Design Wall Monday on Tuesday

We've spent the last 2 weekends at the beach.

Our time there now is being interrupted  due to hunting season.

Last week while we were home for a couple of days,

I sat down and sewed up 2 baby quilts from blocks that have been done for a while.

I have the backing and binding ready for one and will get he 2nd one ready soon.

I brought home most of my sewing stuff from there.

It's getting to be the time of year when I can't leave my Little Brother

 sewing machine due to the dampness.

We leave nothing on in the bus so that means no heat.

In the purple case is Wild & Goosey.

I thought I was going to make the flying geese for sashing

but I've changed my mind again and I"m going with the

original layout from the magazine.

Here's the link to the blog post Bonnie wrote about her article in the magazine. 

The pattern is also in her Addicted to Scraps book.

This has been my bus project since September of 2015.

It's time now to move it along at home.

I always get excited about fall time. 

Today it feels like fall with the cool temps and light rain.

Ernie is out scouting with his hunting buddies,

I'm going to do a couple things this morning and then hit the sewing room.

I have plans for hours and hours of uninterrupted sewing time.

Design Wall Monday

We just got home from a few days at the beach.

It's clamming time again.

Yeah. While I don't like them, I do have fun digging.

Until my back hurts and then I'm done 

and go sit in the truck and spy on people with the binoculars.

I sewed a for quite a while on Sunday.

I make 11 more Wild & Goosey blocks and found 5 untrimmed ones in the box.

They are all now pressed, trimmed and depapered.

I still have a lot more to make and

need to enhance my medium/dark fabric bag.

That's on the list for next trip.

I don't want to take too much so I just work with what I have.

It's quite fun.

This is my view from the truck Saturday evening. 

Stunningly beautiful.

I love the beach.

See what my friends are working on at 

Small Quilts and Doll Quilts Design Wall Monday.

I have to wait and check them all out later,

I have laundry to do and stuff to put away.

I love coming home but I don't love the coming home chores. 

Saying Goodbye to Summer

We did a last summer hurrah at the beach.

11 days of family, fun and sun!

One day it was 94 degrees! 

At the beach!

Since buying the lot next door

(our 45th Anniversary gift to ourselves)

lots of brush clearing has been happening!

There is a big pampas grass bush right in the middle.

The plums are about to burst open.

I'm probably not going to see them. 😒

Unless we make a quick 2 or 3 trip next week. 

Over Labor Day weekend, Crystal and Co came to camp.

I can't believe I didn't get one single picture of the campers.

I guess we were having too much fun!

Over the Rod Run Weekend, Dee & Co + Stellie came down.

It's so fun when family comes to stay! 

Makes this Momma's dream come true.

We were ready to watch the cars as they headed from Ocean Park to Longbeach.

That didn't happen but we had a great time with friends.

We did see quite a few awesome old cars but not the parade.

Next year we will be better informed.

Remember the septic tank that isn't buried in the ground?

(You can see it here in this post behind Ernie in his lounger.)

I convinced him to use the fence boards to make a deck over it.

It can be easily lifted if the tank ever needs to be pumped.

It sure looks a lot better now. 

I want to fill it with flower pots next spring.

And this is how we spent our summer vacations.

Retirement is awesome!

With hunting season starting soon, 

I'm sure our trips will be made around the clam tide.

I am ready to get back to my sewing machine.

I have a list of projects longer than my arm!!

We Thought It Was Going To Be Fun

Buy a lot at the beach lot they said, it will be fun! 

While it has been fun, it has also been a whole lot of hard work!

Our campers arrived Sunday.

Lots of fun chatter, tent set up and then an evening out to dinner.

Monday they started tearing the newly rebuilt deck apart.

This was my plan all along.

I hated that big deck sitting right in the middle of everything.

I did understand it's purpose but it didn't need to be so big.

Now it's a smaller deck right off the bus.

It's perfect!

And the perfect project for the kiddos to help with. 

Miss Clella Mae is a beast with the power screwdriver!

When we bought this lot, the owners had left behind a dog kennel and 2 dog igloos.

What a great playground for the kiddos.

One of these days, that will also be removed.

The previous owners did some strange stuff here.

After a hard day,

Relaxing is easy.

The hammock is a new addition and was lots and lots of fun!

Cards and fun!

Look at granddog Sadie in the blue chair.

She knows how to relax!!

See the red woodchipper, 

talk about a beast!

Took care of the pile of bamboo like in record time.

We bought the lot next door.

It's a jungle.

Somewhere under that mess is a septic system that needs to be found.

Ernie did lots of weed whacking and chain sawing!

They should be able to locate it now.

 Next up is more clearing and more fencing.

And more playing!!

Want to come camp with us???

Thanks for a great family week at the beach.

Huge thanks for your hours and hours of hard work! 

It's Funny How Time Slips Away

Not really funny, more like fun!

Blogging will happen when it happens. 

I've said before I am not a good passenger so I knit.

They are my passenger seat knitting project.

They are called Meandering Vine Socks.

I'm to the heel flap.

The whole heel has to be done at home,

I'll get to the mindless foot part before we leave again.

Before leaving home, I cut all of the border pieces for Midnight Flight.

The first couple of evenings, I marked the squares for the flippy corners.

And one afternoon, I sewed one half of the chevrons.

Then over a few days, I trimmed all of them

and after everyone left, I got out the iron and pressed them all.

During my sewing time, 

I couldn't find Jessie.

He had made himself a pillow fort. 

Silly little dog!

While I was sewing,

Ernie replaced the boards on this deck.

Most of the time it was a one man show.

One day he washed the bus.

My job was to watch the fire.

I'm good at my job.

We had lots of company!

Saturday evening, Dee, Vern and Taylor came to camp for a few days.

On Sunday Crystal and her kiddos came to spend the day with us.

She came home and ordered their own camping supplies. 

They will be our next camping guests.

This melts my heart!

I love being surrounded by my family.

I have a feeling this is going to be the perfect summer!

Smores and smiles are mandatory!

As are photo bombers!

There was a whole lot of love happening at the beach!

A perfect 4th of July campout!

Unless you were a dog.

We didn't go to the beach to watch the fireworks.

We stayed at the bus with the poor, terrified dogs. 

From the sound of it, it was a pretty spectacular show.

The landscape is changing at the beach property.

Lots of trimming and clearing is happening.

Bamboo is not our friend.

We tried to figure out why the previous owners did things the way they did.

Our conclusion is each to his own.

We'll fix it how we want it now. 

Beach Life

Our beach property is a no hunting zone.

This makes my hunter a bit anxious.

Not really.

We see deer all over, I've heard there are bear.

I saw a porcupine.

I want to see a bear.

From the pickup window.

This fat coyote was standing in the middle of the road one day.

He finally moved to lay down under this tree.

Boardwalk Quilts in Long Beach is closing.

I am sad to see this happen but the owners want to retire.

I understand.

So I helped reduce the inventory on a recent trip to the property.

The scrap bin was my first stop.

Do I have a scrap problem.

I don't think it's a problem.

I filled one lunch bag with neutrals that will be used for my On The Road Quilt

and a table runner that I will quilt and use in the bus.

This time I went to the scrap bin and loaded up my lunch sack with all kinds of zip baggies.

Open the baggie to get all the air out and roll.

I stuffed that bag full. 

I guess I could have emptied the baggies but it was more fun squishing the air out.

I saw this fabric and passed on it.

I had Ernie stop on the way home because it haunted my dreams.

I bought 3 yards.

 I love it so much.

Retro typewriters bring back childhood memories of my Aunt Sharon.

Walks on the beach are nice.

Tony dog runs like a crazy dog.

My little Brother machine now lives in the bus.

I took a few projects to work on.

I needed to applique some blocks for a swap.

Then my Dresden Plates were all appliqued down. 

I wish I would have thought to use the walking foot sooner. 

It made the applique so much smoother.

The blocks were sewn into rows.

I brought them all home because I need a good hot iron.

That has now been added to my bus bag.

Some of the items are already to go on the next trip.

I love this beach life. 

I'm so glad we finally achieved my dream.

I really happy that it is now Ernie's dream as well.

He took a long time to think about it.

Like 40 years. LOL

OK, when's the next trip???

Design Wall Monday

Not much sewing has been happening around here. 

I'm working on some Garlic Knots blocks made from 2 1/2" strips from batik swaps.

There is a group of us swapping.

I'm making 20 to swap and 18 more to keep for myself.

That will make a nice cuddle on the couch quilt.

I'm sewing all the squares into sets.

I'll almost ready for a good pressing session.

Then there will be the layout on the design boards

and on to sewing them into blocks.

We have been busy designing.

We bought a beach lot for our retirement gift to ourselves.

I've always wanted a place at the beach, 

Ernie, not so much until recently.

We have lots of work to do here.

We have lots of time to do the work.

The bus is parked in her home.

The shed has been cleaned out.

Their garbage and recycle has been taken away.

My sewing station is already set up.

Take some time to see what others have on their design wall at

Patchwork Times.

Slow Stitching Sunday

This is rosette 11b for Millefiore.  I'm pretty excited to only have 4 small rosettes to go--10 a, 10 b, 12 a and 12 b.  I have decided on the colors I want to us, I just need to pull fabric and kit up the pieces with the papers. I worked on this one a little bit in the bus but mostly at home. I really feel the need to get these last ones kitted up for our next trip. I never know what mood I will be in--either stitch or knit--while I watch movies. LOL

It's been a lot of fun working mostly with my stash. Once in a while I buy a fat quarter or so to add to what I have but mostly this quilt is from stash.  The gray triangle fabric was one I spotted at JoAnn's a while back and knew I wanted to include it somewhere. It was perfect to fussy cut those triangles.

I'm hoping to have this attached to the quilt this week. We'll see what happens.....

Check out the fabulous slow stitching projects at Kathy's Quilts.  There are some beautiful things happening in Blogland!!!

Design Wall Monday

Not much sewing happened this past week. 

I finished all the half square triangles for Jamestown Landing.

I think there were 230 left to trim.

So I packed them up and took them on a road trip!

An additional day of halibut fishing!

What a treat!!

Jason Bourne kept me company as I trimmed them all up.

This was the view from my chair in the bus.

These guys weren't much help.

They only wanted to eat, nap and walk.

So we did.

This is another view from my chair.

It's kind of hard to see but that's

The Strait of Jaun de Fuca.

We stay at Snow Creek Campground in the upper section.

The view is gorgeous!

Hopefully this week there will be some time in front of the sewing machine.

I have a plan for the next fishing trip and it needs to be worked on in advance.

See what others are working on at Patchwork Times.

Design Wall Monday

Since Judy L started doing Design Wall Monday, I think I may have missed one posting. Today I almost missed posting because I forgot it was Monday!!!  We had spent the weekend away from home and just now I realized I hadn't done my post.

Before we left, I finished this Splendid Sampler block.

She was a challenge but I love how it turned out.

Ernie went out halibut fishing with friends,

I stayed in the bus and worked on my stuff. 

I took our little dvd player and season 1 of Heroes with me.

I took my basket of HSTs to trim and a bunch of fabric to cut more for Jamestown Landing.

I also took my Millefiore rosette to work on and have almost all the hexies made 

and ready to start joining them.

This was my view.

Saturday it rained sideways all day long.

They still fished.

Sunday was a beautiful day and this is the results.

Thank goodness they all had Canadian licenses and were able to bring these beauties home.

Ernie, on the left, with his buddy Bob, the boat owner and good friend.

I"m linking up to Patchwork Times.

I'm glad I remembered today is Monday.

Design Wall Monday

I spent most of last week at daughter Crystal's house with the grandskiddos while she and hubby went on a happy anniversary mini vacation. I took my to go rolling cart that holds my featherweight and all of the supplies I need to sew away from home. I could have used her wonderful sewing room but I like pretending I'm retreating. Silly me.

I took my Hopscotch Butterscotch (from Adventures of Leaders and Enders by Bonnie K. Hunter) parts and pieces and was surprised that I completed this top. Originally this was gong to be an upcoming retreat project so I made a sample block that soon became 12.  Now I need to give it a really good pressing.  And just now after finding the link for the book and seeing Bonnie's quilt again, I am thinking of taking the pieced border off and adding an inner neutral border to highlight the pieced border more. Yes, I think I will!!!  Oh the things I talk myself into while writing a blog post!

I came home very late Thursday night and Friday was sort of a blur as I held down the couch. I decided to pick up an embroidery block from The Splendid Sampler (I have been putting off the embroidery for some reason!). I was surprised at how fast I finished it. These are the last 4 blocks I've finished. 

 Just for the fun of it, since I've been working in our bus/motorhome, how about a tour of our converted school bus. We did this about 15 or so years ago. We haven't used it much in the past several years, life and work get in the way of traveling around. Now that hubby is somewhat retired, it's time to hit the road a bit. So that meant a major cleaning and clearing out. She will be on the road again this week as he embarks on a halibut fishing trip in north west Washington state.

Standing by the driver's seat looking to the back. 

Tony dog thinks if someone is in there, he should be too.

Across from the range is the fridge/freezer and a big pantry.

Bathroom with sink and toilet on left and full size shower and small closet on the right.

Above the sink is the original driver's mirror.

You know, the long narrow one the driver used to catch you doing things 

you weren't supposed to be doing!

I'm glad I kept that.

The beds were built over the wheel wells and underneath are fresh and gray water tanks.

The big nightstand has access to the gianormous diesel engine.

On the back wall are 2 storage cabinets.

Above each bed is clothes storage.

It's pretty basic and simple.

We love it!

Edited to add the outside picture.

Thanks for asking Nann, I forgot this picture .

I can't wait to get on the road again.

See what others are doing this week at Patchwork Times.