Blue Inspiration

Here is Oregon people talk a lot about it being so green. I on the other hand feel like Oregon is truly land of Blues. Especially, West of the Cascades. In the summer the sky is blue and vast. In the winter, it is the fog and rain that makes the mountains blue. I personally love blue and find myself wearing blue, or some shade of blue almost everyday.

I wear jeans everyday to work. I adore my chambray shirt with Navy Cords.  I recall always loving blue, even as a young girl, where the norm was pink and purple.

I participated in Small Business Saturday, by doing a bit of shopping in Portland after taking the In Laws to the airport. In a cute shop, this denim chair was in the fitting room.  I just about lost it, I would have stolen it if fit in my purse! 

This gorgeous hat was out of my price range, but was such a lovely shade of turquoise.  

The Atlantic to The Pacific

Today, the cross country trip has officially ended. I really wanted to do the atlantic to the pacific. We started at Litchfield beach, SC on a family vacation before we left the East coast.

So, today we made it to the Pacific, it has a different feel, a different vibe, but it was still absolutely beautiful. It had been a bit grey recently, this morning the sun was out at full blast and so we took advantage of it. We went to Heceta Head, OR from Eugene it was about an hour and half drive. The coast has very few houses on it, in the area I was in, so it was kept wild. 

 In most areas it seemed that the mountains just went straight into the ocean.

 This was near an attraction called The Sea Lion Inn it seemed rather cheesy and expensive so we didn't  go in.

 Other areas were more beach like. The water sure was cold though. the Inn Keeper's home is up on the hill here but, the lighthouse is around the bluff. It was under major renovations and not really picture worthy.

This was a bit farther North in the National Park. It was not very crowed, but you can tell that a storm was rolling in.

It was truly amazing to find such beautiful amazing scenery so close to home, but honestly I think there is so much to explore that we havent discovered yet. Fall is fast approaching so, I was very excited to get out to the ocean before it got too chilly. We hope to explore more, hubby starts his first week of Phd  school tomorrow, so I am not really sure how much time we will have to travel at first.

The River

This is the Williamette Rive that runs through Eugene, Oregon.

It is very wide, clean and super blue. It is such a lovely surprise to have in town. It weaves and turns a bit, but basically runs through the middle of town. Autzen Stadium is very close by the river which seems to be a lot of fun on game days. We have actually avoided this part of town and campus on the last few Saturdays because of the games. The weather has been beautiful. Its kind of a shame that I haven't felt like exploring more. I have been crafty and I will up date soon.

Wedding Love

I just completed an awesome project for dear friends of ours that are getting married soon. I wish I had thought about this for my wedding! I feel so honored to help with their wedding. Instead of a guest sign in book, these fabric patches will be signed and for the wedding reception they will hang around the deck of the cabin. I was super stoked to use up all this scrap fabric I was hoarding. I did buy the crisp white Kona solid cotton.

I live in a different city than my dear friends so they have yet to see these in person. Her wedding colors are teal and lime green. I was amazed at how much I had in that color pallet. Her favorite animal is owls and I had that awesome owl in the tree fabric. Then I went with a earthy feel to work with the mountain cabin location. The intention is that the flags will eventually be made into a beautiful quilt for their home. I have offered to piece it together for her. I don't have the ability to quilt it. 

I completed this project while packing up my house in order to move to Oregon. I am amazed at myself for getting this project done. I am generally a super procrastinator. I think they turned out beautiful. This will be something that the will be able to have and enjoy for the rest of their lives.

Look and here they are at the wedding!

Floating

Ive been craving water and to float. We got out on the lake in the boat last weekend. It was bittersweet, i was in heaven in the water, but sad to be leave my home and family here. I've been going to the lake with my dad since I was little. We never do much more than float.

Iam a water/ air sign and feel very connected to water. I always crave it this time if year. The ocean is a great fix. A lake is awesome when it is calm and few folks were out because the water is cold still. This is Lake Tillery, NC.

Granny Squares 2

I had left overs from making Lil's Granny Squares Blanket. I decided to use some other yarn to make another Granny Squares Blanket for us. I think that I am super excited about using the yellow as a border. I think that it will make it match the Kaffe quilt and pillows I made last year. What do you think? I love the Kaffe colors. I am hoping to have a little more time in February to make a Kaffe quilt. I have been working a lot recently and I am hoping to get more time off soon. I really need two days back to back in order to get a quilt rolling. I have been working 6 days a week.  I think that my new Nikon does an awesome job at capturing true color. It makes me happy!

My Kitchen

Food is a great way to feel connected to people, places and feelings. My hubby is a wonderful chef. We have started asking for high quality cookware for gifts. We asked for a dutch oven or cast iron pot so we can make good roasts. The awesome cast iron pot my mom got for us has yet to be used to make roast, but we have used it for quite a few soups. Chili is a favorite. Warm spicy chili and corn bread reminds me of living in the mountains and the deep drifts of snow that would make me stay inside. It was awesome! I love the teal color of the cast iron pot. It matches the rack, a $5 flea market find. Parents In- Law found the art work of Akita with glass of beer. We love it! I made the pot holders and got the Vera tea towels for free at my previous job. I love the the color scheme. It reminds me of my grandmother's kitchen in the the 80's, she had these super awesome cabinet and drawer pulls that were lemons and limes. She also had bright yellow wall paper. And yes those are super awesome double chocolate cookies in the background. I do the baking, hubby made the chili.

Saturday Off?

I never have Saturdays off. This is a very exciting day for me. I have already accomplished alot, am hike, laundry, dishes, sewing, brunch,  and we are hoping to go to the party in downtown later. Here is Kuma today after the walk...she loves any time she get to go with... thank goodness it was cool.
She does not have blue eyes... the flash just reflects funny.

My final, largest sunflower is fading. I am sure it will soon be attacked by the wood pecker just like the other ones. I have enjoyed every aspect of growing these beauties. I will definitely be growing them again next year.

I also finished the blue section of Texas. Check out the teal barbwire fabric. I am so happy with the ease of this project. I know it will be greatly appreciated too. Working on the white and red next.            

Went faster than I thought!

I started putting my blocks together for the mountain fence rail quilt. I got my self set up really well and utilized the diagram I made back in the beginning.

This really made the process go super quickly. I think that I would have gotten myself really confused had I not done this. The colors on the diagram are very close to the colors on the blocks. I was able to keep track because I used the actual color. I was also able to visualize what the final product would be. As I put the blocks together I kept them in chains so I could match them up later on.

I got quite a few rows together. I really like my color combinations of teal, purple, green and yellow. I have placed in a few embroidery blocks in rows. I am trying to be very conscious of where I am putting them in the quilt. I am even marking them on the diagram. I started doing rows on the left side of the quilt, then I jumped over to the right side to make sure that the embroidery pieces are throughout the whole quilt.  Below are the two sides of the quilt. The long rows are folded up on themselves. I am super happy so far.

Hand Sewing

I am trying to finish up the embroidery on a handful of the blocks for the fence rail mountain king size quilt. (There has got to be a better way to describe that quilt, for consistency concerns I need to come up with something). I decided on using small flowers/ leaves in threes for the Mountain Quilt ;  )  . I seemed to balance on the block nicely. I was attempting to make it look like a crazy quilt. However, it has ended up being more refined. I just stitch whatever comes to mind. I have completed most of them while Hubby watches NBA finals. I do actually like all levels of basketball, though I do find it hard to watch 3 games tailed on to each other.
Meanwhile, I threw this hand pin cushion together very quickly. It was more out of necessity, I lost a quite a few needles and pins recently. I actually found one in my nightgown... while in bed... in a not so great spot... just waiting to stab me.

Ultimately, I will be putting the Mountain quilt with the crochet afghan above. I beginning to think that it might just be too many stripes. What do you think?

Busy Day

I have finally completed all of the blocks for the king size mountain fence rail . I used up a heck of a lot of fabric in order to create the 224 7.5x7.5 blocks. It feels good to put the fabric to work. After I embroider on a handful of blocks I will start on piecing it all together. This will be interesting to see how heavy it is. I want to quilt it. I am super concerned that I wont have the room to do it. We'll see!

I also created these super adorable pillows out of Kaffe fabric. I recently fell head over heals for this fabric. It certainly spices up my boring leather couch. A quilt is next to come!!! So super excited over these little guys. I bought the best inserts I could find. I have found it makes a huge difference. They are the perfect size.

Crochet King Blanket

I finally finished this massive king-sized crocheted blanket. I took me 10 months to do but, I did it! Well, I did put it down in the 90-100 degree humid heat of the summer! Most of the yarn I had for years. I did end up buying a few skeins to get the color scheme that I was after. It is big and heavy and I worry about having to wash it. If you have any ideas please let me know. 

The corner and the binding worked out really well. I love all of the purply-blues that the color scheme that the stripes created. It reminds me of the mountains in the winter frost. I long to be in the mountains, I think that is why everything reminds me of it. I actually started with the darker center and worked my way out from both sides. I wanted it to have a very random color choice with thick and thin sections. Now looking at the picture, it looks like it was planned out. I get something that I want to do in my head I cant get it out until it is completed. I started the blanket with no real plan. I would not consider myself an accomplished crocheter, the whole entire blanket is single stitched. I became rather irritated with myself when I realized how much faster it could have gone. I also just simply knotted the yarn together and did not feed the tails through my stitches. I just cut them off! Very Bad! One edge is very lumpy and bumpy, hence the binding. Oh Well!

 I looooooovvvvvvvve it and finished it just in time for the cool weather.

Inspiration

I found these images of hand dyed fabric on flickr. I absolutely love both of these images. The second is from lovefiber's blog. I am bummed that we didn't dye more fabric when I had it set up. I really, really want to make a quilt out of the hand dyed fabric. I am delighted by the soft, warn, warm and used feeling that the hand dyed fabric gives to the quilt.
I really loved the mountain landscapes, I reminded me of my original inspiration for the king size quilt. By the way I haven't touched in months. This is so amazing to me. The depth that the hand dyed fabric gives to the rather non-dimensional piecing is incredible. I hope to create more things like this soon.

Clothesline shot of fabric dyeing!

Here are is a shot of me and my GF dying fabric. See previous post. The colors were so much more vibrant at first. They definitely faded as they dried in the sun. Please don't be confused by the small prayer flags in the back right.  You can tell why my hands were purple for days, those are my hands in the edge of the shot.

Crochet Blanket in Purple

I have been crocheting this king sized blanket since the start of the new year. It will hopefully complement the quilt that I am making. I have enjoyed looking at many other blogger's images of their quilts and blankets. I think it is so wonderful to make something tangible that my family can use. I love working with fabric and yarn. I know that their is much invested time in making things this way. Other ladies at work asked me why I was going to all that trouble. I answered, 'because I enjoy it!' I have thought a lot about what she said. I think part of is the nurturing part of me to make something warm that will comfort others. The other part is making something and saying that it was all me.  I guess that is a bit self-serving, but aren't we all?
I have many different types of yarns in this blanket, I love purple! and blues too! Well no certain pattern. Just use what ever color I want. I didn't want to have too many chunky sections from using a skein of solid yarn. I have many partials from other projects. Some skeins I went out and purchased just for this project. I love that I can tell when I bought them by looking at the blanket. I am sure I will have to buy a few more  in order to make it a King, but right now I am trying to use up what I have. That is my motto for this year.

Hubby's new art

  My Hubby had part of this tattoo for a couple of years. I never much cared for it. Then after many a disagreement he had this completed in 2 long sessions. The guy who did it is awesome with color. He created the pattern of water molecules around the i-ching and spirit of battle. I wanted to show this because I really like the color variation that the artist achieved. I would like to get the same effect from fabric. I also like the color of tealishblue that is so deep.                Picture is down!!!!