Beach fun...here we come!

Kindred Yaya's of the past.....at the beach....with their trophies for dancing.

It's that time of year again.  Time to pack up too much food and liquor....time to pack way more projects than a girl could possible do in 3 days (when there is dancing to be done)....time to pack the Ambien so some sleep will happen....time to kiss hubby good-bye........time to head to the beach........YAYA VACATION time!   Woo hoo.  Let the fun begin!

Fabric Friday

McKenna Ryan is known for her beautiful appliqued quilts.  She is quite popular in the quilt world.  Since many people have wanted to duplicate her quilts exactly as she made them, there are now entire lines of fabric for specific quilts of hers.  

The Kingston Quilt shop recently got the entire "Lake Forest" line.  

Close-up of some of my favorites from the line:

The Blanket Stitch

Today I finished my bird blocks and got them all sewn together.   I had fused them a while ago but needed to do the blanket stitch around each one.  My machine has that stitch but I've never done it.  Going around the bottom big circle was a piece of cake.   But I had no idea how to get a nice look at right angle corners or the sharp point of the beak.   Thanks to my boss, Connie, I was able to accomplish that part.   She has the same machine as I do and apparently we have this snazzy button called "stitch re-start".   It's right smack dab on the front of my machine.....I'm sure I was told what it was when I first bought the machine years ago.....but I have never used it, nor thought I needed to learn it.  Now I know how wrong that thinking was!   Learn the machine.  It's a good thing.

Close up of how I did around the beak and the itty-bitty eye.  Not bad, huh?

And the feet:

I'm pretty pleased with how I did.   I only had enough fabric to make the blocks and now need to find more in this collection (I bought fat quarters while in a different city on retreat) to make the border and have it finished.   I wonder how long that will be?    :)

Buttercup Bag

I first saw this adorable bag on Storybook Woods.  The free pattern is from Made By Rae and looked pretty easy.  I have only tried a sewn bag once before but got stuck doing embellishments on the outside and never got around to finishing it.  This was a small enough project so I knew I would finish it.  I did the handles a teeny bit different - sewed them into the lining instead of outside the bag.  I also used a magnetic snap which is too heavy for the cotton fabrics I used.  Some velcro would have been better.
I am happy with the finished bag.......only problem for me is that it's too small for such a cutesy look and I'll never use it.   If I had chosen more elegant looking fabrics, it would have made a nice evening type bag for me.  As it is I'll be looking for a little girl who wants her own purse.   :)

Robert Burns: January 25, 1759 - July 21, 1796

"Should auld acquaintance be forgot, and never brought to mind?  Should auld acquaintance be forgot, and days of o'lang syne?

Robert Burns

Today is Robert Burns birthday.   He was a Scottish poet and lyricist and regarded as the national poet of Scotland. I'm sure all of you recognize the line from the song above....we sing it every year!
 He is celebrated the world over on or around his birthday in a variety of ways.    We were invited again this year to dance at the Burns Night celebration at St. Pauls Church in Bremerton.   I wasn't able to get any pics of us dancing....kinda hard to do while dancing.  But I'll share a few I took of other things.

Music is always a part of Burn parties.  The Tacoma Scots Pipe Band played and were fantastic.  I'm actually not a big fan of the bagpipes but something about the intimacy of the event made it wonderful to me.

The "presenting of the haggis" is a highlight of the evening.  I've seen this done with a lot of "pomp and circumstance" but at St. Pauls its done simply.  

You'd think after all these years in Scottish Country dance I'd know the history behind all the traditions of Burns Night celebrations but I don't.   If you're asking yourself "wassup with the haggis", you're gonna have to google it yourself.    :)  I do know Burns wrote a poem called "Address to the Haggis" and it relates to strong Scottish pride of his time.  But then everything is about Scottish pride!  

Bruce (one of our dancers) and Hubby were the "presenters".

The Tacoma Scots Pipe band brought this young dancer with them and she performed two highland dances. This was the start of the sword dance.

A young harpist played two songs for us.  He was really good.

River Search

Remember I told you about the Yaya's weekly themed photo challenge for this year?   Well, this weeks theme was "Book I'm Reading".
The book I'm reading is called "Yukon Lady: A Tale of Loyalty and Courage".   True story about a gal named Emma who moved to the Yukon in the early 1900's as a new bride.   There were lots of things I could have chosen as my picture(s) for the week:  cribbage, Husky dogs, sourdough, glaciers, etc.    They lived on the Stewart River and the river was central to life for them.  That's why I chose "river" as my pic for the week.

Getting a river picture meant a field trip for hubby and I.  So this morning we took off across the Hood Canal bridge in search of the Quilcene River.   We parked at Rainbow campground and hiked a short distance down to the river.

Dennis and Bonnie on the way down the trail.

Some mushrooms we saw.  Love how plentiful fungi are here in the NW.  For some reason they have always interested me.

And here she is, the mighty Quilcene River.

Dennis dinking at the rivers edge.

Me on the way back UP the trail...lots of stops to catch my breath.

We finished our little adventure with lunch at the Timber House in Quilcene.  Yummy, yummy food.  I highly recommend this place if you're in the area.

Blog Blockage

I don't really have anything to blog about.  Haven't had blog ideas for a while now.   I just spent about an hour going through my pictures looking for inspiration.......got none.  Sad.    There really is more to my life besides fabric!    :)


So I decided I'd share a blog I diggin' right now.  It's called "A Year Of Slow Cooking".   Stephanie, the author, is passionate about her crock pot and has shared an amazing amount of recipes.   Today I made her Asian Shredded Beef recipe.....nummy.  I didn't add as much honey, cuz I don't like overly sweet main dishes.  I served it over rice (basmati, of course!) and the shredded cabbage. 

Enjoy. 

Fabric Friday and Firsts

This is just a few bolts from the "Nicey Jane" collection by Heather Bailey.   I hadn't seen any of her work before seeing these at the Kingston Quilt shop.   Seems like there are more and more new fabric designers out there!   Hard to stay current but I do love the additional choices I get for my quilts.    :)

Tink and I got to add another "first" to a long list of things we've done together.   I've mentioned that both of us got dream jobs at the Kingston Quilt shop last June.  Last Wednesday was the first time we got to work together ALONE.  The whole shop to ourselves.  So much fun.   

Days end....time for a rest.

We get to have another day next month....thank you dear boss.......can't wait.

Fabric Friday

Kaffe Fassett is an amazing artist who knits, paints, does patchwork, mosaics, needlework and designs beautiful fabric collections!    I took a picture of some of the bolts of his at work last week.   These soft colors have been calling to me lately.  Spring on a shelf.  

Here's a close-up of one.  As you can see the prints are large.   I like using them in big chunks in quilts. 
I don't have a project in mind for using them but I don't know how long I can resist the "call" to buy!    LOL!

Warm Wishes Quilt

I finished this Warm Wishes top today.  It's one I started ages ago and never had the "oomph" to finish.   Silly part is there was only one row left to do!!!  Sigh.   Warm Wishes is one of my favorite easy quilts to make.  Very fast and I love the way it looks.   I'll use it to practice my long arm quilting at the Kingston Quilt Shop where I am learning to use the computerized long arm.   Cool stuff.

Project 365 is over!

I did it!  I finished!    Last year I decided to join a fellow Yaya in doing this "Project 365".   I'm not a photography hobbyist but thought it'd be an interesting way to look at my year when I was done......which it is!    Plus I LOVE doing stuff with my Ya's!    You can read about the start of the project for me here.

This year all four of us Yaya's are gonna do a photo project but not a picture a day.  I couldn't handle that again!  :)     Instead we have picked theme's for each week of the year and will take pics according to the theme.   Our first week's theme is "Doors/Doorways".   I haven't "found" my pic of the week yet but have some idea's.  

Here's to another year of camera carrying and clicking!

Fabric Friday

Hungry, yet?    LOL!

I decided since I haven't done a "Feet Friday" post in ages, that I'd switch this year and do "Fabric Friday" instead.   There is always fabric to share.   :)

 I decided I'm gonna collect junk food fabrics.    This is a new bunch of fat quarters I bought last month. I don't have a quilt pattern in mind yet but that never stops me from collecting.  It's so fun to go from fabric store to fabric store and look for new pieces.   Hopefully I'll find more in the next year that I can show you.