Three Weeks of Southern Living

Fair warning - this is a long post as it covers 3 weeks of visiting with family.

The last posting covered Kenzie and Kayla horse skills and Kenzie's science statewide science award.  

No trip is complete without a trip to the zoo.  And no family visit is complete without a few flamingos in it! The Columbia Zoo has a new feature.  It is a climbing structure which I promised Kenzie I would go on with her.  

It really, really sounded fun.  This thing is 3 stories high.  They have you harnessed in and clipped on to overhead rails.  So hey, there is no way to fall.  It was a busy day at the zoo so Kenzie and I had a long wait just to get inside.  How brave we were.  Of course, Kenzie had done this before and knew what she was in for.  Me, I was just being the brave grandma with a bunch of little kids.  I made it up the stairs to the first set of ropes and even managed to get over the first set of challenges (the one with rope hand holds).  The next set had no rope hand holds....mmm.  By this time Kenzie was already on the second story and here I was getting cold feet and thinking how stupid I would look if I fell and was left dangling in space.  So I turned around and retraced my way back to the stairs and down.  Kenzie played on this thing for almost an hour.  I came back down to sit with Kayla and Bill.

Don't they look happy and glad that they weren't up there!  

 
You would think Kenzie had enough climbing but had to try the palm tree!

After touring the zoo we headed back home again.  
 
Then the time came to head out to Edisto Island and a few relaxing days of walking the beach, bike riding, shopping, playing  games, boating, and fishing for the guys.  This beach house backed up to the marsh so it was easy to know when the tide was in or out.  Sarah and Joe are really good at finding shark teeth and you could spend hours bent over while walking the sand.

 The house had a wonderful screened in back deck so one evening we watched
a thunder and lightening show as it moved in from the ocean, pass over head, and then move on to the mainland.  We don't get storms like this on the west coast so we were in awe of the show.  

We also tried some of the island's food offerings....


All too soon it was time to pack up and head back home again!

Bill and I rented a car to head over to TN to see Monica and family.  Joe gave us his GPS to use and had programmed in Monica and Barry's business address in Cleveland.  So it should have been a quick (5 1/2 hour trip).  The first part of the trip went fine, we passed the signs to Clinton and were still on the interstate highway.  We were following the GPS voice but somewhere along the way we found ourselves in Georgia!  Having no maps in the car we had no idea where we were but knew nobody had said anything about traveling through Georgia!  We had no choice but to keep following the GPS instructions....we did see a lot of back country roads with little traffic on them!  Then we saw signs that we were in NC which we knew we had to go through and finally TN signs appeared.  

When we hit Cleveland we gave Monica a call and let her know we were at their back door of their business.... we still are wondering how we made it there.

They are the proud owners of the Deardorph Cameras.  (oop's the spelling is off on their business name)  What a lot of history they have collected with this endeavor.  There are very few large format camera makers in the world today but photographers are still using them. 

While in Athens we got to tour the Mayfield Dairy which processes milk (of course) and ice cream!  

Aren't we a happy bunch!  We also got to watch a rugby game that Matt, a family friend, coaches.  The game made no sense to me but the girls (yes a girls team) were having fun.


A jump forward in time brings us to the Happy Valley resort where Monica and Barry rented a cabin for all of us to stay in.  What a wonderful, peaceful setting with the cabin on the river.  

 The girls, Muriel and Bobbi spent hours hiking the trails and Bill and Will went fishing.  One day Monica and I dropped them off at a lake to fish while we did a quick trip back to the business as a large format camera was ready to be mailed out and since Monica had done a lot of work on this one she wanted to see it completed before it was mailed out.  


When we came back to picked up the guys we found them at a different spot on the shore.... both of them were still fishing but with no luck.  

This is Bill and Will still trying to catch something!  What they are really doing is teasing a fish that wouldn't bite.  Monica and I were just taking it easy in chairs watching the river flow by.  


At the end of this visit we took Monica and Barry back with us as far as Black Mountain so they could pick up their car that had been worked on.  After they got the car we drove into Black Mountain for lunch and some shopping at the art galleries and other stores.  What a pretty little town.  I just wished we had more time to explore it but it was probably good we didn't as I left with three shopping bags of purchases.  (We had done carry on while flying and were going to do carry on returning also.  These purchases will become a challenge later on!)


I wish I had taken more pictures of our TN visit.

We came back late on a Friday and missed Kayla Half-Marathon run.  She came in a head of a lot of kids who were older than she was.  She does like to run.

 One proud little girl?

While there Sarah and the girls had scheduled a Mothers/Daughters Day while two other women and their girls.  They were going camping at a State Park in Columbia.  It was Sarah's job to reserve a spot and set up the camp site for the other ladies and girls.  I went with her while she and the girls did this.  Nope, I didn't spend the night!  After the overnighter Sarah and the other ladies packed up and came home.  Aren't independent women wonderful!


Joe and Bill got one last fishing day in before it was time to head home again.  

The girls with Mr. Basil.  There is a whole other story that goes with this picture but we will tell that at another time.


All too soon were had to head back home again.  Where did the three weeks go to...they went by way too fast.


Thank you Sarah, Joe, Kenzie, Kayla, Monica, Barry, Will, and Muriel for making our visit so much fun!  We will be back before you know it!!!


Happy Family Time!




 

Spring Break in SC

The sky is blue, the sun is out, and it is warm!  After flying out of Portland, OR on a cold drizzly morning it has been wonderful to be warm again.

Bill and I flew into SC to spend time with the granddaughters on their spring break week.  It has been time spent with lots of 4 square playing time, some quilting time, and horse back riding.

The girls take horse riding lessons through the YMCA and were able to lease their favorite horse for an hour to show off their skills for Bill and I.  They were so much fun to watch.

 Kayla bringing the horse out and taking him (TC) to the barn.

 Kenzie currying the horse before putting the saddle on.  And Kayla on the other side brushing TC.

 More horse care before the fun of getting to ride.

 And finally the time has come to ride.  Kenzie just asked me if I had pictures of her cantering on the horse.  Oop's those pictures were on Bill's camera. After riding for an hour the horse needed to be put away with the same prep process of brushing, currying, putting tack away, etc.  

 The days are flying by.

Happy April Fool's Day!

Bill and I were the last ones up this morning.  We were told that Kenzie's boa had escaped sometime in the night and was downstairs as Sarah had found the mouse poop of the last feeding on the stairs. Everyone was on the search for it.  The cat was put in it's cage so he wouldn't find and eat the snake, Joe had the flashlight and was looking in all the dark places.  I went in to check in the bedroom where we sleep thinking that there was a good possibility it could be in one of the suitcases.... This went on for awhile before the girl's started laughing and shouting "APRIL FOOLS".  They got us good on that one.

This afternoon we go into Columbia to watch as Kenzie receives her science award...more on that with pictures tomorrow.

So far it has been a great stay and we are looking forward to more days of family time.

Happy April 1st!

 





 

Bad, Bad Girl

After spending hours and days on the applique quilt that was going to be entered into the Roseburg quilt show, it has been sent to the time out couch.  The sash stripping is not coming out the way I hoped it would.  Knowing that it would be heavily critiqued, it wouldn't have passed the judges good opinion.

 It still will be finished to hang on our wall but....  So what was there left to enter?  After going through the finished quilts I came across these two that I had totally forgotten about.  They were experimental but original and they were finished....mmmm.

Both of the quilts are mixed media.  The first one is oranges.  I used real oranges as a stamp with yellow fabric paint.  It is hard to see the top stitching but it is there.

The second little quilt is done with lemons, same technique as the oranges.  It will be interesting to see how they are judged as I don't remember ever seeing painted quilts entered before.


This is why I am a bad, bad girl.  There is a new project started - Yes, I know.  We should finish projects before starting new ones!!!!


While at Chris' house for a quilting day I browsed through one of her new quilt books and came across an interesting quilt.  I have never liked the hexagon pattern until I saw it used in this totally different way.  It can be a very portable quilt as there is a lot of hand basting and hand sewing that goes with it.  So it was one of those "need to try it out" projects.  See attached pictures!

I have found out that if you add just an extra 1/8th to the template it is a lot easier to hand bast.  This is also know as English Paper Piecing.

So we will wait and see how this project progresses.  In the meantime there is still the dog quilt on the design wall.  

Happy New Projects!

Close but not finished yet!

Needless to say, it is not done.  

 Maybe tomorrow.

Happy sewing!

Will It Be Ready in Time?

I know, I know!  I should have been inspired by the quilt show and came home from it happy to spend the hours and hours it would take to finish my quilt.  Some how the days are flying by and very little quilting is being done.  And I can't use 'cleaning house as an excuse either.

That being said, yes, some work has been done on it.  All 12 squares are finished (including the replacement one).  The top two rows are sewed together, so some progress has been made.

 

What isn't showing in the picture is all the beading and french knots.  Next time I will try taking some close ups and see if more of the detail will show.

All four rows!  

And an extra for Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day! 

Stitches in Bloom - A Quilt Show

The first major quilt show of the year in Oregon is this weekend.  Chris, a wonderful quilter friend, and I drove up yesterday to take it in.  It was held at the Oregon Gardens in Silverton just outside of Salem.  Since it was an almost 3 hour drive from home we left at 8 AM.  The driving time went by quickly as we talked the whole way....what do women find to talk about - well, just about everything!

You are not dropping in to hear about 6 hours of driving and talking so on with the show!

The quilt show is called Stitches in Bloom and the featured quilt was just that.  But for that quilt you will have to scroll through the whole blog to see it as there was no space large enough to hang it at the show.

 Notice the fog and the grass that we are parked on!  This is the over flow parking...

 ...but we made it!

The following pictures are only a small part of the quilts that were there, and not all the quilts had pictures taken of them.  They were all outstanding and made by the best in the quilting world.  

So sit back and enjoy!

 The show was broken into two buildings so Chris and I started in the closest and smallest one.  This quilt was a raffle quilt and it will go from show to show with a drawing sometime in the future!  It takes only one ticket to be a winner so I bought a ticket and so did Chris.

This building held the selected quilts for Oregon: State of Diversity 2. The following is only a few that were there.

Oop's rather dark.  This was one was made with raw edge applique.  Trying to match up quilts with quilters is a quess but I think this one is called "At Ocean's Edge" by Laura Jaszkowski.

The fish were painted on this one while the reeds are hand appliqued on.

And a close up.  Possibly "Spawn" by Kathy Blondell.

"Three Sisters: Clouds Rolling In" by Sheila Finzer.  Looks like a photo!

An odd one but colorful...close up follows.

"Glorious Pears" by Karen Bates.


These were only a few of the quilts in the first (small) building. From here Chris and I walked down to the larger of the exhibition building.  Again, the following pictures are only a few that were there.

Velda Newman was the featured quilter of the show.  This was only one of her quilts featured.  We sat in on one of her lectures and learned that this quilt took her a year to make.  I wish I had taken notes from her lecture.

A more traditional block quilt.

Isn't this a gorgeous one....I have close ups on it if anyone would like to see them.

If you are a quilter you know what Chris is looking at!  What does the quilt look like on the back....???

There was so much talent displayed here...

A pineapple quilt...it could have been because it was Friday but it was quite easy to take most of the pictures without a lot of women being in them. But then women are also very nice to move out of your way when they see a camera.

There were a few men but not many.  This quilt has a feathered star center and there were no cut off tips.

The following pictures are from the 2:30 lecture that Chris and I sat in on.  As mentioned before Velda Newman was the featured artist for the show.  The following quilt was taken out at the end of her slide presentation...

This quilt took Velda two years to complete.  


These have only been a few selected pictures from the many taken.  The show was awesome.  It was a fun day spent with Chris doing what we like best looking at quilts and shopping the vendors!  We both came home with vendor goodies!


Happy Quilting Days!