A PARADE, RODEO AND LITTLE QUILTS

Over the weekend we went to visit DH's brother and our DIL in central Oregon.  There was a parade and a rodeo, not to mention a quilt show!  On the way there we stopped in Sisters and I went into The Stitchin' Post.  Didn't buy anything, but it was fun to look around to see what they have.  I also didn't take any pictures in the quilt show.  Bad me.

The parade was on Saturday morning and we saw lots of Rodeo Princesses from different counties.

I didn't take any pictures at the rodeo - or I should say that the ones I took didn't turn out because we were in the last row of the stands, way up high.  But on the way home, we stopped to take a picture of Mount Washington.

Mount Washington

 Last week I was reading Kathie's blog (Inspired by Antique Quilts) and she asked if she had inspired anybody to make a postage stamp quilt.  I have a small basket overflowing with 1 1/2" strips and squares, so I got it out and decided to make some 4-patches.  I set them on point for either small doll quilts - or I might make them to hang on the back of some chairs.  Be sure to check out Kathie's June 24 post about the postage stamp quilt she is making.

What will I work on this week?  Maybe I'll make a couple more doll quilts or I could work on my Dear Jane blocks.  Wednesday is the inspection of the house we are buying.  I can't wait to see it again!

GOOD NEWS, DEAR JANE BLOCKS AND CHERRIES

First, the good news!  We found a house, made an offer and it was accepted!!!  The bad news is that we can't move in until the middle of August because there are renters in the house and they have to get 30 days notice, so with some extra time thrown in there for what I don't know, we are supposed to close on August 14.  The house has 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and a one car garage and is a duplex, but is a very nice one and in a super nice neighborhood.  We are definitely downsizing, but we will make it work.  Luckily, we sold a lot of our furniture and stuff.

I couldn't believe how many closets it has.  Besides the normal closets in bedrooms, it has at least 4 (maybe 5) closets in the hallway.  One is a broom closet and the other 3 are linen-type closets.  One is already designated for quilting along with one of the bedrooms and it's regular closet which is quite large.  I'm determined to have a design wall this time - big enough for a large quilt.  I'll need it for the log cabin quilt for sure if I want to get those blocks sewn together correctly.  There is also a pantry in the kitchen!  The kitchen is about 1/4 the size of the kitchen in my old house, but then, it's way bigger than the kitchen in the camper, so it will seem big to me after living in the camper another 6 weeks.

So, until August 14, I will plan to do as much sewing with the fabric I have as I can.  We plan to take a trip to the coast too.

Here are a couple more Dear Jane blocks that I made.  I was happy that this first one wasn't as hard as it looked.  It really is pretty square - the sides kept sticking up when I took the picture.  The fabric I used for both of these blocks is from the "scrap bin" at Common Threads in Waxahachie, TX.  I love to go there and dig through the scraps to fill up a baggie for just $2.00!  Maybe I can go there when we go to pick up our furniture that's in storage and can get some more.  Do you think DH will let me?

A-11

 I'm getting better at paper piecing, but none of my blocks are "perfect."  And that's fine with me!  I'm glad to be getting them made!

BR-2

Our son's house has 2 cherry trees, so my GS and I picked as many as we could - he did the tree climbing - and we made 2 cherry pies.  He pitted the cherries and I made the pie crust.  One pie went into the freezer for when DS/DIL return from Europe and one is half eaten.  Yummy!  That's the first time I ever made a cherry pie from fresh cherries!

If you look close you can see some cherries on the tree.

I hope everyone has a great weekend and has some time to do some sewing!

LOG CABIN BLOCKS FINISHED!

I finished the required number of log cabin blocks (360) to make a queen size quilt - if my figuring is accurate!  I can't start putting it together yet, though, because most of the blocks are in storage.  I plan to lay it out in the barn raising pattern - anyway, I think that's what it is called.  I don't have any quilting books with me right now.  It starts out like this and continues like this.

After I finished the LC blocks, I spent some time quilting on my basket quilt.

Today I decided to work on Dear Jane.  I spent the morning prepping 6 blocks and picked out fabric for 3 of them.  Picking out the fabric is the hardest part of prepping.  And I don't have all my fabric with me either, of course.

A-12

 Both of these are paper pieced.

TR-3

I think that will be all the sewing for me today.  I'll be fixing home made pizza for supper soon.  

GIFTED QUILTS

I gave two of my recent quilt finishes since we came to Oregon.  Last night I gave the anniversary quilt to my DS and DIL for their 25th anniversary.  You can see the love birds kissing while wrapped in the quilt below.  This morning we took them to the airport for their anniversary trip to England, France and Scotland!  It's hard to believe they have been married that long!

As I had mentioned, our DGS just graduated from high school and will be going to college on an academic and music scholarship.  Below you can see him playing the piano.  He doesn't want his face to appear on my blog, so I'm showing you this view.

Here he is wrapped up in the quilt that I made for him.

We're still looking for a house…...

LOG CABIN BLOCKS

I've been working on my log cabin blocks this week and am almost finished with them.  I figured that I need 360 of them and by my last count, I am lacking 9 blocks.  It won't take long to get those finished.

Stack of almost 100 blocks.

Friday I stopped at a fund raising garage sale and saw these blocks - couldn't resist buying them.  I put them up for sale on my Etsy shop.

It doesn't look like we will get the house we made an offer on, so we have been looking at more houses.  There is a possibility in one of them, but we are still looking.

HOMELESS IN OREGON

Well friends, I am about to reveal our plan to shock our kids (3 grown sons and their families).  We have talked about moving to Oregon for years and I frankly got tired of talking about it.  We finally decided to "just do it!"  We sold our house (closed on it May 20), had 2 sales to get rid of things, packed the rest, placed it into storage to retrieve when we find a house and left as planned on May 22.  It all took about a month, except for one garage sale that we had earlier, and it included a quick trip to Florida, to see Abby graduate from kindergarten.

For some strange reason (being ornery, maybe?) we decided not to tell our kids that we had sold the house until we arrived in Oregon.  We wanted to tell our oldest son and family when we were all together, so we had to wait a few days because our DIL was busy helping a friend of hers, but last night we shocked the daylights out of them when we told them that we had sold the house and were not going back to Texas!  Our DS kept saying, "What?", "What?" with his mouth hanging open.  Our 2 grandchildren  jumped up and down (at least one of them did), we all hugged, and DS couldn't believe it - as we had been talking about it for years and even had looked at houses on other trips.

Saturday was GS's high school graduation and Thursday night we went to an awards ceremony where it was announced that he is the class salutatorian!  His GPA was 3.89.  He got a stole (?) for being in the National Honor Society and 2 rope/tassel things to wear with his cap and gown.  He also got a medal for being the salutatorian and several certificates for excelling in different things.  We are very proud of him, to say the least!  I'm making potato salad for the celebration barbecue after the ceremony.

Here is what we will be living in while we look for a house:

Our 29 foot 5th wheel, except we are parked in DS's driveway (not in Gallup, NM as in the picture) and have unhooked it from the truck.  I'll take a picture after I rearrange it somewhat so I can set my Featherweight on a different table and leave it there so that anytime I want to sew it will be ready.  Between looking for a house, etc.  I've been working on my log cabin quilt in between other things and almost have enough blocks for a queen size quilt.  The blocks measure 5 1/4" unfinished with 1/2" finished logs made with all reproduction fabrics from stash.  This has been my travel project for a few years.  I decided to make it when I met with Beth in the Chicago area either 3 or 4 years ago and I saw this quilt in a quilt shop that she took me to.

OK, here are a couple pictures of how I arranged the sewing area.  As you enter the door of the 5th wheel, the table is right in front of you with my Janome sewing machine on it.  I decided that since I had it with me, I might as well use it.  I've been doing a little quilting on my basket quilt.  There are some boxes beyond the table containing some of our household goods.

This view shows it a little better.  Do you see the American flag to the left?  Love gave that to me.  Now, I can leave my sewing machine set up and not have to move it every time we eat.  We usually eat breakfast and lunch in the camper and then eat supper with our son's family.

Here's a picture of their house, which was built around 1882.  You can't see our camper parked in the drive way because it's behind the house.

We've been looking at houses and may have found one to buy, but will wait until we know for sure.  We can't believe we are actually here to stay!!!

YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK

Caution!  No quilty pictures in this post!

On Friday we went to Yosemite National Park, wore ourselves out hiking and took lots of pictures, of which these are just a few!  It was a beautiful and perfect day for these activities.  It took 1 1/2 hours to get from where we were camping in Oakhurst, CA through the winding roads and gorgeous scenery to the Yosemite Valley.

Our first stop, before we even got to the Valley was Bridal Veil Falls.

Cliff near Bridal Veil Falls

 Of course, the pictures don't do justice to the amazing sites.  The water falls look like tiny drips in the photos, when in fact they are hundreds of feet high and you can hear the water thundering over the cliff before you can see it.

Bridal Veil Falls

We hiked to the  lower Yosemite Falls and took this picture which shows both the upper and lower falls from the trail.

Yosemite Falls

 The picture of El Capitan was taken from the look out area as you enter the Yosemite Valley.  What a site!

El Capitan

On the way to the Mariposa Grove, where the sequoia trees are, we saw some deer.

Deer near the Grizzly Giant

The Grizzly Giant is the largest and oldest tree in the Mariposa Grove.  The hike to see it was up hill on gravel, not as nice a trail as to the water falls, but we made it!

Grizzly Giant, the largest sequoia tree in the park

The Grizzly Giant and me

We ate lunch outside a deli and when I was eating a cookie, I was looking away at something and all of a sudden a squirrel jumped up on the table and licked my cookie!  I yelled and pounded on the table and he ran away.  The nerve!  I had to throw the rest of that cookie away, but luckily, I had another one.

On our way north, we drove on a road that didn't look very winding on the map, but in reality, it was not a road we would have gone on if we had known better!  It went up over a mountain with lots of switchbacks and curves with no guard rails.  The road looked new, but maybe that is because it isn't very well travelled.  We didn't see any other cars or trucks for a long time and no ranches or homes either.  We were really out in the boonies.  But, the road was good and DH is an experienced trucker with over a million miles under his belt, so he handled it very well.  We were both glad when we got to the freeway!!

We're now in Oregon and will get to our destination, DS's home, tomorrow!  BTW, I have done some sewing along the way, even some hand stitching!

Happy stitching and traveling to you!