Moving Along

 It's time for us to move away. Now that we've decided to serve missions for the next season of our life, it's time to change blogs, too. I've moved to Where are the Willards? In the rear view mirror, I leave 20 years of memories. It was the perfect house to raise our children. And I'm confident I'm leaving it better than I found it.

Cover Quilting Again

 Dodi contacted me about another magazine quilt and I was happy to do it. Unfortunately, all of my time has been spent getting the house ready to sell. Setting tile, painting walls and ceilings, and rebarking the landscape. So it was a nice break to do a little swirling.

Mary Wore a Red Dress

 When Papa became a grandfather, he read this book to his grandchildren. I can only imagine it came from one of his schools. Listening to Papa read was a riot. We all fall short when we try to copy him. Mary wore a red dress, red dress, red dress. Mary wore a red dress all day long.

Birthday Thai

 To celebrate Jim's birthday, we all went to Monroe to Benjarong Thai. The food was so delicious that we had dessert, too. Monroe is such a strange place to me. I visit every 5 years and it changes so much in between visits. The first time I saw it was 1993 when we moved to the cabin. It's strange to have spent so much time in Washington, even more than in California.

Surprises

 Last year for Mother's Day, Danika picked me up a chrysanthemum at her workplace. I planted it after the holiday and forgot all about it. But look here, it grows happily in the front yard, blooming like it has always been there.

When we were driving up the driveway yesterday, Paul caught sight of a startled large bird. After parking, we walked out to try to find it. It took us a good 5 minutes of staring into the trees to catch sight of this barred owl.

My First Log Cabin

 My mom made me my first log cabin when I was young. She worked hard to place the lights on one side and the darks on the other, but straight set it by accident. She was always disappointed that she didn't create that streak-of-lightning layout she had intended. But I loved it. 

I loved it so much, I wore it out. And it's time to take a picture and throw it away. Thank you for everything. 1977-2019

Naomi Can Dance

 After receiving a few rugs, I stretched them out to let the relax. The kids thought that was an opportunity to dance. Oh, joy!

CeCe's Blessing

 We traveled to Boise to see CeCe's blessing over the weekend. There is something wrong with me. I love to hear babies cry during their blessings. It's like they want to have their voices heard, too. But CeCe didn't complain at all. she only cried when I held her.

Awards

 After years of moving these around in a cardboard box, being flooded by a hot water heater, and sitting in the garage for 20 years, it's time to toss these. Some are from San Pasqual Unified Middle School and some from the High School. I laughed when I saw one of these was for best section--Sopranos. Isn't that what all sopranos think? Ha!

CeCe Arrives

 We have another addition! Howard and Pam welcome Cecilia to their growing family. She is so sweet and the kids are very excited to touch her.

A few days later, we were able to come visit to see her.

On the Machine

 Don't you just love seeing the amazing pieces quilters have been making lately? I just adore this quilt. Lots of negative space for special quilting, too.

Merry gave me this cute quilt to finish. Her work is so varied that a collection would include every genre. This folk art beauty is so fun! Like most of Merry's quilts, this is a gift. She is quite generous with her quilting and accompanying talents.

Trip to Port Townsend

 We took a trip to the Port Townsend to see Grandma and Grandpa Willard and Beth's family. They were vacationing on the water and we love taking a ferry with the kids.

Paul bought a package of Skittles and kept the kids happy for a long time! Some ferries have puzzles spread out on tables for guests to enjoy. This ride was too short for that.

Pride and Prejudice

 How about a little Georgiana? It was the last day with this piano before I sold it to one of my students.

There it goes! My mom bought it for me when I was 15. Then we purchased it from her when Katie was a baby and moved it to Provo. It traveled to Texas and to Washington, and now is going to a new home.

Hopefully my next Yamaha will be a grand.

Happy Father's Day

 We visited with Katie for Father's Day. This gave Paul the opportunity to read books to the children. We hadn't heard of Dragons Love Tacos, but it was the kids' favorite. Katie is a great chef and very adventurous. When she comes across an exciting recipe, she is off to the store to buy supplies. 

Class with Judy Newman

 When Judy Newman comes to town all the way from Melbourne, you drive the required distance to take a class with her. She's the third Aussie that I've enjoyed learning from. There is something about all three that are non-traditional. They seemed to have a great advantage of making art without taking instruction. Each is original with a splash of antique design. It's fascinating.

I chose to quilt up Emma Mary, pictured below. Judy teaches this quilt using hand-piecing. Some scoff at hand-piecing since we have such great machines, but it is a quiet, slow process that is peaceful to the soul. It's portable and tactile. Imagine English Paper Piecing without the paper.

There is no rush to finish this. I don't know if I'll have a sewing machine in Guayaquil.

These little hexagon pieces are created and then appliqued to a center square.

There's Cathy! We all carpooled to Bellingham to the Two Thimbles Quilt Shop. I purchased some fabrics I wouldn't normally use, just to stretch a bit.

When I was walking around the shop, I saw this great piece. I would love to do a collage quilt like this.

Feathers

 When I saw Alison Glass's pattern for Feathers, I figured I could make one just by looking at it. So mine doesn't quite look the same, but it's close. I used the 45 degree angle on my rulers to make the cuts. I love the black background. It makes for better quilting visibility. Variegated thread is almost required.

I gave this to my friend Susan after she and her husband helped us move out of our home. She had mentioned that she liked the colors, so off it goes!

Playing at Grandma and Grandpa's

 Katie and Tyler took a trip so we could spend some time with Jim and Naomi. We played and read books. We went to the Volkswagen dealer for a part. We cooked and watched movies and went to church. They wore us out and we returned the favor. Super fun!

Sunbursts

 Part of my design class is to develop color confidence. There is a difference between learning achromatic, triadic, and complementary colors and actually creating pieces using those schemes.

I decided on a design I could reproduce in six different color schemes. Also, it needed to be quick and easy so I used Heat 'n Bond. 

I cut random rectangles and ironed them on to batting as a background. Then I made the sun's rays. Below is Complementary. If you use saturated colors, the effect is more dramatic. Think Christmas red and green. But use pastels, and it is just a gentle contrast.

Polychromatic color scheme is my favorite. It is the least restrictive.

Analogous colors are next to each other on the color wheel. 

I think I was able to use one hand dyed fabric for the dark blue in this monochromatic example.

Triadic color design is the hardest to achieve. Usually two of the colors predominate and the third is thrown in for a splash. These three are equally spaced around the wheel.

Of course, the achromatic color scheme is absence of color. This is where contrast is really important.