Did you hear it? The big sigh and cry of joy emanating from this place this morning? And, Dee, you can say I told you so! The Cross Quilt arrived at its new home this morning. I then received an e-mail that said:

It arrived and it is gorgeous!!!!  One problem though — The box was damaged
and bent in the middle when it arrived and the top metal bar is bent.  UPS
noted it was damaged and said the UPS office from which it was shipped will
be responsible for replacing this part.  I hate this happened but it is more beautiful than I even imagined. Thank you Gerrie for being obedient and using your God-given talents for this ministry!

Know that you have "set the bar" high with us!  Go for it!!  Never
underestimate your God-given talent and how you use it.  He has blessed you
with it, you honored the talent, used it and now he blesses you again!

OK, so it was not all good news. I can’t believe that the box I had it in could have been crushed and bent so easily. The aluminum hanging rod was damaged beyond repair so I have ordered a new one. I shipped with UPS because they let me insure it for its full value and FedEx wouldn’t. So I have ordered a new hanger and we will have to wait to see it hanging for a week or so. Thank goodness the quilt was not damaged. I had it wrapped in cloth and tied, then wrapped in plastic garbage bags and then wrapped with bubble wrap. It was in a double box designed for shipping art work.

Of course the best news is that they love it.

It is still unusually hot in Portland. Steph and the kids came over this afternoon to hang out in my basement where it is relatively cool. We also made a trip to Fabric Depot where they are having 30% off all fabric. Steph got some wonderful things for her stuffed animals and tissue holders. I picked up these goodies:

The polka dot and brown are for something special I am making for Steph. It is a surprise so I can’t say what it is right now. The teal is silk organza to make a sash for Mia’s flower girl dress. I bought her a plain white, tea length dress at Nordsrom (it is white organza over taffeta0, but I wanted to dress it up with a sash to match the bridesmaid’s dresses.

I also bought Teflon fabric to cover my ironing table and white felt to cover my screen printing and painting table.

Later, Jack came over and we all went to an air-conditioned restaurant and had pizza – well I had a salad with shrimp and bubbly water!

We set a heat record in Portland today and I will not be walking 10,000 steps – only made it to 8700. It was 100?Ǭ? – very unusual.

Yesterday we had our garage sale and made just under $100 getting other people to take our discards off our hands. The rest is going to Goodwill, except for a couple of straw hats and some jewelry that M & M took. I have not been good about having my camera on hand this week-end so you just have to imagine them in a couple of my straw hats from former days.

This afternoon, Mr C and I went to the Lake Oswego Arts Festival. Even though it was very hot, it was a fun trip. We saw some great art and I felt energized and inspired to create some new art of my own. At one booth, I saw this pottery in colors I loved. I told Mr C that I wanted to paint the kitchen in those colors so he said I better buy a piece so that we would remember. I was so excited that he agreed with my color choice. Here is the mug I purchased:

So the kitchen will be that paler green and the yummy red. Can’t wait for that.

This next week will be one of getting my act together. I need to finish some organizing upstairs in the kitchen and laundry room. I need to finish hanging some art. My computer desk is a total disaster. I need to get the studio back in shape so that I can get some new work done. I put a lot on hold while I put my energies toward the commission quilt.

We set off this morning headed for the observation point on the north side of Mount St. Helen’s. It was cloudy with sun breaks. The forecast was for the clouds to burn off by noon. At 11:30 am, this is what we were looking at:

It was drizzly and the outside temp from our car thermometer was 46?Ǭ?. So we turned around and headed back to the interpretive center – 30 miles back and at a lower elevation. We stopped on the way to get a view of this bridge.

This sign made us feel as if we had been someplace, at least!!

We found a nice picnic spot at Seaquest State Park.

After lunch we played and explored the area.

The swingers:

Some tree shots:

This sign was on one of the buildings. I thought about removing it and putting it in my studio.

These wonderful orange hightops were sighted on Mia. (I want some.)

We ended our time at the interpretive center. We watched a movie that chronicled the 1980 eruption of the volcano. I had forgotten how massive and destructive it had been.

Then it was back home and back to the sewing machine.