Gray Day

It was cool and overcast yesterday...a nice change from the record-setting heat of just a few days ago. After spending some time with my slow stitching, I got to work canning carrots. We get so many carrots in our CSA shares, it can be hard to keep up with them. These are spicy dilled carrot spears, and they get eaten fast.

If we get more carrots (and I know we will), I'll make another batch of the carrot cake jam I made last year because that stuff is seriously delicious.

After that, I went back to work on the Shop Hop quilt. The next block was from a side trip we took into Santa Fe, New Mexico. We were stuck in Albuquerque for a week waiting for a part to repair the broken landing gear on the RV. We'd already done a side trip to nearby Petroglyphs National Monument. You can read my blog post about that visit right here. We had plenty of time for a foray to the north to visit Santa Fe, a place I'd wanted to visit for a long time.

There was a quilt shop in Santa Fe, which made this excursion even more desirable. I purchased several yards of this fabric because the colors were so beautiful as it was unrolled off the bolt. This little swatch hardly does it justice. At the time, I hadn't yet started collecting regional prints, nor was I even close to having an idea to make a quilt from them. It was just a happy accident that this one was among the prints I chose that day. You can read my blog post about Santa Fe Quilting right here. We visited this shop in 2011. Is it still in business? It would appear so! You can see their website right here.

Next up is a fabric from our memorable visit to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, last fall, and a wonderful day spent with my dear friend Robin. Robin was kind enough to chauffeur me all around that day, showing me the best quilt shops in the area. The Old Country Store was just one of them. We visited so many shops that day, I only wrote one blog post about all of them. You can read it right here.

This fabric was a larger scale than I ordinarily look for, but it represented the area so perfectly that I couldn't resist it. With that in mind, this block takes up double real estate on the quilt. It will be one of two center blocks that gets extra space. When I do the next row of the quilt, you'll see the other one.

This next one was from a trip we took across the Montana Hi-line. We were on our way to Voyageurs National Park in Minnesota, and took the Montana Hi-line just on a lark. The railroad was very important to the development of this region. You can read more about our visit right here. As is often the case, We were in Glendive, Montana, because we needed to have all four tires replaced on the RV. Have you ever noticed how many quilt shop stops coincide with RV problems? It's how we make lemonade from lemons. In any case, someone had told me about The Enchanted Room, and we just happened to end up in the town where it was just down the street from the tire shop. Divine intervention, I presume. You can read my blog post about the shop right here.

So this was another happy accident choice of a fabric. I chose it to use with my Hobo Quilt (still in progress), but it was also representative of the areas we'd just driven through. It was nearly four years ago when we visited. Are they still in business? It appears so, although the area looks different from when we visited. It could be they've relocated. In any case, you can find their web presence right here.

Okay, so this next one was a very interesting shop. We were on our way back from a visit to The Palouse, an area we happen to love. As we drove along on rural roads, I checked my now defunct Quilt Shop app and found this shop located in Athena, Oregon. If you read my blog post about this shop, I mentioned that it was actually a co-op. Such a small town couldn't possibly sustain a quilt shop, and so a group of quilters ran the shop together. They were very excited when an actual customer (me) stopped in that day, and they were among the friendliest women I've met in my quilt shop visits.

This pear fabric was another I chose before I'd ever come up with the idea to collect "regional" fabrics, and way before the Shop Hop quilt was conceived. I just happened to like this one, and I bought several yards of it. So what's your guess? Is Highland Quilts still in business? They are, but I didn't find a web presence beyond their Facebook page and a Yelp review. It's just good to know these quilters have kept the co-op going. Good for them.

Finally, this one from Friends & Co. Quilt Shop in Cody, Wyoming. My friend Jacque at Lilypad Quilting told me about this one as we passed through Cody. You can read my blog post about it right here. It was another quilt shop so stuffed to the gills with goodies that it was hard to see everything, and their regional fabrics were hard to choose from. I selected this one.

Checking to see if they're still in business...hm, let's see...and it would appear they are. You can find their website right here.

Just as I was finishing up the row, my furry friend came in.

Hey! Is this your camera? Maybe I should take a selfie!

Wait...was I too close? Did I put nose prints on your lens?

I offered him some catnip, but mostly, he just wanted to hang out. It was close to dinner time, and it never hurts to make your purresence known.

When I had the fourth row sewn to the rest of the quilt, I stopped for the day.

I'm just a tad behind on this since row four was supposed to be finished in July. Maybe I'll get another row done before the month is out. We'll see. It's my rule to try to get one row per month done, and there's no penalty for breaking it. It's one of the benefits of making the rules as you go along.

As for today's efforts, I didn't ever get to the grocery store yesterday, and so I'll be doing that today. When I get back into the sewing room, I'm going to start sewing Wine Country into a flimsy.