Portland to Tucson Adventure Part 2

We drove from Williams to Boron, CA on Monday. Since we got such a late start we drove until well after dark. We drove through Tehachapi, CA. My husband Alan's dream is to watch the trains in the Tehachapi Loop. That wasn't an option this time; it will have to wait for another trip.

We left early Tuesday morning. We didn't get as far as we had hoped because of our problems on Sunday, but we figured if we left at about 6:00 am we would make it to Tucson between 4:00 and 5:00. That would still give me some time to get laundry and other things done.

We made it to Banning, CA without incident. Then Holly, our friend from Quilter's Cove who was following us called. This time her travel trailer had a flat tire. She called AAA and they were there in less than 30 minutes. The driver got her tire changed and we were back on the road again.

Next stop is the Zip Travel Center at the Vicksburg Rd off ramp in Salome, AZ. It's a great place to stop for gas and a little snack. They have some delicious chocolate chunk and peanut butter chocolate cookies that I love. I shouldn't eat them but they just call my name every time we stop there.

At 1:20 Holly called again. Our same back travel trailer wheel was smoking again. Unbelievable! We were in the middle of the desert 31 miles into Arizona and about 15 miles from our planned stop at Zip. It was 105 degrees and the sun was shining right in my window. Needless to say it was time to call AAA again.

Since we were in the absolute middle of nowhere, miles from anyone who could help us, getting help was even harder than when we were stuck on Sunday in Maxwell. The AAA operator was so helpful. She found a tow service and tried calling several tire places to see if she could find someone to help us. She pretty much struck out for immediate help. The tow service could get a truck to us at 6:00 pm but she gave us their phone number so we could see if there was anything else they could do for us.

Alan talked to Robby from A Toe Truck which was the company AAA referred us to. He had a truck big enough to tow us but couldn't get it to us before 6:00. He was nice enough to make some phone calls on our behalf. He found a place in Blythe, CA that would help us.

Chris from Bulldog Emergency Auto Repair drove all the way from Blythe, about 45 miles to take a look. He told us on the phone that he would try to help us so we could drive it back to Blythe where his shop is. But if that didn't work, we'd have to wait for Robby's tow truck.

 I was terrified to get out of the truck. Every time I got out I could just hear the rattlesnakes, whether they were there or not. So unless it was absolutely necessary, I stayed inside with the air conditioner running. I got a lot of stitching done on my third Santa Trio block. I did get out to start getting things out of the trailer that I thought we would need because I knew we were going to have to leave it for at least a day or two but I planned for the entire weekend. Bless her heart, Holly took some of our perishable food and put it in her refrigerator so we wouldn't have to throw that away if we couldn't plug in at the garage.

Chris arrived at about 3:00 and was able to take the wheel off, it pretty much just fell off again, and jacked up the trailer. He put some blocks underneath to hold the trailer up. I wasn't about to get down on the ground to see what it looked like to take a picture. But this is what it looked like later.

I took this picture later because of course this happened on the driver side

Now we had to drive all the way to the next off ramp, which was the Vicksburg Rd off ramp, turn around and drive all the way back to Blythe; it was about 60 miles or so. Holly followed us to the off ramp then she went on to Tucson. We didn't even stop (so I didn't get my cookie) we just wanted to get to Blythe without incident. It took us 2 hours to get there. We arrived at about 5:30. It was obvious after Chris took a good look that we were leaving it there pretty much all weekend. So that meant I had to get more stuff out of the trailer, including the laundry. We were so full inside the cab that the laundry had to ride between the two front seats all the way to Tucson.

We grabbed a quick dinner at McDonalds (not my favorite dining spot but it was food) and headed to Tucson. We were able to get a room at the show hotel, Red Roof Inn right across the parking lot from the Expo Center, and arrived there at 10:30. That was 16+ hours after we left Boron that morning. But we made it.

To be continued (unfortunately).....

Portland to Tucson Adventure

Little did I know when we had to change a tire on our travel trailer when we arrived in Portland that this was just the beginning. More about that in a minute.

We had a great time at the Northwest Quilting Expo.  This show always has beautiful quilts on display. These are just a few of my favorites.

We left Portland early Sunday morning. We needed to be in Tucson, AZ by Tuesday. My hope was to get there by early afternoon to do laundry and catch up on paperwork before we set up the show on Wednesday. But sometimes things just don't work out the way we plan.

For those who have never seen us driving down the highway, we have a large GMC truck with a big shell on it and we haul a 30' travel trailer. The truck holds our product and the trailer is our home away from home on the road. See an earlier post about how we pack everything in there and set up a show.

Our friend Holly from Quilter's Cove made the trip with us. She drives alone so when we are both heading to the same show, we often follow each other. It makes her feel a little safer and we are happy to have a buddy on the road.

The plan was to drive to Woodland, CA and leave there early Monday morning to miss the Sacramento traffic. However at about 3:00 Holly called to let us know that one of our wheels was smoking. So we pulled off the freeway and called AAA.

We were one mile from the small town of Maxwell and about 20 miles from the next "big" town of Williams. We were too big for the tow truck to tow us to Williams. Our wonderful tow truck driver Luis followed us off the freeway. We were going about 20 mph and the wheel started smoking by the time we made it off the freeway. The new plan was to drive to Williams on surface streets. We drove about another mile at 5 mph and we were smoking again. We found an empty lot and stopped there.

It was obvious we couldn't make it to Williams. Luis jacked up the tire and the wheel practically fell off. He put what was left of the wheel on blocks for us.

By now it was well after 5:00 on a Sunday so all of the garages and repair places were closed. Luis, made some calls and gave us some phone numbers to try on Monday for help.

We had to spend the night in that vacant lot.  Luis went to school with the people who own the lot and said that we would be fine there. Luis lives close to there and said he'd come check on us in the morning.

After many phone calls on Monday morning we finally found someone willing to come take a look. John from Mid Valley Auto Care in Williams came to our rescue. He went back to their shop and got the parts he needed to get us up and running again. Once he got us all fixed up we drove there to have them put a new tire on the spare we put on in Portland. We were back on the road at about 11:30. We still missed the Sacramento traffic, just about 6 hours later than planned.

We are so grateful that Holly was following us and to AAA for the outstanding service they provided us. If Holly hadn't called us to tell us the wheel was smoking, who knows what might have happened?

To be continued.... (unfoturnately)

Trip to Lake County CA

We took an extra couple days on our way to a show in Portland, OR to visit our friends Robin and Tina of Bird Brain Designs. They live in Lake County CA. We drove through that area once several years ago and were excited to have a chance to stay and visit. Plus it was nice to basically take an R&R day for a change.

We got a tour of their new studio in Kelseyville.

Studio Entrance
The cute yellow car belongs to the owner of their next door neighbor Kelsey Creek Brewing

The studio has only been open since mid-June. So it is a work in progress. They have combined their RedWork and Wool designs with their love of antiques to create a warm and inviting space.

The studio is open Monday - Saturday. If you are ever in the area, they would love to have you stop by. There are lots of cute shops and other things to do in the vicinity.

If you can't make it to the studio, you'll find most of their RedWork designs along with all the goodies you need to stitch them in our booth at shows. We are the "Baby Birds." They are only doing a few shows a year, we're doing the rest for them.

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We saw lots of interesting things on this trip. Watch for future blog posts about those. In the meantime Happy Stitching.

Carol

Santa Trio Portrait Block #2

I finished my second block of this project. It helped to pass the time while I was waiting for my granddaughter to come out of surgery last week. I am always happy to have some hand work with me in situations like that. It helps to get my mind off what is going on. Not that you can put it out of your mind but it is a welcome distraction.

I have been talking about Sulky's Sticky Fabri-Solvy throughout this process. One thing I want to stress when working with this product is to set your printer to Draft setting when making a copy or printing from your printer. Less ink gets on the stabilizer. I find that is rinses out a little better this way.

Today I'm going to address what happens after the stitching is done. You may find it helpful to peel away the excess stabilizer along the outside of the stitching. I wouldn't try cutting it away from the inside, just large amounts around the outside edge. This is optional. I have done it without trimming too.

Fill the sink with some warm water. Put the completed project in the sink.

Put the project in a sink full of warm water to dissolve the Fabri--Solvy

Agitate it around for about 2-3 minutes. The stabilizer will start to dissolve almost immediately. Once it appears to be completely dissolved, empty the water and then run clean, clear water over everything to rinse out any excess Fabri-Solvy. When you are satisfied that all of the stabilizer has dissolved, hang it up to dry.

Hang it up to dry

If you discover after it is dry that the fabric is still a little sticky, just repeat the process a second time. Because I like to test things to see what you can and cannot do, I have also put my project in the washer to rinse out the Fabri-Solvy.

I have encountered a situation where there was still a little bit of residue after rinsing. I contacted Sulky about this. They also stress that it is important to set your printer to Draft when printing onto the stabilizer and I really think this makes all the difference in successfully removing all traces of the ink. They also suggested putting it in the washer with some Shout or similar stain removal product,maybe in with some other similar items so you have a little more agitation. In one case I know of it took two such treatments on cold water setting. However, in all of the cases I personally know of, it has come out every time.

When you are ready to finish up the project, put the stitching face down on top of a towel and press it. The towel underneath helps you get into all those little areas. You can use a little spray starch if you like. Now you're ready to finish up your project.

Happy Stitching,
Carol

New Website Page

I'm always looking for ways to improve our website. Teaching is my favorite part of what I do. Whether it is a lecture, hands on class, or just demonstrating a technique in our booth at a show; that is what I really like to do. It's one of the reasons I did all of the binding tutorials on my blog.

Last week I created a new page called Tutorials on our website. I hope that it will be seen as the Teaching Page on our site. In addition to things I have posted on my blog, there is a QuiltCut2 Fabric Cutting System Demonstration and another video that shows how to Align the QuiltCut2 Cutting Mat. As my travel schedule permits, I hope to have the time to add more topics. I also want to learn how to incorporate more videos onto the page.

I hope that you will take a look at it and give me your feedback. If you have a topic of interest related to quilting, RedWork or hand embroidery in general, contact me. I'll see what I can do about addressing your topic.

Happy Quilting,
Carol

Fiber Art in Unusual Places

I am always amazed at the different places you can find quilts and other fiber arts. When we did a show in Pueblo, CO there was a beautiful sculpture of a woman with a gorgeous quilt wrapped around her along the Riverwalk.

Chieftan Sculpture

Yesterday I was in the doctor's office and there were several pieces of Fiber Art that were framed. Some were just gorgeous pieces of fabric. Some were beautifully embellished pieces of fabric. This was the main piece of art in the waiting room where I was.

Chenille Jacket

I'm not sure if people in the waiting room appreciate everything involved in this type of art. But those of us who are quilters and fiber artists enjoy seeing them on display, wherever we may be, even if it is in a doctor's office.