Destination Oregon- Day 10

We travelled from Yellowstone through Idaho and are staying at a little place called Mountain Home,  just outside of Boise. OMG it was hot today..how hot was it you ask. You know that Idaho is famous for their potatoes, right?…it was so hot that the potatoes were being harvested out of the fields, already baked!..43 degrees celsius hot! And that was at 6 o'clock in the evening.

 

We stopped in Twin falls after seeing the Snake River Canyon where Evel Knieval did his famous stunt. I had a little time in a nice store in the center of town called the Stitchin Time. I managed to pick up a couple of patterns and a new ruler to try when I get home.

Destination Oregon- Day 9

Definitely no quilt shops today. We spent  six bloody hours driving   the day exploring Yellowstone National Park. It was amazing and absolutely vast.  Old Faithful Dear hubby and I saw Old Faithful…and just our luck, we arrived at the site 5 minutes after it had erupted and  had to wait another 90 minutes. We saw the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and I was amazed at the likeness it had to the real one.  We visited the Upper and Lower falls as well as Tower Falls. Poor Dear Hubby was white knuckled by the time we were finished as the roads were sheer drop offs and barely enough room for two cars passing. Plus it  didn't help me yelling every two minutes to slow down, and every other minute yelling that he was too close to the edge. Maybe he was white knuckled gripping the steering wheel rather than my neck.

Destination Oregon–Day 8

We have finally hit the real mountains…amazing. We travelled from Wyoming, through Montana then into Yellowstone National Park. We are staying at a KOA cabin just outside the West Yellowstone Gate. We haven’t even pitched that blasted cool tent we bought. I know we will as we booked a few tent sites when we get to Oregon and Victoria BC .

  I did manage to get to a quilt shop today in Billing Montana. It’s been difficult as the drives have been long and my co-pilot is anal  on  a strict schedule. A lovely little shop called Backdoor Quilts. One of the woman who worked there used to live and work in Sisters so she was telling us all about the quilt show…can’t wait.

Destination Oregon Day 7

We took the Spearfish Canyon Loop drive to Deadwood SD and saw some amazing scenery. We spent the afternoon in Deadwood, an old gold mining town, now a tourist centre with lots of gambling. I think we lost $5 between us. We’re not great at gambling, plus it was much different than our casinos at home or in Vegas. They are very small with just a few machines and virtually empty.

From there we were off to Wyoming where the scenery changes yet again. There are very few trees and the land looks baron. We ran right into a huge thunderstorm as we travelled. You could see it approaching with huge lightening bolts. The rain was incredible with many travellers pulling off to the side of the road.  The picture shows it  as we travelled towards it.

We did stop in Gillette to visit a quilt store, however since it was Monday it was closed. I’m just not having much luck so far with finding many shops on route at the time we are traveling. It’s hit and miss. I just keep thinking that I will get my fill when I get to Sisters.

We are not however, having any difficulty finding beer for Dear Hubby. This is a Belgium beer that he found he liked and has been pounding  them back sampling a few. 

Destination Oregon- Day 6

We had a full day of sightseeing around the Mount Rushmore area today.

We took a phenomenal drive through Custer State Park. Hairpin turns, tunnels, amazing views, wildlife and nail biting ,cliffhanging roadways…literally.

We lucked out seeing Bison..up close and personal.

No quilt stores today as it was Sunday, but tomorrow is another day!

Destination Oregon-Day 5 …

Well the heat wave has broken and it was a pleasant day to see sights across South Dakota. Last night we stayed in Sioux Falls and headed on our way again today. Dear Hubby and I posed for a pic at Sioux Falls.

A short distance out of  Sioux Falls is a Sculpture tourist attraction. I had read about it on the internet and had wanted to see it. Looked  promising from the road. You had to drive down a dirt road a mile or so when you came across the artwork, a trailer, an abandoned metal shed and a sign scribbled in paint that said tours $6. That was enough for dear hubby. His quote…”we’re out of here, we’ re in the middle of bum ____ no where, some psycho is gonna come out in a minute, with one eye and a wooden leg, and I’m not paying $12 bucks to see _____. “  It’s evident dear hubby  has no taste   for culture. We ventured on and stopped in Mitchell to see the Corn Palace and da da da da a quilt shop was only a few blocks down… called the Pin Cushion. 

I picked up a nice bag pattern and a quilting stencil. You could see the scenery change today from flat farmland, to rolling meadows and cattle ranches, then the Badlands. Finally you could see the mountains in the distance, very faintly, but they were there. We had fun at our final tourist trap site called Wall Drug. I’m riding a Jackalope, a cross between a rabbit and an antelope…and the legend lives on.

Destination Oregon–Day 4

Da-da-da-da…I told you I would  get to a quilt store today!

We travelled through Wisconsin, Minnesota and have hit the  hay(literally) in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Farmland as far as the eye can see as well as wind turbines everywhere.

We stopped at a little village called Sparta with a lovely store called The Quilt Corner. I saw several patterns that I wished to buy, however the area had just had their local shop hop and 2 of the 3 patterns I wanted were sold out.  They did have a great July sale on fat quarters…20 for $30.  Can you really ever have too many fat quarters? That’s what I said so I picked out 20.  The heat continues and hit the 40 degree mark again today. They say that there should be relief tomorrow from the high temps. We are starting the leg of our journey where there are a lot of tourist spots to visit. The visits would be much more pleasant with lower temps.

We have an option on our GPS for Strange and Curious tourist attractions to visit.  We visited the World’s Largest Six Pack in Lacrosse, Wisconsin.

 

Destination Oregon- Day 3

 

More mileage today as we made our way across country.         

 

We travelled through Illinois, stopped and visited in Chicago. Saw the Sears Tower. It was very hot, again, however  Lake Michigan provided a little relief. We had lunch at the Cheesecake Factory where I sampled gorged myself on the most delicious Key Lime Cheesecake. To die for. As we headed to Wisconsin late in the day the temperature rose to an incredible 40 degrees. It had been amazingly hot first thing in the morning as well. As we were sitting having our coffee, I felt like the Wicked Witch from the Wizard of OZ….”I’m melting, I’m melting”.

You might ask why no quilt shop visits yet…well…dear hubby has been driving non stop, it’s hot as _ _ _ _ and quite frankly I didn’t want to start pissing him off before we got half way across country to the Sister’s Quilt Show, then it would be to late to turn back. I’m gonna start aggravating him today for sure.

It was far too hot to stay in our tent last night, so once again, KOA cabins with air came to the rescue.

Destination Oregon-Road trip Day 2

 

We are well on our way and I am all set. I love my Tom Tom. Just by fluke when I was downloading new maps to it I came across a download for Quilt Shops. It was like I won the lottery! You just press quilt shops close to your location and voila..4200 in total. Dear hubby was not impressed.  He was just ticked cause there wasn’t a download for hockey stores. No quilt stores were visited today as it was the 4th of July and not much was open. Besides that you wouldn't have ventured outside air conditioning today as it was sweltering. Look at the temperature on the dashboard…39 degrees and that was late in the afternoon.

We passed thru Michigan and Indiana and planned on using our tent in a KOA we had booked in Granger. Once we arrived to check in we were dying from the heat. The fellow at the KOA asked us if we would be interested in upgrading to an air-conditioned cabin…HELL YES.

At this rate, temperature wise, not sure we will get to use the tent!

Destination-Oregon…Road Trip…Day 1

 

Today is Day 1 of our Oregon Road Trip. Several months back I mentioned to dear hubby about a fabulous quilt show held in Sisters Oregon each year, never thinking he would ever consider knowing he would jump at the chance to go. At first he just grunted said that it would be a long way to go for a quilt show. AND YOUR POINT IS?  A few weeks later, out of the blue he says, lets go, we’ll do a road trip, go right out west to the coast, up to Vancouver, then home again. This would be quite a trip as we live in southern Ontario. You don’t have to ask me twice, I’‘m in, and so the planning began. I hope you stay tuned as we make our way across North America. It  will be quite the ride as we are driving and purchased a “truck tent” ( fits in the back of your truck bed)  God that sounds so redneck  to camp a few times cause we’re cheap to save money. If we survive each other the heat, bears and gas prices it will be a miracle. Dear hubby just might come home in a box, and I don’t mean truck. So to celebrate the trip I had a pedicure and of course you’ve got to get a design. The girl must of thought I was nuts sentimental when I asked for a camping scene with mountains, pine trees and a tent. She tried her best, bless her heart. Anyway I’m stuck with it cause she added 3 topcoats.  OMG I should have had wax treatment done as well do I really have that much hair on my toes?

Farmer’s Wife

I was teaching a monthly Farmer’s Wife class at Kindred Spirit’s Quilt Company and last month was the final class. It was 10 months long, meeting the 1st Wednesday of each month. The aim was to have students complete 5 blocks from the book each month. This would help them get well on their way to completing their quilts. It was one of the best classes I have had, such fun, so many options for fabric. Everyone  did amazing and their blocks were all gorgeous. I didn’t use all my blocks in my wall quilt. I only needed  41 to complete the size I needed for the wall in my living room. I had more than a few blocks leftover for a runner as well. I custom quilted the wall quilt but used a pantograph on the runner. I wanted students to see the options available for quilting , custom  or pattern. I preferred the custom, but the pantograph looked quite nice as well.  I was kind of sad…. I tried to use up my scrap stash while making this quilt…believe it or not, it didn’t even make a dent.

Calendar Girls

 

I’m BACK……Well rested and ready to go, did you miss me?

I’ve been finishing up a few projects during my hiatus, promising myself not to start anything new until the UFO’s are finished…do you know how hard that is?  It’s hard, major hard. Plus, I’m one of those people that can be a bit flighty…you know the type….

I start and stop things at the drop of a hat when something better comes along…I’m so bad that way.  Dear hubby gets frustrated when it involves stuff around the house cause nothing ever gets completely done.

This is my Sunbonnet Sue quilt COMPLETELY finished, and already hung!. I love it! One of my favourites.