The Beach

I was able to sneak away to the beach yesterday. 70' and gloriously sunny.

Chalk fabric

Giant industrial Singer

I chose my route to take me past Boersma's in McMinnville. One of my favorite fabric stores.

They do some serious long arm quilting but the have a treasure trove of sewn examples beyond quilts.

And the friendliest staff ever.

These weird jellyfish were washed up on the two beaches I stopped at. Very cool looking.
In a Star Trek way - want to see them on tv, not touch them with my bare feet.

Looking at Mo's Restaurant from across the inlet.

First stop was lunch at Mo's. Home of the best clam chowder ever.
Except, I have to eat plain steamed clams as I cannot tolerate too much wheat/dairy.
poor me, lol.

For Janine, an entire rack of postcards at the local Safeway grocery store.
A postcrossing bonanza.

Long Arm Quilting

I need a tote bag for SewExpo in two weeks. I got distracted into finishing up this tote bag.
A while back, Pencil Girl and I took a long arm quilting class.  It was designed and taught by the folks at Boersma's in McMinnville, Oregon.

The Boersma folks set up 16 long arm quilting machines for the class. They had prepped the fabric beforehand (main, batting, base). 
All basted together.  All we had to do was DRAW.

Here I am - driving.
Intense - as in - keep remembering to loosen up your knees and your lockjaw from concentrating so hard.


The object is to fill in the spaces - draw inside the lines.
With patterns.
A dry-erase board was very handy.

And when you drive to the left with your pattern, you have to mirror-image it coming back.

Very intense.

I did manage to free-hand 'draw' my airplanes. I was impressed with myself.


Pencil Girl drawing with chalk or tying off threads.


Pretty much done.
Except for part two - sewn into a tote bag. The lines at top are going to be the straps.

Thinking how to get out of the star into the next motif.

Boersma's drawn in thread was to be the bottom of the tote bag, but I found this bag to be very very deep, so this 4" was sacrificed.

I recently cut the hardware out of a previous (sad looking) tote bag - which had an inside pocket with zipper - which was still in good condition. I took a scrap of the base fabric and topstitched it onto the pocket front, hand-sewing it in place by the zipper. I then re-inserted the old pocket into my new tote. I am a pocket hound.

Here's what I started with. You can see the long vertical lines to the right - they will be the straps.

I serged all the edges, sewing up the sides first. I tried it with the Boersma-scribed bottom but it was way too deep, so I serged that off.
I then boxed the corners.

To finish - I just folded down the top. I pinned my pocket in place and my straps, folded the top down to cover and sewed in place. I then turned the strap back upright and sewed again near edge.

I don't think I am gonna be a long arm quilter.
This was a fun class but physically and mentally tiring.
A fascinating look into another creative world.

Pencil Girl - have you finished your bag???

An Everlasting Day

I had a day yesterday that just worked out. Serendipitously. We were having a family get-together this weekend so the OSU son needed to get back to Canby. His ride fell through, so I offered to pick him up after my work shift Saturday morning. While we were deciding this, my blogging pal from Japan was here visiting her family in Amity and she said her folks were having a garage sale and I should stop by. Which was just off of 99W. Cool, we can do that.
On the way there, my sister called and said they were headed to the new Evergreen Waterpark in McMinnville - which is also just off of 99W (hwy18).
My blogging pal offered up Boersma's fabric store which was having a fabric sale and I confess, my ears really perked up- especially since I was not dressed to swim. At the waterpark, price signs were discreetly tucked away- the old adage - if you have to ask the price, you can't afford it. So I left for an hour and spent my waterpark admission at Boersma's instead.

My daughter found two tickets to the Timber's game off of Craig's list and she and my sister went there and I took the boys back home via Champoeg to find dinner in Canbyland and then off to the fair we went.

First up - video of Sinbad:

A very impressive outdoor collection since I was here last.

Everything in the waterpark revolves around a theme: airplanes!

See - no signage regarding "The Price Of Admission"

 TWO STORIES of fabrics. Basement fabric sale through the end of August $1.00 off per yard. Free admission.

And then - on to the Clackamas County Fair.

sinbad

Octopus

 A few years back my son and I were the last to board the Octopus, late enough that the operator forgot about us when he unloaded the other passengers. So - we went a second time, around, and around, twirling up & down at the same time. We did not hurl but the college-age kids who also got a second ride - one of them did. A proud moment for us but I haven't been on a carnival ride since. . .

 Until this one. We had enough tickets for four rides. With four of us ( and a desire to stave off long day+sibling rivalry), I agreed to go on the ZERO GRAVITY.
---Just a caution - take your hair clips out first.

Begs the question- if I can't touch them - how old are they?