Good blues

Blue, blue, my world is blue ...

but in a good way.

Low tide this morning.

We've been having bright blue skies and sparkling blue water here in Gig Harbor all week, with promises of more good blue days to come. So I took my coffee down to the water this morning and soaked it in.

Mt. Rainier floats above boats in Gig Harbor.

Then in the afternoon I walked out onto the downtown public pier to see the blue and white mountain and more blue sky and water.

Detail of "Searching" by Sherrie Spangler

 It put me in a mind to snap some pictures of watery blues in my quilts.

Detail of "Searching" by Sherrie Spangler

Detail of "Starfish Rising" by Sherrie Spangler

"House on the Water" by Sherrie Spangler

Detail of "Beach Houses" by Sherrie Spangler

Have a good blue day

Last beach walk with Julia

I took one last beach walk behind our house with Julia yesterday before she headed off to grad school. The weather was glorious ... 70s and sunny, with calm sparkling water.

We can't see Mt. Rainier from our deck, but if we walk down a few houses it comes into view. A common saying here on a sunny day is, "The mountain is out!" It's 40 miles away but looms large.

The beach is pebbly, the water clear and cold. Crabs are common in our little area of the Puget Sound, and Julia found a few crab claws.

It was a beautiful, relaxing stroll, even though it signaled the end of summer. I'm sure we'll still have sunny days for awhile -- it's usually nice in the Northwest in September -- but the boat traffic has already slowed and it's dark now around 8 instead of 10. Wish we could store it up for the winter, but photos will have to do.

Have a colorful day

Yoga girls are quilted

I just finished free-motion quilting the yoga girls from the back, tracing around the flowers and leaves on the back (more or less). It worked out a lot better than I expected!

Now all I have to do is bind it.

Here is one of the many reasons that I like yoga:

For more creative inspiration, follow this link to NinaMarie's Off-the-Wall Fridays: http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com

And here is my daughter and two of my furry grand bunnies.

 Have a colorful day

Yoga girls and flowers

The yoga girls' houses and gardens are complete, and I picked out this big, blowsy flower print to use on the back. I'm going to quilt from the back, outlining the flowers. I've known about this technique forever, but it will be the first time I've done it. It's a little scary to think about not knowing what's going on with the front as I quilt.

There's a dahlia garden near the quilt shop in Port Gamble where I bought the backing. The flowers are incredibly huge and perfect:

 Wish me luck with the quilting. 

I don't want to ruin the yoga village!

Have a colorful day

Yoga houses being built

Construction of the yoga girl houses is under way and moving along quickly! Each one is about 12 inches square, so the quilted village will come together fast.

I think I'll just do nine blocks and maybe add some spacers and a border.

Namaste

Yoga houses and wool pomegranates

Time for a new quilt project!

I want to work with splashy flowers, but I'm also itching to do more wool appliqué, so I'm starting both.

For the splashy flowers, I decided to do an improvisational house quilt with a yoga girl in each door. Someone gave me the yoga fabric years ago because I'm a yoga fanatic. Each house will be surrounded by flowers and a fun sky fabric.

For the wool, I just came across a Sue Spargo book in our quilt store with a beautiful pomegranate table rug pattern, so I bought a pack of luscious soft green wool for the background. I started pulling oranges and more greens from my wool stash and determined that I'll have to make another trip to the quilt store.

Luckily, our local store -- Harbor Quilt Garden -- has decided to make wool one of its priorities and they're building up quite a nice wool selection.

So as soon as I get back from yoga class this afternoon I'll dive in!

Have a colorful day

The Pickle Project

Dave and Julia were driving along River Road in Puyallup yesterday when Dave suddenly had the urge to make pickles, so he swung into the Duris Cucumber Farm and bought all the ingredients, including 100 cute cukes ...

... and a big batch of dill.

They stuffed a few dozen jars with grape leafs, dill, garlic, onion, pickling salt, mustard seed, peppercorns, alum, hot peppers (for Dave's jars), sweet red pepper and cucumbers. Next came the apple cider and water, then the lids. After curing 4-6 weeks in the fridge, we'll have crispy fresh dill pickles to last us through the winter.

Have a colorful day

Feet & Forks hike Tacoma Water Flume Trail

I haven't done any sewing worth blogging about since I finished the basket quilt, but I did walk almost five miles with the Feet & Forks yesterday in Tacoma.

We walked along the Water Flume Line Trail, which follows the path of an old open wooden flume that conveyed water more than 100 years ago from Spanaway Lake to a reservoir. The water was later found to be unclean, so the flume was taken apart. Now it's a nice paved path for walkers and bikers and goes 2 1/2 miles one way through some parks and neighborhoods.

Since Forks is part of our name, we ended by eating at the Edison City Ale House, where we had some delicious sandwiches but no ale. 

We didn't have forks, so pickles and peppers had to stand in. Look at the size of those turkey sandwiches!

Have a colorful day

Catching up

Our gorgeous summer weather has me spending more time outside than at the sewing machine, but I did manage to finish quilting the baskets. I'm saving the binding for a rainy day. 

I also spent days ripping out the quilting on the wool birds. I used the same wool batting that Sue Spargo uses in her wool quilts, but I decided it was way to puffy for my minimal quilting in the ditch. It looked puffy, warped and amateurish. My Sew Day group agreed it had to be ripped out. 

I'm not sure how I'm going to finish it, but we talked about using flannel instead of batting. I'm thinking of just putting on a backing and anchoring everything with buttons.

Earlier this week my daughter and I went on a road trip to Eastern Washington. The photo below is at a scenic overlook on the Columbia River Gorge. While we were standing there, two Blue Angels screamed overhead and dipped their wings, prompting everyone to duck and cover their ears.

And last but not least: WILLIE! Lots of cowboy hats in this crowd at Marymoor Park.

Have a colorful day