Katie is Home!

 Would you believe that we were late to pick up our first missionary from the airport? We had a sign and everything, but traffic was terrible and we arrived to see Katie waiting for her luggage. How awful we felt! But Katie was excited to see us and she looked wonderful. Marnie wore her most appropriate shirt.

Kitchen Remodel

We are almost done with the kitchen remodel. I'm so excited to get everything in place and actually use it. I love the quartz countertops. It's time to get the lighting installed and wheel in the refrigerator. I'm not too worried about the backsplash, but I'm thinking of something like penny tile. We'll see.

Before

Demo

Almost there.

That's perfect.

Union Jack

 Once I had three panels ready, I was able to stitch them together. But they are quite large and a little difficult to handle without tweaking the bias.

The entire quilt is about 70"x 55" and looks quite bright and lively in the living room.

The above is hanging outside in the sunshine and below in the Camano Island Quilter's Show. Note that the binding is not white. There is no possible way to keep such a white binding clean.

Posts from Katie

Katie sends the most delightful letters from her mission to England. She is such a wonderful writer and always attaches pictures of her companions. I am so glad she was able to spend time in London before her mission on study abroad. She reports learning lots from these wonderful sisters and about sharing stories and movie plots as they walk the cobblestone streets.

Check on the Garden

 When I'm busy, I prefer to go out into the garden. I love getting into the soil and pull weeds. I remember when I was little and wanted to earn money, my mom sent me outside to pull weeds, promising that she'd pay me a penny per weed. I earned $8. 

Lamb's Ears

Globe Thistle (Echinops)

Teddy Bear Sunflowers

Hellebore

Clematis

Peony

Rosa unidentified

Dahlia

Opal Quilts

 I was excited to hear that Opal's quilts were being shown at the Snowgoose bookstore downtown, so we went to see them in person. We also had a chance to look at books and I picked up "Wicked."

Slideshow Quilts

I love switching from difficult to easy patterns. It's fun to have many quilts in different stages of completion. Some days I walk downstairs and am in the mood to finish something. Other days I want to hand-stitch a binding or applique a bird.

Really best for large prints and complete fabric lines, Slide Show is quick to whip up. And all your extras can go into the border and the back.

My idea on the quilting was raindrops.

I picked up these batiks in Alaska on our inside passage cruise. I love the whales and indigenous designs. Skagway has a population of 1,200 and three amazing quilt/yarn shops.

These two quilts are from the very same pattern. Very different quilts.