Evolving Sweetie

Upcoming Quilt Project ~ Steel Town Gal Quilt

Not only did I find fabric for my nieces Advent Calendars, but I absolutely fell in love with the Hometown fabric collection by Sweetwater for Mona. I bought two fat-quarter collections last week. Thinking I need to source a few more of the fabrics in the collection.

Love the fabric with the city names on it. When you look at it, the pallet is muted Steeler colors. I'm signed up for a quilt class at the Quilting Loft later this month and I think this will be perfect for it. Here is the Improv Coin Quilt sample for the class on the instructor's website. Very excited!

 

Upcoming Quilt Project ~ Advent Calendars

Oh, the last two weekends I've gotten into some serious trouble in the Fabric Depts. Earlier this summer I found this really sweet Advent Calendar quilt project from Sew Mama Sew that I've been dying to make my lovely nieces. As their God-Mother too, I always on the look out for little ways I can fulfill these duties. Hopefully it'll be a fun lead up to Christmas throughout the years for them.

Been scoping for cute Christmas fabrics and the past few weekends I've hit the mother load. Not only is the main fabric for the pockets sweet, whimsical and nostalgic (my favorite adjectives), but the color schemes fit in with the girls' current favorite colors pink & green. Perfect!

Thank you to Pacific Fabrics at Northgate and the wonderful woman who spent 30 minutes with me wandering the store looking for matching fabrics. I think we started a trend as a number of customers were going to scoop up the fabrics to make their own calendar. I'm not going to spoil all the fabric images at this time...but here is part of the main fabric panel from Sheri Berry's "Have a Sheri Berry Holiday" collection.

Aren't these so sweet! 

Each girl's calendar will be different in the backgrounds/color scheme. Supplemental fabrics (mostly purchased at The Quilting Loft) are from Michael Miller Fabrics (Dumb Dot - pink podka dots), other prints from Sheri Berry's holiday collections and solids from Robert Kaufman's Kona Cotton. I'll post some in progress and finished pics as the projects move along.

Mairead's color pallet (dk pink more watermellon colors)

Front / Back

Emily's color pallet

Front / Back

 

Deception Pass Camping ~ Part 3 Scenes Around a Campfire

Here's some random happy snaps of the gang in our favorite habitat - BS-ing & sitting around the campfire.

POSTCARDS from the firepit

Can you guess what game is being played here? The next few pics will give it away.

  

Isabel's braid jobs

Mmm Salmon!

Scarf for P

Finished another knitting project last week...just in time for Preeti's birthday. Made with two yarns knit together in a basic YO rows to elongate stitches. It's a scarf pattern that I improvise often. Shout out to Tricoter Yarn Shop for their beautiful yarn selection and for their expert help in finding me the perfect complimentary Rowan yarn. The scarf turned out beautiful and she loved it! It's lovely with her coloring. 

 

POSTCARDS of the Scarf for Preeti

Loved this yarn at first sight. Knobs a little challenging to knit with,

Deception Pass Camping ~ Part 2 Day @ the Beach

Spent a wonderful sunny Saturday afternoon lounging at the Beach.

 

POSTCARDS from Deception Pass Beach

Views from Beach Spot

the kiddos

the ladies

My toes in the sand

The girls brave the water - the Sound is COLD!

Isabel 

Katie

Harry - googles and all

Alex tossing rocks

Here comes the fishermen

 

Micaela & Alex

A beautiful day

 

 

Deception Pass Camping ~ Part 1 Hike to the Bridge

This year the friend family (aka the gang) camped out at Deception Pass State Park campground. Lots of little hikes in the area, two beaches and a lake for swimming. We had a relaxing and enjoyable long weekend. Highly recommend the location, book early to get a good site. Some spaces are tiny.

I've a metric ton of pics 500+ (whittled down from 800!). Going to break my posts out into hikes or events and share a few of my favorities. 

Saturday morning alot of us hiked over to the bridge. Micaela & Thom took the girls earlier, but we did cross paths eventually. We lost Parker to the call of the water and his fishing rod.  But the rest of us had a great little hike. Fabulous views of the straight from the bridges.

 

POSTCARDS from Deception Pass Campground Hike to the Bridge

B & the boys

1/2 way there

Our beach - camping sites right behind the big black rock

Time to start climbing

Almost there

Crossing the Bridge

Views looking West from bridge

Long way down

Crossing under the bridge

Views of the Pass looking East

Hi Eric!

Harry & I

Back down to the beaches

 

Are You Ready for Some Football?

As you can see by the change of banner, football season is upon us. I'm a very fortunately football fan. My wonderful sister takes me to a good number of Seahawk home games. And along with a fair share of the gang, I've U of WA Husky season tickets. Both are very different gaming experiences and crowds. Seahawks - up close and personal, great views of sideline activities, deafening and rambuncious. Huskies - nosebleed section (albeit a great place to see plays develop), views of Rainier and the Lake, youthful excitement and college pride. Fun times. 

Yesterday, the Huskies eek'd out a win over the E. Wa Eagles. Gotta say there is a reason the Eagles were the Nation Champs in their division - the QB has quite an arm! The game was sewn up in a last minute heart stopping interception in the endzone by our boys. If this is a preview for the season, I should start taking an aspirin a day now! Yikes!

The bonus of Husky football is tailgating. Yahoo! We kicked off our 2nd year tailgate in fine style. I spent 2 nights into the wee hours of the morn and Sat AM in my kitchen chopping, cooking and sauting. That is a very happy state for me.

Menu consisted of BBQ Bacon wrapped Jalapeno Poppers from the Pioneer Woman's Cookbook, Wings prepared two ways. First Jerk Style with the jerk marinade from Steven Raichlen's Indoor Grilling with a Jerk Sauce from a last minute web search when the wings needed a tad more pop. Both recipes gave the wings great flavor, depth and lovely spice without too much heat.  The 2nd wings preparation were the Bayou Cajon wings from the same Steven Raichlen book  - dry rub & sauce. Yum! Think it was a tie between the two preparations as a clear winner was not declared.

The tailgate ended with a Taco Salad Bar with lots of fixings. Except I realized much later the I forgot the avocados in my fridge. The boys had a variety of homebrew, domestic and imported beers, while the ladies drank Jameson & Gingerales. Good times.

 

POSTCARDS from Husky Stadium 2011 Home Opener

Beth, Gin & Jen

Parker, B & Guest

Eric & Guests

The E Wa family

Pete & Ty

Ty & Corey

Steve & Dee

Me and the girls (love my crazy hair!)

Last of the poppers and wings - too busy cooking to capture many food shots

Yes, that was a climb!

Parker & I in seats

The Band (note the length of the shadows)

Beautiful day on Lake WA

Bro-In-Law's guest appearance on the visiting team sideline

2 minutes left in the first half the sun peaked below the roofline...Time to bake!

Golden Sunshine

The Mountain's out

Note the length of the shadows now...fun to watch the shadow play from on high

Shadow of the goal post almost make it to the 50 yard line.

Game winning play was in the corner of this endzone right in front of us. 

 

Oh, it certainly wasn't a pretty win, but it's still a 1 in the "W" column. Let's make it a little less hair raising against Hawaii next week. Okay boys?!?