Saturday, September 23, 2017

Better Weather (Sutherlin, OR)

It rained quite a bit last week.  I'm happy to say the smoke has cleared out.  I'm hoping the rain continues over the wildfires and helps in putting them out.   The Timber Valley SKP is starting to look a little empty with so many of the people already heading south for the winter. 
Blue sky!
Dan has been busy with a large checklist that includes working on the motorhome, VA appointments, and dentist appointments.  While he checks things off his list, I have  been staying busy with a few different things.  I'm spending more time outdoors.  Rain or shine, I'm getting in my walks.
Turkeys for neighbors
The cats seem to like our new site.  Which is good because we are here for two months.  They get plenty of entertainment from the wildlife running around our rig.  Dusty and Hitch were having a stare down with a doe yesterday.  I thought I was going to be the one to break up this little stare-down when the doe was startled by a loud noise.  I think the cats high-fived each other and smirked, "yea! we showed her!" πŸ˜ƒ
Dusty wore himself out
Max in the meantime, just loves rolling around on the cement pad and soaking up the sun.
Well, no slacking off for me!  I'm on a roll with quilts this month.
On The Cutting Board
After I agreed to sell two of the baby quilts just from posting them in FaceBook, I received a request for another baby quilt.  I'm almost done with it. 
A is for Apples and Ants - yes, a green ant
The customer wanted one with ABCs as the theme because the baby's mom is a teacher.  I just happened to have some ABC fabric.  Do you see the quilt block in the fabric above the bear's head?  Q is for quilts!  My kind for fabric!
B is for Bears and Balloons
I had a lot of fun embellishing this one.  I used crayons, embroidery thread, and permanent fabric ink.
C is for Clouds and Cars
One more photo taken a couple of days ago while getting it setup for pinning.
Well, I better get back to my ABCs!
Happy Quilting!

Friday, September 1, 2017

Smokey (Sutherlin, OR)

A lot has happened since my last post.  After leaving Blaine for the second time, I was hoping for blue skies and clean air in Monroe.  As you can see from the photo below through my bedroom window, that did not happen.  The wildfire smoke was even thicker in Monroe, but we still managed to get outside once in awhile.
Monroe, WA
A week later, we moved to Chehalis, WA.  We were pleasantly surprised to find clear blue skies and a very nice shady site considering that the campgrounds have been very busy this summer.  The cats loved our  new wooded site so much that we had to argue with them late at night that we were not going outside.  They did get to spend more time outside while we were there.
Max's new throne in Chehalis
We were able to get back into our walking routine.  This is a view of Mount St. Helens from one of the sites.  What a view!
Mt. St. Helens
The Thousands Trails park had some great trails going around the perimeter.  One of the trails led to their chapel in the woods.
The sky was so clear that we were able to view the 96%  eclipse from one of the campground's open fields.  We found out that being on I-5 wasn't such a great place to be during the eclipse with all the viewers traveling to and from Oregon that weekend.  It was bad enough that I-5 was moving at a snail's pace (southbound on Thursday and northbound on Tuesday), but Chehalis was getting an overflow of travelers trying to beat the interstate traffic caused quite a congestion for the town.  We finally decided to hideout in the campground until the traffic cleared out.
Dan was trying to get us moved down to Oregon in mid-August with no luck.  All the campgrounds were packed full of eclipse viewers.  The first openings was almost a week after the eclipse.  We are finally settled in Sutherlin, OR in the Escapees Timber Valley SKP.
.....and we are back in the wildfire smoke.  It was so smokey that the sun had a red tint to it during the day and we could not see beyond the first tree-line.  This lasted only the first few days of our stay.  It sounds like the fires are contained, but not completely out.  I hope this will be the end of wildfires for our firemen, the relief efforts, and for the locals involved.  It certainly has been a trying month for all between wildfires and Harvey.
I am actually finding it hard to adjust to our quiet surroundings after dealing with packed campgrounds since summer started.  Our new neighbors are very quiet and a little strange looking.
I'm slowly warming up to them.  They are fun to watch after all....  πŸ˜„ 🐰

Do you think he knows I am watching him?
I'm watching you...watching me
You should see the other neighbors....what a bunch of turkeys! πŸ¦ƒπŸ¦ƒπŸ¦ƒ  They keep alerting on the cats and gobbling to each other.  πŸ˜†
On The Cutting Board
All right!  I quilted all four tops and I am adding the binding now.  Here are the other two that I promised to show you.  This is the first time I have tried the rounded corners.  I hope I gathered enough binding into the corners.  I'm a little worried that the corners will end up too tight or warped.  I'm working on this one tonight.   
I love the way this one came out.  It will make a cute newborn gift.  I want to make this quilt pattern again.  Maybe with different appliquΓ©s at the top.
I had enough teddy bear fabric leftover from another quilt to make a scrappy lap quilt using the Crazy 8 pattern.
I changed the fonts on the Bear Hugs.  I think it looks a lot better than the last one.
Okay, I could not resist showing off the black cats again....
....and the Showered with Love quilt as well.  Did I mention that I sewed this top by hand except for the border?  I need to put another kit together for more hand sewing outdoors.
I'm working on some new Happy Campers.  I recently had a request for a Yorkie peeking out the window.  I had to make the window a little bigger in order to keep the face from becoming one big blur of black thread.  I think this will work out well.
Well, plenty to do and more to plan so I better get back to it!
Happy Quilting!

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