Going Backwards

Sometime you have to go backward to move forwards.  up to a couple of days ago these blocks where joined together as the top half of a "Hot Chocolate" BOM quilt. It had been in the same state for about 5 years.  About 2 years ago I realized that I was never going to finish this.  So it sat, unloved, there nothing wrong with it and if it was finished I'm sure someone would love it. A few weeks ago I gave myself permission not to finish it as a quilt and decided that I would take the 5 finished blocks and make them into wall hanging. I may even do the same with the 3 partially finished ones. Any one want to guess what the girls in my family are getting for Christmas.

I finished a couple more blocks for my herb pillow, I think this pattern has too many french notes, they really slow me down. LOL

My in-laws have been for a visit so last Friday my MIL asked to go to Sugar pine for a day trip, I was happy to drive her, but wasn't going to get anything, but this is my favorite purple and it has polka dots how could I resist and I looked at this cute little wall hanging many times. 

I really must get to doing more sewing if I'm going to keep shopping.

To see what other are working on visit Freshly Pieced

Herb Pillow

I wish after so many weeks of missing WIP Wednesday I had more to share, but over the summer I have not had much quilting time.  I have started stitching block for a herb pillow.  These are quite small, I think these will be cut to 3 1/2 inch blocks. There will be 9 herd blocks plus more stitching in the boarder.

To see what other are working on visit Freshly Pieced

And there was Shopping

As this trip was about a family vacation I wasn't planning on getting much quilting related shopping done. I was planning on 2 stores. Now things didn't go to plan and I didn't get to any store on the way to Seattle. DH may have felt a bit guilty and made sure I got to 4 quilt store.

 The first store I visited was in the Seattle area.  I didn't know much about this store except a friend had told me about how much LM would enjoy the shopping area it was in (see last post). 

It was Keepsake Cottage Fabrics.  I have to admit from the outside I wasn't sure that I was going to find anything, they had a lot of country fabric outside, but once I was inside this store there was lots to choose from. It was packed with different fabric selections. I picked up some fabric for my Farmers Wife and a pin cushion with tread garbage attached.  I had been planning on making one for at least the last two year. I thought this one was cute and the best part, no assembly required.

The next store was The Quilting Bee in Spokane. This was a large store with tons of fabric. It would be very easy to decide that you wanted to do a new project and buy all that you needed while at this store. I was good and stuck to my list of fabrics I needed for current projects. I picked up more of the pink I'll be using as first boarder and binding in LM quilt. As well as a possible main boarder fabric.  OK the magazine containing the kit for coaster was not on my list, but everyone needs something to read when you're on holidays.

The third store was in Bear Paw Quiting in Coeur d'Alene. I picked up a lot of notions at this store. I think I could of picked up more if my little helper was not being so helpful.

A while ago I picked up "Salt Air" charm pack and instead of making a small wall hanging or pillow I decided to make a lap quilt, so I found a background at a LQS but wanted more fabric from the "Salt Air" line for the boarder and binding. I thing the flowers will be the border and the strips will make fun binding. The best part about this store is I found the last of the items on my list.

So I could look just for fun when we stopped in Bonners Ferry at Alley Fabric Nook.  This seemed a little strange after making myself be faithful to the list. I did pick up another candidate for the boarder on LM quilt.  I am planning on piecing the back so the one not used as the boarder will end up in the back. 

I was still good a pick up a charm pack, with a couple of fat quarter so I can make something out of it.  I not big into the traditional Christmas fabrics, but like this line. I think it more transitional, as it not really modern or traditional. Not sure which Christmas I'll use it by as I have to come up with the right project first.

All in all I was happy with these stores and would happily go back to any of them. I was very pleased that I could find the items on my list, so now I won't have to wait to find fabric for some of these projects.  I am also happy with myself as I could easily have picked up fabric for lots of new projects.

Seattle

This was my first time visiting Seattle and it is a nice city.  I loved how green everything is.  We picked up a city pass and enjoyed doing tourist things. Like the space needle.

Spend lots of time at the science center.  DH like seeing king tut, LM like anything that was interactive. I like the butterflies.

We took a harbour tour and here is a sea lion resting.

I think my favorite day was a shopping day. We went looking for a quilt store that was at this fun shopping area.  LM loved the ducks and chickens that were there and we had trouble getting to to eat her lunch as she wanted to feed it to the ducks.  She also loved the train that went around the parking lot and the play area.

I still need to take photos (unpack) my shopping but will share soon.

Road to the Sun

 We are back from our trip. We went to Seattle but took the indirect scenic route, which meant a lot of driving.  Here is the border crossing into the USA. This is the cut line that is cleared along the boarder.

On the way down we took a detour to the "Road to the Sun" in Montana. Here is a lake near the start of this scenic road.

The road hand to the edge of a cliff most of the way though the pass. The line you see on the side of the mountain in the picture below is the road.

There are tour in red old fashion buses you can take if you don't want to drive. Here we are stopped at one of the pull off to take a couple of photos. 

 There is always a little bit of snow in the pass. You can see it in the photo below. Most of the snow near the road has melted this late in the summer, but we still found some we could reach.

This really isn't that far from where we live, not sure why we hadn't been before, but think we will go down and drive it again when we are not on our way somewhere. This was a long detour.

On the road

We are off on a road trip today. We are driving to Seattle, but taking an indirect route.  We left a lot later than we had planned, but we were only planning on going to Waterton today.  It may be a bad sign, that when we told a local our plans for tomorrow they groaned, so it may be a long day.

 Here is a photo taken from the entrance into the park.

 We also had to stop here so LM could go and see if there was a princess inside.  She got a little upset that we wouldn't let her climb the tower to check up there.

This is the quilt on the bed at the B&B we are staying at tonight.  So I didn't even plan anything quilty and I still found something. 

Middle of August

Well, I'm not sure how it got part way though August without me realizing it. I was sick for a few days but that doesn't explain how the rest of the time flew by.  I still haven't done much sewing, I've been too busy spending time outside.

My guild had a sew day on Saturday and I was able to go for a couple of hours. The rest of the day was full, as a group of my friends were taking our kids to the circuits in the afternoon. It was a bit odd going to a sew day and only taking one project. I took the background for LM quilt. I sew the first two columns together and started work on pairing up some more blocks. I am liking how this is turning out. I know it;s black but its not this dark, just bad lighting for the photo.

Not sure how much sewing I'm going to get to in the next while as on Friday we heading out for a week vacation. This will be our first road trip with LM. After how well she did flying I think she will do well.  We are going down into the states and I'm hoping to get some great photos to share.