Many Glacier Hotel

 We spent the night at Many Glacier and got up early to get some early morning photos of the sun on the mountains.  We were not disappointed (it was chilly, though).

Mixed Media Daily Postcards - October 7 - 12

Going to Glacier National Park

 In September, we spent a week in Northwestern Montana.  Several of those days were spent in Glacier National Park.  There were some beautiful days and some days that were very wintery.  This beautiful day, we drove from the entrance at West Glacier to Many Glacier on the opposite side of the park.  Above, is Lake Sherburne.  Below is Saint Mary Lake.  Both pictures were taken late in the day with the sun dipping low in the sky.

Hungry Horse Dam

Adapted from Wikipedia:  Hungry Horse Dam is an arch dam on the South Fork Flathead River. 

The dam is 564 feet in height and was the third largest dam, and second highest concrete dam, in the world at the time of its completion in 1953.   The dam's spillway is the highest morning glory structure in the world.

 The Hungry Horse Project was built for irrigation, flood control, navigation, stream flow regulation, hydroelectric generation, and other beneficial uses such as recreation.  However, no irrigation facilities were built and the project has no irrigation obligations. Hydroelectric power generation is the primary purpose of the dam today. Flood control is the dam's other main purpose. The dam, reservoir, and surrounding area are used for recreation.

Road Trip.....

Joe and I decided to embark on an autumn road trip.  We headed North and made it as far as St. Ignatius before we ran into a little snag.  Just 1.5 miles from town, we could not get the spare to release from under the car (we Googled this apparently common problem).  Joe had to walk into town to purchase a portable air pump so we could pump the tire up just enough to get into town, where we made it just 30 minutes before the tire shop was scheduled to close.  Whew!  We made it to Whitefish, MT in time for the delicious dinner my sister, Jackie prepared. 

Fall Colors Along Rock Creek

There is a small window of time for these vivid fall colors in the Beartooth Mountains.  Winter comes early and fall is brief.  I feel really lucky to catch the color change just right - and before the snow makes the roads impassable!

Rock Creek Fall Colors

Neutral Colored Scrap Quilt

Finished piecing - it is a twin size. Too wild to sleep under? 

Mixed Media Daily Postcards October 1 - 4

Another Scrap Quilt

I am still working on using up scraps.  I am down to the neutral colored pile and here is what I have so far.

North Picket Pin Lake

 There are two small lakes just off the Picket Pin Road.  North Picket Pin and South Picket Pin.  Both are stocked with Yellowstone Cutthroat trout.  Both are very small and shallow, but contain a good population of tiny native shrimp, so the trout grow very fast.  We went to North Picket Pin Lake and I caught this nice Cut, which we took home for Joe's dinner.  In years of severe winter weather, the fish often die off - the shallow lake freezes solid and sometimes they don't survive (the lake is only 20 feet deep).

 

I enjoyed watching these clouds form over the lake while I fished.

Iron Mountain, 10088 ft elevation

 We drove our faithful 10 year old Honda Pilot to the top of Iron Mountain via Picket Pin Road.  We could see the Crazy Mountains far in the distance.

 Panoramic views in all directions.

The wind was blowing fiercely and it was very cold, but we spend time walking around on the top of this 10088 foot mountain.

Picket Pin Summit

 From the summit of Picket Pin Road we could see far in the distance to the Pryor Mountains, had a good overlook into the Beartooths and could see the Crazys off to the west.

Picket Pin Road in the Beartooth Mountains

 The weather is still mild enough for getting outdoors, so we took the Honda Pilot and headed for this backcountry road called Picket Pin.  It is up the Stillwater drainage.  At Nye, turn toward the Buffalo Jump and follow the dirt road back through a ranch before climbing up into the mountains.  The road is in pretty good shape (compared to some we have driven in the Beartooths).

After School Boating

 

Last week we had grandson Airus with us while his mom spent the week in Portland in a class.

The weather was super warm (86 on this day), so we headed for Cooney Reservoir after picking him up from school.  We enjoyed a few hours on the water before heading back home.

The view from the boat ramp.

Quilting Arts Surprise

The October / November 2014 issue of Quilting Arts Magazine arrived and in it - page 44 - my quilt
"Cottonwood Reflection"!

Red Randomly Pieced Scrap Quilt

It measures 53 x 90".  I think it will make a great adult sized nap quilt for someone tall.  I am not doing any quilting yet.  I still have more scraps to clear out.  On to the next color group!

Red Scraps Come Together

 By now, I have several very large sections that I am hoping I can fit together into one larger sized quilt.  Not sure how big this one will be, but maybe I can make it a twin or adult nap size quilt.

At this point, I have three large sections, and I still have some scraps.  I wonder if I can just add more to the two side panels and then sew the three together.

Big Blocks of Warm Colored Scraps

 Here are a couple of large blocks of scraps.  Once I get to this point, I start putting them up on the design wall so I can more easily see when I have pairs that fit together and can judge what shapes I need to make to fill in.....

Sewing Scraps Together

 My process with random scraps is to just begin sewing pieces together.  When one piece runs out, I just put another one on and in this way, will end up with a lot of different fabric pairs in a wide range of sizes.   I iron these strip sets open and then proceed to sew pairs together, often turning to sew a strip set across the end or another, but I change it up as often as possible so I end up with a lot of different configurations.  Below - I have a lot of  rectangular shaped parts spread out on the ironing table.  These, will now be matched up for size and when I find two that fit together somehow, I will stitch again.

The best thing about this process - why I like working this way is I never know what I will end up with - the element of surprise is very motivating!