Finding Flourishes

There's a beautiful spot out in the Columbia Gorge near Washougal, Washington where lovely gifts and antiques are put up for sale about four times a year. It used to be the location of "Willow Nest", but those folks found a new home in Texas. Now it is "Flourishes". You can feast your eyes here.
Flourishes was having their first event of the year on Saturday so I made the 20-minute scenic drive and found a few treasures to bring home.

Do I need more fabric??

One of the best things about living in the Portland area is Fabric Depot. I try not to go there too often but sometimes the urge is great. Like yesterday. Here I am already out in the car and not quite ready to go home after Flourishes. So over the bridge I go, crossing from Washington to Oregon, the land of tax-free retail therapy. Just a short hop. Wouldn't you know it, Fabric Depot has a sale on ALL cotton prints for $5.99 a yard, even the nicest stuff. Everything else was 30% off and I found the perfect book to go with my new stash. Can't wait to get started!

Finished

Alma Stoller's online class "She's So Unusual" at joggles.com looked like a good way to be inspired to use the paintings of faces I did last year in DJ Pettitt's workshop. I'm happy with the way the quilt turned out and plan to develop this idea further . These photos are laid out in reverse order but, oh well!

Beach Blanket Weekend

A small window of warm weather and sunshine opened up over the weekend so we went out to our beach place to take advantage of ideal conditions. We were pretty lazy, overall, although Scott washed the outside windows. And I worked on a blanket that's been in the works for some time. The block patterns are from this book I picked up a few years ago when the crochet bug bit me again, but I tired of making the blocks and decided to fill in the sides with some fast-working strips. There is hope that this will be done soon!

Remembrance

Let us turn our thoughts today
To Martin Luther King
And recognize that there are ties between us
All men and women
Living on the Earth
Ties of sister and brotherhood
That we are bound together
In our desire to see the world become
A place in which our children can grow free and strong
We are bound together
By the task that stands before us
And the road that lies ahead...

--James Taylor

Martin Luther King, Jr.
January 15, 1929-April 4, 1968

Wish I Were Here

News has it we're heading for the 60's. Not the decade, the temperatures! That always makes the Northwest Heart beat a little faster. Looks like we need to head out to the beach real soon.

I had a little indoor fun last week at the Bead Expo at the Oregon Convention Center. Lots of great vendors at this show. According to receipts (ahem), my faves included Wynwoods Gallery. Lois had a nice variety of things for me to bring home; from fibers to vintage beads to abalone pendants. You will find Wynwoods Gallery in Port Townsend, Washington, making it an excellent place to visit when heading up to Artfest. I dropped a few dollars at the Beaducation booth. Loads of tools and other goodies for wire and PMC jewelry enthusiasts. I found this and this, along with a few other essentials. Beaducation is the place to go for online jewelry making classes as well as supplies. They had many gorgeous samples at the booth. Drool, drool.

I ran into one of my PAC buddies, Carrie, so we took a break from shopping and visited for a while. Carrie was taking a couple of classes at the bead expo.

I wanted to share some photos of pirate booty from the show but my camera is hiding somewhere. Hopefully it's just hiding and not lost. Not a good thought.

Anyway, I'm off to catch some rays.