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Sunday, June 17, 2012

Sticks & Stones

Well, I'm finally back at my sewing machine after getting home and recovering from our road trip to CA.  It was such a fun trip.  It was absolutely wonderful to see my brother and sister-in-law.  I wish we could have stayed longer.  The trip home was amazing! We camped in Yosemite and then in the Redwood Forest before heading home on Hwy 101, which travels along the coast all the way up to the tip of WA.  We didn't take it all the way up since that would have been hours out of our way, but we did follow it as long as we possible could before we had to get off 101 and go home.  I will have some pictures posted by later this week hopefully.

Two weeks from now, we are actually leaving for another vacation.  Jake's family reunion, held every other year, at his Aunt and Uncle's absolutely beautiful lake home in New Hampshire.  It's really fun to have the whole family together for a week or so.  It's the only time this happens since most of us are scattered around the country.

Then, a few days after being back from this trip in July, I'm having house-guests for a week or so.

Yes, busy summer.  I don't think I've ever had this busy of a summer before.  All I can think is, when will I have time to sew? and what about canning? I have strawberries and zucchini and tomatoes all starting to grow now.  Very exciting for me! I've never been able to grow any of these things before and now they seem to be doing great.  I'm growing lots of other things too, but these three things have never prospered for me so I'm a little excited about that.



But anyway, to make up for all the time away this summer, I've been sewing like crazy these last few days.  I get really anxious and grouchy when I'm away from my home and sewing machine for too long.  I guess I feel like I'm trying to make up for being gone so much this summer.  Yeah, I know, I'm a little weird.  Most people would just go on vacation and relax but I'm not that type of gal.  I like to be doing something.  It's very hard for me to relax and enjoy doing nothing.  I'm working on it.

Anyway, here's what I've been working on lately.  I call it Sticks & Stones.


There was a free pattern available for this quilt, but after such frustration and seam ripping and recalculating the math, and still not being able to make this pattern work, I decided to just figure my own pattern out.  It was much less of a headache than I thought it would be and I'm very happy with the results.  This fabric line, It's a Hoot by Momo, is still one of my favorite fabric lines.  


At first I thought it was too busy, but now I really like it.  The colors are just so bold and bright and I think the busy-ness (is that a word?) of the pattern plays well with it.


I keep wanting to say this or that fabric is my favorite one, but in the end, I just really love them all.  Maybe those wonderful large dots.  I do love a really great dot fabric.  


And in keeping with what now seems to be a tradition for me, a pieced back using the leftover pieces from the quilt top.  I think it adds so much to a quilt to have a bit of interest on the back.  It makes it reversible really.  There's actually a few random pieces from my scrap pile on the front and back of the quilt that I had to pull in to make it the size I wanted.  That's how well I used up this jelly roll!  

It's for sale sold! here in my etsy shop

And next up is Soft & Sweet Patchwork.  As you can see, these two quilts are night and day from each other.


I love making patchwork quilts. It's amazing to see how different each one turns out based on the fabrics used or the layout they're pieced together in. This quilt is no different. I started with some patchwork blocks of Hunky Dory fabric from Moda fabrics and decided to change things up a bit and add a focal point to the center of this quilt. I think I got it right. :)

I really love how this quilt still feels traditional, yet has a bit of a modern twist to it. The colors are a perfect blend of bright and soft.


And surprise! Another pieced back.  I adore that landscape print.  It's very fun and whimsical looking.  I'd love to be laying right under that pink tree on the hill reading a book.


I do have a few more things in the works I want to share, but I have been waiting for a nice sunny day to get some photos.  It's been a bit cloudy and rainy here in WA lately.  Today looks promising though so maybe I'll have some pics to share with you by tomorrow.

This one is also for sale on etsy here.  

Enjoy the rest of your weekend! 

Friday, June 15, 2012

Back from Vacation and ready for a Nap

Well, we made it back safe and sound from our road trip to California.  The boys were so good on the long drive.  Really truly great.  Which made for a pretty wonderful adventure for us all.  We visited with my brother and his wife and got to see his graduation from Seminary.  I am so very proud of him.  He found his passion and stuck with it, even though I know it wasn't always very easy for him (or the rest of us)!

We had such a wonderful visit with them both, though it was much too short as the boys let me know when we made it home.  We took advantage of our road trip and Jake's time off from work and took our time coming home.  We had an overnite stay in Yosemite National Park.  It was so busy and late when we made it there we ended up sleeping in the car.  Not the most comfortable nite sleep for sure, but it was a memorable part of the trip.  When we woke up, I looked out my window and there were almost a dozen white tail deer in the woods next to us.  We all watched them very quietly for awhile until they bounded off into the forest.  We also saw a black bear, some elk, and lots more deer.  Then we camped in the Redwood National State Park the next nite.  The boys thoroughly enjoyed camping.  Though they did say they wished it came with a swimming pool like the hotels did.  :)

We started home the next afternoon and decided to stay one more nite in a hotel on the Oregon coast.  The boys were quite excited about one more nite of swimming pools and Jake and I were very excited about a nice warm and soft bed to sleep in.

I have to say though, as much fun as the whole trip was, and as great as the boys behaved, I am so glad to be home! It was wonderful snuggling up into my own bed last nite.  We all slept in late this morning.  The  boys slept until 8:30! They have never slept past 7:30 in their entire lives so this was a nice little treat for me and Jake this morning.

Oh, and speaking of my husband... He got quite a promotion at work! :)  I'm very proud of him.  He works so hard and does so much for us and he really deserves this.  He leaves soon to go up for training and then starts working in a new office and not outside in the cold Arctic anymore.

I think maybe next week I'll try to have some pictures posted of our trip.  We're all still readjusting to being home still.  And I'm going to go take a nap...