ON THE WALL

I put my City Sampler blocks, from #100days100blocks2018 on Instagram, up on my design wall.

Since they are in order, I guess I'll have to sew them together.

PICTURES TAKEN

Darrell was kind enough to take the photos I need of my quilts for the application for Quiltcon.

OPENED THE BOXES

 After all the rain yesterday, this morning was bright and clear.  

The tide was higher than I have every seen it, right up to the bulkheads.  Jax completely lost his mind and began barking at the waves.  He went out onto the logs floating in the water and had a great time.  Jelly and I watched with amusement.

 After the walk I went up to my studio and cleaned my old Bernina 1230, gathered up all of it's accessories, boxed everything all up and put it all away.  Then I unboxed my new Bernina B770QE Anniversary Edition. It came with a bundle of goodies including a trolley (not shown), an accessories bag and a soft cover, all in black with gold trim.  It also came with a tin full of gold scissors of all sizes and a gold rotary cutter and a gold plated ruler foot and a gold plated number 1 foot.

It doesn't fit into my sewing table, but I added some pieces of wood under it to bring it up high enough that I can use the table that came with it.  Hopefully, someday Darrell can fix the table so that it will sit down inside it.  

It came with some crappy white polyester thread on the bobbin.  Instead of unwinding it all, I ran down to McLendon's Hardware and bought some cotton clothesline and made this basket, using up the bad thread.  It took longer than I thought, but I love it.  I might make some more.  I was thinking I could even dye the cotton rope.  

Then I changed the foot to the Patchwork foot and sewed together the blocks of  my Halloween table runner to see how it would all work.  There is definitely a learning curve to get the quarter inch seam allowance right.  But, I must say, this machine is very intuitive and easy to understand - except for all of the inner computer settings - that will take some studying up on.  It came with some free classes - I'll have to look into that.

ON SALE

It was pouring buckets of rain this morning.  The dogs actually refused to go for a walk.  I went by myself and got soaked.

When I got back, I took the Carolinas quilt off the machine.

Then, I couldn't help myself.  There is a great sale going on Berninas and it ends today.  I drove down to the Federal Way Quality Sewing and Vacuums and test drove a few of the Bernina models.  I had done a lot of research beforehand, and I think my mind was already made up on the B770QE Anniversary model.  It comes with a lot of goodies.

I had to go back to the Tukwila store, where the warehouse is, to actually pick everything up.  It all barely fit into my car.

Darrell took all of the  boxes upstairs for me.  But I didn't open them.  I wanted to get the binding on the Carolinas quilt first.  It's the last job for my beloved 1230.

SUNDAY WALK

It was a beautiful morning after lots of rain showers.  We all went for a long walk at Lincoln Park.

The Olympics were happily proud this morning.

 After, Jax was very happy and wanted me to know.

He's a funny dog.

Seen on our walk -  

QUILTING DONE

YEA!  I finished the quilting on the Carolinas quilt.  I've got until next Friday to get it completely finished and pictures taken to be able to submit it to Quiltcon.  I think I'll make it.

A DAY FOR A WALK

We all needed a good walk after this last week.  But it was pouring buckets of rain most of the night and into the morning.  The dogs wouldn't even stick a nose outside.  

I went upstairs and started working on the Carolinas quilt.  After about an hour and a half, the rain subsided.  We quickly gathered up our leashes and headed to Lincoln Park.  

The clouds parted and the sun came out.  It was beautiful.

I got back to work on  the quilt afterwards.  I finished the fourth row and did one block on the fifth and last row.  

A SMALL THANKSGIVING

We had a wonderful, small Thanksgiving dinner.  It was great.

SHORT FRIDAY

The last day of the retreat, Friday, entails another great breakfast, then packing up and heading out.  It was a great week and I learned alot and am motivated to continue.  But it was nice to come home.

Another great ferry ride, Southworth to Fauntleroy.

I walked in to find a large pile of mail - and packages.

The dogs were very happy and wanted to sit in my lap all night.

THURSDAY WITH JOE

Here is another great assignment.  Joe wanted us to work with bias tape.  He handed out a photo copy of this Louise Nevelson sculpture and said,  pick nine contiguous boxes and copy them with the bias tape.  

It was great - all week, Joe would play for us every once in a while.

Every day, Joe would lead us on a short walk at 3:15pm.  Today we walked down to Alderbrook Inn to see the salmon trying to head up this small creek to spawn.  It was interesting, amazing and very sad.

I finished my last block when we returned.  I'm not sure what to do with them now.  Any suggestions?

WEIRD WEDNESDAY

Joe had us sewing curves.  He suggested Barrel Cactus as a shape.  You layer the fabrics then cut the curve through both at the same time.  This way they should go right back together like magic.

I was not thrilled with this assignment and I didn't sleep well last night.  I did just a few then I quit and wandered around, rested and didn't do much.  Later I worked on my Kline project.

RETREAT TUESDAY

Things were a bit slower today, we worked on yesterday's project and started a new one.

I went out to Patricia's pop-up shop and bought some of her Yukata cotton.  It seemed perfect for the center.

This place is very nice, here is a bad picture of the large fireplace in the main livingroom.

DAY ONE WITH JOE

On the first day of the Joe Retreat being held at St Andrews Retreat in Union, Washington, I was up very early.  I went down to the work room and sewed on one of my home projects until everyone else was up.

It was a beautiful, calm morning on the canal.

After a wonderful breakfast of bacon, sausage and eggs, we got our first assignment from Joe Cunningham.

Using just two colors (a rule which most of us broke) we were to make what Joe called 'gates' of varying sizes and them arrange them to resemble the image he had assigned us.

They were all Franz Kline paintings, mine is called "New York, NY".

OFF TO RETREAT

I headed out this afternoon for the Joe Retreat being held in Union, Washington.

It involved a ferry ride:

Then a short stop in Belfair at my nephew's store to get some ointment for my knee pain:

I moved my stuff into my itsy bitsy teeny tiny room and settled in for the night.  The fun begins tomorrow.