The party is over

Dawn breaks with a melancholy beauty

before the latest storm moves through.

We tipped over our swivel chairs

so they would stop spinning in the latest gale.

From my living room shelter I photographed the storm;

a reflection of our fire burns in the chair.

In between squalls, sea gulls swirl and dance

before flocking again to the water.

The golden leaves have taken a seat ...

... and the last of pink blooms sift to a stone bench.

Fish are sheltered ...

... and Buddha and bunny snuggle through it all.

 Have a peaceful day

 

 

Colors of Port Townsend, WA

A few weeks ago we spent a colorful weekend in Port Townsend, WA. Now that it's gray and rainy, I thought I'd relive the sunshine through some photos.

Alpenglow on Mt. Baker as seen from our B&B.

We stayed at the Commander's Beach House, a lovely B&B with delightful owners and great views of the water. It's right on the beach with gorgeous flower beds and welcoming rooms. Breakfasts were especially good.

The first morning we headed to the farmer's market in the upper part of town, within walking distance of the B&B. It was brimming with fall veggies, baked goods, and grilled goodies. I had a hand apple pie that was so tasty I'm drooling just thinking about it. We bought giant carrots for Bunners and Dave bought a bonsai to put by our fish pond.

Then we stumbled onto the annual Kinetic Sculpture Parade, part of a whole weekend of the Kinetic Sculpture Race festival. These contraptions have to go on land and water. I loved the women's drill team, below.

Not part of the parade, but still has character.

In the late afternoon, we hiked around the historic Pt. Wilson Lighthouse at Fort Worden State Park, where the low fall sun made the buildings glow.

 

Hope you enjoyed the trip!

 

Have a colorful day

Retail therapy

It's been raining buckets most of the week, calling for some retail therapy. I don't want to sound "materialistic," but here are the bright and bold fabric cuts I bought yesterday that have added much needed color to the day.

I got them at Island Quilter on Vashon Island, which carries a HUGE selection of Kaffe Fassett and other bright fabric lines.

Also on the island, I picked up this book of art by R.C. Gorman, whose colors are my colors.

Earlier in the week I went on a field trip to Martingale Press with about 10 ladies from our quilt guild. Martingale, in Bothell near Seattle, publishes oodles of quilting and other craft books.

 
The grand finale of the trip was shopping in their discount room, where prices ranged from free to $7. I got all of these books plus the bag pattern, notecards and coasters for just under $40.

Back on the home front, where I'm listening to the wind howl and watching the water being whipped into white caps, I'm still hand embroidering squares for my next fractured circle quilt.

I might arrange them in a twirling, swirling layout something like this.

In other news from home, Julia visited last week and immediately scooped up Bunners, who seemed very happy to be back on Mom's shoulder. 

Have a colorful day

Rainy day fall stitching

The rain outside this morning called for some colorful stitching with the morning coffee.

I'm embroidering more quarter-circles to put together for another fractured circle quilt. This time I'm letting white batting instead of black peek out around the edges.

 

I also brightened up the house with some fall décor to give it more color on the rainy days.

In other stitching news, my STITCH group gave its presentation last weekend at the library titled "Quilts: From Antiques to Art." Here are a couple of photos of Delaine talking about some of her spectacular antique quilts.

 

For more art quilting blogs, hop over to Nina Marie's Off-the-Wall Friday link up for this week:
http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com/

 Have a colorful day

Green and gray

It's been rainy and gray for awhile in the Pacific Northwest, so I went on a beach walk at low tide to see what color I could find. Basically, I found a lot of gray and green and one orange jelly fish.

Our beach is rocky and the water cold.

Jelly draped over mooring lines that are underwater at high tide.

Barnacles cling to these rocks.

Have a colorful day

Color in Port Gamble

  

We stopped in the quaint, colorful town of Port Gamble, WA, over the weekend and wandered through the colorful flowers at the Kitsap County Dahlia Society Grown Garden in the town center.

 

Then I ducked into the colorful Quilted Strait  http://www.quiltedstrait.com/ in an old stable while Dave disappeared into the kayak shop ... more color! And for flavor, I indulged myself in the almond French toast at the General Store -- delicious!

 Have a colorful day