7/5/17

Two Finishes

We had a wonderful day at the Willamette River Waterfront for our 4th of July celebration. The weather was almost perfect. As usual, we sat almost directly across from the Waterfront Jazz Festival.


As we were sitting listening, Matthew told us a band in which he's been playing the bass drum participated in the blues festival over the weekend. They provided entertainment for the crowd between acts that were performing on the main stage. In the image below, you can see the members of the "Unpresidented Brass Band." 


They have attended protest events in downtown Portland, marching, and playing music. Matthew tells us its their way of participating in friendly, humorous, and peaceful protest, and he's been having great fun as a member. He tells us that the musicians are all volunteers, and all have "day jobs," including a few who are professional musicians. 

As for our own family celebration, Erik and Mae manned the "food court."


We had some delicious burgers, salads, and other snacks provided by the many who sat under our pop-up canopies.


In preparation, I made two more hearts for the "I Found a Quilted Heart" campaign. Their fronts are the same.


Their backs are different.


These are my 6th and 7th hearts, and I left hearts 5-7 along the way as we walked over and back across the Tilikum Crossing bridge. We arrived home around 1:00 a.m. last night after a full day of family, friends, food, and fireworks.

Aside from that I have just a few things to tell you. My sketchbook arrived for the Sketchbook Project.


It's a small book, at just 5 x 7 inches, but plenty large enough for the 4 x 6 photographs I intend to include. I was instructed to register my book at The Sketchbook Project website. There, I filled in some information about it and gave it a name. I'm calling my book "One Word Wonders." My sketchbook will include photographs of natural and man-made wonders that we see on our trip beginning this fall, and I'll assign one word to describe my reaction to it. Seems easy enough. Eventually, my book will be submitted to the permanent collection, and it can be found by searching for my name or the name of the book. Here's another little blurb about the project.


As for my finishes, I finished the Cats in the Garden. Before I could get the binding sewn on, Miss Sadie thoroughly tested it for snuggleability.


We were discussing "Bette Davis eyes," and what that meant. Sadie isn't old enough to remember Bette Davis, but she thought she could do a pretty good impression of Melania Trump eyes.


What do you think? Certainly, she's as beautiful as Melania Trump.

After that, I finished sewing the binding on the Little Bunnies quilt. It too was thoroughly tested both for its spa capabilities,


and "toe tranquility."


Eventually, I was able to get a picture of the back...


and the front.


And here's the finish of Cats in the Garden


Here's how it looks from the back.


Also, I need to choose a winner for this month's

Cat Patches

Mr. Random has spoken, and this month's winner is

#1--Sharon!

Congratulations, Sharon! I've sent you an email, so check your inbox. To all the participants, your bag ladies are looking great!

Today is a busy day, as is the remainder of the week. Already today I've been off to get my monthly pedicure, then to the grocery store. As soon as I finish up here, I'll be off to pick up our CSA veggies. Ordinarily my pick-up day is Tuesday, but our farmers let me pick up a day late since we were downtown yesterday. 

Tomorrow I have to report for jury duty orientation. I'm advised that will take the whole day. I'm hopeful that I won't have to report on Friday because this is our family weekend get-away. If you're new to reading this blog, then I should tell you that our family forgoes Christmas gifts in favor of a weekend away somewhere together. This year, we're renting a house across from the Oregon Country Fair, a huge annual craft fair. The rest of the family has been many times, but this will be my first time.

With that in mind, I'm taking another short break from the blog. I'll be back to tell you all about the intervening period on Monday. Have a great rest of your week and do some sewing for me.

13 comments:

liniecat said...

Toe tranquility LOL

I'm pleased the Sketchbook museum is still going strong and look forward to maybe what you put in yours.
I recall reading about it afew years ago, maybe an article in Cloth,Paper Scissors or Workshop on the Web, the online arts magazine.

Shari said...

Matthew's band friends look like they have a good time. Glad you all had a great holiday. I'm curious - do you keep a copy of the sketchbook, too, or is it just sent to the museum?

WoolenSails said...

The sketchbook project sounds fun. And I see you had a wonderful time for the fourth, a fun way to celebrate and share with others.

Debbie

Vroomans' Quilts said...

Looks like you had a wonderful 4th. Lovely finishes and when cat-scanned, you know they are purrfect. Enjoy your time away.

Dana Gaffney said...

Congrats Sharon! It looks like you had a fun 4th as usual, we spent it our usual way, hunkered down with a visit to neighborhood friends, then in at night to protect the terrible twins from the terrible noises coming from the sky.
Where's Matthew in that picture?

piecefulwendy said...

Looks like you had a lovely weekend with all the best things -- family, food, quilts, kitties and fun. It's obvious Sadie approves of the Cats in the Garden quilt. The bunnies are so cute, I'm so tempted to make one. Sure hope you don't get called for jury duty on Friday and have that mess up the weekend at the craft fair, which sounds like great fun!

Lana said...

I get great info from you lol. I'll be using my Canada park pass in August and now I'm excited to hear about this sketchbook project. My daughter is a graphic illustrator and I'm going to pass this onto her to see if she's interested. And Sadie is so cute on her new quilt! Haha
Enjoy your family weekend making more memories.

Kate said...

Congrats on the finishes! You made really good progress. Hopefully your family weekend get away is going well. Enjoy!

Anonymous said...

Love the Unpresidented Band; have heard them several times.

Jen said...

It was a lovely day here in Portland. I did not make it to the festivities this year, I was home comforting my puppy.
What is this "I found a quilted heart"? I might have to look that up. I have been out of the loop lately.

claudia said...

I'm off a day, or somehow I missed your post yesterday. I hope your weekend away is fantastic! We used to get together with family, but after my dad passed I moved up here and family just kind of got into their own thing...I do talk to my oldest sister fairly often, and she and my BIL may come up in October...he needs to see my place!

Did you have to go into jury duty Friday? I hope they let you off the hook, so you could get your weekend started!

Brown Family said...

Congratulations Sharon! I got so busy trying to finish four Row by Row kits, that I forgot to post and enter the Bag Ladies!

Have a great time away with the family. Hopefully you will not have to serve!

quiltzyx said...

Congrats to Sharon!

Looks you had a fine 4th again. Personally, I worked on my Mt. Laundry - unfortunately I have a lot of towels and can get away with not washing them for a LONG time. So, I did 4 or 5 loads of towels! My dryer is slow & it is stinkin' hot down here, so that was all I did.

Congrats on the finishes. I am so proud of you!

I got my notebook too! Haven't quite decided what I'm going to do in it, but am looking forward to it. I have a MOO order of postcards from my photos on the way, so some of those may make their way in. I like your plan for yours. Did you opt for the digitizing?