Blogging from the Road

We spent a restful night on the Ohio Turnpike at the Blue Heron RV overnight parking area. 

It only cost $20 and we even had electricity. 

This is only the second time we have used any turnpike overnight facilities.  

We walked over to the plaza and bought some magazines for me to read, a coffee and chocolate chip cookie and two cream cheese frosted cinnamon buns for breakfast.  

You can just see in the distance the plaza through our van's bedroom window. 

Below are the collapsible fabric bins from Target we use for storage.  Very lightweight so they don't add weight to the vehicle.  

I'm using one for my crochet yarn and the other bin holds tissue, a  small fabric waste paper basket and snacks for the driver (that's not me!).  

A view of our van's living room with chairs turned around.  Hubby loves his chair to relax in in the evening. 

Today we will be driving straight through Chicago on I90 through the heart of the city heading north as we work our way west to Yellowstone, the Grand Tetons and the Colorado Rockies. 

We haven't driven this route for quite awhile.  We use to work downtown Chicago. 

As you know we lived in the Chicago area for 26 years before moving to the  Philly area.   We are very close to Chicago so I'm signing off now.  

Hooting About My Owls

With more quilting lines added

I'm 99.9% done with my second "Party with Patrick" wall hanging project...

Halloween Hoot Owl 

Adding black trim piping.

Haven't added the extra quilting lines.

I thought I was done the other night and hung it up the wall to stare at it.  

The more I stared at it the more I thought it may "need" more quilting. 

Without extra  quilting...too plain.

Close up of blacking piping and orange binding

It looked "ok" but it could look even better.  

So back down to the sewing room I went to add more quilting lines.

Back of wall hanging.

I actually enjoy quilting by machine.  

Using my Janome with its special AccuFeed Flex attachments and feet make the job "sew" easy.

I had to do the orange binding twice.  

The first try by machine turned out awful so "frogged" it and sewed it "by hand".    

I like the extra quilt lines.

The quilting lines are done and my label is made.  

I just have to hand stitch my label on the back and it's finished. 

To see all posts related to this project click here.

Our Pleasure Way Excel TS travel van.  

We have been busy here at Teacup Lane.  

Our travel van is packed for our road trip out WEST.  

We're heading out tomorrow early morning on our way to the Colorado Rockies, Yellowstone and Grand Tetons.

I love these flowers!

We haven't been to these western parks since 1975 - as one year newlyweds camping in a tent.  

We were just looking at pictures from that long ago trip...oh, my...we were so young and so skinny.

We spent sometime last week reorganizing the van - tweaking some cabinets that weren't working as well as they could. 

And we took a lot of stuff out that we didn't need.   

The less clutter the better it looks.

Plus driving down the road you can't have anything out loose or it will fly all over the place.  

Everything needs a storage area - an assigned spot where it is put away.  

  

Hope you all had a lovely Labor Day weekend here in the USA!

Strange weather here...sunny, muggy and then rain.  

Very muggy!

As I type this I hear thunder so more rain is on the way!

Boo - Boos!

I'm rushing.  

And making mistakes. 

Well, more like little "BOO - BOOS"! 

Our next "Party with Patrick" project for September.

But I want to get as much done on my second "Party with Patrick" project as I can before we take off on our road trip out WEST. 

I have a confession.

I hate measurements.  

Percise measuring and cutting are soooo NOT me.  

I have to force myself to measure twice...no several times...before cutting.  

So why do you ask did I not precisely cut out my first three five and a half inch squares?  

Because I told myself I could square them up after they were appliqué. 

Used spray adhesive to stick the appliqué pieces together before sewing them down.

Want to know why that theory didn't work?  

Because "dummy" (that's me!) sewed the thick black buttons on for the owl's pupils and then the cutting square wouldn't lie flat on the fabric to measure and cut it precisely.  

What to do?  

I decided to cut out three more six and a half inch squares and appliqué the owl squares to them. 

Because I precisely cut them they are true and square!

First layout I discarded because my brain couldn't figure out how to sew it together.

And if that wasn't enough of a challenge for me. 

I turned the larger squares on an angle.  

Now this first pattern I laid out didn't work (see photo above).  

I couldn't figure out how to sew these pieces together. 

(Of course now that I look at the layout I finally "see" how I could have sewn it together.)  

So I cut up the outer pieces that were giving me trouble (i.e., the four black with green leaves fabric on the corners) and then it all came together nicely and precisely.  

 And after hacking up all my fabrics I didn't have enough of one fabric for a solid fabric back so I pieced together strips of all the fabrics I used on the front for the backing.   

The purple fabric with the black witches was my first choice for the back.

However, the witch fabric didn't work to use for the back.  

I have to start paying attention to how designs run on fabrics because when I got home I discovered the witches ran up and down the fabric not across.  

I didn't have enough witch fabric to run the design the correct way.

Anyway... I kind of like the different fabric strips for the back. 

The next step is to layer it all together:  the back, batting and front and quilt it.

  

Front panel of the wall hanging and under it on the right is stripy back panel.

It's a "wonky" Halloween Hoot Owl because not all the owls are straight and one owl has his wings touching the outer square (bad owl!).  

Even with my Boo-Boos mistakes I'm surprised it looks as good as it does.  

It's going to be beaut-i-ful when it's done.  

BOO - HOO!