birds flew overhead, apparently as disoriented by the early snowstorm as we were - since they were flying north! (They were actually headed to a nearby pond)...

"Screw this crazy American weather, we're heading back to Canada, eh?" :-)

And here are a few shots of the freshly snow-covered foothills and Big Horn Mountains from our porch...

Look closely and you can see the snow blowing off the mountain's upper ridges 

13,000' Black Tooth Mountain is the peak directly beneath the street light 

After I took these, we took the dogs for a walk and saw a lot of the trees that were damaged in some of the nearby neighborhoods. So when we got home I took my camera and car and drove around the surrounding area, photographing them. As I returned home to our own subdivision (which is still new and therefore still lacks large trees), I stopped to photograph this wider perspective of the Big Horns...

And just as I was photographing this kind of interesting thin, horizontal cloud, another flock of Canada geese turned it into a much better photo...

And then obliged and thrilled me by flying right overhead (heading east this time!)...

So beautiful!

There's more beauty to be found overhead - enjoy a big dose of it at...

And enjoy a fun and storm-free weekend!