On Our Way

Good afternoon, my friends. We find ourselves in Olympia, Washington, this afternoon. It was a relatively short day of driving to get here. It began with some last-minute packing and preparation, and then, we were on our way. We spotted some fall color as we drove away from our home. I expect we'll a lot more of this as we make our way through Washington.

Traffic was fairly light getting through downtown Portland, which was a nice change from the usual bumper-to-bumper we often find there, no matter the day or time. And soon, we crossed the Interstate Bridge.

It took us over the Columbia River, which is the dividing line between Oregon and Washington.

And here we'll be for the next month or so.

Welcome, my friends. I'm so glad you came along!

There isn't a lot to see along this I-5 stretch...just evergreen trees lining both sides of the road. On a clear day, we can get a glimpse of Mt. Rainier, but we were under cloudy skies for today's ride. This barn caught my eye. Look to the left of the barn, and you'll see a minion holding an American flag.

We caught just a glimpse of  the tippy top of Washington's State Capitol building.

Here's another image I swiped off their website.

We had just about another 30 miles to go at that point. As we left the interstate, we kept seeing signs directing us to the campground "just ahead." And this tunnel gave us pause. We couldn't see the height limit because of a branch hanging in front of it. But wouldn't you think with an RV park "just ahead," it would be tall enough to accommodate our rig?

As it turns out...yes. And now...say it with me..."Oh look! There's the light at the end of the tunnel!"

Arriving at the campground, we caught our first Bigfoot sighting of the trip.

Arriving at our site, the kitties were in the swing of things right away. They've got their food and water, their potty box, and their kitty treats. Life is good.

Oh yes, and when I put down the wheat grass, everything was grrrrroooooooooovy.

Except for this: Our neighbors two sites over have a stupid woofie. We know it is a stupid woofie because, and you can say this with me too: "All woofies are stupid." These kitties do not like woofies.

It's a nice site here...spacious. We do have neighbors to our left and outside the frame. Obviously, we're in our truck camper for this trip, and towing our Jeep. The truck and camper require diesel fuel, which is inching toward $7 per gallon day by day. The Jeep runs on regular, which is still expensive, but not as bad as diesel. We'll use the Jeep to get around. (It's easier on the kitties when we're not moving the camper around too.)

Turning directly around from that image, this is behind me. This is the Nisqually River.

Looking to my left, it looks like this.

I caught a Western Gull in flight over the river.

We're meeting some friends tonight at the Olympia Oyster House. They have fried oysters on their menu, and I absolutely love fried oysters. They're natural here...not farmed...and Washington has some delicious oysters. The friend we're meeting is a friend from high school...we were in the band together. Andy played trumpet. I played alto clarinet. We were able to reconnect on Facebook. Several years back, Andy asked if I would make him a Marine Corps quilt, and, as a Marine Corps brat, I was happy to oblige.

So, we'll meet Andy and his wife, Karie, for dinner. We're here for two nights, and so we might meet up with them again tomorrow evening as well.

As for our own plans for this area, we plan to hike the Nisqually Estuary Boardwalk Trail tomorrow. It's looking like good weather in the afternoon, and so I'm hoping we'll be able to do it without rain gear. This is a trail we've wanted to do for a long time, and so we're looking forward to that. Fingers crossed the weather will cooperate.

Okay, and backing up to yesterday, I had time enough to top-stitch all the applique on "Across the Wide Missouri."

The details still need to be added. This will be stitched by machine.

Okay, and that's all I have for you today. I'll spend some time relaxing until it's time to head out for dinner. Tomorrow I'll be back to tell you about our hike.

Making Progress

Good morning, my friends. The past couple of days have been busy, but I found some time for sewing yesterday. So, what have I been up to? Oh...thanks for asking! 

A lot of my time has been spent cooking. I made some Frozen Breakfast Burritos, Egg Salad for sandwiches, a lasagna for dinner on the road, and some Jumbo Breakfast Cookies. They're essentially a peanut butter cookie, but they contain raisins, oatmeal and multi-grain Cheerios. We like them as an alternative to Clif bars when we're driving.

We like Clif bars too. Either a cookie or a Clif bar can serve as lunch while we're driving.

On the sewing front, I've continued to make progress on the Plaid Cat. The upper left corner has been stitched.

Then, I moved my hoop to the right and stitched that portion.

Now I've moved my hoop to the upper right corner. I'd hoped I could finish this before we leave, but I don't think that will happen. It'll come with us, and I'll have plenty of stitching to keep me busy while we're traveling.

Packing the food took a good part of the day, but I found myself with some extra time yesterday afternoon. Sadie was mad we hadn't been doing more sewing.

She helped me get Block 4 for "Across the Wide Missouri" ready for top-stitching. 

As I mentioned in my previous post, this block is dedicated to Dr. Bethenia Owens-Adair. Her marriage was arranged when she was just 14 years old. When the arrangements were made, she wrote this:

Her marriage lasted just four years, but with grit and industry, she was able to finish medical school. She became the first woman physician in Oregon. 

Here is a little blurb from the book that explains this block:

The fusing is finished, but there is quite a lot of top-stitching to do. I'll want to stitch all around the raw-edge of the applique, but there will be some machine-stitched embroidery as well. You can see where I've traced the lines in the bee skep and above the yarrow stems.

Hopefully, I can make some progress on this today, but I'm also packing my clothes and personal items. Fortunately, all the cooking is done, and I can focus on packing. Even if there's time for sewing, I doubt I can finish this piece before we go. Oh well. I suppose it will wait until we get back.

With all that’s going on, I won't blog again until we're on our way. If there's time, I'll blog after we reach Olympia. We have two nights there, and so if you don't hear from me tomorrow, then Tuesday for sure. 

Going With the Grain

Good morning, my friends. It’s been a mildly hectic week, and so I’ve given myself permission to skip a day or two of blogging. It occurs to me that whether I blog or not has to do with whether I get to do any sewing. If I’m not sewing, the rest of the day is pretty ho-hum…a lot of busy work standing between me and my sewing. 

Yesterday’s busy work happened to include a pedicure. It was good to take a spa break, even if it was for just an hour. As I’ve mentioned before, this particular spa has the most beautiful gardens. Even if you’re not a guest at the hotel, it’s worth stopping by just to stroll the grounds. It’s going to be in beautiful fall colors soon. Yesterday I noticed this potted lantana. 

And these bright red begonias.

This is Crapemyrtle. It was growing all around the parking lot.

I had one other errand to run, but I was home around 1:00 p.m. My morning to-do’s were already to-done, and so I had some time to knock off one of the items from today’s to-do’s. The jumbo zip-lock bags I ordered came the day before, and so I tried my idea of stripping off the kernels inside a huge bag. And, hey…that was the ticket…some might say it was the shiznit. I was able to denude 11 ears of corn in less than 10 minutes. I got a stray kernel here and there, but mostly, it all went into the bag. This is a 3-1/2 gallon zip-lock bag, and those are the kernels of 11 ears of corn.

When I was finished, I scooped them out of the bag with my one-cup measuring cup into two-cup portions for freezing. 

Okay, and then I had time to sew. The rest of the afternoon was devoted to top-stitching the Amber Waves of Grain block from the day before.

Smitty helped me with that.

When it was finished, it looked like this. Those little hay bales were a little tedious.

Here are all the blocks I have for “Where the Cows Come Home.” There are five more blocks for this project.

Starting today, the rubber is really going to hit the road insofar as our trip preparations are concerned. I need to make some lists, do some cooking and baking, pack the food, pack my clothes, and all the rest between now and D-Day on Monday. I’m still hoping to get in some sewing time. Next up will be to make the fourth block for Across the Wide Missouri. This block is devoted to Dr. Bethenia Owens-Adair.

This one hits close to home because she lived much of her life in Oregon. This is the photograph of her from the pattern book. You can read more about her on her Oregon Encyclopedia page.

Here’s another photograph of her.

And what a remarkable woman. I encourage you to read her story. She was, essentially, a mail-order bride, in that her marriage was arranged when her parents answered an ad. The man she married turned out to be abusive, shiftless and lazy, and they were divorced after four years of marriage and the birth of one son.. 

She was an industrious woman at a time when there really wasn’t much help for women in her circumstances. She had the help of family and eventually was able to put herself through medical school. She became the first woman doctor in the state of Oregon. She held some controversial viewpoints. Like so many historical figures, she was a woman of her time, and time has a way of changing attitudes. When I read about women like this, it brings home to me that I’ve lived a fortunate life. Sometimes I wonder how I would have managed under similar circumstances.

Okay, and so all of that to say that I’d dearly love to get started on her block. These are the blocks I have for this quilt so far.

Sewing time is going to be hard to come by, I’m afraid. I’ll blog if I have anything to tell you. If not, you can expect to hear from me again no later than Tuesday. By then, we’ll be in Olympia, Washington. Be ready, my friends. The bus leaves on Monday morning.

A Little Time for Sewing

Good morning, my friends. It's been a couple of days of this's and thats's. I've been keeping up with my slow-stitching each day. On Tuesday, I stitched far enough to decide to move my hoop up.

When I started stitching on Wednesday, I was at this section. I stitched the lower part of the hoop so that I could squeeze those little bits at the top inside the circle for stitching.

For Tuesday's trip into town everything took longer than I thought it would. Happily, I was there early for my haircut and color, and we got started right away. As for the rest of the day, I had a couple of errands to run, and the rest of the world seemed indifferent to my time pressures. What's up with that, anyway? 

When I got home, I did a few things in the kitchen, including blanching and freezing some green beans. I'd hoped our bean plants would produce enough green beans for pressure canning. We got enough for a couple of side dishes, but never enough to make it worthwhile hauling out all the canning equipment. I'll keep harvesting them until our departure date, and we'll enjoy some fresh green beans on the road. 

Late in the afternoon, I made my way into the sewing room to paw through my stash looking for fabrics appropriate to use in the next block for “Where the Cows Come Home.” The block I'm working on now is called "Amber Waves of Grain." I didn't end up using all these fabrics, but it gave me a place to start.

That was all I had time for on Tuesday. 

With Wednesday being a stay-at-home day, there was more to do. There was one housekeeping chore, and I made and froze a lasagna for our travels. There was some time spent in the garden harvesting more green beans, a couple of zucchini, a couple of cucumbers and more corn. The only thing I’ve done with the corn so far was to test out my new tool. Since I’d frozen what I cut off the ears, yesterday’s harvest was the first we’d actually eaten. We had it as a side to our Bulgogi Sloppy Joes with Scallion Salsa, and mmm, mmm, mmm. Sweet garden corn makes all the work worthwhile.

There was some time for sewing in the afternoon, and so I could get a start on my quilt block. This is the block I'm making as pictured in the book. The pattern is for wool applique. Mine is from cotton scraps.

The first step was to create a background.

I've appreciated the instructions in this book, telling me where to start, taking it step by step, and explaining how to do everything like I'm five years old. For one thing, the book suggests creating the barns on a pressing sheet, and then moving them to the background. That has been a big help. In this case, it suggested starting with the loft door, and told me how to place the pieces. The template was under my pressing sheet and I used it as a placement guide.

With that finished, I could create the rest of the barn.

Then, I peeled it up off the pressing sheet and fused it to the background.

The last step of the day was to add the bales of straw.

I love seeing fields that look like that in our travels. Here's one I took as we traveled near Vernal, Utah, a few years ago.

Sadie showed up about that time to let me know it was time for her dinner. That seemed like a good place to stop.

The applique still needs top-stitching, and I'm hoping to have time to do that today. Also today, I'm getting a pedicure. There's one other errand I want to run in town, and I have a few things I'd like to finish in preparation for our trip. If there's time, I'll get back to my sewing. If the day ends up being nothing but trip preparation, I'll take another day off from blogging tomorrow, but I should be back on Saturday to catch up. Until then, stay out of trouble, my friends.