Home again, home again, jiggety jig!

Last word you had was that we had been stranded after setting off for Oregon and had ended up coming back home in a tow truck.
The next day we learned it would be a long repair job on our van (still isn't done), so we rented a vehicle and headed to Oregon again that afternoon.
Spent lots of time in the car working on this.

 

Stars in the Garden

One of our first stops was in Bend, where I had the great pleasure of meeting up with Randy (Barrister's Block blog) for lunch. We talked and laughed and felt like we had always been friends.

Randy is a very caring, kind woman--and lots of fun!

Three Sisters in the background

The Dee Wright Observatory

We couldn't resist stopping to climb this.

Our objective was to get to Eugene to spend time with this little gal--and her parents, of course.










We also took a couple of hikes to LOTS of these.

Upper Proxy Falls

On the Sweet Creek Trail--one of many Falls

At the beach below the Heceta Lighthouse

We spent a few hours at the coast...

Heceta Head Lighthouse

...and visited this.

Bob's Red Mill Whole Grain Store, Restaurant and Bakery

On the way home we stopped off here to stock up on gluten free grains and have lunch in the restaurant.

Mt. Hood in the background

And we stretched our legs here.









When opportunities presented themselves, I stopped in at quilt shops and accumulated this.

Four shops in all--Quiltworks in Bend, The Stitchin' Post in Sisters, Piece by Piece in Eugene, and The Gathering Place in Rupert, ID.

We arrived home Friday afternoon, and after unpacking and settling in, I finished the quilting on the little corner basket blocks and got the binding stitched on while watching the Olympic opening ceremonies .

Now it is ready for some hand stitching to get the back of the binding sewn down. This will be small quilt finish #41 for this year!!

Had a wonderful time in Oregon--looking forward to future visits. But it is also "good to be back home again" (I feel like launching into a John Denver song here).
Until next time,
Janet O.

Generous Bloggers

It has been my good fortune to become acquainted with so many good people among this unique breed  known as quilt bloggers. Several examples follow.
I have shared a little bit in the past about my youngest grandson, Ben, who was diagnosed last year with Dravet Syndrome.

What a sweet face, even when it is smeared with ice cream.

It is a rare, severe seizure disorder that doesn't respond well to current treatment options. After receiving the diagnosis my daughter jumped into high gear and quickly put together a fund raiser to help collect money for research. I donated a quilt to the first fund raiser, held last August, but lamented on my blog that I didn't have another quilt ready to donate for the second fund raiser in September. That is when Randy, of Barrister's Block blog (and Sow-Along fame) generously offered to send a quilt for the second event. I was blown away, but as I have come to know Randy better I see that this is just her nature. You can see her donated quilt here. She was such a blessing, and continues to be a dear friend. (This reminds me, now I need to get the latest Barrister's Sow-Along blocks made.)
For this year my daughter was thinking she would not be doing the same kind of fund raiser, so I was not concerned that I didn't have a quilt prepared for the August event. But her other option didn't work out and it was back to the original plan. I was trying to figure out a quick quilt that I could sew up and get quilted in time and just mentioned that fact in an email to my good blogging friend, Doniene. The next thing I knew she was emailing that she felt impressed to donate a top for me to quilt and that would relieve some of the stress of the deadline. She very graciously (that's how she does everything) sent a top she had recently put together from blocks she had won in her guild. Here it is as I had it spread on my living room floor for marking and basting. Words can't express my thanks, Doniene.

I've mentioned several times that this will be the first bed-size quilt Gidget and I have tackled together. I've been pretty apprehensive about it. So I chose to use stencils. After finding the ones I needed I marked the quilt and pinned each block as it was marked. Next I warmed up on a practice sandwich. I stitched over the design 3 or 4 times. 

Then I put the design on the center of the table topper I pieced and never quilted last March, and stitched over it.

You can almost see the stitching. : )

Finally, I could avoid it no longer. Gidget had to get serious about this. I put the needle to the cloth. I must say that trying to situate a queen-size quilt is a whole different story from quilting minis and table runners. My shoulders and arms were tired and achy after just the first couple of blocks. I forced my way through 6 blocks before resting. There are 25 whole blocks and I just finished the fifth one. I salute those of you who quilt this size quilts on a DSM with 7 to 9 " harp space. How do you do it?

While on the subject of generous bloggers, Teresa has loaned me her Marti Michell templates to ease the process of cutting out my Ramblin' Rose Meets Jamestown (aka Random Roses in Jamestown). I already had 7 blocks finished and now I have cut three of the remaining 5. If I could stay home for a whole day sometime I would be finished cutting the other two. This is what I have so far, with the most recently cut blocks residing on the design boards at the bottom. Thanks, Teresa, it has been so much nicer to cut the blocks with the stencils.

Another kind gesture came from Sandi. I offered her some KT strips and in return she sent two bags full of lovely batik scraps. The bag in the photo contains HSTs. I've got the strips all sorted. Aren't they gorgeous? Batiks are so not my usual color/design comfort zone, but I can't get enough of them! Thanks for the wonderful bag of goodies, Sandi! Ideas are brewing, but time is too limited right now. I will share when I start putting things together.

Until then, keep stitching!
Janet O.