June on the Fly

Does it seem to you as if the month of June is flying by? I can't believe we're more than half way to the end of the month. It doesn't look as if I'm going to make much progress on June's goals, but I'm making a mighty attempt at getting the Live, Love, Teach quilt finished. Yesterday I was able to stitch all the horizontal sashings. It won't look much different to you than it did yesterday.

Here's how it's looking from the back. I considered switching to red thread in the sashings, but then decided to stick with white.

Mike came home from work early yesterday to make some more progress on the catio. I'm expecting him soon today as well. Hopefully, it will be moved well along by the time the weekend is over.

He's added the beam across the window and door and there are brackets in place that will hold the roof supports.

This is the wall that will be on the near side of the structure, and it will contain the man door.

We could use a little more cooperation from the weather, but it's supposed to be nice this weekend.

This morning I moved my hoop for the first time on the last of the Gingerbread Square blocks. I needed a bigger hoop, and I wanted to hoop the entirety of the tree before continuing.

Now, it's ready to go again.

Today I'd like to make up the next two blocks for the Bee-utiful Quilt-A-Long. The next two were posted yesterday. Here are the pictures from the block patterns. This first one is done with wool applique, but I'm going to use my own cotton scraps.

The third block will introduce more colors and stitches. Not sure I like that chain stitch around the tulip, and so I might do a backstitch or a stem stitch there.

This morning was my weekly walk with Sue. Here are some things we saw along the way. Lots of juvenile ducks.

This pretty red lily.

The one's for you, Texas.

These sunflowers were on display at the local grocery store. I've taken to stopping in there to pick up their vegetarian spring rolls with peanut sauce for lunch. Yum.

The kitties are continuing to do well. Sadie likes to lie in wait in the hallway for Smitty.

He pretends to be put out about this, but we hear them scurrying around when we're not in view. It seems as soon as one of us steps into their vicinity, the spell is broken, and he goes back to being put out about her existence.

For all her insistence on petting the first day, she's become more timid around us...not sure why. We let her out of isolation last night, mainly because we couldn't catch her to lock her into Mike's office. She apparently didn't attempt to come upstairs because we slept all night without incident. She seems a little more stand-offish than she did at first, but we expect she's still adjusting to her new surroundings. One sure way to get her to show herself is to put treats in her bowl.

If there's a cat alive that doesn't love kitty treats, I have yet to meet it.

So this afternoon, I'll continue on quilting the vertical sashings on the Live, Love, Teach quilt and then I'll quilt a line around the edge of the border. After that, it will be ready for its binding. As you can see, I have a lot of hand stitching in my future. Also, this evening we have a neighborhood get-together at our neighbor's home, and I'll be making an appetizer for that. Lots to do, as always.

Sunday's Sewing

It was all sewing all the time over the weekend. The weather wasn't very nice, and so it was good to stay in and immerse myself in projects. I finished up binding the Sweet Tweets table runner.

Finally, Maggie is pulling her share of the load when it comes to quilt inspection. Smitty refused to have his picture taken on this one. Too much pink for him.

The next block for Hocuspocusville is traced out now.

And it's hooped up and ready to go. I won't start on it until tomorrow. This morning I'll be working on Block #52 for the Live, Love, Teach quilt.

Usually I start these stitcheries at the bottom. I decided to start this one at the top...just to show you that even an old dog can learn new tricks. Please make them simple tricks.

When I was finished with the hand-stitching, I set up Pfelicity and then started piecing together the flimsy of Mumm's the Word. The top two rows of the center section are sewn together.

The rest of the blocks for the center section are laid out, but I was kind of tired of sewing by that time.

There should be more time for sewing today, and so I'm hoping to have at least the center section finished before day's end.

The forecast is for nice weather to return, and so I'll probably do some planting and no doubt get out for a walk.

Hectic Weekend Ahead

It's unseasonably warm here in the Northwest, as it has been throughout the winter and spring. We aren't accustomed to these warm temperatures in June. Here's our forecast for the coming week:

We're always about ten degrees cooler here on our hill. Unfortunately, I'm not going to be on the hill for most of the weekend. This morning, I'm walking with Sue. Then, this afternoon we're going out on our boat on the Willamette River. Being on the river is a good place to be on a hot day, and so that will be nice. Then, Saturday morning, we're going down to the Portland Farmer's Market, and then to the Portland International Beerfest Saturday afternoon. That was Erik's idea. I'm not a beer drinker, but he thinks there will be hard ciders and some less "beery" beers (if that makes sense) that I might enjoy. What the heck? A day with the kids is always fun, beer or no beer.

The sunflowers are enjoying this heat, and the first one opened all the way yesterday morning. Yay!

Also, yesterday morning I continued to make headway on my embroidery piece. It doesn't show up well in this image, but the garland on the Christmas tree is done in a sparkly silver floss, and it is very pretty.

When I finished all those French knots, I had the whole right side of the piece finished.

I've rehooped to the left side, and I'm ready to go again. The French knots on this next tree will be done in a gold sparkly floss.

So...all of that to say that if you don't hear from me for a day or two, it will be because I've been out having fun. Hopefully, I won't succumb to the heat. Try to stay cool at your end too.

Quilt Shop: McKenna Ryan Designs

While I was perusing Facebook one day last week, I spied this:

Whoa! A new quilt shop in Portland? McKenna Ryan? Count me in! For as much as I complain about her patterns, I really love her work. Since I had a doctor's appointment downtown yesterday, it seemed a good day for venturing over to her side of the river to check it out. I told myself that if I was finished soon enough, I would pay her a visit. (I'll just say that I am not up for driving in rush hour traffic, and so I skedaddle out of town by 3:00 p.m. these days.)

I was finished in plenty of time, and so I punched her address into my navigation unit and drove right to it. It's in an industrial area on the east side of the Willamette River. This is the address. It sure doesn't look like a quilt shop, does it? Further, there was no place to park, which always puts me in a bad mood. 

I drove around the block twice. When I was nearly ready to give up, I found a spot. I had choice to take the long road around some other warehouse-style buildings, or I could take the shortcut that took me right along the railroad tracks. And I'm not talking no light rail here...I mean the real train tracks...with a real train that went by blowing its horn. It was deafening.

So I approached the building. Nothing aside from the number on the building would lead me to believe I was in the right place.

And this was a little daunting, but the main doors were open. 

There was a directory when I stepped inside the main doors. Ahhhhh...there it is. Fifth floor.

So, I stepped into the elevator just to the right of the directory, and I was surprised when my only choice of buttons to press were B, 1, and 2. Sure enough, when I went back out into the lobby, this elevator only goes to the 2nd floor. Hm.

I walked up a short flight of stairs and saw this sign. Okay. Walking....

Not there yet...

Keep walking...

Eventually, I came to the slowest elevators in humanity. When the doors opened, a woman walking backwards and typing something on her phone while dragging a cart of some precious cargo nearly walked into me. Good thing I was watching where I was going, because she was not. (Who does that?)

Then I took the elevator to the fifth floor. When the doors opened I was facing a blank wall. I stepped out of the elevator, and seeing nothing to direct me where I was going, I turned directly around. Surely there was a sign behind me to tell me which way to go. Silly me. Nothing. I looked to the left and saw this:

Then I looked to the right, and saw this:

I was starting to think I should be dropping bread crumbs. Since I was already looking in that direction, I decided to go that way. (I'm very efficient with my head turning.) I turned that corner, and then another corner and saw this:

When I approached the door there on the right, I saw this sign:

In other words, keep walking. Eventually, I approached this purple sign sitting on the floor:

Finally! I found it!

When I walked through the front door, I saw this:

Just to the left was the Wind in the Whiskers quilt. I took quite a few pictures of it because I wanted to see how it was quilted.

There was precious little quilting on it. She's done just what I was planning to do, which is to use the top-stitching on the applique as the quilting. There were a few little squiggles and curlicues, but not much else. Also, I was heartened to see that her cat shows through her boxer shorts

just like the one I made. The whiskers are cute though.

So, again, this is what you see from the front door.

Walk to the far side of the store, and you see this:

It isn't so much a fabric store as it is a pattern store. It's essentially a brick and mortar McKenna Ryan store. I saw patterns of hers that I'd never seen before, even though I visit her website on occasion. I loved the way this one was displayed.

The detail in her patterns is what makes them so amazing...and so difficult.

See the flip flops?

Cute baby quilt. Sigh.

There were a few bolts of fabric, and a large selection of fat quarters.

What you mostly see, however, are patterns. Very expensive patterns. It's a good place to visit to see how they are quilted if you happen to be making one.

I loved these bird houses. The price of the set was north of three figures. I set it down again, fearing I might break it. This is a place for slapping your own hands when you touch things that are too expensive to be handled.

I did find a few that I could afford. I loved the set of three cats, and the set of four coffee designs, and I ended up buying a set of each.

It was worth the visit, and I might go back again sometime. Now that I've found it, I think it will be less intimidating the next time around. 

Another couple came into the store while I was there. "You don't get much walk-in business, do you?" That made me laugh. The place is very hard to find, and the parking situation is appalling. On the positive side, it is a good place to see her patterns made up, and I'm imagining you could ask questions if you're having trouble with something. I give the place four rotary cutters out of five.

As always when I rate a quilt shop, this: 

*Disclaimer:  Cat Patches accepts no advertising, nor any sponsorships.  The opinions expressed on this blog are based on the personal impressions and perceptions of the author. They are formed  on the basis of one short visit, on one day, and may or may not reflect the experience of others visiting on a different day.  They are no more descriptive than a single snapshot image can be, and nothing written in a review of a quilt shop should be construed as objective fact.  The reviews are strictly the author's subjective opinion and should not be interpreted as anything more.

Even though I started leaving town before 3:00 p.m., the traffic was absolutely terrible. It wasn't terrible by Portland standards, mind you. It was just terrible. I drive into downtown Portland so infrequently any more that the traffic always takes me by surprise. After nearly 13 years of country-living, I guess I'm just a country girl. And that made this view from our ridge top even more appealing:

When I picked up the mail, I was delighted to find my January doll quilt from my partner Lorna in the UK. Thanks Lorna. So delightfully springy!

And with all that going on, I didn't get any sewing time yesterday. It's been a while since I've gone a whole day without sewing, and so I didn't mind taking a little break. Today I'm going to get out for a walk, and I'm going to start sewing together the Dream Machines. I think yesterday was all the excitement a country girl like me can stand.