Posted on by agilejack

Coastal Trip Abandoned, and Too Damned Much Traffic

We checked the weather this morning and decided to wait for a better day to head to the coast.

So instead we sat in traffic as we did a few different things. First, I wanted to get a new headlamp for my car. My left light has been out for a couple weeks. This is a bad time to be without light and I really dreaded the drive back from the coast in the dark with only one headlight.

Traffic was a mess. There is construction literally EVERYWHERE around here. There were a couple spots where we sat for ten minutes waiting for the flagger to flip that sign from STOP to SLOW.

And while we were out and about in terrible traffic we decided to make a trip to Costco to grab some salmon to cook tomorrow night. Costco was a madhouse too.

What were we thinking??? But we got done!

Once we got home we grabbed some lunch then dug in to finish my friend’s Australian Aboriginal quilt, We only had four rows to sew together and we had it done lickity split. And we were done soon enough to get a photo outside before it got dark.

And, of course, this obligatory photo…

There was a nice breeze and it was fun to see the flimsy blowing in the wind.

I’m loving our tag team quilting. Again today I did all the pinning and my friend did all the sewing. We switched off on the pressing.

This really went together beautifully.

Several people have asked me about the “gray” fabric for the sashing. It’s actually a black and white fabric that reads gray.

It’s an M&S Textiles design called Water Hole. it’s a really fantastic fabric!

We treated ourselves to a take out dinner of tacos again tonight — after all, it is taco Tuesday! It’s so nice to not have to prepare a meal. I wonder if we’ll be able to force ourselves to actually cook some salmon and prepare a salad tomorrow night.

After our taco dinner we went back into my sewing room to start working on the blocks for my next quilt. It’s called Flower Baskets from Kaffe’s Quilts By the Sea book. I had cut the blocks for this several weeks ago. Check out this blog post for a refresher on this new project.

The first thing to be done was to cut the border strips for the blocks. Once that was done I sat down at the machine and started chain piecing.

This goes really fast when your work area and materials are all set up efficiently. It didn’t take long for us to have the border strips attached to all the blocks for this quilt.

That dark border fabric really does some magic things to this big blocks of prints. I mean, look at this!

And it really makes the bright colors in the blocks pop!

Then the blocks went upon the design wall. They still need the sashing and cornerstones but I wanted to get a glimpse of what this will look like.

The pattern for this quilt makes a queen size quilt. I’m making a throw size so have had to adjust and wing it a bit. This will end up being around 72 inches square so I’ll add some larger borders on the top and bottom to make it a rectangle. I don’t like square quilts unless it’s for a queen bed.

Here’s the blocks with the sashing and cornerstone fabric on the design wall.

This will look a lot different when the bright colors of the sashing and cornerstones are in place.

I’m running a little low on the dark border fabric. I’m being very efficient and careful hoping we can finish this top this week. It’s going to be close but I’m feeling optimistic that I’ll have just enough!

Here’s a little eye candy.

And more…

and a couple more…

We’re going to try to finish this tomorrow. We may just be able to do it! It’s supposed to be a wet day so it’s a good time to hunker down and get some stuff done.

We’re both going to go and get hair cuts tomorrow afternoon. I REALLY need a good hair cut. it’s been driving me crazy a little. I’m sure it’s going to feel really good to have it done.

We’re thinking Thursday might be the day to head for the coast. We’ll play it by ear and be ready to adjust if necessary.

34 Replies to “Coastal Trip Abandoned, and Too Damned Much Traffic”

  2. coucou ma belle tu as fais un travail remarquable comme d habitude tu expliques etc est bien

    j aime tes tissus et je te dis à bientôt

    je suis à finir un plaid moi aussi .le 2 eme de cette année

    bises de France 🇫🇷 Josette .

    j habite près de Nantes.

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  3. following all your beautiful quilt making. I’m going to make your latest from Quilts by the Sea…I’ve got fabrics ready to cut here in Canada. Regards

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  4. Bonjour! I made it to France.
    Linda’s quilt looks gorgeous and so too does yours, but I’d expect nothing less, what a great sewing partnership!

    As for cooking salmon.. so easy! Make a parcel of two fillets sprinkled with grated ginger, chopped spring onions, Chinese five spice, black pepper and a tablespoon of hoisin sauce. Bake 7-9 minutes in hot oven . Serve with stir fry pak Choi, sliced carrots, mushrooms and noodles in soy sauce. Yum.

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      1. I love the skin too. I run some oil into it then go wild with seasonings of sumac, coriander and cumin or Cajun spice! Hot hot pan,, 2 minutes skin side down, 3-4 minutes other side. Perfection!

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    3. While we are on salmon recipes, we now do only one thing: coat it in this rub and grill. It really is perfection! The rub is based on roughly 2 T brown sugar, 1 t. ground cumin, salt and pepper. You can experiment with whether you want more spices…options are 1/2 t. chili powder, and/or some ginger and/or some garlic. I like the basic recipe as the salmon flavour really shines.

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  5. I’m from the Midwest and salmon wasn’t in our stores then except in cans. My mom made the best salmon patties from the canned salmon. I was really old before I ever ate salmon grilled. Anyway, your quilts are definitely eye candy. It’s very strange, but I never make eye popping quilts. I make more quiet old fashioned quilts. I love looking at your beautiful quilts though. I find that I now prefer quiet colors/prints in my home and have for many years. But I can still enjoy your absolutely gorgeous quilts.

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    1. I have a lot of color in my house. So these colorful quilts fit right in. I know a lot of people think my color approach is nuts! But I love it!

      My mom used to make salmon patties. I should find a recipe and make some!

      Anne

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  7. Your posts are so exciting for me. I have a huge stash of Kaffe fabric and follow everything you do. Began quilting when I finished a quilt for my son to take to college in 1992. When it was done, I was hooked on making quilts.

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  8. beautiful quilts…FUNNY  traffic reports and you KNOW you two can’t have haircuts without sending pretty pictures!!🤣

    Sent from my iPhone

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  9. The quilt top went together so fast and it’s beautiful! Especially Bender and his modeling skills!🥰😻Hope Thursday works for your beach day!

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  12. I like the sashing for the aboriginal quilt( white with black) and the cornerstones(black with white). Bender is the ideal model for all your creations. He’s so versatile and accommodating. We just had salmon with raspberry chipolte grilling sauce and baked yams. I understand about pushing to cook it when tasty easy options are available. Have fun! Thanks for always sharing.

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  13. Good Evening!  Just wanted to let you know how much I enjoy your posts and your beautiful quilts.  I’ve always been a fan of Kaffe, so I love seeing all your projects come together.  My husband and I are taking a trip to Seaside Oregon the end of March, so I was wondering if you could point me in the direction of any shop you know of that sells the aboriginal fabrics in that area, you’ve got me dying to make a quilt! Thank you so much!Susan

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    1. Cannon Beach is very near Seaside. Just to the south with a lovely section of the coast. there is a store called Center Diamond in Cannon Beach that carries a few Aboriginal fabrics, but not very many. They also carry a little Kaffe fabric. The have a lovely selection of batiks. That’s really the only store in that area that I’m familiar with. A few lovely shops have closed down in the last few years.

      the closest good selection would be in McMinnville, Oregon. But it would be at least a 90 minute drive from Seaside.

      Thanks for reading!

      Anne

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  14. Pingback: Another Rainy Day and Some Haircuts – agilejack

  15. Traffic and cooking…argh!@! You just can’t beat the KFC prints for those fussy cut squares-using patterns. Nice to think of you two working side by side. Nice to have company in the quilt studio (with all due respect to Mr.’s Bender and Rico!).

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    1. Bender and Rico are great company but don’t have much patience for or interest in sewing. they sort of think it’s stupid and boring. so yes… it’s nice to have a friend who gets it!

      Anne

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