Month: June 2024

We had last Wednesday off for the Juneteenth holiday so I decided to take off Thursday and Friday to make a five day weekend. On Wednesday morning I loaded up myself and the dogs and. headed south on Interstate 5 on the four-hour trip to my brother and sister-in-law’s place near Bandon, Oregon.

It was a great few days! Absolutely perfect weather in a beautiful place only 20 minutes from the coast. My boys were very happy about having two beach visits in three days!

It was cool and windy on the beach on Thursday but it was glorious on Friday. We were all pleased to be there.

I enjoy my time at my brother’s place because it’s very relaxing, there’s no agenda, and no pressure. it’s a great place to spend a few days and step away from the stresses and frustrations of the world. Even if just for a few days, it was good for me to get away.

My boys just love it on my brother’s property. There are multiple levels, gates to run through, sheep on site and goats next door.

Rico really wanted to get in that pasture with the sheep!

Of course, we continued our family traditions.

And we gorged ourselves on rockfish tacos made with home made corn tortillas and veggies from my SIL’s gorgeous garden.

I drove home on Saturday and we were all sort of vegetables the rest of the day. I was tired from the drive and my boys were tired from two beach runs and constant running and exploring on my brother’s property.

I got up today and met my friend to do some pickleball drilling at 10:30. then there was a club meeting and snacks at noon followed by pickleball. I played pickleball from 10:30 until 4:00!!! It was really fun but I’m exhausted. I even took my boys for a walk around the neighborhood after dinner and grocery shopping.

I’m going to play pickleball tomorrow night, Tuesday morning, Wednesday night, and Thursday night. That’s a lot of pickleball this week!

I haven’t been doing too much sewing since I’m letting my wrist heal. I hurt it playing pickleball a couple weeks ago. It’s so much better but not ready for the pressure of cutting using the ruler with my left hand.

I finally dug into a sort of new, sort of old project a couple weeks ago. I had decided that I wanted to use my color wash blocks (you can see them here) and make them into basically economy blocks using my left over indigo batiks. The batiks are left over from my Wensleydale quilt top that I made last year.

So I had to figure out how big to make the corner triangles for the blocks and made a test block. I didn’t want to suffer all the precision that a precise match of points would require so I made the corner triangles a little bigger so that the smaller blocks will basically float once they are all sewn together.

those blocks are all trimmed and squared up. That cutting was hard on my wrist at the time so tonight I cracked out eight more blocks but will leave the squaring up until my wrist it a little better.

There will be a lot of different indigo batiks once these blocks are all done. It will look quite different once it’s all done.

So, why did I decide to use the blocks this way rather than make the color wash version? Well, the part of quilt making where the blocks are on the design wall and you noodle, move things, put them back, noodle some more… well, that’s not my favorite part of making a quilt and I had no desire to suffer through arranging these blocks in a color wash array. And I knew that these blocks would sit in my closet for a very long time if I tried to force myself to do a color wash. So I dug in!

I made a bunch of little kits combining colored blocks and indigo fabrics for the corners last week. So when I sit down to sew I can just sew and really move along.

These next sets are ready to go except that I need to cut the indigo squares in half.

I don’t know how many blocks that will make or how many I’ll need for this quilt top. I’m really playing it by ear and will remain flexible. The blocks will finish at 6 inches so I’ll need a good number of them.

My little garden is doing really well. Look at how gorgeous this lettuce is!

After enjoying the fresh greens from my SIL’s garden I decided to dig in tonight and use some of this for my dinner. I made a big salad with chicken, blue cheese, corn, pickled onions, strawberries and a nice vinaigrette.

It was a really delicious dinner! I love eating things that I’ve grown.

Between work and pickleball I have a hectic week coming up. I’m glad I’m well rested.

I’ll leave you tonight with this gorgeous pot of lilies on my patio.

We’ve had some really glorious weather the last few days. Summer has arrived with the first week of June. And how can it possibly be June already. In a couple short weeks the days will start getting shorter again.

Work has continued to be busy. We got word last week that our board has selected a new CEO who will start in September. I’m sure it’s going to be a very active year coming up.

I’ve been playing a lot of pickleball the last week. I played Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday! I didn’t play today because I hurt my hand playing on Thursday and I wanted to give it some time off. Luckily it’s my left hand so I still have my paddle hand and will be back on the court tomorrow morning for some drilling with my coach. It’s been so long since we have had time to drill. The rain made it difficult to play outside and he had surgery in March. He’s finally back to playing and with our gorgeous weather we’re all anxious to spend as much time outdoors as possible.

I haven’t done much sewing the last week. I did manage to make nearly 50 key fobs. I started with the leftover batiks from my recent palate cleanser project. I made almost 30 key fobs from these fabrics alone.

Here’s the video tutorial I used for these fobs.

Here’s a link to the original set of hardware and the tool I use to apply the hardware to the fabric.

I started with the pieces I cut last weekend then cut the fusible fleece pieces.

Then got all the fleece pressed to the fabric.

Once I had these all pressed I got to chain piecing the top-stitching.

I think I ended up with 38 fobs from these left over batiks.

They’re so pretty and they whip up really quickly. So when I had these done I decided to make one lanyard from some of that batik fabric. I had purchased the hardware for these a couple of years ago and have never made a lanyard. It was quick to make as well.

There are tons of tutorials on YouTube for making these lanyards.

I’m sure I’ll make more but I need to refer to a tutorial to see how long they make them. Mine turned out a little short but would work well for hanging a house key around my neck while I walk my dogs.

Today I dug in and sorted out some KFC scraps and cut another 20 pieces for key fobs. then I got them all pressed and topstitched.

I was so close to being done that I went ahead and finished sewing these pieces by folding the two ends together and stitching a line across.

Those are all attached by a thread. Once cut apart and trimmed, I added the hardware and then I was done.

I added these to the batik ones I made last week and the remaining ones from when I last made these and now have around 60 key fobs ready to be given away.

I really like having some of these on hand. They make nice little gifts or just something to give people who visit so they can have something I made. People love them! I think I have nearly ten of them in use at my house!

I’m getting closer to deciding what project I’m going to work on next. Might be a total surprise and a little impulsive.

I had a bit of a sleep in this morning and then treated myself to a tasty breakfast.

It rained all day today. At one point I thought it was light enough that I could get on my rain gear and get these pathetic dogs out for a walk.

But when I looked out the back door I could see that it was still raining pretty steadily. We got close to an inch of rain today. It did’t rain hard but it rained steady all day.

It should start to taper off tomorrow morning around 5 am. I’m supposed to play pickleball tomorrow night so I’m happy that will happen.

So while the boys were being pathetic I hit my sewing room between watching live pickleball matches. I managed to finish up my batik All Inked Up quilt. The first thing I had to do was whip up the four remaining blocks.

Then I moved a few things around on the design wall until I felt good about how it looked.

Next I put up all the sashing strips I needed to add to the blocks before I sewed them together. It turned out to be a bit of a mess because they wouldn’t stick to the design wall! Several times I had to pick up little piles of strips and try to figure out where they had fallen from. So I pinned them all up so I could get a good look and make a few final moves.

Once everything was where I wanted it to be and pinned in place I started sewing. I got three rows all sewn together before I took a break for dinner. Once I was back in my sewing room I had it all ready to sew the final seam in no time.

Once that seam was done I did the final press.

I love the back of a quilt when it all goes together nicely.

Once it was pressed it went back up on the design wall for a photo.

I’m still not happy with how the colors come out in the photos from the design wall. These photos were taken with the quilt on the bed in my guest room and they are truer.

Here’s the full view.

By this time Bender was quite bored with the whole operation.

Rico lost his patience much earlier in the day.

That is a very sad rainy day face.

Oh, and I just remembered. At some point today I decided to cut up the scraps from this quilt to make some key chains. I gave a bunch away over the last week and since I have the hardware I thought this was a good opportunity to make up some new ones.

I’ll probably pull out some of my Kaffe scraps and make more keychains while I’m at it. It’s great to have a bunch on hand, I give them away all the time.

I have a couple personal days off that I have to use before June 30 so I’m planning a trip down to my brother’s place. It will be nice to have a few days out of town.

It was a lovely day today. Even more special because it’s going to rain tomorrow and Monday…. a lot! We’re supposed to get several inches of rain in the next couple of days. It will be good to get some rain. And that made it important to be outside as much as possible today.

I met my friend EA who just moved to the Portland area for some pickleball drills this morning. But when we got to the courts they were packed! Probably because rain is coming tomorrow so people wanted to get some good activity in. So we played a couple games until a court opened and then we were good students and practiced with drills for about 90 minutes.

When we got done EA said that there was a plant sale at a nearby donkey sanctuary that she wanted to hit. So I invited myself along and I’m so glad I did. We got to go into the paddocks with the donkeys and pet them and love on them.

This sweet donkey was shying away from other people but loved me! He liked the way I knew how to property scratch his neck and ears! He even followed me when I eventually walked away! This poor guy had been abused and must be hand fed. How can people be cruel to animals? I just don’t get it.

This little guy was so cute but was not into all the attention.

My friend took the best selfie of herself with this sweetie pie!

Isn’t that the most perfect photo?

Of course, I had to have her take a photo of me with this sweetie.

This girl was also appreciative of my neck and ear scratch skills. I think she would have let me scratch her for an hour! She was absolutely leaning into me she was loving it so much.

And now I find myself wanting a donkey of my own!

I took a sort of meandering drive home through the back roads with the windows and sun roof open… soaking in all the sun and warm weather before our soaking storm.

When I got home I got my boys leashed up and we headed out for a nice three mile walk. It was good for all of us!

It was a lovely walk on the trail and through the neighborhoods near my house. The peonies are gorgeous right now.

Each one is more wonderful than the last.

The roses are also really spectacular right now. There’s a reason Portland is called the Rose City.

They’re all over the place!

I can’t resist sticking my nose in almost every one of them.

I’ve been slowly chunking away on the purple and aqua batik blocks and only have four more to go to have the 20 I need for this quilt top.

This more close up shows the true colors a little better.

The pieces for the last four blocks are just waiting for me to get moving.

Once those blocks are done I’ll need to get everything arranged the way I like it and then add the sashing strips between the blocks. I’m pretty sure I’ll finish this top tomorrow since I’ll be stuck in the house all day with a heavy downpour.

I noticed this quarter size water drop on one of my hostas the other day. I’m guessing there will be a lot more of them tomorrow!