Another road trip

We left last Thursday for a meandering trip diagonally across Oregon to meet up with family in Roseburg. As we left Idaho we had sunny cool weather with hills turning green.

The sunny weather turned to cloudy with some rain off and on during the day. We stopped at the John Day Fossil beds and the painted hills area. There was rain and some ominous looking clouds over the painted hills.

The rain continued to get heavier and as we left Bend the following morning headed south and then west over the mountain for Roseburg we had snow.

By the time we arrived the weather cleared up for a trip to a winery and a relaxing evening. The next morning we all went for a wonderful hike up in the mountains to a water fall. Incredibly green growth with moss and ferns in abundance, quite a visual feast for someone living in the high desert. Here's the dogs waiting for us to catch up.

We took one more hike during the weekend but for the most part we just spent a whole lot of time relaxing, eating, enjoying the wine and company. A great weekend overall, then a long drive back home. I did keep up with my daily project, even doing one inspired by the ferns. Here are #72 thru #77.

Today has been a bit of a waste, other than my little four inch square, I've accomplished nothing. I had left the pieces I showed last time on the design wall hoping that I would be inspired to get right to work. It didn't happen. Maybe tomorrow.

New life for a rejected piece

Back in September 2009 I dye painted a piece that I planned on quilting as a whole cloth quilt.I wrote about it here . Well after quilting the center I was dismayed to see some unsightly wrinkles forming that required taking out stitches. The fabric is a very tightly woven pima cotton and all the needle holes remained. I got discouraged, folded it up and tucked it away. This week while avoiding working on my current piece, I happened to think about it, pulled it out of it's hiding place and took the rotary cutter to it. I cut three pieces out of the original that I'm quite happy with. There is some of the original quilting in the two larger pieces that I'm okay with, I just need to add more. Here's how they look today.

The bigger ones are about 22"square and the smaller one about 14" square. I do like them hanging together, but I'm not sure that's how they will stay. Here are #66 thru #71 of my daily project.

Daily Project Update

After I stitched #65 this morning I decided to see how they all looked.

Only 300 more to go! I noticed that in the picture they look quite yellow, they aren't, I should have changed a setting on my camera to take the picture.

Mothers Day fun

On Mothers Day my friends Barbara, Lisa and Kathleen spent the day with me in Studio B. I showed various ways of screen printing and then everyone got to play with my 'stuff'. It was a great day and it motivated me to start doing some printing again. Yesterday I mixed up a gallon of print paste and am planning some deconstructive printing. Kathleen also gave me a piece of fabric she had dyed a very vibrant orange, I want to turn it into a whole cloth quilt. Barb brought over the challenge piece that she did for the Pacific West Quilt Show so that I could take a picture of it. She has done this very whimsical and dimensional piece.

Here it is with the very different style piece that I did for the same challenge.

Here are daily blocks #57 thru #63.

Road trip

We are back home after our latest road trip, this one to Reno. This is pretty much the view for eight hours each direction. It's a good thing I enjoy the high desert landscape.

It's not a complete trip without a stop at the Rock House for a latte.

Here's the doll with her new owner, my very cute granddaughter Arie on her third birthday.

Also while there I did a 10k race, since there were no walking categories I was in with the runners and still came out 7th in my age group! I was also a little over three minutes faster than when I did the same race two years ago. My son did the half marathon and was 2nd in his age group and 32nd overall. My daughter in law also did the 10K as a runner and did well. We were all quite pleased with our results and are attributing them to the wonderful sushi we had the night before the race. I kept up my daily stitching project, #50 and #56 were done while we were on the road. I really have a tough time doing anything while riding, I prefer to just sit back and gaze out the window and let my mind just wander. I really could get quite a bit done if I could get used to doing something while riding. Here are #49 thru #56.