A Few More Blocks Finished

 I finished a few more blocks for the Canadian quilt.  
These blocks have been so challenging to make.

This one is my favorite!

It has been POURING rain for the last 2 days so I have spent my time sewing!

I need a few things to finish the last three blocks but I am hoping to figure out a way to use what I have to get them made.  

What are you all working on?

~XOP~

Canada Quilt Block 2, The Bear

I had time to work on the second block in the Canada Quilt today. 

 It is a black bear and he is SO adorable.

I only had to re-cut a few pieces (was I on drugs when I cut these out?? LOL) 

 I do love the blue heathered background I chose too but it is directional so 

if you make this you need to think about that. 

 It made cutting a little tougher, but worth it.
 I introduce you to my bear!

That face!  I wish the background showed up better.

You can see the color a little bit better in this photo with my handsome model!  

He is doing better every day. 

 It is not fun to give him a shot that hurts every day but his improvement is worth it.  

I am hoping to start on the third block tonight.  

~XOP~

 

Wonderful Woodland Quilt (aka the Canada Quilt) Progress

A year ago or so I bought the Wonderful Woodland BOM but had not had time to work on it.

I cut it out and have been taking it to me every time I travel.  

I thought that it would be a good one to work on while we wait for baby. 

 The first block is the moose with the Canadian leaves on it.  

Back story, my hubby goes FAR into northern Canada ( about 150 miles N of Soo Sault Marie, MI) to a cabin owned by his uncle. 

 It is very remote.  No electricity, running water or indoor plumbing.  

They have to take everything in and out when they go.

  They load everything into a boat, go across a lake, portage into the next lake and then motor across the lake to the cabin!!  I've gone there one time and that was plenty. 

 It is beautiful but I would rather stay home and sew!

He LOVES it up there so much.  He can fish and fish and fish! 

 So I decided that he needs a quilt for Canada.  

When I saw the Wonderful Woodland BOM I knew this would be the right quilt for him!  

I bought all the fabric and as I said, recently cut it all out.  

Yesterday and today I sewed on the Moose block. 

 I think I un-sewed almost as much as I sewed!  

Of COURSE I chose a directional background, 

so that made things even more challenging when I cut it out.

I got this far yesterday:

Of course I had loads of help <insert eye roll here>

Today I had a lot of sewing time!  I managed to get the whole block finished!!

Of course as soon as I put it on the table for a picture, my helper appeared!

At least you can see how BIG the block is with Finn in the photo.

Cole is doing better, thank you to all who have donated to his go fund me page. 

 I have his blood work scheduled on the 22 here in Chapel Hill.  

Thankfully I was able to find a vet that would work with us!  

I will likely have to order another  $1000 of medicine before we leave too.  GULP! 

 He takes the shots so well. 

 I am really proud of him (and his human, needle phobic helper).  

Please share the link for his page if you can or donate if you are able and want to.

No baby yet, but we are hopeful he will be here soon!  Stay tuned!

~XOP~

The Great Camper Adventure

 The RV Quilter's group put together the Sew Together Retreats.  As I said before I would go over and look in the window to say "hi".  It was the socially distant thing to do.  One time I took Cole and Debbie took our picture.  LOL, I borrowed Finny's cat sling to take Cole out for a walk.

The group "roadies" do a project and they had one left over so we got to buy it!  

They left it on our picnic table and said if we had questions on how to do it to let them know.  

We figured out the vinyl and they provided the light and the bucket.  

Many people put these out at night to let others know who was there.  

For us it was a way to participate while maintaining a safe distance! 

WIN-WIN

Another cool thing we used on this trip was the propane fire pit we had purchased.  

It worked GREAT!

Loved being able to have a no mess fire!

No need to hassle about buying wood and we can take it with us.

Sadly we left Franklin today and headed to Chapel Hill.

Finny was riding like this for a bit but he would NOT stop crying.

So I put him and Cole into kitty Jail (the cat carrier).

Interestingly they both settled down and then...

We heard a loud POP!

One of the tires on the driver's side of the trailer literally blew up!!!

Of course we didn't have a jack, wouldn't you know it.

So I called AAA and we waited.

and waited

and WAITED, for 2 hours.

The NC State Troopers came and blocked off traffic and then shortly after the AAA guys showed up

In the waiting period, Chris went into the field and picked these for me.

He knew I was pretty stressed about being on I-40 so close to the traffic

and stressed about the cats!

Anyway, the tire got fixed and we were on our way.

We are now at Springhill Park and getting settled in for a long month's stay!

Saw deer in the neighbor's yard tonight.

The folks behind us have a cat.

It was out in a short pen with no top and when I went outside to call "kitty, kitty" it didn't respond.

Not sure if maybe it is deaf and maybe blind?

I'm sure I will find out.

Never a dull moment.

I guess getting new tires for the camper and a jack are now on our short list.

Does anyone out there have any recommendations?

Hoping to sew tomorrow.

I'm so happy I brought some projects to work on.

I think my Scaredy Cat wall hanging will be first up.

~XOP~

Sewing In The Camper

 As promised I took some pictures of my sewing space today, or rather I had Chris take some pictures.

We took the kitchen table and put it in the living room.  I use that as a cutting table and a pressing station.  I brought my wool mat and teeny iron and it works great as both!  Then Chris set up my sewing table where the kitchen table used to be and that's where I put my machine.  I use a Gidget table.  It works really well with my Bernina 170, which I am traveling with right now. 

Finn likes to jump from my sewing table to the sink island.

Cole just likes to lay next to my machine while I sew.

I have to keep moving these 2 knuckleheads to fight for my sewing space!

I got up to press something and when I cam back they were in my spot! 

 I either have to move them or quit for the time being.  I think this time I just stopped.

This is the way things ended up.  My pressing and cutting station under the supervision of Cole.

This was me sewing the last border for my Christmas Bear quilt top. 

 I finished the top today too.

It felt like a real retreat where I was racing to complete at least one thing for the week!

I thought that hanging it over the railing would make it easier to get a picture. 

 It is quite large for me to hold up on my own.

  I am just not tall enough.

~XOP~

Airing Of The Quilts

 While I have not been participating with the quilt retreat, we did put some quilts outside for the "Airing of the Quilts".  All the quilters put their quilts outside and everyone walked around looking at the quilts and taking pictures.  Another GREAT socially distant activity so yay for me!  Here is just a small sample of some of the quilts.

I'll start with my quilts.  Chris helped me put up the quilts I have in our camper.  The blue one was a quilt I did a pattern test on. The Spartan quilt was designed by me and I love that the quilting has Spartan helmets and has words that say Sparty On.  The one draped over the hood of the truck is a Moda Bake Shop pattern using Dream On fabric.  The one on my right was the fishing quilt I made for Chris for Christmas one year.  The quilt directly in front of me has a years worth of my days recorded on it.  For 365 days I wrote every day on a block, then put them all together into a quilt.  Not a significant year, but it is a journal of my life from that year.  The bear face is a kit I had and decided to make for a little someone soon to arrive but shhhhh, it's a secret!

I don't know all the makers, but enjoy.

This one was a really cool woolie bed runner. 

Aren't these camper quilts adorable?

Plus look at that super cool Halloween bucket!

It was a really fun day, time getting ready for the airing of the quilts.  I did cut out a quilt top this day.

I will show you more about my set up and what I am working on soon.

~XOP~

Waterfalls In The Nantahala Forest

 On Tuesday we headed out to the Nantahala forest in search of waterfalls.  There is a road that has several that you are supposed to be able to see from the road.  Well you can see quite a few but there was not always a place to stop and actually view them.  The road was quite twisty and steep with no shoulder to speak of.  We were able to get out and get pics of 3 of them so I will share those now.

The first one was the most trecherous to get to but we climbed down the rocks and I was able to snap a few pics.  I think it was the Cullasaja falls.  These were the mountains we were in.  Of course it was raining, seems to be the way it is every time we go looking for waterfalls, LOL.

        It was pretty but nothing compared to what was to come!

Then we headed UP to the top of the mountain to the Dry Falls.

They were anything except dry!

What a powerful waterfall!!!

You can see Chris on the path and use that to gauge how large these falls were

This was from under the falls.

This is from the other side of the falls

This video shows how amazing these falls were in person.

Then we went to the Bridal Veil Falls.  These were directly on the road so very easy to get to.

Chris had seen this rope bridge on the way to the falls so we stopped on the way out of the forest.

I had never walked on this kind of bridge but it was a little scary!

We have been trying to find socially distant things to do.

Our daughter has requested we self isolate.

Hiking waterfalls in the rain seemed to fit the bill!

~XOP~