Kaya & Soma running along the Pacific Ocean in Lincoln City, Oregon.  Something I learned about the pups this weekend is they love to chase the sea gulls on the beach.

Tim and the pups walk along the edge of the water.

Happy day to you!

~Molly

These are some of my favorite pictures from the Tillamook Quilt Trail.

I liked this barn and the close up picture of it below.

There were some beautiful looking old barns found along the trail.

The picture below is the quilt block I liked the best:

I like the dark green and how it contrasts with the solid colored patterns.

It was good to be reminded of where I was along the West Coast of Oregon and the power of nature.

I hope you have a great day!

~Molly

Patterns In Nature:  The Sunset From Our Backyard!

Have you ever heard the saying?:  Red at night, sailors delight.  Red in the morning, sailor’s warning.

The meaning of the saying is if the sailor sees red in the evening sky, the next day is predicted to have nice and sunny weather.  If the sailor sees red in the morning sky, then a storm is coming his/her way. 

Out and about this weekend in the City of Tillamook, I captured a few pictures of the   Walking Quilt Block Tour of the many wooden quilt block signs hanging inside of businesses and outside on stores, on churches, and on city municipal buildings. The above sign was found on the Tillamook County Courthouse Building.

The Quilt Trail of Quilt Blocks can be found in the City of Tillamook and on the surrounding barns and businesses in the rural County of Tillamook.  This blog post will focus specifically on the quilt signs found in town.

Using a computer print out of the map from the TILLAMOOK QUILT TRAIL.ORG Web site it was fun to do a walking tour to find these quilt patterns uniquely tucked into places around town.

The pictures look more interesting to me with the quilt sign placed in the context of what is happening around it.

I hope you enjoy looking at these quilt patterns as much as I enjoyed taking pictures of them.

It was fun to use the map as a sort of Hide & Seek experience in locating the quilt blocks.

It was a warm and sunny September day in the Highway 101 Area!

I have just a few more pictures to show you!

 

A Thrift Store

I found Quilt blocks on small businesses…

and on large businesses, too!

Check back, because I have more pictures to show you in another post!

Happy Monday!

~Molly

From time to time, I don’t have a stencil that will work for a hand quilting design to highlight the particular beauty of a quilt.  This is when I make my own quilt stencil.  You can do this, too!  It is easier than you think. Use the following pictures and instructions to make your own quilt templates.

Here are the supplies needed to make a hand quilting stencil:

A piece of wood for a cutting board, a photocopy of the quilt pattern, heavy plastic (found at a fabric/craft store or from used notebook covers), a single edge razor like an Exact-O Knife or a box cutter), and…

one or two fine point Sharpies (or permanent markers).

This is a pattern from Nancy Page’s Cutting Pattern Leaf One Quarter found when you click here:  Q Is For Quilter Web Site.  Enlarge or reduce the picture to the design size required for your project.  Use a light box or a window when holding the copied pattern to your quilt project to make sure the alignment  works the way you want it to look on the quilt.

 

Place the heavy plastic over the quilt design and trace along the lines with the Sharpie pen.

 Remove the master copy underneath and use the single edge razor to cut a space in the plastic to mark the lines you will be quilting.

Place the finished template on the quilt and use a tracing pencil or a colored pencil to mark the quilt.

For this stencil, I did not cut for the seam line of the plastic Leaf Pattern, because I will use the seam of each fabric leaf as a guide to align the stencil in place.  As you can see from the picture above, I only marked every other line when I traced this pattern to create a variety of quilting designs on each of the leaves in the quilt.

This Is The Quilting Stencil I’m Working on Now:

If I can do this, I know you can do this, too!

Have a good day!

~Molly

Happy First Day of Fall!

~Molly

The other day, I came around the corner of the yard, and I saw these leaves growing over the fence.

Looking directly above me, I found these cute little figs growing.

Technically, the fig tree is in the neighbor’s yard, and just the branches are in our yard. I am still counting this as the 11th fruit to be found in our yard!

Oh Happy Day!

I hope your week is going well!

~Molly