Design Wall Monday--Chocolate and Cheddar

 Design Wall Monday--see more great projects on Judy's Small Quilts and Doll Quilts blog. 

I have a finished quilt top to share--I'm now calling this Chocolate and Cheddar.  I had a lot of fun making up this quilt along the way, starting with a pile of  precut 3.5" scrap squares.  Everything came from stash, and I continued the 3.5" measurement for all the additional rounds. I ended up making a total of four blue background stars to use for each corner.  The top measures 45" square, a good size for a wall quilt, and I am stopping here. 

A backing will be cobbled together from stash--I sure have plenty of fabric to choose from.  This scrappy foray  was a good distraction from recent real life concerns. 

My sister was the victim of a very bad rollover car accident on the freeway last month and suffered a neck, sternum, and clavicle fracture, but fortunately no brain injury. She was in the ICU for four days and has been in a hard cervical collar since the accident. She worked very hard in physical rehab at a local hospital and is doing very well, but has limitations.  She is staying with us temporarily until she is cleared to remove the collar by a specialist and can cope on her own. I took her to the harbor mouth today for some outdoor change of scenery.

It was a pretty calm day and lots of folks were enjoying the sun and sand. There was even a seal swimming in the harbor, but I didn't get a very good picture. Kathy motored about slowly but was glad to be out of the house for a bit.

Lots of beach visitors on the South Jetty side, too.  

Now I really must get back to the Bookshelf Quilt top I planned to work on this month!

Design Wall Monday--Matching Up the Mats and Storm Damage

 Design Wall Monday--see more great quilting projects on Judy's Small Quilts and Doll Quilts blog. 

All the pieced mats I showed last time are now matched up with a backing. 

It is so good to use up backing cutoffs and partial fat quarters for this job. 

Some more backings.  I will rummage through the leftover batting box first for suitable chunks. These will be stitched and turned, and minimally quilted. 

These blocks from the last scrappy play are now assembled.  Pondering the next step, borders. Maybe some little star blocks would be charming.

Grant and I went to the Ventura Harbor  last week to check out the recent surf/storm damage and see the sunset. 

It was very windy and cold.  This is called Kiddie beach as it is within our manmade harbor's protective jetties.  What a mess!

On the south side of the jetty there was a lot more damage.  You can see where the surf carved away a lot of sand. Tons of debris everywhere.

 

The waves even came up over the jetty! There was some standing water on a few of the big boulders. 

The sunset was gorgeous behind the Channel Islands.  We met up with our daughter for dinner at a favorite local fish taco place downtown, and stopped at the ice cream parlor too.  It was nice to get out of the house. 

First Finish of 2023

Happy New Year! It's always nice to have an early finish for the year. I often play with leftovers, making small mats/wall art. There were a bunch of red and cream four patches from a beloved Minnick and Simpson print.  Some leftover flying geese pieces in white and green joined the party. 

The sunflower print from stash matched so well for the narrow binding, after some stitch in the ditch quilting. Today's task will be to hand stitch the binding, after taking down the Christmas Tree. Yesterday I spent hours removing all the other Christmas decor--storage bin repacking Tetris always takes longer than you think!

Normally we go down to Surfer's Point for a sunset beach walk on the last day of the year, but 2022 brought a lot of rain on 12/31 so there was no sunset to see.  Yesterday it was very very windy, but we headed to the Harbor mouth to catch the last rays. 

The wind was about 25-30 mph and the sand was coming off the beach in waves.  The gulls were having trouble flying straight and no pelicans were around. 

The tide was in and crashing over the jetty protecting our manmade harbor.  I got out of the car to take a couple of pics but soon ran back with a faceful of sand!  This beachwalker had a hood pulled tight :)

Alright, time to pull ornaments off the tree....

Pismo Getaway

We were happy to have a recent weekend getaway to visit friends--I took a day off work and we headed up the coast to Pismo Beach on Friday.  It was cloudy and cool and the drive easy. Toni and Dan have a house high up on the hill with wonderful views. We had wood fired pizzas in their amazing hillside pavilion--built since the last time we visited. 

 

Their hilly lot has an unobstructed view to the ocean and the freeway is far enough away to be mostly hidden. 

It was a wonderful way to spend the first evening catching up by the fire table and under the heaters. 

Their rescue Golden rested on her fake lawn--Callie is still pretty young and ready to get into mischief :)

We went to Avila Beach for a late lunch one day.  The ocean was very calm with hardly any surf all the way from home.  All the tourists didn't seem to mind. 

The pier was closed some time ago for safety reasons but there were lot of folks enjoying the many shops/restaurants along the boardwalk.  

Toni wanted my help sorting out sewing machines she had from her mother and aunt after they both passed about 10 years ago.  While she was getting them all out and set up, I sewed down the binding on a tablerunner I made her--she didn't know it was for her until I finished it :)

Toni and Dan have a lot of grey tones in their decor and I wanted to match that.  How did I do?

These were leftover Chunky Churndash blocks, hourglass block and sashing from my Dad's quilt. It is a Betsy Chutchian fabric called Eliza's Indigo. Wish I had more of this!

Backing from a fat quarter and more scraps. Very simple quilting. We sorted through Toni's machines and she made decisions on what to move on.  One machine we could not get the bobbin case to stay in; the other was a late 70's fancy Bernina with embroidery menus that she will keep.

Another sunset enjoyed from the pavilion...The colored bands from the deep fog bank above the ocean and a huge upper cloudbank were so unusual.  The drive home on Sunday was an easy couple of hours.  I forgot a bag of shoes so Toni mailed them to me!  We look forward to visiting again. 

A Day in The Keys

Our daughter-in-law's parents invited us on a Harbor boat ride last weekend.  In our City, the area with homes on the water is called The Keys.  Our hosts bought a builder-grade and altogether boring house a few years ago when they retired, and turned it into a lovely home.  They enjoy lots of cruises on their power boat and watching all the wildlife there.

We went all the way out to the harbor mouth.  Our man-made harbor is bordered by long jetties on the beach side, and a large breakwater on the seaside.  Pelicans spend a lot of time fishing and resting there.

It was an overcast day but it seems the fishing was good. 

This Pelican was being hounded by several seagulls while trying to consume a catch. 

Back in the dock area of the marina, some sea lions were playing King of the Dock, jumping up and knocking each other off.  Well, some of them were--the big brown one in the back of the above pic complained about the noise and activity but didn't join in the play :).

We watched the five sea lions playing for some time, before heading back into the Keys and home.  It was a lovely couple of hours getting our Vitamin Sea!   Our mutual grandson is nearing his 2nd birthday in August.  Hard to believe it has been two years since we were all awaiting his arrival!  We're so glad to have joined families.  

Design Wall Monday--November's End

 Design Wall Monday--see more Design Walls on Judy's Small Quilts and Doll Quilts blog. 

Playing with scraps again, I made a mini or doll quilt.  Initially it was only 4 rows tall, but seemed far too small so I rummaged about in the 2.5" scrap drawer for more pieces.  The HSTs finish at 2 inches.  I haven't decided if borders will be added.  I have just enough of the silver and white dot for borders on two sides, probably.  

I've not worked on the bookshelf quilt for my niece in over a week, but did reread directions and cut some of the strips narrower, due to the recommendation of cutting most of them about 2 inches wide.  I assume this is to get more books on the shelf :)  Since I did a big clean up after my scrap play, the sewing room is ready to go. 

I ventured down to the Harbor to watch the sunset last week.  The sun sets behind our Channel Islands this time of year.  In the left  middle of the photo, you can see two figures--some teenaged girls were bearing the cold Pacific.  On the right middle of the photo is the harbor entrance, a man-made rock jetty, like the one I was standing on  jutting out from the beach.  Some buoys also mark the entrance and I watched a number of fishing boats make their way home.

From the Harbor entrance side of the jetty, lots of pelicans favor the calmer waters.  This pic is looking toward the northwest edge of town.  There is a lot of flying back and forth between the jetty and some nesting grounds south of the harbor.

I love going down there any time of day, but sunset is my favorite.