The Long Journey Home (And Finally: that Gift-Away!)

South Fork of the Payette River, Garden Valley Idaho.

Hello, everyone!

My feet are back in North Carolina after a crazy week away with limited to no wifi  - but this enabled me for the first time in a long long time to step away from the blog for several days and not worry about it.

This daily writing has been a huge part of my life over the past 15 years that this blog has been running (Yes we turned 15 in June!) and it was interesting to do a check in now and again on how I was feeling – Anxious? Worried? Relaxed? Out of sorts? BREATHE BREATHE BREATHE.

Actually, I think it was very good for me.  The world marches on. They don’t need me here – and so we went with the flow.

We can always catch up.  Or not.  We can simply move forward from here -

Big Old barn on a long and winding dirt road.

I was able to pretty much stay connected to Facebook and Instagram when I had the merest cell signal, but it wasn’t enough to connect the laptop.  I posted several video clips  of where we were and what we were doing and seeing, so check those out there if you can.  In the right hand side bar of the blog (viewed on a real computer, not a phone.) there is a little slide show of things posted to instagram. 

Quotes of the day happened!  Did you know there is a tab for those at the top of the blog if you missed them?  I MUST start my day with those – that is the one thing that sets my day off on a good start.

My mom’s little house in the woods.

Garden Valley, Idaho.

We left Oregon on Friday morning and headed  back to Idaho – destination Garden Valley to spend a couple of days with my mom before flying home.  The time was short – but we soaked up as much as we could. 

My mom knows me inside and out – and she knows that I was stressing out trying to fit everyone and everything into the time we were in Idaho and Oregon – my Dad flew up from Arizona to surprise Scott for his birthday party – I wanted time to spend with him as well as Scott and Alicia.  We stayed at my brother Mike’s house since Scott’s house was now full – my mom and stepdad came down for the birthday party in Boise, but there really wasn’t a lot of time to spend with them then.

And then we headed over to Oregon on Tuesday to spend time with friends, abandoning family all together, and THAT stressed me out (Was I being too selfish?)  I worried that I was giving my mom the short end of the stick with only a bit more than 24 hours, but we fit it in.

I love my mom’s beautiful yard!

Hanging in the kitchen -

Circa 1990-something.

I looked around the kitchen while making dinner – and there over the sink is a little hand quilted wall hanging I made my mom way back when.  Scrappy even then. 

I slept under a quilt I made her circa 1996.

Hand quilted.

Another quilt I made mom – pyramids -

Quilted on my domestic sewing machine.

(Yes, I’ve always loved blue and red!)

Perhaps that is why I love THIS scene so much too!

This occupied me all the way home -

Boise to Salt Lake City to Atlanta to Greensboro.

If this looks like a new project - it just might be.

Or it could simply be something small to keep my hands busy - After forgetting my Diamond EPP papers in NC, I made myself move them up to the QPO in VA only to....yep! Forgot them there, too! Lol!

At any rate...this may just evolve into something, somehow.

Things watched on the plane:  POMS (LOVED IT!)  Tolkien (Fascinating) A Handmaid’s Tale – HORRIFYINGLY DISTURBING.  I made it through most of the second episode (Hulu series) and It’s just too fundamentally creepy for me to continue.  We don’t have Hulu anyway, so the only way i’d be able to continue is on the plane –But then I am flying to California and then Kenya in October -  Maybe if I’m desperate enough….

Okay. That brings us to NOW, and I need to do this drawing -

All of these goodies are going to -

(Check the original post HERE for more info!)

Who is entry 786 of 5432?

JK Erickson!

JK – I have sent you an email.  Please reply with your mailing address so I can have the kind folks at Quilty Box get your prize out to you.  Congrats!

This morning I am in a bit of a hurry – I scheduled a massage for this morning (Yes on Labor Day, but I need it!) And then I’ll be back here to take care of things at home.  I’ll travel up to Virginia tomorrow to take care of things there, and then off to Pennsylvania to teach for the Quilt Odyssey retreat on Thursday – no rest for the weary this week either!

Quiltville Quote of the Day --

This is my mantra for today after having arrived home past midnight. Some yahoo started shooting off his guns just before 7:00 a.m.. Welcome home to North Carolina!

Pinwheel Fancy Quilt from my book Addicted to Scraps! Did you know I have several past titles on sale in the Quiltville Store for the low low price of just $19.99?

Come check it out!

Have a wonderful Labor Day Monday, everyone!