How Green is my Valley

Yesterday I got to work on the final row of blocks for the Shop Hop quilt. Smitty is sorry to see this come to an end. He loves reminiscing about our travels last year.

I sampled the grass at all of these places.

The first block is the reverse colors of another fabric I picked up in South Carolina. There, I considered it a "palmetto" fabric. In California, it was a date palm. It was hard to find a regional print at this shop. Here's a link to the blog post I wrote. It was fairly newly opened, and there wasn't a lot to choose from. We were staying at the Golden Village Palms RV park in Hemet, and so it worked. I wondered if the shop was still open, and so I checked...it appears it is. You can find the web presence for Susan's Quilt Paradise right here.

This next one is from one of three stops we made on a rainy day in Harrisonburg, Virginia. We were seeing a lot of fall leaves on this portion of our trip, and so it was easy to choose this fabric. Ragtime Fabrics was a large shop with fabrics and supplies for all kinds of sewing. You can read my blog post about it right here. It was rather disorganized and crowded in there, but there was a lot to look at. It appears to still be open. You can find the website right here.

This next shop was a kind of a surprise. We'd driven from one side of Great Smoky Mountain National Park (in North Carolina) to the other side of the park (in Tennessee). We had lunch at a little restaurant in Gatlinburg. While we were eating, I inquired of The Google if there was a quilt shop nearby. As it turns out...there was! It was located in a craft mall not too far away, and so we stopped in. You can read my blog post about it right here.

I had an idea this was "Susan's" long-arm business with an associated fabric shop. It was a small shop, but they'd utilized their space well and crammed in a whole lotta merchandise. We'd seen a bear in the park that day, which was quite a thrill, and so this fabric seemed the perfect choice. Susan's husband was minding the store while I was there, and he was somewhat uncomfortable in his role. He did a good job though, and I enjoyed the little chat I had with him. It appears the shop is still open for business. You can find its web presence right here.

This next one was a great shop. We visited a couple of good quilt shops during out stay in Fredericksburg, Texas. As it so happens, this was the first place where I got a good look at the Texas longhorns,

 and so it was easy to choose this fabric. You can read my blog post about One Quilt Place right here.

With several large quilt shops in the area, Fredericksburg is a quilting community, and so it doesn't surprise me at all to find the shop open for business. You can find its web presence right here.

We spent the Thanksgiving holiday in Wilmington, North Carolina, and so it was just a little bit of a surprise to find this shop open on the day after Thanksgiving. I guess it is Black Friday, but quilt shops don't always follow the rules. You can read my blog post about it right here. We'd been eating blue crab all up and down the Atlantic coast, and so it made sense to choose this fabric with blue crabs. This shop was near Carolina Beach, North Carolina. You can find its web presence right here. We really enjoyed our visit to this cute little town.

So I quit when I got that far. I was kind of tired of sewing by then. There are still three blocks to finish up and then I'll sew the final row onto the rest of the quilt for a finished flimsy.

My shadow self was getting restless, and so I took her out for another walk. It was still quite windy at the top of our hill, and so we drove down into the valley for our walk. This is the path Sue and I take, but we stayed on the flat portion for the day.

Everything is very green right now.

All the fields are freshly planted. It's always fun to guess what the farmers have planted for the season. Usually it's wheat or oats, but sometimes it's pretty red clover.

Here's my favorite barn. It always looks different no matter how many times I see it.

There's something about the parallel furrows of a freshly planted field that is very pleasing to my eye.

Nothing is blooming right now, but there are lots of weed seed heads glinting in the sunshine.

Also, I saw these friendly cows.

When Sue and I walk, she always talks to the little kids we meet along the way. Me...I talk to the animals. This one acted as if she might approach the fence, but when I paused to beckon her, she stopped. I can only guess what she's thinking about this stranger standing at her fence talking cow trash to her.

I loved how these white trees looked against the blue sky. The moon on the right was just a bonus.

The orange pyracantha berries are still around, but they aren't as brilliant in color as when they first made an appearance.

Mt. Hood was showing itself across the miles.

And that was my walk. I've been pretty good about getting in my 10k steps, and I'm scoping out how many steps one gets in various walks in the area. Still, I'm looking forward to spring when the wild flowers will be in bloom and I can show you every blooming thing.

Today I need to go into town and drop off some things at the post office. As long as I'm there, I'll make a quick trip to the grocery store. That won't take long, and I'll have food to take us into next week. After that, I'm hoping to finish off the Shop Hop quilt. If there's time, I'll make the back for it too.

It looks as if our string of sunny days is coming to an end, although I don't think we're expecting rain to resume until tomorrow.