On the Homefront

Good Saturday morning, my friends! We're back home again after a very nice several days in Port Angeles, Washington. It's just as well I'd been undecided about blogging while we were away. Our internet signal was very weak. It would have been possible to blog, but uploading pictures would have been painful. And, let's face it. There must be pictures. 

Okay, so I've been mulling over how to catch up on things. It makes sense to catch up on sewing and garden-related news. Over the next day or two, I'll write a couple of time-traveling posts to catch up on the sight-seeing we did. How does that sound? Good, I hope, because that's how this is gonna go. So let's just back up to last Monday...the day we left.

It felt like a victory taking the last stitches on Blocks 7 and 8 of the Calendula Patterdrip quilt. I started this section back on June 19th, and so it took almost a full month to stitch.

This morning I laid it out with the rest of the blocks I have for this quilt. It's getting close to being ready to sew into a finished quilt top.

Looking at the pattern cover, the final section will be to stitch the tree branch and the bottoms of the crows' feet. It will mean sewing all the embroidered blocks together.

Of course there was watering to do before we left. As I made my rounds, I noticed a flower forming on this surprise appearance of the yellow calla lily. We planted this two years ago, and it didn't even pop above ground last year. We both thought it was dead, and so we were surprised when it grew up this year. And, now, I'm even more surprised it has a flower. I worried the critters would eat it while we were gone, and so I took this picture strictly for documentary purposes. It's important to preserve evidence in the event of critter crime.

Okay, and so it was a full day's drive to the RV park. The weather was gray and gloomy, but the sun came out just as we arrived. We were given wristbands at check-in. We were right across the street from a private beach, and I guess they want to control the number of visitors. Mike and I really hate this sort of thing. He put his wristband on his hat. In our four days there, I never used mine even once. I'm such a rebel. At my age, protest by omission is all that's left to me.

There was a nice path out to the beach almost straight across the road from where we were set up.

And...wow...that was a nice view after a long day of driving. The land mass you see across the water is Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. Hi there, my Canadian friends!

Looking to the right, we saw this. Lovely. The bright sun was shining in the other direction, and so we walked toward these cliffs.

Walking up on them, we could see there was an island out there. This whetted Mike's drone-flying appetite, but I'll tell that story a little later.

Here are just a few things we saw as we walked along.

This is the sort of kelp seen on the beaches in northern and southern California. There are offshore kelp forests there. We don't see this on our beaches in Oregon, and so we were just a little surprised to find it here in Washington.

Our shadow selves were pretty happy to be there.

Walking back, I snapped this picture of our RV. The space next to us had people two days of our stay, but it was a nice quiet park. We slept well and relaxed to the max.

The only, um, "fly" in the ointment was this green slimy creek flowing directly behind us. This is Salt Creek, and it was a mosquito breeding ground. The mosquitos didn't bother me, but they went after Mike in a fine dining experience. Also, we discovered our can of mosquito repellant had sprung a leak at some point and was completely empty.

The next morning, Smitty was very happy we were facing in the right direction to catch the morning sunshine.

Later, they both took morning naps.

I got to work on my quilt binding, and turned the first corner.

We needed to drive into town to pick up a couple of items from the grocery store...mosquito repellant and anti-itch stuff included. While there, we got the kitties some wheat grass...a nice snack when we're traveling, and they can't be outside.

That afternoon, I stitched around the second corner.

By Day 3, I'd stitched around three corners, and I was heading for the finish line.

Sadie was resting up. She knew she had serious quilt inspection duties coming up.

She takes this job very seriously. I wanted a picture of all four corners, but she held her ground. No pictures until the snuggleability test is complete.

Hm...soft...excellent cheek-scratching...looks good with my furs. You may consider it finished.

With her blessing, we gave it a glamour shot on the beach. (I'll say more about that driftwood structure in a later post.)

I started that quilt on April 15, 2019. Finished July 20, 2022. It's going to my cousin Rebecca. One of her adult sons passed away last month. I'm hoping that snuggling up in a quilt named for our shared grandmother will give her some comfort. And this was my project for July's

so I'll link up there when the party starts next week.

It seemed appropriate to celebrate with a cherry pie for two. I got the bright idea to use kitchen shears to cut the strips for that lattice top. It worked out great, and that was a yummy pie.

Okay, and then I was ready to take the first stitches on Block 4 of the Domestic Affairs quilt. It kept me in stitching for the rest of our trip.

We arrived home yesterday afternoon, after another long day of driving. My first stop was to check on the calla lily, and IT WAS STILL THERE!!!

♫ Oh say does that star-spangled calla lily yet wa-ave...♫ 

Oh wait...never mind. I got carried away.

So pretty.

Some of the echinacea have opened too.

The variegated hydrangea is sporting more flowers. On the sunny side of the plant, they are purple.

On the shady side, they are pink.

Around front...wowzer! Check out that purple hydrangea.

I don't think its colors have ever been so intense. It must have liked our cool, wet spring.

Also, a crazy dark-eyed junco built a nest in our hose hanger while we were away. This is stationed right at the front door to the house.

Peering inside, we found three little eggs. We worried we'd scared the bird away and that she would abandon her nest. Thankfully, she returned a while later. Now, we'll have to avoid this area, although I don't hold out much hope for the survival of these little ones. There are too many squirrels and cats around our place, and these are not very strategically located.

There was a lot of happy mail awaiting our arrival. My quilting fairy godmother, Ila, sent me a big box of threads. There are perhaps a couple of dozen here...all variegated. Ila knows I love variegated threads.

Also, this cute cat panel.

And several yards of this cat fabric. How much fun is this?

Thank you, Ila. Very much appreciated.

Also, I'd ordered Block #6 of Crabapple Hill's new "Twilight Garden" BOM. I don't want to make the whole quilt, but I really liked this one block. I'll add it to my list of "short" embroidery projects.

Since we've been home, I finished up the Domestic Affairs block.

Here are all the blocks I have for this quilt so far:

And I knew that one would stitch up fast, so I already made up my next "short" project. This is Mrs. Claus' Cookie Team. This was a free download from Crabapple Hill around Christmas last year. I note it's available as an instant download now for five bucks.

And that brings me to today. It's going to be a busy day. I need to catch up on my watering, and I need to make a salad for tonight's dinner. We're finally getting together with Erik and Mae for some barbecue. This was planned for last month, but then Erik and Mae both got sick with COVID. Of course, there's unpacking to do, and I want to pack up Ella's Flower Garden for my cousin. I have a couple of parcels for Monday's mail. 

So we have some catching up to do on the blog. In my next post, I'll tell you about our day in Port Angeles and at the Salt Creek tidepools near our campground. In a separate post, I'll tell you about our visit to Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park. Also, we visited a lavender farm the same day, and I'll tell you about that. Finally, I visited a quilt shop in Sequim, and I'll tell you about that. So, you can see, we all have lots of work to do catching up. Now would be a good time to rest up and drink some water...or coffee. It is Saturday morning, after all. Speaking of coffee, I could use a refill. How about you?