Wandering Wednesday - Oregon Coast

 On my second drive down the Oregon Coast with my DH, we stopped at some different places and enjoyed the variation in the fog levels. On our first day, after Yachats, we pulled off 101 to check out Thor's Well, which was super sunny and very windy. It looked like a fun place to hang out go tide pooling, there was a big trail that went around. The waves were hypnotic and booming in the "sinkholes"

The next day we were in Coos Bay and drove all the way out to the very end of Cape Arago to the state park there.

 It was very foggy and I was thrilled to actually be cold after our hot days in Portland. We could tell that the fog was just about to lift.From the point we could hear the sounds of sea lions echoing in the bay.

It started getting a little more sunny.

And then it was fogged in again. I just loved it.

This state park was very long and I was glad that part of it was a super easily accessible flat beach, there were a lot of kayakers coming in and out of the small bay.

Further south we stopped at a pullout with an enormous rock and a very wide sunny beach.

There's my DH way  out on that beach near Hunter's Creek in Gold Beach.

This is the famous Kissing Rock I guess?

A bit further south we stopped at one of the many opportunities in the Samuel Boardman Scenic Corridor. This was the lovely paved trail down to Lone Ranch Beach.

I could have spent all day here, it was just so beautiful. 

There were so many interesting rock formations to walk around.

This one looked like spiderwebs to me, but it's different types of rock, some worn away by the waves, some left behind (I think probably granite.)

Almost every time I go to a beach I take some version of this picture. I think it'd be a beautiful quilt design.

Barnacles ahoy! 

And anemones ahoy!

That was really fun seeing the Oregon coast two times in a month. I feel really lucky and pretty much filled up with ocean views for a while now.

Free Thread Nets

 

I didn't take a before picture, but these sketchy knit sleeves were on each Spider Mum in a bouquet my DH bought me. As I slipped them off, I remembered seeing something like these for sale at a quilt shop recently.

Yep! They work and on all sorts of spools and cones. I love recycling and this was a really low-effort one.

I think they work really well on these medium sized cones of rayon thread. It's such a slippery thread that it never likes to stay wound up.

Here's how the Spider Mums look out of their nets.  So fresh and fancy and frilly.

DH said that he chose that bouquet specifically because of the nets and how "the flowers looked so weird, I knew you'd love them." True true.

City Sampler Top Done?

 I'm so pleased that the City Sampler quilt top is all together. I won't call it finished yet as I had been planning on doing a pieced border of some kind but I'm still thinking about that. It's pretty big (takes up most of the design wall) already but for it to work as a quilt for our bed it needs to be bigger. It's already at the too big for me to quilt stage, so I don't have to worry about the size as a decision factor. The City Sampler pattern calls for I think a 6" border of the same fabric used in the sashing. which would look really good. If I do the pieced border, I would use a smaller width initial border of the grey sashing fabric to set it off from the quilt top.

Blue Squares Finish

I started this quilt back in 2017 by cutting it out at a CQFA retreat, I assembled it in 2019, and had it quilted in 2023 by the fabulous long-arm quilter, Colleen Granger.  I finished it in March this year by sewing down the binding. Just in time to give it to my DH for our anniversary.

Here's a couple close ups to see the great quilting and enjoy the Kaffe Fassett fabrics.

I do wish that I'd used a different background fabric, as it doesn't show off the flower fabrics as well as something less forward would have. But as I didn't have as many florals to use as the pattern asked for and substituted in the solids and strips it evens the contrast out. 

The End of ICAD

 

in the middle

It's come to the end of ICAD for this year, so here are the last pieces I made.

diversity This one might be my favorite of this group.

on our blue planet

THE HIDDEN COST No maybe this one is my favorite of this group.

OUTDOORS

your secret

Nocturnal, solitary, and shy

happy to oblige

love of animals by exploiting

from birth to death Okay, maybe this last one is my favorite of this bunch.

So that was the ICAD that was this year. I'm so excited that I kept up with it and finished even though I traveled so much last month. It's such a valuable thing for me to do every year. It's fun to look back over the other years I've participated and see how much (or how little) I've changed.

August To-Do

 

The old design wall has been getting a big workout over the last week or so, many many changes. Projects taken off because they're done (October column of the Temperature Quilt), projects taken off because I'm kinda sick of them (random blocks for the back of the Bohemian Wife Quilt), big quilts finally finally getting photographed (Blue Squares), donation blocks taken down to bring to Sew Day (Orla & Inspo Block).

So now, the City Sampler is up there all alone, the main attraction taking up all the space, hanging out and impressing me when I walk in the room. I really enjoy the feeling of accomplishment, the "hey, I made that" recognition when I see the newest thing I've completed.   Soooo....onto my To-Do list for August:

Begin Something New

Oxbow Tote - cut out and begin the assembly. I still haven't started in on this and I want to before the next bag club meeting this month.

AG Stamp Quilt - decide on which sashing option to do, make more blocks using cut out stamp block centers from Tula Pink fabrics.

Continue Assembly

Sew the rest of the columns for the Temperature Quilt. The November & December columns are still left to assemble. I vow to get them both done before it's OND again!

Bohemian Wife -assemble quilt back, sandwich and make the binding.

Pantone Project - work on a overall design, either in EQ8 or up on the design wall.

City Sampler -Decide on adding border. Work on a backing.

Y.E.S. Coat - continue making pieces/blocks. assemble on foundation, cut out lining pieces from the fabric that I dyed.

Snake In The Garden - Finish hand stitching

Kawandii - Finish hand stitching/assembly

Quilting

Trinket

Metro Twist

Slopes

Final Steps

Work on getting those quilts up above👆👆👆 quilted so they can go here in this category!

Put all the finished ICAD pieces for this year into the display book.

That's plenty for me to choose from for the month of August, I think.

Hello, August

August, already. It's hard to believe July is over, two weeks of travel will do that to a month I suppose. This month will be not be as travel-centric, at least as far as I know at the moment. 

This month's monthly marker photo was made in Snapseed and Percolator with this photo of my City Sampler quit top in process.

July's One Second Every Day video, made in the 1sE app.

The monthly I-Did List for July is as follows:

1. I made my first Stamp Quilt block.
2. I worked on an ICAD piece everyday and posted them.
3. I  used up the scraps from the Bohemian Wife quilt to make pieced fabric to use for the quilt back.
4. I sewed the rest of the rows onto the City Sampler quilt top.
5. I made four Orla blocks for a Community Giving quilt.
6. I displayed four quilts at PIQF and attended the show
7. I did some freeway stitching on the Snake in the Garden quilt.
8. I finished sewing the October column of the Temperature Quilt and put up the November one on the design wall.
9. I photographed the Blue Squares Quilt. 

I posted here every day 31/31 days, I posted on Instagram 6 times, on Threads 12times, and on BlueSky 8 times. I virtually attended group meetings for CST as well as having several family visits, as well as going to doctor visits with my Dad. With all the traveling around, I feel like I did pretty well to get anything at all done.