One of the places we visited in Canada was Englishman River Falls, which is on Vancouver Island. It was a beautiful place to hike, not too hard, and there was a very interesting type of waterfall.
It was a very grey and maybe a rainy day, so we pre-gamed with some Tim Horton's (of course). My cousins tell me that it's terrible now that an American company has taken it over. I thought the coffee was decent and the donut was just so-so.
Everything was quite mossy, and there were a lot of warning signs, which DH was taking quite seriously as you can see illustrated here.
When I first saw the upper falls, I'll admit I was a bit confused. Not a traditional single cascade waterfall, this is more spread out, kind of like Niagara Falls is.
The water from the river comes down from a lot of angles and then it all funnels into this small slot canyon.
We decided to call it a Slot Falls. Quite a lot of force! Apparently it is a dumb high school graduation dare to jump in there. Yes into the slot opening. Presumably the river is running much lower in June. But it doesn't turn out well for everyone.
This is the view into the deep pool after the falls.I was fascinated by the patterns of spinning white froth against the cliff edges.
Up above the falls, the river was moving swiftly but it was quite peaceful. There was a very wide swath of pebbly beach, when the rains or snowmelt are really going the whole thing is filled with water.
When you hike down the trail there's a point where you can look back up the canyon at the falls. It's really quite tight in there! The bridge we were on is visible up above.
The deep water was such a beautiful shade of green. I was fascinated by the wood debris, all the tree trunks stuck in various places and the large piles of wood left behind by the spring river flow.
A waterfall selfie was taken, of course.
The lower falls weren't as exciting, but I did love the deep green blue in contrast with all the moss and other rock growing plants.
There was a lot more visible action in the lower falls.
A truly amazing amount of moss!
We were really glad that my cousin recommended traveling up to this park, it was well worth the drive.
I just remembered that I needed to work on my #1 item on my BAMQ UFO Challenge List before this Saturday's Sew Day. It's the Clover quilt, from the Tara Faughan Color Collective class that I tried out back in 2023. I decided that I didn't want to make more of the gigantic blocks, and would rather make a super big pillow(case).
The rough quilted edges really need to be managed so that it'll stand up to repeated washings.
Time to try out my Lap Seam foot to seal up those edges.
I found a great fabric in my stash that matches so well to use as the backing of the pillowcase.
Went around all four sides and left myself a space to turn it all open.
The corners turned out pretty well.
I pushed the corners out a little more so that they're a bit rounded. Now to finish the opening where the pillow will be inserted, and figure out if there will be a closure needed or not.
Back home from a trip and back to work on Ocean Effect. The printed blue sheer needs attaching. and I'm trying not to lose the happenstance curve that I think works within the green rectangle.
I picked a fairly light blue thread and got to stitching. I decided to let the cut edge of the blue sheer create a slightly curved line.
I'm liking how it is looking with some stitching.
There it is, the bottom section, with the unfinished edges of the quilt showing.
And here's the whole thing with the edges turned back and pinned. I'm glad that I introduced a slightly curvy line for some variety. I like it!
Ocean Effect is all quilted now. This is not exactly how the finished quilt will look, the edges are only folded under and pinned for the photo. I am glad that the angle didn't end up on in the corner, that was my plan and I'm glad it worked.Now to work on adding the other parts of the design.
As expected, the remainder of the quilting for Ocean Effect has veered off from horizontal or vertical or the established 45° angle. This was one of the things I was noticing in the Richard Diebenkorn, Ocean Park series. There always was a "reason" for any non-vertical or horizontal lines, in this case it's my green rectangle. Just like you can see on the surface of the ocean if there's a big enough rock underneath, a way of acknowledging the volume of something that takes up space.
I marked out a lot more of these lines but haven't stitched them yet.
I think I'm going to stick with the very light green thread that I've been using. It's subtle enough that it's not fighting with the background fabric.
The pin basting for the quilt in process that I'm working on had to happen before I did much more walking foot quilting.
My trusty Parmesan cheese container of safety pins came out. This is such a tightly woven cotton, they had a little trouble getting through the fabric. Or maybe the safety pins need sharpening? Is that even a thing?
As promised I veered off from horizontal, using the corner of the green rectangle as my starting point.
I have postponed the decisions on the sheer fabric until tomorrow.
And then I went vertical for the section in the right hand upper side. So far so good.
I think the possible (maybe probable) name of this quilt is now: Ocean Effect.
I'm starting out the quilting/construction of this new quilt from the bottom up. There are two lightweight upholstery pieces (thank you FabMo), that are getting stitched down with fairly close lines of stitching. I chose a very light green rayon thread. I like how it pretty much disappears, reminds me of some of the Agnes Martin paintings I've enjoyed seeing at at SF MOMA. That works for me, as I wanted this piece to be a combination of things that I've learned from modern artists.
After a couple lines stitched, I remembered to put my walking foot on, and that was working better. Stitching through upholstery stuff onto a finely woven cotton is a challenge, but I tried to take it slow at the transition point. I put on a good audio book (Missing Sister by Joshilyn Jackson) and my headphones and got the entire bottom section all quilted.
The last thing to add is the sheer, but I have to decide several things.
How to attach it, just at the top and leave the other 3 sides loose?
If I attach all four sides, whether to quilt on top of the sheer or not?
If quilting it, change thread color and go with horizontal lines of stitching?
Do I keep the folded up (and thus darker) part at the bottom or not. If so, how to make the curve stay? (because I Really Like that curve). Maybe the stitching in the sheer could echo the curve?
I pinned up the gold part just temporarily to make sure it will still work in the composition. I am really glad I chose this hand-dyed piece for the background. It's an old one from back when I was first learning dyeing.
I think I'll continue the walking foot lines of quilting, but probably will switch up either the thread color and/or the direction or spacing of the lines.
A truly amazing amount of moss!
