Colors of Gig Harbor!

I just got home from a jam-packed trip to visit old friends in Gig Harbor, WA, and then family in Spokane. Today I'll post about Gig Harbor, which was sunny and hot my whole visit.

The first morning I got together with the Feet and Forks for a lovely stroll through Bloedel Reserve on Bainbridge Island. We wandered through acres of forests, meadows, a Japanese garden, wildflowers, ponds and waterfalls. Just beautiful and so peaceful.

Then we went to the waterfront town of Winslow on Bainbridge for lunch at Doc's and poking around town a little. I love the rock person by the harbor!

I had a delicious salmon burger at Doc's.

I stayed with Carol, who has a large lot full of fruit trees and flowers. Here she is under her arbor holding some berries that we picked.

She has an absolutely enormous fig tree and she couldn't pick them fast enough. Every day she processed more, dehydrating and freezing them. The raspberries and blackberries below are from her yard, and she also has blueberry bushes and peach, apple and pear trees.

I baked the brownies.

Another day a few ladies from the Woolies came over to Carol's for a potluck and to show me their current work. Judy is working on a quilt pattern from Fig Tree & Co. in soft oranges, pale green, cream and grey.

Later was a gathering of the Yoga Girls at a patio table at Cutter's Point. We started at least 10 years ago, I think, with members coming and going. We all met at yoga classes at the Y. I miss our potlucks that we had once or twice a year, which included husbands.

The two Lindas from Sew Day and STITCH came over for more inspiration and food!

Linda J. just took a class to make a quilt block painted on wood that she'll hang on her back yard shed, reminiscent of the quilt blocks you see painted on barns. I'd love to take the class. She also made a cute thread pouch with a diagonal zipper. You can never have too many pouches.

Carol and I spent a few spare hours wandering around downtown Gig Harbor, soaking in the scene. All those empty chairs were set up in the park early on the morning of the weekly outdoor evening concert.

We popped into a new donut shop, Fusion (AM donut cafe/PM cocktail lounge), where Alberto boxed up our choices and then threw in a free one and gave me a Fusion mug "because you're visiting." Fusion started in Tacoma and just recently opened in Gig Harbor near the post office. Definitely go there!

Then Carol was off to Canada with another friend and I spent the last day with Joyce, hitting up our favorite lunch spot on the water, the Devoted Kiss, for our usual spicy chicken wraps and potato salad. 

Fortified, we headed to the Harbor History Museum where there was a unique show of recycled items stitched into containers and wall art. The chart below shows that the artist, Bella Yongok Kim, works with items a lot of quilters use in our art: plastic mesh bags, plastic packaging and fabric scraps. Her artist statement says that she draws inspiration from the Korean tradition of Jogakbo -- a patchwork form rooted in sustainability and resourcefulness.

At the history museum we also toured the recently refurbished 100-year-old Shenandoah, a 65-foot purse seiner fishing boat that was donated to the museum.

We took a quick walk on Joyce's beach before dinner ...

... stopping to check out Joyce's apple trees on the way up to her house. My friends are all such great gardeners, unlike me.

Here she is with her husband, Bruce, in front of a mural in the pocket park that Bruce established in what had been a weedy lot by the Purdy Bridge. The bridge connects Gig Harbor to the Key Peninsula, and Bruce wanted Peninsula visitors to see something more inviting than weeds when they came over the bridge. It's now a lovely little park on the beach, with the Orca mural as a centerpiece.

They took me to Massimo's on the water for an Italian dinner, where we had an astounding view of a setting sun turned fiery red from distant wildfire smoke. Then it was off to the airport the next morning for my flight to Spokane. I'm sorry I didn't get to see all of my friends, but there's just never enough time.

A view of Mt. Rainier from Gig Harbor and another from the plane above the clouds.

Have a colorful day

A new photo/fabric piece

I printed another photo for the next in my series of desert photo/fabric collages. I took the picture of this giant saguaro a few years ago when Barb and I started hiking on a cloudless day and all of a sudden storm clouds appeared on the horizon moving rapidly toward for us. We turned around and high-tailed it back to the car, getting there just before the rain overtook us.

I printed the photo on white cotton that I backed with an 8x10 blank adhesive address label, which stiffens the fabric enough to go through the printer. The picture shows how the label gets peeled off afterward.

I don't normally work with these earthy colors, but I managed to pull out enough fabric from my stash that I won't have to try to paint any. I'm not used to mixing those subdued colors of paint.

I can even use some of the wooden beads that I bought last week. Look at how that one strand of green matches the cactus! I can't wait to get started, but it'll have to wait until I get back from visiting family and friends in Washington.

Here are some other photos that I might print on fabric:

The one above is just behind my neighborhood and the yucca below is in my back yard.

The tangle of saguaro limbs is from a hike in the Tucson Mountains west of the city.

The sunsets are from my front courtyard with the Tucson Mountains far in the distance.

In preparation for my trip, I decided to make some pants more comfortable for my apple figure. I cut off the old tight elastic waistband and added a new one with five extra inches. Oh, what a relief when I put them on! I think I'll have to do this with a few more pairs, instead of hoping that I'll lose five pounds just in my stomach. Those of you with pear figures have no idea how we apples suffer with constricting waistbands! If we buy pants that fit our waists, they're enormous around our hips and legs.

Have a colorful day

Beads and tomatoes

My bead store haul

I'm rolling in beads! Yesterday I went to a bead store for the first time since I moved to Tucson over five years ago. I had finally depleted my stash of oranges and golds, and that's all I planned to buy. HA!

BEADHoliday turned out to be room after room after room of just about every type of bead and beading supply that you could imagine. It's been in business 28 years in central Tucson and is housed in an appropriately colorful old building.

I was swept away with the colors and slight irregularities of the wood beads and bought one strand of each of these colors. (And there were more colors.)

Seed beads, turquoise ...

... an entire rack of leaf beads.

I'll be back!

Another thing I've been doing lately is roasting tomatoes and then using them in salads, sandwiches, breakfast plates and for snacking. It's impossible to buy decent tasting tomatoes in the stores here, but after roasting them with olive oil, garlic and seasonings they taste pretty good.

Do any of you do this, and what seasonings do you use? I just used salt, pepper, thyme and oregano and I'm looking for more ideas.

This morning I had some with a slice of spinach quiche.

On the Juniper front, she continues her love affair with books and with Pops the rescued feral cat. We think he's so grateful to finally be living inside with a loving family that he'll put up with anything.

Have a colorful day