Posted on by agilejack

Vacation, Baby! And We Actually Sewed!

My vacation started 1.5 weeks ago. I have another week to go and I’m pretty sure it won’t be enough. Each vacation just reminds me how much I want to retire.

My friend Linda arrived a week ago. We spent the weekend at my brother’s place outside Coquille, Oregon. It was a beautiful and relaxing weekend. We didn’t do much, but we did take a couple quick trips to the coast to enjoy ourselves and let the dogs have some fun.

On Sunday I was in a short sleeve T-shirt and shorts on the beach! It was absolutely perfect weather. We all thought so.

I think they must have run five or six miles!

These photos were taken on Seven Devils Beach just north of Bandon, Oregon. On Sunday we also took a drive to Shore Acres and Cape Arago because we heard there were resident whales there.

We didn’t see any whales but we did see hundreds of sea lions at Cape Arago. It’s a beautiful part of the Oregon coast.

We stopped on our way home and picked up some fresh ling cod and had home made fish tacos for dinner.

Mmmmm.

Then we finished up the evening with a family tradition…

We drove back to Portland on Monday and took a more scenic route to avoid three hours on Interstate 5. It was another gorgeous day.

That night we decided to dig in and start cutting fabric for a quilt we wanted to make while my friend is here. It’s the Libby Quilt by Kitchen Table Quilting.

We saw a quilt made on this pattern and with Australian Aboriginal fabrics in a quilt store in McMinnville, Oregon, a year ago. We bought all the fabrics at that time but only now got around to making it.

We got the fabric pressed, cut and labeled that night for this puzzle of a quilt.

We got the center part of the quilt up on the design wall on Tuesday and started sewing.

We finished the center that evening.

The pattern instructions were really detailed and it worked well to have everything organized on the design wall, I did all the sewing, Linda did all the pressing, and we helped each other keep it all in order.

We took yesterday off from sewing. I went out early and played pickleball at the church and had a blast! Then we took a quick trip out to the same fabric store in McMinnville to pick up a few pieces of Aboriginal fabric. We were tired when we got home so we had a good dinner of grilled salmon, potatoes and a salad and then watched a movie before bed.

Today we dug in and made the four corner pieces for this quilt. They went pretty quickly because the pieces are big.

We compared each corner piece with the center to make sure we had the fabrics arranged correctly.

I sure do like having someone around to do all the pressing!

The part I was most worried about was getting all the corners marked accurately and cut well so the quilt would actually be a true rectangle. All those strips would eventually be cut on the diagonal so terrible wonkiness was a real possibility.

To avoid wonkiness, we marked the line to cut the angles on each corner piece. We had to arrange the pieces on the back of my portable design wall on the living room floor to get it all flat.

Then we marked the line to trim off all those corners to make a straight line. Before cutting, I sewed a line of stitching inside the marked line to keep those bias edges from stretching.

Once that line of stitching was done, I trimmed off the corners.

Once all four corners were marked, stitched and cut square, I sewed them to the center of the quilt top. Then my friend did the final pressing.

And just like that, this quilt top is done! We weren’t sure we were going to love this once it was done, but we DID when it was all sewn together and we could see the woven affect.

Here’s some close up photos because I love the eye candy!

The pattern for this quilt is very detailed with all kinds of charts and graphs to help with the construction. It was a good idea to keep the pattern handy and refer to it often.

We just might whip one of these up for me while my friend is here, but I think I’m going to do it with brighter and more colorful Australian Aboriginal fabrics… for a completely different look. We were too tired to go through my stash tonight.

It’s going to be over 90 degrees here in Portland tomorrow. We’ll have to figure out a way to stay cool.

64 Replies to “Vacation, Baby! And We Actually Sewed!”

  1. Hi, Anne. I’m sharing pics of my “Bride-of-Frankenbag” with you😊 I really like the creativity of your Frankenbags and wanted to make one but was waiting for the right inspiration. I came across the Bride of Frankenstein fabric on Spoonflower.com and was smitten. I thought, “who DOESN’T need a Halloween themed tote bag?”😆 I found a vintage inspired Halloween charm pack and then the fabulous purple and orange floral lining and knew I had the right ingredients to make a start.

    I’ve never machine quilted my own pieces before so I also saw this as a growth opportunity to learn a new technique. It was fun!

    Thanks for inspiring me to try something new. I know the Bride will get lots of comments when I bring her out this fall😊

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      1. Love your use of Aboriginal fabrics for the Libby quilt. I bought the Tessa pattern to use my Aboriginal fabrics with, but I think I like the Libby better. (The fabrics don’t need an outline—hope I’m remembering it correctly.)
        Like you, I have lots of Aboriginal fabrics that I’ve collected for a long time. I’ve been trying to find interesting quilt designs with large patches to showcase the fabrics.
        I like the Kitchen Table Designs for this purpose but have been hesitant to use some of them because a lot of her patterns have all the outer edges totally bias. Your stay-stitching of the outer edges before trimming and ironing probably helped keep it square. Thanks for sharing all the steps.
        Beautiful job!

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  3. Funny, I was just thinking about you and if you were doing well and here you are sewing up a storm! Glad everyone is doing well and the pups look great. It’s a beautiful quilt and yes you should make another one.

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  4. Great to hear from you, and so glad to see you are having a great vacation! I love the aboriginal quilt, and can’t wait to see the next one. Your quilts inspired me to buy a bunch of Aboriginal fabrics on sale, so now I think it’s time to actually make one!

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      1. Hi ! You have totally inspired me !! I just ordered 18 fat quarters of Aboriginal fabrics !! I can’t wait to see them ! Thanks for being such a POSUTIVE INFLUENCE !!

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  5. I was really happy to read your post about your latest adventures. I’m glad you had some great vacation time and that you still have a week left! Your friend’s quilt turned out well. I’m looking forward to seeing what you come up with for yourself.

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  6. Vacation always made me want to retire. Now I am. It’s great! Fixed income is an adjustment but worth it.

    Sounds like you’re having fun with your friend. Beach looks wonderful! I am sure the boys loved the run on the beach. They are so cute.

    Really like the quilt/pattern. I think brighter would be more your style. That pattern is easy to invision with a variety of fabrics.

    Just finished the top of my owl quilt. It was supposed to be a scrappy quilt but I wanted a certain look. Not sure I liked the techniques for the HST. I made for lots of waste( many triangle). I would do it again but will first explore another technique I like for HST than is not so wasteful. WIth the larger triangles I made a bunch for HST and sewed them together for a pillow.

    It’s been cooler here this week 50s at night, 70s during the day. Trees starting to change…time for the change to autmn.

    Owl quilt made from Rainbow Quilts for Scrap Lovers by Judy Gauthier.

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    1. the best part of working is that I have more income. but I think I could adjust to get more free time. I’m so looking forward to retirement!

      I love the look of HSTs, but I do not like making or sewing them! I’m glad there are people like you who will make them so I can enjoy them!

      Anne

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    1. Vacation never lasts long enough. I’m feeling a little sad that I only have a couple days left.

      And yes… I would love to have a permanent assistant! It’s nice to have the company and the quilt making is so much faster!

      Anne

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  12. Gorgeous!! I love the fabrics. I agree that the Oregon coast is beautiful. I live in Virginia but have visited Oregon a few times and it is a very beautiful state. It looks like your boys love the ocean too. Give them a hug from me!

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  14. So glad you are having a fabulous vacation. I retired in April, couldn’t be happier. I would love the name of the store where you get your Australian Aboriginal fabric. I went to visit my daughter in Australia right after I had my last work day, and my cases were overweight coming home due to fabric. We went to a store in Alice Springs and the woman there wanted to see photos of everything I had made with prior purchases, and was able to tell me all about the artists who designed them. But a trip to Oregon for fabric is a much shorter jaunt for me ( I am in Abbotsford BC). Enjoy the rest of your holiday! Best regards, Shawn Flynn

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  16. Love this quilt and the fabric is fantastic!! I haven’t used any aboriginal prints yet, but it’s on my list not for sure. Thanks for sharing and glad you are having a great vacay.

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  17. What a lovely trip and vacation…the quilt is beautiful and I laughed at the bourbon and Yahtzee photo. I don’t think bourbon, much as I like it, would do much for my Yahtzee score!! Retirement…I hear you. With quilting, pickleball and the doglets, you are well set up.

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  18. The images of your dogs and the Oregon beaches are spectacular!
    The new quilt top is wonderful. Love the colors and it’s obvious the workmanship is top notch. Great efforts from you and your friend!

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    1. It seemed really complicated to me when looking at the pattern. But my brain likes to organize things so it made sense to me pretty quickly once I got started. The pattern is very detailed and easy to follow.

      Anne

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  21. Glad to know you are still alive and having a great vacation. It’s so much fun to have a great quilting buddy. My son is going to help me sandwich a jelly roll quilt I made for him a while back (at long last). He’s been my quilting buddy since he was in high school and is top notch at rotary cutting. I’m still trying to finish up some UFO ‘s, but there is a constant lure of new projects. I’m sewing as fast as I can!

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  23. What a lovely visit to the shore! Love the Aboriginal fabrics in this project. You were so smart to take measures to avoid stretching- it’s a pretty “bias” project and could get out of control. Yours looks great.

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  24. Wouldn’t it be nice to always have an assistant to do the pressing and clean up the leftover fabrics? I could get so much more done if I didn’t agonize where to put the leftovers: keep them together, put them back on the shelf with yardage, or in my case leave them on the table for months while I decide. I’m looking forward to your brighter version. I have a different woven look pattern that I could make if I like yours.

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    1. it really is nice to have someone to do all the pressing for me! I decided today that I would like too have a permanent pressing assistant!

      I’m liking the brighter version with the black background. Can’t wait to see what yo come up with.

      Anne

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  30. The Oregon coast is so beautiful 💕
    I am going to try very hard to make a trip there in 2024. Our granddaughter is at the University- go ducks 🦆
    Glad you had a fun vacation and a quilt made from the luscious Aboriginal fabric 🤗.
    Hi Rico and Bender 🥰

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  31. Fun update on your summer! The woven Aboriginal quilt top is beautiful. Your beach time was spectacular weather. …and Cod tacos made me hungry 🙂 Looking forward to seeing another version of Woven & more Aboriginal fabrics! Super update & encouraging pattern post, Most enjoyable, Carry on,
    ardine

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