More Gardening, Some Sewing...

Well,  The garden has been getting most of my time and energy.  There was some major gofer activity in the potato patch so I knew it was time to dig them up!

We grow quite a variety, my favorite are the Yukon Gold.  So sweet and great texture.  The odd roots next to the potatoes are White Beets and I discover a while back that simply boiling them with a onion or two makes the Best Veggie Broth Ever!

That's a mazah ball that's been soaking up that yummy broth! Yes, that hearty looking broth there is nothing but boiled beets and water.

OK, I did squeeze in some sewing, 

Remember this top from Sunriver retreat?

I got this one quilted! 

Finished this bar quilt.

And here are two projects on the design wall. The one on the left is a bunch of orphan blocks that I've had Forever and the one on the right is two- 4" charm packs I got as free samples at the Portland Market from the Andover booth, Love all those colors together!  When finished these 4 projects will all be going to City of Hope to comfort Cancer patients.

Well after posting all those pictures it feels a little more like I did get some sewing done!  lol.

Cheers, Claire W.

Back to the Garden

Well,  We had a great quilt retreat at Randy's, and the show was a lot of fun but it was back home to a busy schedule for this week.
 I spent part of Monday getting my quilts organised!  I visited the San Francisco Guild on Tues. night and presented my Trunk show!  It was great fun and the guild members were a great audience!   I really enjoyed their  business meeting and Show and Tell. It was all done with a lot of humor and affection, they seemed a very cohesive and supportive group to each other and towards me.  I'm soooo looking forward to teaching at their retreat in 2014!

While I did get a bit of sewing done this week the main order of the day was getting out in the garden to harvest everything that had been growing while I was away!  It is amazing how things turn so quickly!  One minute you have a handful and the next you have a huge basket full!

I did put the 10 blue and white blocks that I made on retreat last week with my other blue and white blocks.  I now have 56!  I think maybe I will put them as the centers in square in squares.  That way I will have enough to put together for a top right now!

cheers, CW

Sister's Show

I did not check on the exact numbers but there are usually upwards of 10,000 visitors...

And around 1000 quilts hung all over town.  Here's a small sampling...

These two were made by Kathy Doughty, a teacher visiting from Austrailia. 

I've been going to the Sister's show every couple of years since 1997.  It has really evolved and changed over the years.  Back in the day we used to joke that you could tell the California quilters work from the Oregonians 'cause the CA quilts were bright and the pallet of the Oregon quilters   (generally) was much more subdued.  This years show was definitely a nod toward nontraditional quilting.  Even most of the quilts with traditional setting used bright cheerful fabrics.  

cheers, CW

Oregon Summer Quilt Expo

I decided to take a break from sewing yesterday and went to the Quilt Expo in Redmond, OR.  It was a very nice show.  Lots of great vendors and some interesting exhibits.  One exhibit that I thought was particularly interesting was the Route 66 exhibit.  Starting in California each state that the Route passed through was featured with a variety of small wall hangings contributed by a diverse group of quilt artists to tell the wonderful collective story of this legendary highway!

Hollywood / California

California 

Arizona 

New Mexico 

Texas 

Oklahoma

Missouri  and Illinois

There were lots of wonderful individual wall hangings , here were a few of my favorites.

 

And ouside it was a beautiful East of the Cascades Oregon Day! 

That's Mt. Jefferson, look at all that snow!

cheers, Claire W.

Sow-A-Long Blocks, still in SunRiver

So I kinda fell off Randy's Sow-A-long  last summer.  I knew I would get back around to it 'cause I  really want to make enough blocks to make a bed quilt as a wedding present for my son and his new wife.  With all these productive people around me I figured this would be a good place to pick it up again.  I managed to make 10 blocks yesterday!

There are only 8 here...but I really did make 10.  They don't follow Randy's blocks 'cause I was trying to use up scraps from the first batch. At 6" blocks it's going to take a lot of blocks to make a queen size quilt.  Well now I have 60...lol,  cheers from Sun River, Claire W.

Sewing Fun in Sunriver, OR.

We've been sewing up a storm here at Randy's in Sun river.  I've made a couple of finishes, eaten a lot of great meals (see Lori's post) and gone for some nice walks. It's very beautiful here, there's still snow on the Cascade mountains and the air smells of pine forests.  Here are my finishes:

Sorry for the brevity but I've got to get back to the sewing party. 

cheers, Claire W.

Back Home...

It's nice to go on road trips and it's nice to arrive home again!   I did bring some hand work and that helps on those days where we were in the car all day.  I've been making blue work blocks for some time.  They are easier to take-along than quilting and more fun.  I started using patterns from Red work books but branched out by using drawings from coloring books etc. Here are the 3 I finished while on the road.

This one came from a coloring book of "A Children's Garden of Verses"   

This one was from some generic coloring book.

This one was traced from a book of butterfly drawings.

Of course while we were away the garden kept growing and so there were a lot of great surprises when we got home!

More lemon cucumbers than I know what to do with?!  Any good recipes out there?

Enough blue berries for a batch of jam!!!!!!!!!!! 

And oh!  the sweet peas are finally Really blooming.  I look forward to this time, all year!

How fortunate we are!!!

cheers, CW