Quilt Strips and Water.

I've been busily working on the quilt for my son's 40th birthday and I'm making good progress!  Here are a few sneak peeks of my blocks....... and........... all 36 of my blocks are done! My deadline is around September 1st to get the quilt top to my sister for quilting (and I'll have to mail it as she lives 3-1/2 hours from me!).

Burgundys - oh I see two fabrics in there that I used for maternity tops I made when I was pregnant with my son!

I LOVE how the yellows and peaches strips came together! Many of these fabrics were used for quilted pillows I used to make back in the 70's.

This is how the entire process started:

Start washing all of your strips and squares and pieces (that have been stored in plastic bags in big tubs for the last 40+ years - then dry them...........

Pull them out of the dryer and you have a big mess!

Oh no!  The strips are all tangled together, along with all the ravels that have come off.. and twisted all together into this:

Spend HOURS separating the pieces and strips.

Multiply this by about 1,000!

After weeks, you finally start having a pile of fabrics and strips that are recognizable - after you ironed EVERY SINGLE ONE of course.

Then sew all of your strips (all 500 of them approximately) into some semblance of a square:

Then iron them.............

Then trim each "square" using a 12-1/2" square ruler, into real squares!

Here are the browns I finished a few weeks ago.

Oh purples how I love thee - oops... I see more pillows in there (made during the 70's and 80's - I was REALLY into quilted pillows.)

Blues - I see fabrics from curtains, pillows, a shirt made for my ex hubby, and see that fabric with the clown on it? That was the lining for a little denim vest I made for my son when he was about 3 years old. Each blue block has at least one clown strip in it.

Making this quilt has surely taken me down memory lane..............

Here are some of the blocks I've laid out on the bed. I don't have a "design wall" where you put your blocks up on a wall made with batting or flannel... so my bed is my design wall! They are laid out kind of wonky here.... I was just excited to see the beginnings of what the quilt would look like.

That's how far I am now. I have all of my blocks pinned together and ready to sew. My hubby helped me lay them ALL out on the bed into the design that looked best, and we made sure to turn all the wonky ones into the right position. The eyes can be very deceiving as you think they're all right, and then when you look again - nope.. there is one that is laid with the black strip in the middle on the wrong side!   MORE PHOTOS to come!

NOW IN OTHER NEWS............

I finally went for a little drive the other SUPER HOT day as I was needing my "fix" of some water!  I wanted to drive to a lake about 10 miles from our house, but first checked out an annual Crawdad Festival held a few miles away in a small town park. I had wanted to go for years as I was curious about where the crawdads came from. I didn't think they would be from around here as it's so dry here and not much water, other than lakes. 

I didn't take a photo at the park, but I got this photo off the internet and this is what the plates of food looked like as people walked out from the cook tent! I mean, those crawdads were huge, bigger than these! I never did ask where they came from... should have... but it was SO HOT and I didn't eat as didn't want to pay for the full dinner, (and didn't want to wait in the long line out in the sun to ask) but I'm glad I went. So.... I'm still curious as to what they taste like.. I figure they must be like lobster maybe? If anyone knows, let me know!

Recent picture I took of Mt. Jefferson (a year ago) WITHOUT the smoke!

The drive to the lake was hot but beautiful (for awhile anyway).... and I could see Mt. Jefferson in the distance, still covered with snow. But.... as I got closer to the lake, I could see a big wildfire with plumes of smoke rolling off the ridges to the west, and pretty soon the smoke obscured the mountain. There was nowhere to stop to take pictures, as I was on a very steep downhill, curvy road, with no places to pull over.

As I drove down the hill to the creek and lake, there was a little waterfall along side the road. I was SO HAPPY to hear water trickling down the rocks!

It was SO NICE to see water! The lake is huge and I only took pictures of where the "creek" runs into the lake, on under the little bridge and out to the lake. I was expecting the "creek" (Willow Creek) to be dried up, as it runs through our town and is now just a dry creek bed in town! But it looked like a full blown river and had plenty of water. I was very happy to see that.

To me, this is a river and NOT a creek. It is lower than normal, but still flowing... and that's HUGE in this type of climate... to have any sort of water flowing this time of year.

The lake is out in the distance - is part of the Deschutes River in Oregon, that has been dammed up for recreation purposes.

Oh how I wish I would have had a kayak! There were many out enjoying the water, plus motor boats and canoes. I wanted to walk down to the water, but from where I was, there were only very steep dirt trails down, and I didn't want to risk falling since I was alone. I had to be happy to just look.

From the internet.

From the campground website.

I drove to the little resort/campground and stopped in at the cafe for a soda and some snacks.... sat out on their deck overlooking the lake.... and it was SO nice and quiet and very soothing. I need to go there more often.

They have yurts for camping! I've always wanted to camp in one, but not this time of year. Too hot!

So I've had my water fix.. .and am back to sewing my quilt blocks together today.

Hope everyone is having a good week, and maybe some rain in their neck of the woods. We haven't had any for over 2-1/2 months, except one very short spurt of about 8 minutes about a week ago - not enough to get the pavement wet!

~Marilyn~