Next Chapter in our lives

Haven't posted for a couple of weeks because there has been a lot of activity on the home front.

My husband accepted a position with the Bureau of Reclamation as a Mechanical Engineer at Grand Coulee Dam. As exciting as this is, it means a move for my business at some point.

We've been researching residential and commercial opportunities in the area, met some wonderful people through various new connections, but nothing I can announce yet.

Last Friday went to the Wenatchee Quilt Show and met the featured quilter, Jill Therriiault. I look forward to getting better acquainted and joining her small group of long-armers that meet occassionally to compare notes and inspire each other.

Sept. 27 the North Central Washington Quilt Shop Hop starts, so I'll have a go at getting around to the 10+ shops and meeting the area shop owners and do some research about the long-armers in the area. It will be helpful to find out what are their specialties, types of machines, price structure, queue length, etc.

I have done several baby quilts, pieced by Barbara B. in our joint effort to put some together for charity. My personal challenge has been to stitch them with my stitch regulator OFF. I'm fairly pleased with the result and believe it is a good way for me to improve my skills of consistent movement even when I have the regulator on.

This one in particular was a new design in my repertoire. Shown here is the back so you can better see the quilting design.

I'm looking forward to participating in the Modern Tools Blog Hop in October. Stay tuned for that as well as a guest blog post on the EQ blog.

On my Design Wall--still waiting for the remaining JUQ-CHS-WW quilt blocks coming in via the mail. But hung on my wall is a growing collection of my BOM blocks.

BOM's Away progress--I'll be happy to add pieced block #8 in Pam Bono's Out of the Darkness to the above photo, hope to get it stitched up this week! I did get block #9 mostly cut out.

More Design Walls ....more BOM's Away Progress

Our Adventure to CA is complete

Six weeks.....goes by quickly when you're working hard, right? :-)

Our final week in California was bittersweet. It started off with the celebration of my cousin graduating from college (see last week's post that included the Sunday celebration) and ended with lots of good-byes and arriving back home! Here is what happened.....

We returned to Bakersfield at the beginning of the week with only a small detour onto CA-134 and went right past my old townhouse in Glendale, CA from the days when I was first working in downtown Los Angeles back in 1989-92. Apparently I drifted off to sleep, and the navigator was therefore not minding the necessary instructions to stay on I-210 !! that transition in Pasadena has always been a tricky one, oh well, a fun detour down memory lane.

Duncan administered finals and worked on the grading and I focused on my projects, washing, packing, tidying up our accomodations, etc. I just have to show you the most up to date item in the house. Mind you this house was built in 1949 and is owned by the survivors of presumably the 2nd owner (Dr. B) which acquired the house in the 1950's. Dr. B made the front room into a long room with a projection booth at one end and a movie screen at the other so that he could show educational medical films back in the day. The projection room is still there along with a big reel projector. In 2000 the master bathroom shower was redone to have this tile work. The family had been missionaries in the south pacific. I'm sure these made him smile every day to be reminded of the those special times.

His daughter was my mother's roommate in college and was so kind, along with her brother to provide the accomodations for us during the six weeks we were in Bakersfield. She said that this is just what her father would want them to do with the house--use it for the Lord's work. We felt very blessed.
I had lots of quilting projects to try to wrap up, and I was fairly pleased with my progress. Lots of photos posted in my WIP update.

Big news was on Wednesday when I found out that "Spinner" is a semi-finalist in the Pacific West Quilt Show. This is a juried and judged show that takes place in Tacoma, WA, August 24-26. This means that you send in photos of your quilt to be 'juried' or selected into the show. I'm honored to be included. There are phenomenal quilters on the list!

On Thursday I went on a personal mission to see some family homes from our past in the local area. My father proposed to my mother in front of this house (right), in a car almost like the one still sitting there. It felt like I was in a time warp.

When I was a child and we came to visit my grandparents, we'd come to the house (I think) pictured below which was across from a beautiful park (below left). Lots of great memories running straight to the freezer to get double popsicle sticks or running in our underpants in the sprinkler to try and stay cool.

We said our good-byes to those at the school and our accomodation host, gave the borrowed lab equipment to a parent headed to MBA and chose to go I-5 due to it's straighter and wider lanes (vs. CA-99) and made it to the Sacramento area and stayed with Marlene's friend, Sylvia (Brouwer) Beamesderfer, from high school and college days. Great to re-connect and catch-up on life.

Friday we continued towards home making a detour to Crater Lake. Getting a stamp in my National Park Passport, reminded me I had been there almost 10 years earlier with Lollie (we had just worked with her at Bakersfield for the past 6 weeks) on a NW roadtrip from our days in San Francisco together. Crater Lake's north entrance was still closed due to snow and typically doesn't open until July. We had to walk quite a ways out onto this ice field to get this photo. A spectacular site! Glad Duncan got to see it as an adult. He's not sure, but he might have been there as a 5 year old, but not since then.

The Bodnar's once again accomodated us on our trip ....three times in the last 7 weeks. THANK YOU so much!!

As we entered the Walla Walla Valley, it was a stunning day. Great to be home and finished with that mission. We just wanted to help the students if they wanted to learn and provide some stability even if they didn't. We were grateful for the Lord's blessing in our safe travels and hope the time spent with the students will make a positive difference in their lives.

My California Poppies were spectacular, greeting us home to Washington! ha!!!

Our next adventure starts on Monday. I hope to be posting daily starting on Wednesday upon arrival in Ireland!

Week 5 of 6 on the CA Adventure

Sunday started out in Mammoth Lakes with a wonderful breakfast provided at the Cinnamon Bear Inn B&B.

Duncan got the idea to try and be at the highest and lowest points possible by vehicle and since Mt. Whitney and Death Valley are within the days driving distances, he added this to our itinerary.

The Forest Service Ranger had recommended a look at the Bristle Cone Pines, the oldest trees on earth. This was up about 10,000'. We did a short walk to get to these two 'Sentinel' trees.

Amazing how they just continue to grow after thousands of years.













We then went to Manzanar --a memorial to the Japanese Internment Camps that happened during WWII. They had quite a 'city' within the camp.

We drove further south and then up the mountain to Mt. Whitney Portal. The furthest you can drive towards the tallest mountain in the continental US. Now listed at 14,505 feet. (yes it keeps changing as technology gets better to do the measuring). There was a beautiful waterfall at the trailhead (end of the driving capability) but it is only about 8500 feet.

Next we headed towards Death Valley.

Here we are at Badwater Basin at 282 feet below sea level. The salt formations are behind us in the upper left portion of the photo. The sign mid-way up the hill (photo below right) is sea level.

In my quilts I find a variegation of colors very appealing. I tried to capture this photo as we headed out of Death Valley. The mountain side variegates in color through the different soils. The variegation continues around the curve but you can't see it in this photo. This all reminded me of my quilting!

To say it was HOT is an understatement...it was 112 degrees Fahrenheit.

Using our 'Gas Buddy' app found a gas station that appeared to be much cheaper, but we were nervous if we'd make it or not. Duncan coasted down several long grades of freeway to conserve fuel. Upon arrival at the gas station we discovered it was ONLY diesel. So much for accuracy on the app! :-p Fortunately there was gas just down the block even if it was more expensive. For the weekend we clocked over 1000 miles.

Exciting to work on details this week to confirm that my husband will come along with me to Ireland. I so wanted this to happen, but logistics didn't seem possible in the original planning. But, now we can! YEAH!!

I also got some personal quilting projects worked on (blogged about earlier) and met up with Pam Tarango a classmate from high school. Had lunch with my mother's roommate from college who has orchestrated our accomodations. What a blessing this has been, and I even got a girls night out with Lollie.

One of the teachers at BAA served in the Army as a chaplain and I believe is still in the Reserves. He was able to arrange for a Blackhawk Helicopter to come in honor of Memorial Day. The school put together a little program, honored veterans in attendance, etc.

A local quilter that I met at the Kern County - Cotton Patch Quilter's Guild meeting last week, invited me to go to the local quilt shops. I was in need of a few extra fabrics to put the backs together I was working on, so I called her to take her up on her offer and make the rounds. Got to Threads and Bolts, Strawberry Patches and a stop at Beverly's too. She even took me to her home and showed me her quilts and current projects as well. Thank you Sandy! I look forward to seeing her again when she comes through Walla Walla to see her friend on her trip to Canada. She knows all about Stash and visited it before they moved to the Main Street location. I got to see a quilt that she had made from fabrics she purchased there. Small world!

Several of the days this week have felt like my own personal quilting retreat. I'm getting lots accomplished. My trip to the fabric stores has yielded me fabrics so I can finish up a couple of projects and continue with another. No Moda Terrain fabric in this town though, so will have to wait until I go home and hope I can find the remaining bits that I need. I'll report on all of this progress next week on Monday and Wednesday blog posts.



Duncan has finished up the final week of regular classes. Next week is final exams.

This weekend we celebrate my cousin's graduation from University of Redlands. Joe is the youngest of my cousins (my father's half sister's son) and is getting a Bachelor of Science in Business. He was also inducted into the Whitehead Leadership Society. My parents came over from Arizona for the occassion as well. We're all very proud!

Here he is being congratulated by the President of the University of Redlands (under the 2nd facing flag set from the left)

Coming back to his seat.

Congratulations Joseph Edward Hewes!

Sunday included an open house at my aunt's home. Here are a few photos from that occassion.

Joe with girlfriend Janae

The Hewes Family (Gordon's father ..also Gordon...sitting)
Ronnie, Nathan, Diana Hewes Ortiz--proud sister and her husband and son; Joe; Gordon and Jean--proud father and mother



The weeks have clicked by fairly quickly. Just a few days left and we'll be headed home.

Week 4 of 6 on the CA Adventure

Although in my rushing around at home, I forgot to print the label for the commission quilt....alas you can buy these materials at retail prices wherever (just about!) But, I did save the binding for California since the domestic sewing machine I brought along with me has a great walking foot that assists with the binding so nicely. Photos of this quilt can be found on my posting last week.

On Monday, after dropping Duncan at work, I took off north of town to visit a couple of different friends. One the mother of a high school classmate of mine who had just gotten a new sewing machine. How fun was that to talk with her about some quilting basics since she says she'd like to try to make a quilt now with her new machine. The other friend was wishing for some strategy advice on creating a company, I'm always up for that! Good times!! I even got paid in cookies! ;-) Her FB page is www.facebook.com/sweetdreamsbysue. These samples she did up real quick for me don't tell the whole story....but I personally appreciated them very much. One thing is for sure, Sue wants the cookies to be special for your specific occassion.

The accomodations that we have graciously been blessed with are technically challenged, so the rabbit ears that convert the digital signals don't get ABC. Well, if you know what is on Monday night's on ABC, this is not a good situation since the Bachelorette season premiere was this week. Fortunately, I have friends in town with cable and we were able to convince them to let us crash at their place for a couple of hours ...much later than anticipated, but none the less with popcorn taboot! Thank you Lollie!

Also, Duncan told me that tomorrow (Tuesday) we'll be going to the beach! WHOO HOO....I hadn't had a chance to walk on the beach when we had gone to the coast the first weekend, so this would be great to work on those heels!! Yes, those are quilt magazines in the lower left corner as I enjoyed the sunshine and sand at Grover Beach (south end of Pismo)!

Here is Duncan's handywork for the day:

After getting our car load of students back to the school, Duncan and I enjoyed a night out of Thai food.

I got a few WIP projects done (posted last week) and on Thursday went to the local quilt guild's meeting. The guest was one of their own local quilter's, Cindy Seitz-Krug, who has had many quilts in the big shows, including Houston, MQS and AQS locations and won ribbons there too! She quilts on a domestic machine and gave tips on what she has found to work well then shared a trunk show of several of her quilts. Here is her website: http://quintessentialquilting.com and hopes to create a retreat location in Arizona in the next few years. My pictures won't do them justice, so check out her award winning quilts page. Her "Bluer than Blue" can be seen at the right edge of the photo below.

When googling about her, besides finding winning quilts, I also found the above photo--Apparently, she is quite a hunter too!

During Show and Share -- I thought this flag was very clever. The 50 white stars are pockets that hold the state quarters.

Nice to have a stage area like this so that all the show and share quilts are easily seen by everyone.


This weekend at Quilting Gallery is 'Wind, Earth, Fire & Water' themed showing....I entered my 'Mother Earth' quilt which was a practice Disappearing 9 patch during the first few weeks after getting my long-arm machine. I had collected Fatquarters in a selection of rainbow colors, but when making this D9P it started to feel real 'earthy', thus the name. I tried several types of quilting designs in each of the different colored shapes.

I had this milk and cookies fabric in my stash and decided this was just perfect--total comfort, right? !!

So...hop on over to QG and check out the quilts, there are some stunning ones! Vote for your top 2 through Sunday May 20.

This weekend we're enjoying the high sierra's once again. This time we went to Yosemite from the south side on Friday, seeing another grove of GIANT Sequoias at Mariposa Grove and making a quick stop at the Summer Camp (Camp Wawona) where I spent many weeks as a junior camper and one week as a teen camper. We made it just in time to take in a beautiful sunset from Tunnel View. Many photographers were camped out waiting for half dome (in the far distance center of the photo) to turn pink and everything else be in shadow. The falls is Bridalveil. We returned on Sat. morning to see beautiful El Capitan and saw several climbers on the wall. We drove through the park and I pointed out the usual haunts that our family frequented all the times we would go there when I was a child.

Then headed across Tioga Road (open really early this year due to the low snow fall). At Olmstead Point you get a view that few see. The east side of Half Dome. Many years ago my family hiked to the top of Half Dome and camped overnight. A treat that apparently people are not allowd to do any more. I really didn't think I'd see this side of Half Dome again, so it was fun to have this vantage point today.

We continued on to the eastside of the Sierra's getting to Mammoth Lakes by mid-afternoon. Neither of us have been to this area, so it was fun to explore it WITHOUT snow. It included finding this 'earthquake fault' which is really a fissure from molten lava hundreds of years ago.

This tree stump is all hallowed out. A fun photo taken looking up through the stump.

Just at the end of the road where we stayed at Cinnamon Bear Inn, was this restaurant called "Slocums". When reading about its history we discovered the name comes from Joshua Slocum (not plural). Joshua was the first round the world solo sailor. I have relatives with this same last name! Not sure if it is a direct relative, but could be related in the long lineage of the family, but fun to see it anyway. Made me Google the name and found my grandfather who ran track with Frank Wycoff (a 3 time Olympian) now part of the online world.

It will be fun to see where all we get to on Sunday! 'til next week......

Week 3 of 6

While at home during Week 3 of 6 of the California Adventure, the Krazy Horse Quilter's Quilt Show in Pendleton, OR ended on Sunday. Great to see friends who I have met along the quilting journey and happy to have displayed "Spinner" "Mi Amore" and "Charmed Network--Terrain version". Both "Spinner" and "Mi Amore" were on the backside of the 1st aisle--mostly wall hanging or lap sized quilts. I had nice comments shared with me on both quilts.

During the week, I was able to get 5 customer quilt tops quilted and quilt the commission/memory quilt as well. Photos of these are posted on http://www.facebook.com/kissedquilts. One that will hopefully raise significant funds for WWVA was part of the group. I also went to our local quilt guild meeting and won the block lotto of crumb blocks. This should be interesting to try to put together. I've already thought of titles --crumb cake, crumb corner, crumb walk. I'd like to make something with a more modern design.

Meanwhile, my husband was trying to educate students in their h.s. math and physics studies in California. Although there were several school disruptions to the acdemic schedule during the week, one included a 'water' day and Duncan took his air powered rocket launcher to school to shoot off 2-liter pop bottles--unfortunately many students were gone on their Choir tour.

I returned to Bakersfield on Friday enjoying some gorgeous scenery along the way. When at the Seattle airport it is fairly rare to be able to see the Olympic range.

Rainier was cloudless too.

Sabbath we enjoyed a day in the Sierra's going through Sequoia National Park and King's Canyon National Park. Both have groves of Giant Sequoias.



















Duncan well over 6' tall!




















 (left): Duncan is standing at the lower right of the photo in the shadows.

The branches are at least 4' in diameter.

What a beautiful way to end the week!