Monday, August 08, 2011

Gold Rush Days and a Foray Into Applique

Well, it's the rainy season here in Valdez. I suppose that is one of the reasons I love living here. I enjoy the rain. I love the calming patters as it falls on my roof late at night. I love the smell and I love that we can finally relax after all those long, light filled days.


*Thanks for the better pic, Jess!
That being said, I do believe that we are on our second week of rain, and it does get a little old. We did get a reprieve for the 2nd annual Gold Rush Days Wine Walk. This might be one of the coolest Gold Rush Days activities ever invented. Locals get dressed up in their finest "Gold Rush" garb and wander the streets with wine glasses, going from business to business for a refill. For a little town, we had twenty-one businesses to visit! It was so wonderful to get to visit with friends and check out all the beautiful, hand made hats! Thanks to the Gold Rush Days committee, Marie Blood and Shelly at the Calico Whale, several classes on hat making were offered throughout the week.

Barb with her daughter, Katie
I had to steal these images from my friends, so the quality, for now, is pretty crummy*. I'll see about getting the originals.  I would have taken more myself, but did I mention it was a wine walk?





In between Gold Rush events, I have been sewing away on my last row for the Rockin' Robin Quilt Along. It is titled "Hexagons" and involves (gulp) applique. I tend to avoid sewing ventures that involve concepts that I haven't been taught. I need someone to show me (yup, I'm a "show me" not a "tell me"), so I was immediately bummed that I had made it so far in the Quilt Along, and was now done. Once I quit pouting I reread the tutorial, printed out the hexagon templates and jumped in. I finally got to use my fabric folding pen that Scott got me for Christmas, and it was really fun!




Hexagons with paper templates, ready to place



Top row finished, bottom row ready to sew

I am now stitching up my last row of hexagons on my Elna, and I am using the actual applique stitch. I feel so cool right now...

Check out the applique stitch! Oooooohhhhh, purty.



2 comments:

Paula said...

your hexagon quilt is looking good, and your doing a great job on the applique work around them.

I am just starting on a sewing/quilting blog, and am organizing a christmas fabric swap, and was wondering if you would be interested in joining in with me, if so, you can read about it here at, Paula's Crafty Boutique.
Happy quilting

Beth said...

I love your work with the hexagons,and the applique looks great. I love to do applique, but have always stayed away from hexagons. The way you are doing it looks great, so I may have to rethink my position. Thanks for showing this.