Memorial Rhodie

I did some digging and found the picture of Mom's memorial rhodie, Barmstedt. I might have come closer than I originally thought to matching the color.

Upon further reflection, I'm either going to put my inked rhodie on a tote bag or a pillow for Dad's couch....decisions, decisions. But first I really must get ready for quilting, I'm already running late. I don't think I'm EVER going to get used to quilting on Mondays instead of Tuesdays....

Fun With Ink

Today myself and 2 other QB's took a class using Tsukineko Inks. The class was based on lovely patterns designed by Enchanted Valley Arts. Being the rebel that I am, I chose not to do the pillow as designed in the pattern. And, being the scatterbrain that I am, I naturally left the first pattern that I had purchased at home. Oh well, I didn't REALLY want to do that design anyway. So, instead, I purchased the pattern I had originally wanted to do, but which had been sold out at the time. Barb, the instructor was super fun and extremely knowledgeable. It was a FUN class!

I'm not quite sure what this will end up as or in. I wanted rhody to be a little more darker pink/red -- more like the memorial one that we planted in memory of my mother. Somehow mine came out pinker than I had wanted. I also seem to have lost a small portion of my wash background. The process is fun and I have several ideas barreling through my brain using these inks. I just need to grab one and hang on.

The Other Side

Last weekend we took Dad over to Chelan to see my brother's house. He's lived in Chelan for almost 3 years now and this was the first time Dad had been over there. This is the view from the hill, above Highway 97 (the road in the middle of the picture.) All the green between the highway and the river, the Columbia, are orchards and vineyards. All the brown is the natural landscape. Two thirds of Washington look like this, or similar. Visiting the east side of the mountains sure makes me appreciate the rain and green of this side. The contrast of the two sides of the cascades is pretty amazing.


I'll never forget the first time I ever went east of the mountains. We left at 0'dark hundred so I promptly fell asleep. When I woke up, somewhere in the middle of the state, I thought we had transported to the desert southwest! I'll take the rain and temperate climate of Western Washington any day over the brown, arid climate of the rest of the state.


On the quilting side of life, I've been working on my QB Christmas Challenge. It's been stalled for over a month now. After deciding on and rejecting numerous options, I think I might have settled on a finish. We'll see...I think only time will tell on this project.


That same restlessness has affected my UFO finishing for Finn's challenge. I pulled out the Blooming 9-Patch and managed to sort all the long rows. I even cut a few strips for the next round. But, I just can't seem to get excited about it. Instead, the pile of Christmas fabrics started calling to me. I had originally purchased the gold background for use in a Christmas quilt. Originally I thought I was going to do something from one of the Nickel Quilt books. But, I've changed my mind. The same pieces of the block, just rearranged differently, make up either one of these settings. I'm leaning towards the first setting. But, the more I look at them, the more I realize that I don't like the gold. I think I'll do the background in neutrals, whites and off-whites. What do you think?

One Down

Yup, this my friends is the first of my 3 UFO's for Finn's challenge. I know, I know, it's just a pieced top. But, that's a LOT more than it was a week ago. I found the wonderful border fabric with coffee words on it in tones of pink and dark red and KNEW it would be perfect for the border. This Disappearing 9-Patch is destined to be for the guest bed. Our guest room is very tiny, barely big enough to hold the antique Jackson bed & dresser. It's also Pepto Bismal pink. That's the color it was when we moved in and we've just never been motivated to paint it.

Along with finishing the piecing on this top, I also finished the quilting on my Old Tobacco Road. As soon as I'm finished with the binding I'll post pictures. Next up on my UFO list is the Blooming 9-Patch. After that's done, I'm not sure what I'll tackle. I'm leaning towards something smaller.....

Let us Never Forget...

...the images of that beautiful September day, seven years ago that are forever burned into our memories. So today, amid all the daily hustle and bustle, I pause and take time to give thanks. I give thanks for being able to live in a country where Freedom means something.

Please take a few moments today and say a little prayer for all of those souls lost on that terrible day and for all of the brave soldiers putting themselves in harms way to keep this country the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.

I'd Rather be Camping...

....but since I wasn't, I did some serious quilting.

Here's my completed "Old Tobacco Road" quilt from Bonnie Hunter. Since the bed in the VW bus isn't that big I opted to not add the flying geese border. This fits the bed nicely and is just the perfect colors to compliment our brown bus. I'll find some nice flannel for the backing and then get it loaded on "Bessie", my HQ16. I quite happy with how it came out. I don't know if I've ever done a quilt top with as many pieces as this one has. But it was fun, and I keep finding myself drawn to scrappy quilts lately.

Also completed, is the next QOV top. This one had just needed borders. This top started as a jelly roll from Moda. I'm very happy with how it turned out. Once I get this quilted, I'll send it and the disappearing 9-patch off to Alycia for her 400 QOV quilt project. She's up to 135 quilts and counting. If they continue to come in at this rate she will easily reach her goal. It's great to see how quilters around the country can come together for such a worthy cause. Way to go Alycia!

So, instead of camping, I quilted and worked my way through two complete Lee Child audio books. A worthy few days but still, I would rather have been camping. From the sounds of it, the 12 Annual Re-Union campout was a resounding success. 36 buses, 110 people and a good time had by all. I guess there's always next year......

VW Camping Gods

What is this you say? This, sadly is the reason why I'm still sitting here at home, and not on the road to Union, Oregon. This is a VW water pump. This was replaced in our bus not quite 3 months ago and $500. This decided to start dripping and left a nice puddle on the drive late yesterday. The puddle was discovered early evening, as we were starting to do the final packing for our camping trip.

The VW Camping Gods don't seem to want us to go on the biggest camping trip of our whole season. The trip I've looked forward to all year. And for ONCE the weather between here and there isn't scorching hot so the trip would actually be somewhat enjoyable. Can you say disappointed? Can you say really pi$$ed off? The bus is at the mech's shop now. It was delivered there before 8:00 a.m. Unfortunately he is swamped today and it is a 3 hour job to replace said water pump. No, the VW Camping Gods are not smiling down on us right now...

I should be Packing...

....for our camping trip. But instead I'm sitting here, in front of the computer catching up on blog reading and such. In the process I found a cool new site. So, naturally I just had to see if I could get it to work here.

Tomorrow we are off to the 12th annual Re-Union Campout. I'm looking forward to it. The weather is supposed to be absolutely perfect and there will be lots of old friends attending that we haven't seen in a year.

Have a great weekend all.

So Much for Good Intentions..

So, here it is, the end of a 3 day weekend. Instead of working on one my UFO's for Finn's challenge, I did something I've never done before -- start a mystery quilt. When I read Bonnie's intro for her Old Tobacco Road I knew immediately that I had to do this mystery. Since I have a rather large bin of browns awaiting me for the Beige Behemouth, and, since I had decided the previous weekend that we needed a couple quilts for the bus for the warmer weather quilting....well, as a quilter, you know how easy it is to succomb to such temptation. I admit it, I have NO WILLPOWER! None, zilch, zippo. Besides, the pictures Bonnie posted of the tobacco fields, all rosy and glowing were just breathtaking. And, since our beloved bus is brown, well, that's enough justification for me.

So, here it is, almost midnight on Monday evening. I'm still working on all those darn windmills from Part Two. But, I had to cut all my browns this afternoon just to "see" how this is going to look. I'm getting excited. I'm hoping to finish the pinwheels tomorrow. But, between the endless list of things that have to be done before we leave at o'dark hundred Thursday for the Re-Union Campout it's highly unlikely that much more is going to get done for at least another week. :-(

Between lunch with friends, trip to Olympia to see Dad and get that bigger battery for the fridge I just didn't get as much sewing time in as I had wanted. However, I have all winter to sew and only a short amount of good camping weather left so, camping it is.

Hhhmmm, there's always November & December for Finn's challenge.....