Turkey? No Thank You! (Sutherlin, OR)

Happy Thanksgiving!  Gosh, it is that time again.  Time to gather around the turkey with friends and family.  This year will be different for Dan and I.  I won't be cooking a turkey or eating it.  In May, we changed our diets to all vegetarian.  We changed our diets for health reasons and I can say we have a lot to be thankful for this year.  I feel better than I did at the age of 40.  Less creaks in the joints, less headaches, more energy, and I lost 15 lbs (Dan lost double the weight).  I really did not think I could change my diet.  The big surprise for me - I don't miss my old ways of eating.

It's still cold here, but not as bad as places

This doesn't mean we will be missing all the festivities.  We plan to join our new RV park friends for a thanksgiving dinner.  I plan to make a big dish of brown rice stuffing with carrots, celery, mushrooms, and almonds.  I'm sure we will have no problem finding other dishes to eat.  This will be the first time since our son was four that I did not spend two days preparing our thanksgiving dinner and I have to admit - I am enjoying the freedom!

Hitch:  yea, sure, I remember you

Speaking of our son, Shaun left yesterday.  We had a great time visiting with him.  The cats seemed happy to see him too. Although, they did not come right out and say so.  Always playing the cool cat attitude.

Shaun is officially "moved' to his new home in Everett, WA.  I'm positive that he will be happy living in Washington State.  He loves to hike and camp.  Not to mention, there will be plenty of new places for him to explore from Canada to Northern California.  I wish him all the best on his new adventure.

On The Cutting Board

After Shaun left yesterday, I received a package from one of our friends and a quilter.  It is a John Flynn quilting frame.  I have never used one, but I'm willing to give it a try.  I have slowed down on my free-form quilting because it is hard on my back and shoulders.  I'm hoping this frame will make the quilting a lot easier.  Storage will not be a problem since the frame breaks down.  The three arms fit in my closet and the rest goes into an overhead compartment.    It is so sweet of her to give this to me when she decided to upgrade to a longarm machine.  As soon as I get some PVC, I plan to start practicing with my new frame.  Christmas came early this year!

I'm running a little late with this post because I really wanted to go shopping in Eugene today.  We spent most of the day going from one store to another.  I needed to do some shopping at Trader Joe's and since I was there and loaded with coupons....I might as well do some shopping at Joann Fabric Store too.  

I wanted to get some fabric for this embroidery project from "All Creatures Great & Small" by Natalie Bird that I have been working on for over a year...or is it closer to two?  Anyway, I am almost done with the embroidery blocks and I was a little worried about finding fabric that would match the threads.  The more I thought about it, the more I worried.

Eh, I worried for no reason.  I took some of the blocks for comparing colors and this is what I found.  They are quite a bit brighter and yet, they seem to go well with the embroidered blocks.  I plan to split up the embroidered blocks into two smaller quilts instead of making one large one.  Hopefully, I bought enough fabric for both quilts.

 With a new quilt frame to try and a beautiful pile of fabrics to use....I am very motivated!
Happy Quilting!