As the terminator would say "I'm Back!!!!"

Been gone for 13 days.  Drove from Vancouver to California, stayed in Anaheim, did plenty of walking, relaxing, baseball games, and so much more....  But before I start in any of this I have to mention right away a tragedy in Medford in Oregon.

See more about it here at this link-   http://www.kdrv.com/content/video/488343601.html

Those poor people who lost their homes.  The entire area and Ashland had tons of firefighters in the area, very busy trying to save homes, and many were, but with 101 lightning strikes, it's amazing how bad it was.  And we drove through it.

You could see the smoked areas and how black it was.  Although we saw some areas already burnt from last year (still black and barren), we were not sure if we already saw this or not.  But in the end we realized that these were fresh and we found out later it happened 2 days before we were on the road.  They even closed the I5 for a
day (the route we were taking).

It smelled smoky even before we saw what was happening.  And I commented to my husband how hazy the sky was.  I thought it was because of the heat.  The day was 44 degrees hot (thank goodness for air conditioning in a car!).  But the more we drove into Oregon the more we saw a worst haze, then the smoke.  The sun had not even set yet and the sky was turning orange.  It was the weirdest feeling going through it, making you quiet, not wanting to disturb something that could turn the sky orange.  We both felt it, something that scared you, but we didn't know what was happening until we tried to get a hotel room.  That's when we found out two things:  1 - the fires that were so bad, and (2) there were no hotel rooms to be had.  Not only were they full from the fire fighters, but they closed the airport in Medford and all the travelers were stranded.  Hotel rooms went to them.

All of this happened at about 7:00.  We couldn't get a hotel anywhere near this area.  We ended up in Eugene thanks to the help of a couple of girls working at the Best Western in Medford.  They phoned around for us so that really helped and we're greatly appreciative.  They became my new best friends  :)

So the first day coming back we drove over 18 hours, not smart, but we had no choice, that's where the hotel rooms were.  We left Long Beach at 6:30 in the morning and stopped travelling at 12:30 at night.

On the bright side, it was the first time I ever stayed in Eugene Oregon.  And we slept in, so it was nice to wake up to a beautifully prepared breakfast from the Best Western - cheese omelette, scrambled eggs, pancakes, fresh biscuits, cinnabonne buns, and so much more.  That was good because Tim and I didn't stop for supper, but we had food in the car, so we were OK.

The next great thing was Tim said why don't we stop at a quilt store and get a row by row for you to remember this whole thing about.  The theme of the row by row is Music, and I wasn't interested in getting any more since I have over 100 to still complete from the last two, but we went to make me happy.  And boy, after was I ever happy.

The quilt shop is called Piece by Piece and here is what their row by row looks like:

Their idea comes from the poem:

I hear the wind among the trees

Playing celestial symphonies;

I see the branches downward bent,

Like keys of some great instrument.

--Henry Wadsworth Longfellow    

“A Day of Sunshine”

I love the idea of it as well as this beautiful quilt which really is a little hard to do, but well worth it because of the stitching.  I have a circle maker that can easily make all these circles, but each circle is attached with fancy stitches, so I will look great when done.

I also got a lot of patterns (they're really big into Elizabeth Hartman's patterns).  I got two of them.  See them below:

Called North Stars and

Called Lloyd and Lola.  I really want to make this as another barn door for my place.

Can't wait to start them.  But then I saw another pattern from another of my favorite blogs Sew Kind of Wonderful.  At the Quilt Canada show I purchased a QCR mini ruler (a ruler that makes curves easily).  This pattern will really show if I can do it well.  Great practise at a pattern that is forgiving yet challenging.  

It makes a quilt 80" x 103" or any size I imagine if you add squares.

Those patterns are not the only ones....  Yes I bought more!!!!But I'll leave those for a surprise.....One is going to be a Christmas gift.

That's it, it's a lot this blog entry, but it has been two weeks.  So happy sewing, I have to catch up with my BOMs and this month's quilt from the All People's Quilt Challenge (and my cousin's quilt to finish with the butterflies).