Sunday Quilt Inspiration: B E A C H

 It's the BEACH! All beach! Sand, sun, water, sky, waves, sunburn.

And now the beach quilts. {yay!}

Pin It Weekly #320

Happy Weekly! I hope you are enjoying your week. We are set to vacay in Galveston soon. It's a family (the whole family) vacation. So I thought I'd look at some art that would help me get into the mood of beach, sun and water. These are from my board abstract art paint oil pastel prints

These are pins from a quick search on Galveston Island.  

Have you been to Galveston? It's a lovely island that packs lots of fun in a little space. Many of those places are within walking distance from our hotel. Of course, because it's sitting on the Gulf, I'm looking forward to seafood--shrimp, crab, oysters. YUM! What is your favorite thing to do at the beach?

Pin It Weekly #168

My pinning has been lacking lately. We're back in school and, goodness, it's kicking my backside! I'm already swimming in papers to grade and we're starting our first essay tomorrow.  But I'm not complaining or whining. Well, not much. 

So, as I have been doing, I'm going to introduce you to other pinners and their boards. Luckily, several of you have mentioned that you enjoy these posts. Thanks for the notes.

Carmen Urra, has over 2,000 pins on her 10 boards, one of which, "perritos," is all about puppies.

Sandra Samiento Musalan is another pinner with lots of pins--over 6,000! You may want to follow one of her 18 boards. Look at these Christmas pins...aren't they just adorable?  She has lots of idea and patterns to share. Definitely check out her Pinterest!

These brilliant "outdoor fun projects" and "beachy" boards by Cynthia Holmes are just two of 19 that she has on her Pinterest. 

These last ones are from Martie Nutuschil's board, "Time and Tide Wait for No One." She's a pinner extraordinaire with over 79,000 pins and 345 boards! Yes, I keyed that correctly!

This last board reminds me of my "forsaken, heritage" board which contains many buildings, places, and objects forgotten by everything but time.  In fact I recognized a few of the pins. I think I'll have to revisit this board and pick up a couple of pins.

Thanks for visiting and a special thanks to my followers. I hope you enjoyed meeting a few pinners.

Modern Monday: Beach House Construction

This month's traveling quilt came to me with lots of little houses on it.  Just look at these.  A tree house, no less.  A house in the forest with a little bird house beside.  A house in a fantasy garden. And a couple of modern houses.  You can't see the beautiful row houses in the upper right, reflecting off the lake in front of them.

Yes, it was a major challenge. It's a good thing that I'm not a competitive quilter.  Actually, I'm not a competitive anything.  

Anyway, the quilt came with an open spot for my house.  I've been keeping track of the quilts on our Pinterest board, so I'd also been thinking about what I wanted to do.  I decided to make my block with a beach house.  It had to be built on stilts and it had to have at least one palm tree.  

Some sand, a second palm tree, and some water in the background and I was set to go.  

I chose to use paper piecing for the house itself, but that was difficult because I didn't have a pattern.  I drew something out and then transferred it to EQ7, but even after that I somehow ended up turned around.  Are you aware that you're supposed to flip the image? I didn't realize that until the parts were built but didn't match up.  I finally figured out how to make it work, but it's not quite right. 

And things got worse than just not quite right.  The stilts were not part of the original house.  I decided to add those because, well, a beach house is on the beach.  Flooding, hurricanes, storms and tides are real problems that have to be dealt with in coastal regions.  And can anyone say "coastal erosion"?


I wanted this beach house to be able to withstand the ravages of time and water.  So I added big pilings, sure I built them after building the house, but I know that's not how it's really done: the pilings happen first, but in my studio the stylish parts are as important as the functional ones.

I just hope Glenda likes it. She is to be the happy owner of this adorably fun quilt.  I'm excited to see the finished product when we get together for a retreat some time this summer.

Happy Quilting,

Beach Fun

with the grands!  This is the older group of grands.  We are all on the way to Disney World.  Well, by the time you see this post, we'll be returning from DW, but you get the idea.

We had a 14 hour drive to Orlando.  Do it in a day? 
Is it even possible?    
Smart? Oh, heck no!

So we broke the drive into two days of about 10 hours each.  Yes.  You read that correctly.  14 hours effectively cut into 20 hours.  

The plan, you understand, was to take our time.  Not rushing.  No speeding.  Not one thing said for having to take a "pee break."

Good thing, too, since it's necessary to do so every 45 minutes or so. 
The human bladder can hold as much as 20 ounces.  A half human can hold half that much.  Unless it's a half human who happens to have an eight ounce bladder.   But, this half human always has a 20 ounce drink in her hand.  Do the math.

We named her Jolie, which is French for "pretty."  And she is, of course.  She's got no problem telling you so.  And because she's cute, and funny, and fast on the response, and the baby of the family, she gets away with murder.  

Really, she does!  She has skinny arms and legs.  So if she has a mind to, she can take you out.  One little knee in the kidneys, and you're seeing a specialist to repair the pin hole.  A poke in the eye--you're blind.  She made her big brother cry not so long ago.  Look at the man...he's big.  Lane could snap her like a twig.  He wouldn't dare!

He spoils her almost as much as her mom, who it turns out is a great spoiler of children.  She's ruined Jolie.  Our son Will isn't quite as bad: sometimes he's worse.  He spoils both momma and Jolie!

He refuses to get it: children have to want something.  Not just say they want....REALLY want it. That's what we did with him.  By the time he found Stacey, he wanted to be married and on his own so badly that now some 13 or so years later, he STILL wants their life.  See, our theory works.  But no, he can't see it.

So Rich and I will just contend ourselves with the bigger kids: that bear of a boy and two more girls.  They aren't spoiled.  We managed to save them.  The only grandson in our family knows how to take care of his sisters.  And these two right here, well, let's just say they are not spoiled one little bit!  

That's Alayna with the thumbs up sign and the book.  No, not spoiled at all.  And the 14 year old literally rolling around in the sand?  Well, that would be Dusti.  I'm actually writing this post while babysitting her.  

One hour at Disney and she was sick.  So, we came back to let her rest and recoup.  We seem to have picked up a germ somewhere.  Oh, but she's not a bit spoiled either.

Lane, Jolie, Dusti, and Alayna

They enjoyed our afternoon on Ft. Walton beach, and though we carted a half ton of very fine white sand all the way to Orlando, I had a great time laughing at their antics. 

Really, now.  Who rolls in the sand?  They aren't sand fleas, are they?  They did find a small white sand crab, and like country kids are wont to do, they captured it.  Poor heart, he tried so hard to get away.  Maybe they were trying to imitate the poor little guy.  He was adept at running away and sinking into the sand.  Just disappearing, down into the sand so fast that he disappeared while we watched.    

I have only one question: how it it that the one person who did not play in the sand, did not make sand castles, didn't bury or get buried, didn't even roll down the hill (well, not intentionally, anyway) why is she the one who ends up with the most sand in her clothing?