Summertime Happenings

Towards the end of June, we left on a 12 day trip. Before leaving, there was {of course} a mad rush to get the quilting sorted out so it would be easier to dive back in later. You know how us quilters think! 

Ready to the last little bit of handwork!

The funny thing was, I totally forgot about some of the prep work that had happened and so had to spend some time spinning my wheels anyway. These two little baby quilts had all the hand quilting finished up and just needed some binding attached. Thankfully I found the cut out and sewn binding in their neat little rolls just before I started cutting out a second batch. Seriously, where is my brain these days? Will have to find a good day to do the last little bit of hand sewing the binding down, but these are getting closer and closer to a true-blue finish!

When an idea starts on the floor

Two is not enough though. There is one more needed before the end of Julyd! I had a really great improv. idea all figured out and then when I got back from the trip, my brain was on severe overwhelm. Then one day I decided to dig through the orphan bits and pieces that had been set aside up a couple of months ago. Maybe one would be a good start for a baby quilt? 

Starting to take shape

This large applique block and the four churn dash blocks were given to me years and years and years ago in a larger box of cast aside fabrics. I have always liked them and thought to make a throw pillow out of the applique especially. Hmm... This baby quilt is a much better idea!

Did you notice how I put the hst on the corners of the border?

Even the blue fabric squares were abandoned from some late project or other so really, all that was needed was the in-between bits. At first I had zero intention of adding in the tan homespun fabric around the middle section, but something seemed to be missing. And then after that jumped into the quilt, well.... of course the yellow-gold cornerstones had to go too. At that point I was shutting out the lights in my quilting room to go to bed. 

Latest in the hoop!

And then something niggling in the back corner of my brain kind of spoke up and insisted that the cornerstones had to be a much brighter, happier blue than the one that I had chosen.*sigh  All the seam ripping just kinda gets exhausting sometimes! haha  I cut out mock-ups for the evening and went ahead and shut things down for the night. Next morning, I went ahead and made the changes for real, adding the same brighter blue over the top of the center circle in the applique too. Yep! That sealed the deal perfectly. Now it's all sewn together and in the hoop. Hope you can see how sweet and cozy this little baby quilt looks already!

A little bit of applique

Thankfully I took a bag of hand work with me on the trip, though I only managed to squeeze in time for nine blocks! Always soothes the soul to have some pretty fabric in my hands for those moments when there's nothing much else to do. I can't seem to hand stitch in the car like before I got my bifocal glasses. Just gives me a headache and doesn't seem worthwhile!

We love seeing the ocean

We went to my nieces wedding, which was absolutely beautiful. Love seeing the happiness of a young couple starting their new life together! After a long weekend there, my husband returned home and my youngest daughter and I started off on 'her' adventure. 

I drove these winding roads some my daughter could gawk
to her hearts content

She had it all mapped out and asked me to come along for the ride and a chance to see my 80 year old aunts. So sweet of her! We left Oregon and headed to California, taking a scenic side-trip along a little of the coast road HWY 101 and through the northern California redwoods. 

We loved getting a chance to hug these beauties

We managed to find time to hug one of these ancient trees and stand in awe of how totally magnificent they all are. I have been trying to go light on the pictures, but the mass of tree roots just from the trees lying down were larger than the car we were driving! And these trees!! They are so tall it practically gave us a neck ache simply trying to see the tops of these things. Wowsers, are they tall...

This was an incredible day

After a wonderful two and a half days with my aunties, we made our way back north again, touring through the redwoods once again even though that took extra time. Somehow my daughter also persuaded me to take a short hike through one of the forests, which is something my entire family could not believe. Me? Taking a hike? Very, very worthwhile though as we got to see more details of the beautiful redwood trees than we would have from the highway. Wish we could have had more days there!

A misty morning when we left

Totally surprising me {because I hadn't been paying enough attention to the itinerary}, we stayed for the night in Eureka, California at a landmark, historical inn. It was a fabulous experience and felt very surreal staying where a few presidents and a prime minister stayed once upon a time. 

Pro tip: Never leave home without the handwork bag!

Somewhere we picked up a nail in our car tire and ended up at a tire shop for almost three hours. Bah humbug. Look at me all relaxed and happy doing my applique regardless of the inconvenience! haha

Beautiful rocky beach here too

After the tire fix, we were in a time crunch. That meant we kept making short little stops along the coast line to gaze in rapture at the ocean instead of more leisurely visits like we originally supposed. One time we had made a hurried dash down the path to the ocean and a couple on their way to the beach started to turn around when right when we headed back. They thought it wasn't worth the hike down as we had returned so quickly! No, totally worthwhile, we just needed to jet!

An hour or two out from our camping spot

That was the day we were supposed to make our way to Winchester Bay, Oregon to meet up with some of my siblings who camp there every Fourth of July. My daughter still goes every year though my husband and I haven't made it there for over ten years! Anyway, long story short, she convinced me to end our adventure there with the fam and actually sleep in a tent for two nights. Uh huh. I told myself over twenty years ago that I was never, ever sleeping in a tent again, but yah. There I was. Thankfully she brought cots for the both of us and one of my sisters did the sweetest thing, she loaned me a skinny piece of memory foam for more padding. Yay! Two nights was about my max for these older hips of mine, but the worst part was probably having to get up in the wee hours of the morning and trek to the public bathrooms. Uggh. So not my thing. Much fun to hang out with four of my sisters and their families though! Loved, loved that part. Don't tell anyone, but I would probably do it all again in a heartbeat just for the good times!

Okay, that's it. A short recap of my incredible summer adventure! Wish my husband could have come along with us, but it was truly delightful, getting to spend this wonderful time with my amazing daughter.

A Little Quilting and A Lotta Family

Would you be shocked if I said that life had been busy lately? What was it that I read the other day, something about our 'hustle culture' being the new norm? Yeah. Not by choice for most of us. I managed to squeeze in a few good minutes trimming off the points of the hsts and then throwing a few of them up on the wall. This isn't sewn together yet, still in full-on contemplation mode.

25-Patch Hsts

All those hsts sewn together properly would represent four blocks to the 25-Patch HST quilt. The look is overtly {almost obnoxiously} scrappy, yet somewhat vintage in look and feel. Most all of the fabrics used are in a 15 year range though. There is probably only one fabric that would truly be of vintage era though. I'm absolutely loving the mishmash of colors and sheer unpretentious quality that's already shining through. The Inspiration quilt has nine of these 25-patch blocks so I'll start with that, roughly following the original makers lead as to value. After those nine blocks are sewn, then we'll figure out the rest of the quilt. Pretty sure there will be lots of leftover units to play with.

Primrose Path blocks

I seem to be in this rut lately of making myself finish up one applique project at a time. So weird. For years, when I got bogged down mentally, then I just pushed the project off to the back burner and started stitching on another. Now I'm acting like Sally Steadfast and keeping my nose to the grindstone until it's ALL done. 

Figuring out the centers
Can you see the snow piled up outside on the deck?

It was really exciting to finally figure out the little centers of the primrose flowers. I knew the fabric needed to be a in similar tones of faded black, but the fussy cut flowers in the this black fabric is exactly right. Don't you love when that happens?

Moody 9-Patch in the hoop

Still hand quilting on the Moody 9-Patch quilt. It's only been a finished quilt top since February of 2021, but it seems like it's been in the quilt top drawers for much, much longer. I machine stitched-in-the-ditch between all the blocks before my sewing machine was fixed. Basically, the dual feed wasn't working properly which makes for all those stitching lines being less than fully in-the-ditch and more of a meandering trail of thread. Even with using a standard walking foot. Oh well. Made me a little mad at the time, but now I don't even hardly notice. Or care. Am sort of laughing at myself for expending so much energy doing hand quilting on a quilt that barely shows off the effort involved though. It's been lovely having it in my lap though! Such a pretty, deep fall look and feel going on here!

All the Wilson Siblings in one place and 
lightning didn't strike...

The entire family didn't end up being altogether on the big day after all, only about 45 persons or so. But by Saturday, all of my siblings were present at my mom and dads for 'pizza night'. It's become part of the holiday weekend to have one pizza night, an Asian food night and also a taco bar in the days following Thanksgiving. Anyway, on impulse because its so rare we're all together in one place, we found ourselves taking a few family photos of the siblings. Some smart-alecky person suggested we arrange ourselves in order by birth, and of course people started snapping pics for posterity. It was pretty funny getting it all sorted out and then later on somebody mentioned that half of us pictured here are Gen X kids and the other half are millennials, Whatever that means? 21 years between oldest and youngest in case you were wondering. My baby brother was only four months old at my wedding! lol

I don't really talk about this much because we got a lot of flack about it growing up. People have SO MUCH to say about people having more than four or five kids in their families. I always had to laugh when someone would say my four kids was a big family. Right.... You wouldn't believe all the things total strangers and/or supposed friends would say right in front of us kids or my parents too. And not expect anyone to get offended. It was crazy and really rude at times! You learn really quick who the real friends are! Once in a great while someone would have wonderful things to say to us and we'd all sort of relax and lose the defensive posture. Not that we care now, but as kiddos, it was terribly hard to take at times.

Mom and dad had 12 kids in all with 11 kids raised to adulthood. Let me just say that they were incredible parents to us all and never lived off of anyone or expected anyone else to pick up the slack. Two of my siblings {right smack in the middle and pretty much the bridge between 'older' and 'younger' families} have passed now and this is what is left of the tribe. We still feel their loss every time we do something like this but know it will only get worse as the years fly by. And the numbers undoubtedly shrink even more? Such is life unfortunately so we cherish the good times while we can.

I am the shorty, second to the left in this picture. Fun times and yes, I was bossy growing up. What can I say? As you can see, a few 'what are we doing here?' looks because of the relaxed attire, but who really cares in the long run? I actually think the pictures turned out better from not being overly scheduled and planned to the nth degree! We don't always get along super, magically, wonderfully well, but I know if ever I truly needed anything, I could call any one of them and they'd run to my aid in a heartbeat. You know how it is with well adjusted siblings, blood is thicker than water, but ooh... we also have memories like elephants! I had a great time telling one of my nieces this last weekend about a much younger version of her sweet mama.*wink

Wintertime in Brewster, Washington

In other news, we've had snow and then a little bit more snow on top of that. The first two pictures were snapped by my husband a couple days ago. The first one was taken at his current construction/remodeling project approx. six miles from where we live {which is a whole lot closer to that mountain in the background}. It was such a cold, clear day, the distance looks much, much shorter than what it really is!

 

This next picture was taken just as he was driving through the outskirts of our little town of Pateros {less than half a mile from where we live}, but looking off to the left across the Columbia River instead of straight ahead at Billygoat mountain {seen in the previous picture}.

The sun is shining in Pateros, Washington

This last picture was taken by a friend of ours here in town who owns a little Airbnb. She snapped this picture while taking a walk along the Methow river, right where it dumps into the Columbia river {pictured behind the railroad bridge and also in the background of the previous picture. This is where our little town of Pateros sits, right at the junction of those rivers and nestled in the foothills of the mountain shown in the first picture. We really do have gorgeous views year around here, but in wintertime, after a fresh snowfall and  then the sun comes out? It's just incredible. So pretty.

Love the steamy look to the rivers in the wintertime

And mostly we do love the winters here, but wowsers, it did come early this year! I have shoveled snow off and on in short little spurts for about three days now. Yesterday I slipped and fell splat! on my left shoulder, elbow and hip, thankfully only getting slightly bruised. Normally my husband would do more of the shoveling, but we all got hit by a stomach bug on the Monday after the big weekend and I'm the one who recovered the fastest it seems. I'm just way too impatient to wait around for him to do the work, even though my back and shoulders are crying out the entire time I'm shoveling. I am soooo out of shape! There is a huge difference between a needle and a snow shovel, but I hate having snow fall into my boots every time I head out to the garage, the dumpster or to the car. Ughh. Don't tell them, but I always miss my boys a little extra this time of year...

Such a Good Finish!

 The HaHa quilt is totally finished up! So hard to believe after all these years that everything is done {except for a label}. It's been such a long time coming!

The HaHa Quilt is done!!!

As most of you know, I've always been just a little bit doubtful about the addition of the outside triangle border. Did it need it or not? I thought the added color would help make the center 'pop' better and give the entire quilt a bit more of a solid feeling. Then later I just wanted to rip it off because something about it didn't sit exactly right.

Looking so much better than I ever dreamed

Once again, I am tremendously relieved to see that yes, this design decision was meant to be. Every time I wavered or questioned, I ended up leaving it 'cuz what was going to replace it? With the hand quilting doing that lovely texture thing, it all suddenly makes perfect sense!*sigh  Did you notice the scallop hand quilting in the center area? First time I've ever done this motif and though I adore the look there in that spot, I'm very glad that I didn't end up stitching scallops over the entire quilt. Which I definitely considered doing for five or ten minutes. Hmm... No. Not today. So tempting and yet, it just didn't quite resonate with me at the time.

Loving the scalloped stitching texture

The color in the pictures is a little weird. The contrast between the creamy white fabric and the grayed down cream sections is very hard to get a proper representation of. And yes, I know it's not everyone's preference to blend all these shades of creams and whites into one quilt, but I personally love the juxtaposition. Looks so, so good close up and in person. No regrets there at all!

We'll all just laugh together...

I still have to laugh at the idea that the 'Ha Ha' portions of a quilt were due to me totally and completely miscalculating the measurements of the outside border. Obviously by a lot! Now I can say with absolute conviction--That was the very best mistake ever made around here!

So glad that I stuck it out with this project!

At this time that this quilt was started, zeroing in on solid colored fabrics and using lots of  'white' fabrics seemed very challenging to me. Lots of decisions felt excruciatingly difficult in terms of trying to 'see' through to the [imagined} end result. 

Testing out the look in the guest room

I wanted a quilt that gave off a whimsical vibe. Something cozy, not in the least bit cold or contemporary looking. The very last decision made, using the large, old fashioned red/white gingham fabric for binding? That almost seems like serendipity. One of those moth ball smelling fabrics given to me by my aunt last year. You know I would have never in a million years thought to go looking for that exact fabric, and yet it works wonderfully in that position. This turned out to be such a sweet, happy looking quilt. So thankful to see it finished up at at last!

The perfect binding

And 'Seedpod Flower' is next up in the hoop. I've been anxiously awaiting the time that I could spend with this beauty in my lap.

The new quilt in the hoop!

There's just something about the mixture of colors that makes this little heart of mine feel mushy and sentimental. Maybe it reminds me of colors that my grandmother used in her quilting? I did manage to slip one tiny fabric of hers into the quilt so there's that....

Scrappy, scrappy

It's been the usual CRazy around here so it took a couple nights to hand quilt the centerpiece of this quilt. Nothing flashy or extra special, just some basic big stitch diagonal lines and a little bit of echo quilting here and there. Next up will be the same, same, same throughout the rest of the quilt so mostly having to figure out colors of thread.

Just getting started with the hand quilting

All of my sisters have been in town this week, so yep, the six of us have been up to all kinds of trouble! Just kidding. Some hiking {not me}, celebrating moms birthday, thrifting, eating out, lots and lots of visiting. The thrifting stuff is right up my alley of course, and now I'm continually looking for shirts to repurpose for use in quilting. 

Adding some shirts to the fabric stash!

I try to leave the out-of-town family plenty of time to visit the parents on their own and not crowd in every moment of the visit. It's difficult not to want to be in on all the fun, but mom and dad are getting older and need some time for those good visits which only tend to happen during the quieter moments. 

So proud of her!

On a different note, mom had recently finished the machine quilting on her Improv. quilt and I had assured her that I could put the binding on for her. Just like I always did in prior years. Can you believe this is the very first quilt that my mom has completely finished since their house burned down in a fire back in 2014? She has definitely started several quilts in the ensuing years, but something changed after that event and she became very insecure about her quilting, often forgetting many of the things she knew about the process. She had difficulties with her new sewing machine. Her vision would get bad at the times she wasn't feeling good, which was often. Or her design wall too small to bother with. Long story short, we believe she has been dealing with Alzheimers for many years now, no doubt set off by that trauma. 

She was extremely excited to take part in the Improv. meetings I held earlier this year. Crazy happy to have a plan of attack. Often trying to jump ahead with the project even though she had zero experience with this method! Early on I determined that if it was remotely possibly, we were going to make sure that mom ended up with a true blue finish at the end of this effort. And so it happened. Just take a look at her proud smile! Lots and lots of hand holding and seam ripper sessions. Me trying to give suggestions and/or talk her out of something she was determined to do. Sometimes mom got mad at me or ridiculously irritated with 'Improv.', blaming all the mistakes on the method, her machine or 'the thread'. Other times she went ahead with the way she wanted to do something and then I had to come in and help her out of a bind. 

I am positively blown away by how much this quilt looks like a 'mom' quilt {colors etc. she would have used years ago} but still holds true with the improv. formula everyone used. Her memory might be a little tricky these days, but she remembers more than she knows that she knows. This was a very sweet moment, her getting to hold and peruse a quilt that was made by HER. She gets all the credit. Then she got to show it off when her daughters came to town. How perfect is that?

So Where Were We?

So I was afraid that this would happen. Even though this quilt has been finished for weeks, somehow the time was just never there for posting. And my eleven year blog anniversary was July 19, 2021! Oh well. Sometimes life takes a turn and all we need do is try and keep up!

Roman Stripe #1

This quilt was a result of just wanting to do something {anything really!} with a stack of fabrics that had been marinating together for years. I finally settled on this coin setting just to keep things simple and quite possibly fast forward the completion. It's not like any grand plan had ever materialized in the meantime!

A very simple quilt

Though I was actually following a pattern for once, the end result was in fact, 2 quilt tops, because you know me. Following pattern instructions is not necessarily my strong suite.

Using up fabric to make the backing

The backing for Roman Stripe quilt #1 ended up being a mishmash of some languishing fabrics from the cream/tan stash tote and a few reds thrown in for interest. I almost like the back of the quilt better than the front, but then maybe not. It's just sorta interesting because it's more than one fabric, that's all.

Going to give this one away this week....

After my last post, I put in a tiny bit of hand quilting here and there, but mostly, I promptly went into wedding mode with my oldest daughter. She's super organized and had been working on her ideas and shopping for months.

Photography by
https://www.instagram.com/crystalmoonphotography/

But then there's the implementation part of a wedding and well... there is sooooo many things to consider and take care of! I kinda figured my job was to provide constant reassurance and all the practical help and advice necessary to get through.

Photography by
https://www.instagram.com/crystalmoonphotography/

At about 3 weeks before the wedding, I started steam pressing table clothes in my living room, and then rolling them up on pool noodles for storage until the day we could start decorating. 

Photography by
https://www.instagram.com/crystalmoonphotography/

We had a final fitting at the alterations place and lots and lots of prep work, list making galore and all the myriad details that make up a lovely, special wedding. At one point my daughter asked if all this planning and doing was 'dumb' and I was like, 'Absolutely not! Your wedding day deserves to be just as wonderful and unique as you want to make it!' 

Photography by
https://www.instagram.com/cascadedayhiker1/

Both my daughter and I bought an extra pair of shoes just to reward ourselves for surviving though! But oh how I enjoyed the last two weeks when she finally took off work and we were full steam ahead on the wedding lists. Of course I still had fit in my evening walk with my younger daughter {we've been trying to walk regularly since October} so I could fit into my dress and not feel like a bloated whale. Both of them wanted me to 'glam up' a little for the big day and I tried to act like me and glittery dresses are a real thing. lol  It all came together so beautifully with a tremendous amount of help from my family right at the last. And most of all there was happiness and celebrating. 

Our new Son-in-law is a total blessing and makes our daughter happier than we've ever known her to be. Somehow they manage to be a better version of themselves when they're together and that just makes this mama's heart practically overflow. Do I sound sappy? It was a very sweet day with lots and lots of those almost over-the-top, happy vibes that still manage to look and feel genuine! Now they're off living in southern Oklahoma which is a very looong way from Washington state. I'm pretty sure that's why I let my daughter talk me into letting her pack up a couple extra quilts when she left....

We still have company and more coming in next week, so it's gonna be a little bit before I'm back to more regular quilting. Since the wedding I've been doing clean-up, organizing and some packing up of the wedding gifts etc. It seems never-ending, but I think today was the last of it until we have to pack up the trailer for long distance. Washing up the white tablecloths was the very worst! At least I'm starting to pick up the hoop once again. Yay! In my brain I have been trying to quilt, but in actuality, I have been drooping by the end of evening, and barely even looking at social media, much less engaging in hand quilting! I was starting to get worried that my quilting callous was disappearing for good! Oh no's!! My mind isn't feeling super creative at the moment, but I'm sure when things settle down, things will start to come back to life. It's been a good month. 

Checking In to Say I'm Alive and Kicking

There's a new quilt in the hoop. Something easy and lighthearted. Possibly a little bit fallish too! It makes me very happy to have this in my lap late in the evening. Good vibes!

Dried Flowers

Of course I'm hand quilting it. Most of you know that machine quilting is definitely not my forte!

Getting sandwiched and pinned

I have a fond spot for this particular quilt. All the improv. strings make my heart sing. Plus using up the abandoned bits for the flowers was just pure fun. I'm probably overstating the case, but can you tell that this quilt makes me smile?

Looking at the applique

Then there's this Four-Block Tulip quilt on the wall. The color in the picture is not quite right but I confess that it still has an old fashioned vibe. Honestly, I'm loving that! Looking forward to putting a wide scrappy yellow border on next. Got to have a good background for more applique! And yes, I deliberately chopped the corners off of the square-in-a-square cornerstones....

4-Block Tulip Medallion on the wall!

I've also been staring at this small pile of fabric. Need to make a baby quilt and these just appeal so much! Pretty much every spare brain cell is dead though. Not coming up with any good ideas!

The fabric stack is marinating

Somehow in the busyness of life, we found time to take a family picture. Don't have our oldest son and his wife {and grandkids} in it, but we were super happy with the fall tones. And it was all very impulsive one day {after church} when we somehow realized that our clothing matched very well. Hopefully I can get organized enough to get this on some Christmas cards here in a couple weeks.

Family is everything

And yes, I have most definitely gained some Coronavirus weight this year. My youngest daughter and I have been getting some walks in on a regular basis lately, trying to improve our mental health and hopeful get me {a little tiny bit} closer to a healthier weight. 

Pumpkin bread

But you know how it is. Fall is in the air and doesn't that mean it's time for pumpkin bread? I'm just not gonna stress too much about it. There's enough of that going on in life! We actually had snow yesterday though it didn't stick here in town. Thank goodness! I'm so not ready for winter! On a good note, I'm thinking that one more week in the home office and then that particular backlog will be finished up and out of my hair. Yay! Is my creativity completely dried up and blown away by now? You don't even know how very, very sick of paperwork I am....

The New Quilt Top Finish and a New Addition To the Family

So I finished up the squirrel project that jumped on board all in a hurry. I can't remember the exact measurements, but it's around 56" x 72"? Something like that. Decent size for a lap quilt for sure.

I Am A Maker quilt top is finished!

It felt good to use parts and pieces that in some cases were over 10 years old. The most complicated new pieced units were half square triangles. Though I used every bit of the parts and pieces with yellow {no matter how green-yellow}, I ended up throwing out other units that had too much green fabric in them. And I didn't use the cut red squares at all, just the coral pink ones. Interesting how it all shakes out in a project like this!

Adding a little bit of applique, of course....

Yes, the applique flowers did end up staying for good. I just cut out similar sizes to what I was auditioning and made sure to add seam allowance. I kept the shapes very simple and naive looking on purpose. This isn't a quilt for fancy schmancy detail.

All the different parts and pieces...

The quilt states that 'I am a maker', but this last week I have been primarily a 'grandma'. Miss Reagan Anne made her appearance on Tuesday morning and we couldn't be more happy. Such a joy to be a grandparents to our sweet little girls!

Sweet little granddaughter

This is a picture her daddy took that I stole off Instagram. For some reason I always forget to take pictures and just concentrate on the snuggling! I love how he took off her little cap so we could see her fuzzy little hair. Ahh... My heart just melts. Since they live just up the road from us, we are trying to help as much as possible in the first weeks of trying to adjust to the new 'normal'. Don't expect to see much quilting out of me for a little while. Priorities!