agilejack

We did it! We made it to the coast today and it was the most perfect day. And tonight we’re both exhausted. So tonight’s mostly photos.

We left my house around 10:30. That put in Cannon Beach, Oregon, around 12:15. The first thing we did was stop at the public restrooms, because, well…

Then we stopped at Center Diamond quilt store where we were warmly welcomed by Julie and her crew. I always stop at this shop when I spend a day at the coast. They’ve always had a really wonderful selection of batiks.

And over the last few years they’ve been growing their selection of both Kaffe Fassett Fabrics…

… and Australian Aboriginal fabrics.

Plus, they have a ton of other fabric too! It’s a great little shop and if you’re ever on the northern Oregon coast you should definitely stop in.

I did buy some Aboriginal fabrics that are new and not in my stash, plus a few gray batiks and one piece of pickleball fabric. And… one really gorgeous green batik.

I used to buy a lot of batiks but haven’t purchased many since the pandemic started. This green piece just spoke to me!

Then it was time to hit the beach!

Julie had mentioned on a previous visit that her neighborhood is a great place to park and access the southern part of the beach. So I asked her about it today and she gave me great directions that put us almost right on the beach. This was great today because we arrived just a little after high tide and my regular beach is not a good place to be at high tide.

So we got the boys and ourselves onto the beach and it felt so good… for all of us!

The weather was absolutely perfect. It can always be cold and blustery on the Oregon coast, but it was almost shirt sleeve weather today and the sun was so gorgeous after all the rain and clouds we’ve had.

In the center of that photo is Haystack Rock. It’s pretty iconic and you’ve probably seen images of it many times.

My boys were so happy to be on the beach. If I walk a mile, I’m sure they must run six or seven miles!

They’re great because they go into the water but they’re pretty smart about it. They never go in too deep. I don’t have to worry about them riding the currents to Hawaii!

OMG! They love the beach so much!!!

After about an hour on the beach we headed back to the car and made our way south to wheeler, Oregon.

On the way we parked by the beach in Manzanita to eat the lunch brought along. Nothing like lunch in the car with a view!

There used to be a lovely little fabric store in Wheeler but it closed a few years ago. The staff at Center Diamond recommended a little art/gift shop there so we decided to take the 15 mile drive to check it out. It was a nice side trip. And on the way back we stopped in Nehalem and bought some ice cream, then headed back to Manzanita to eat it at the same spot.

Then we were headed back north to my old faithful Arcadia Beach, just south of Cannon Beach. We hit the beach around 4:00.

Here’s way too many photos of that 1.5 hours on the beach…

Bender is an expert poser. He would sit on that rock all day long and let me take his photo.

Rico is not as happy to have his photo taken. In fact, it’s difficult to get a photo of him on the beach where he isn’t looking away from he camera wanting to run! I was a little surprised I was able to get this one!

And this one.

The sunlight on the water was magical!

Here’s my friend Linda in the only photo of her she will allow me to post here.

Waiting for me to tell them to run.

Becoming an expert level poser in his own right.

We lingered in the parking lot and watched the sun set.

Then the 1.5 hour drive home in the dark through the coast mountain range. We’re exhausted and so happy we had such a perfect day!

Tomorrow we’ll head down to Molalla for Rico’s sheep herding lesson. Then home to finish my Flower Baskets quilt and make a backing for Linda’s Aboriginal quilt. We’re meeting my long arm quilter on Sunday! I might also try to get the backing for my Aboriginal Libby quilt done and drop it off as well.

Our weather forecast a week ago said we were supposed to have all kinds of nice weather while my friend was here. But it’s been pretty wet and completely cloudy. Until today.

The sun came out today. It was glorious! I played pickleball in the sun this morning. And I did this to my finger…

It’s even bluer now than when I took that photo. It’s no heroic pickleball injury. I got it stuck in the gate as I was trying to walk through! I got my freaking finger stuck in the damned gate!!!

When I got back from pickleball my friend convinced me that I needed to call the local quilt store up in Battle Ground that carries a good selection of KFC fabrics to see if they had the dark border fabric I needed to finish my quilt top. She shared my concern that if we didn’t finish it while she was here it would languish in my sewing room for many months. So I called and she had the fabric in stock. (Sorry, they don’t have a website.)

So we were quickly on our way to get the fabric that would insure a finish. And, of course, I didn’t just buy the fabric I needed. I bought some fabric to feed an idea I’ve been having.

Hmmm… I’m liking where this idea is going. Maybe a reddish version of my recent blue quilt.

Visiting this fabric store put us very close to a nice field that ‘s perfect for a dog run so we stopped by and let Bender and Rico stretch their legs. It was so glorious!

It seems like forever since we’ve seen the sun! Bender approved!

And so did Rico.

When my dogs were completely exhausted it felt like time for tacos and I remembered a great taco place in Vancouver, WA, just down the road from this field. So we made our way to Little Conejo and ate some of the best tacos I’ve had in a long time, accompanied by some chips, salsa and guacamole.

So much porky goodness! I can’t stop thinking about how good these tacos were! And now I’m thinking about it again…so yummy! Tacos are really the perfect food!

Then we started out the long, rush hour drive back home. It was quite a huff. Once we got home we took some time to unwind then headed back into my sewing room to start putting all those blocks together to get that quilt top done.

If you remember the last time I made an on point quilt that had sashed blocks, I made quite a mess for myself to dig my way out of. It was my starburst jumble quilt. Here’s one of the last blog posts about how I had to construct that quilt. The problems were all caused because I just started sewing sashing to blocks without consideration for how the rows of blocks would go together.

As we worked on my new quilt top today I could see so clearly what I had done wrong with my Starburst Jumble quilt. And I saw clearly how to avoid the same issues.

It meant figuring out diagonal row by diagonal row how to apply the sashing to the block, or to the setting triangle… all to make each row go together nicely.

I had to add borders and sashing with cornerstones to some of the setting triangles… but not to all of them!

And then we just added piece by piece to get each row put together…

And now I’m looking at that photo and thinking something’s definitely wrong. I’ll have to fix it tomorrow. Dammit! See that blue polka dot cornerstone sticking out on the left side? Yeah. That’s gonna be a problem.

I did the pinning, pressing and organizing… and maybe not quite enough organizing!

… and Linda did the sewing…

We managed to get all but the last three, small, diagonal rows un-puzzled and sewn together. I was so tired at that point that I told Linda we needed to stop before we made a huge mess! Thank goodness the mess I made was only a small one!

It went really smoothly this evening. It’s so nice to have help! I was able to concentrate on keeping everything straight and verifying that what we were doing was correct. We didn’t make one mistake! If we’re not completely exhausted, we’ll finish this up tomorrow evening.

When we were done for the evening I turned my LED desk lamp onto the quilt top and was amazed at how some of the fabrics glowed under it.

OMG! that crazy plaid!!! It’s so good!

Oh… we are definitely heading to the coast tomorrow! It looks like an absolutely gorgeous day. Low tide could be at a more convenient time, but we’ll make due.

While we’re at the coast we’ll stop at Center Diamond, a great little quilt shop in Cannon Beach. I never make the trip to the coast and skip a visit.

My boys are going to be so excited when the realize where we are tomorrow!

It poured a lot of the day today. I wouldn’t be surprised if we got an inch of rain. My friend commented that this is the first time she’s visited when it’s rained this much. And then we remembered that she was here last year during a snow storm that shut Portland down for four days!

So, what did we do today? After breakfast we hit my sewing room and made the sashing and cornerstones for the dark Flower Baskets quilt we started yesterday.

That plaid is crazy fantastic!!! When I first saw it I had a hard time imagining how you would use it. And now I want to use it in everything!

We got the sashing and cornerstones put on these blocks, got them all pressed and up on the design wall pretty quickly.

As we were going to start adding the setting triangles it was obvious that I wasn’t going to have enough of the dark border fabric to finish this quilt. So we have almost reached a stopping point.

Each setting triangle is bordered in the dark fabric.

I’ve ordered more fabric but it won’t be here until next week. We have enough to finish about half the setting triangles so we have a little more work we can get done but we won’t be finishing this quilt top while my friend is here.

When we reached this point in this quilt the rain had stopped so we hurried up and took my boys and ourselves for a nice 1.7 mile walk. We lucked out and stayed dry the entire time.

My friend decided to go ahead and make the backing for her Australian Aboriginal quilt we finished yesterday. So we took another trip to Pioneer Quilts in Milwaukie, Oregon, this afternoon and she picked out this lovely yellow Aboriginal fabric for the backing and the black and white for the binding.

We’re going to head over to my long arm quilter on Sunday to deliver this quilt. I guess I’ll go ahead and make the backing for my Aboriginal Libby quilt that we finished when my friend got here on Friday and have that quilted too. So we have a couple of backings to make in the next few days. Oh goody. Backings…

After we hit the fabric store we high tailed it over to my hairdresser for haircuts. Linda went first and she threatened me with my life if I shared a photo of her here. So you’ll just have to imagine what she looks like with five inches less length to her pony tail.

I am not afraid to share a photo of myself. I actually went a lot shorter this time. I probably lost five or six inches but I gained a lot of curl! It feels great to have my hair a little more under control.

It was 7:00 when we got home so I hurried and got our salmon on the grill, whipped up a salad and were sitting down to dinner in about 20 minutes. It was a simple dinner but really good.

We decided not to go to the coast tomorrow. The weather looks like it will be sunny on Friday so a really good day to be on the beach. So our plan is to get cracking on these backings tomorrow and take a leisurely day to the coast Friday.

I’m thinking we might be able to whip up another quilt quilt this weekend. Maybe a KFC disappearing four patch. Stay tuned!

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.

My friend and I decided to head out to McMinnville, Oregon, today to visit Boersma’s Sewing Center. They sell and service sewing machines and have a lovely quilt shop. I wish I had taken photos because they have a TON of quilts displayed in the store and in their windows that provide all kinds of ideas for upcoming projects. I love quilt stores that are pretty and give you all kinds of ideas and inspiration.

I only bought a few light gray batiks and a couple of Australian Aboriginal prints to replace some that I used recently. My friend bought a lot more fabric than I did! She’s been out-pacing me in the fabric buying frenzy this visit.

I did buy a pattern for a leaf quilt.

I had seen one very similar to this recently that was made from bright Kaffe Fassett Collective fabrics on an indigo background and I just loved it. But that pattern requires a $30 special ruler to make the blocks. The pattern I bought today has paper piecing templates and doesn’t require a ruler. I will probably use the paper piecing method to make blocks but will arrange them in a looser manner than in this pattern. This feels a little tight and restricted. The other one feels more airy and has more movement. So if I ever actually do make this quilt I will mix it up and not follow the pattern exactly to get the look and feel that I like.

As we were leaving town to head back to Portland we stopped at a convenience store and bought some potato chips like we always do. Then we hit the back roads and wandered our way back home through beautiful rolling hills dotted with farms, wineries and small towns.

Once we got home we set a timer for 30 minutes to be lazy and then we forced ourselves to get our butts moving and took my boys out for a nice walk. They had been in the car during our trip to McMinnville so were very happy to stretch their legs and get some fresh air.

After a dinner of some home made chili verde we dug in and started sewing the rows of my friend’s quilt together.

The first thing we had to do was put the sashing onto the bottom row blocks. You can check out this blog post to see how we did that.

We sort of switched rolls this evening and I did all the pinning and most of the pressing and my friend sewed.

I tried to keep everything in the right order as I pinned.

Here’s Linda pressing two completed rows.

Once we got the sashing pieces sewn onto the bottom row this went really fast. And in no time we had four rows of blocks all sewn together and pressed.

Once this completed section was back up on the design wall we felt pretty good with finishing half the top and stopped there for the evening.

I just love the way blocks look when they’re sewn together. So orderly, so crisp, just lovely!

So that leaves just four rows for us to finish tomorrow. I’m thinking we might dig in and finish this quilt top first thing tomorrow. Then maybe we’ll find an adventure for the day.

Or…

We were just looking at the weather and the tides and think we might actually head to the coast tomorrow. We had decided to go later this week because of the weather, but now the weather tomorrow looks like it’s going to be good… so much indecision. We will decide tomorrow morning if we’re going to the coast or if we’ll go later this week.

Bender and Rico are going to be so excited to have a visit to the beach!!! Don’t tell them because they will be so hard to live with if. we end up not going!

Had a nice long night sleep last night followed by a leisurely breakfast. After that I dug in and did a little clean up of my sewing room, folding and putting away a bunch of fabrics that have been sitting around in piles for too long. And with that, the room was ready for us to get busy.

Around noon my friend, Linda, and I hit my sewing room and start working on her Australian Aboriginal quilt. We’re making her a version of this quilt that I gave to my brother and his wife a couple years ago.

Here’s a full view of the quilt.

It’s made from 9 inch squares sashed with 2 inch strips with cornerstones. It’s a pretty quick make and really lets the fabrics shine. It’s one of my favorite quilts that I’ve made.

Linda had cut her squares before she got here so we had a head start. She prepped and pressed the fabrics and I cut the sashing strips. Then Linda sat down at the sewing machine and started chain piecing the sashing strips onto the blocks.

It went really fast. And while she was sewing I was making the sashing pieces with the cornerstones attached that would go on the blocks next.

This old blog post explains how I make the sashing with cornerstones attached. It’s a really quick, efficient and easy way to do it.

We filled the roles we usually take, except Linda did more sewing than she usually does. But she did do almost all of the pressing.

I love having someone else to do the pressing! It really speeds up the process. Plus, I’m not a patient presser and am glad to pass that duty on to someone else.

I had told Linda that we should be able to get all those blocks done today, and we did! And they are all up on the design wall… taking a rest before we make the design final tomorrow and start putting the rows together.

The remaining sashing pieces we need for this quilt are sitting on the cutting table. We won’t add those to blocks on the bottom and right side until we decide this design is final.

Before dinner, while it was still light, we decided to get out and take my boys for a nice walk. When we got home we took my three recent quilt tops outside to get better photos of them.

Here’s last night’s finish with an obligatory Bender.

Rico was nowhere near this activity. He really hates any fabric flapping, like folding towels, making the bed, or shaking rugs. So when we stepped out with the quilt tops, he anticipated what was coming and hightailed in into the house to stay as far away as possible.

Bender, on the other hand, insists on being front and center in the photos.

This one looks so small up on the fence.

Last was this one.

Bender looks good in blue! And I like the way this top looks in natural light.

Tomorrow we’re going to head out to McMinnville, Oregon, to visit a lovely l little quilt store. Well, that is if they’re actually open tomorrow, since it’s a holiday. Then we’ll partake of our tradition of buying a big bag of potato chips to eat on a leisurely drive home on back roads.

It’s likely we’ll start sewing the Aboriginal quilt rows together some time tomorrow.

We’re thinking we might head to the coast on Tuesday. My dogs will be so happy to get a nice beach run.

I picked up my friend at the airport yesterday afternoon around 2:00. We took a little detour on the way home and god some Thai food takeout and had an early dinner when we got to my house. After dinner we went out to do some grocery shopping to keep ourselves energized and ready to go this week.

Today started off with Rico’s sheep herding lesson and he was so good! He was working so well taking my commands as he was driving sheep laterally in front of me about 50 yards. He listened, took the directions I asked him to take, and was so calm and cool and collected. I was so proud of him.

When we finished there we headed to a local fabric store that has a pretty impressive collection of Kaffe Fassett Collective fabrics and a ton of other fabrics. it’s in Battle Ground, Washington, and I’m sorry to say, she doesn’t have a website.

I had planned to buy a few pieces I needed and found a few pieces that I wanted! And when we finished there we decided to head to my favorite local fabrics store, Pioneer Quilts in Milwaukie Oregon (you can find the with a Google search.) They DO have a website.

I bought the Aboriginal in the center of that photo at Pioneer. Everyone else came from the store in Battle Ground.

See that sharks teeth on the bottom? I’ have an idea in mind for that. I just need to see if I have the other fabric to bring my idea to life.

The black and white stripe is for the green quilt I’m contemplating.

When we got home it was around 4:00 or so. We kind of diddled around a little, ate some food, and then nit my sewing room because we promised that we would finish my Aboriginal Libby quilt before we started on my friend’s new quilt.

The first thing we had to do was mark, sew a stabilizing row of stitches and trim all four corners.

When we did this on my friend’s Libby quilt last summer we were on our knees on the living room floor. Today we put my portable design wall on the guest bed and were able to do all he marking without being on our knees on the floor.

We had two corners sewn on and pressed in no time. I was anxious to see what it looked like.

this quilt is a twin size and is basically a VERY generous throw quilt. I had toyed with the idea of trimming off off eat length and width but I decided tonight I’m just going to live with this as it is to avoid the hassle and to keep the design integrity of the quilt. I’ll just live with a really big throw size quilt.

It was really helpful to have an extra set of hands to manage all this bulk. And there was a lot of bulk. Here’s my regular coiled up quilt pieces ready for sewing. This is s pretty wonky and messy pile!

I did sew a row of stabling stitches along all four corners we trimmed,. All those exposed edges are on the bias so I wanted to do what I could to keep it from getting all stretched out with handling.

Once it was all sewn my friend pressed it.

And now it’s up on my design wall.

I’m pretty happy with it. I love the way the back background fabric really makes the colors pop. It will be a great colorful addition to my living room once it’s done.

The dogs had a nice field run between fabric store visits and they are nice and tired tonight. The spent a good deal of time gated in to my dinette room because it’s not always helpful to have them underfoot.

Rico woke up last night before I went to bed and it took him soooo long to pull is tongue back in!

Blep.

We still haven’t decided what we’re doing tomorrow. I think I’m going to sleep in a little. I’m sure we’ll figure out some kind of adventure.

It’s entirely possible that we’ll start working on my friends Aboriginal quilt tomorrow.

I am officially on vacation. I will pick my friend up at the airport early tomorrow afternoon. I do have to do one phone call for work. I plan to drive to the airport and do my call as I sit at the end of the runway watching the planes land and take off as I wait for my friend to arrive.

I’m really looking forward to the next ten days! It’s going to be a luxury to step away from the stress of work. I need some time off. Some really good news is that we’re in for some spectacular weather while my friend is here.

Today was a bit of a hectic day. Lots of last minute touching in with my team, my boss, and others. So many things to wrap up when you’re going to be away from the office. So it felt extra special to step away from my desk tonight.

Unfortunately, it’s been another rainy day so we have all been stuck in the house again. Bender and Rico were not amused as I labored away in my sewing room tonight.

The time I spent in my sewing room was accompanied by the sounds of whining and barking.

I hope to get us all out for a walk before I head to the airport tomorrow.

I had a goal to finish the blue quilt top before my friend arrives and I got it done tonight! I only had four rows to finish and had them done in no time. Here they are on my cutting table after being assembled and pressed.

Before I sewed it to the previous six completed rows I sewed that line of stabilizing stitching all the way around the outside edges. And then I pinned and sewed the final seam.

It’s nice to have it all done, and just in the nick of time.

One last little piece of eye candy.

If the weather cooperates tomorrow I’d like to take this top outside and get some good photos of it. Then I need to write up the tutorial. It should be pretty quick to do.

My friend called me tonight just to check in before her arrival tomorrow. We agreed that the first thing we’re going to do when she’s here is finish my Australian Aboriginal quilt top that we started when she was here last summer. You can go back in time to see that quilt in progress in this blog post. Here’s all the pieces to this quilt top pinned to my portable design wall.

All we have to do is square up the four corner pieces, add a line of stabilizing stitching and then sew the corners onto the center panel. It’s probably not more than a couple hours of work. It is a bit cumbersome to finish it up so it will be good to have an extra pair of hands.

It’s really past time to finish this thing up. I’m planning on using it on my sofa. I think it will be a nice addition of color to my living room.

The last thing tonight… someone commented on my blog and asked about the yellow wall hanging that appeared in the photo of my SIL and her pile of fabric a couple nights ago.

It’s a free form, sort of improv quilt as you go wall hanging that I made many years ago. I made it with some Kaffe Fassett Collective scraps that my friend gave me. It was before I started collecting KFC fabrics myself. But I knew I loved the fabrics. I just had no idea how deep into the rabbit hole I would go.

It’s never actually been finished. You can see that it’s held to the wall with Scotch tape! Here’s a closer look.

It’s a fun little piece. I should probably take a few minutes and add a binding and a way to hang it more permanently.

Vacation! I already feel more relaxed!

It was a really rainy day today. There were no walks for me and my boys. None of us are happy about that.

The good news about that is that I had plenty of time to spend in my sewing room after dinner. So I headed down the hall with the plan to sew a couple rows of my blue quilt together. I did manage to sew two rows together.

Once that was pressed I pinned it to the already completed four rows and rolled it up to make it easier to sew.

I watched the David Attenborough show about the pliosaur skeleton that was found in England as I sewed. It was Philip Jacobs, one of the fabric designers in the Kaffe Fassett Collective, who discovered the snout that led to discovery of the entire skull.

Once this larger section of my quilt top was pressed I decided to run a line of stitching around it to stabilize it since all those corners are on the bias. I figured it would be easier to do this with a smaller portion of the quilt, rather than dragging all that bulk through my machine when it’s all sewn together.

Once that was done I got this back up on my design wall.

It’s going to be rainy again tomorrow night so I might push myself and get the four final rows done tomorrow. My friend will arrive on Friday afternoon. I’d really like to have this done before she gets here.

My sister in law sent me a photo today of her new quilt and pillow cases on the bed in her guest room. This quilt will eventually be on their bed but she has company coming this week and wanted to use it for them.

It looks pretty warm and inviting!

One more day and then my vacation starts! I do have one meeting I have to do on my drive to the airport on Friday morning. Then I’m free!

I really need a vacation.

It’s been a busy ten days. It’s hard to believe that after sewing and posting for so many days in a row, I haven’t done a bit of sewing or posted to my blog for over ten days!

Work has been crazy. And in the midst of that I was working on getting my house ready for company. Then my company arrived. They left this morning so I now have some time to breath and do not much of anything.

Our radio drive ended on Saturday afternoon and my brother and his wife arrived a few hours after that. We just hung out at my house on Saturday. My sister brought a really delicious tuna noodle casserole that we tossed in the oven for dinner.

One of the main purposes of this visit was for them to pick up the sunburst quarter log cabin quilt that I finished a few months ago. And they loved it!

This is a queen size quilt and will be for their bed.

(Are you surprised at the color of my kitchen walls?)

And my brother had made something special for me that he would deliver. He made this gorgeous maple frame for my beloved photo of Forrest.

That photo really needed a frame and I just love it! It looks great and I love that it was made by my brother! I still have to hang it in my bedroom.

On Sunday we had a few things we wanted to get done. First, we headed to a fabric store near me that has a lot of home decor fabrics. We wanted to find some fabric to make a table cloth for my sister in law. But the store was closed. So that took care of that.

So we headed out on our next stop to look at lamps at a huge lamp store near me. Nothing there scratched my SIL’s lamp itch, so we were on the road again.

Next up was a rug/carpet store. Amazingly, my bro and his wife purchased a very bold red hand made wool rug for their living room and a matching table runner. I was so happy to see them go bold with the red!

Then a quick stop at the grocery store and the hardware store.

When we got home we took my boys for a nice long walk.

We actually had a nice long walk every day that they were here visiting. It’s fun to have house guests who like to get out and move around. And it made my boys very happy.

We ordered take out for dinner on Sunday and it was a nice treat.

On Monday we had lunch with friends at my house so I spent the morning cooking. I made a really yummy beef stew and served it with a nice green salad and some delicious bread my bother and SIL brought. These are the friends I stayed with when my power was out last month. They brought their corgi puppy and she and my boys ran and played in my back yard the entire time we were having lunch. It was a great way to spend the afternoon.

While the stew was cooking I took my SIL into my sewing room to dig through some of my fabrics and give her some pieces to take home.

I gave her some fun prints that I’ll never use as well as a few pieces of Aboriginal fabrics. I also dug into some of less bright batiks and gave her enough of those to make a quilt! She has been having an urge to sew but doesn’t have a stash. It actually feels really good to give away some fabric! I feel so much lighter!

After lunch my SIL and I headed back to the fabric store and it was closed on Monday! So we went to a local kitchen store to poke around and ended our outing with a quick trip to Macy’s to look at coffee makers.

Once we got home and had a dinner of lunch leftovers, my SIL and I hit my sewing room to whip up a pair of pillow cases to match their new quilt. Since there are so many fabrics in that quilt, it was pretty easy to select fabrics for the pillow cases. We tried a few options but ended up on Kaffe’s red Guinea flower for the body, with a teal spot accent strip and the band was made from left over backing fabric from this quilt.

I was going to send the fabric home with my SIL with the tutorial in hand, but since we had time last night we dug in and got them done. This is the pillow case tutorial I use.

I put my SIL to work at my Bernina.

I just love hand made pillow cases. Why don’t I have some to use?

I’m so glad I remembered that I had that left over backing fabric. And that red Guinea flower is one of my favorite Kaffe designs.

Here’s a look at one pillow case with the quilt top.

I love it!

While my brother was here he got a lot of small handy man tasks done for me. He got the portrait of Forrest secured in the new frame. He replaced the insides of my front door knob that had been catching and was difficult to open. He replaced the broken hooks on a coat rack in my guest room. He tightened the handles on my fridge and freezer. He replaced a piece of door trim that had come loose.

And he replaced a broken latch on my Featherweight carrying case.

it’s so nice to have all those little jobs done! And I think he was happy to have some small projects to do. If I have something bigger I need him to do I have to let him know ahead of time so he can bring the right tools. Everything he did for me this weekend was handled with my limited tools.

Here’s a picture that sort of sums up our weekend.

And on our solo walk at the end of the day today we saw some gorgeous primrose. It feels like spring is just around the corner.

And tonight my boys are exhausted and out cold!

Two more days of work and then vacation!!! Yeah baby!!!