Quilt Shop: Bear Paw Quilt Shop

There is one quilt shop in Coeur d'Alene that I was able to find.  We didn't waste a minute before hopping in the truck to go.

Bear Paw Quilt Shop is located just a few miles from the park where we are staying tonight.  It is a large shop and easy to find.  There was plenty of parking, and bonus!  They were open on Sunday, which is a rare find in a quilt shop, in my experience.

The bears got there before me, and so I knew I was in the right place.

I was even more sure it was the right place, when I saw this sign first thing upon walking through the door.

This is a large shop situated on two levels.  I couldn't get over their fabric selection!  There was literally something for everyone, and they had a big selection of panels.  I saw calicos, reproduction and civil war prints, children's prints, Christmas fabric, wools, batiks, landscape prints, flannels, and...honestly, have I left anything out?  If I have, I'm sure they had it.

There was a very comfortable-looking classroom with a window, and there was another area set up in the upstairs part of the shop.  

 These fabrics were all 40% off.  Obviously, I had to buy some.

The fabric stretched on and on.

When I saw these stitcheries, I wondered if my rotary cutter rating system had preceded me.  I thought they might be trying to butter me up with these stitcheries.

The upstairs, which was essentially a loft, featured seasonal prints and kits, not to mention a great view of the rest of the store.

I purchased a yard of each of these.  They were all 40% off.  How could I resist?  I figured the hearts would be good for Valentine's Day, which will be here before we know it.  Also, I'm still collecting grays.  The fabric on the right is a pale lavender, which doesn't show well in this image.

Also, I got a yard of these.  They were polka dots, and so obviously, I needed them.  Especially the gray ones on the right.

And then, I couldn't resist this "needle nanny".  It's a strong magnet and will hold my needles in place when I set aside hand work.

The cat was all I needed, but this is what the back of the package said:

So I have nothing but good things to say about this shop.  I gave them extra points for being open on Sunday, but really, they didn't need them.  I had nothing to complain about.  They had a great selection of fabrics in a well-organized and visually-appealing shop.  They had lots of books, patterns, and notions, as well as some beautiful panels, kits, and stitcheries.  I gave them a rare five rotary cutters out of five rating.

Should you be lucky enough to find yourself in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, this is a not-to-be-missed quilter's treat.

Coeur d'Alene, Idaho

Today we left Alota, Washington and drove to Steptoe Butte State Park, which is a 3,600 foot butte where one can take in a 360 degree view of The Palouse.  The information I have about the butte itself is that it escaped being completely buried in volcanic ash.  It is the volcanic history of this area with its many ash falls that make it such fertile farm land.  Here is how it looked as we approached.

We were promised visibility of up to 80 miles, and we were not disappointed.  However, is was fairly hazy today, and so it might have been a better view on a clearer day.  I believe the post-harvest disking of the fields has the dust kicked up.  Still, it was well worth the drive up to see it.

Here's one for you, Denise.  Denise asked to see our rig.  I'll take a few more along the way.

I didn't take a lot of pictures today because after driving through the area for hours and hours and hundreds of miles, it starts looking all the same.  Still, it was gorgeous.  Don't let my lack of posted pictures fool you into believing we didn't love the entire day.

We saw a big wind farm under construction.  None of the turbines were generating electricity yet, and cranes were still present with some of the towers just now being raised.  We have seen wind farms with more turbines, but these were especially big turbines.

It has been quite windy throughout our stay in the area, and so we were glad to see that this resource will be harnessed to generate electricity.  We are great supporters of wind energy.

So that's about all we did today.  Tomorrow we will move on to Glacier National Park.  Mike has our cell phones set up to be our own personal wi-fi hot spots, which is very cool.  Nevertheless, we still need cellular service to use it.  It seems cellular has been available more and more within the national parks, but we never know until we get there.  That's why I decided to write this post tonight.  If I have cellular service, you'll hear from me again after we get to Glacier.  If not, anything I have to say about our visit there will have to wait until we return to civilization.  I imagine we will stay at least three days in Glacier.  I am so looking forward to doing some hiking.

But this isn't my last blog post of the day.  I visited a quilt shop today, so I'll tell you about that in a separate post.

Almota, Washington

We left home right on time yesterday morning.  Our route took us through the beautiful Columbia River Gorge and across the Columbia River into Washington near the tri-cities area of Pasco, Kennewick, and Richland.

We drove a long day to Almota, Washington, which is in the heart of an area called The Palouse.  The Palouse was unknown to me until I started sifting through the piles of information I had about Washington.  It is the richest wheat-growing area in the United States.  While it does not have officially designated borders, it takes in roughly this area of the state(s).

The landscape is fascinating.  It consists of a vast area of endless undulating ripples in the terrain that were  formed when an ice dam burst during the ice age sending catastrophic flood waters over the area.

This is an image I took in Waldport, Oregon, some years ago that will give you some idea of the topography of the area.  If you've ever cooled your toes at the edge of the ocean, then you are familiar with this pattern that forms when the waves lap upon the sand:

Now imagine the same formation on a landscape so vast that it can only be seen clearly from the air and you have The Palouse.  It was stunningly beautiful...unlike anything I have ever seen.  The wheat has, of course, been harvested, and so the following images will be in the color palate of tans, golds, browns, reds, and some greens. In the spring when the wheat is young, the landscape will look completely different.  For now, I'll just show you some of the pictures I took yesterday.

When we left Interstate 90 and headed east on State Route 26, it was relatively flat, but visually interesting because of the wheat stubble and tractor furrows left behind from the harvesting process.

There were of course, farms, barns, and grain silos all along the way.

Eventually the coutours and color changes of the landscape became more obvious.  We were wowed by the beauty.

I was taking these pictures from a moving car, and so they are not as sharp as they might be had I been standing still.  I think you can get the idea.  The farther east we drove, the deeper the ripples in the landscape became.

There were tractors everywhere, some attached to combines, and many had caterpillar treads to make it possible for them to negotiate the hillsides.

My pictures cannot do justice to the vastness of the landscape.

When we reached the town of Colfax, we endeavored to find the one RV park in the area, which was 18 miles south of where we expected it to be.  It is a beautiful marina formed on the Snake River by the Lower Granite Dam.  If you look almost dead center at the green area of the image below, then you'll know where we stayed.

It was quite warm, and a hot wind was blowing.  Once the sun went down, it was a lovely evening, and we spent hours just sitting outside enjoying it.  Smitty nearly broke his nose trying to get into the Catio while Mike was hanging it from the side of the trailer.

Two of our fellow campers approached him to talk, and he was utterly unafraid of them.

We were rump spring from our long day sitting, and so we took a walk around the marina as the sun set.

We will be heading out in a few hours.  Originally, we planned to reach Glacier National Park today, but then decided to make today a shorter day.  That means our goal is to reach Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, and stay there this evening, and continue onto Glacier the next day. We need to get a few groceries before we head off into the middle of nowhere and groceries become more scarce.  Before reaching Coeur d'Alene, however, we plan to visit Steptoe Butte State Park where we will be able to get above The Palouse and get a better view of the rippling landscape.

So far, no problems.  We are hopeful this trip will bring us fewer mechanical problems than our last trip did.  Those of you who followed along a couple of years ago may remember the problems we had with tread separations of our tires and failing trailer jacks.  Shudder.  Knock on wood.  And now my fingers are crossed too.