Union Jack Quilt

The left side of the Union Jack to be joined by....

...the right side. 

Wow, I had no idea I just started this last week.  Doing a quilt that requires piecing large pieces of fabric together really goes quickly.  This is a fun project, and I got to use a template for the first time but that just makes me dislike templates a bit.  Here is the whiny portion of this blog post.  Yes, it is going quickly.  This is despite the fact that I had to remake the solid red stripes because the directions for the template didn't say that I should turn the template upside down for half of the stripes.  This would have been helpful.  Sigh.  Also, the directions for the template were confusing.  I was directed to cut out paper according to measurements in the pattern.  But when cutting fabric out around the template, the directions said to keep a quarter inch seam allowance.  I wasn't sure if that meant when I cut it if I was to cut a quarter inch beyond the template and if that was the case why wasn't the template just made a quarter inch bigger?  Much like the city of London during World War II, I carried on and figured I could trim down as needed.

I only need to put the red stripe down the middle and then work on the back.  Overall, I like it even though the points aren't nearly as sharp as I would like them to be.  I do know more now that I've done this once and will be ready with sharp points and an upside down template next time.

Union Jack Quilt

I have finished piecing the backing for the Citrus Triangles Quilt, but haven't taken a picture of it yet.  However, I have decided what my next project will be - a Union Jack Quilt to commemorate the fact that I finally have decided to go to London.  Yup!  I'm going to the land where they make Gileses (a little Buffy the Vampire reference, but I love the idea that I'm going to where they make Gileses) and all the history.  Here's the thing, even as a teenager growing up in Wisconsin I was obsessed with British history.  I read books about all the monarchs including everyone's favorite, Henry VIII and his offspring.  (Oh, Mary, I know you had a horrible childhood but did you have to take your aggressions out by burning everyone? A little extreme sports or bad poetry writing would have helped and sorry about the hysterical pregnancy, that must have been embarrassing.)

At any rate, I'm extremely excited to go where the history is and that's why I'm making this:

I'm making the large one. 

Since taking this picture, I've already decided on a different red. 

I doubt I'll get much done on this today.  It is likely to break 70 degrees and that means I have to go buy plants that will slowly die in the garden.  I'm going to go with native plants to try to stop their inevitable deaths and my ultimate defeat.  I'm also going to pump up my tires on my bike and take it out for a spin.  That should lead to much pain and suffering later as well.  Cheers!

A flower update

To celebrate the fact that we are finally supposed to have nice weather this weekend, I've decided to post way too many flower pictures again.  We get a little strange here when the temperatures finally hit the 70's.  I expect to see lots of people in shorts and sandals and I'll be wearing my long pants and shoes with socks because even though it is in the 70's I live in the woods and it takes until August for my house to warm up.  On deck for this weekend - cleaning the deck.

Slowly taking over the front and the back yards.  

This is the first year this girl has put up buds.  I'm very excited.

A gift from a friend who was excited to learn that I like odd looking plants. 

A little pretty mixed in with another successful ground cover. 

The Candy Cane Rhododendron.  

My first ever rhododendron purchase, made seven years ago.  

This Mexican Orange is taking over the back yard.  

Hostas featuring my nemesis the strawberry plant which were ripped out mercilessly after this picture was taken. 

I'm extremely proud that my peony is putting up buds in the one sunny spot in my yard.  

Pillows

Not so much a pillow picture, as it is a Scout ignoring me picture. 

Have you ever bought fabric for one project and ended up using it for another?  I bought this home decorating weight fabric intending to make pillows for my bed. But when I was digging through my fabric stash over the weekend, I thought new pillows would really brighten up my couch and loveseat.  I covered four rather tired looking pillows with my new pretty fabric.  I like the results and I'm now eyeing the remaining pillows.  Of course if I buy fabric for them, I'll end up using it for something else but it will be exciting to see that that will be too.

Duckabush River Trail

Duckabush: (1) Place of crooked-jawed salmon.  (2) Place where I drive by the trail head and spend too much time on Forest Service Roads. 

The Duckabush River

The first hike of the year is always the hardest.  It is when I discover that I really should have made an effort to walk more during the winter and that I should have finished that walk off with some stretching or yoga.  Yesterday, while hiking the Duckabush River Trail, I rediscovered all these things and that I have the tightest hamstrings in Western Washington.  Today I am hobbling around the house as if I spent my Sunday riding a horse.  I need to stretch more - lesson learned.

CF and I went to the Duckabush River Trail; she had been there before many years ago and I had never been.  The guide book directed us to the trail, except that it said that when you get to the horse area drive past to the trailhead.  This is a lie.  This is a lie written by lying liars who lie.  Stop at the horse area and park there.  We obeyed the guide book and continued past the parking area to the forest service roads beyond.  After a mile (maybe less) I parked the car in a clearing on the right and we decided that it wasn't wise to continue with the car, but we could walk up the road and find the trailhead and that way we would know what we were dealing with for next time.

The good part of the road.

I hate forest service roads.  I know they get us to the hiking trails, but they are usually narrow, one-lane roads with deep potholes and, in my imagination, lead us to meth labs and serial killers.

We walked about 2 miles on this road, when we encountered a Subaru that had passed us previously.  After conferring with the driver it was agreed that there was no trail head where we were heading and the group of us were in the wrong area. It was comforting that others followed the book and blew past the trailhead, and it was slightly disturbing that they thought that we knew what we were doing. At that point we turned around and started walking back so we could check out the horse unloading area and see if we could pick up the trailhead there.

View from the bridge where we ate lunch, because I was sure it was the only place where the serial killers weren't hiding.

Sure enough, the horse unloading area had no horses but plenty of parked cars and a lovely well-marked trailhead.  At this point I said some very dirty words.  After I stopped talking like Yosemite Sam, we decided to walk a couple of miles up the trailhead and see what we could see.  Bear in mind, we had already walked 4 miles.  Also bear in mind, that when CF and I say we are only going to walk a couple of miles to check things out, we mean we are going to walk a couple of miles and then say that we are so close to the end that we should finish it up.  We stopped three miles later after finally finding the Duckabush River.  It was beautiful.

View from the riverside. 

Now that I know where the trailhead is, I will return.  Curiously, the hike features something called the Big Hump which we didn't get to.  We will have to return to do that, but without the four mile detour.

Citrus Triangles - Piecing Complete

The pieced front.

I've completed piecing the front of the citrus quilt.  I'm going to start on the back as soon as I finish some chores around the house and I need to plant something in the yard which I will take a picture of and share.

But, I know what you are thinking.  What would this look like with a cat on it?

Little Girl Cat supplies some necessary scale. 

Or, what would it look like with a cat taking a bath on it?

I'm just happy to be able to provide all these answers.

I was able to snatch this up before Sam walked in and we got to answer the question of what would this look like if a wet cat stood on it.  Not all questions need to be answered.

Friday Night Sew-In - May Results.

Only 4 rows to go!

Yesterday I snuck out of work an hour early so I could drink beer on my deck.  I needed that because during my testimony on my bill I managed to say it applied to counties with a population of 20,000 or more when in fact it applied to counties with a population of 200,000 or more.  Luckily, the sponsoring Senator caught that and questioned me about it (okay, corrected me) but she was very nice about it and told everyone how hard I'd been working (so please excuse her inability to read numbers correctly, really, she's just tired and not incompetent).  No harm and no embarrassing memos needed to be written. So, with my dignity still intact, I went home and enjoyed the experience of drinking a beer in a lawn chair with a 12 pound warm cat perched on my lap.

Later as I was in my kitchen and debating the merits of having a second beer on Friday night - and, it was Friday night so I could have a second beer - when it hit me.  It's Friday Night Sew-In.  With a mission now in my mind and a devil may care attitude, I put down my empty beer bottle and turned on the iron.  I attached 4 more rows to the Citrus Triangles Quilt and then remembered that I invited a friend over for dinner after Saturday's floor action and I'd better move around the larger piles of cat hair.

Mission completed and I'm ready to head to work for more public humiliation.  Sometime it is amazing I get paid for this.