Wandering Wednesday - Uvas Canyon County Park

 

We're still trying to get out there and go hiking somewhere every weekend, and this past weekend in-between rainstorms on Valentine's Day (we made parking reservations in January) we hiked with my SIL and BIL at Uvas Canyon County Park. They had been hiking there before and had always recommended it, so they were very kind to function as our tour guides.

I had never been in this part of Morgan Hill before, it's really lovely. Just a couple mountain ranges over from us, but still an hour and half drive.

SIL and DH taking pictures of BIL walking up the trail along the first waterfall.

There he is, almost blending in.

Then DH had to hike up and join him of course.

It was very mossy and wet around all the waterfalls of course, and the air has that wonderful extra oxygen feeling.

I wasn't about to try and scramble up those mossy wet rocks, I was very glad there was a trail even though it was quite steep.

Probably Turkey Tail, aren't they lovely?

Either Witch's Butter or Orange Jelly Spot, jelly fungus which grows on dead trees. Such a brilliant bright color on a dark cloudy day. Especially with the contrast of the bright green moss.

Lots of downed trees throughout the hike, but this gully was really a mess.

I always love when I notice an "eye" on a tree trunk. That was a 3.5 mile hike with a lot of elevation gain, so we were both a little sore the next day. But very glad that we 

• Got out of the house 
• Saw our family 
• Went on a hike in a new place. 

The bonus was finding a rather awesome ramen place in Morgan Hill to get an early dinner.

Palooza Top Finished

Here's the now completed Patchwork Palooza top. I'm very pleased with how it turned out, and now I'm glad I used the navy blue as the background.

Friend Jaye asked for a report on my experience at trying out chunking. I'd say it worked out pretty well overall. There were definitely a few spots where I had to stop and check I was sewing the right bit to the right part. So, I'd say it requires a little more or maybe just a different focus. Once I'd sewn the top three and then the bottom three sections together, it was just one more long seam across the middle. All the intersections matched up very well. (or well enough for me)

Now to decide on whether to add on a border or not.

Oxbow Snap

 

I had to refresh my memory on exactly where I'd left off on the Oxbow Tote back in December. Then I remembered my discovery at the group work day we had back in December that I had neglected to print out all of the instructions....Turns out I was midway through finishing Step #7 that was on the formerly unprinted page. I'd gotten as far as sewing together the exterior pocket to its lining, but I hadn't trimmed the seam allowance. Out came the gigantic pinking shears for that job.

Then, before switching the threads on my machine for the top stitching step, I saw that the next part is deciding on whether to install a magnetic snap closure or not. I hadn't bought one when I bought the pattern, strap webbing, zippers and strap hardware from Noodlehead. Maybe it wasn't included in the kit that they sell? Nope, it was just for the straps hardware. But I knew I had at least one of those on hand--somewhere. It took a little digging and then I found these two options in my drawer. The choice between the two options was pretty easy, not that there's going to be a visible snap on the exterior, but I went with the nickel-ish one to match the straps. 

I  checked out this video on how to install a Dritz magnetic snap as one of them was that brand. And then I watched the second video included with the Oxbow pattern. It shows how to install a regular snap. But then she actually directs you to another of her pattern's video, for the Pepin Tote where she demonstrates how to do a magnetic snap. That was very useful for me to follow. Every single step shown and clearly explained. I felt a little more empowered to give it a go.

I did the top-stitching at the top of the pocket edge and admired the owls.

I put some fusible batting and scraps of SF101 fusible interfacing under and over the snaps.

I think it turned out pretty well, it's not too lumpy or unstable.

Most importantly the snap closure lined up well. Hooray for all the helpful videos. I then got the pocket basted onto the exterior. Onto the next step of sewing on the straps.

Chunks of Love

 Happy Valentine's Day! 💝💞💘💗💖💕👄mwah!👄💝💞💘💗💖💕

Details from a Valentine's Day quilt that I made in 2010, I quilted in "All you need is love love love"

Well, here's the Patchwork Palooza quilt, all chunked. Be-Chunked? Chunk-ified? Or just plain Chunky?

Or maybe it's just time for some Chunky Monkey ice cream? (which is gluten free btw). 

It's now sitting up there in just six pieces, all are two blocks wide, three are three blocks high, and three are four blocks high. I'm thinking I'll sew the fours together, the threes together and then there will be one long seam in the middle. And then I have to consider if it needs a 3" or 4" border of the navy blue on the outside. And what to put on the back.

12 UFO Challenge

 In order to be clear about the two UFO challenges I'm participating in this year, here's a post about the 12 projects I put on my list for the 2026 BAMQ UFO Challenge. This challenge came about when one of our members, Christine, was talking about another guild's challenge and how it had gotten her to work on projects that had fallen off her radar. It sounded like a new way to inspire people so I volunteered to help her organize it for our group.

  As I wrote yesterday there is overlap with the 2026 UFO Finishes Challenge, those four will be noted with this symbol🥏👽.

The way this challenge works is you turn in a list that is numbered, and every month at Sew Day we randomly pick one of the remaining numbers from 1-12 to be the project everyone works on and tries to finish before the next Sew Day. The first number chosen in January was #12, the second number chosen in February was #9. I worked on my #12 and finished it, the May You Ever Return quilt. And now I'm working on my #9 project, the Oxbow Tote. As we only have a month to work on and finish these things, I tried to structure my list so that I'd both be challenged and also have some easier finishes.

Here's my illustrated list of 12:

1. Clover Pillowcase - first started in a class in 2023, last worked on in 2023.
   
2. Kawandii - first started in a classs in 2021, last worked on in March 2025.
   
3. Bohemian Wife quilt-🥏👽 started in 2017, last worked on in 2025.
   
4. Snake in the Garden quilt - started in a class in 2007, last worked on February 2026.
   
5. Mini QCR Pumpkins - started in 2019, last worked on ?!who knows?!
   
6. Five by Five quilt - started in a 2022 class, last worked on in December 2022.
   
7. Dave Owen Hastings Class quilt -  🥏👽 started in a 2022 class, not worked on since then.
   
8. Body Pillow pillowcase - back when I put this on my list, it was intended for my older rectangular body pillow. I now have this new one which is twice as long and rather curvy. I'm thinking it would be nice to have a cotton jersey cover, nice and stretchy to bend with the curves, cozy feeling and easy to wash.
   
9. Oxbow Tote - started in 2024, last worked on December 2025.
   
10. Quilted Dog Jacket-pattern bought in 2024, not started yet.
    
11. Bending the Calendar quilt -🥏👽  started in 2012, last worked on?who knows?!
    
12. May You Ever Return quilt -🥏👽 started in a class in 2018, first one chosen and finished!
    

Here's to challenges that inspire and make me actually me spend the time to even go find the projects that I'm supposed to be working on! That's something of a start, right?

UFO Finishes Challenge 2026

Here's a post I should have made last month! The UFO Challenge from last year was a really big success for me, so I put together another list for 2026. All of those are crammed together into the above image. They pretty much all look like they're made by the same person, so I guess that's good. Or maybe I'm just used to them because they've been hanging around for so long...being UFO's and all.

Here's the very cute image for the challenge. Great color combo and I'm into the slogan "A Year of Finishes".

An illustrated list:

Bohemian Wife - starting point: the top and back are done, binding is made. (Also on my BAMQ UFO list)

Temperature Quilt - starting point: the columns are done, the top is 2/3 put together.

Bending the Calendar- starting point: the quilt is assembled and mostly quilted. (Also on my BAMQ UFO list)

City Sampler- the starting point: the quilt is quilted and the binding is halfway sewn on

 David Owen Hastings class piece. (It's really in pieces!) I left myself notes though. And I really still quite like it a lot. Starting point: three pieces or "blocks" out of six are done, drawing are made for the other three. (Also on my BAMQ UFO list)

'

May You Ever Return - This one is very recently done! And that's mainly because it's also on the UFO Challenge list for BAMQ, See...overlapping UFO Challenges is an extra boost for me.  That one has 12 items on it, one for each month. I actually have four overlapping ones! So we'll see if that works for me with the other three.

Palooza Chunks

 

Final starting point picture that I'm working from as I assemble the Patchwork Palooza quilt top.

Trying the quilt chunking method that friend Jaye uses for quilt top assembly. Here's how it looks once the first two chunks were done. These are big blocks, so not a lot of real estate getting uncovered.

Four chunks done, and only two more columns to go. Had to quit because my wrist was aching from so much ironing. I can't wear my wrist brace and use my Oliso iron normally. The sensor in the handle doesn't work well without skin contact to put the feet down. I think I'll switch off the auto feet and use the iron rest that I have while wearing my brace to do the rest.