My First Quilt

Happy 4th of July!

I hope you have a wonderful day and enjoy the freedoms of our great country.  I wish our country was stronger and kinder.

Today is the beginning of SAMAS Trucking. I am pretty proud of my husband. He has worked hard to get the rig prepped and stocked for this big day. Today he is hauling equipment to Texas, then pipe from Texas to North Dakota. I am sure this is the first of many runs. Any extra prayers would be appreciated since we are a bunde of nerves hoping this venture works. 

I set a goal for today. Finish my first quilt. I am here to report that I have accomplished that goal. 

My friend Lisa opened a fabric shop Apricot Stitches. She held a class to make a piece pillow. I took the class excited to learn something new. It was a wonderful class. One huge perk was I won a charm pack! 

A charm pack is a selection of a fabric line pre cut into 5 inch squares. They are perfect for beginners! I can promise that. I then purchased another charm pack and the white fabric and the important Charm School book. I read this book from cover to cover, devouring each word and every instruction. I learned a lot. But not everything. 

I cut out the fabric and started sewing blocks. Then I took another class at Apricot Stitches. This one was a class on gingham quilts. I sewed a quilt for my husband using the nesting techniques I learned at the class. I finished that quilt. My husband has used that quilt every day since I gave it to him. It is on the big rig right now.

I went back to making blocks with the Christmas charm pack when the Christmas season arrived

Christmas 2019 was really good to me. I yielded several quilting supplies and notions. This set me up to be able to quilt with ease. 

I sewed more blocks and then sewed them together making the awesome 'on point' design you see in the picture. Then I set the project aside for a few months while I focused on another quilt. After I finished the Vintage Farm Girl 2 quilt I pulled this out and sewed a border of red grunge. Again. I set the quilt aside and went back to work after 6 weeks off for COVID-19 shutdown. I since completed a different quilt with my favorite Modern Farmhouse fabric (more on that later). 

Back to my first quilt! Today is the day I sewed the binding on and finished this quilt. It is far from perfect but each square shows I improvement. I learned so much doing this quilt and had such fun. And while it took me months to accomplish I did it! 

Thank you to Lisa who quilted it with red, green, and white thread. I love it so much! The flannel snowmen on the back and binding make me smile and I am drawn to the chandelier effect this patten-which is called Chandelier- gives. 

I am happy happy with this quilt. I am happy with SAMAS Trucking. I am happy with this holiday. I hope you have a wonderful one! 

Quilting is fun!

Hello world. It has been a long time since I have written. There are copious reasons, distractions, interruptions,  procrastination and side tracking as to why I have not written. 

Fast forward to today.

I have developed a new hobby. Piecing quilts. Cutting fabric, sewing fabric, pressing fabric and arranging blocks which then get assembled into a quilt. It is tedious and completely satisfying! 

Here I am pressing a seam open 

More pressing

Followed by more stitching and assembly

This square is a sample of the several I have completed. I have many more to finish before the quilt will be done.

I am excited about this quilt. I am a huge fan of the fabric! Modern Farmhouse is the name of the line. It was love at first sight! The floral, the black, the plaid, oh my heart had no chance! 

This is the second quilt I have made from Modern Farmhouse. I consider myself very lucky!

How are you? Are you handling the world? 

I  found myself unable to work for 40 days in March and April. The dental office I work at was shutdown due to COVID-19. At first it was unsettling. I had never been out of work in all of my adult life and suddenly I was home and not able to go anywhere. I did go to the grocery store and was shocked to see the hoarding of food and supplies that was taking place. When I saw my first empty shelf it was eerie, almost spooky and ominous. I went home not purchasing a single roll of toilet paper. Being at home is a comfort to me. I am safe here. I was prepared to stay at home and self quarantine or social distance or shelter in place-whatever you want to call it....I mostly sat at home. I liked it. I am a loner and enjoy my own company. Even as I type this and I know it is true I still remember some very unsettling thoughts during this time. So much information was being sent out and yet so much was unknown. Life changed in a matter of hours. 

Today my life is almost back to normal. I miss the shut down. Life was simple for those 6 weeks. Is that weird to say? Work has been very busy and I feel lime I am always behind and never caught up. My housework is suffering aka not getting done completely. This chaos is mentally draining to me. I am trying hard to keep up with life and find myself lacking. I miss the simpler days of shutdown/quarantine.  

That is my two cents.

Hey everyone  I have not written in a year  much has happened,mostly just life. My father passed away in September.  It has been hard and I miss him very much.  Work has been work. I have finally quit Smith's pharmacy. It is so nice not standing on my feet for 10 hour shifts. I miss parts of it but for the most part life is better. 

May 2017 Scott and I participated in a fun golf for charity. We were able to buy raffle tickets and win more at certain holes. I had about 12 tickets. I was able to put tickets into buckets for certain prizes. The bucket for the grand prize of a night at Daniel's Summit. There were tons of tickets in the bucket. I mean dentists were buying feet if tickets. I had 12. I put 2 in the grand prize and 2 in the camp lounger chairs and 1-2 in buckets if other fun stuff like a Dutch oven and braclets by Alex and Ani. I ended up winning the 2 camp lounger chairs! And the night at Daniel's Summit! We scheduled a night in Feb for our anniversary but had to cancel and decided to go in April . This turned out to be a way better. We were the only guests!!!! We went swimming and hottubbing for well over an hour. We raced, jumped, floated, raced again. Then when I got cold I would go into the huge hot tub and soak and warm up. It was completely wonderful not sharing with anyone else, and not being self conscious. It was so fun. We then had dinner and like movie stars we charged it to the room! After breakfast the next day we checked out and ended up paying $18.01 for the night and all the food and some trinkets from the gift shop. We had fun!!!

We were back in Vernal for a bit when Little Sweet Pea candy store called and said I had a gift ready for pick up. Wahooo! My friend Ruth gave me a yummy basket for my birthday. It was a wonderful surprise! She does that often-- surprise me! 

I cut my hair recently and yesterday I just felt good and took a picture of myself. I just felt cute. Don't bust my bubble😉

While at Daniel's Summit I stubbed my toe. Hard. As you can see it is sore. I have been babying it all weekend glad I don't have to wear shoes 100% of the time. Wish me luck today at church. Although I hope it is warm enough to wear sandals. 

Well that is all the excitement I have had. Although I have vacation coming up in May. We are going to Delta! Oh yeah that is as exciting as we are getting this year. It is a good thing I have fun anywhere!

Oregon Coast 2017

Our long anticipated trip to the Oregon coast started at 4:30 am. We were in the car and driving out of town. We drove strait to Arcata, CA. It was a very long day with only a few stops along the way. 

Suzie did amazing! I was worried about how she would handle such a long trip. I prepared her with blanket in the back seat and a curly sheephide treat-she has part of it hanging out of her mouth-so stinky but worth the distraction for her.

We arrived in Arcata at 9:30 pm and had a quick dinner of Carl's Jr and went right to bed. We were so blessed to have a great trip and not be too tired or cranky or stiff or back aches or ANYTHING! It was such a blessed trip!!!! We know we were looked after. 

After a GREAT night sleep in the hotel with a great bed we woke early and headed north on highway 101. Not 5 minutes into our drive we saw the ocean with elk! It always blows my mind to have elk at the beach. But here it is. Nature is just too cool!

Scott and I stopped at some redwood trees for a photo op.

They are truly big trees!

We stopped at the Trees of Mystery Museum for potty break. Paul Bunyan and Blue were in the parking lot. To my surprise Paul was talking to people-live conversation. Very cool!!!

There were some HUGE lillies in the path we were walking Suz.

The bear next to Paul

Bigfoot is real. He was inside the museum!

We stopped and had lunch somewhere(maybe Bandon, OR)--I should remember better. All I know is we stopped at a grocery store and got sandwich things and stopped at the next picnic area which happened to be on the beach. 

Scott sitting at our table while I ran to get the camera

Umpqua River Lighthouse. It was windy and cold but I would rather be cold than hot!

Suz first visit to the beach

Scott just ran for it despite the cold 

Suz did not like the waves!

Seals and sea lions

My camera was zoomed in as far as it could-Scott spotted the bald eagle in the center of the pic near the seals. We had hiked down as far as we could. It was neat to see.

The bridge in Coos Bay. A very cool bridge!

Some shells and stuff

Starfish

Big starfish

Heceta lighthouse

This beach was in our background in above pic. 

Our cottage in Coos Bay. It reportedly had  beach access but it was overgrown-sad. We stayed 3 nights here. It was a nice place. I did have a tick on me one morning and found 2 more throughout the day. I am a tick magnet! ICK. We think it was from the house. 

Coos Bay sailor dude

Suzie running for her life

On the beach at Oceanside, OR

From the deck patio in Oceanside

View from deck in Oceanside

The sun was actually out as was the tide so we explored around the rocks.

Suz is really scared of the waves and did not like being in the water

Dr Monfredi got all of us a Chillbo Baggins for christmas. It was a fun little float/thing

More elk--this time in Northern Oregon

The train in Rockaway. I might just have to take that tour one day!

Oceanside beach-after a great meal at Rosanna cafe. I had crab cakes with yummy rice and green beans and Scott had a pasta dish with scallops and prawns. Our favorite meal of the whole trip.

The stairs in the middle of the pic are up to our deck.

.

Just a cool pic of the clouds.

our last night. soo sad

Suz is tired. She is ready to be home

good bye beach!