Merry Christmas!

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Truckin' Along

Well, it's Monday. That means it's "link-up" day for Bonnie's Orca Bay Mystery. I'm afraid I don't have a whole lot to show for the latest part. I admit, I've been a bit distracted with trying to finish up some Christmas projects. WHY do I always wait till the last minute for these?!?

Anyway, here's where I'm at:

The top portion is all the half square triangles awaiting the addition of the black triangles. The bottom pile is the ones that are partially completed. They still need a second triangle attached.

Here's my box of completed steps. You can see just a few completed units from this last step in the upper right corner. I have a LONG way to go and I seriously doubt much sewing will get done in the next few weeks....

On another note, we finally had a nice day that coincided with my having a quilt holder available to get a picture of the new Christmas quilt with free pieced words in the border. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to take pictures of a 96" square quilt when your house is really small and you live in the Pacific Northwest where it rains 2/3 of the year?!?

I also attempted to get some Christmas pictures of a certain Spotted One. This time without help. Note to self, don't hold the cheese in the same hand with the camera!

I did finally manage to get a good one for use on our annual Christmas card and it's not this one -- yeah, I know, nothing like putting things off till the last minute......

Ah well...maybe next year I might start thinking about these things sooner. But then again, knowing me, I doubt it. But now I must go make some cookies for the Quilting Broads Christmas party and challenge reveal tomorrow.....

Please Vote for me!

I need your help! The voting for the tiny tote contest is getting hot and heavy. I've slipped to 2nd place. Please help me out and vote for my red & white pineapple tote.

Come on, you KNOW you like this one the best and you KNOW it deserves to win. Afterall, it's got 37 pieces in that 3" pineapple alone and there is another pineapple on the back side.

Just two more weeks of voting--please help me out.

Thank you,

Red!

Part 4 of Bonnie Hunter's Orca Bay mystery has finally brought us some red. Unfortunately, it's red strings. So, even though I have an extensive selection of red fabrics in my stash, none of them were in the form of strings. I was finally able to start cutting some strings Sunday and finished cutting them Monday. So, today at quilting I finally started on part 4. Here's my progress so far--just need 98 more!

In other news, thank you for your votes--keep 'em coming. Right now I'm in first place. Thank you for supporting my entry--I'm getting really excited but it's going to be a long few weeks... VOTE here. Here's another picture of my entry just in case you don't remember which one is mine. It really is so stinkin' cute--but sheesh, those 3" pineapples have 37 pieces each!

And now I'm going back to my red strings.........

Woo Hoo!!!

I'm a finalist! In the Bernina sponsored tiny totes contest on AllPeopleQuilt. The voting has now commenced. If you are reading this and you are so inclined, please vote for my bag. I'm quite proud of it, but then, I'm just a BIT biased.

Here's my entry. That pineapple block is also on the back side and it measures 3". Yeah, I know, I must be nuts to make a 3" block with so many pieces, let alone make it twice since it's also on the other side of the bag.

So, here's the link to vote. Just remember, you need to vote EVERY day! I need all the votes I can get.

Thank you,

Joined the Party

I caved--I joined Bonnie's Orca Bay mystery. I didn't really NEED another new project but I love Bonnie Hunter's quilts and I didn't do last year's mystery but wished I had. Besides, I always seem to actually get things done quicker when I'm doings mystery. It must be the anticipation of awaiting the next step or something....

So, despite joining the party a little late, I managed to get everything done. I finished step two on Wednesday which actually gave me time to start a baby quilt that needs to be completed before April.

Despite having to make 350 units in step three, I completed it by Saturday afternoon. Here are all my pieces for the three steps so far.

I can't wait to see what we will do with the red. I'm hoping the next step uses red.

And now I'm going back to working on that baby quilt.

LizA .

A Little bit of This & That

On the quilting front, I've been busy--yup, another new project. This one i can even share here. A new Christmas quilt is in the works. There was an unfortunate laundry adventure with the Christmas quilt that was completed last year. subsequent efforts to fixture problem only made it worse. Lesson learned, NEVER, EVER use a solid red flannel for backing fabric. No matter how many times it is washed, won't be enough.

So, here's the new quilt, orat least the center. Forgive the bad lighting but my quilt holder was not available. I'm currently working on the next border, free pieced words. Here are a few of the completed ones.

There are several more words that haven't been photographed yet---I'll save those for the final reveal.

We snuck in one last camping trip, and despite the drizzle on Saturday, it was a great weekend. The weather on Sunday was beyond spectacular, as in an unexpected gloriously sunny autumn day. When you get days like this in November in the Pacific Northwest, you savor every last morsel of them because they are few and far between. Seeing much of the sun after Labor Day is a rare occurrence.

And then there was this while we were attempting to pack.

What you don't see in this picture is the 11" of folded up mattress toppers he is perched on? He was most indignant that we had filled HIS spot up with stuff. Never mind the fact that his crate with a nice soft cushion was sitting on the floor of the bus.

While I've Been Gone

Wow! Where has the time gone? It can't possibly have been almost 2 months since I've posted. Lots has been going on.

First off, there's been a LOT of this:

From the Washington coast to Walla Walla, Boise, eastern Oregon and Leavenworth. The weather actually cooperated on all accounts, something most unusual for these parts.

At the biggest campout of the season this quilt was presented to some very special friends. If you click the picture, you can see all the VW buses.

I've also been working on these blocks in between The Farmer's Wife blocks and finishing up my QB Christmas Challenge.

Yes folks, the challenge has been done for a couple weeks now. More specifically, since the middle of October, more than 2 months before it's due. Hooray for me. Unfortunately for all of you reading this, you will have to wait until the Tuesday before Christmas to see it --sorry. But, as a consolation I can show you the lovely pack of fat quarters I won from Quiltmaker's Quilty Pleasures blog.

It's Super from Red Rooster by Gudrun Erla. I'm waiting for inspiration to hit me as to what to do with them.

Oh yeah, in between all this my 81 y.o. Dad had a minor heart attack. The long and the short of it is that he now has a new doctor that we actually like and I'm hoping will be more responsive. His previous doctor told him to continue taking tylenol and to call back in two days when he would be back in the office if Dad was still feeling bad......Don't EVEN get me started, arrrgghh. You can see why Dad now has a new doctor along with a cardiologist. It's been a long month. 

Birthday Round Robin Reveal

First up, Happy Birthday Janet! I can finally show a couple projects I've been working on. Last year for Janet's birthday I sent her a center square and a piece of fabric I decided was sufficiently aged and it's time had come. I challenged her to add a round and to create her own center and send them both back to me for my birthday which just so happens to be six months and six days after hers.

Here is Janet's Round Robin. (Note: I neglected to take a picture of just her center square, or if I did, it's probably on the laptop and I'm too lazy to turn it on and hunt for it.)




Her main fabric was a companion floral to the fabric I used in the corner squares. I used a floral stripe from the line to make the four patch posey squares. I worked on this shortly after receiving it in March and then put it away while pondering what to do with mine.



This is mine. I sent Janet the center square, out to the green. She added the flying geese. After a lot of wavering, I happened on a link to some really cool foundation pieced blocks. Sorry, I don't have the link handy right now.

After procrastinating way longer than I should have , and a few false starts due to not having enough fabric for my first few attempts, I finally ended up with this.



So, when I pulled Janet's back out to send off to her, I didn't like it. I think it needs something more, maybe some appliqué or something. But, time was against me so I sent it off anyway. When it comes back to me in March I will probably add some appliqué to those big gold areas.

Meanwhile, I have some serious catching up to do on the Farmer's Wife. Unfortunately it isn't going to be happening anytime soon. I've been doing some non-fun sewing in prep for our big, upcoming camping trip. Things like window screens for the bus. Door screen for the slider, porta-potty cover and an insulated cooler cover. I'd much rather have been quilting.

Happy Birthday Janet.

- LizA.
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Farmer's Wife Update

I'm way overdue for an update on The Farmer's Wife Quilt Along. In all honesty, I haven't been working on it. But, here are the last 8 blocks I did before I moved on to more pressing items, like a certain Birthday Round Robin.....



I won't bore you with individual pictures but if you are so inclined you can find them on Flickr if you search for lizquiltz.

Meanwhile, I really do need to get back to that Birthday Round Robin...Ms. J's birthday is approaching much swifter than I realized....

And, just because it's been a whole month since I posted a picture of the Spotted One, here ya' go.




- LizA.
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Some Camping Time Pt. 2

This was what we drove thru as we went around the east side of Mt. Rainier heading to Ohanapecosh campground. At one point we hit 4711 feet in elevation and there was a LOT of snow. Both Sunrise and Paradise are still covered in snow. I was told that Sunrise had over 900" this past winter.

Luckily the campground is at a lower elevation. Ohanapecosh is located on the southeast side of Mt. Rainier National Park and is filled with old growth trees. Along with all the wonderful old trees, there is the river and several mountain streams. It really is quite beautiful and quite a contrast from eastern Oregon where we were last week.

This tree was 670 years old when it was cut down. The tags note significant events in history that occurred throughout it's lifetime.

The river, wild and rushing from all the snow melt higher up the mountain.

Wild columbine.

Vanilla leaf and bunchberry.

Another mountain stream.

Four wonderful, relaxing days in this paradise made for one of our better campouts. Even better was all the wonderful food. Our friend and camphost is a most excellent dutch oven cook and we feasted all weekend. As Mrs. G. would say, "Life is Good".

Some Camping Time pt. 1

We have made the most of the ever so brief dry season in the Pacific Northwest and did two extended weekend campouts back to back.

July 4th weekend saw us traveling to the tiny town of Fossil, Oregon for the Wheeler County Bluegrass Festival with about 20 other VW's from the WetWesties. This was the first time I've been to this part of Oregon and the scenery was fascinating. Lots of rolling hills with just a tint of green, canyons, wheat fields and windmill farms.

This is the view approaching the Columbia. After living on the "green" side of the mountains, this scenery always fascinates me by it's starkness.

We met up with friends at a camping area along the river and then had a 5 bus caravan through a fabulous canyon road, eventually ending up at Fossil.

Central Washington and Oregon, especially the areas along the Columbia have exploded with windmill farms in the last several years. They have an almost "War of the Worlds" feel as you travel along and see these huge blades peeking over the hill tops.

Then, amid all the dry, arid hills, you see something like this surprise river and little oasis of green.

Did I mention that this side of the mountains gets hot? It hit 87 which for those of us on the "wimpy" side of the state is down right cooking. I don't think we've even hit 80 yet this year. Unfortunately the wind was also blowing a lot of dust and there was something that definitely bothered The Bearded One's allergies. We were told it was probably the juniper trees. Whatever it was, it was bad enough that we left a day early so that he would be able to recover in time for our next camping trip to Mt. Rainier in a few days.

Oh yeah, the music was great. Besides stuff going on in town all day long, the entire camping area was filled with lots of people doing impromptu jam sessions. The music literally surrounded us. Saturday there was a great car show which had all the guys drooling. And, true to our tradition, there was a great potluck. VW folks sure know how to eat.

Stay tuned for pt. 2 -- Mt. Rainier.

1st Day of Summer...

...And the Pacific Northwest is actually dishing up some sun! Considering the LONG, drearier than normal spring we've had, this is really a big deal for us.





As you can see, The Spotted One is celebrating by snoozing in the sun, on MY pillows. He NEVER snoozes on my pillows, he always prefers The Bearded One's pillows.

On to FWQAL (Farmer's Wife Quilt Along). I have six more blocks completed, bringing my total to12.




Block #7 - Birds in the Air
This block contains 40 pieces! Whew! Those little half square triangle units finish at 1".





Block #8 - Bouquet





Block #9 - Box





Block #10 - Bowtie





Block #11 - Broken Dishes





Block #12 - Broken Sugar Bowl

I know it looks like I've been super productive but I have to admit, the last five shown here were all precut and assembled at my weekly Tuesday quilting group.

- LizA.
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