Vacation Baby!

Today was our first official day of vacation. It feels so good to step away from my desk!

We got up today and had a leisurely breakfast and then hit the road for a nice long walk on the Banks Vernonia Trail, about 30 miles west of Portland. We tried a section of the trail that we had never walked before.

That’s a huge railway trestle behind my dogs. It must be a quarter mile long. I knew there was one on this section of trail and saw some informative signs along our 8 mile walk, but no trestle. And when we got back to the trail head… there was the trestle! So we walked a little past the car to traverse this high and long bridge. Then got a quick photo from below.

It was a perfect day for a walk. Mostly cloudy and the temps were around 65. It was fun to walk a section of the trail we haven’t walked before.

It’s hard to believe it’s still so green with the hot and dry summer we’ve had.

It was late afternoon by the time we got home, so I sort of took it easy and did a few errands around the house. Then after dinner I hit the sewing room to get a few things done.

I sewed another row of my Ice Storm quilt together and sewed it to the first row. A friend of mine suggested that I use the black octopus fabric I bought recently as that backing for this quilt. What do you think?

Well, I just love it! I posted a similar picture on the Kaffe Fassett Collective Facebook page and I’m guessing that over 95% like this combo. And I do too. I’m definitely going to use this octopus fabric to back this quilt.

I also made two more Aboriginal trip quilt strip sets and finished up two blocks. Look at these gorgeous strips on my ironing board!

These fabrics are so amazing! And I’m starting to see the pattern emerge.

Boy, it can be really challenging to decide which fabric in the set of six is the most bold and will be used as the center diagonal. For the block below, I had originally though the lighter yellow was the one that stood out. And then I changed my mind and sewed the block with the darker center line. And then I decided that was wrong, so I picked out one row and switched it to the other side of the block to make the yellow the center diagonal.

It’s funny how much rumination some of these combos take. And I’m thinking I’m going to need to cut some different fabrics for this before I’m done. I think I’m going to get down to a selection of fabrics that are all just too similar.

I had a couple of friends over for dinner yesterday to celebrate the wife’s birthday. She’s the one I made the sea glass wall hanging for… and she LOVED it!!! Phew. I’m so relieved!

This was the first time I’ve had people over to eat since the pandemic started! I even set the table!

We had a really tasty dinner of baked salmon, corn on the cob, crispy oven potatoes, and a Waldorf coleslaw. Then we had ice cream with fresh peaches for desert. I have a lot of leftovers that I’ll be enjoying for a few days.

Lots of Frankenbags from blog readers since I posted last. The first one is from Sharon Markum. And it’s so cool! I’ve seen the quilts with those sort of blobby floral applique and I love them. the cool colors on this one are really lovely! I just lvoe those turquoise and grey fabrics together!

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This next one is from Alice Smith and it’s so fun!!! I just love those raven blocks. So much that I went online and found some raven silhouettes to make my own blocks. the colors in this are so fun and different. I really like this one!

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Next up are two bags from Anna Wright. The colors on all these tiny squares are just wonderful! And I love that green feathers lining. These are such fun and bright bags!

the next bag is another one by Birthe Aust. She’s made a good number of these bags. And I love that big shaggy bloom on the front of this bag. And the red polka dogs are so sweet. She’s also put a really strong lining in this bag… which makes me so happy!

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This next bag was made by Cherry Naylor. I love the blacks and greys. I think this may be the first Franknbag done is this color way. And look at that fun lining! Love it!

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The next bag is from Rebecca Caisse. I just love that little paper pieced flamingo. Makes me think I may need to use up some of the bird blocks I made a number of months ago. And all her scrappy fabrics are really fun and vibrant!

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The next bag was made by Jane Knaub. I just love her combo of fabrics. There’s such fun value variation throughout the bag. It makes it all very interesting.

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The next bag is another one made by Sharon Marcum. Another great use of a big old bloom! I love the saturated blues in this bag. I also love the limited selection of fabrics. It’s a good look!

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This next bag was made by Jody Soberon. She calls it her Murphy’s bag. Because like Murphy’s law, everything that could go wrong did go wrong! It looks to me like it turned out pretty well! I really like the cool, watery colors on that block on the front.

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The last bag tonight is from Ann Baird. I love the way she used the wide vertical stripes of fabric. It’s a simple construction but it’s graphically strong.

I actually have to work tomorrow for a couple hours. There’s a meeting I committed to prior to scheduling my vacation. So no fun day trip on the docket for tomorrow.