Driving to Montana (Deer Lodge, MT)

Before we left Texas in early May, we spent a week in Bridgeport, TX.  Below is a picture of Weatherford's county courthouse.  I never get tired of seeing this building.

We got a nice site, but it was not full hook-ups.  Still, the cats enjoyed their time outdoors and we found the quiet spot away from campers celebrating the lockdown lift.

Our biggest surprise upon arriving was seeing how high the lake was in comparison to our last visits.  The first time we came here, the lake was a good 20 feet below this dock (bottom right).  Now, the dock is five inches below the water level.  Quite a difference!

Our walks around Bay Landing Thousand Trails were quite entertaining.  We saw a family of Canada Geese near the fishing pond along with four ducks that were always together no matter what they were doing.  We saw quite a few snakes swimming around in the pond and after talking to one fisherman and finding out that someone counted 18 of them hiding under a tree, I kept my distance!😬  Between wildlife sightings and flowers blooming, we had some nice walks while we were there.

Finally, we felt it was time to get back on the road and see some new sights.  I know I was ready to see some snow-covered mountains.  Dan was able to get reservations at each stop.  His biggest headache was trying to steer clear of severe thunderstorms moving through the midwest states.  He did an excellent job because we saw very little rain and drove through some windy areas.

Montana!

Hitch has become quite a lap cat during our travels.  He can spend hours sleeping on us.  I'm not so sure our legs agree with his long-term sleeping arrangements.

Zzzzz

After two 8-hour days of driving, we were happy to spend two days relaxing at Terry Bison Ranch.  We were greeted by two sleeping cats inside the ranch's store/office area.  It looks like they had a tough day at the ranch.

Zzzz....Zzzz

This is the first time we have seen the peacocks at the ranch.  They were busy guys making lots of noise with their mating calls.  Have you seen the movie "UP"?  Kevin sounds just like them in high volume! 🤣

The peacocks even showed up one morning in the campground wandering from site to site.  Only one of our cats saw the big birds go by and I swear he was drooling.😺

1. Goats new play area 2. Artwork
3. Llamas 4. Peacocks visiting campers

This white turkey was quite a character.  I was kneeling down to take a photo of the bison artwork when he walked into view, fluffed his feathers, and stood there waiting for me to take his picture.  I took one photo and started walking off only to realize that he was following me around the bison, so I took another photo of his other side.  He seemed satisfied with the attention and finally moved on to another person walking by.

Left profile?  Right profile?

My favorite part was seeing the new colts this year.  Both had some beautiful markings.  I tried to get a better photo of the black one, but he or she wasn't in the mood for putting up with paparazzi that day.

Before we left Wyoming, we restocked our groceries for our 14-day quarantine in Montana.  Back on the road, Hitch once again surprised us by sleeping in-between Dusty and Max.  He is just full of surprises on this trip.

On The Cutting Board

Before we left Bridgeport, TX we drove to Lawton, OK to see our daughter's family and to give the girls a quilt each.  We had exchanged information on what we had been doing lately and to make sure none of us have been infected.😷  Such strange times we are having when we have to be careful just to visit family.  It has been 18 days and all of us are still healthy.

Bry stopped by to receive her son's baby quilt and to visit.  I'm sorry we will not be there when our great-grandson arrives, but we really do not want to be in our coach in Oklahoma's hot July weather not to mention Tornado season!

Our granddaughters seem quite happy with their new quilts.  The two younger ones took their naps with their quilts and claimed they slept better with them.  They are such sweethearts.

One of my brothers asked that if he paid for a quilt would I make him one from the same SW pattern I have been sharing on FB.  I finished the blocks during the lockdown.  Posted this photo of the top's arrangement in a FB group.  One quilter pointed out that the three blocks on top looked alike and I might want to consider switching the top and bottom blocks around.

I'm glad she pointed it out because this arrangement looks a lot better.  I did not want his feet to hang out so I added a little more length by sewing one row of Delectable Mountains to the top.  This came out better than I had imagined on paper!

Now, I need to get fabric for the backing and decide how I am going to quilt this one.  By machine, it will go faster.  By hand, it will be more personable, but slow going.  Well, I have time to think about it since I cannot go shopping until our quarantine ends on June 1 when Montana goes into Phase 2.  I can barely wait to go check out the local quilt shops starting with the one here within walking distance!

In the meantime, I am working on my quilt-as-you-go blocks which has been put aside for too long.  

Happy Quilting!

Texas Holding Pattern (Whitney, TX)

We have been very fortunate with timing and our Thousand Trail RV park membership.  In March, we managed to get a very nice shady site with full hook-ups and some privacy at Lake Whitney TT RV park.  We were lucky to get a site with sewer and 50 amp since there are not that many in this park, so we can use our own washer/dryer instead of the park's laundry room.

Under our contract agreement, we can only stay for three weeks at a time in one park.  Our plans were to move on to Bay Landing then to Texoma, TX before making our trek back to Oregon. 

Path to Lake Whitney

Before our three weeks were up, the lockdown was announced and some of our reservations were canceled.  We thought about making a fast move north, but there was also the problem of closed rest areas along with national and state parks.  Plus, there was the question of privately owned parks being closed to newcomers.  We decided to stay in Texas, but we were also worried about new reservations with Thousand Trails and getting to the new location before they closed for shelter-in-place orders.

That's when the Thousand Trails HQ offered to shelter-in-place all current campers.  They have done this several times since the US started the lockdown.  The staff here has been great in answering questions, offering to shop, and opening a small food bank for the park's campers.

Lake Whitney

We have been here for six weeks and are now extended thru the first week of May.  We plan to stay in Texas until late May when we hope to try again for our move north.

Blooming Indian Paintbrush

We could not have asked for a better location to spend our quarantine time. We walk every morning as long as there are no morning thunderstorms in the area.

Blue Bonnet

We have access to the lake along a couple of trails with fields of blooming wildflowers.  Such beautiful views!

Except for our walks and our once-every-1-to-2-week grocery shopping, we are not leaving the coach.  After 40+ years of thinking this is just another chore, I never thought I would get so excited about going grocery shopping.

The county we are in has a low count of Covid-19 confirmed, but we are still careful while shopping by wearing our masks and following the guidelines.  

I had trouble concentrating on any one thing for the first couple of weeks. I found it hard to read or watch TV without thinking 'well, they can't do that anymore', but I finally got into a routine that worked well for me.  Max was certainly accommodating by changing his nap time so he could get extra cuddles.

All the cats have been enjoying the extra time we are spending with them.  I believe they are more spoiled than ever before.  Dusty now demands attention when we wake up, time for bed, and before we can get on our laptops.  Even when we are outside, he expects us to talk to him and walk him around the site.

Can't you see that I'm using the laptop?  You'll have to wait!

On The Cutting Board
All the quilts that I was working on back in December were still works-in-progress until recently.  I finally finished the embroidery on the last two quilts and pulled out my table for a week's worth of layering, quilting, and binding.

I'm happy to report that along with my great-grandson's baby quilt, I have finished five more quilts!

Blake's Jungle by Rachel Newman

The three quilts on the right have the embroidered carousel horses and unicorns. But the bird quilt....well, I really did not think I would finish that one. It fought me the whole time. This pattern is called "Twitter" by Meags & Me, but I prefer calling it "Tweeters" due to all the cute birds.

The photos are not the best since I had to use our outdoor folding chairs to prop them on before I stored them away. I usually use the children's play area to hang the quilts for photo taking, but I won't be doing that anytime soon. There are times when our new 'normal' feels a little surreal.

Fenced off playground

Here's quilt #5. The last time I mentioned this project, I was having a hard time trying to figure out how to proceed. I decided for the first time to use fusible webbing and raw edges in a quilt.

After I finished the embroidering, I doubled all of the white fabric using fusible webbing. I then fused the double-layer to the black cat and used the button-hole stitch along the raw edges. I just hope it will hold up to a lot of washings. The cat's body and head were done with turn-under appliqué.

Once he was appliquéd to the quilt, he seemed a little hard to see. Outlining the cat with large white stitches helped, but from a distance, he still blends in.

I found a new way to take photos
of my quilts using two clothes hangers.

As you can see, Hitch was not impressed and wanted to know if it was time for dinner. He is just wasting away waiting for me to feed him.

whatever....where's my food?

Stay safe. Stay healthy.Happy Quilting!

Worldwide Quilting Day! (Whitney, TX) 21 march

  March 19 was the first day of Spring and with Spring comes hope.  

I am hoping I am finding you and your family members doing well during these uncertain times.  

Thanks to social media, I have many quilting friends living around the world.  So today, I thought I would take a break from all the news to celebrate Worldwide Quilting Day on March 21.  Quilt Alliance is celebrating National Quilting Day through their Facebook page.  They are asking for your stories and pictures.

And if you happen to run out of supplies for Quilting Day.....okay, stop laughing and get up off the floor.  You probably know this already, but just in case someone hasn't heard what some of the local shops are going to stay open and serve their customers.  I have seen quite a few local quilt shops offering curbside pick-ups.  Some are taking phone orders while others are offering both phone and online orders.  It warms my heart to see and hear how people are finding ways to work around our social distancing.

Last month, a friend of ours, not to mention, a brilliant quilter,  pointed out that we were staying in a park close to the Texas Quilt Museum.  Thank you Cathy! (right now, the link is only showing the museum's store)

Dan saw Cathy's suggestion and offered to take me to La Grange for the day!  Just a reminder, this was in February.

This is my first view of the inside surrounded by quilts above and on the walls.  Oh my!

This photo includes the museum's gift shop and nearby....

a Raffle quilt.

 "Home Is Where The Army Sends Us" by Kristin La Flamme  This one I can relate to with my husband being in the Air Force for 27 years with the many moves and relocating our family to new areas.

I love how she set up her fiber art homes inside a shopping cart.  

Below is another room displaying some unusual fiber art.  Yes, the one quilt next to the Lynx quilt is glowing.  My close-up did not come out. 😒

Mary Pal created "The Drifter" with cheesecloth on a black background.

Just look at the detail of wrinkles around his eye.  In case you are wondering what he is holding.  He is playing the harmonica.  I spent quite a bit of time staring at this one.

On the opposite wall, the empty fast food quilt caught my eye with all the wording in it.

"The American Still Life: The Weight of the Nation" by The Pixeladies (Kris Sazaki & Deb Cashatt).

The Pixeladies create their artwork with words and phrases cut from written articles that were collaged on paper, scanned and printed on fabric creating a wholecloth that is heavily quilted by machine.  Their statement is perfectly clear in this piece.  I wonder if they will create a quilt about what the world is facing this year.

The "Geometric" by Fumiko Nakayama used the traditional mola reverse appliqué.  She used the original techniques developed by the Guna people of Panama.  Her stitches are so tiny that I almost went cross-eyed trying to find them.

I am very envious of her perfectly round circles.  I have the hardest time keeping my fabric from getting pointy folds no matter how thin I trim my seams.  They say practice makes perfect.

I was pleasantly surprised to see Caryl Bryer Fallert-Gentry's "New Dawn".  I have been following Caryl for more than 10 years.  I find it fascinating the way she manages to make most of her fiber art look like it is always in motion.

The Phoenix is one of my favorites.  I love the spiraling flying geese, but getting a close-up look of the Phoenix's face and eye....oh my! 

If you are interested in seeing more of her work, she has several in her gallery online for viewing.

Two more photos of quilts in a third room.

There is a slide show on a continuous loop talking about different quilters that was quite interesting to watch.

We also spent some time walking around La Grange's downtown area....

viewing another beautiful and unique county courthouse.

 I especially liked the gargoyle staring down at the visitors as they walked towards the doors.   There was another one on the opposite side.

 We have moved to Lake Whitney, TX and will be here until April 5.  We have extended our stay in Texas a little longer after being notified that the Oregon State Parks are closed and our reservations have been canceled.  Of course, our travel plans can change if this situation improves.

Path in Colorado River TT park

In the meantime, we will take isolated walks around the park and keep our outings to early morning trips to the grocery stores.

On The Cutting Board

After visiting the Texas Quilt Museum, I went next door to a quilt shop and found the perfect backing for the Jungle quilt.  After washing the fabric, Hitch decided he needed to supervise my ironing and make sure I got all the wrinkles out.

Later, Hitch consulted with Dusty about how they liked the new quilt and the backing.

Dusty helped me with arranging the blocks for another quilt.  He was a very big help.

Dusty likes this quilt the best.  He is waiting for the birds to move.  Tweet! Tweet!

 By the way, the shoe on the bed happens to be Dusty's chew toy.  It was one of my shoes until Dusty claimed it.  I'm just glad he stopped chewing on my other shoes.  The stinker went through half my working shoes before we came up with a compromise.  He can have one pair of shoes, but he needs to leave the other shoes alone.  He has honored that promise since we left Albuquerque in 2009.  Such a good kitty!

One last photo of the Texas Blue Bonnets in the nearby fields.

So, what are you doing to stay busy?  Reading?  Creative projects?  Movie marathons!
Stay safe, stay healthy, and Happy Quilting!