Happy Thanksgiving!

Pot holder by Carolynn.

 

Good Thanksgiving Morning!

We did most of the Thanksgiving cooking, prep and cleaning yesterday, so this glorious, sunny morning I get to relax. Table is set, Buddha is calm. Coffee is strong.

Julia is home with my grandbunny Bailey. I'm grateful.

I usually don't make it up for sunrises, but I caught this one earlier in the week. Grateful again. Hope you all have a wonderful day.

Have a colorful Thanksgiving

Table runner is done

I poured a cup of coffee and settled in yesterday to finish sewing down the binding on my fall table runner. Soon it was done and stretched out under a pumpkin, just in time for Thanksgiving. I may do a Christmas one next with the same pattern, since it went together so quickly.

 
I've also been enjoying these yellow roses that I got Monday from Trader Joe's ... two dozen for $9.99!

Have a colorful day

Storm

Our STITCH meeting was canceled today because of a massive storm moving through with torrential rain, howling wind, power outages and downed tree limbs. I pulled out some warm, earthy fabric to put some color into the gray day.

A finger of the Puget Sound lies behind our house, and it was full of white caps and waves crashing on the bulkheads. Our buffalo skull guardian on the back deck is growing lichen from all the moisture.

I finished piecing the charm pack into a table runner, but I still have to quilt it. If the power doesn't go out maybe I'll finish it by tonight.

Bunners seems okay with the storm. She still had her appetite for baby kale and banana, despite the rain pelting her window.

Have a colorful day

Wool bird buddies at Sew Day

My unfinished block, left, and Linda's finished block on right.

My Sue Spargo wool birds found some kindred friends on Sunday at Sew Day. Linda P. -- who took Sue's bird class at Sisters last summer -- brought her blocks to work on. I paired up our matching blocks so you can see what a difference color and embroidery stitches can make.

Linda's bird blocks are the ones with eyes. I didn't get that far on mine.

Some other color from Sew Day:

Nancy's wool applique.

Linda P.'s quilt.

Carolynn's coiled bowl.

Artichoke quiche, pumpkin bread, and fruit.

 

 Have a colorful day

 

Quilt retreat at Seabeck, WA

I just got back from my quilt guild's first overnight retreat -- two nights and three days at the Seabeck Conference Center on a beautiful, woodsy campus in the Northwest. The top photo shows the building where the 13 of us were housed in spacious guest rooms, each with its own very nice bathroom.

These two photos show the building where we sewed. We were on the upper floor, with sweeping views of nature.

As soon as we set up our machines, Carol and I started making microwave bowl cozies. Mine, on the left, uses a square template and deeper darts. Carol's has rounded edges and shallower darts. They must be made with 100% cotton fabric, batting and thread otherwise they might blow up the microwave and wouldn't make such good gifts.

Meanwhile, our fearless guild president Barbara got started with these strips making a Jelly Roll 1600 quilt. She finished it the next day, including mitered borders with a striped fabric that looks like it was made to go with the jelly roll packet.

Then Carol started production of cordage, running seven different colored yarn strands through her a cording foot to produce one thicker cord. She sewed back over it a second time to make it stiffer, then sewed it into a coiled bowl.



Carol's bowl still attached to the cordage used to make it.

Later on that night, I was engrossed in my wool birds and Delaine was engulfed in a cloud of tulle.

 
Judy, above, worked on a beautiful, soft flannel quilt. Marie completed an intricate Jinny Beyer paper-pieced medallion, below.

 
More creativity and joking was going on across the aisle, but I didn't get pictures of everything. And somehow, unbelievably, I didn't get photos of the food! We had mountains of decadent snacks that we brought as well as huge meals in the dining hall served family style.
 

 
I'll leave you with two parting shots from a walk I took on Day 2 before the rain set in.

Have a colorful day

November snippets

I'm getting ready to go on a quilt retreat this week, so I baked mocha cookies to take along and Dave made sizzling hot ribs to eat while I'm gone. These ghost and habanero peppers are all from his hot pepper garden.

I got all of my projects to fit in one bag!

I also layered a Jelly Roll 1600 quilt that I pieced back in March, but I'm not taking it with me. I think I'll have enough to do with my wool birds, a table runner and some microwave cozies for gifts.

Have a colorful week

A Northwest fall walk

Today I'll take you on a walk in my neighborhood so you can see what fall is like out here in the Pacific Northwest. We have some red and orange leaves, but mostly (at least in my neighborhood) it's tall evergreens, moss and ferns.

Fallen leaves are usually wet and matted -- not like the piles of dry, crunchy brilliant fall leaves blowing around back East.

One side of our house is woods and the other is water. The tide was up to the bulkheads, so I can't take you out on the beach. It's a rocky, pebbly beach -- no soft white sand.

The sun played hide and seek. Here it's covered by piles of gray clouds, which don't seem to bother the heron keeping watch on a floating dock.

Inside, my wool birds are coming along. Here's a spiky little guy getting a rosette chain stitch along his collar. I'm using pearl cotton by Artfabrik.com in the Degas Blue colorway. Laura Wasilowski, who is Artfabrik, lives back in Illinois where I lived before I moved here. I highly recommend her hand-dyed threads.

 

Have a colorful fall day