Summer! Sun! Time Off and a Short Vacation

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.