Back From The Porch

Here's what I purchased last week at Back Porch Fabrics with the assist of my rewards certificate. First up, eight Fat Quarters of greens in Peppered Cotton. As well as eight Fat Quarters of brightly colored cotton woven plaids.
They're sitting on top of a white pucker stitched cotton which will likely end up dyed. The texture of it is fantastic and I want to make some sort of shirt out of it.

Late Summer Into Early Fall

 It's been a struggle this year to keep everything watered, but the cosmos finally bloomed, but not bright pink, instead an almost white palest pink. Which is lovely.

 Actually got some peaches off our new tree.

 You know it's fall when the Poison Oak is turning lovely shades of red.

 And it's also fall when the sedum is blooming.

The Best Mail is Fabric Mail

 Colors right up my alley this month from Darn Good Yarn. Background is one of the Fabmo upholstery fabrics I recently snagged.

And wow, the Culcita box was gorgeous this time around. They're all from a really well-done collection, Road Trip by Alison Glass.

Wandering Wednesday - Pacific Grove

 It was a beautiful day for a day trip to Pacific Grove. I had a gift certificate for Back Porch Fabrics that was in danger of being forgotten, and so it got used! Then we had a stroll down to Lover's Point.

 DH was having a lot of fun rock hopping.

 Weird weird weird, an almost perfectly round rock. Maybe shaped by the waves over the years?

 It's such a cute little beach cove.

 And the water is so clear in the shallows.

 The whole time we were out there, this one seagull was up on the highest point. King of all he surveys.

There was a swarm of ground squirrels wait that's not right, nope I looked it up. The correct collective noun for a group of squirrels is either a Dray or a Scurry. Got it.

Fabmo Favorites

Had another great day volunteering at FabMo's distribution in Santa Cruz.
Snagged some more greens for my couch pillow replacement plan.
As well as a few yards of that white sheer with the black lines up at the top. It has a cording along one edge and is finished on the other, I think it'll make a nice over-skirt.

Square Dance Start

 So far so good on the Square Dance quilt. I'm starting out with really really random not particular favorite fabrics to practice.

I like these blocks, you can do a lot of variations of them with the pieces you cut out with the Sizzix die. And if you use batiks, then you don't have to worry about right side up or down when you cut to get the left or right-hand triangles.

Here's the blocks I've made so far. There's a lot of energy in the secondary patterns.

 And here's how the scraps from the die-cutting have sewn together so far.

New Table

I think we're officially grown-ups now, because we've bought a dining room table and chairs. I'm thrilled with them, they're quiet when I sit down. They feel sturdy and solid and just ahhh lovely.

The chairs have this great curve that fits the lower back just perfectly.

Colors Caught

 So I washed the Solstice Quilt before I gifted it to my niece. And I knew there was a chance that the dark purple batik fabrics would run, because they had during the block construction.

Many many Color Catchers were thrown in the washer.

And it worked, thank goodness, no running at all!

Solstice Completed

Here is how the Solstice Quilt turned out!

My niece was very pleased with it, which made me very happy. 

It just barely fits in my design wall at 95" square. 

Here's a close-up so you can see the lovely work the long-arm quilter I used did for me. It was an overall swirly pattern, and it looks great. Highly recommend Minaret Designs in Felton.

 I'm so glad that I did this project, I learned a lot about accurate piecing thanks to Pat Sloan's great directions.

I was eating these cold plums out of the fridge the other day, and just had to post this poem and picture combination. 

This Is Just To Say

William Carlos Williams, 1883 - 1963

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold

Wandering Wednesday - Random California Highways

 Pictures taken while passenging.

 My speciality.

 Not bad framing for eighty miles an hour.

Starting Square Dance

 Starting a new project, using the Sizzix die, Square Dance. (By the way, wow good prices on Sizzix dies on Staples)  And there's this much fabric left over after the cutting process.

 Given the need to have the fabric be a bit larger than the die surface there ends up being a lot left over. And when it comes off the machine in a nice big aligned stack, it's irresistible to not cut it up into useable pieces.

 So I did.

 And I took process pictures to remind myself how I got those pieces.

Here's how it all looks when it's cut apart. Look at all those nice triangles. And those strips. The rest goes in the put under the felting machine needle bucket.

No Driving Fabric

 No driving required fabric acquisitions are so nice, always like getting a surprise gift in the mail.  Because you never know exactly which day it'll arrive. Darn Good Yarn sends a block suggestion/instructions each time, which I've diligently saved. I think I might try doing all of those now that I've been getting them for a year. It would be A Darn Good Sampler in essence, and hey, there's my title.

Most recent Culcita box, again a great mixture of fabrics. Just a few I wouldn't have chosen if I'd be shopping in a fabric store, but they really go well with the other ones. I really like the freshness of this color range. My only probably is do I store them together, or put them into my color boxes? So far I'm keeping them together since it's kind of a curated selection that'd word for a quilt.

Wandering Wednesday - Santa Cruz City Hall

 While waiting for my husband to join me to see David Sedaris speak, (he was so hilarious and moving, go see him live if you ever get a chance!) I took the time to check out the courtyard at the Santa Cruz City Hall.
There's an old fountain in the center of the courtyard which isn't being used as a fountain anymore, perhaps to save on water usage? I like how they've repurposed it, using it as a platform for four blue planters.

Oh it's a plant that I'm trying in my garden this year, Blue Honeywort.

 There's a lot of low-water use plants in the garden, which is great to see in a municipal setting. "Walking the Talk" and all, right?

 I think I need to try and grow some kniphofia next year, these are really cool looking plants.

Mutant Madeira

 Oh, I forgot to post this when I was going on about the Pride of Madeira taking over our front yard. When I was weeding, I noticed this weird thing, can you spot it?

 It has a pretty small stem, especially given the size of the thing it's supporting. It's about the size of my two hands side by side. We looked it up and it turns out that this is pretty rare, it's called fasciation. Basically when the stem is growing, something intervenes in the usual process of growth (can be bacteria, virus, etc) and causes ribbon like growth instead of the regular tunnel form. How weird huh?

My husband said it reminded him of a Dr. Seuss tree. I think he's onto something there. It looks highly improbable. Hey, at least it managed to grow some flowers.