Where Have You Been?

Posted on May 30, 2017 by prairiemoonquilts in Travels

Oh, wait . . . it’s me that’s been missing lately, right?

Life has been a blur! I started traveling on April 20th, and I finally landed at home again (other than for unpacking and repacking purposes) on the evening of May 22nd. On one of my stops by the ranch to drop some things off, unpack and repack, and take off again, My Cowboy hollered after me as I was leaving: “Thanks fer stoppin’ by!”

Ranger has grown sooo much! His little horns are getting long, and he weighs nearly 20 pounds now! Not to mention, he gets a little more independent every day, and seems to think he owns this place.

He spends his days outdoors now, and seems to love it. If he has to stay in because of bad weather, he gets really bored indoors.

However, even tho he stays outdoors in the goat pen during the day, he still insists on being allowed to help us with chores, so the first thing we have to do is go get him from the goat pen at chore time, and he comes to the barn with us to supervise — if we don’t, we get yelled at LOUDLY — it’s hilarious!

And every evening, right before dark, he gets to come back indoors to spend the night, just so we can be sure he’s safe from any predators since he doesn’t have an outdoor mommy to keep him safe. He parks himself on his cushy sleeping bag like it’s exactly where he belongs!

Another 10 pounds, and his little life is gonna change — it’ll be time for weaning, wethering, and living outdoors full-time! I don’t think he’s gonna like any of those things, since he really doesn’t think he’s a goat, but he’ll adjust.

So what’s the first thing you do at home when you’ve been gone for over a month (besides sleep)? Clean. The. House. My Cowboy said: “Sorry the girls left things in such a mess while you were gone.” The joker!

So I cleaned house most of the day Tuesday, and by Tuesday evening, I was sick. An I-didn’t-get-out-of-bed-again-for-days kind of sick. My Cowboy finally made me get up and go for a ride with him one day, and to be honest, I can’t even remember where we went. I do know I’ve been missing some gorgeous weather!

By Sunday, I was able to get up, and we visited the cemeteries for Memorial Day. Last night, My Cowboy took me out for dinner and a romantical drive through the country. I spent most of this morning in bed again. I can’t seem to shake it off, whatever it is.

But a week of this is enough already! I miss sewing and quilting. I managed to do a little stitching yesterday morning, but mostly if I try anything, I’ve been knitting. I can sit in my chair and knit, even with the brain fog. I finished this scarf out of Zumie yarn (the color is Electric Pear):

And I decided I didn’t like how this scarf was going, so I un-knitted it all and tried again:

I also didn’t like my second attempt, and decided not to waste time going further with it, and un-knitted it all again:

I’m on my third attempt, and so far, I’m liking it. I’ll show it to you when I get it further along.

So where was I for a month? Let’s see . . .

I took my longarm, Ivy, in for service, which takes an entire day, but I got her back all ready to go, and since then haven’t had much chance to use her!

I gave a trunk show at the Annual Spring Meeting of the Missouri State Quilter’s Guild, which was a lot of fun. In their workshop prior to my presentation, they had been making painted wooden barn quilt blocks with Suzi Parron, and I got to see them all — they were wonderful! And I didn’t get a picture.

Then my sister and I went to Paducah to the AQS Quilt Show. My Hazel’s Diary quilt was hanging there:

Victoria was the emcee for the Awards Presentation, so we went to watch her, and her quilt that I quilted for her won an award! “Negative Space, Positive Attitude”, a quilt from her new book coming out, won an Honorable Mention!

While it’s an honor to simply have anything hanging in that show, winning something is really special!

Victoria also had an exhibit of some of her Double Wedding Ring quilts on display there, many of which I quilted, so it was fun to get to visit some of them again. I still look at some of those quilts, and think to myself, “Did I do that?” or “I can’t remember doing that!” Haha! Too many quilts pass under my needle, I guess — it’s hard to keep track of them all!

But here’s one I won’t soon forget — Victoria’s 30-foot-long by 9-feet-high quilt called “A Garden for All Seasons”:

Yes, 9′ x 30′ — it’s gigantic! So big I couldn’t even get it all in one photo! I’ll be doing a blog post soon on how I quilted it, since I’ve gotten lots of questions about exactly how I managed to quilt this for her on my longarm. It was a fun challenge!

After Paducah, my sister and I went on down to Memphis, TN, to visit Elvis, as we do every year. The new Guest House at Graceland is now open, and we got to stay there, and their new exhibits complex is open, and it’s wonderful! It gives them a lot more space to have more exhibits, and I’m not sure we even saw it all, but that leaves us a little to explore for next year, because I’m sure we’ll go back again.

Immediately after getting home from Memphis, I left to teach for a week at the Arrow Rock Quilt Camp. Quilt Camp is always fun, and altho I’m teaching, it’s still a very relaxing week, simply because the little village is so quiet and far-removed from the hectic pace of modern life. Here’s a few of my handwork students, working on their Cathedral Window projects:

Beverly, Bernadette, and Candice

And Arrow Rock has a yarn store called A Grand Yarn, which is super dangerous for me. I always think I can knit faster than I can! (Continually un-knitting doesn’t help much!)

Here’s my haul from this time. It’s all for scarves and shawls, with a couple balls of dishcloth yarn thrown in:

And this year, the new Peecher’s Country Store was open, and I scored this fabulous vintage quilt top:

When Quilt Camp was over, I had a few days at home, which miraculously covered My Cowboy’s birthday, so I got to take him on a date. I also had just enough time to finish up a couple of last-minute Quilt Market jobs, then I was off again to a quilt retreat with some close friends at Sew Sweet Quilt Shop. Victoria came into town for Quilt Market a few days early, so some of us got together and sewed for a few days ahead of time.

Then Victoria and I headed out to Quilt Market, which was in St. Louis this time. I’ll show you what I bought in another post!

I dropped Victoria off at the airport on Sunday morning, then headed south from there to go pick up my daughter’s best friend, my “third daughter”, Jess, and we headed on down to Paducah — again! Wasn’t I just there? Why, yes, I was.

But . . . this time was my Mother’s Day present — my girls bought me tickets to a BOSTON concert!!! I had never been to a live concert before, and I couldn’t think of anyone I would have rather seen in concert, and I was NOT disappointed. We had third row seats, and it was wonderful — I’d go see them again in a heartbeat! Since neither one of my girls could come home to go with me, Jess filled in for them and went along. We had fun, and I think she enjoyed herself!

They also put us up at the Paducah Bed & Breakfast, which was super nice, so after a huge breakfast Monday morning, we were headed back home. Home, to My Cowboy, my goats, my kitties, our farm, and my own bed, which I evidently really missed, because I’ve been in it practically ever since!

My Cowboy said: “Maybe you should make a doctor’s appointment?”
I said: “Nah, I think I can wait it out. What doesn’t kill ya makes ya stronger.”
Him: “Or not . . .”

It might simply be exhaustion!

9 responses to “Where Have You Been?”

  1. randy says:

    welcome back. My husband came home with something that knocked him flat for 5 days… I have never seen him down for the count for so long. there is a serious spring flu going around

  2. Wendy says:

    Well, after all that fun, I’m really sorry you are sick. So good to hear what you’ve been up to, though! So much fun stuff! Hope you are back to 100% soon! I love your Ranger updates!

  3. Darlene says:

    I was wondering what had happened to you! Glad you had so much fun traveling, sorry you are now under the weather. It is awesome to see Ranger thriving..love the sleeping bag he has you guys on his schedule ❤️
    Feel better!

  4. Meloney says:

    Well, I’m glad it was fun things, until you got home. At least you were home when it hit. Praying you are getting better daily and will be back in the swing of things soon.

  5. Swooze says:

    Glad to see you posting. Happy to hear Ranger is thriving. Get well soon!

  6. Rose Marie says:

    I am exhausted just reading about all of this. And I think my life is hectic. I do envy the stay at Arrow Rock and the Paducah Inn B&B. I gotta find a way to make one or the other of these sometime.
    I hope that bug died down there south of Hwy 36 and does not come up here.

  7. Jessica says:

    I hope you’re feeling better, Shelly! That concert sounds so fun, what a lovely Mother’s Day gift! : )

  8. Joy says:

    So sorry I missed you are Market. I hope you had a chance to get a pork chop at Patti’s Settlement while you were in Paducah. We came through too late to have dinner on the way to and from Market. I hope you are feeling better, and recovering from your traveling. It took me a whole week to recover from being gone 1 week, I can’t imagine being gone a month! Blessings!

  9. Ranchwife says:

    Good gravy! Sounds like you were a human tornado! And if you tell your cowboy I said that, he’ll probably say that’s right and make some funny comment about you leaving a path of destruction wherever you go, but that’s not what I mean at all so tell him to hush. 🙂 You just seem to be moving 100 mph lately. No wonder you got sick. Hope the summer will give you a little bit of a breather. Wishful thinking, huh?

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