It's a long weekend - but they all are when retired! :)

I love living on the Coast.  We were a long time getting here, but it's so beautiful.  And being retired, we have time to explore and enjoy it all.

Here is my newest little rock display.  It's a window sill in the kitchen, so those rocks aren't as big as you think!  Been keeping an eye out for 'heart' rocks on our beach walks.  DH walks diligently as I lolly-gag along!  He found the 'grey speckled' one (in back, second from the right) for me last week on Crissey Field Beach.

I don't think I'll fill the sill - but it's fun to spot them while in the kitchen.

Friday night the tide was so-o low - we had never seen this much sand at Crissey Field Beach.  And oh, my - the rock selection was astounding!!  Above the dunes you can see the visitor center, I would guess there was 3 times more beach and we practically had it to ourselves!

Saturday we woke up to a tsunami warning.  Did you see the satellite picture of the underwater volcano by Tonga Islands erupting?  OMG!  And of course, we are also on the Pacific Ocean and it came towards us.  The tide was low (0.1) Friday evening when we were walking the beach, but high tide was 7.3 Saturday morning.  When you add the swell of 3-4 feet to that ... there was a warning.  We're all happy to say that no damage came of that - but the ocean was wild for a few hours.

I read Every Last Fear by Alex Finlay this week.  Very good, it kept me reading late into the night!  Who-dun-it was a surprise to me.  Of course, I try not to figure it out, just follow the story.  Let me know if you like it!

Sewing room news ... always!  I'm putting up a new design wall this week.  Waiting for the 'wall insulation' from Home Depot to be delivered.  Two panels of 0.5" x 4' x 8'!!  I can't wait!  I ordered 109 wide flannel from JoAnn's to cover it.  You'll be the first to see it!

I'm making 5 quilts this year as gifts (some say, long time coming)  and I'm desperate for space to spread each one out and get the tops completed.  Kind of like a toddler in a toy store - need to see and rearrange!

Meanwhile, my 'not so private' goal this week is to get this quilt bound.  It's been half clipped for a week, and I do need to free those clips to have enough to clip the other half.  We'll see if my follow-thru stays strong!

 PS  The Olympics are coming - it's always good planning to have some dreaded handwork ready for the watching marathon!!  I hope to have this one done but -dare I hope - at least one of the five mentioned above ready could be ready to bind!!  

High Hopes!!  Stay safe.

Fall Recap - read all about it!!

Early in September a friend, K, came over to help clear the sewing room.  Even though the sewing room is larger than the Rainbow Rock sewing space … storage is all mixed up throughout the new apartment.  And even after clearing out a BUNCH of quilting fabrics, tools, patterns and books during the move -  I’m still stuck with no actual working space!  Sigh!  However, the timing was perfect to make room for my friend coming to visit for a week!

K helped a lot, gave me good energy to get back to sewing.  BUT still stuffed in my space.  So I joined the DeClutter andDeStash challenge.  It was really good for taking a realistic inventory – Martinis that night to drown my overwhelming emotions!!  

The timeline was pretty short.  I was able to keep up for a few weeks, but then it was deep into fall and Xmas prep.  Going to revisit it in January – run through the steps a few times more. Fingers crossed.  I mean really – I’m 69 years old, how many projects do I have left in me???  Let’s say 10 more years – say 10 projects a year … probably pie in the sky. I have more than 100 UFOs / WIPS.  I suspect I’ll find more “Oooo – I want this” projects on the horizon.  But don’t you hate to give up on promising projects – the potential you’re going to miss out on!!

In summer, I entered the #100dayhandsewing challenge on Instagram.  It was fabulous!!  I’ve been working on – okay, getting ready to work on “Wool around the Garden”  A BOM in Quiltmania 6 years ago – but I really got it going during those 100 days.  And it’s so much fun to make sure you have a project to work on for tv or God forbid football evenings.  :>

 

 

We went up to Portland for Miss P’s 15^th birthday.  They grow so fast! 

Then a visit from one of my friends. She's the kind that it always seem that you just talked.  No awkward silences – no ‘not getting it’!  She was here for 7 days.  We never ran out of conversation or laughter.  Funniest part was the inspection of new quilts!!  We walked the Redwoods and a lot of beaches – voting on favorites!  We sat and watched a huge tide coming in against the sea stacks at Lone Ranch Beach.  I even talked her into joining the Tai Chi in the park.  Hmmm, she thought she’d try to find a class back home.  I’ll have to bring that up next phone call!

Now that's close inspection!!

The next visitor was our son A.  We had missed quite a few chances to get together since summer.  Covid and child germ bombs!  (His definition!)  He needed to come over and inspect the new digs; walk a few beaches and watch football with Dad.  Before he left, K(8) asked him tearfully why he had to leave for the weekend.  A(46) replied, “I miss my mommy!”  K blinked and couldn’t argue with that!!  Before I let A leave, he helped me clear the garage and put up a shelf.

Good thing – the weather had changed and the cover was off the Band Shell and we needed a place to do Tai Chi.  When we first saw the new apartment’s garage – my first thought was “I think we could hold Tai Chi here!!!”  It’s an oversized double stall garage AND there is a large window on the back wall – so some natural light and weather protection.  It holds 5-8 of us pretty well.  We’ve been meeting twice a week the last 3 months.  We like to keep the garage door open for the air.  We really can’t meet if it’s under 50 degrees or with rain and wind coming from the South. Works well except for that last few weeks.

I have to tell you about the coolest thing since sliced bread.  Stas Gallery Wall.  In the new apartment we have a large wall with a light switch and the thermostat in the middle-ish.  Not too convenient.  Found the Stas system on Amazon.  The big draw was you can change things out without any additional holes, etc!  There’s a top ‘bar’ that goes across and hanging clips from there.  We had our handy man hang the bar … we really don’t like to do ladders anymore!  Within 15 minutes of him hanging it I had 4 quilts hanging up!!  Then I change it out every month or so!  So much fun!  A real showcase when hosting my quilt group!  I’ve had so much fun with it already.  Check into it!  It can hang pictures too.

One day DH and I were walking the beach at Crissey Field Visitor Center and lo and behold – there was a pumpkin tide!!  Yep, pumpkins had washed up on the beach!  So cool to wander by! There was double-takes and wonder!

Winter storms come from the south out here.  (Bad weather from the south?? Not what we’re used to from Nebraska.)  Our new apartment bedroom has large windows facing South.  The really big storms pound on the glass, squall after squall!  One night I actually dreamed it was the tide hitting the window!  I was not reassured when I woke up.  It did sound rhythmic like the tides.

 

Thanksgiving was a trip to both kids’ houses.  And we knew it was going to be a great trip!  We saw NINE rainbows on the way!  Some were to the right, one was to the left and several were Full or (double) rainbows.  We started seeing them 30 miles from home.  They continued all the way to Portland 300+ miles away.   Of course, that was some storm front that went that far!!  A pre-Christmas gift was going to the Van Gogh Experience with the Portland and gang.  It was wonderful.  If you are able to catch it somewhere – go!  Totally worth it.

 

Entertainment at the Medford gang’s house was playing games.  All kinds of games.  DH and the boys had many War card games over the 3 days we were there.  We played Azul and Catan and E (4) played cut-throat Go Fish with the most beautiful deck!  Very fun!

So now you and I are all caught up!!  See you at the year summary!