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....  😄 🐰

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! 🦃🦃🦃  They keep alerting on the cats and gobbling to each other.  😆

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 appliqués 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!