Spring Equinox (Sutherlin, OR)

Spring is here!....or almost here.  Either way, I'm ready to start celebrating spring by getting back on the road and doing some traveling.  We leave on Monday!  We will start with Eugene first before heading south.  Oh, did I mention that we have changed our travel plans?  Yep, the weather is not cooperating.  Instead of heading due east to Bend, we will head south.

On The Cutting Board

I decided to celebrate the beginning of Spring by making new Happy Campers with little gardens.  Only three designs so far.  I'm hoping they will be a big hit so I can make more.  I miss gardening and this is as close as I will be getting to having my own garden for quite a long time.  Best part with this kind of gardening - no backache or bruised knees.😎  I made a total of 13 Happy Campers, but only four have the garden theme.  I'm adding one a day to stretch out my new items in my Etsy shop

Since we were spending quite a bit of time at home while Dan was healing, I managed to make several quilt tops.  Below are six more quilt tops ready for their appliqué add-ons. 

I made two Sweet Pea's Garden tops in different colored sashings and borders.   A sweet pea vine will go up the side and across the top.

Below:  the one on the right is just a panel with a border added.  I have had this fabric for a long time because I could not cut it up.  I decided to just leave it whole with a border and add a couple of appliquéd animals.  The one on the left is a scrappy star quilt with dog printed fabric, so I'm adding a puppy appliqué design from "P.S. I Love You Two, A Sequel".   I'm think I will call this quilt Cosmos, The Star Puppy.  I might add some paw prints across the quilt as well.

The last two are fabric leftovers from the ABCs and the Sweet Pea's quilts using the Crazy 8 pattern.  I have two more tops still being sewed together.  I hope to have them done before we leave next week.  Including the Peek-a-boo Bear quilt that I showed in a previous post, the total comes to nine quilt tops since November.  That's if I finish the last two before Monday.

Sewing in the bedroom has definitely made a difference on my sewing time.  I'm amazed I was able to get so many done in such a short time.  Less distractions?  Maybe I should go figure it out...

Happy Quilting!

There's Good News (Sutherlin, OR)

And of course, there is bad news. I'll start with the good news. Dan saw his VA Podiatrist on Monday. The doctor did a comparison of the 3 week-old x-rays with the recent ones taken on Monday. He believes the fractures are healing on their own. Dan has three separate fractures in his left foot's Cuboid bone . No surgery necessary unless something shifts or it doesn't heal as expected.  We should know more in January at his next appointment.

Eastern Towhee

The bad news is no weight on the foot allowed and he should wear the boot as often as possible. 12 weeks total expected for healing. He is only into his third week.  It is going to be a long winter for Dan.  It is a good thing he likes to read and spend time on his computer.

Scrub Jay

Until Dan can walk on his foot again, we will probably be staying in Sutherlin, OR at the Escapees Co-op.  The people here have been wonderful by offering to help out with shopping and even driving Dan to his appointments.  

Scrub Jay

I'm happy to stay here for Dan's healing time.  I know this area fairly well and don't mind taking care of business on my own.  I had looked forward to spending our winter on the coast, but there will be plenty of time to do that in the future. 

Dusty:  "Birds?"  "Birds!!"

Plus, we are not too far away for Shaun to drive down during his holiday break.  I'm looking forward to his visit.

Bird - not sure what kind

For some different entertainment, I have been feeding the local birds.  Our feathered friends are keeping the cats and us happy with their bird calls and all their little shenanigans to eat more seeds than their pals.

Eastern Towhee - side view :)

We watched the turkeys run in circles around the scattered seeds trying to get the best spot for the feed.  They act like the turkey next to them is getting more, so they keep pushing each other over and no one eats!  They finally do get smart enough to stop though and when they do, they eat everything in sight.  I'm not putting out a lot of feed since they would eat the whole 25 lb bag in a day, but they are certainly funny to watch when they come by.

- and from the back

In-sync Quails?  The two males would scratch together......

Good!  You're getting the hang of it!

...then eat together.  

And again 1, 2, 3 and 1, 2, 3!

On The Cutting Board
I never heard back from the one customer wanting a second black cat quilt.  Which is fine.  I listed the quilt this week and I'm sure it will find a new home soon.

Between taking care of Dan, running errands, and keeping up with the motorhome,  I received a large custom order request on December 2.  The customer wanted to order 6 vintage trailers with family names.  I wasn't sure I could finish them in time for a Christmas delivery.

 I explained my tight schedule and this customer was so understanding and such a sweetheart that I could not say no.   I really did worry about the limited time for the first week.  Since the customer did not have special color requests or wanting extra embroidery, the work went very fast.

 I surprised myself by finishing all six within two weeks!  I mailed them yesterday.  Now, I know that I could finish six mug rugs in a two week time.

Having this Etsy shop has given me great opportunities to meet some wonderful people.  Not just customers, but some very talented artists as well.  It has been a wonderful experience.

Merry Christmas!

2015 Happy New Year! (Lakehills, TX)

We traveled through Boerne, TX (pronounced Bernie) on our way to Medina Lake. I think I gave myself a sore neck trying to see all the Main Street sights. The one that really caught my eye was St. Peters.  

The building is gorgeous and I had to go back for photos.

After I took some photos, we drove around the backside.  The front is old, but the area in the back has been added on in recent years.  I thought they had done a wonderful job of blending the old with the new.

 

Here's a photo of where Medina Lake should be.  The water is all but gone.  Now it is filled in with trees and vegetation.  There were cattle grazing on the far side below the old water level.

We found out that rattling plastic bags brings the deer out of the woods.  Dan shook the bag twice and they came running!  Two decided they were not going to take a chance of missing out on some goodies and ate out of Dan's hands.  He had to throw the food to the others.

One more thing...we did not feed them near our motorhome.  We learned that lesson from our neighbor.  He is still getting deer loitering around his site and it has been almost a week since he fed them!

Oh!  I almost forgot to tell you what I found at the Fredericksburg Trade Days.  Trade Days is basically a Flea Market/Artists Booths plus food and it is huge.  You can find just about anything there.  I loved looking at the old buildings being used for some of the shops as well as some of the antiques for sale like old wringer washers and even old bed springs.  I bet this is an upcycle artist's dream come true.

 We spent a lot of time roaming around, but it was seeing these 2 vintage trailers that I found most interesting.  Both trailers are a Serra Scotty.  Check out the wheel well design.  Very different.  It is too bad they were not open.  It would have been interesting to see inside of both of them.

 This Shabby Chic pink one is extra cute with the outside staging.  The swan made from an old tire is cute and I really love the old pink bike!

I am thinking about a new mug rug in this vintage trailer style.  I'm not sure how I will be able to incorporate the wheel well design.  Something new to work on!

On The Cutting Board

I'm trying very hard to whittle down my fabric pile.  I started by cutting up the fabric for the Layer Cake Recipe pattern.  I was going to sew it together before starting another, but it seemed easier to do more cutting.

So....I started cutting for the Crazy 8 pattern.  The two piles on the left were already done from a previous cutting frenzy for scrappy quilts.  Now, I have four more theme-related quilts ready to sew together.  But...wait!....there's more!....

I have been wanting to use the pink and black cat fabric for quite some time.  Once I started cutting, I could not stop there.  I wanted to applique a big cat in the center, so that is done.  The quilt is coming out small - only 36 x 36.  I need to add borders and I would like to add some length to it.  I might need to get a little creative with the leftover fabric since there isn't a lot left.

I have been working on some more red and aqua (R&A) Happy Campers.  I recently came across one of my R&A trailers in Pinterest.  I'm surprised how many times it has been Pinned!  342 times!  If you do not follow Pinterest, This is like Facebook Sharing.  I guess it is safe to say that it is the most popular color combination.  None of the other Happy Campers have been pinned as often

Now, I need to setup the sewing machine and get some sewing done.  I also need to finish embroidering the edges on all the Happy Campers!  Oh no, the cats want out...hmmm, maybe they will decide it is too cold to stay outside and I can get back to sewing....
Happy Quilting!

I'm a Happy Camper! (Seaside, OR)

Small signs of Spring!  It has been some crazy weather with rain, wind, freezing cold, and sunshine.....that is in a 24-hour time frame.  Yesterday afternoon, a cold wind blew away the rain clouds and gave us a little sunshine.  This morning, we woke to frozen water pipes, but now the sun is out and it is suppose to get around 60 degrees.  I'm surprised the cats are not begging to go outside.  Shhh!  We'll let them out soon.

Hounds of Autumn by Heather Blackwood
You don't have to be a Steampunk fan to enjoy this murder mystery.


This is my first Steampunk cozy murder mystery and I enjoyed it more than I thought I would.  I don’t know a lot about Steampunk except that I enjoy viewing their costumes and artwork online.  This story is perfect for a beginner.  It has just enough Victorian advanced technology to give it an interesting spin to the story but it is not overwhelming with “techno talk”.

The main character is a female inventor – Chloe.  She and her husband Ambrose are traveling from London to the moors to spend a month with his sister's family while Chloe visits with their neighbor who happens to be Chloe’s inventor/friend by correspondence.  But, Chloe never gets to meet her friend because it is her body that is discovered on the moors and the leading suspect is the victim’s mechanical dog.  Chloe and Ambrose are soon searching for the answers only to end up with more questions. 

My favorite character is Chloe’s invention – a mechanical cat named Giles.  He is made by a human and has gears for his insides, but he also has a lot of ‘Catitude’ that had me laughing out loud a couple of times.  There is one scene when he attacks a lady’s hat and feathers are flying causing chaos between the hat’s owner, Giles, and Chloe that had me thinking this sounds so familiar….doesn't it, Hitch?  Yep, Giles reminded me a lot of Hitch with his little misadventures.....um, I mean adventures.

Who me?

What I loved the most about this book was how Ambrose and Chloe interacted with each other.  Their comfortable love is filled with respect and admiration for each other.  A look across the table, the touching of hands, and knowing what each other is thinking makes for a nice change from most authors who feel their characters need to get a little too physical to show their love.

Another thing is how Ms. Blackwood addresses the Victorian attitude towards women through their love for each other.  Chloe is not one for being the typical Victorian lady by spending her days reading poems and doing needlework.  Ambrose is a widower and a long-time friend to Chloe’s family.  After watching Chloe’s family struggle with their finances for several years, Ambrose suggests a marriage agreement.  Being very independent, Chloe adds her own terms to the agreement:  to be able to read whatever she wants and to keep working on her inventions.  Ambrose especially feels a need to be be a buffer by protecting Chloe’s more independent thinking from the stifling Victorian society’s attitudes.  Lots of twists and surprises…oh, and I would keep a box of tissues nearby too.

I looked online for other books with a similar theme, but so far nothing jumps out except for a time travel series by the same author.  I have them on my wish list.  In the meantime, I downloaded “Journey to the Center of the Earth” and “The Hound of Baskervilles”.

On The Cutting Board

Here's a sneak peek of my new Happy Campers.  I'm having fun designing some new embroidery designs and different color combinations.

All right!  Enough chit-chat.....back to the cutting board.  I just thought of a different design.

Happy Quilting!

Which Witch? (Ft. Stevens State Park, OR)

We move to Newhalem Bay State Park on Saturday just south of Seaside, OR.  I'm not sure how strong our WiFi signal will be, but if you don't see a post - that will be the reason why.

I haven't been taking pictures.  When it is not raining, Dan and I are taking fast-paced walks around the park on their lovely paved paths.  We got caught in one rain storm.  We were soaked by the time we got back to the motorhome and that was with our raincoats on!  I'm so glad I decided not to take my camera.

So, I'll share some more photos that I did not post in my last blog of flowers from Seaside.  

I love this nasturtium.  It looks like it has teeth.

The leaves under this one is pretty cool. It looks sort of like a Rudbeckia.

I have always loved the color of the Bachelor Buttons.  Gorgeous!

We did manage to get our cats out a couple of times.  They all did a lot of exploring.  I lost count of the trees Hitch has climbed since we got here.  We talked to another cat owner walking her cat by our site yesterday.  Dusty decided he did not want to be friends, but he did mind his manners and only growled at her cat a couple of times.  Hopefully, our cats will like the next state park as much as they liked this one.  

On The Cutting Board

I haven't been keeping my nose to the cutting board this week.  I'm not sure what my problem is considering that I have lots to do.  I want to make my own Halloween wall hanging so I started by looking through a long list of sayings.  This one caught my attention.  I thought about adding just a witch's hat hanging from the bottom of the 't' with a broom leaning on the 'n'...

 Then I thought the hat would be cuter with feet.  I looked online for pictures of witch's shoes.  With a combination of photos and clipart, I came up with this pair.  Well, if the hat has feet/shoes, she should have hands....

Then I thought that maybe the hat should have legs with knobby knees.  This is all free hand work.  No clipart this time.  I actually found some sites online that show you how to draw hands, feet, faces, etc.

Okay...Now, I have two designs and I'm not sure which Witch I want to use for the wall hanging.  Which one do you like?  Well, I need to give it some more thought...

I finished the pink trailer.  I might add a Welcome sign on the left side of the door with another big flower since there is so much empty space.  I need to wait to iron on the sign until we are back to having full electrical power.  We are limited in the state parks.  Right now, I prefer using our power for warmth and hot tea.  I can iron later.

In the meantime, I am working on the second trailer.  This cream color top will be added to a deep pink with teal polka dots trailer.

Reading back through this blog, I do believe I have found some motiviation to get back to the cutting board and get some sewing done!

Happy Quilting!

In A Fog (Newport, OR)

Check out the screen print below.  Not Castleville and yes, I do play a couple of games online.  I like the graphics and they are fun to play.  

No, I'm talking about the rabbit in the circle.  That is one of my mug rugs being used for an Etsy ad.  I'm thrilled they did that, but wouldn't it have been nice if they had notified me and had a link to my shop?  Oh well, I guess I can't be too picky about getting some free attention.  Right?

So, I have been working hard on finishing my friend's two mug rugs.  This is what they looked like two days ago.

Yesterday, all three were ready for their quilting, a button, and a patch on the back.  I'm not sure which of the other two she will want for her friend - the one with the cups or the kitty peeking out the window.  They will be done by Saturday.

Since I started talking about making two mug rugs for my friend, I have had two more requests.  I decided it was time to research Etsy's Custom Orders to make it easier for customers and for me.  I plan to keep the Custom Orders for mug rugs and wall hangings only.  I don't have enough room to special order "yards" of fabrics for quilts.  Where the smaller projects use fat-quarters or less than a half yard.

With the custom order button, a customer opens a request for a special order.  Once we agree on a project, the customer will pay upfront.  The payment will be held by Etsy.  The order is completed when I ship and notify the customer....then Etsy pays me.  I'll see how this goes for a few months.

On The Cutting Board

Before I received the new requests, I had already started two owls....

....and two more vintage trailers.  The other Vintage Trailers are still available in my Etsy shop if you are interested in one of them.

More Photos of Sisters

Here's a few more shots from Sisters.  I haven't taken many photos here in Newport because it has been very foggy.  My main goal lately is to walk as fast a possible to get out of the chilly wind!  Great way to burn some calories!

Now that's a view - quilts and the snow covered mountain

vintage truck showing off its own beauty next to the quilts

Happy Quilting!