Geesh--Sometimes I HATE Change!!

Its been a few months since my last post--actually, longer than that because I tend to schedule posts way in advance. I'm not very good at sitting down to do this when I should (gee, bet you're surprised!)

We are in Cannon Beach, Oregon, at Ecola Lodge for our 16th wedding anniversary.  Isn't it beautiful--or it would be, if the sun were actually shining!

The plan was to do lots of hiking and checking things out; however, the weather is not cooperating. It rained and gusts of wind shook our cabin windows all night long. And its still going on outside. So perfect day to sit at my computer and update my blog while Dennis works on his stuff--we're waiting for the weather to improve. And then Google changed everything--took me hours to get into my blog again--thus the blog title!

More posts coming...as in almost immediately.

Dory

A Few Last Pics from my Quincy Trip

Just realized I didn't add the last few pics of my trip to Quincy...so here you are:

This is the black/white/red quilt finished. I added a red sashing and then the border. Its not quilted yet, of course, but at least the top is done.

I also worked on these blocks at the retreat, too. These are four of the six completed so far.

One of my customers was working on this Amish with a Twist quilt for me to bring home, quilt, and return it to her in time for Christmas. She got it to me the day before I left...and she got it back two days before Christmas! It should have been there sooner, but for some reason, it sat in the post office in Kent, Washington, for THREE days.  Needless to say, I was a bit stressed!!

And this is the dragonfly that someone found. She made the rounds onto various quilter's machines; however, no one was even frightened by the "big dead bug." Instead, when I got to my machine on the last day, I found her lying in her own little fabric bed with a pillow and a bed runner. Leave it to a group of quilters!! *grin*

When the retreat was over, I spent the night with my best friend, Cindy, in Quincy. The next day, another friend of ours, Lucia, came out to crochet while we sewed. It was a great day. We had beef brisket cooking in the oven and had the house pretty much to ourselves. Lucia was missing her usual walks, so she would ride the exercise bike periodically--while enjoying a glass of wine, of course. Isn't that what everyone does on their exercise bike?

Dennis arrived the next day and that was the end of the fun sewing trip. We spent two days pulling fence posts--not quite as much fun.

Dory

Port Gamble, WA

My sister, Barbara, was here for a week during May. One of the things she wanted to do was visit a quilt shop she'd seen in Quilt Sampler magazine. It was on Vashon Island, a place I'd never been to. We set out early one morning for our self-guided shop hop, en route to Island Quilter on Vashon. After a two hour drive and a very short ferry ride, we were there. You travel for approximately four miles on the main road before you get to "town" proper and Island Quilter is on that main drag.

It was a beautiful store with a ton of fabric. I would highly recommend visiting this store if you get the chance. They also have a gorgeous class room with mostly contemporary quilts hung all around. They had the quilt hanging that was in the issue of Quilt Sampler that featured them; it was beautiful. The staff at Island Quilter were terrific and even gave us a coupon to have lunch at the Hardware Store; excellent food and nary a tool in sight! <wink>

From there we headed to Bainbridge Island and Pine Needles quilt shop, the home McKenna Ryan Quilt Designs. That is the most beautiful store with McKenna's quilts all around. They offer classes and kits for sale. One kit was hanging that Barb had even done herself.

Last stop was Port Gamble and Quilted Strait. I'd been to Quilted Strait when it was located in Port Angeles, but this was my first visit to Port Gamble and Quilted Strait in its new location. I fell in love with Port Gamble; the town is very historic and they take great pride in that. We walked around the town cameras in hand, it was that cute.

Quilted Strait:

A fun quilt in their shop:

The shop used to be a stable!

We loved this church. Barb got some great pics of it; I only had my phone so this doesn't even do it justice.

It was such a fun day traveling all over western Washington with my sister. Initially I had planned to drive, but then Barb ended up having to chauffeur us around. She was a good sport about it even though that meant hours of driving just two days before her long trip home to Carson City. I think she's convinced to fly up next time and I love that there will be a next time. We sewed/quilted almost every day and threw in a few fun outings. Next trip, I'll have even more fun things to show her.

...and We're Back

We left mid-morning on Wednesday, heading for Quincy. By the time we reached Eugene, Dennis had had enough of driving in the pouring rain so we spent the night at a Motel 6. We were up and on the road early with the goal to arrive in Quincy in time for me to attend the monthly meeting of the Quincy Crazy Quilters.

We made it and I had so much fun at the guild meeting catching up with friends and customers. In fact, when I left, I had three customer quilts to bring back with me.

Friday it was still pouring, so we used that day to run our errands. We drove to Genesee and delivered hats that Dennis had embroidered for Sierra Rescue, then we continued on to Chester where I picked up three more quilts from two new customers.  I'm so loving the fact that even though I've moved, my formerly local customers are still using me. They've all become my friends and I don't want to lose that.

Friday night was dinner at Pangaea with friends. Dennis has embroidered their logo on sweatshirts and screen-printed it on hoodies.  They're great people and they make a lovely Spicy Salmon Chipotle Burger!! (Can you tell what I had??) Saturday it stopped raining and was beautiful out.

 We loaded up

and headed into town for dinner with friends. We got back home to the power being out and woke up Sunday morning to snow.

The scenery on the way home included the Craggy Mountains just out of Yreka.

 And Mt. Shasta

We were entertained on the way home by the many positions Dash took trying to get comfortable. He was good for quite a few laughs!

Its good to be back! The sun has been shining brightly and I've been trying to take advantage of it between working on taxes and quilts!

Dory

On The Road Again...

Heading up to Washington again....hoping for more beautiful views like this one:

However, we probably won't be quite so lucky. Knowing Washington the way we do, I doubt we'll have the lovely sunshine that we had on our last trip up.

Dory

And More Vacation

Yep...still on vacation and loving it. We won't head for home until oh-dark-thirty on Monday.  So's you don't think I fell off the face of the earth, here are some photos for your viewing pleasure.  This is my view every morning just before sunrise.  We enjoy it on the porch with our coffee.

And while we drink coffee, the boys are enjoying their vacation, too.

I think these birds are Cormorants, but I'm really not sure. This was just a cool picture of them on the dock in front of the house next door.

This one is of a house by our friends, Don and Annie.  I love this house!!

Another view shot. Often these mountains aren't in view because of the clouds. When they are, they're gorgeous.

This was a photo I took while we were up at Hurricane Ridge. On a clear day up there, you can see across the Strait of San Juan de Fuca and into Canada.

I've been working on Rachel's wedding quilt while we've been here. I'm almost ready to put it together; she may actually have a wedding gift on time!!

Dory

Vacation!!!

This is my little sewing corner in the most adorable cabin overlooking Sequim Bay in Washington State. We're out on the peninsula staying at a friend's cabin, since we still haven't erected the yurt on ours. And now we may not...but that's for another post.

I'm working on Rachel's wedding quilt and admiring the view. It's so lovely here!!

I have no idea what the Coast Guard was doing with the buoy, but it was fun watching them work

Bye from Washington!!

Dory

Can you say "Ahhhhhhhhhh"?

Here's pictures of Cash and Dash when we brought them home. Cash is almost 8 weeks old and Dash is almost 6 months:

Here's more...Cash is growing:

And here's the most recent. Its so amazing to watch him grow in photos! They really enjoyed their first trip to the ocean.

This one is my favorite...I love the tails.

Rumors of my demise....

Have been greatly exaggerated! But yes, in case you haven't noticed, I've been away for a bit.

After the quilt show, I was off to Phoenix to watch my "grand" niece graduate. Is that what you call your niece's daughter?? Christy, the niece, was born when I was 12 and people used to always mistake her for my daughter. Our baby pictures are very similar, too--except hers are all in color. Breanna is the grand-niece that graduated from a school with 600 students. Boy was that exciting--not. However, getting to see everyone was fun and it was so warm there. The day I flew home in the early morning it was in the 80s; I landed in Reno in the afternoon and it was 39!

From Reno, we headed to Walnut Creek to help my oldest step-daughter move to a very cute place just outside of Sebastopol and only about 5 minutes from where one of my brother's lives. Hannah found a very cute little place on 20 acres. There is a main house; then both the rentals are below the main house and actually share the same deck.  At one point, they were a house and garage, now they're both houses. Hannah is in what used to be the garage. Its a lovely location and exactly what she wanted. Now she can be a "country mouse" again and have a garden.

More posts and quilts to follow....

Empty Spools Seminar with Sally Collins

Empty Spools is an expensive vacation, but if you're spending it with Sally Collins and a good friend, its priceless! Sally is such a fantastic teacher and so nice...hard to believe that anyone could honestly be that nice, but she is. Classes start at 9 a.m., you get a break for lunch and they're over at 4. Last year, my teacher strictly adhered to those times. Not Sally. She was in class before breakfast and stayed every night until way past 9 p.m.

This was the quilt that our class was based on. However, before we even started, we had a basic drafting lesson and then we all changed her block to whatever interpretation we wanted.

We made mock-ups of our block, created templates, auditioned fabric and then finally pieced it together. Sally gave lots of instruction about accurate piecing, pressing and the perfect 1/4" seam. Due to my lack of planning, it didn't take long before I realized that the fabrics I'd brought were all wrong. This quilt needed "serious" fabrics and I had grabbed brights.

First "draft":

Second:

See what I mean? It needs serious fabrics, like maybe some beautiful greens, grays, whites and a little blue like the colors of our meadow after a snow storm. One of the best parts about all of this was the experience. I will redraft my block, lose the star in the middle, and start over again. Another terrific benefit: the new friends I made there.

This was the view from our classroom. We were in the back of the main hall with this lovely view of the ocean. Our room was close by and had a fireplace! Every day the cleaning staff put in one of those bags you just light and watch burn, and every night we did just that.

This is one of Sally's quilts. Looks like your normal lonestar, right? Wrong!! The diamonds in this lonestar are only 1/2 inch (yes, inch!) in size. 

Vacation Finale

While I'm glad to be home, I had a terrific time in Oklahoma! As promised, here are some pictures and the story of my vacation.  My sister, Donna (who refused to pose properly!)

turned 60 in September of this year and threw herself a party in July...in Phoenix (her daughter lives there). I had planned on attending the party, but circumstances with Dennis' mom caused a last minute change. I had a free SW ticket, so I called and change my travel plans to fly to OK in November. I love SW; it only cost me $2 for the change! Turns out, it was way more fun hanging out for three days than having to share her at a party would have been.

This is my sister's house. It is probably the cutest house I've seen in a long time and reminds me of the cabin we stay at in WA. She's painted every room a different color and its just so open. I love it.  Outside, right off the deck, is a river; her neighbors are set farther back, so you'd never know they were there.

This is the view from inside; the plants in the window are usually out on the deck, but since its winter, they're inside now.  Its a veritable jungle in her house this time of year!!

Its such a relaxing and comfortable house filled with quilts I've made for her over the years.  She has more of my quilts than I do!!  Here are a couple (okay, so they are small and pre-longarm, but still.....) There are two others, although one of them is small like these. The other is her birthday quilt...pictures are here.

And this is Lucy. She's a Cairn Terrier and she's so cute!! She helped with my puppy withdrawal and even slept with me two of the four nights I was there. She has a routine of going to the neighbors to visit; they love her too.

Friday morning, first thing, my sis was going to make coffee--or the brown water she usually makes that passes for coffee. She asked how many scoops for a 12-pot coffeepot...two??  No, no, no...six scoops later she was panicking that her pot would clog; then she tasted the coffee. I think she may become a coffee convert!

I already told you about visiting the Beauty College for a pedicure...lovely shade of green, eh??

Then the movies on Friday night...you really do have to see Unstoppable! Its so exciting!

Saturday we went to War Eagle Mills and Eureka Springs in Arkansas. War Eagle Mills is an old mill site where they ground flour, etc. They have a really cute restaurant on the third floor, a gift shop on the second and food items to buy on the first. We ate there on our way to Eureka Springs (beans and cornbread, yum!) and then headed to Eureka Springs. Here is a photo of the town. The streets are narrow and steep and the buildings are so unique. I loved it...no quilt shop though. Weird!!  They did have one of those stores that sells pre-made quilts with quilting that is very suspect. Then I found one that sold Amish quilts; those were beautiful...and expensive.

Sunday we relaxed after our 2 mile walk on this dam. Its a mile from end-to-end, so we parked, walked across and back. Lucy came with us; but about 3/4s of the way across, her little 3" legs were tired, so we carried her the rest of the way. On the way back, instead of carrying her, we stopped frequently so she could rest those little legs and I could take photos.

Donna cooked breakfast when we got back and then that evening, we went to the small town of Wagner, where Kenny, my nephew lives with  his wife and step-kids. We traveled in style in this car; it's a 1939 (I think) Ford something. Very cute and very much fun--weird though because it has no seatbelts; apparently seatbelts were invented after that year.




Kenny and Rachel live in a really nice house; Kenny loves critters, so they have four dogs (three of which were rescues). This is Penelope...she's part Great Dane and adorable. Penelope is the largest, Molly is some sort of cow dog (Aussie/Heeler cross), then there's Snowball who is basically a white, fluffy small mop-type dog and Clyde, the Weaner dog.  Its quite the menagerie!!

I made it home Monday evening after a long day of flying, planes breaking down, etc.  I'm glad to be back, but I miss hanging out with my sister...weird, eh??