sunshine and zigzags

It seems I have been working on this quilt for quite some time now {yikes! April?!}. Well, I got another kick in the pants to get sewing just last week. I was excited to win a give away Rita hosted on her blog - Red Pepper Quilts. With pretty new fabric on its way to me I thought I better tackle my other projects so I might have a shot at sewing with the new fabric some time in the foreseeable future. Waiting projects include another quilt started before this one, seat cushions, more napkins, a table runner {that I'm pretty sure we've decided we don't want}, ... the list goes on.

Toping the list, because I'm excited about it, is my Kona Cottons guild challenge quilt. I've had the top done for months and months and had been excited to move onto the back but then I stalled. Fabric is expensive! And a big quilt back takes lots of fabric. Last weekend I went with the ingenious {yet, wholly unoriginal} idea of using a bed sheet for the back. So, I found my way to Target and their seasonal display of flannel sheet sets. A cozy gray one came home with me.

I knew I wanted to use up the charms from the brights pack that I hadn't included on the front {mainly, many many pink ones}. And I wanted a big zig zag. I cut more 5 inch squares from the additional fabric I bought, plus a zillion {I counted!} 5 inch squares from the gray flannel. Stacked, diagonal lines drawn, I feed them chain piece style through my machine. A big, long floppy banner of colorfully squares of fabric. Cut, press, trim and I had a zillion times two half square triangle blocks

On to the layout!

The first night I played around with the blocks and Lukas helped me too, but we didn't seem to come up with anything that really worked well. {And I ended up staying up too late!} Work was busy the next day and I didn't even have a moment to spare to daydream about the rainbow of half square triangle blocks sitting in the sewing room. I didn't even think about them till I started laying them out that night and first try... this is what I came up with. And I liked it.

Now it's just a matter of stitching them all together, piecing them into the back, making a label{?!}, sandwich, quilt, and bind. Ummm yeah, that's all!

Happy sewing!

lazy days...

Some of the best days we don't do anything much. The afternoon comes after lazing the day away. Through the front window the sun filters through the shutters. The warm light fills the room and we continue in our lazy ways. Lukas grabs the guitar from the wall. He strums and sings and I join in {after grabbing a quick shot}.

going BIG

We had plans to spend the long weekend camping on the Big Sur coast, so Thursday after work we loaded up the car and headed south. Except we made it just as far as Santa Cruz before the rainy weather really started putting a damper on our plans. Instead of leaving the next morning for our adventure we spent a very lazy day at my mother-in-law's house. And that was a wonderful little change in plans {that equaled some amazing french toast!}.

Then next day {Saturday} the weather had cleared somewhat and looked like it was going to continue in that direction. We continued south down the coast and before we knew it we were at the turnouts for Garrapata State Park. Finding the right rocks along the coastline requires counting to make sure you've found the right turnout. "Did that count? Was that one or two turnouts" were common questions as we wound around the rolling hills and cliffs.

We explored a bit before continuing on to set up our campsite at Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park. This was a beautiful park tucked among the big trees. Tent up, we set out to explore again.

The weekend was quickly over, but we left with some good memories. Check out the video below to see a few.

going SLO

I was counting down the days and the week just seemed to drag on. Work was busy and I had a project that needed to get done. It needed to get done and I was counting down the days because Shawna was coming home. My brave, little sister who moved 1/2 way around the world for school. Who {didn't tell my mom} jumped out of an airplane. My little. And she came home for a visit!

We rolled down the highway to Los Osos and the Waechtlers. It was a weekend filled with tea, laughing, crochet and being silly. A blast was had by all.

Enjoy my second movie...