Winter in Texas (Columbus, TX)

We have had a mild winter here in Texas.  At least, where we have been for the last couple of months.  

Lake Conroe site

Lots of fog and rain with chilly days broken up with sunny 70+ degree days.  

Foggy day at Lake Conroe

We have been bouncing between Conroe to Columbus to Conroe and now we are back again for one more stay in Columbus before we start moving northwest.

Enjoying our 1 sunny day out of 7

We like our new site at the Colorado River RV campground, but we won't be here for long because we are on a waiting list for 50 amp and sewer.  

 Otherwise, this would be the perfect spot.  Lots of open space since no one has occupied the nearby sites.  Everyone prefers to be closer to the river.  I prefer the deer over the river view.

We have been here for about 7 days and we have been enjoying our visitors every morning and evening.  I woke up one morning and thought I was hearing a wild pig grunting under our window.  Surprise!  Just one deer eating in a rather noisy way.  I did not know they could make so much noise!  Grunt! Grunt! Snort!🤣

This morning Dan counted 21 deer nearby.  They are looking a little shaggy. A good sign that spring is on its way.

That reminds me that I need to comb the cats again.  

Max and Hitch

Speaking of cats, Max has finally decided that Hitch makes a good pillow during our travels.  He is lucky Hitch was sleeping so soundly.  I'm not so sure how Hitch would act if he woke up to this new development.

contemplating his next move

Hitch is quite a loner most of the time unless he is in a playful mood and entertaining himself by making the other two howl.

On The Cutting Board

I recently found out that we are going to be great-grandparents. The little guy is expected to arrive in June and naturally, I had to drop all my projects and start working on my first great-grandson's quilt.

Making faces ~ 😜👀

I chose Blake's Jungle since my granddaughter said she was planning a blue and green nursery, but at the time she had not decided on a specific theme.  I got started immediately.

The lion was the first one done.  Isn't he cute?  I'm making my own sunshine on cold and rainy days.

Max is making sure I get the Hippo correctly.

I thought this would be a breeze to assemble.  I should have looked at the pattern a little closer.  Lots of tiny pieces for the giraffe and zebra that were meant to be fused together instead of turn-under appliqué.  It took me two months to make all the blocks.

The dark blue fabric with the multi-colored polka-dots will make a good frame as the sashing and binding.

Ta-da!  The top is done.  I just need to find fabric for the backing.  It will definitely be done by April.

Now, I need to get back to all the other ones I was working on in December.  I started sewing the quilt blocks with the embroidered carousel horses together today.  Dusty thought he should supervise this process.

Look at me!  So pretty and soft!

It was a good start to finishing my last three quilts before I start on my brother's lap quilt.

"Red sky at night, Sailor's delight"

One last photo of our sunset from two nights ago before I get back to my quilting. 

Happy Quilting!

Back On The Road Again (Conroe, TX)

We have been back into our home on January 2.  I am so happy to be back home and back in a campground. So Happy!...that I have been staying busy with walks, enjoying my kitchen, making up for lost outdoor cat time, and of course, quilt projects.

I have to admit that living in the apartment for a couple of weeks wasn't too bad.  All three cats staked out their sleeping areas while Dan and I tried to form some kind of routine in our temporary quarters.  The hardest part was the traffic noise from the highway (only 50 feet away) and trying to fix meals.  The kitchen only offered a toaster and a microwave, so Dan bought a hot-plate to leave for the next tenants.  Lucky for us, we are quite happy with cold meals most of the time.

This is my throne. 
You can share the sofa with the other two minions.

 I had to share a photo of the Xtreme's office door with their graphic quilt block.  Pretty cool, right?

I went one time with Dan to check out the repair progress.  I'm really glad we did not stay in our coach.  The fumes were strong inside the bay area.  I noticed the workers wearing air-filtered masks and wished I had one!

As you can see, the work was worth the wait.  There was a nine-inch crack running from the bottom corner of the slide that almost touched the bottom seam above the tire.  There were several spots that needed touch-ups and fiberglass repair that were glaring before and now looks perfect.

 While we waited, we spent some time exploring Nacogdoches' walking trails since there was no place to walk around the business area.

 We ended up going to the park and walking several of the different trails.

The trail linked under the street from Pecan Park to Stephen F Austin State University with more walking trails through the campus' botanical gardens.  From the campus, we were able to cross over a bridge to another trail that took us into an azalea garden with artwork to view.  Which was great since there wasn't much in bloom at the moment.  I would love to be here in the springtime for the blooming season...or would that be the sneezing season?😕

The artwork below is my favorite.  It looks like a Tiny House with Attitude!

And speaking of houses, I just love this B&B house.  Isn't it gorgeous?  We came across this beautiful house while walking around the downtown area.  The Jones Family house was built in 1897.  The link has better photos.

Moving back into our coach seemed a lot easier than moving out and it went a lot smoother not to mention a lot faster.  Maybe my attitude had something to do with it.  I was in a hurry to get back into our old routine.  As you can see, so did Max!  He's back to his favorite spot on the dashboard cleaning his fur despite being close to the highway and all the traffic noise.  We were parked in front of Xtreme's building when I took this photo.

Dusty is back to his old habits as well.  Time for breakfast?  Time for Dusty's "give me attention" time!

On The Cutting Board

Even Hitch showed how happy he was to be back home by helping me arrange my Day of the Dead blocks.

Yea, you really should consider putting
a handsome kitty like me right here.

I'm way ahead of you, Hitch!  The following photos are the projects I worked on during our stay in the apartment.  This one is quite a challenge for me.  I'm trying to decide how to add this embroidered kitty's face to the quilt.  I might need to use fusible webbing with embroidered raw edging this time instead of turn-under appliqué.  To be continued.....LOL!

To make the waiting time in the apartment go faster I packed up a lot of handwork-only UFOs to take with me.  I did quite well with getting almost all the projects ready for the sewing machine.  I finished hand-piecing the last five blocks for the Southwest quilt.  Now I need to sew on the sashings and start basting the blocks for quilting.

I had two of the three Unicorns done before we moved so finishing the last one only took a couple of hours.  I just need to spend some time sewing all the blocks together.

I love browsing through Urban Threads for new embroidery projects.  The site offers machine and hand embroidery in the same design at low prices.  The cute Unicorns above and the Carousel Horse below are from Urban Threads.  I have two more Carousel Horses to embroider before sewing the blocks together.

This Christmas beaded project was the only decoration I took with me.  It was almost done.  So finishing this one kept me from missing my little tree and decorations this year.

Okay, one more photo of my second try at making the Twitter quilt pattern.   Coming up with a paper-piecing pattern for the 4-inch on-point windmill block made it so much easier.  I had finished the top before we moved but forgot to take a photo to add to my last post.  So, here it is!  Ta-Da!  I'm very happy with the end results.

Well, I feel like I have created a bigger pile of UFOs.  At the same time, I did manage to move all of them towards the finish line.  Now I need to start a 'get 'er done!' mode!😊

Happy Quilting!

Not Just Quilt Talk (Nacogdoches, TX)

I have finished all of the appliqué blocks.  Here are close-ups of the ones I added to make twelve blocks.  I tried to keep them close to the Native Flair design.

Kokopeli

Roadrunner

Gecko

Hummingbird

I already showed you my Quail in this previous post, so here's the last one of an Eagle from Native Flair.

Below is the layout I came up with on EQ7.  The empty spaces will be filled with the appliqué blocks.  I also finished the darker alternate blocks with teal, but I still have six more of the lighter blocks with aqua to sew together.

Dark blocks in corners and center.  The rest are lighter.

Below is the layout of the appliqué.  I am anxious to see how this is going to look when the top is done.  It'll be at least three weeks before I start my first quilt-as-you-go since I want to finish the last of the pieced blocks.

There's another reason why I am delaying it for three weeks.  We moved out of our motorhome this morning for fiberglass and paint repairs.  Estimated time for moving back into our home:  3 weeks.  In the meantime, we were offered by the Xtreme Paint & Graphics to move into their efficiency apartment.  We started moving in last night and moved the cats into their temporary home this morning.

Would you like a tour?  Dusty is showing off the spacious kitchen with plenty of room for him to eat without someone stepping on his tail.

Dusty also wants to point out that the humans have their own eating area and can reach the fridge without getting up.

Hitch was happy to test out the bed after exploring the bathroom.

But, he would not leave the bed to show us the laundry/closet area.  According to him, he can see it quite well from where he is sitting.

And here's our living room...wait where's Max?  

Oh, there he is!  He says he is not coming out until we leave.  Hmmm, I hope he changes his mind because he is in for a long wait.

Yea, I'm missing our home too.  Hopefully, the work will not take as long as three weeks, but if it does, I have plenty of hand sewing to keep me entertained and cats to keep calm.

Happy Quilting!

Sitting On A Corner (Bridgeport, TX)

That song was stuck in my head all day after our visit to Winslow, AZ.  

I love the Eagles so, I had to listen to "Take It Easy" a couple of times after we got home on my iPod.

I tried to get a photo of the Rte. 66 symbol in the center of the crossroads, but I couldn't angle the lens to include the building and statues.  I should have brought my wide lens with me.  One of those moments of "should of, could of".

The corner was having a slow day. There were less than 20 visitors while we were taking photos. We enjoyed visiting the corner, doing a little shopping, and finding a nice place to eat.  We ate at the Sipp Shoppe across the street while watching people doing their version of standing on the corner.  Plenty of posing going on! 😄

We stayed a couple of nights in our favorite state park - Homolovi.  We spent the afternoon walking a few of the trails.

Kiva

It's hard to imagine from these ruins that there used to be a Pueblo built with more than 1,200 rooms.

Homolovi II Pueblo

Pottery sherds are everywhere.  People have gathered up loose pieces to set on rocks for others to view.  I did not pick up any but I did spend quite a bit of time looking at the ground near the trail trying to identify the small pieces of pottery from the rocks.

The Hopi ancestors certainly knew how to pick a home with a view. 

And this is why we enjoy staying here.  Quiet, beautiful and untouched by man as far as the eyes can see.  Okay, I can see the highway, but it is far enough away to mute the sounds.  At night, you can see the stars.  Usually, we get spectacular sunsets, but smoke from the wildfires was blocking out the sun.  But....I did not leave disappointed!

I woke up just after 4 am on our first morning in Homolovi.

Giving up on sleeping longer, I decided I might as well grab my camera and watch the sun come up.  Boy, was I ever surprised by this outstanding sunrise.  I was told this looks similar to the Arizona state flag.

Okay, a couple of pictures of the cats.  Dusty (grey) has never been a cuddler with us or with the other cats.  He'll let Max sleep with him for short periods of time before he moves away, but I think he has finally decided that he doesn't mind cuddling with Max.

Or maybe Max is just too stubborn to give up on Dusty.  He looks pretty determined, doesn't he?

By the way, we are in (Bridgeport, TX).  This is to let you know where we are at the moment.  Not where the photos were taken.

On The Cutting Board

I'm making some progress on my quilt.  The second block that I decided to add to the Native Flair quilt is Kokopeli.  It took a couple of different designs to make him a little wider in the middle in order to add embellishments from the Native Flair designs.

This looks like it will work without overwhelming Kokopeli.

I still have a long way to go.  Back to sewing!
Happy Quilting!