Oregon Quilt Festival, 2025, Salem, Oregon

I will start out with the quilt that I picked as my favorite.  I'm sorry that one side is cut off.  The blocks were so perfect and it is my type of fabrics and blocks.

There were so many amazing quilts and I couldn't take pictures of them all.  

Rob Appell was one of the special speakers at the show and my friend, Sandy and I had our picture taken with him.

Here are  some house quilts - I love them!

My computer is giving me problems, so I'm going to close this post before I loose it.  I will post more pictures later.  I'm getting a new computer this week, so I will wait till it get it going before I do another post.  

Thanks for visiting.  There are more quilt shows coming up.  The Willamette Valley Quilters Guild, that I belong to is having a show in June.

 

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!!!

OUR YEARLY TRIP TO OREGON

I can't believe it's been about 3 week since I posted on my blog!  I have been super busy plus getting ready for our trip and tonight we are in Golden Valley, AZ for the night.  This morning, I got out my Dear Jane stuff to see where I stand.  It's been quite a while since I have done anything with it.  I have 16 blocks done and this morning I cut a few border triangles.  I had planned to work on a block tonight, but we got here too late.  Here is the counter in our camper where I can cut fabric.

The copy of the block I plan to paper piece next is on top of my book - maybe tomorrow morning if I get up early I can get it done?  I selected come fabric for it too.

As we were driving on I-40 through Arizona, I saw the sign for the Walnut Canyon National Monument and it wasn't far from the highway, so I asked (told?) DH that we should stop there so I could get my National Park Passport stamped and we could look around a little.

Apparently around 800 years ago, there were cliff dwellers living in the walls of the canyon.

From the highway, you would never know this was here.

Proof that I visited!

Here's our truck with the camper behind, but you can't really see our 5th wheel because of the old wagon in the foreground.  I liked this view because of the old wagon and also the mountains in the background.

This is memorial day weekend - a chance for us to remember the brave soldiers who defended our freedoms and the freedoms of others around the world.

VISIT WITH CHRISTINE LEFEVER

One of the highlights of my trip to Oregon (besides being with family) is my visit with Christine LeFever, a maker of dolls in early styles. I read about her in the February issue of Country Living magazine. From the magazine, I found her web site and from there I found her blog . I'm not sure where I got the nerve, but I emailed her and asked if I could visit to see how she makes the dolls. She graciously said "yes."
I went with my DIL & GD to visit her at her lovely home and she immediately made us feel comfortable. She showed us around and gave us a lot of interesting information about Oregon. Her house was built in the 1800's (I forget the year) at the end of the Oregon Trail. She has it decorated with antiques and it is wonderful! She makes the doll heads in a mold and the bodies out of cloth. She loves all things old. Unfortunately, some of the pictures I took were blurred, but the one above shows some of the doll heads waiting for bodies to be made for them. You can see some finished dolls at her web site and will know why she was picked to be featured in the magazine. I want to make some dolls also, but I'm sure they won't measure up to hers.

This picture below is a cute little table in the entry hall. I don't believe this doll is one she made.
The bed in her guest bedroom has a wonderful antique quilt on it.
Here's a picture of me and Christine in the guest bedroom with some of her collections.
This visit was such fun and I'm hoping that I can visit her again some time. Travelling out to Oregon by plane and seeing the rugged wilderness, I am amazed that people used to travel out there by wagon train. Those people were brave! It makes us seem rather wimpy, doesn't it?

Thanks, Christine, for the wonderful time!

BACK FROM OREGON

We just returned from a fabulous trip to Oregon to visit my BIL/SIL and son#1's family. Below is a pic of our son's house (built around 1890) which they moved into last summer. (Do you see the black cat)? The trees and flowers were beautiful! The pic above was taken while driving over Mt. Hood - we had to get a car with 4-wheel drive because of the snow. Sure was pretty!
I missed doing much blogging while there. However, I was able to do some shopping in quilt stores!! Below are some pictures of my purchases. The first one has some scraps from a neat shop in McMinnville, OR (Boersma's). They have a chest with scraps costing 50 cents per ounce. I purchased some pieces that I can use in eye spy quilts, etc.
They also had these Moda scrap bags for $9.99 with lots of strips. The strips are about 4" wide. I have gotten these near home also, but this bag seemed fuller!
The buttons are also from Boersma's in McMinnville. You can pick out buttons from a bin and put them into a cup for $1.50. My GD got 2 cups full and I got 1 cup! I also got the charm pack on the right from them. The other items below are from a quilt shop in Prineville OR, Bend, OR and Sisters, OR. I didn't buy too much, did I? I love the quilt shop in Sisters (The Stitchin' Post), but they have mostly more modern fabrics and I'm rather partial to reproductions.
In Prineville, my SIL & I went to an estate sale and I got 12 yards of quilting fabric for $9.00!!!! That's my kind of price. I also got these hankies - someday I'm going to figure out something to make with them. Anyone have any ideas? I've been collecting this type of hanky for a while.
Next post I'll tell you about a very special visit I had with a famous doll maker. I'll do that this weekend! It's good to be back home, but I'm not so sure I'm glad to be back at work. I need time to sew!!!!!