Holy cow! Time sure flies while you're busy surviving! It's now the end of may and I am workamping in North Carolina. Lake Gaston is a beautiful place with peaceful water views, and very active boaters and fishermen and women.
 
The campground has hosted 3 tournaments already and we are gearing up for Memorial Day. Lots to do as the maintenance folks clean and prep and inside the office and store we are also busy taking reservations, prepping foods, and ordering supplies.
 
The St. Poodles are happy to have more outside time and they love riding around on the golf cart. Pearl is always happy to be outside and lays under the big tree outside our camper. Sam does not care for the heat so he is happiest riding with a breeze or inside the AC.

 My plan is to finish the season here and start looking for a place to continue workamping out west hopefully near or in Washington state so I can be close to the family there for a season or two.

Wow, life sure speeds by and before you know it, it is fall. I love this time of year! The air is cool and the humidity is low. It has been raining and cloudy here for a week, no more rainfall deficit for Chesapeake as the weatherman said we had over 6" of rain this week. I have finished a couple of quilts and almost done with my bargello in the round. It turned out very nice and I just have to put the back together and decide if I want to send it out for quilting by a pro or do it myself. `

Crazy how life can sneak by while your busy doing other things. Work, home, and life in general can fly by in a flash. The last few years have brought illness, near death and death to my family. There have been many changes and not all of them were good.
 My father passed away almost a year ago and I found myself pulling up roots and traveling to New Orleans to handle his estate.
I lost a wonderful job that I adored and ended up workcamping for a few months. Now I am back in Va and trying to find a job, which is not easy at 57 y/o.
I have been trying to stay busy quilting and sewing to relieve the stress and anxiety that always come when stretching pennies.
I made a couple of memory quilts for my neices and a bed quilt for my Granddaughter Trinity. Would love to be able to find a job where I could make a living sewing or teaching others to do what I love to do. One day! Until then I will try to keep the peace and find work.

Raina's Quilt

I finally finished a quilt that I started for my first Grand Daughter. It is a labor of love and only appropriate that my first finished quilt go to my first grandchild. It is the bargello in the round by Cheryl Phillips, and was professionally long-arm quilted by Susanne Secosky. She did a beautiful job with it and

now I only have to bind it for it to be DONE! This quilt was started in August of 2013 and finished May of 2014. It was stitched with Aurifill threads and I picked out the design for the quilting. I knew how I wanted it quilted and luckily she had the patterns. Once I get the binding on it I will post more pictures.

Just when you think winter is over it comes back to bite me in the arse! Yesterday was beautiful ad sunny 70 degrees and now its back to 40's with a chance of sleet and freezing rain for tonight and tomorrow the 16th of March. Had a good day yesterday sewing with a few of my friends and getting out was great. Nothing like dragging the supplies and 2 sewing machines across the city to meet up with friends and sew. We are planning to do it again next weekend and hopefully I will learn to streamline the process making it easier on my old bones.
 Update on the last blog post; we sold the toy-hauler and bought another fifth wheeler that I love! It has 2 slides and plenty of storage for all my sewing, embroidery and quilting. Its not big enough to lay out the quilt and measure for the backing so I took advantage of my sewing friends studio to lay out the bargello in the round and cut the backing. Got it all sewed together and will get it to the longarmer next week. Here is a picture of the top. I will post another one when it is complete. Love the color combinations and if you have been thinking about doing this type of quilt it is not as hard as it looks. I used the quilts without corners pattern by Cheryl Phillips and the directions were very clear. The pattern actually makes 2 bargello's in the round quilts! One from the first cut and then a second from the craps. I will post the second one as soon as I get the center right. It is more defined swirl because the strips are narrower. It will be even more beautiful!

RV life for us

After some time soul searching and struggling along to pay bills my husband finally decided to sell his tools. He spent his life as a mechanic and had collected a very large collection of snap-on, matco, craftsman, and other tools. He decided to sell them and his mobile mechanic vehicle at a local auction after having no success selling them on Craigslist. He had probably invested 90,000 dollars in this collection of tools and after everything was sad and done he got less than 6 thousand for his tools, equipment, and truck. We managed to find a reputable dealer for campers and RV's and purchased a 2005 forest river toy hauler. While we have no toys at the moment it will have plenty of room for two humans, two standard poodles and all of my sewing stuff. We hope that he will qualify before the end of the year for disability and it has been a very long process with almost no end in sight. I will continue to work on my degree from the toy hauler until we are able to finish selling our household goods this weekend in a yard sale. Hopefully we will be able to make enough to set her up somewhere cheap.

Wow, life sure speeds by and before you know it, it is fall. I love this time of year! The air is cool and the humidity is low. It has been raining and cloudy here for a week, no more rainfall deficit for Chesapeake as the weatherman said we had over 6" of rain this week. I have finished a couple of quilts and almost done with my bargello in the round. It turned out very nice and I just have to put the back together and decide if I want to send it out for quilting by a pro or do it myself.
Still unemployed and working on my Bachelors degree in business management. Got through finance class with a C, and was happy to get it over with. Only about 6 more classes until I have my degree.
Hubby has been very ill and we are trying to get disability for him, seems like the government fights against anyone who truly needs to collect on what they have spent years paying into. Hopefully we will have a decision by the end of the year. Just hanging on for now, learning what it is like to be very frugal, and ask family for help. Do not like it one bit. Maybe if I blog well enough I can get a job as a full time blogger! lol
Anywho here is a pic of the bargello quilt. Until next time happy sewing!