Back Home With a Giveaway

Sorry, the giveaway is over.

Good morning, my friends. We're back home again, and settling back into our old routine...emphasis on the "old." There is still a little to do to bring our trip to a close...unpacking the camper comes to mind...but mostly, we're just soaking up what remains of fall in the Pacific Northwest. 

Backing up to when we left Winnemucca, Nevada, I took almost no pictures on the way home. It was flat, flat, flat with the occasional butte thrown in for variety. The road was straight, straight, straight. Mike was happy to get into some winding roads when we reached the mountains. The better to stay awake, don't you know. We knew we were approaching home when we topped a rise and the Three Sisters came into view. Bend, Oregon, was our last stop before home.

There is a very nice RV park between Sisters and Bend, and we spent our last night on the road there. There were junipers all around the park, groomed to look more like trees than the shrub that they are. When you find junipers in abundance, they smell so good. The kitties were so excited when we opened the door. Possibly it was the smell, but they knew we were close to home.

There is a nice little pond at the RV park, and it was populated with Canada geese. I'm assuming these guys are on their way south, and they stopped at this RV park along the way, just as we did.

Later, the kitties joined us on the veranda for a tasty refreshing beverage.

Our neighbors had three cats, and one was out on a leash. Don't you know that got Himself all hot and bothered, with his knickers in a twist. No walking for Smitty on this day. He turns into Fang when he sees other cats. Look closely, and you can see the ridge on his back standing up.

We spent one night there, and then headed for home yesterday. Along the way, we saw Three Fingered Jack towering over a burned out forest. 

There were terrible wildfires in this area two summers ago. Salvage operations have been ongoing. The entire town of Detroit, Oregon, was destroyed. We noticed that folks have rebuilt and are rebuilding, and so there's reason to be hopeful.

There were no fires near the Three Cats Ranch this year, thankfully. We arrived to find the Black-eyed Susans blooming to beat the band.

On the far side of the house, fall has arrived.

We found our held mail stuffed in the mailbox. Inside, I found a surprise box of candy corn from my friend Sue. (Sue knows I love candy corn, and so she gifts me some at this time of the year.) Together, Mike and I have already devoured it. Definitely not on my diet. Thank you, Sue.

Also, my dear friend Pat sent me this book, "Desert Trader." It's a biography about the life and quilts of Goldie Tracy Richmond. You might remember I learned about her and this book when we visited Cactus Quilt Shop in Tucson. I'm going to enjoy reading this. Thank you, Pat.

The kitties settled in right away. They ran around outside for a short time, but then wanted in. Smitty took his place on his throne atop the china cabinet.

While I was putting away my fabric acquisitions, Sadie the sewing cat was in her rightful spot on my work table.

I was itching to get the Grandma's Thimbles embroidered blocks washed and pressed. You might remember I finished the first one before we left home six weeks ago.

The rest were all finished on the road. 

The one below was the last one finished on our last morning in Bend.

And so I'll be linking up to Sunday Slow Stitching this morning. It's been a while since I linked up there.

Okay, and so I arrived home to find something else in the mail. Way back in August, I was poking around on the internet. I don't know how I ended up on this Blueberry Backroads embroidery site, but there I was. And I came across this pattern, which I absolutely, positively, without question or doubt, needed in my own box of patterns. And so I ordered one. Something like three weeks went by, and still it hadn't arrived. (We have terrible mail service in our rural area.) I wrote to Sara Hardwig, the designer, and she sent another one. So...long story short...when I arrived home, both patterns had been delivered.

I wrote to Sara and offered to return it, but also offered the alternative of her sponsoring a giveaway of the extra pattern. Sara graciously agreed, and so you get the benefit of her generosity. This is a small hand embroidery project. It has a few of the less-often-used stitches, and a button packet to finish off the embellishing when your quilt is complete. If you'd like to win it, here's what you need to do:

1. Just leave a comment...any comment will do. If you can't think of anything, then tell me how the fall weather is shaping up where you live. Please leave your comment here on the blog. If you are an email follower, simply click on the title of this post to be taken to the actual web page. You can leave your comment there.

2. You can get a second chance to win by heading over to Blueberry Backroads and signing up for their newsletter. That link I just gave you will take you to the right page. But don't stop there. Take a look around the shop while you're there. Do some shopping if you like. Then come back and leave a second comment, letting me know you've signed up.

3. You don't have to be a follower to enter, but if you want to become a follower, you can find lots of ways to do it there in my left side bar. Also, I will ship internationally, so all residents of Planet Earth are welcome to join in.

4. Finally, if you're no reply, be sure to leave an email address. You can't win if I can't contact you; and it seems no matter how many times I say this, I still get a lot of no-reply entries. 

So good luck, and a big thank you to Sara at Blueberry Backroads for sponsoring this giveaway. I'll leave comments open through Wednesday, October 20th and announce the winner sometime on Thursday, October 21st.

As for me, I'm going to spend the day unpacking and trying to get back to a regular routine. As far as I know, our roofing project will start as scheduled tomorrow. Hopefully, I'll have internet access while all that is going on. Either way, I'll figure out a way to post the winner of the giveaway come Thursday.