The Quilt - finished!

I really DID get my quilt finished - the one for my son's 40th birthday. It's amazing that I actually completed a project! I'm just a little late getting the pictures posted. My son's birthday was Sept. 13th.... we finally made it up to Astoria where he lives, on October 12th - better late than never right? Due to my husband's illness and me not feeling well with my bouts of vertigo, we delayed our trip, but finally did make the 5 hour drive. It was a BEAUTIFUL and PERFECT weekend for the drive.

Mt. Hood from the car.

Heading down from Mt. Hood to Hood River. Great places to camp here!

Mt. Hood on the way home...... this is part of the glacier that tends to flood in the winter and cause huge landslides over the road. This entire gravel area is usually full of rushing white waters.   We need some snow on the mountain!

The colors of trees over the mountain were stunning... but I never did stop to take any photos! What was I thinking???

We had a great time visiting with my son and his fiance (Miss T.), and her son. They are "officially" engaged and hoping for a wedding next summer! I'm so excited! It will be my son's first marriage and he has found a wonderful, loving lady.

We celebrated his birthday with pumpkin cheese cake. Yummy! Opening of his gift (finally)........

He got teary-eyed when I told him all the strips were from 43 years worth of my sewing. I also made him a little photo book with pictures of various things I'd made, clothing for him, his dad, me, house decor, etc. Each picture had a piece of the actual fabric by it. He loved it!

We went outside for the best pictures.

Can you see that striped binding? Took me about 10 hours to hand sew it on.

Close-up of the binding. I love the "racing stripe" look. He was a motorcycle racer in his younger years, and I thought the black and white stripes would remind him of the race flags.

My sister did a BEAUTIFUL job of the quilting on her long arm machine.

Look at that beautiful border my sister quilted!

Reverse side of quilt. I used fabric I've had for at least 10 years, meant for a king quilt that I've never made! Glad I finally found a use for it.

Here is the quilt on our bed - before the trip to Astoria. It shows the block quilting really well. I chose the designs of the quilting from looking at Pinterest for ideas.

My son has already told me they are going to use this for their main quilt, on a new King bed they will be getting soon. It is supposed to a "queen" sized, but it fit really well on our own king bed also.

PUMPKIN CARVING:

While at my son's house, we did some pumpkin carving. I haven't carved a pumpkin for at least 20 years! Needless......... it was very fun and I enjoyed it. Only the girls and her son carved.. the two guys watched..... party poopers!

I used a pattern, which I've never done before, and carved a castle. I've never done fancy carving..... it's quite an art now, with people painting them, inscribing them just below the surface, etc. I always just did the triangle eyes, nose, and mouth with teeth. It was fun to try something different.

Notice the nail in the head on the left-hand side pumpkin? Of course, that was her son trying to make his pumpkin look gorey... he also added some blood oozing out! What a kick.

NEW KITTY:

There's a new kitty in my son's family. He brought to the mix a big orange tom that he already had...... and now they've added a sweet little gray kitten. Her name is Willow and she's a doll. My son's fiance and her son are both allergic to cats..... but somehow they are managing to enjoy this sweet little kitten (taking their allergy meds every day!). Miss T. said she's never felt such love for a little kitten before as she never could even get close to them. I'm happy that she can enjoy this very special bond with Willow.

While in Astoria, we also made a trip to Miss T.'s store in town, called Terra Stones. She moved her store from across the street in a big old, ancient building... to this smaller, newer building. What a difference she said the move has made. She has much more business as she's now on a corner, and her store is on the "sunny" side of the street. It's very modern and classy looking.

Very popular bear - many photos taken here as all of the customers love it!

My son built many of the glass cases (stands) for the store. This carved wood was around a skylight in his bedroom at his dad's house growing up (the beautiful house that was just sold recently). I was so surprised and glad that he salvaged those hand carved pieces (by his dad) for the store.

So many gorgeous and unique items in the store.

Gourds carved by a local craftsman.

My vertigo is somewhat better as I've been having some "Epley Maneuvers" by a local physical therapist. It's a maneuver where they have you turn your head, and then they lay you down really fast - you lay there for 30 seconds, and then they sit you up really fast. There are several different ways they perform this maneuver. He says I still have a little residual "floating" of particles in my ear, which are still causing me some lightheadedness, but not the horrible dizziness and nausea I was having. I'm so thankful. I can live with this and hopefully it will go away on it own.

Now that the big project is done (the quilt), I'm ready to head back to my paper crafting!

Have a wonderful weekend everyone. It is still GORGEOUS here with temps in the 70's, and blue sky and golden days. I'm not ready for snow or winter yet.

~Marilyn~