Sew Many Stitches

We were pretty lucky weather-wise with our trip to Cannon Beach, Oregon, this past weekend. We threaded the needle between snow storms. Snow flakes were falling as we pulled out from home, but the temperature was above freezing. Snow fell while we were gone, but the roads were clear on our drive home. We were expecting snow last night, and it did not disappoint. This is the view from my office window this morning.

Backing up to Friday afternoon, we were most curious about this heavy wooden cutting board added to the RV since our last trip. I'll say I'm kind of picky about my cutting boards. At home, I have a nice wood Boos Block, and I miss the heavy wood when we're on the road. The new RV has lots of counter space, and so I wanted a good cutting board for the counter. Since we hadn't traveled with it before, we weren't sure it would stay put going down the road. It's pretty, no?

Underneath is some non-skid shelf liner, and this works well on the right surface. The counter tops are a solid surface, and so we thought it would work.

To be safe, we moved both cutting board and shelf liner to the floor for our first trip. When we opened the door upon arrival, neither had moved even a fraction of an inch. We took the chance of leaving it on the counter for the trip home, and it traveled just fine there. So that was a bit of good news.

We hadn't yet used this cutting board, and so it lost its virginity Saturday evening when we cut up limes to have with our shots of tequila.

We missed the kitties...sort of...while we were gone. Instead, we made do with the little kitty mug mat my friend Lana made. I want to make a table topper for this table, but I haven't even come up with an idea for that yet.

This was my view for most of the weekend. I was barely started and turned the first corner when it was time to leave for our dinner at EVOO.

It's such a fun evening there, and the wine flows freely.

EVOO features a dinner "show" where the food is cooked right in front of you. It's a little like watching the Food Network, only you get to eat the food as you go along. This was the first course.

Second course. This was our favorite. Even kale-hater Mike loved this dish.

This was our third course.

And finally, the dessert course. The little scoop of cherries jubilee had whole cherries in it.

Okay, so that was the whole reason for our trip. The rest of the time, we napped, ate, and lazed about.

Saturday's inchy had more of the dreaded cast-on stitches. These are actually easier for me than the bullion stitches.

Saturday morning I turned the second corner on Hocuspocusville.

After that, we headed out to walk the main drag in Cannon Beach. The weather was cooperative, but we decided not to hike, remembering our last trip to Cannon Beach. The hiking trail last trip was so muddy and slippery it was downright dangerous, and so we stuck to walking in town. Of course, we took note of the tsunami evacuation route. One never knows when a tsunami will strike, and so we take no chances with such things.

Cannon Beach is a nice touristy little town filled with restaurants and galleries. It's simple to walk from one end to the other. There were too many parked cars to get a very good picture, but this next image will give you a flavor for what it looks like. Pretty much the whole town looks just like this:

This is the entrance to the library. Looks inviting, doesn't it?

Of course, I took pictures of every blooming thing.

Oh wait...that last picture was taken outside a gallery. Inside they had some fabulous works of art by local artists. I only took pictures of the cats.

Heading on down the road, we pulled off to get a picture of Haystack Rock. This picture pretty much symbolizes Cannon Beach.

Backing off a little, you can see the "needles" a little better.

Haystack rock is a rookery for seabirds of all kinds, including puffins...

which explains my choice of this refrigerator magnet.

Once back at the RV, I stitched around the third corner of Hocuspocusville.

Sunday morning, I stitched up the morning's inchy. This one is closely spaced buttonhole stitch.

And then I stitched around the fourth corner of Hocuspocusville, and I had myself a finish!

The first hand embroidery stitches on this quilt were taken way back in July of 2015. Of course, it's been a finished flimsy for well over a year, and so it's good to finally take it over the finish line. It measures 68 x 68 inches.

After that, it was time to head for home. The first thing I did was to rip off a hunk of bread dough to bake some bread for our dinner last night. I'd taken some frozen leftover roasted vegetable soup from the freezer before we left, and that made a nice comfort food dinner for a cold night.

Since I'm still experimenting, I tried baking this loaf in a Dutch oven to see if the crust would be any "crustier." If anything, it was softer, and so baking it on the baking sheet is a better way to go. Inside, it looked like this. We really love the sourdough tang of this loaf.

This morning I stitched up the morning's inchy. This one contained the dreaded bullion stitches, but I stitched 'em up like a boss.

And there you are...up to date...and I am too.

We're out of coffee, and so I really need to get to the grocery store today. Snow is still falling, however. The roads in town are just wet pavement, but getting off our hill is a little iffy. I'm hoping it will warm up a little by this afternoon. Mike is working from home today, and so I might get him to drive into town with me. (He's more sure and certain on slippery roads than I am.)

On the sewing front, I want to make last week's Tiny Tuesday block. If I finish that, I've decided to finish off the last two blocks for Chicken Buffet. With the blocks so close to being finished, it seems silly to put it off any longer. All my monthlies for February are finished, and so the rest of the month will be for play.