MY SIL'S QUILTS

We've been having a wonderful time visiting my DH's brother, Hugh, and wife, Glenda, in Prineville OR. Glenda's mother was a prolific quilter and I took pictures of some of her quilts, as well as some of Glenda's other quilts.

This is a Cousin quilt pieced by Glenda's great-grandmother, Adeline Griffin around the 1930's, names of first cousins embroidered by Grace Griffin Walradt (Glenda's grandmother). What a treasure!

This dresden plate quilt was made by Mary Walton Ballard, (Glenda's great-grandmother), made prior to 1920. Quilt given to Inez Couvoisier (Glenda's mother's cousin) who had it quilted. It looks brand new!

This one is the quilt that Glenda's mother made for their wedding. It is all hand pieced and quilted (just about all of her quilts were).

This sunbonnet sue quilt was given to Glenda when she was a child, also made by her mother.
Grandmother's flower garden.
Glenda asked her mother to make her a crazy quilt, so this is her favorite.

VISIT WITH HUMBLE QUILTS BLOGGER

Yesterday, my SIL and I had the chance to visit with Lori of Humble Quilts. I first started following her blog over a year ago and then I won a giveaway from her. We have commented back and forth a lot since then because we have similar tastes in quilting.

What a treat to be able to visit her home and see her quilts first hand!! Thank you so much, Lori! Here is a picture of Lori and me standing in front of one of her wall hangings. She had her home decorated for July 4th, so had a lot of patriotic quilts out. I thought I took more pictures than I did, but you can always go to her blog and see lots of them there.

Some of my pictures weren't real clear, but I wanted to post this one anyway. It's all out of reproduction fabrics and I love it.
This flag quilt, below, is one that I had seen on her blog before and I really wanted to see it in person. She said that a friend made it for her. I would love to make one like it someday!
Here's another flag quilt for Independence Day!
In one of the bedrooms, she has a cabinet with lots of quilts folded.
This quilt is one that she said she and some other quilters designed. It is gorgeous and I'm sorry I don't have all of it in the picture. She said it was published in McCall's quilting magazine (I think).
Lori is such a wonderful quilter! I hope you will visit her blog so you can see more of her quilts and get a little more inspired. After yesterday and a quilt show today, believe me, I am really inspired to get more quilting done!! I will post pictures from the quilt show tomorrow.

SISTERS, OR

This was the view we saw when we were on our way west from Idaho to Sisters, OR. The Three Sisters mountain peaks were in the distance. (At least, I think these are the three sisters - if not, 2 of them are and the other one is nearby). We are back in Sisters again, but I won't be going to the quilt shop this time. We are on our way to my BIL's and are just passing through - stopping at McDonald's for lunch. It is another beautiful day and we enjoy seeing the mountain peaks again.

It was sad leaving our son's home after being there for 2 1/2 weeks. It was a wonderful visit

THE QUILTED HILL

I was able to shop at The Quilted Hill Quilt Shop in Yamhill, OR yesterday. It is located out on a farm in the middle of the most gorgeous countryside you could imagine.

The picture below is the view looking out from the door of the quilt shop! Can you imagine? I have been to a few other shops as well, but didn't have my camera handy. If you ever get to Oregon, you have to go to this shop!!

LOVING OREGON

We are still in Oregon at DS#1's house and loving it! It is warmer today - in the 70's. 50's tonight! I just checked weather in Texas and it is in the 90's. Soon we will be returning to the heat.

This waterfall was at Silver Falls State Park near Salem, OR. We went on a hike and saw several gorgeous waterfalls. The hike was rather rough on DH (he has some breathing problems and there was too much uphill hiking for him). I don't think we'll be doing much more hiking on this trip!

This is the quilt I gave my GD for her 18th birthday. She likes it!
These 2 close-up blocks show the quilting on it. I was pretty happy at the way the quilting came out. Elaine gave me some really good pointers on how to do it, which really helped! Thanks, Elaine!

This quilt will be given to our niece next week in Wyoming - her baby is due in July.

I haven't been able to post lately because at DS's home, he has an internet safety network (for the kids) and we couldn't use the wi-fi without him making changes, etc. I'm at a cafe today. Hopefully, I will be able to post again soon.

ENJOYING COOL WEATHER

We made it to Dayton, OR and are enjoying the cool weather! I'm not able to add pictures to my blog right now, but will try to do so soon. On our way across eastern Oregon, we had clear blue skies and views of several snow capped mountains. It was gorgeous!

We attended our grandkids' recital, our GS's confirmation on Sunday and his graduation from 8th grade on Monday. The next big event is GD's birthday when I will give her the quilt I just finished on the way here. I'll post a picture of it after her birthday.

So far I have visited 2 quilt shops!

ARCHES NATIONAL PARK

Today, we toured Arches Nation Park near Moab, UT.

I want you to see the nice area for cutting fabrics or ironing that I have in the camper. It also works good for fixing meals. Most of the time, however, it has food, keys, phones, etc. on it.

I put these pictures on in the reverse order that I had planned to. This one shows the hill we climbed up (from the top) to be able to take the delicate arch picture.
Here is the delicate arch - the most famous one from the park. Can you see the people in the picture? They look like ants. From the top of the hill that we climbed, it is still quite a ways away. We were too exhausted to go any further.
This is me when I reached the top of the hill. The altitude is about 5,000 feet, and we were very out of breath going uphill. We wanted to do it so we could show our kids that we could!
This is a picture of a balancing rock that was amazing. The only bad part of the day was the heat. We didn't think it would be as hot as it was - we were trying to get away from heat on this trip. But, by tomorrow, we will be in Idaho, and it should be a lot cooler. Yea!!!
Thank goodness for air conditioning in the camper!!!!

GETTING READY FOR TRIP

Tomorrow morning we leave on our trip to Oregon. We'll be gone about 5 weeks, spending time with our DS & family, BIL, Arches National Park, Yellowstone National Park, etc. Today we load the camper.

Liri at Liriopia's Legacy sent me this Texas stitchery when she sent my blocks for the block swap and I wanted to make it into a little wall hanging. I came across some scraps of Texas fabric (which I had looked for and couldn't find), so I decided to make it up. I quilted right across the embroidery and it turned out OK! I'm going to hang it in the camper!

Western fabric on the back.
Well, I better get busy packing. I'll try to post some pictures along the way!

Remembering our veterans and service members over the weekend too.

PACKAGE FROM AUSTRALIA!

Today I received a package sent by Ann from Australia! It contained 2 more blocks for the block swap, a box of candy and an Australian quilting magazine. I love the blocks (especially the border on the red and blue one)!

Look at this box of chocolates!! Thanks, Ann! I was afraid they would be melted, but they were fine.
In between getting ready for our next trip, I've been making string blocks. I started by making 2 per day, but upped it to 4 per day because they go so fast. So far, I have 34 blocks! I love these blocks and can't wait to put them together!
I also made some more of these Scrappity-D0-Dah blocks. I started making these in January and haven't done much with them. I now have counted them and tied 100 in one bunch and 50 in another bunch, then made some more. I will need 360 for a queen size quilt. Only about 200 more to go!!

ANOTHER FINISH

First of all, I received another set of blocks for the block exchange. I have now received half of the blocks that I will get! This set came all the way from London, England from Breezy Bree. Thanks so much!

Below is the quilt that I finally finished - after having started it almost 2 years ago. It is called "Polka Dot Girls" and I am entering in the Ellis County Quilters quilt show in Midlothian, Texas. The quilt show will be held July 16 and 17.
This quilt has 18 embroidered blocks, which I really enjoyed doing.


Here is my stack of quilts that I will finish on the trip by hand sewing the binding to the back of each. I will have one more added to this, for a total of five!

We decided that we will be leaving on Sunday, May 30, and will take a full week to get to Dayton, OR. On the way we plan to spend a couple nights at Arches National Park, in Moab, Utah. We will be away from home for at least a month this time, so this week we are getting everything ready to go.

MORE BLOCKS, ETC.

Saturday I received these blocks and an ornament from Marsha. Thanks for the awesome blocks! This is almost like Christmas!

Today I received a package from Liri. These blocks are gorgeous and I got treats as well. I love the Texas embroidery! I can't wait to see how this quilt is going to come out!
I ran out of thread for the quilt I was quilting on, so I took a break and decided to work on a new purse.
I received the batik fabric in a giveaway from Barbara in American Samoa and added a couple more pieces to it. I love the way it turned out!
I have been wanting to try strip piecing for a while and when I saw that DH had put a phone book in the recycle bin, I decided to start! I saw the instructions on Quiltville. DH cut the pages to 8 1/2" for me. It didn't take long to do two of these 8 1/2" blocks. If I do two per day, I will have lots of blocks in no time and will have used up some scraps! We'll see if I can get a few more finished before we leave for Oregon.
I'm getting some hand work projects ready for our trip so I'll have things to work on while DH drives. I am sewing the handles for these baskets onto the fabric by machine, but they still need to be hand sewn on the other side. There will be 80 baskets and I think I've done about 10, so that is 70 handles to be sewn! Then they can be sewn together to make the baskets.
I had to return to the doctor and am now on another session of antibiotics for my ear infection. This is the first one I have ever had. Aren't I kind of old for one?

ANOTHER WEEK

I can't believe it's been a week since I posted! Yesterday I received 2 more blocks from my block swap. The shades of blue are gorgeous! Thanks Joanne! This is so much fun!!!

These are my purchases from the quilt show last week. I bought the Quilt Sampler magazine, which is one of my favorites. It comes out twice a year and features 10 (this time it was 11) quilt shops around North America. It's fun to "visit" the shops via the magazine and try to find ones that I can actually visit.
I also bought this Benjamin Bunny panel to make either a book or a baby quilt from.
I found out Monday night at my quilters guild meeting that our local quilt shop is closing at the end of the month. Boo Hoo!! That is such a shame, but they are victims of the economy. I guess I should have bought more fabric there! Hee Hee! Anyway, on Tuesday, I went shopping there because everything was at least 50% off. So that part was good.

I have been practicing my free motion quilting a lot this week. See my practice piece below. I have a DVD by Patsy Thompson - Fast & Free - that I have watched quite a bit. Then, I have received lots of help and encouragement from Elaine in Nebraska. She's the one that recommended Patsy Thompson DVDs and I have seen her work on her blog. We have emailed back and forth, and with her encouragement, I am slowly improving my quilting skills on my domestic sewing machine (DSM).
I am working on a twin size quilt now and won't be showing it for a while, but I am pretty happy with how it is turning out. Patsy Thompson recommends spray basting, so I tried that this time and it is really nice to not have pins to deal with. I will post it sometime next month.

Have a nice weekend everyone!